The best thing that happens to us is when a great company gets into temporary trouble...We want to buy them when they're on the operating table.
Level 5 leaders channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company. It's not that Level 5 leaders have no ego or self-interest. Indeed, they are incredibly ambitious-but their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves.
A great company in the media business needs visionary leaders, not a conglomerate structure headquartered in Columbus Circle that second guesses.
People are definitely a company's greatest asset. It doesn't make any difference whether the product is cars or cosmetics. A company is only as good as the people it keeps.
Those who build great companies understand that the ultimate throttle on growth for any great company is not markets, or technology, or competition, or products. It is one thing above all others: the ability to get and keep enough of the right people.
Great companies make meaning. A company has a name, but its people give it meaning.
A good company delivers excellent products and services, and a great company does all that and strives to make the world a better place.
The characteristic of great innovators and great companies is they see a space that others do not. They don't just listen to what people tell them; they actually invent something new, something that you didn't know you needed, but the moment you see it, you say, 'I must have it.'
A tremendous chief executive in a small market will never be great. All great companies start with great markets.
Great companies create an environment in which employees act like owners. They do this through clear communication, articulation of clear vision and priorities, coaching and openness to debate/discussion. I would argue that this type of environment helps people to be at their best - and helps the company to be at its best.
The word 'ego' is very important. The ego is an important element of being human, and of being creative. We need that ego in order to give us a confidence of doing what we're doing. Ego pushes us into the creative world in order to create for something more. I think that a great company of actors, they all have egos, very strong egos, but they're all prepared to share together in order to achieve something even better than that.
The best entrepreneurs know this: every great business is built around a secret that’s hidden from the outside. A great company is a conspiracy to change the world; when you share your secret, the recipient becomes a fellow conspirator.
Great companies connect to the heartstrings of their employees to make their purposes known.
You can create value with breakthrough innovation, incremental refinement, or complex coordination. Great companies often do two of these. The very best companies do all three.
It's like athletes: To be a great company you need great competitors...It's what keeps you alive and keeps you honest.
As the company grows and about this 25 or so employee size, your main job shifts from building a great product to building a great company.
I consistently run into young adults who have quickly turned away from traditional jobs at great companies to try their hand at a start-up. I believe that some of this stems from the desire to strike it big like Mark Zuckerberg, but I also believe it is because starting a company has become far cooler than working in one.
Great companies are defined by their discipline and their understanding of who they are and who they are not.
Good-to-great companies set their goals and strategies based on understanding; comparison companies set their goals and strategies based on bravado.
One of the factors that make great companies so great is that they have processes that allow them to solve difficult problems again and again. These processes have developed over time as teams have successfully wrestled with a certain type of challenge. Eventually, people begin to say, "This is just how we do something around here." The problem develops when that team then has to solve a very different set of challenges. The processes that are such strengths can be crushing liabilities.
To be an enduring, great company, you have to build a mechanism for preventing or solving problems that will long outlast any one individual leader.
Good companies will meet needs; great companies will create markets.
All the old great companies were run by guys who knew what an animator meant, and guys who knew how to draw. All the companies today are run by executives.
I chase a little white ball around and work on my farmer tan, that's about it. I think that I've been lucky enough to represent some great companies, and I think maybe that's what it is.
Bad companies are destroyed by crisis. Good companies survive them. Great individuals, like great companies, find a way to transform weakness into strength.
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