John Harvey-Jones

England
16 Apr 1924 // 9 Jan 2008
Businessman

Quotes



Business is becoming more and more akin to intellectual sumo wrestling.

All Together Now (1994)
The contribution which the human mind makes to work and business is very much one of picking up information from tiny, seemingly insignificant trifles, and relating them to new ideas or concepts.

Managing to Survive (1993)
Business is often about killing your favourite children to allow others to succeed.

'Troubleshooter.' BBC TV series (1990)
The task of industry is continuously, year on year, to make more and better things, using less of the world's resources.

Making It Happen (1988)
People are unlikely to know that they need a product which does not exist and the basis of market research in new and innovative products is limited in this regard.

All Together Now(1994)
Change means avoiding the predictable and known ways of doing things which we learn to adjust to.

Managing to Survive (1993)
I've spent 30 years going round factories. When you know something's wrong, nine times out of ten it's the management, people aren't being led right. And bad leaders invariably blame the people.

Interview, Daily Telegraph (London) (1990)
Problems can only be solved by the people who have them. You have to try and coax them and love them into seeing ways in which they can help themselves.

Independent (London) (1990)
A successful product merely gives us a head start in the race.

Managing to Survive (1993)
No one is ever in doubt when a business is in overdrive... the whole business begins to hum. Problems cease to be problems and are viewed as opportunities.

All Tbgether Now (1994)
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On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays