Jeffrey R. Immelt Quotes

The fundamental basis of above-average performance in the long run is sustainable competitive advantage.

There's a fundamental distinction between strategy and operational effectiveness.

There are companies with management and companies with money. You can always find money. Management is the key to success in any business.

The values we developed were instrumental in gaining a competitive advantage.

Our mission has always been to be leaders in each of our businesses, which is one, two, or three.

If you put on your business hat, you can't maintain competitiveness by staying at a competitive disadvantage. I mean, you just can't. The odds are just not in your favor.

Market share is key.

It's a multi-billion dollar industry run by our family. That gives us some real unique advantages. We know our sport and our industry better than anybody else. We have the values from the original days. We understand how our stakeholders win and lose in a big way. So I think gives us an advantage to be family controlled, family owned.

I think about what's the best way to serve people. In business, if you do more for others than anybody else does, you dominate. That's the bottom line.

American business can out-think, out-work, out-perform any nation in the world. But we can't beat the competition if we don't get in the ball game.

Somebody once told me, ‘Manage the top line, and the bottom line will follow.’ What's the top line? It's things like, why are we doing this in the first place? What's our strategy? What are customers saying? How responsive are we? Do we have the best products and the best people? Those are the kind of questions you have to focus on.

At Tatas, we believe that if we are not among the top three in an industry, we should look seriously at what it would take to become one of the top three players.. or think about exiting the industry

Management must take the lead in making obsolete its own products and services rather than waiting for a competitor to do so.

Buy companies with strong histories of profitability and with a dominant business franchise.

If you think in terms of topping, you're in the wrong business. You can't think that way.

Core competence, as it is used by many managers, is a dangerously inward-looking notion. Competitiveness is far more about doing what customers value than doing what you think you're good at.

At the heart of any good business is a chief executive officer with one.

Data is great, but strategy is better

If you can just learn to think about the market first, you will have a big leg up on most people starting startups.

In order to become a success, a business doesn't just have to do well, it has to to better than its competitors. Being number one isn't just about bragging rights. Often it means the difference between prospering and merely hanging on.

When thinking about how to deploy kind of professional and social networking into your business, it's really not a question of if, it's a question of when. And the reason is, just think about the fact that those businesses that adopt new technologies to operate efficiently and use them to get a competitive edge are the businesses that in fact, you know, it becomes one more competitive advantage. Whether it's a fax machine or a mobile phone or a new way of doing financing or any of these things, you know, these are key things to do.

We always enter markets where the leaders are not doing a great job, so we can go in and disrupt them by offering better quality services.

If we start deciding, based on guesses or emotions, whether we will or won't participate in a business where we should have some long run edge, we're in trouble.

The best advice I ever got was from Lee Iacocca.... It was get into a business where you can be a big fish, not the little fish. Get into a business where you can be a change agent, where you can make a difference.

Benchmark your performance against your best competitors. Think how you can beat them next time.