Bruce Henderson Quotes

You don't want to be first, right? You want to be second or third. You don't want to be - Facebook is not the first in social media. They're the third, right? Similarly, you know, if you look at Steve Jobs' history, he's never been first.

To escape the curse of commoditization, a company has to be a game-changer, and that requires employees who are proactive, inventive and zealous.

Trying to do what your competitors are doing but basically a little bit better is probably not going to be the winning strategy. The problem is finding what your competitors wouldn't even consider doing.

I'd rather Apple cannibalize Apple than somebody else cannibalize Apple.

Most entrepreneurial ideas will sound crazy, stupid and uneconomic, and then they'll turn out to be right.

I know the rewards of focusing on innovation and outcomes as opposed to hours. I've been fortunate to work with brilliant entrepreneurs who didn't have years of experience, and yet they changed the world.

I think the idealism has always been marketing. Even back in the early days of Apple and the 'pirate' mentality, they were building a computer that they wanted to differentiate from IBM and Microsoft.

There's a reason why start-ups, especially disruptive start-ups - like Google or Amazon or Uber - are full of young people. That's because young people are not as wedded to the old fashioned ways of doing things.

New things get noticed. This means you can't be afraid to present something new to your market, even if it's just a variation or an addition to an already-existing product or service.

Innovation means taking risks, and that is where the private sector can play a role.

Whether in services or in manufacturing, the trick is to stay ahead of the curve. I believe we should not wait to be disrupted - we should become disruptors ourselves.

To gain the competitive edge, companies must master the ability to innovate.

When [competitors are] in the shower in the morning, they're thinking about how they're going to get ahead of one of their top competitors. Here in the shower, we're thinking about how we are going to invent something on behalf of a customer.

Management must take the lead in making obsolete its own products and services rather than waiting for a competitor to do so.

Innovation keeps me ahead of my competition. It means that my foes must adapt to me, not the other way around.

I spent some time studying Toyota, because how could a loom maker - they made looms. That was their business for 50 years, 35 years - and then they decided to go into the car business after everyone else was in the car business.

If you give the boss all the decision-making power, they see the world through their eyes. The big innovations are generally such a shift that they won't see it. For a long time, it looked like it was just inevitable that you would get slow and bureaucratic.

Steve Jobs' ability to focus in on a few things that count, get people who get user interface right, and market things as revolutionary are amazing things.

Pioneering companies always try out new things and experiment with new concepts and new things.

I want to see creativity that breaks boundaries and isn't just about money.

Unless you stay focused on innovation, you can be disintermediated.

The emergence of Uber X was really the most important pivot maybe in the history of Silicon Valley. It's a vast majority of Uber's revenues, and so that flexibility and the rapid growth and the fighting the battles, it's all Travis. You can't take any credit away from him.

We, as a company, take the most risks in pushing the boundaries on consumer expectations.

In 17 years, we have built a business that has revolutionized the industry, with innovation at its core. I am confident that the partnership between Getty Images and the Carlyle Group will see the company's success continue.

The individual Siemens businesses must be able to keep up with the specialists in the industry and be at least as good as their strongest competitors.