Thomas O. Staggs Quotes

The value that some analysts put on revenue vs. what they put on profit is out of whack. If you can grow real cash earnings, that's 80% of what you ought to do, and the revenue component is 20%.

I truly believe that the combination of a strong top line together with a strong bottom line is what makes for a sustainable business.

If we want, we can be profitable, but we are focusing on growth. We don't comment on profitability, but we do look at it internally. And many of our Ola cities are profitable. But our focus across all cities is growth.

Relative to Google or the kind of turnaround we're seeing, we do care about profitability. That is our goal in every one of the areas where we invest.

We'll continue to take the right actions to make sure we're a profitable business.

Some of the analysts were saying, Now you're a cash cow, there's no growth at all, pay it all out in dividends, give me it all, you can't invest wisely.

You go to any MBA program, and you will be taught the theory of the firm, that the purpose of the firm is the maximization of return on invested capital. I always thought this was a kind of lunacy.

If we take care of the business and keep our eye on the goal line, the stock price will take care of itself.

What are we focused on? Return on equity. We don't need these great big tier one assets. I'm very happy with getting tier two, tier three assets; that's what Glencore has been good at.

Creating value isn't enough - you also need to capture some of the value you create.

Our entire team is focused on managing this company for value - fixing or eliminating those operations that lessen value and expanding or adding those that enhance value.

I have run large organizations, I know what it takes to create a healthy business climate, and I have more experience than Jerry Brown doing that. So it'll be a stark contrast, a career politician vs. someone who has met a payroll, gotten a return on investment, knows how to use technology to do more with less.

With the world changing fast, we needed capital for investments. There's only so much bandwidth in your own balance sheet.

Just as water is a key ingredient to growth on the farm, capital is required for businesses to thrive.

Our continued investment in productivity will add to our margins, and you'll see that reflected in the bottom line earnings.

Revenue cures everything in the business world.

Our progress isn't just limited to the operation. Financially, we have been performing well. United's 2015 earnings were one of the best in the company's history, and we made significant progress shrinking the margin gap with our closest competitors, strengthening our balance sheet, and returning significant cash to shareholders.

For resourceful tech founders, finding capital is rarely a problem; making the best use of it is another story. A few years slinging pepperoni pies and chicken wings - on tiny margins and with minimal investment - might not be the worst fiscal training.

We expect all our businesses to have a positive impact on our top and bottom lines. Profitability is very important to us or we wouldn't be in this business.

Profit is the most global aspect of a business, and it is cross-functional.

Profit or perish... There are only two ways to make money: increase sales and decrease costs.

I never lost money by turning a profit.

I've made money in real estate, hotel, and restaurant investments.

What do you want your business to do? Make money, of course. To pay for people and supplies, to be able to grow.

Prove to yourself that your business, in micro-scale at least, creates value. If you believe it, you'll find it that much easier to convince potential investors, partners and employees, too.