Guy Kawasaki Quotes

Get the best people and train them well.

CEOs who can hire properly, that's the most important part of the job. The CEO's job is really to hire the right team and execute the vision second.

Good people hire people better than themselves. So A players hire A+ players. But others hire below their skills to make themselves look good. So B players hire C players. C players hire D players, etc.

Start with good people, lay out the rules, communicate with your employees, motivate them and reward them. If you do all those things effectively, you can't miss.

The best way to be productive is to have a great team. So I spend more time than most CEOs on human resources. That's 20 percent of my week.

People say the most important thing is building a world-class team.

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.

I think the most important thing is not only do you want to build a roster, but you also want to establish a culture within any given organization.

We try to recruit good players and good people.

We focus on two things when hiring. First, find the best people you can in the world. And second, let them do their work. Just get out of their way.

All companies of any size have to continue to push to make sure you get the right leaders, the right team, the right people to be fast acting, and fast moving in the marketplace. We've got great leaders, and we continue to attract and promote great new leaders.

As a designer, design director or any creative person, you have to hire great people, support them and make them feel comfortable so they can contribute and give you their best.

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.

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.

I think each person, if you're a CEO, the most important thing is to have - to me, is to pick people around you that aren't like you, that complement you. Because you want to build a puzzle; you don't want to stack Chiclets up and have everyone be the same. And so I believe in diversity with a capital D.

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

There are very few black-and-white truths in management or in business, but one that I have found is that people either hire people who are smarter than them, or people hire people they can control.

One of the most important jobs of a great leader is to attract great talent.

My job is to recruit the best players I can recruit. When they get here, challenge them and grow them into their best version.

The first thing is to hang on to everybody who is talented, who is entrepreneurial, who wants to make an impact and a change and start attracting ones.

Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it. Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine.

The important thing is to get the right players on the team so Mike can be successful.

My philosophy is to always find the smartest people you can. Hire people smarter than you.

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.

People ask me what's the most important function when you're starting an organization or setting up the kind of culture and values that are going to endure. The discipline I believe so strongly in is H.R., and its the last discipline that gets funded.