Business Insight for MBAs and Managers

Quotations

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Most Recent Business Quotations

We have a very peculiar industry in finance. The people who go into it all think they’re enormously gifted, whether that’s true or not, and they all believe that they should at least be lieutenant colonels in the army, if not all generals. And when that’s your workforce, you have to deal with people in a very unusual way. Because if you don’t, all these … [ Read more ]
— Stephen A. Schwarzman

Author: Stephen A. Schwarzman | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Culture, Industry Specific, Organizational Behavior

There are two problems with relying so much on data.

The first problem is our desire to make business a science and identify cause and effect in isolation. The outcomes of so many decisions that companies make are not determined by inescapable laws of science. They’re determined by the actions of leaders who have agency to affect those outcomes.

The second problem with data is that when … [ Read more ]
— Zeynep Ton

Author: Zeynep Ton | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Decision Making, Management, Organizational Behavior

Many team dysfunctions manifest as trust issues when, in fact, they stem from discrepancies in goals, priorities, or expectations. Clearing up those misunderstandings often resolves what you thought were interpersonal issues.
— Liane Davey

Author: Liane Davey | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Teamwork

Most organizations have processes in place to plan and manage the performance of people in their current roles. What they should be equally focused on is talent, which is what people are capable of producing. That’s more difficult to define and manage. But because it’s harder doesn’t mean it’s not important to do systematically.

Talent is too often principally defined by the person’s past performance and experience—the … [ Read more ]
— Dan Russell

Author: Dan Russell | Source: Chief Executive | Subject: Human Resources

Leadership is about disappointing people at a rate they can absorb.
— Marty Linsky

Author: Marty Linsky | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Leadership

Most Popular Business Quotations

In principle, patents open up innovations in two ways. First, they confer only temporary rights; once patents expire or are abandoned, the intellectual property they are designed to protect passes into the public domain. Second, they require the details of the invention to be disclosed so they can be replicated. This permits follow-on innovation, which is essential for industrial progress. More recently, as the patent system … [ Read more ]
— The Economist

As for the genius of innovation, clearly the one percent spark of inspiration is nurtured by a positive culture. But the 99 percent perspiration ingredient comes from employees who love what they do, as well as where they do it, and who invest in that Holy Grail of productivity called “discretionary … [ Read more ]
— Stephanie Quappe, David Samso Aparici, Jon Warshawsky

Money never comes first in self-expression of any kind.
— William J. Reilly

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no … [ Read more ]
— Theodore Roosevelt

The uncomfortable fact for many green marketers--and targets of that marketing--is that genuinely going green would mean giving up most of the products and services that clutter our consumer culture. It would mean simplifying, valuing time and people over stuff. How can most products avoid the sin of the hidden trade-off? With a simple label: "You don't really need this."
— David Roberts

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Accounting   [16 posts]
Best Practices   [39 posts]
Career   [160 posts]   → Networking [2 posts]   → Work [49 posts]
Change Management   [146 posts]
Competitive Intelligence   [11 posts]
Consulting / Analytical Tools   [4 posts]
Corporate Governance   [100 posts]   → Succession Planning [4 posts]
Customer Related   [182 posts]
Economics   [295 posts]   → Capitalism [72 posts]
Education   [35 posts]
Entrepreneurship   [183 posts]   → Venture Capital [33 posts]
Finance   [122 posts]   → Investing [9 posts]   → Market/Investment [5 posts]   → Money [9 posts]   → Taxation [1 posts]
General   [6 posts]
History   [19 posts]
Human Resources   [511 posts]   → Coaching [10 posts]   → Compensation [44 posts]   → Diversity [43 posts]   → Motivation [101 posts]   → Training & Development [69 posts]   → Hiring [38 posts]
Industry Specific   [1 post]
Innovation   [315 posts]   → Creativity [66 posts]
International   [52 posts]   → International - Americas [1 posts]   → Trade [2 posts]
IT / Technology / E-Business   [75 posts]
Leadership   [517 posts]
Legal   [23 posts]   → Intellectual Property [10 posts]
Management   [1510 posts]   → Business Plans [12 posts]   → Business Rules [43 posts]   → Delegation [7 posts]   → Execution [24 posts]   → Goals [24 posts]   → Growth [7 posts]   → Knowledge Management [12 posts]   → Measurement [45 posts]   → Mission [26 posts]   → Process [16 posts]   → Project Management [13 posts]   → Success / Failure [171 posts]   → Trends / Analysis [52 posts]   → Values [28 posts]   → Vision [37 posts]
Marketing / Sales   [285 posts]   → Advertising [9 posts]   → Brand [24 posts]   → Business Development [2 posts]   → Market Research [27 posts]   → Pricing [6 posts]
MBA Related   [39 posts]
Mergers & Acquisitions   [26 posts]
Miscellaneous   [82 posts]
Negotiation   [19 posts]
Nonprofit   [4 posts]
Operations   [43 posts]   → Outsourcing / BPO [14 posts]   → Quality [5 posts]
Organizational Behavior   [1633 posts]   → Accountability [20 posts]   → Bureaucracy [14 posts]   → Communication [159 posts]   → Culture [108 posts]   → Decision Making [188 posts]   → Ethics [59 posts]   → Personality / Behavior [246 posts]   → Politics [10 posts]   → Power / Authority [49 posts]   → Reengineering [3 posts]   → Reorganization [5 posts]   → Storytelling [28 posts]   → Teamwork [59 posts]   → Trust [31 posts]   → Women in Business [25 posts]
People   [7 posts]
Personal Development   [542 posts]   → Ability [23 posts]   → Achievement [85 posts]   → Attitude [21 posts]   → Challenge [11 posts]   → Character [20 posts]   → Commitment [13 posts]   → Competence [12 posts]   → Experience [25 posts]   → Expertise [12 posts]   → Judgement [7 posts]   → Learning [71 posts]
Productivity / Work Tips   [30 posts]   → Products & Services [1 posts]
Prospective   [1 post]   → About the MBA Degree [1 post]
Public Relations   [15 posts]   → Crisis Management [6 posts]
Quote   [642 posts]   → Action [23 posts]   → Adversity [11 posts]   → Ambition [10 posts]   → Attention [20 posts]   → Confidence [8 posts]   → Design [8 posts]   → Fear / Doubt [8 posts]   → Future [35 posts]   → Government [17 posts]   → Information [48 posts]   → Integrity [16 posts]   → Intelligence [12 posts]   → Knowledge [110 posts]   → Life [50 posts]   → Luck [17 posts]   → Mistakes [7 posts]   → Observations [10 posts]   → Opportunity [26 posts]   → Perception [15 posts]   → Persuasion [27 posts]   → Philosophy [8 posts]   → Potential [7 posts]   → Preparation [9 posts]   → Privacy [1 posts]   → Problems / Solutions [39 posts]   → Progress [10 posts]   → Reputation [6 posts]   → Skills [18 posts]   → Teaching [7 posts]   → Thought [96 posts]   → Time Management [16 posts]   → Wisdom [58 posts]
Risk Management   [70 posts]
Social Responsibility (ESG)   [94 posts]
Statistics   [12 posts]
Strategy   [371 posts]   → Business Model [4 posts]   → Competition [55 posts]   → Planning [22 posts]

Browse Business Quotations by Industry

Automotive   [1 post]
Consulting   [2 posts]
Education / Training   [4 posts]
Investing   [2 posts]
Retail   [1 post]