Whitney Tilson Quotes

When you buy a company that's been on its butt you raise a lot of money, you instantly put new management in place, but that's the end of the glory for three to five years, grinding it out one day after the other.

When I became CEO, Puma was bankrupt on paper.

You can make a lot of mistakes and still recover if you run an efficient operation. Or you can be brilliant and still go out of business if you're too inefficient.

When we bought it, Spiegel was in a difficult situation; it made a loss at that time. We invested in it and then it turned around, and then we bought Eddie Bauer and Newport News.

And I was asked if I would come and help with the recovery of this great British company, Cable and Wireless, and I'm delighted to become part of the new and very talented management that have been brought in to that company as well.

If you look at my business record, I basically love to do turn-arounds. That's where I made all of my money.

I definitely see a correlation between how many things a company gets right and how fast a company grows.

I was a corporate hatchet man, and it's impossible for me to turn that off. It's this curse when I walk into businesses: 'That needs to be fixed, that needs to be fixed.'

I knew I was doing something right because it was selling so I didn't want to interfere with it.

Prove to yourself that your business, in micro-scale at least, creates value. If you believe it, you'll find it that much easier to convince potential investors, partners and employees, too.

I turned Compaq from a small company with troubles into a computer powerhouse. We can do the same at Intershop.

You don't get a chance to buy a company like NBCUniversal unless it's not doing well.

A well-managed business will have a high return on invested capital. But that's a consequence. It's not a way to manage a business.

I have spent my career making a difference with underperforming assets.

People must be realistic when evaluating their business.

In a period of economic downturn, the overwhelming instinct is to pare back, cut costs, and lay off. If you do that, do so with your strategy in mind. The worst mistake is to cut across the board. Instead, reconnect and recommit to a clear strategy that will distinguish yourself from others.

It's really easy to create a $1 billion company - you just have to solve a $10 billion problem.

My job was to turn the company around and to give Time Warner a profitable Web business to spin off and a profitable access business that still throws off a tremendous amount of cash. I can check both of those boxes. I am done, and I feel good about what we've accomplished.

I had come out of retirement into a very difficult situation with the PeopleSoft takeover, got through it, and was having a good time, frankly. We just ran out of runway at PeopleSoft. Had we had another year, maybe two years, I think we would have made it.

If you're not a risk taker, you should get the hell out of business.

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

Business 2.0 was hugely profitable last year, and will be profitable this year.

If GE's strategy of investment in China is wrong, it represents a loss of a billion dollars, perhaps a couple of billion dollars. If it is right, it is the future of this company for the next century.

Businesswise, everything's been good.

I truly believe that the combination of a strong top line together with a strong bottom line is what makes for a sustainable business.