Sam Altman Quotes

To be successful, innovation is not just about value creation, but value capture.

Competition is overrated. In practice it is quite destructive and should be avoided wherever possible. Much better than fighting for scraps in existing markets is to create and own new ones.

Companies that grow for the sake of growth or that expand into areas outside their core business strategy often stumble. On the other hand, companies that build scale for the benefit of their customers and shareholders more often succeed over time.

Amazon thrived because it implemented the online bookstore idea better than any of its early rivals did, not because it was the only company to have the idea or the first company to have the idea. It continues to grow only because it keeps trying to improve on the details of the idea and the way it puts it into practise.

Basically if you study entrepreneurs, there is a misnomer: People think that entrepreneurs take risk, and they get rewarded because they take risk. In reality entrepreneurs do everything they can to minimize risk. They are not interested in taking risk. They want free lunches and they go after free lunches.

The essential element of successful strategy is that it derives its success from the differences between competitors with a consequent difference in their behavior.

I don't know that I can give a definitive answer to that, I can only say that if we create the right climate those who are producing those products will have the opportunity to move into a higher value product if changes are needed if we get this right.

My desire to participate in the business is not to make more crap.

Management innovation is going to be the most enduring source of competitive advantage. There will be lots of rewards for firms in the vanguard.

If companies don't think systemically enough - if they try to capture too much of the value - eventually, innovation moves somewhere else.

Whatever business you're in - it doesn't matter - it's going to commoditize over time. It's going to devalue. You've got to keep moving it to a higher value.

... whatever business you're in, it doesn't matter, it's going to commoditize over time, it's going to devalue, you've got to keep moving it to a higher value. Keep going to a higher value in whatever it is that you do and force yourself and force the organization to always do it ahead of time

Most tech companies do one trick and die. If you can do two or three or four, that's where wealth gets created.

If you're doing business, not that simple to only buy. You have to create something. You have to create something that never exist for the future.

Taiwan must find its own way. We have been emphasizing too much the manufacturing business. We have to become more high-tech, more innovative, and provide more value. We can't always insist on the value of low-cost production. We have to invest more in R&D to get high-value business.

Technical understanding should be a core competency of any company.

Whether in services or in manufacturing, the trick is to stay ahead of the curve. I believe we should not wait to be disrupted - we should become disruptors ourselves.

To gain the competitive edge, companies must master the ability to innovate.

Companies that solely focus on competition will ultimately die. Those that focus on value creation will thrive.

I try to build on our management philosophy. I try to understand what the threats and opportunities are for us. Uh, I try to make sure that we're driving innovation and creative destruction hard enough so we're not blindsided, and that our attitude is to, in starting any initiative, any business, is to focus on how we can create value for others, rather than how we maximize profit, because you can make money focusing on, "How do I maximize profit?"

Business has only two basic functions - marketing and innovation.

...it's the same with business. If you focus on the goal and not the process, you inevitably compromise. Businessmen who focus on profits wind up in the hole. For me, profit is what happens when you do everything else right.

How can I go out there and create value?

The greatest million dollar insight I can give anybody is find a big problem and then solve it in a big way.

The cure for Apple is not cost-cutting. The cure for Apple is to innovate its way out of its current predicament.