Great Company Quotes

• 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.

  Warren Buffett

  Business, Investing Money, Tables

  "Homespun Wisdom from the 'Oracle of Omaha' Businessweek". July 5, 1999.

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• 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.

  James C. Collins

  Ambition, Self, Goal

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• A great company in the media business needs visionary leaders, not a conglomerate structure headquartered in Columbus Circle that second guesses.

  Carl Icahn

  Leadership, Greatness, Media

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• 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.

  James C. Collins

  Business, Technology, People

  "Good To Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don’t". Book by James C. Collins, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 16, 2001.

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• 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.

  Mary Kay Ash

  Inspirational, Teamwork, Business

  Mary Kay Ash (1995). “Mary Kay, You Can Have it All: Lifetime Wisdom from America's Foremost Woman Entrepreneur”, Prima Lifestyles

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• Great companies make meaning. A company has a name, but its people give it meaning.

  Richard Pascale

  Names, People, Giving

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• Truly great companies are built on ideals, not just deals.

  Alan Watts

  Accountability, Deals, Built

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• In an ironic twist, I now see Good to Great not as a sequel to Built to Last, but more of a prequel. Good to Great is about how to turn a good organization into one that produces sustained great results. Built to Last is about how you take a company with great results and turn it into an enduring great company of iconic stature.

  James C. Collins

  Organization, Ironic, Lasts

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• The great companies did not know that the line between hunger and anger is a thin line.

  John Steinbeck

  Lines, Hunger, Knows

  John Steinbeck (2016). “The Grapes of Wrath”, p.228, Hamilton Books

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• Great companies foster a productive tension between continuity and change.

  James C. Collins

  Tension, Continuity, Productive

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• We're enamored with the concept that there's always a price. But sometimes, your goal is to build a great company, not sell it.

  Aaron Levie

  Goal, Sometimes, Enamored

  Twitter post from Nov 14, 2013

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• Great companies don't throw money at problems, they throw ideas at problems.

  Greg McAdoo

  Ideas, Problem, Company

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• Great companies start because the founders want to change the world... not make a fast buck.

  Guy Kawasaki

  Inspirational, Entrepreneur, World

  FaceBook post by Guy Kawasaki from May 06, 2014

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• Great companies that build an enduring brand have an emotional relationship with customers that has no barrier. And that emotional relationship is on the most important characteristic, which is trust.

  Howard Schultz

  Emotional, Important, Characteristics

  "Piers Morgan Tonight", edition.cnn.com. August 17, 2011.

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• In determing "the right people," the good-to-great companies placed greater weight on character attributes than on specific educational background, practical skills, specialized knowledge, or work experience.

  James C. Collins

  Educational, Character, Skills

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• A great company will have many once-in-a-liftetime opportunities.

  James C. Collins

  Business, Opportunity, Company

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• A good company delivers excellent products and services, and a great company does all that and strives to make the world a better place.

  Bill Ford

  Inspiring, Doe, World

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• 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.

  Robert S. Kaplan

  Communication, People, Priorities

  Source: bobmorris.biz

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• It's like athletes: To be a great company you need great competitors...It's what keeps you alive and keeps you honest.

  Craig R. Barrett

  Athlete, Needs, Alive

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• 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.

  Peter Thiel

  Entrepreneur, Secret, World

  Peter Thiel, Blake Masters (2014). “Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future”, p.83, Crown Business

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• Great companies connect to the heartstrings of their employees to make their purposes known.

  Don Yaeger

  Heart, Purpose, Employee

  Source: bobmorris.biz

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• 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.

  Sam Altman

  Two, Innovation, Three

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• Great companies are defined by their discipline and their understanding of who they are and who they are not.

  Howard Schultz

  Discipline, Understanding, Defined

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• 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.

  Howard Schultz

  Long, Leader, Problem

  Howard Schultz, Dori Jones Yang (1997). “Pour your heart into it: how Starbucks built a company one cup at a time”

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• 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.'

  Eric Schmidt

  Space, People, Moments

  "What does a networked future look like?". The Yale Insights Interview, insights.som.yale.edu. May 15, 2013.

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