Howard Schultz Quotes

General Electric recognizes that as a major economic entity it has the stature and responsibility to form opinions.

Companies and leaders are role models - not just with the business community - but in the broader world.

Let's face it: we live at a time when government is less and less powerful, less and less effective, and the agent of social change, at least for the immediate future, is the corporation.

If you work for and eventually lead a company, understand that companies have multiple stakeholders including employees, customers, business partners and the communities within which they operate.

I'm less concerned about whether being a good corporate citizen burnishes a company's reputation. That's just an added benefit. I believe it's a responsibility, and there is no negotiating on responsibilities.

Big business increasingly likes to portray itself as socially concerned, adopting the style of civic action through 'campaigns' of varying degrees of cynicism.

Companies … have a broader mandate than apparently the reformers want to give them in the political sphere. It is not only maximizing profits. It is advancing the economic interests of the corporation in many different ways.

The idea that you encourage companies to take their innovative thinkers and think about the most needy - even beyond the market opportunities - that's something that appropriately ought to be done.

A lot of people say that I'm an activist CEO. I just think I'm a responsible leader of a business.

Every once in a while, brave companies step out and act in ways that move customers and shareholders to also act in good faith.

I believe we must go further in redefining what United's corporate citizenship looks like in our society... and we intend to live up to those higher expectations in the way we embody social responsibility and civic leadership everywhere we operate.

A lot of people like the idea of companies being socially involved in their community, but if you want big companies to get involved in social issues, what makes you think they're going to come down on your side?

I happen to represent Enron here in Houston. We have many good corporate citizens here in Houston. Enron happened to have been one.

Clinton has played a major role in giving companies like Cipla credibility, for which I will always be grateful.

What helps people, helps business.

It's pretty rare to have CEOs or high level executives at big companies who are social activists. They tend not to be drawn to those areas of life.

I think I was the first executive to ever speak at a Greenpeace business conference, in London in 2001. That didn't play well here at Ford, but I thought it was an important signal to send internally, that these were the kind of issues we needed to be grappling with.

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.

I think one purpose is very clear among corporations and business leaders: make profits, deliver high return for stockholders, conquer markets, service consumers and create jobs. But in today's world, demands from corporations and leaders are much more than that. We need to understand what people really want at the very end.

I want our company to leave a legacy of learning to find the balance between what's good and what's good for you.

Business must be the solution, not the problem.

The question is, do corporate executives, provided they stay within the law, have responsibilities in their business activities other than to make as much money for their stockholders as possible? And my answer to that is, no they do not.

Leaders must be reminded that Businesses exist for the service of men.

I think CSR, corporate social responsibility, is something that is becoming front and center.

I don't believe it's appropriate for me or any other CEO to wade into every political dispute. That's not what we're here for.