David Kirk Quotes

In business, sometimes you have to change the CEO in order to change the direction of the company.

The minute you do any layoffs, you might as well lay off the whole joint because everybody forgets about the customer and worries about their job security.

Nothing kills your company's culture like layoffs.

If we reduce the number of employees for better short-term financial results, employee morale will decrease. I sincerely doubt employees who fear that they may be laid off will be able to develop software titles that could impress people around the world.

For a hot-shot CEO taking over a troubled company, mass firings are the ultimate quick fix, the accounting equivalent of crack: cheap, easy to score, instantly gratifying, and highly addictive.

It appears that PepsiCo views structural change as a sign of weakness, an admission of failure, and an untenable break with past traditions.

The prevailing system of management has crushed fun out of the workplace.

After the non-Japanese Carlos Ghosn was brought in by Nissan to turn around the struggling auto manufacturer, he made English the company's official working language.

It stands to reason: Higher wages means higher loyalty and morale, which means higher productivity, which means a more profitable business.

In life, we do not give employees enough leeway. If you look around Semco's office, there are plenty of empty desks. The question is - where are these people? I do not have the slightest idea, but I am not interested.

Many of my staff have been with me for over 20 years. I have a great team, and I make sure they feel respected and appreciated.

The consolidation that we started in 2009 was clearly the requirement of that time.

Employers who recognize the importance of investing in their workforce have a more productive workforce, a more efficient workforce, a more loyal workforce, less turnover, and, in the private sector, more profitable.

Most writing staffs have this crazy high turnover, and then everyone's really miserable, and I don't understand that. I don't know why you don't grow people to then be able to take over as you. That's how I can have more shows.

You can fire your revenues by firing your people.

I think Amazon is a place where people don't want to work.

I was one of the early folks at eBay, and by 1999, it was completely overrun by consultants from McKinsey, Bain, and BCG. It went from being a cool, fun startup to an MBA factory.

If your employees are disengaged, and they don't take care of your customers, it doesn't matter how good your strategy is - your customers will still go somewhere else.

One very interesting framework for a company to succeed over time - beyond just business logic and analytics - is, do they have a reason why the best graduates in engineering programs will flock to them versus competitors?

I certainly feel appreciated at Chelsea.

We need better corporate environments. We need better workplaces everywhere.

At the end of the day, especially in retail, you've got humans serving humans. And really, the more engaged and happier the associates are, the happier our guests are. It's not complicated.

Sometimes people have a hard time believing that a company is intentionally trying to make itself smaller.

You look at the staff, the whole staff, from the security to the nutritionists, everybody. Everybody's happy. They want to be there. They look like they want to be in the UFC.

Happy employees build great products, and they take care of customers.