William Clay Ford Jr. Quotes

Our culture is the foundation for our company.

I think culture is a big word for corporate character.

I think the company that has the clearest set of values is Amazon. That company knows what it is. It may be that it's not your cup of tea, but every single person at that company knows what the Amazon values are.

For better or for worse, our company (The News Corporation Ltd.) is a reflection of my thinking, my character, my values.

The future of any corporation is as good as the value system of the leaders and followers in the organization.

When we began Starbucks, what I wanted to try to do was to create a set of values, guiding principles, and culture.

An organization's culture of purpose answers the critical questions of who it is and why it exists. They have a culture of purpose beyond making a profit.

There's often a good, honest case to be made that a century-old company has not only a knack for growing and managing a P&L, but also, perhaps, a heart and soul.

Each company is different because they get their DNA from the founders.

It seems like those of us who run a business can't go five minutes without encountering the term "company culture." The phrase is always uttered with extreme adoration, yet the very concept seems as nebulous as it is elusive.

The companies that survive longest are the one's that work out what they uniquely can give to the world not just growth or money but their excellence, their respect for others, or their ability to make people happy. Some call those things a soul.

A sour corporate culture can actually make an entire society unhappy. This means that a strong corporate culture can have a positive impact on a society.

History has shown that one cannot legislate a culture of integrity. And yet, one of the paramount responsibilities and challenges of corporate leadership is to ensure such a culture.

There is something only a CEO uniquely can do, which is set that tone, which can then capture the soul of the collective.

You're used to seeing values listed on waiting-room walls. Communication, integrity, excellence, and respect. Those were actually Enron's values.

The Ford Motor Co. should stand for something more than cars and trucks. There is a Ford way of doing things that we cannot lose... We need to be continuously polishing that Ford oval.

Blackstone is not really a business per se. It's a mission to be the best.

Just as two people can have similar personalities, two companies can have a remarkably similar approach to business.

The people inside the company are the people who define GE, not the people outside the company.

LVMH is not just about numbers. It's about people.

I took a dozen of our top managers to Argentina, to the windswept mountains of the real Patagonia, for a walkabout. In the course of roaming around those wild lands, we asked ourselves why we were in business and what kind of business we wanted Patagonia to be. A billion-dollar company? Okay, but not if it meant we had to make products we couldn't be proud of. And we discussed what we could do to help stem the environmental harm we caused as a company. We talked about the values we had in common, and the shared culture that had brought everyone to Patagonia, Inc., and not another company.

It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience, but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience.

Technologies will come and go, so you need to be able to both ask and answer the question: What do you do as a company, why do you exist?

Corporations can have no soul but they can love each other.

American business needs more conscience, not less, whether from religious motivation like Hobby Lobby or from secular intentions.