Gordon Bethune Quotes

I admit that the direct model has done a lot for Dell. That's the only thing the company has ever really accomplished.

If we take care of the customers and associates and grow the business, Wall Street will be pleased.

We can learn from IBM's successful history that you don't have to have the best product to become number one. You don't even have to have a good product.

When you look at a company that's already succeeded or is at the very top of its game, it isn't necessarily when it's executing well. It tends to be peacetime - you've defeated the competition, you have the highest margins, the highest multiple.

The purpose of a business is to create customers.

Businesswise, everything's been good.

We really must recover our financial performance and take Nintendo back into the position in the marketplace where it is well appreciated.

I believe if you start a business with the intent of making it huge, you're already prioritizing the wrong thing. Size is important, but it's a byproduct of a whole bunch of other things that are worth way more of your mental energy - customers, service, quality.

I am wired like a CEO and care a great deal about the bottom line, but I care about my customers even more than that. That's always been my competitive advantage.

Southwest Airlines is successful because the company understands it's a customer service company. It also happens to be an airline.

For businesses to be successful, they need to constantly ask the question: 'How can we provide value to our customers?' At the end of the day, that is what matters.

Profit is the most global aspect of a business, and it is cross-functional.

Profitability comes from loyalty, productivity, and having a character base from which to work.

Wal-Mart's success strategies and tactics are easy to understand yet hard to duplicate.

A merchant who approaches business with the idea of serving the public well has nothing to fear from the competition.

It's easier to build a business around a first-class product, even if it's a more expensive product to produce.

Over time, the product we produce has been consistently successful here in America and around the world. Apparently, we are doing something right.

Market leadership can translate directly to higher revenue, higher profitability, greater capital velocity, and correspondingly stronger returns on invested capital.

I say at our management conferences that the amount Wal-Mart grows in just one year is the equivalent of Costco's size.

From my point of view, my job is just to work hard for our franchisees, so they can maintain the position they're in, and to grow market share.

Companies that get confused, that think their goal is revenue or stock price or something. You have to focus on the things that lead to those.

Every time we bring someone in we ensure that they are a strategic thinker, but even more important that they understand that if the products aren't successful and the products don't sell that there won't be anything to strategize about.

Business is Business.

I think I'm going to refrain from criticizing Apple too much. I mean, that's been a pretty great company.

Companies become rich because they find a way to serve others better. And if someone at your company is not serving your customers, it hurts more than your company; it hurts America.