Anne M. Mulcahy Quotes

The most important ingredient for the success of any company is the quality of its people, starting with its leadership team.

The healthiest companies are always characterized by organic talent development.

There would not be enough talent that's educated, developed and ready to take on the next leadership challenge, and it would cap our growth. Now we've put programs in place not to have that happen, but that could be a weakness.

Someone asked me about what's it like managing 2.2 million associates, and I said, 'When they're Wal-Mart associates, it's not all that hard because of the quality and the depth of our talent.' I'm really proud of the fact that 70% of the managers in the U.S. started as hourly associates with our company.

I really do believe in succession building and giving people experience for future leadership.

Successful business leaders who have helped build institutions of lasting value - all are committed to talent and a culture of excellence. This is usually accomplished by the identification, retention, and development of great people.

Our philosophy is to attract top talent and incentivise them to succeed. We have some of the top talent in the entire industry.

A talented executive whose interests are aligned with the firm's and is confident in her role will always recruit stars who exceed herself in various ways, but one who is worried about her value to the firm will not.

I love picking people. I started Blackstone, and we had no people, and now we have with our portfolio companies about 750,000 people all over the world. Everybody who is at a senior level has ultimately been picked by me.

Star performers are my favorite to manage and lead. Star performers are critical to any organization, and the key is how can you capture their heart-share and their mind-share when they're on this fast track.

My gift, if I have one, is choosing terrific talent and providing the atmosphere for them to do their best work.

If longevity is the best index to measure a company, a basic requirement is the ability of the corporation to generate new and new leaders.

You know, as most entrepreneurs do, that a company is only as good as its people. The hard part is actually building the team that will embody your company's culture and propel you forward.

Our industry has invested so much money in technology that perhaps it's time to invest in talent, in people.

Most businesses think that product is the most important thing, but without great leadership, mission and a team that deliver results at a high level, even the best product won't make a company successful.

Hire the best people, and trust what you hired them to do.

Great companies in the way they work, start with great leaders.

I've trained my people in mentoring entrepreneurs and made myself obsolete.

A great advantage of a large corporation is supposed to be the large pool of talent in which its leaders can find and groom high achievers and successors.

The essence of business to me is great people run great companies. Mediocre people don't do a very good job.

I like having young assistants in my office; they have energy, and I spend time with them to make sure they understand what we're doing. By investing in them, I'm investing in the magazine. All over 'Vogue,' 'Teen Vogue,' and 'Men's Vogue,' there are people who have been through not only my office but also many other offices at 'Vogue.'

If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings and put compensation as a carrier behind it you almost don't have to manage them.

As a company grows from 25 to 50 to 100 to 200 to 500 to 1000 people, the characteristics of who is the very best talent in leadership roles will change. It's rarely the case that your leadership team at 1000 people is the same leadership team you had a 25 people.

If you want to have the best employees, there really needs to be a vision and a mission. Talent looks for a mission. And if you have the best talent, that's the single biggest competitive advantage any company can have.

I think that's the responsibility of the CEO and the CEOs below me: to make sure that we're constantly putting people in places where they have the opportunity to develop into those careers but also having a rewards and recognition system that allows a great programmer to stay as a great programmer.