Larry Wilcox Quotes

Nobody knows how to be a CEO. It's something you have to learn. It's a very lonely job.

I have really no desire to go back into management ever again.

When I was a CEO, the books on management that I read weren't very much help after the first few months on the job. They were all designed to give you directions on how not to screw up your company.

The most challenging part of being CEO is communicating to 200,000 people what you want done.

Usually people who are in my position, they run a company and they hire people and then they take the credit for it.

Cipla has a strong professional management team, and we take team decisions. My brother has been working at Cipla since 1973.

The general manager is kind of like the step into darkness when you reach the top of the league. As GM, you're responsible for everything, including the maitre d's and the sommeliers - all these people who have their own agendas. But you probably make less than the maitre d' and have a lot more work and a lot more headaches.

If I spend all of my day in the details as a CEO of a company like Wal-Mart, I think it would be trouble, because I wouldn't really be prepared to speak to the big issues that the country or the world should face.

Don't blame the boss. He has enough problems.

When I was president of the company, I said, 'Okay, I can do this - piece of cake.' Then when you are the CEO, the responsibilities multiply enormously because you worry about everything.

Many think of management as cutting deals and laying people off and hiring people and buying and selling companies. That's not management, that's deal making. Management is the opportunity to help people become better people. Practiced that way, it's a magnificent profession.

I think, you know, a fellow CEO said to me that the interesting thing about being CEO that's really striking is that you have very few decisions that you need to make, and you need to make them absolutely perfectly.

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.

Whoever your boss is, or your bosses are, they have 20 percent of their job that they just don't like.

If you are a manager at the top level, there is pressure, but you have it because you want to be there. If not, you would do something else.

It's stressful when you run a company.

Leadership and management are not synonymous.

I always knew that I wanted to do something in business and I prepared myself for that.

Many corporate leaders and employees have the right intentions, but it can be overwhelming when you consider how everything is affected from leadership styles, to organizational structure, to employee engagement, to customer service an marketplace.

Clearly in my mind, I have two distinct positions - owner and manager. So I am open to reviewing my performance as a manager as any other person in Sun Pharma.

Rotary provides training at all levels so that those who have been selected for leadership positions have the opportunity to learn and apply leadership principles to their jobs.

When you're C.E.O., you have to have two conditions: first, shareholders need to trust you and want you to head your company. The second is that you need to feel the motivation to do the job. So, as long as both are reunited, you continue to do the job. And today, they are reunited.

Being general manager is like being the de facto owner. It's like wearing the crown of 'Restaurant Man' without being 'Restaurant Man.' You're trying to run the business, but you're running the ranch without riding the big horse.

When in 1969 I became publisher of the 'Washington Post' as well as president of the company, my plate was fuller than ever. I had partly worked myself into the job but not, except for rare occasions, taken hold. I had acquired some sense of business but still relied on others more than most company presidents did.

Honestly, I can't tell you what I what I would be doing if I wasn't chairman of GM, because this is all I've done.