Vera Wang Quotes

I understand the highs and lows of building a global business from the ground and taking that initial product idea all the way to the market.

The period from 2002 to 2007 was probably our best period. We created a strategy to build global scale, footprints in each of the geographies and dramatically built our international business.

I'm a complete globalist. I think like a global CEO. But I'm an American. I run an American company. But in order for GE to be successful in the coming years, I've gotta sell my products in every corner of the world.

I see the level of sophistication and knowledge about business growing dramatically. Several decades ago, only a few companies thought about international business.

I'm confident UTC could outperform in all of our markets, starting with our commercial businesses. The largest opportunities for our commercial businesses are in emerging markets, and we're very well positioned there.

One of Aspen's primary strategic intents is to further globalize its business, increase its representation across a number of additional territories, and provide support to its growing global presence with a differentiated pipeline.

All the big online retailers are looking at how to enter the Russian market.

If they had listened to me and had equal partnerships in China, the U.K., Germany and Brazil, maybe Yahoo in those countries could have become positioned like Yahoo Japan.

I was honored to start a small business and to borrow an enormous amount of money and to build piece upon piece, place upon place, building upon building and product upon product, throughout the United States and eventually Europe and facilities around the world.

China and Hong Kong represent an enormous growth opportunity for McDonald's.

We have a powerful portfolio of brands that are well-positioned for future growth, both domestically and internationally.

Strategic planning is not strategic thinking. Indeed, strategic planning often spoils strategic thinking, causing managers to confuse real vision with the manipulation of numbers.

For the most part, the best opportunities now lie where your competitors have yet to establish themselves, not where they're already entrenched. Microsoft is struggling to adapt to that new reality.

The great lesson in microeconomics is to discriminate between when technology is going to help you and when it's going to kill you. And most people do not get this straight in their heads. But a fellow like Buffett does. For example, when we were in the textile business, which is a terrible commodity business, we were making low-end textiles-which are a real commodity product. And one day, the people came to Warren and said, "They've invented a new loom that we think will do twice as much work as our old ones."

If we can stop, listen, and think about what others are seeing in us, we have a great opportunity. We can compare the self that we want to be with the self that we are presenting to the rest of the world. We can then begin to make the real changes that are needed to close the gap between our stated values and our actual behavior.

When I auditioned to be part of the "This Is It" Tour, I didn't think I was going to get in. I didn't think it was for real at first, when I got the message on MySpace from the musical director to come in and audition for him. I came in and I played for the musical director, and that night Michael Jackson came in and sat down on the couch and I played "Beat It" for him. I just practiced as much as I could to make sure it was perfect.

I don't think that you can rehash music that was born in the Fillmore East and came from a whole different set of social and emotional circumstances. The situation has changed. Let's get real about this.

I like the idea that [Mahatma] Gandhi is appearing now in an opera hall in all these different places, and people kind of think about it again.

When we started out, we didn't really think that the era of great opportunity would end one day. We were much too busy developing our companies. But in today's China you can build a city, even a mega-city like Beijing or Shanghai, within 10 or 15 years. And then you are done. So in real estate development, the Gründerzeit is over. But that is not the case in other sectors.

I had a very pleasant evening, however, though you will probably find out that there was no particular reason for it; but I do not think it worthwhile to wait for enjoyment until there is some real opportunity for it.

Wealth to us is not mere material for vainglory but an opportunity for achievement; and poverty we think it no disgrace to acknowledge but a real degredation to make no effort to overcome.

So it's worth some real up front time to think through the long term value and the defensibility of the business.

I do not think it worth while to wait for enjoyment until there is some real opportunity for it.

This idea of anticipation is key to investing and to business generally. You can't wait for an opportunity to become obvious. You have to think, "Here's what other people and companies have done under certain circumstances. Now, under these new circumstances, how is this management likely to behave?"

People still cling to this belief that innovation is just random and unpredictable. But if you look closely, there are some real patterns. The companies that recognize and take advantage of those patterns have the real opportunity to create competitive advantage.