Business Culture Quotes

...failure promotes success only if you actually take the time to analyze your mistakes.. Failure has to be separated from fault, and for many people that requires a bit of deprogramming, as we learn early on that they are one and the same. In this framework, intention is extremely important.

~ Amanda Lang

Jobs's intensity was also evident in his ability to focus. He would set priorities, aim his laser attention on them, and filter out distractions. If something engaged him- the user interface for the original Macintosh, the design of the iPod and iPhone, getting music companies into the iTunes Store-he was relentless. But if he did not want to deal with something - a legal annoyance, a business issue, his cancer diagnosis, a family tug- he would resolutely ignore it. That focus allowed him to say no. He got Apple back on track by cutting all except a few core products. He made devices simpler by eliminating buttons, software simpler by eliminating features, and interfaces simpler by eliminating options. He attributed his ability to focus and his love of simplicity to his Zen training. It honed his appreciation for intuition, showed him how to filter out anything that was distracting or unnecessary, and nurtured in him an aesthetic based on minimalism.

~ Walter Isaacson

One of Job's great strengths was knowing how to focus. Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do, he said. That's true for companies, and it's true for products.

~ Walter Isaacson

One sticking point was that Jobs wanted his payout to be in cash. Amelio insisted that he needed to have skin in the game and take the payout in stock that he would agree to hold for at least a year.” Jobs resisted. Finally, they compromised: Jobs would take $120 million in cash and $37 million in stock, and he pledged to hold the stock for at least six months.

~ Walter Isaacson

Business: It is all about generating employment not about generating money.

~ Bharath Mamidoju

On Wall Street, the lawyers play the same role as medics in war: They come in after the shooting is over to clean up the mess.

~ Michael Lewis

Edwin Land of Polaroid talked about the intersection of the humanities and science. I like that intersection. There's something magical about that place. There are a lot of people innovating, and that's not the main distinction of my career. The reason Apple resonates with people is that there's a deep current of humanity in our innovation. I think great artists and great engineers are similar in that they both have a desire to express themselves. In fact some of the best people working on the original Mac were poets and musicians on the side. In the seventies computers became a way for people to express their creativity. Great artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were also great art science. Michelangelo knew a lot about how to quarry stone, not just how to be a sculptor.

~ Walter Isaacson

The reason they outperformed her was that they accepted each new “product” without trying to understand it. They got behind the new pitch wholeheartedly, even when it was risible and/or made no sense, and then, if a prospective customer had trouble understanding the “product,” they didn’t vocally agree that it sure was difficult to understand, didn’t make a good-faith effort to explain the complicated reasoning behind it, but simply kept hammering on the written pitch. And clearly this was the path to success, and it was all a double disillusionment to Pip, who not only felt actively punished for using her brain but was presented every month with fresh evidence that Bay Area consumers on average responded better to a rote and semi-nonsensical pitch than to a well-meaning saleswoman trying to help them understand the offer.

~ Jonathan Franzen

The older I get, the more I see how much motivations matter. The Zune was crappy because the people at Microsoft don't really love music or art the way we do. We won because we personally love music. We made the iPod for ourselves, and when you're doing something for yourself, or your best friend or family, you're not going to cheese out. If you don't love something, you're not going to cheese out. If you don't love something, you're not going to cheese out. If you don't love something, you're not going to go the extra mile, work the extra weekend, challenge the status quo as much.

~ Walter Isaacson

People will typically be more enthusiastic where they feel a sense of belonging and see themselves as part of a community than they will in a workplace in which each person is left to his own devices

~ Alfie Kohn

The unified field theory that ties together Jobs personality and products begins with his most salient trait: his intensity. His silences could be as searing as his rants; he had taught himself to stare without blinking. Sometimes this intensity was charming, in a geeky way, such as when he was explaining the profundity of Bob Dylan's music or why whatever product he was unveiling at that moment was the most amazing thing that Apple had ever made. At other times it could be terrifying, such as when he was fulminating about Google or Microsoft ripping of Apple.

~ Walter Isaacson

...the message being sent out by a broken window-the perception it invites-is that the owener of this building and the people of the community around it don't care if this window is broken: They have given up, and anarchy reigns here. Do as you will, because nobody cares.

~ Michael Levine

The first step out of the gate has to be knowing where you want to end up. What do you really want from your company?

~ Stan Slap

The first step to solving any problem is to accept one’s own accountability for creating it.

~ Stan Slap

You don't have to fear your own company being perceived as human. You want it. People don't trust companies, they trust people.

~ Stan Slap

Being relevant to your customers only when you’re trying to sell something means choosing to be irrelevant to them for the rest of the time.

~ Stan Slap

There will be plenty of other problems in the future. This is as good a time as any to get ahead of them.

~ Stan Slap

The economy is in ruins! Bottom line? Good management will defeat a bad economy.

~ Stan Slap

Your company is its own competition and can deliver itself debilitating blows the competition only dreams of.

~ Stan Slap

Instead of waiting for a leader you can believe in, try this: Become a leader you can believe in.

~ Stan Slap

The purpose of leadership is to change the world around you in the name of your values, so you can live those values more fully.

~ Stan Slap

Profitability. Growth. Quality. Exceeding customer expectations. These are not examples of values. These are examples of corporate strategies being sold to you as values.

~ Stan Slap

When you’re a manager, you work for your company. When you’re a leader, your company works for you.

~ Stan Slap

Work/life balance is not about escaping work. It’s about living exactly the way you want to when you’re at work.

~ Stan Slap

What first separates a leader from a normal human being? A leader knows who they are as a human being.

~ Stan Slap

True leaders live their values everywhere, not just in the workplace.

~ Stan Slap

The worst thing in your own development as a leader is not to do it wrong. It’s to do it for the wrong reasons.

~ Stan Slap

When rewards come from an external source instead of an internal source, they’re unreliable, which means they’re dangerous if you grow to depend on them.

~ Stan Slap

A company can’t buy true emotional commitment from managers no matter how much it’s willing to spend, this is something too valuable to have a price tag. And yet a company can’t afford not to have it.

~ Stan Slap

Human behavior is only unpredictable and dangerous if you don’t start from humanity in the first place.

~ Stan Slap

Imagine a world where what you say synchs up, not sinks down.

~ Stan Slap

Why live my personal values at work? This is an excellent question to ask. If your attorneys are planning an insanity defense.

~ Stan Slap

Here’s what you need to know most about leadership: Lead your own life first. The only thing in this world that will dependably happen from the top down is the digging of your grave.

~ Stan Slap

The myth of management is that your personal values are irrelevant or inappropriate at work.

~ Stan Slap

It’s impossible for a company to get what it wants most if managers have to make a choice between their own values and company priorities.

~ Stan Slap

Try not to take this the wrong way, but your brain is smarter than you are.

~ Stan Slap

A manager’s emotional commitment is the ultimate trigger for their discretionary effort, worth more than financial, intellectual & physical commitment combined.

~ Stan Slap

You can stuff yourself with emotional fulfillment until it’s dribbling down your chin & your ego will quickly chomp it down and demand more.

~ Stan Slap

Your dreams and the dreams of your company may be different, but they are in no way incompatible.

~ Stan Slap

Providing the ultimate solution to work/life balance: not escaping from work but living the way you want to at work.

~ Stan Slap