Enterprise
Quotes
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Most companies don't die because they are wrong; most die because they don't commit themselves. They fritter away their momentum and their valuable resources while attempting to make a decision. The greatest danger is in standing still.
Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company and Career (1996)
With all due respect to Microsoft and Intel, there is no substitute for being in the right place at the right time.
Fortune (1993)
Company cultures are like country cultures. Never try to change one. Try, instead, to work with what you've got.
The challenge in a start-up is that you always have to spread your wings pretty far to see what will work.
Quoted in In the Company of Giants (1997)
The companies that fully capitalize on the promise of the Internet will be those that look at their businesses as more than building and selling products and services. In the virtual economy, collaboration is a new competitive imperative.
Speech to the 1998 World Congress on Information Technology, Vienna, Virginia. 'Collaborating in a Connected Economy: The Power of Virtual Integration' (1998)
It used to be that you would do things yourself... you felt you had to have control and you could not necessarily get the other things from other partners. But now... it is much easier to connect suppliers and customers... we no longer have these closed business systems, we have more collaborative business systems.
Speech to the Canadian Club of Tbronto, Canada. 'Leadership in the Internet Economy' (2000)
If you had asked me seven or eight years ago whether there is such a thing as a company that's growing too fast, I probably would have said no. All growth is good and you cannot grow a company too fast. But we learned that this is absolutely not true � there is a level of growth that is not only too fast but dangerous and deadly to a company.
Speech to the Society of American Business Editors and Writers Technology Conference, Dallas. 'Maximum Speed: Lessons Learned from Managing Hypergrowth' (1998)
I believe there's an inverse correlation between the quality of the information you have and the amount of inventory you need. Most businesses tie up a tremendous amount of assets anticipating things that may not happen. If they had a system that was customer demand driven, they would be much more efficient.
Speech to the Detroit Economic Club. 'Building a Competitive Advantage in an Internet Economy' (1999)
One of the struggles many companies face is overcoming the desire to invent everything themselves. Even today, you see a lot of companies falling back on the idea that �my baby's the most beautiful in the world and I'm not going to accept anybody else's.� This can get in the way of logical business thinking.
Speech to the Society of American Business Editors and Writers Technology Conference, Dallas. 'Maximum Speed: Lessons Learned from Managing Hypergrowth' (1998)
If you limit a company by its structure or by the people in the company, you will, by definition, limit the full potential of that business. It sounds basic, but a lot of companies don't follow the idea that the structure should be last and not first.
Speech to the Society of American Business Editors and Writers Technology Conference, Dallas. 'Maximum Speed: Lessons Learned from Managing Hypergrowth' (1998)
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On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
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
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
Essays