Nathan Myhrvold Quotes

Good decisions can have bad short-term outcomes but be great for the business long-term.

An adaptable company is one that captures more than its fair share of new opportunities. It's always redefining its 'core business' in ways that open up new avenues for growth.

Google worries - and rightly so - about how hard it is for a big company to come up with the next hot thing.

There's always something happening in the world that creates an opportunity to try to fix a business and build a business.

First of all, at any company, the investment in research and development in the products is the lifeblood, so that is a critical element of anyone's future going forward.

Companies that grow for the sake of growth or that expand into areas outside their core business strategy often stumble. On the other hand, companies that build scale for the benefit of their customers and shareholders more often succeed over time.

Efficiency innovations provide return on investment in 12-18 months. Empowering innovations take 5-10 years to yield a return. We have ample capital - oceans of capital - that is being reinvested into efficiency innovation.

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.

AOL has a great collection of brands, and the question is, 'Can they innovate and scale their business?' And those are very challenging things to do. But I think they are well positioned to grow.

America has a unique combination of talent, a vibrant business environment, and access to global markets, which has enabled U.S. companies like Intel to foster economic growth and innovation.

If you're doing business, not that simple to only buy. You have to create something. You have to create something that never exist for the future.

New products, new markets, new investors, and new ways of doing things are the lifeblood of growth. And while each innovation carries potential risk, businesses that don't innovate will eventually diminish.

Innovation is critical to the heartbeat of any successful corporation in the industrialized world.

Strategy is about shaping the future.

I love the business of business; I love the risk raking.

In the private sector, there is always innovation. There's always change. There's always improving productivity, and if you're not leading that, you'll be passed and ultimately go out of business. So there's an urgency to constantly update and renew and to rethink your enterprise.

You generally hear that what a man doesn't know doesn't hurt him, but in business what a man doesn't know does hurt.

Our investments in data, Internet and international have been particularly timely and have positioned the company to post industry-leading incremental revenue gains.

In any business, you have to evolve.

The most essential thing for us was to get the business model right, then put the world-class technology under it to support it. At Merrill, that meant not doing what people expected.

I think Microsoft will have to change. I think that the business of Microsoft, the company of Microsoft, is going to continue to succeed. But I think the business model of Microsoft is going to have to change.

When you start a business, go for the lowest hanging fruit.

In my own experience as a C.E.O., I would find myself laying awake at 3 A.M. asking questions about my business, and there weren't management books out there that could help me.

There are two ways to extend a business. Take inventory of what you're good at and extend out from your skills. Or determine what your customers need and work backward, even if it requires learning new skills. Kindle is an example of working backward.