Richard Branson Quotes

The customer is number one, the employee is number two and the shareholder is number three. If the customer is happy, the business is happy, and the shareholders are happy.

Companies that build scale for the benefit of their customers and shareholders more often succeed over time.

If the employees come first, then they're happy. A motivated employee treats the customer well. The customer is happy so they keep coming back, which pleases the shareholders. It's not one of the enduring green mysteries of all time, it is just the way it works.

By putting the employee first, the customer effectively comes first by default, and in the end, the shareholder comes first by default as well.

The ability to please your shareholders comes because of what you do for clients.

We do not talk enough about spirit in business, yet it is what moves employees, customers, and shareholders alike.

If employees aren't satisfied, they won't promote the product we need.

Shareholder value is a result, not a strategy . . . Your main constituencies are your employees, your customers and your products.

Happy employees ensure happy customers. And happy customers ensure happy shareholders—in that order.

Companies don't give job security. Only satisfied customers do.

Shareholder value is the result of you doing a great job, watching your share price go up, your shareholders win, and dividends increasing. What happens when you have increasing shareholder value? You're delivering better employees to their communities and they can give back. Communities are winning because employees are involved in mentoring and all these other things. Customers are winning because you're providing them new products.

Most companies, 97 percent or more, put all their focus on clever advertising and clever taglines to get people to buy average or mediocre products. You need to back off and offer a really good product or service.

The only reason I was able to accomplish things is the great people willing to work with me. A company is a group of people organized to create a product or service, and that product or service is only as good as the people in the company - and how excited they are about creating it. I do want to recognize a ton of super-talented people. Without them, I would have accomplished very little. I just happen to be the face of the companies.

The best bosses understand the people working for them. That's the first component: what makes my people tick? What are they in it for?

The Bottom Line: If people don't LOVE our work, we will not be able to sell what we make.

If you want a successful business, your people must feel that you are working for them - not that they are working for you.

Loyal employees in any company create loyal customers, who in turn create happy shareholders.

Focus on your customers and lead your people as though their lives depend on your success.

I think maybe 50 years ago people and businesses felt like they had to choose between maximizing profits and making customers happy or making employees happy, and I think we're actually living in a special time where everyone's hyperconnected, whether through Twitter or blogs and so on. Information travels so quickly that it's actually possible to have it all, to make customers happy through customer service, to make employees happy through strong company cultures, and have that actually drive growth and profits.

I hear Raleigh's new accounting business isn't doing well. Maybe up in New York or somewhere it's a good thing, but in Jackson, Mississippi, people just don't care to do business with a rude, condescending asshole.

If you look after your staff, they'll look after your customers. It's that simple.

Retailers should not be filling their minds with all the things that are wrong, with how the economy is going, or with trying to get someplace in the business world. They should enjoy being in this moment and in this day and serving the people who come in.

No business can do everything. Even if it has the money, it will never have enough good people. It has to set priorities. The worst thing to do is a little bit of everything. This makes sure that nothing is being accomplished. It is better to pick the wrong priority than none at all.

So my resolution this year is: I'm not a money guy, but I want to make our next product a commercial success, so that people will say, 'Hey, there's a huge market out there. If you make a high-quality games that can touch people, it's going to do great business.

We're not forcing people... you can support and be a supporter, but if you go beyond that and become a member, [and] if you're a businessman, your business will multiply... Everything you touch will multiply. I've always said that a wise businessperson will support the ANC... because supporting the ANC means you're investing very well in your business.