Harold Geneen Quotes

Every company has two organizational structures: The formal one is written on the charts; the other is the everyday relationship of the men and women in the organization.

In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later.

Leadership cannot really be taught. It can only be learned.

I think it is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises, but only performance is reality

If your desk isn't cluttered, you probably aren't doing your job.

The five essential entrepreneurial skills for success are concentration, discrimination, organization, innovation and communication.

A true leader has to have a genuine open-door policy so that his people are not afraid to approach him for any reason.

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.

The best way to inspire people to superior performance is to convince them by everything you do and by your everyday attitude that you are wholeheartedly supporting them.

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

The best way to sell yourself to others is first to sell the others to yourself. Check yourself against this list of obstacles to a pleasing personality: interrupting others; sarcasm; vanity; being a poor listener; insincere flattery; finding fault; challenging others without good cause; giving unsolicited advice; complaining; attitude of superiority; envy of others' success; poor posture and dress.

What you manage in business is people

Do you want my one-word secret of happiness? It's growth - - mental, financial you name it.

Better a good decision quickly than the best decision too late.

Facts from paper are not the same as facts from people. The reliability of the people giving you the facts is as important as the facts themselves.

Uncertainty will always be part of the taking charge process.

Management manages by making decisions and by seeing that those decisions are implemented.

The highest art of professional management requires the literal ability to 'smell' a 'real fact' from all others.

The professional's grasp of the numbers is a measure of the control he has over the events that the figures represent.

We must not be hampered by yesterday's myths in concentrating on today's needs.

Ninety-nine percent of all surprises in business are negative.

It's better to take over and build upon an existing business than to start a new one.

In a good meeting there is a momentum that comes from the spontaneous exchange of fresh ideas and produces extraordinary results. That momentum depends on the freedom permitted the participants.

You can know a person by the kind of desk he keeps. If the president of a company has a clean desk then it must be the executive vice president who is doing all the work.

You can't run a business or anything else on a theory.