#Business Strategy Quotes

“We have embraced the 21st century by entering such cutting-edge industries as brick, carpet, insulation and paint. Try to control your excitement.”

“Marketing is about values. It's a complicated and noisy world, and we're not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is. So we have to be really clear about what we want them to know about us.”

“You know, I've got a plan that could rescue Apple. I can't say any more than that it's the perfect product and the perfect strategy for Apple. But nobody there will listen to me.”

“Manage the top line: your strategy, your people, and your products, and the bottom line will follow.”

“We're cautious. We'd rather exceed expectations than miss but I think it's going to be a continued difficult economy. Apple is trying a different way to navigate out of this, we're trying to innovate.”

“Everything is based on a simple rule: Quality is the best business plan, period.”

“My philosophy is that everything starts with a great product.”

“Our goal is to make the best devices in the world, not to be the biggest.”

“Pretty much, Apple and Dell are the only ones in this industry making money. They make it by being Wal-Mart. We make it by innovation.”

“We do not say anything about future products. We work on them in secret, then we announce them.”

“We've demonstrated a strong track record of being very disciplined with the use of our cash. We don't let it burn a hole in our pocket, we don't allow it to motivate us to do stupid acquisitions. And so I think that we'd like to continue to keep our powder dry, because we do feel that there are one or more strategic opportunities in the future.”

“There are just two questions to ask to attain success in business: First, "What business am I in?" Second, "How's business?"”

“In the Ford Motor Company, we emphasize service equally with sales.”

“I don't think it's a good idea to plan to sell a company.”

“If you're entering anything where there's an existing marketplace, against large, entrenched competitors, then your product or service needs to be much better than theirs. It can't be a little bit better, because then you put yourself in the shoes of the consumer... you're always going to buy the trusted brand unless there's a big difference.”

“You know, I look like a woman but I think like a man. And in this world of business, that has helped me a lot. Because by the time they think that I don't know what's goin' on, I then got the money, and gone.”

“In this business, by the time you realize you're in trouble, it's too late to save yourself. Unless you're running scared all the time, you're gone.”

“Most of our competitors were one-product wonders... They would do their one product, but never get their engineering sorted out.”

“We win because we hire the smartest people. We improve our products based on feedback, until they're the best. We have retreats each year where we think about where the world is heading.”

“Something like Windows is still an unbelievable asset but because the world is somewhat phone-centric, it's an asset that has to be managed very carefully to make sure that it's extended, and there are very interesting things that are being done with that.”

“If we [Microsoft Corporation] weren't still hiring great people and pushing ahead at full speed, it would be easy to fall behind and become a mediocre company. Fear should guide you, but it should be latent. I have some latent fear. I consider failure on a regular basis.”

“Instead of buying airplanes and playing around like some of our competitors, we've rolled almost everything back to the company.”

“The most important 'speed' issue is often not technical but cultural. It's convincing everyone that the company's survival depends on everyone moving as fast as possible.”

“There is competition, .. Can any Microsoft endure future competition without innovation? The answer is no. We've got to keep changing.”

“Only a few businesses will succeed by having the lowest price, so most will need a strategy that includes customer services.”

“Microsoft looks at new ideas, they don't evaluate whether the idea will move the industry forward, they ask, 'how will it help us sell more copies of Windows?”