Best 5548 quotes in «business quotes» category

In the 19th century China dominated the manufacture of porcelain. Then European factories discovered a cheaper method of making pottery of equal quality, demolishing the Chinese industry the exact reverse of what is happening now. World economics have turned full circle.

In the 20th century, the United States endured two world wars and other traumatic and expensive military conflicts; the Depression; a dozen or so recessions and financial panics; oil shocks; a flu epidemic; and the resignation of a disgraced president. Yet the Dow rose from 66 to 11,497.

In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.

In the business world, unwise men take more that they give. They do not realize that they are breaking the Universal Law which will eventually break them to an equal extent. It may not be balanced in the form of dollars and cents but in the loss of good-will upon which their future business depends.

In the biggest companies, seek out the most useless positions: those in consultancy, appraisal, research, and study. The more useless your position, the less possible it will be to assess your 'contribution to the firm's assets.

In the business world, allegations of accounting irregularities is tantamount to yelling fire in a crowded theater, except, today, in our Internet world, instead of people running for the exit signs, they just push the button on their computer.

In the arts, the critic is the only independent source of information. The rest is advertising.

In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product, and profits.

In the early 1970s, Milton Friedman argued that corporations should not be socially responsible because they had no mandate to be; they existed to make money, not to be charitable institutions. But in the economy of the 21st century, corporations cannot be socially responsible, if social responsibility is understood to mean sacrificing profits for the sake of some perceived social good. That's because competition has become so much more intense.

In the end, a vision without the ability to execute it is probably a hallucination.

In the English character, the "give and take" policy, the business principle of the trader, is principally inherent.

In the era of imperialism, businessmen became politicians and were acclaimed as statesmen, while statesmen were taken seriously only if they talked the language of succcessful businessmen.

In the factory we make cosmetics. In the store we sell hope.

In the final analysis there is no other solution to man's progress but the day's honest work, the day's honest decision, the day's generous utterances, and the day's good deed.

In the foundation and development of a successful enterprise there must be a single-minded pursuit of financial profit.

In the future, it will become increasingly obvious that your competitors are just as clueless as you are.

In the four decades of philanthropy that have paralleled my business career, I've found that the same principles apply whether you're providing access to capital to grow a business, creating a new paradigm for medical research, or pioneering innovative approaches to education: Empower the most talented people in each field and encourage them to pursue their passions.

In the Ford Motor Company, we emphasize service equally with sales.

In the great city of San Francisco, where I used to live, at 2 in the morning every other Victorian house has somebody who is writing the great American novel. And the city is not loaded with James Joyces or Virginia Woolfs. But entrepreneurship is about distorted views of reality.

In the greatest confusion there is still an open channel to the soul. It may be difficult to find because by midlife it is overgrown, and some of the wildest thickets that surround it grow out of what we describe as our education. But the channel is always there, and it is our business to keep it open, to have access to the deepest part of ourselves.

In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create.

In the new economy, information, education, and motivation are everything.

In the ordinary business of life, industry can do anything which genius can do, and very many things which it cannot.

In the past six months, our federal government has devised a dozen strategies to save America's financial markets. Each plan has been more costly, more risky, and less aligned with the principles of our country's free market economy than the last. I am disappointed to say that this latest plan puts all the rest of them to shame.

In the real world, the smartest people are people who make mistakes and learn. In school, the smartest people don't make mistakes.

In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm... in the real world all rests on perseverance.

In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run it is a weighing machine.

In the UK what we've found is that even businesses which prided themselves already on their efficient management find that a really beady-eyed scrutiny of their resource management, with an eye to environmental best-practice and long term sustainability, produce fresh efficiency and fresh savings that actually shock those in the company

...in the words of Max DePree: "Management has a lot to do with answers. But leadership is a function of questions. And the first question for a leader always is: 'Who do we intend to be?' Not 'What are we going to do?' but 'Who do we intend to be?'

In this business, by the time you realize you're in trouble, it's too late to save yourself. Unless you're running scared all the time, you're gone.

In the world of money and investing, you must learn to control your emotions.

In this business, if you don`t have the capacity to step back and have some sort of relativity about things, you're screwed.

In this business, you're either Brad Pitt right away, or you're already going down the ladder.

In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.

In three years, every product my company makes will be obsolete. The only question is whether we will make them obsolete or somebody else will.

In today's knowledge-based economy, what you earn depends on what you learn. Jobs in the information technology sector, for example, pay 85 percent more than the private sector average.

In true dialogue, both sides are willing to change.

Into the hands of every individual is given a marvelous power for good or evil---the silent, unconscious, unseen influence of his life. This is simply the radiation of what man really is, not what he pretends to be.

Intuition is a combination of insight and imagination that was once attributed to spiritual communication. Mathematicians call it 'fuzzy logic,' drawing conclusions from vague or subjective input. The mind becomes aware without the direct intervention of reasoning. Once you can imagine something you can begin the process of creating it. Executives use intuition to make many product, investment, and hiring decisions, even if they deny it. Success in business may depend on an accurate gut.

Inventories can be managed, but people must be led.

Investing in the market without knowing what stage it is in is like selling life insurance to 20 year olds and 80 year olds at the same premium.

Investing is an activity of forecasting the yield over the life of the asset; speculation is the activity of forecasting the psychology of the market.

Investors should remember that excitement and expenses are their enemies. And if they insist on trying to time their participation in equities, they should try to be fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when others are fearful.

Investors want to know how exposed a business is to climate change. The physical risks to Tesco are clear, but could be far-reaching. Freak weather in the past few months has disrupted our supply lines in Hungary, Bangladesh and Korea. Any responsible board of directors should be planning ahead, thinking through these risks, and presenting them in a clear, transparent way

Investing intelligently in those of us who are marginalised means fewer people in jail, fewer homeless, fewer unemployed, fewer of us who are forlorn and depressed, fewer people addicted to things that drag us down... Because as we invest in those that do it tough, we will see more Australians taking pride in themselves, having realisable dreams and aspirations and making their own positive contribution to the world's greatest nation.

Investment is not only volatile, it is the key motor of the economy's prosperity because it has a snowball effect.

I question the premise that digital is necessarily the enemy of traditional media. In many ways, it presents us with enormous opportunities.

I ran the wrong kind of business, but I did it with integrity.

I quickly learned that if I kept at it and plowed right through the rejections I would eventually get somebody to buy my wares.

I really want people to know that I've worked hard, very hard, to get to where I am today.. this didn't just happen overnight. I started in business over 25 years ago and have found a way to build on what I've learned through every partnership and opportunity.