Jim Ratcliffe Quotes

Pretty much, Apple and Dell are the only ones in this industry making money. They make it by being Wal-Mart. We make it by innovation.

The people that are running the bulk of the comic shops in North America aren't business people and they don't understand sales. They don't understand good product.

The food business is very tough, but there's also a lot of love and very giving.

The high-tech business, the semiconductor business, it's very competitive. You're out there every day slugging it out, no different from players slugging it out on the ice.

The hardware business is all about per-unit manufacturing cost and functionality. The services business is less asset-intensive and more dependent on people.

We hear a lot about rebuilding Detroit, and we just spent $70 billion to bail out the auto industry - well, they need to be cost competitive, too. If they have high-cost energy, those suppliers are going to move to Japan or Mexico instead of Michigan and Tennessee.

I think right now the jury is out on where and how much profit is available in the consumer electronics industry, because if you look at the current consumer electronics players, the biggest ones on the planet struggle to make profit consistently.

In 1893 I founded a chemical company which I ran until 1899.

American businesses are struggling to pay outrageous, exploitive insurance bills for their employees, hampering our ability to compete globally.

The right focus for the U.S. is on advanced manufacturing - something that requires innovation.

The economic situation, the high cost of undertaking manufacturing, the supply chain - which is, by the way, dying out also as manufacturing undergoes hardship - make the U.K. not the first place you would look at to make a manufacturing investment.

Making 'American Made' really was an adventure.

I believe America should make things.

I've always maintained the basic business principles of keeping it simple, doing your homework, hard work, and common sense.

Our competitors outside Europe are manufacturing goods cheaper and better. Through innovation, other countries are producing new products which we do not make yet, but which we could.

In the U.S., a lot of small manufacturers are pretty good. I don't see any reason why India won't make the same progress in manufacturing as it did in services.

As the inventor of MyPillow, I have been a proponent of American-made products for decades.

As a producer or even as a basic seller, you need to be confident about your product.

It doesn't matter if you've been working hard on something for six months. If you realize a track is wack, you have to throw it away. A lot of people can't do that.

It used to be that American and European companies built their products in low-wage countries, separated by great distances from the innovators who developed the products and the markets where they were sold. But companies increasingly find that is an outmoded way of doing business.

One metric catches people. We prefer businesses that drown in cash. An example of a different business is construction equipment. You work hard all year and there is your profit sitting in the yard. We avoid businesses like that. We prefer those that can write us a check at the end of the year.

I see that things are getting made a lot faster for less money and there are a lot less opportunity, I think, for actors. There's not a lot of work in the U.K. I mean, that's why everyone's moving to America because that's where the work seems to be. But it definitely feels like a lot more of a slog to get a gig these days. I suppose that's a lot to do with our current climate and financial messes. I certainly see that people seem to have to work harder with a lot less time.

A good man likes a hard boss. I don't mean a nagging boss or a grouchy boss. I mean a boss who insists on things being done right and on time; a boss who is watching things closely enough so that he knows a good job from a poor one. Nothing is more discouraging to a good man than a boss who is not on the job, and who does not know whether things are going well or badly.

Fact is, the work place to a great extent is "where we live." We need star accountants. Boffo saleswomen. Over-the-top creatives in marketing and new product development. And so on. But, since we're effectively talking about "where we live," good sense and good business and "good" engagement throughout the "supply chain," from vendor's vendor to customer's customer, we would benefit mightily-including on the P & L-if we insisted (!) on: "Pleasant." "Caring." "Engaged."