Top 100 Top Business Leaders Quotes
#1. I think that the main issue with inequality is not the gap between the rich and the poor. It is the gap between the earnings of top business leaders and the salaries of academics and journalists.
Arnold Kling
#2. One reason the United States is one of three countries in the world that do not have any form of paid maternity leave is that many American business leaders, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, oppose any family-friendly policies. They scare people into thinking maternity leave will be a job killer.
Madeleine M. Kunin
#3. As business leaders we need to understand that lack of data is not the issue. Most businesses have more than enough data to use constructively; we just don't know how to use it. The reality is that most businesses are already data rich, but insight poor.
Bernard Marr
#4. Business is war! Its leaders are strategic commanders, who boldly snatch victory from the jaws of defeat - and who perform other acts of derring-do. This kind of talk sounds great in the boardroom, and, for that matter, in the bookstore, where dozens of authors counsel would-be corporate warriors.
Nathan Myhrvold
#5. It's so important for business leaders to discover what their purpose is. In the days when the business seems overwhelming, or you aren't certain you can continue, it is your purpose that will compel you to push through.
Anne F. Beiler
#6. When you see government leaders really bullying business, you know that government's economic policy is failing. They get angry and they get desperate.
Amity Shlaes
#7. My concern is that the leaders who are presently responsible for guiding the masses and teaching the people in the church environment, as well as business and corporate, reconnect themselves to God's original idea and that is that God created man to have dominion over the earth.
Myles Munroe
#8. ... some leaders don't want to celebrate with their team because they are afraid - yes, afraid that if they celebrate, people will quit working hard and lower the standards. I say don't let your fear take you out.
Lee Ellis
#9. I believe that leaders and leadership teams working together in a proper design will run the business more effectively than by hierarchical, command-and-control managing. But I can't prove that. And there are no models.
Marvin Bower
#10. Policy makers and business leaders take note: money matters. But often the best use of money as a motivator is to pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table - so that people can focus on the work rather than on the cash.
Daniel H. Pink
#11. It's time for our business and political leaders to help redefine morality beyond sex, drugs, and rock and roll to include lying, hypocrisy, and callous indifference to those in need.
Arianna Huffington
#12. If you wait for customers to tell you that you need to do something, you're too late. Good business leaders should be half a step ahead of what customers want, i.e. they don't actually quite know they want it. That's what innovation's about. With Plan A, we didn't wait for the consumers to tell us.
Stuart Rose
#13. Move away from the mid-set that the fulfillment of the organization's mission, vision, and strategic plan is only the work of leaders.
Sue Tetzlaff
#14. The Hollywood left insists on painting business persons as arch criminals, even though it's ridiculous. They like to depict free enterprise, capitalism and business leaders as a source of evil and criminality. Somehow they think that will influence enough people to further their left-wing agenda.
James Cook
#15. Level 5 leaders display a workmanlike diligence - more plow horse than show horse.
James C. Collins
#16. Today it is difficult to find leaders who are independent of the forces that have brought us our problems: The Congress, the bureaucracy, the lobbyists, big business, and big labor.
Ronald Reagan
#17. Good leaders know who they are - their strengths, weaknesses, passions, talents, and values. And, developing leaders always starts with self-awareness.
Lee Ellis
#18. Leaders are made, not born. You learn to become a leader by doing what other excellent leaders have done before you. You become proficient in your job or skill, and then you become proficient at understanding the motivations and behaviors of other people.
Brian Tracy
#19. America's real business leaders understand unless or until the middle class regains its footing and its faith, capitalism remains vulnerable.
Robert Reich
#20. Do business managers have a commitment to anything more than the success of their company and to making money? It would be hard to say that they do. Indeed, many business leaders deny that there is any conflict between self-interest and the interests of all.
Peter Singer
#21. Our society does not give nearly enough credit to business leaders who create jobs, behave ethically and provide products and services that enhance our lives.
Mark Skousen
#22. Sometimes the best way to get other people to give up their egos is for you to give up yours first.
Jane Ripley
#24. We, as conservative intellectuals, should not be in the business of making excuses for bad parliamentary decisions by Republican leaders in Congress.
David Frum
#25. America is a country of entrepreneurship and great business leaders.
Nicky Oppenheimer
#26. If you find a community with less production and less inspiring inventions, then know it is a sign of lack of Business Leaders and full of General Managers do not know what they can manage or what they are managing.
Sameh Elsayed
#27. In sports and in business, the greatest leaders are those who make the best decisions in the most crucial of situations. They are the ones who focus their energy on turning tough decisions into winning decisions.
Don Yaeger
#28. Conflicts often stem from a couple of leaders on both sides that are badly brought up. They'd rather go to war than compromise. And in business, you're competing with other companies all the time, but you don't end up going to war with each other.
Richard Branson
#29. When political and business leaders tell the public - any public - 'We don't trust you to make the right decision' - they prejudice that electorate against the very proposals they want it to accept and undermine public confidence in themselves.
Preston Manning
#30. Like leaders in many walks of life, my business has been to serve with, and for, others.
Stanley A. McChrystal
#31. Gaining an in-depth understanding of business capabilities helps today's business leaders craft good strategy and implement it effectively.
Pearl Zhu
#32. We must recognize that "happy" is not a business goal. Service providers pursue "happy." Leaders pursue growth, competitive advantage, mission enhancement, and cost management.
Tina Nunno
#33. What great leaders have in common is that each truly knows his or her strengths - and can call on the right strength at the right time.
Tom Rath
#34. America's highest economic need is higher ethical standards
enforced by strict laws and upheld by responsible business leaders.
George W. Bush
#35. A few years ago the idea that extreme poverty was harmful was on the fringes of the economic and political debate. But having made the case we are now seeing an emerging consensus among business leaders, economic leaders, political leaders and even faith leaders.
Winnie Byanyima
#36. I realize that a lot of business leaders may disagree with me, but I truly believe that God belongs in what my company does. By putting Him first in my operations, He can bless what I attempt.
David Green
#37. Inspiring leadership communication is not about great oratory or great charisma; rather it is about getting others to believe in themselves and believe in your cause, and then achieve more than they thought was possible.
Kevin Murray
#38. I'm a man of some intelligence. I've had some education, passed the bar, practiced law. I've been a teacher and I deal with men of substance, statesman, business leaders, the clergy ... So why do I spend my time arguing with Dizzy Dean?
Branch Rickey
#39. Confidence believes you are able. Competence knows you are able.
Lolly Daskal
#40. This week we saw progressive business and faith leaders making strong commitments that are moving ahead of what world leaders promised today. The leaders of major economies must be bolder than they were today in providing a vision for 100% renewable energy for all.
Kumi Naidoo
#41. The most important quality in a leader is that of being acknowledged as such. All leaders whose fitness is questioned are clearly lacking in force.
Andre Maurois
#42. If you want to break through to higher levels of performance, you must allow yourself to be restructured.
William A. Adams
#43. We're going to march on Washington with a host of Republicans, Democrats, business leaders, legislators.
Gray Davis
#44. If politicians and business leaders become "protectors of creation" nature shall be saved.
Auliq Ice
#45. Some of the best business and nonprofit CEOs I've worked with over a sixty-five-year consulting career were not stereotypical leaders. They were all over the map in terms of their personalities, attitudes, values, strengths, and weaknesses.
Peter Drucker
#46. We expected that good-to-great leaders would begin by setting a new vision and strategy. We found instead that they first got the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats - and then they figured out where to drive it.
James C. Collins
#47. Followers have a very clear picture of what they want and need from the most influential leaders in their lives: trust, compassion, stability, and hope
Tom Rath
#48. Leaders can choose to grow and change, but generally the most powerful predictor of future performance is past behavior. Evaluate them realistically.
Lee Ellis
#49. My job is not to micromanage my team, but to craft a vision based on the business goals of the company and encourage the HR leaders who report to me to be brave, innovative, and proactive in pursuit of that common vision.
Patrick M. Wright
#50. For better or worse, the people who become leaders and decision makers in politics, law and business are going to come from schools like Princeton.
Brian Kernighan
#51. Perhaps the most distinguishing trait of visionary leaders is that they believe in a goal that benefits not only themselves, but others as well. It is such vision that attracts the psychic energy of other people, and makes them willing to work beyond the call of duty for the organization.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
#52. Many business leaders today view their jobs as entailing responsibility for the welfare of the wider community. These individuals do not define themselves as profit-making machines whose only reason for existing is to satisfy escalating expectation for immediate gain.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
#53. When business leaders talk about the next quarter, they ought to sometimes be talking about the next quarter century.
Paul Gibbons
#54. The greatest way to ensure your company's failure is to appoint leaders who see a divide between themselves and the team; who are more fixated on their elevated role than on the act of leading.
Steve Maraboli
#55. To be effective as future organizations, we must know our fellow leaders better, deeper.
Holly Duckworth
#56. I think business leaders all over the world should not just think of how we can make lots of money, which is fine, but to take some of the problems in the world and get out there and tackle them using business. I think that if businesses do that we can get on top of these problems.
Richard Branson
#57. The Time to Succeed Coalition brings together an unprecedented group of leaders from education and business, communities and academia to say that it is time to strike the shackles of an outdated school calendar from our disadvantaged schools.
Chris Gabrieli
#58. We need to have business leaders who live by deep, strong principles.
Stephen Covey
#59. I was employed as an investigator and my particular team, we were investigating the role of the business community in the genocide and we identified a bunch of leaders of the business community and I investigated two people.
Tony Greig
#60. Learning options will indeed mushroom for business students and leaders, but it will take prudence and shrewdness to find and utilize the best option.
Warren Bennis
#61. But it's more an up-versus-down issue because the research has shown that opinion leaders, whether they're elected officials, journalists, business leaders - it's academics, religious leaders - they have dramatically different views on immigration. A
Mark Krikorian
#62. Business leaders, social justice groups, farmers and ranchers, doctors and nurses and people from all walks of life are concerned about the climate threat.
Frances Beinecke
#63. A disruptive innovation is a technologically simple innovation in the form of a product, service, or business model that takes root in a tier of the market that is unattractive to the established leaders in an industry.
Clayton Christensen
#64. By my count, more business leaders have failed and derailed because of arrogance than any other character flaw.
Harvey MacKay
#65. A lot of people, including business leaders, think the future belongs to China. Globalization is not a zero-sum game, but we need to hone our skills to stay in play.
Jon Meacham
#66. Leaders must (1) define the business of the business, (2) create a winning strategy, (3) communicate persuasively, (4) behave with integrity, (5) respect others, and (6) act.
Judith M Bardwick
#67. Effective leaders are, first and foremost, good teachers. We're in the education business.
John Wooden
#68. Market leaders inevitably slip into decline when they tell the people what they want instead of giving the people what they want.
Alan Sugar
#69. My government is going to deal with all forms of corruption. White-collar corruption will be high on the list and we are going to plug all gaps that are being used by corrupt leaders (and) business people.
Jakaya Kikwete
#70. When the initial effort of political and business leaders to influence public opinion on an issue is to threaten rather than to engage and persuade, they further arouse public opposition rather than win support.
Preston Manning
#71. A good businessman knows how to make a profit. An engineer makes sure it runs well. We need more leaders who are task oriented.
Phil Mitchell
#72. The business that leaders are in today, is the business of transforming awareness ... There is deep longing for more meaning, for connections.
Otto Scharmer
#73. It takes healthy, resilient leaders and employees to achieve great results.
Sue Tetzlaff
#74. Companies and leaders are role models - not just with the business community - but in the broader world.
Chip Conley
#75. Leaders in the realm of religious activity are to be judged by their praying habits and not by their money or social position. Those who must be placed in the forefront of the Church's business must be, first of all, men who know how to pray.
Edward McKendree Bounds
#76. The power of a successful salesman is not putting his hand in the customer's pocket to pull his money out. but rather manipulate the customer's mind to let him put his hand and happily pull the money and give it to you
Hisham Fawzi
#77. Where do business leaders turn for advice to improve their leadership skills? Many successful leaders like Dan Cathy, President and COO of Chick-fil-A turn to the Bible. Speaking at Trinity College in Illinois, "Cathy discussed how scripture dictates Chick-fil-A's business plan.
R.J. Stepansky
#78. The notion that business and government are and should be partners is ubiquitous, unremarkable, and repeated like a mantra by leaders in both domains. It seems a compelling and innocuous idea - until you think about what it really means.
Joel Bakan
#79. If you're an over thinker or try to anticipate every barrier-before beginning, ask yourself, if I had to accomplish this project in three steps or less, what would they be?
Lisa A. Mininni
#80. The reasons why executives are scared of social selling are well documented. That being said, there are some hugely successful global business leaders using social selling tactics incredibly well - some of which even admit they could not operate without it!
Bruce Rasmussen
#81. When you go into your customary barber shop, you will wait for the man who gives you a little better shave, a little trimmer hair-cut. Business leaders are looking for the same things in their offices that you look for in the barber shop.
Charles M. Schwab
#82. Leaders in business and government, who fail to see the holistic interdependence of our planet, are destined to cause its demise.
Said Elias Dawlabani
#83. Employers and business leaders need people who can think for themselves - who can take initiative and be the solution to problems.
Stephen Covey
#84. In the future, there will be no female leaders. There will just be leaders.
Sheryl Sandberg
#85. Instead of complaining about adapting for millennials, it's imperative for leaders and managers to acknowledge the role of millennial behavior as an indication of the needs of the modern workplace to attract, leverage, and retain modern talent.
Crystal Kadakia
#86. Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.
Jack Welch
#87. During the course of my football and business careers, I have had the great honor of meeting and associating with many outstanding leaders.
Bart Starr
#88. The Highest Reward for men and women 's devotion and dedication to excellence is not what one gets from it but what one he or she becomes through it.
Bill Britt
#89. We can't wait for Washington. Business leaders are going to have to galvanize their own constituencies and do everything they can to demonstrate confidence in the economy, and I think that can be contagious.
Howard Schultz
#90. I'm calling for us all to be The Inspired CEO, Conscious Evolutionary Officers of our own lives and businesses.
Tia Walker
#91. Many business leaders are seeing the relationship between long term success and sustainability, and that's very heartening.
Jacqueline Novogratz
#92. Leaders are never measured by their success but rather by the success of those they've been entrusted to lead. Therefore, a leader can never be considered successful until those they lead are successful.
Greg Cagle
#93. There is a real diversity of talent and background on the A list so as to better reflect our society in all walks. There are people who have been candidates before, Councillors, Doctors, business leaders, charity campaigners.
Adam Rickitt
#94. Business leaders must find ways to infuse mundane business activities with deeper, soul-stirring ideals, such as honor, truth, love, justice, and beauty.
Gary Hamel
#95. Although being human brings me the greatest delight~ being human also means that I have limitations
Nina Montgomery
#96. Don't let quick wins distract your focus from long-term goals.
Sascha Bosio
#97. Because we are a globally connected village, we need
to remember that our choices are not isolated. They have
a powerful ripple effect, and that ripple is global.
Linda Fisher Thornton
#98. Who cared what gods a person called on to fortify their spirit? Why was it the business of one to dictate the worship of another and why should leaders insist upon only one faith?
Katrina Rasbold
#99. When we talk about change, we, the business leaders, have to implement it. We have to look at what we're not doing and what we should be doing.
Ofra Strauss
#100. To take full advantage of the potential in e-business, leaders must lead differently, and people must work together differently. Let's call this new way of working e-culture-the human side of the global information era, the heart and soul of the new economy.
Rosabeth Moss Kanter
