Quotes from Irene Rosenfeld

You can't play it safe if you want to get ahead.

I think my very best piece of advice is be yourself.

Mom was a housewife; Dad was an accountant. They taught me a lot about the value of working hard.

Do your job brilliantly and the cream will rise to the top.

I truly believe that the combination of a strong top line together with a strong bottom line is what makes for a sustainable business.

I talk a lot about taking risks, and then I follow that up very quickly by saying, 'Take prudent risks.'

When investors, particularly investment bankers, talk about splitting up companies, there's a lot of discussion about multiple expansion, and the reality is multiple expansion is an outcome, not a strategy.

I hate to see people frustrated or leave a company for an opportunity they could easily have had at their current company if they had only asked.

Major organizational changes create uncertainty. But the point is to move quickly - faster than you are comfortable - because in hindsight, you will always wish you had made changes even sooner.

Sports have always been a really important part of how I energize myself, as well as how I relax. I spend a lot of my spare time with my family playing tennis, biking and rollerblading.

Even in developing markets, we're seeing the growth of digital communication is proceeding at a very rapid pace.

I grew up in business at a time where there weren't very many female role models, and so in the early days, we wore little bow ties like the guys, and we talked about the Army even though we weren't in the Army. And the reality was that wasn't the right way to approach the business world.

I've received many good pieces of advice throughout my life.

People vote with their hearts, not their heads.

Exposure to a diversity of disciplines has been exceptionally helpful to me.

Do what in your heart you know is right. It is easy to get caught up in your ambitions, but no job is worth not being true to yourself.

I am very excited and delighted to be an important part of the development of corporate America.

I've always challenged myself and the people who work with me to take new approaches to traditional business challenges, to push the envelope and constantly ask whether our sacred cows are still producing great milk.

Parenting is one of the best management training programs there is.

The most important role of a leader is to set a clear direction, be transparent about how to get there and to stay the course.

I think all of us are multitasking a little more today than we used to or than we would like to. And I think that the issue of work-life balance is a critical issue for every company around the world.

Major organizational changes create uncertainty.

During a transformation, it's understandable to be hesitant about moving too fast, especially at the outset.

Our emerging workforce is not interested in command-and-control leadership. They don't want to do things because I said so; they want to do things because they want to do them.