Quality Quotes

SCM Quotes

I consider a bad bottle of Heineken to be a personal insult to me

Freddy Heineken, founder of Dutch beer giant

Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, manufacturing, layout, processes, and procedures

Tom Peters

All we are doing is looking at the time line from the moment the customer gives us an order to the point when we collect the cash. And we reduce that time line by removing non-value-added wastes

Taiichi Ohno ( 大野 耐 ) 1912-1990, Toyota Executive and father of the Toyota Production System

If you can not describe what you are doing as a process, you do not know what you are doing

W. Edwards Deming 1900-1993, American continuous improvement management guru and father of the Deming Cycle

The best supply chains aren't just fast and cost-effective. They are also agile and adaptable, and they ensure that all their companies' interests stay aligned

Hau L. Lee, US Professor of Operations, Information and Technology in Harvard Business Review, Oct. 2004

Outsourcing is no panacea. It's often called the "make or break" decision. Well, let me tell you, it can quickly become the make or break decision

Joe Neubacher, CEO of food-services firm ARA Services (1993)

Even though quality cannot be defined, you know what quality is

Robert M. Pirsig 1928-, American philosopher

Operational excellence remains a greater imperative than most companies and most executives acknowledge

Gene Tyndall in Supercharging Supply Chains (1998)

Leadership Quotes

Know thyself

Plato 428 BC-347 BC, ancient Greek philosopher

If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much

Donald Rumsfeld 1932-, American Republican politician and businessman

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things

Peter F. Drucker 1909-2005, American management guru

Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm

Publilius Syrus 1st century BC, Latin writer of maxims

All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership

John Kenneth Galbraith 1908-2006, influential Canadian-American Keynesian economist

Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress

Mahatma Gandhi 1869, 1948, Indian deep thinker and constant experimenter

The boss drives people; the leader coaches them.

The boss depends on authority; the leader on good will.

The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm.

The boss says 'I'; the leader says 'we.'

The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown; the leader fixes the breakdown.

The boss knows how it is done; the leader shows how.
The boss says 'go'; the leader says 'let's go!'

H. Gordon Selfridge 1864-1947, American-British retail magnate

A leader is best when people barely know he exists

Lao Tzu 4th century BC, ancient Chinese philosopher

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing

Edmund Burke 1729 - 1797, Irish-born English political writer

Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery. Everyone feels that he or she makes a difference to the success of the organization. When that happens people feel centered and that gives their work meaning

Warren G. Bennis 1925 - , American leadership scholar, consultant and writer

Personal leadership is the process of keeping your vision and values before you and aligning your life to be congruent with them

Stephen R. Covey, American leadership consultant and writer

Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out

Stephen R. Covey, American leadership consultant and writer

Treating people with respect will gain one wide acceptance and improve the business

Tao Zhu Gong 500BC, Assistant to the Emperor of Yue, 2nd Business Principle

Leadership is not about being nice. it's about being right and being strong

Paul Keating 1944-, Australian statesman and Prime Minister in Time, January 9th, 1995

To the person who does not know where he wants to go there is no favorable wind

Lucius Annaeus Seneca 5BC-65AD, Roman tragedian, philosopher, and counselor to Nero

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Marianne Williamson (A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles", Harper Collins, 1992, Chapter 7, Section 3)

To do great things is difficult; but to command great things is more difficult

Friedrich Nietzsche 1844-1900, German philosopher

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power

Abraham Lincoln 1809-1865, sixteenth American president

A leader is a dealer in hope

Napoléon Bonaparte 1769-1821, French General and Emperor

 

Responsibility Quotes

Business Ethics Quotes

There are truths on this side of the Pyrenees which are falsehoods on the other

Michel de Montaigne 1533-1592, French essayist

It is a commonplace executive observation that businesses exist to make money, and the observation is usually allowed to go unchallenged. It is, however, a very limited statement about the purposes of business

Daniel Katz and Robert L. Kahn in The Social Psychology of Organizations (1966)

It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities

Josiah Charles Stamp 1880-1941, English Economist and President of the Bank of England

We may pretend that we are basically moral people who make mistakes, but the whole of history proves otherwise

Terry Hands 1941-, British theatre and opera director

The market has no morality

Michael Heseltine 1933-, British conservative politician

Ethics is not definable, is not implementable, because it is not conscious; it involves not only our thinking, but also our feeling

Valdemar W. Setzer, Brazilian anthropologist

Being good is good business

Anita Roddick 1942-, British founder of The Body Shop

The advantages of having decisions made by groups are often lost because of powerful psychological pressures that arise when the members work closely together, share the same set of values and, above all, face a crisis situation that puts everyone under intense stress

Irving L. Janis, behavioral scientist, in Groupthink: The Desperate Drive for Consensus at Any Cost (1971)

If ethics are poor at the top, that behavior is copied down through the organization

Robert Noyce, inventor of the silicon chip

The time is always right to do what is right

Martin Luther King 1929-1968, American leader of civil rights movement and Nobel Peace Prize winner

Quotes about Strategy

There is always a better strategy than the one you have; you just haven't thought of it yet

Sir Brian Pitman, former CEO of Lloyds TSB, Harvard Business Review, April 2003

Unless a variety of opinions are laid before us, we have no opportunity of selection, but are bound of necessity to adopt the particular view which may have been brought forward

Herodotus, 5th century BC, Greek historian

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results

Sir Winston Churchill 1874-1965, English statesman

The processes used to arrive at the total strategy are typically fragmented, evolutionary, and largely intuitive

James Quinn in Strategic Change: Logical Incrementalism, 1978

In real life, strategy is actually very straightforward. You pick a general direction and implement like hell

Jack Welch in Winning, 2005

How many senior executives discuss the crucial distinction between competitive strategy at the level of a business and competitive strategy at the level of an entire company?

C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel, in their article: The core competence of the corporation, 1990

What's the use of running if you are not on the right road

German proverb

I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me

Abraham Lincoln 1809-1865, sixteenth American president

Perception is strong and sight weak. In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things

Miyamoto Musashi 1584-1645, legendary Japanese swordsman

Do not repeat the tactics which have gained you one victory, but let your methods be regulated by the infinite variety of circumstances

Sun Tzu c. 490 BC, Chinese military strategist

Knowledge Management Quotes

The single greatest challenge facing managers in the developed countries of the word is to raise the productivity of knowledge and service works

Peter F. Drucker 1909-2005, American management guru, in Harvard Business Review Nov-Dec 1991

Imagination is more important than knowledge

Albert Einstein 1879-1955; German-born American theoretical physicist

The soft stuff is always harder than the hard stuff

Roger Enrico, Vice Chairman of PepsiCo, referring to areas like HRM as opposed to quantitative factors in Fortune, November 27th, 1995

Innovations are created primarily by investment in intangibles. When such investments are commercially successful, and are protected by patents or first-mover advantages, they are transformed into tangible assets creating corporate value and growth

Baruch Lev, Intellectual Capital guru in Intangibles (2001)

It would be hard to find a corporate annual report in my country that does not state "Our most important asset is our people"- yet our accounting rules make it literary impossible to reflect this on the balance sheet, and we have just completed a decade in which business after business in the US has flagrantly ignored its reality in part because this is not the way we "keep score"

John Diebold, Chairman of consulting firm Diebold

Companies...have a hard time distinguishing between the cost of paying people and the value of investing in them

Thomas A. Stewart 1948-, US journalist and author in Intellectual Capital (1997)

Of central importance is the changing nature of competitive advantage - not based on market position, size and power as in times past, but on the incorporation of knowledge into all of an organization's activities

Leif Edvinsson, Swedish Intellectual Capital guru in Corporate Longitude (2002)

There is less to fear from outside competition then from inside inefficiency, miscalculation, lack of knowledge. Beat your competitors with the knowledge edge! Train your staff!

Anonymous

A person who graduated yesterday and stops studying today is uneducated tomorrow

Anonymous

The store of wisdom does not consist of hard coins which keep their shape as they pass from hand to hand; it consists of ideas and doctrines whose meanings change with the minds that entertain them

John Plamenatz

Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted

Albert Einstein 1879-1955; German-born American theoretical physicist

I hear, I forget. I see, I remember. I do, I understand

Confucius 551 BCE – 479 BCE, ancient Chinese thinker and philosopher

Knowledge is power

Sir Francis Bacon 1561 -1626, English philosopher, statesman, essayist and scientist

Quotes on Decision-making and Valuation

Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted

Albert Einstein 1879-1955, German-born American theoretical physicist

Watch the costs and the profits will take care of themselves

Andrew Carnegie 1835-1919, Scottish industrialist

Uncertainty is not a result of ignorance or the partiality of human knowledge, but is a characteristic of the world itself

M. Taylor in The Moment of Complexity: Emerging Network Culture, 2001

Of two equivalent theories or explanations, all other things being equal, the simpler one is to be preferred

William of Ockham 1285–1349, English Franciscan friar and philosopher, from Ockham, a small village in Surrey

For every complex problem there is a simple solution that is wrong

G.B. Shaw 1856-1950, Irish critic and poet

He who owns a hundred sheep must fight with fifty wolves

Plutarchus 50-120, Greek philosopher

Whatever you do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749-1832, German poet, novelist and dramatist

However good our futures research may be, we shall never be able to escape from the ultimate dilemma that all our knowledge is about the past, and all our decisions are about the future

Ian Wilson, American scenario planning expert and strategy consultant

Do not count your chicken before they stopped breeding

Aesopues 550BC, Thracian poet

Earnings can be pliable as putty when a charlatan heads the company reporting them

Warren Buffet 1930-, American Investment Entrepreneur

More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads: One path leads to despair and hopelessness, and the other to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly

Woody Allen 1935-, American author, director, producer and writer

Erroneous assumptions can be disastrous

Peter F. Drucker 1909-2005, American management guru

You can analyse the past, but you have to design the future

Edward de Bono 1933-, Thinking consultant and originator of the Six Thinking Hats and Lateral Thinking

Boldness has genius, power and magic in it

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749-1832, German writer, poet, humanist, and scientist

Opportunities multiply as they are seized

Sun Tzu  c. 544 – 496 BC, ancient Chinese military strategist

A sex symbol becomes a thing...

Quotation by Marilyn Monroe 

 A sex symbol becomes a thing.... I just hate to be a thing .

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962), U.S. actor. As quoted in Ms. magazine, p. 40 (August 1972). The beautiful movie star was considered her era's prime example of a "sex symbol.

Transitions to democracy and free market economies require patience and persistence.

From Karkheh to Rhine...By Majid Entezami
"Transitions to democracy and free market economies require patience and persistence. In the United States, we became a newly independent state in 1776 and for the past 222 years, our democracy has been a work in progress. It took us more than 10 years to draft a constitution, 89 years to rid our nation of slavery, 144 years to give our women the vote and 188 years to make all our citizens equal under the law. Democracy does not end with a constitution and the right to vote. It is a never-ending struggle that we must grapple with every day."
[Hillary Rodham Clinton, Senator and wife of former U.S. President Bill Clinton, speaking in Ukraine in November 1997 on her tour to some of the former Soviet Republics-Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Russia and Ukraine.]
We, iranian people, have a long history of monarchy and kingdom [which some of us love it very much and are proud of it!]. Authoritarianism is now in our blood, hard to get rid of. We may reflect some selfish behaviors which may don't seem much of a bad thing for us. It may become a very common experience to hear someone call an iranian [opposition] radio or TV discussing about democracy, speaking after all people and calling for "The Great Shah" to bring back democracy to our country!!!!
About one hundred years ago we had a sad-ending effort to achieve freedom and democracy. Azerbaijani generals, "Sattar khan" and "Bagher khan", were among our National heros fighted for freedom. Sattar Khan, who was heading the rebels from Ayirsiz district of Tabriz, capital of Eastern Azarbaijan province, in 1907, had become favourite general of all his fighters because of his heroism and courage. After Board Assembly shooting incident, 40 thousand armed forces of Shah attacked Tabriz, the cradle of Constitutional Revolution. High Military Council was established under the leadership of Sattar khan in June 1908. By April 1909, Tabriz rebels lost huge number of their fighters in driving out the armed forces of the enemy from Tabriz. Taking into account Sattar Khan and Bagher Khan's heroism at this fight, Sattar Khan was honoured by the title of "Sardar-e Melli" (National General) and Bagir khan "Salar-e Melli" (National Leader) by the order of the Assembly... Many freedom-seeking fights occured that year and ... afterall Constitutional Revoloution had an unhappy-ending in Iran. Democracy story in Iran is a very sad but instructive story. As I quoted at the first of this post, democracy needs time, patience and persistence specially for a nation like us whose fights for democracy are two lines out of a huge monarchic-tyrannic history book. It is time-consuming process but we should be patient and consistent in this way.

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them

"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them." Mark Twain

I have been tagged by Negar recently to talk about 5 books meant most for me. It is pretty tough question for me as I really don't have much of a memory specially when it comes to books and movies...

Marketing Quotes

The purest treasure mortal times can afford is a spotless reputation

William Shakespeare 1564-1616, English dramatist

Now we understand that the most important thing we do is market the product. We've come around to saying that Nike is a marketing-oriented company, and the product is our most important marketing tool

Phil Knight, CEO Nike

Human Resource Managment

The only vital value an enterprise has is the experience, skills, innovativeness and insights of its people

Leif Edvinsson, Swedish Intellectual Capital guru in Corporate Longitude (2002)

True motivation comes from achievement, personal development, job satisfaction, and recognition

Frederick Herzberg 1923-2000, US psychologist

 

Program & Project Management Quotes

Program & Project Management Quotes

It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out nor more doubtful of success nor more dangerous to handle than to initiate a new order of things

Machiavelli 1446-1507, Italian statesman and philosopher

The real problem is what to do with problem solvers after the problem is solved

Gay Talese 1932-, American (Italian-born) journalist

Quotes on Communication and Skills

Quotes on Communication and Skills

When I am at Milan, I do as they do at Milan; but when I go to Rome, I do as Rome does

St. Augustine 354-430, Roman theologist and philosopher

Speak when you are angry, and you will make the best speech you will ever regret

Ambrose Bierce

If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it

Albert Einstein 1879-1955; German-born American theoretical physicist

Investment And Finance Quotes

In some mergers there truly are synergies - though often times the acquirer pays too much for them - but at other times the cost and revenue benefits that are projected prove illusory. Of one thing, however, be certain: if a CEO is enthused about a particularly foolish acquisition, both his internal staff and his outside advisors will come up with whatever projections are needed to justify his stance. Only in fairy tales are emperors told that they are naked

Warren Buffet 1930-, American investment entrepreneur

The 14 Management Principles from Henri Fayol (1841-1925)

The 14 Management Principles from Henri Fayol (1841-1925) are:

1. Division of Work. Specialization allows the individual to build up experience, and to continuously improve his skills. Thereby he can be more productive.
2. Authority. The right to issue commands, along with which must go the balanced responsibility for its function.

Quotes on Change and Organizations

Wisdom lies neither in fixity nor in change, but in the dialectic between the two

Octavio Paz 1914-1998, Mexican poet and essayist

Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit

Henry Brooks Adams 1838-1919, American writer and historian

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change