Management Quotes

“Things refuse to be mismanaged for long.”

“A man must keep an eye on his servants, if he would not have them rule him.”

“I let the argument rip healthily between the departments. This is a very good way to finding out the truth.”

“All resources are not obvious; great managers find and develop available talent.”

“In my experience of large enterprises, I have found it is often a mistake to try to settle everything at once.”

“The difference between mere management and leadership is communication.”

“I would rather train someone and lose them, than not train them and keep them”

“No duty the Executive had to perform was so trying as to put the right man in the right place.”

“When I give a man an office, I watch him carefully to see whether he is swelling or growing.”

“The secret of success lies never in the amount of money, but in the relation of income to outgo.”

“When management and labor (employer and employee) both understand they are all on the same side, then each will prosper more.”

“I am your servant. You have the right to dismiss me when you please. What you have no right to do is ask me to bear responsibility without the power of action.”

“The competent leader of men cares little for the niceties of other peoples' characters: he cares much--everything--for the exterior uses to which they may be put.... These are men to be moved. How should he move them? He supplies the power; others simply the materials on which that power operates.”

“I always say that in investing you want to buy stock in a company that has a business that's so good that an idiot can run it, because sooner or later one will. We have a country like that.”

“It isn't given to man to be able to run a financial institution where different interest-rate scenarios will prevail on all of that so as to produce kind of smooth, regular earnings from a very large base to start with.”

“For example: (1) As if governed by Newton's First Law of Motion, an institution will resist any change in its current direction; (2) Just as work expands to fill available time, corporate projects or acquisitions will materialize to soak up available funds; (3) Any business craving of the leader, however foolish, will be quickly supported by detailed rate-of-return and strategic studies prepared by his troops; and (4) The behavior of peer companies, whether they are expanding, acquiring, setting executive compensation or whatever, will be mindlessly imitated.”

“I certainly do believe anyone engaged in the management of money should have a standard of measurement, and that both he and the party whose money is managed should have a clear understanding why it is the appropriate standard, what time period should be utilized, etc.”

“I always invest in companies an idiot could run, because one day one will.”

“I try to buy stock in businesses that are so wonderful that an idiot can run them. Because sooner or later, one will.”

“The extraordinary business does not require good management.”

“My curse on playsThat have to be set up in fifty ways,On the day's war with every knave and dolt,Theater business, management of men.”

“If you have a great manager, you want to pay him very well.”

“Time is the capital of your life, so spend it wisely.”

“When we own portions of outstanding businesses with outstanding managements, our favorite holding period is forever.”

“The managers at fault periodically report on the lesson they have learned from the latest disappointment. They then usually seek out future lessons.”