Mike Wilson Quotes

A lot of deals are done or not done because chief executives are not fully aligned to shareholders.

The real mechanism for corporate governance is the active involvement of the owners.

Being a CEO still means sitting across the table from big institutional investors and showing your leadership and having them believe in you.

You don't think, when you start a company as the founding CEO, that if your venture actually works, you end up with three jobs: founder, CEO, and chair of the board. The first eight years at Bonobos, I have learned a lot about the tension between the first two. It didn't even occur to me that I had the third job until much later.

When we look at really good high-performing companies abroad, they are always at the back of an extremely high-performing board, and that is something which is very lacking in this country.

The great problem with corporate capitalism is that publicly owned companies have short time horizons. Unlike a privately owned business, the top executives of a publicly owned corporation generally come to their positions late in life. Consequently, they have a few years in which to make their fortune.

As the CEO, I have to take care of the short term, mid term and the long term.

I'm the C.E.O., nominated by the shareholders. If they're not happy, I have to take the consequences.

Shareholder meetings are not usually the occasion for utter candor - or for that matter, arch sarcasm - by chief executives.

The best discussion of trouble in boardroom and business office is found in newspapers' own financial pages and speeches by journalists in management jobs.

We're all shareholders. These guys below me, they see the CEO taking it easy, it's their money.

I'm in a different position than most CEO's. I'm a founder. I'm not a hired CEO. Now, I can be fired by the board, but most CEO's are hired by the board.

CEOs resign when the internal dynamics of the company and the external dynamics of the company actually come together to say it is appropriate. When the internal dynamics ask you whether you have a replacement. I think the transition from CEOships have also become cartoonish.

I'm doing a little consulting. I'm somewhat retired, still a director of a company or two.

I'm a hard-nosed businessman, that if a company is paying its way, increasing profits for thirty-odd consecutive years, you don't put it into receivership.

If you're going to run a public company, be absolutely certain of what the parameters are, what the clarity is, that you can explain it to yourselves and explain it externally.

Companies the size of PepsiCo is like running a little republic, there is no question about it. The only difference is that I don't have to worry about the media hounding me every day, on every word that I say. I have a board of directors that runs the country in the interest of the stake holders.

There is a difference between hiring a CEO and turning over control of the business.

Industry leaders have the power to set standards.

Sitting on a corporate board is a hobby for me.

As a pro-business Democrat, I understand the obligations of publicly traded companies to maximize returns to shareholders.

We need to be focused in corporate America on the long term.

Companies that are publicly held have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders to try to maximize their profits within ethical reasons.

I'm the non-executive chairman of nine or so major companies, and on the nine companies, it's a little trying because you jump from one industry to another, as the case might be. But one had the reasonable knowledge of those nine activities, and it's been an exciting job.

I am honored to be named chairman of Duke Energy's board and privileged to lead our company forward for our customers, employees, and shareholders.