Walter O'Brien Quotes

Look first at management. That's the key to a company.

Obama, for all his brilliance, has no real, felt understanding of management structures or of business.

Too many talk about a company's leadership, referring to the senior most executives in the organization. They are just that: senior executives. Leadership doesn't automatically happen when you reach a certain pay grade. Hopefully you find it there, but there are no guarantees.

No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings.

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.

I have run large organizations, I know what it takes to create a healthy business climate, and I have more experience than Jerry Brown doing that. So it'll be a stark contrast, a career politician vs. someone who has met a payroll, gotten a return on investment, knows how to use technology to do more with less.

All managers are losers, they are the most expendable pieces of furniture on the face of the Earth.

Leadership is all about emotional intelligence. Management is taught, while leadership is experienced.

History reports that the men who can manage men manage the men who can manage only things, and the men who can manage money manage all.

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.

Most people think of leaders as being these outgoing, very visible, and charismatic people, which I find to be a very narrow perception. The key challenge for managers today is to get beyond the surface of your colleagues. You might just find that you have introverts embedded within your organization who are natural-born leaders.

Clearly, every company needs a leader. That's an important part of being the CEO of the company.

A leadership culture is one where everyone thinks like an owner, a CEO or a managing director. It's one where everyone is entrepreneurial and proactive.

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

Business requires understanding financial matters, but management is different from running the financial aspects of the business - it requires understanding complex systems, how they operate, the nature of organisations, what happens when people interact in groups and how to motivate and guide people.

No business can succeed in any great degree without being properly organized.

Admiration takes on a whole new level when you appreciate just how complex it is to run a modern business.

We don’t need corporate generals. We need warrior generals…. Many of our military leaders are like car designers who have never driven a car….they go along to get along.

I like to believe that I got my business knowledge from my dad. He was able to see trends a long way off. And my mom is very good with people and emotional.

I've run businesses with thousands of people. I've run businesses with 10 people.

You're born with some things inside you that will allow you to lead, but I think you have to take the bull by the horns. You have to want that leadership position, and then there are things you can do to develop that.

You're kind of taught that the role of a business person is the decision making.

In large companies, the CEO is very distant from operations.

The most important ingredient for the success of any company is the quality of its people, starting with its leadership team.

I like to think I'll be quite instinctive as a leader.