Quotes About Business

To function efficiently - to function at all - we must concentrate our effects. Picturing things is bad for business, it is undynamic. It can choke the mind with horror if persisted in. We have graphs and tables and balance sheets and statement of corporate philosophy to help us remain busily and safely in the realm of the abstract and comfort us with a sense of lawful endeavor and lawful profit. And we have maps.

He had begun business many years ago—as a wandering peddler on the blind face of a distant land, a peddler who carried his wares on his back, a peddler who usually came at the fall of darkness and was always gone the next morning, leaving bloodshed, horror, and unhappiness behind him.

The success of big business and the well-being of the world have never been more closely linked. Global issues cannot be removed from the business world because business has only one world in which to operate. Businesses cannot succeed in societies that fail. —JORMA OLLILA, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, NOKIA

their founder, Frederick Smith, said, "We thought that we were selling the transportation of goods; in fact, we were selling peace of mind." In consequence of their performance, they earned credibility . . . and trust . . . and business. Today, people anticipate that FedEx will deliver on time because they have delivered on time—time and time again.

By 1831, he had determined to leave the grocery business and to begin manufacturing chocolate and cocoa. He had convinced himself that "drinking chocolate" could become an alternative to the gin and whiskey that were ravaging so many lives.

Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success. —Francis Bacon, "Of Youth and Age, "from The Essays; Or Counsels, Civil and Moral

Trust—or the lack of it—is at the root of success or failure in relationships and in the bottom-line results of business, industry, education, and government.

Creating the unity necessary to run an effective business or a family or a marriage requires great personal strength and courage. No amount of technical administrative skill in laboring for the masses can make up for lack of nobility of personal character in developing relationships. It is at a very essential, one-on-one level that we live the primary laws of love and life.

When trust goes down, speed goes down and costs go up. Distrust slows everything. Sales decelerate, customers grow cold, and team members get discouraged or drop out entirely. Distrust has hard costs. If you're distrusted, people will actively refuse to do business with you, your pipeline of revenue freezes, and in extreme cases you shut down.

Business confidence is one of the top concerns of CEOs in the latest Conference Board Report of 2009—earlier in the decade, it didn't even show up.

Creating the unity necessary to run an effective business or a family or a marriage requires great personal strength and courage.

Over the years, I have frequently counseled people who wanted better jobs to show more initiative—to take interest and aptitude tests, to study the industry, even the specific problems the organizations they are interested in are facing, and then to develop an effective presentation showing how their abilities can help solve the organization's problem. It's called "solution selling," and is a key paradigm in business success.

I have seen the consequences of attempting to shortcut this natural process of growth often in the business world, where executives attempt to "buy" a new culture of improved productivity, quality, morale, and customer service with strong speeches, smile training, and external interventions, or through

The view of Central America as a region to be kept safe for American corporations was naturally not shared by all the people who lived there. To many guatemalans, United Fruit represented with perfect clarity the alliance of American government and business arrayed against their efforts to attain full economic independence.

la oportunidad de crecer, de un pequeño negocio dependiente de clientes individuales a un elefante capaz de mover el mercado.

Un crecimiento controlado, sostenido y rentable es en parte un arte y en parte una ciencia.

una intención de comprar y nada son la misma cosa. Prevenda, prevenda, prevenda y asegure esa firma.

Lo primero que debe entender es que usted está demasiado inclinado a creer que su negocio triunfará.

Sin una matemática sólida, los negocios se convierten en un costoso juego de azar en el que uno apuesta su propio dinero y también el ajeno.

Sucede todos los días. Las compañías que no crecen están muriendo, una tras otra.

Para mantenerse, es necesario crecer. Si usted no crece, será cuestión de tiempo hasta que su empresa acabe mordiendo el polvo.

el principio más importante del crecimiento empresarial: la regla de la luz verde: prevender, prevender, prevender.

Esfuércese por ser pragmático, incluso estoico, mientras evalúa su negocio.

Los propietarios que dicen tenerlo todo «aquí en mi cabeza» rara vez tienen capacidad para edificar un negocio.