James McNerney Quotes

Success in M&As comes with executing with vigour along with the obvious right choices that you got to make.

The essence of good business is knowing when to step on a train and when to step off.

We always look at opportunities. We are not aggressively looking to buy something.

Anybody can do a deal. The tough part is doing the deal at the right time, being strategic.

I love using a targeted acquisition approach in conjunction with a business that has a clear strategy and strong organic growth.

The way deals are done, every idea is looked at 50 different ways. Now, the market continues to change all the time. And we are always looking at everything in evaluating how it fits with our strategy.

All great work is preparing yourself for the accident to happen.

My grandfather taught me how important it is to have your eyes open, because you never know what's going to come your way.

Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised.

It's not about 'if', it's about 'when.'

When we acquire businesses in the developing world, we estimate if the growth opportunities are strong.

Business is a sprint until you find an opportunity, then it's the patience of a marathon runner.

You never know what doors are going to open up and why they are going to open up. You've got to be ready to walk through them.

I try to prepare for everything beyond the extent of preparation.

And our size: The company this year is going to be close to $50 billion, so if that's the case and you can continue to grow that fast, I would rather put my energies to solving customer problems and growing our business than worrying about integrating and laying people off.

We listen to the entrepreneur. We try to have a fine tuning fork to understand what they are saying and whether that makes sense and know it when we see it. We don't try to do too much predicting.

I consider a merchant someone who has a certain intuition and instinct, and - very important - knows how to run a business, knows the numbers.

I believe businesses don't grow or develop in terms of a blueprint. There is a huge element of opportunism involved.

If we have as a clear certainty with which to plan, total uncertainty, then that would be helpful.

One must not expect anything in these times, but be ready for everything.

If we're going to acquire, what are we going to do differently? We came up with six rules of thumb. Whenever I've violated two of them, I usually get into trouble.

Strategy is, at some level, the ability to predict what's going to happen, but it's also about understanding the context in which it is being formulated. And then you have to be open-minded to the fact that you're not going to get it right at the very beginning.

Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes.

Mergers and acquisitions, we are always looking for that.

In politics and life, timing is everything.