Alan Schaaf Quotes

The greatest luck that I've had has been the ability to find men and women who came into my administration who worked with me and brought extraordinary talents that we were able to take full advantage of.

I've always said that if you can get the best people who are good at what they do, but more importantly are passionate about what they do, you'll succeed.

You always want your people to be proud of what you have accomplished.

To me, success in the job is setting a vision, guiding an organization through change - which is exactly what I did at Digitas, and I'm very proud of that - and bringing people together and with you. That, to me, is what it takes to be successful.

My style is to keep folks in place who are good managers and want to win.

What I relish most is when a member of my staff, who has worked with passion and patience towards achieving their dream of owning a restaurant, walks up to me and says, 'Nobu! I have done it!'

Hire the best people, and trust what you hired them to do.

And I'd say one of the great lessons I've learned over the past couple of decades, from a management perspective, is that really when you come down to it, it really is all about people and all about leadership.

Regarding managing people, I am lucky to be surrounded by good, smart friends, some of whom own their own companies or have worked in ones and can lend experience.

I have a great team at WME.

Many people have helped me during my career and without them and fantastic team-mates and coaches it would not have been possible to achieve all that I have.

What really motivates people at Facebook is building stuff that they're proud of.

Teamwork makes the dream work, but a vision becomes a nightmare when the leader has a big dream and a bad team.

As a designer, design director or any creative person, you have to hire great people, support them and make them feel comfortable so they can contribute and give you their best.

The reason I've been able to maintain my position of chairman of CBS in addition to all the Viacom stuff is my team.

My gift, if I have one, is choosing terrific talent and providing the atmosphere for them to do their best work.

I used to think business was 50 percent having the right people. Now I think it's 80 percent.

I love the ability to work with very good managers, and to provide the right incentives for them, and truly become a partner with that management, and make that management take a long view.

A lot of people saved IBM. Yes, I was the leader of that team, but I could never have done it without a group of IBMers helping me.

It would be a joy for me if someone who was working with me became a big success.

I think that in any group activity - whether it be business, sports, or family - there has to be leadership or it won't be successful.

I think that the CEO is responsible for setting the vision, for articulating the mission, and for building a team of powerful evangelists that share that mission and that passion, because no one person can do anything by themselves.

The need for strong partners and employees persists throughout the life of a company, but it is especially important in the beginning.

My idea is bring in good people and then get out of their way.

Success is to improve, grow up, build one team with personality, and then I want to win.