There is nothing more requisite in business than dispatch.
We are all manufacturers. Making good, making trouble, or making excuses.
Treat employees like partners, and they act like partners.
Anybody can cut prices, but it takes brains to produce a better article.
Frankly, I don't want to see a rapid upturn. I want it to hold until some of these idiotic competitors go bust.
Nobody ever lost money taking a profit.
Don't try to buy at the bottom and sell at the top. This can't be done, except by liars.
Forty for you, sixty for me And equal partners we will be
I work in a strange business, and trust is a word that's not even in the vocabulary.
For the merchant, even honesty is a financial speculation.
Executives are like joggers. If you stop a jogger, he goes on running on the spot. If you drag an executive away from his business, he goes on running on the spot, pawing the ground, talking business. He never stops hurtling onwards, making decisions and executing them.
No sale is really complete until the product is worn out, and the customer is satisfied.
Business is more exciting than any game.
I'm not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.
If your advertising goes unnoticed, everything else is academic!
Corporation. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.
Don't steal; thou it never thus compete successfully in business. Cheat.
The happiest time in a man's life is when he is in the red hot pursuit of a dollar with a reasonable prospect of overtaking it.
I believe Mrs. Thatcher's emphasis on enterprise was right.
Commerce is so far from being beneficial to arts, or to empire, that it is destructive of both, as all their history shows, for the above reason of individual merit being its great hatred. Empires flourish till they become commercial, and then they are scattered abroad to the four winds.
Feedback is the breakfast of champions.
Get me inside any boardroom and I'll get any decision I want.
Formerly when great fortunes were only made in war, war was business; but now when great fortunes are only made by business: Business is war!
If you can run one business well, you can run any business well.
I don't want to do business with those who don't make a profit, because they can't give the best service.
The business that considers itself immune to the necessity for advertising sooner or later finds itself immune to business.
If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.
It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.
It is the interest of the commercial world that wealth should be found everywhere.
What helps people, helps business.
Conducting your business in a socially responsible way is good business. It means that you can attract better employees and that customers will know what you stand for and like you for it.
You don't want to get the same kind of advice from everyone on your board.
Only as long as a company can produce a desired, worthwhile, and needed product or service, and can command the public, will it receive the public dollar and succeed
You can close more business in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you.
More business is lost every year through neglect than through any other cause.
You read a book from beginning to end. You run a business the opposite way. You start with the end, and then you do everything you must to reach it.
Such is the brutalization of commercial ethics in this country that no one can feel anything more delicate than the velvet touch of a soft buck.
No man tastes pleasures truly, who does not earn them by previous business; and few people do business well, who do nothing else.
Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.
It's the economy, stupid.
A consumer is a shopper who is sore about something.
Corporations cannot commit treason, or be outlawed or excommunicated, for they have no souls.
The very best financial presentation is one that's well thought out and anticipates any questions... answering them in advance.
Entrepreneurship is the last refuge of the trouble making individual.
The business of the country is business.
Utility is our national shibboleth: the savior of the American businessman is fact and his uterine half-brother, statistics.
Blessed is he who talks in circles, for he shall become a big wheel.
What the customer demands is last year's model, cheaper. To find out what the customer needs you have to understand what the customer is doing as well as he understands it. Then you build what he needs and you educate him to the fact that he needs it.
Industry is the soul of business and the keystone of prosperity.
Location, location, location.
The City's reluctance to take a stand on an issue like the British Gas pay row makes a mockery of corporate governance and shareholders' ability to influence annual general meetings. Institutions should be obliged to make public how they vote at such events. They should be obliged to provide customers with a record of how they vote on every kind of issue.
A client is to me a mere unit, a factor in a problem.
You can't run a business without taking risks.
Business has only two functions -- marketing and innovation.
The purpose of a business is to create a customer.
Business, that's easily defined; it's other people's money.
It is almost as difficult to keep a first class person in a fourth class job, as it is to keep a fourth class person in a first class job.
Every man is a consumer and ought to be a producer.
The right merchant is one who has the just average of faculties we call common sense; a man of a strong affinity for facts, who makes up his decision on what he has seen. He is thoroughly persuaded of the truths of arithmetic. There is always a reason, in the man, for his good or bad fortune in making money. Men talk as if there were some magic about this. He knows that all goes on the old road, pound for pound, cent for cent -- for every effect a perfect cause -- and that good luck is another name for tenacity of purpose.
A compromise is the art of dividing a cake in such a way that everyone believes that he has got the biggest piece.
Goodwill is the one and only asset that competition cannot undersell or destroy.
A man with a surplus can control circumstances, but a man without a surplus is controlled by them, and often has no opportunity to exercise judgment.
If you don't drive your business you will be driven out of business.
Don't forget until too late that the business of life is not business, but living.
Never hire someone who knows less than you do about what he's hired to do.
Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching around for what it gets.
A business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind of business.
It is not the employer who pays wages -- he only handles the money. It is the product who pays the wages.
I do not believe a man can ever leave his business. He ought to think of it by day and dream of it by night.
It doesn't matter to me if a man is from Harvard or Sing Sing. We hire the man, not his history.
Women do not win formula one races, because they simply are not strong enough to resist the G-forces. In the boardroom, it is different. I believe women are better able to marshal their thoughts than men and because they are less egotistical they make fewer assumptions.
The question is, then, do we try to make things easy on ourselves or do we try to make things easy on our customers, whoever they may be?
So much for industry, my friends, and attention to one's own business; but to these we must add frugality if we would make our industry more certainly successful. A man may, if he knows not how to save as he gets, keep his nose all his life to the grindstone, and die not worth a grout at last.
If you can't pay for a thing, don't buy it. If you can't get paid for it, don't sell it. Do this, and you will have calm and drowsy nights, with all of the good business you have now and none of the bad. If you have time, don't wait for time.
Drive your business, let not you're business drive you.
Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.
The worst disease which can afflict executives in their work is not, as popularly supposed, alcoholism; it's egotism.
You can't run a business or anything else on a theory.
It's better to take over and build upon an existing business than to start a new one.
It is much more difficult to measure non-performance than performance. Performance stands out like a ton of diamonds. Non-performance can almost always be explained away.
In business, words are words; explanations are explanations, promises are promises, but only performance is reality.
I think it is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises -- but only performance is reality.
The five essential entrepreneurial skills for success: Concentration, Discrimination, Organization, Innovation and Communication
I buy when other people are selling.
The employer generally gets the employees he deserves.
Honor sinks where commerce long prevails.
Unequal combinations are always disadvantageous to the weaker side.
Few great men could pass personal.
Stressing output is the key to improving productivity, while looking to increase activity can result in just the opposite.
The more business one has, the more you are able to accomplish, for you learn to economize your time.
The morality of compromise' sounds contradictory. Compromise is usually a sign of weakness, or an admission of defeat. Strong men don't compromise, it is said, and principles should never be compromised. I shall argue that strong men, conversely, know when to compromise and that all principles can be compromised to serve a greater principle.
Show me the business man or institution not guided by sentiment and service; by the idea that he profits most who serves best and I will show you a man or an outfit that is dead or dying.
It is surprising, in the welter of questions that one gets at (AGMs), how few actually relate to the performance of the company, or the decisions taken by the board in particular areas.
As a small businessperson, you have no greater leverage than the truth.
The most sensible people to be met with in society are men of business and of the world, who argue from what they see and know, instead of spinning cobweb distinctions of what things ought to be.
Concentrate your strengths against your competitor's relative weaknesses.
A generation which has passed through the shop has absorbed standards and ambitions which are not of those of spaciousness, and cannot get away from them. Everything with them is done as though for sale, and they naturally have in view the greatest possible benefit, profit and that end of the stuff that will make the best show.
The five steps in teaching an employee new skills are preparation, explanation, showing, observation and supervision.
People want economy and they'll pay almost any price to get it.
When the product is right, you don't have to be a great marketer.
There is no substitute for accurate knowledge. Know yourself, know your business, know your men.
The selfish spirit of commerce, which knows no country, and feels no passion or principle but that of gain.
Doing well is the result of doing good. That's what capitalism is all about.
If a fellow wants to be a nobody in the business world, let him neglect sending the mail man to somebody on his behalf.
When you are skinning your customers you should leave some skin on to grow again so that you can skin them again.
Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage.
You can hype a questionable product for a little while, but you'll never build an enduring business.
In business, the competition will bite you if you keep running, if you stand still, they will swallow you.
In business for yourself, not by yourself.
The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.
A man's success in business today turns upon his power of getting people to believe he has something that they want.
Business today consists in persuading crowds.
You generally hear that what a man doesn't know doesn't hurt him, but in business what a man doesn't know does hurt.
The simple opposition between the people and big business has disappeared because the people themselves have become so deeply involved in big business.
Never let an inventor run a company. You can never get him to stop tinkering and bring something to market.
Business, more than any other occupation, is a continual dealing with the future; it is a continual calculation, an instinctive exercise in foresight.
If when a businessman speaks of minority employment, or air pollution, or poverty, he speaks in the language of a certified public accountant analyzing a corporate balance sheet, who is to know that he understands the human problems behind the statistical ones? If the businessman would stop talking like a computer printout or a page from the corporate annual report, other people would stop thinking he had a cash register for a heart. It is as simple as that -- but that isn't simple.
We're going to see a lot more young people entering entrepreneurial ventures.
Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.
If you train people properly, they won't be able to tell a drill from the real thing. If anything, the real thing will be easier.
Business is a combination of war and sport.
If you have lower than a ten percent turnover, there is a problem. And if you have higher than, say 20%, there is a problem.
In a start-up company, you basically throw out all assumptions every three weeks.
Get the best people and train them well.
If you did not look after today's business then you might as well forget about tomorrow.
Well, I don't know as I want a lawyer to tell me what I cannot do. I hire him to tell how to do what I want to do.
The great business of life is to be, to do, to do without and to depart.
It takes more than capital to swing business. You've got to have the A. I. D. degree to get by -- Advertising, Initiative, and Dynamics.
The commercial class has always mistrusted verbal brilliancy and wit, deeming such qualities, perhaps with some justice, frivolous and unprofitable.
The consumer isn't a moron. She is your wife.
The most important word in the vocabulary of advertising is TEST. If you pretest your product with consumers, and pretest your advertising, you will do well in the marketplace.
If each of us hires people smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs.
Never write an advertisement which you wouldn't want your own family to read. You wouldn't tell lies to your own wife. Don't tell them to mine. Do as you would be done by. If you tell lies about a product, you will be found out -- either by the Government, which will prosecute you, or by the consumer, who will punish you by not buying your product a second time. Good products can be sold by honest advertising. If you don't think the product is good, you have no business to be advertising it.
You make the best products you can, and you grow as fast as you deserve to.
Don't worry about your physical shortcomings. I am no Greek god. Don't get too much sleep and don 't tell anybody your troubles. Appearances count: Get a sun lamp to keep you looking as though you have just come back from somewhere expensive: maintain an elegant address even if you have to live in the attic. Never nickle when short of cash. Borrow big, but always repay promptly.
The secret of business is to know something that nobody else knows.
One of the vices of the virtue of decentralization is that people don't share ideas.
Let love give way to business; give attention to business and you will be safe.
— Ovid
To succeed in business it is necessary to make others see things as you see them.
Method goes far to prevent trouble in business: for it makes the task easy, hinders confusion, saves abundance of time, and instructs those that have business depending, both what to do and what to hope.
Every business is built on friendship.
If we decide to take this level of business creating ability nationwide, we'll all be plucking chickens for a living.
Business is not just doing deals; business is having great products, doing great engineering, and providing tremendous service to customers. Finally, business is a cobweb of human relationships.
The magic formula that successful businesses have discovered is to treat customers like guests and employees like people.
Far too many executives have become more concerned with the four P's -- pay, perks, power and prestige -- rather than making profits for shareholders.
The poor man who enters into a partnership with one who is rich makes a risky venture.
We have yet to see the full impact of the open, global marketplace. By 1997 all raw materials and technology will be available everywhere in the world. The only differences between countries and markets will be skill levels, education, and the level of empowerment of the workplace.
When two friends have a common bank account, one sings and the other weeps.
— Proverb
Cut your losses and let your profits run.
In business partnerships and marriage partnerships, oh, the cheating that goes on.
Don't open a shop unless you like to smile.
Work is our business; it's success is God s.
The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away.
Corporations are social organizations, the theater in which men and women realize or fail to realize purposeful and productive lives.
In our factory, we make lipstick. In our advertising, we sell hope.
The big will get bigger; the small will get wiped out.
You can employ men and hire hands to work for you, but you must win their hearts to have them work with you.
— Riorio
Never say no when a client asks for something, even if it is the moon. You can always try, and anyhow there is plenty of time afterwards to explain that it was not possible.
Quality, service, cleanliness, and value.
I've got to keep breathing. It'll be my worst business mistake if I don't.
In a balanced organization, working towards a common objective, there is success.
To business that we love we rise bedtime, and go to't with delight.
The propensity to truck, barter and exchange one thing for another is common to all men, and to be found in no other race of animals.
Anything that you do to increase job security automatically does work for you. It makes your employees a closer part of the unit.
Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business, is only to be sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things.
Men who do things without being told draw the most wages.
Great is the hand that holds dominion over man by a scribbled name.
Make every decision as if you owned the whole company.
If you don't do it with excellence, don't do it at all! Because if it's not excellent, it won't be profitable or fun, and if you're not in business for fun or profit, what the hell are you doing there?
Compromise is usually bad. It should be a last resort. If two departments or divisions have a problem they can't solve and it comes up to you, listen to both sides and then pick one or the other. This places solid accountability on the winner to make it work. Condition your people to avoid compromise.
Deals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully on canvas or write wonderful poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals. That's how I get my kicks.
The novice in advertising frequently gives the public credit, for too much intelligence.
Among the worries of today's business executives is the large number of unemployed still on the payroll.
The first thing the secretary types is the boss.
A hard thing about business is minding your own
A vacation should be just long enough that you're boss misses you, and not long enough for him to discover how well he can get along without you.
Business conventions are important because they demonstrate how many people a company can operate without.
Business is like a wheelbarrow--it stands still until someone pushes it.
Leisure for people of business, and business for people of leisure would cure many problems.
People will go right on preferring to do business with friends.
We let folks know we're interested in them and that they're vital to us. cause they are.
There's a lot more business out there in small town America than I ever dreamed of.
There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.
Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half.
Markets change, tastes change, so the companies and the individuals who choose to compete in those markets must change.
— Wang, An
Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.
You have to have your heart in the business and the business in your heart.
You don't hear things that are bad about your company unless you ask. It is easy to hear good tidings, but you have to scratch to get the bad news.
Our planning system was dynamite when we first put it in. The thinking was fresh; the form mattered little. It was idea oriented. We then hired a head of planning, and he hired two vice presidents, and then he hired a planner; and the books got thicker, and the printing more sophisticated, and the covers got harder, and the drawings got better.
Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.
It is very vulgar to talk about one's business. Only people like stockbrokers do that, and then merely at dinner parties.
What's good for the country is good for General Motors, and vice versa.
Most men are individuals no longer so far as their business, its activities, or its moralities are concerned. They are not units but fractions.
Business is like war in one respect. If its grand strategy is correct, any number of tactical errors can be made and yet the enterprise proves successful.
I am the world's worst salesman, therefore, I must make it easy for people to buy.
When two men in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary.
In modern business it is not the crook who is to be feared most, it is the honest man who doesn't know what he is doing.