Company Transformation Quotes

While Safeco's turnaround is one of the greatest things I have ever participated in, the heart-wrenching decisions to let people go will stay with me forever.

When I came into the CEO office, I basically changed the entire management team. We knew that we had to change the company, so we needed a new set of leaders.

One person at a time, one company at a time.

I spent some time studying Toyota, because how could a loom maker - they made looms. That was their business for 50 years, 35 years - and then they decided to go into the car business after everyone else was in the car business.

SK Group will work to be reborn as a group embraced by the public.

If I have to tell you what was and is my mission, I think UBS can be the Apple or IBM of the banking industry: companies that went from being admired to severe difficulties and to being back stronger than before.

Hopefully 10 years from now people won't even realize we started out selling shoes. They will just think about Zappos as a place to get the best customer service.

Google Brain, which I led, was arguably the single biggest force for turning Google into a great A.I. company. I'm pretty sure I led the team that transformed Baidu as well. So one thing that really excites me is the potential for other companies to become great A.I. companies.

We don't need giant personalities to transform companies. We need leaders who build not their own egos but the institutions they run.

We decided to significantly change the nature of the services we are providing to our clients by creating, really, a digital-first company, and digital first in two main directions: first, being the leader in providing digital services to our clients and second, making Accenture the most digitalized organization.

Many brands have lost their way in the process of evolving from a small company to a much bigger corporation.

The world is changing. We all know this. And as that world changes, if you don't transform your company, you're stuck.

I believe quite simply that the small company of the future will be as much a research organization as it is a manufacturing company.

Bofors was a steelmaker that became a forgings company and then went on to build guns. Companies like Krupp and Thyssen were in steel and forgings before entering defence. There are similar examples in the U.K.; it is a natural progression.

Even though we live in a fast-changing world with short term-ism all around, it requires years of determination to transform a company and structurally reap the rewards. Innovation companies need to set their sights on solving unmet needs - but this approach requires focus and long-term tenacity.

An awful lot of successful technology companies ended up being in a slightly different market than they started out in.

I've always flagged that it will take some time to gradually sell down our interest in lighting and basically pivot to be a medtech company focused entirely on health technology.

An awful lot of successful technology companies ended up being in a slightly different market than they started out in. Microsoft started with programming tools, but came out with an operating system. Oracle started doing contracts for the CIA. AOL started out as an online video gaming network.

To understand KKR, I always like to say, don't congratulate us when we buy a company. Any fool can buy a company. Congratulate us when we sell it and when we've done something with it and created real value.

At the end of the day, the Irvine Co. is slowly being transformed. Our long-term goal is to transform what was once an agricultural company to a development company, and to that, the next, final step is to create a large real estate investment company.

I am thrilled to join Weight Watchers and lead the next phase of the company's transformation.

I do think a founder has special permission to make sweeping changes across an organization.

The success, or failure, of a CEO to implement AI throughout the organization will depend on them hiring a leader to build an organization to do this. In some companies, CIOs or chief data officers are playing this role.

In an ironic twist, I now see Good to Great not as a sequel to Built to Last, but more of a prequel. Good to Great is about how to turn a good organization into one that produces sustained great results. Built to Last is about how you take a company with great results and turn it into an enduring great company of iconic stature.

Every company, city, and country is becoming digital, navigating disruptive markets, and Cisco's role in the digital transformation has never been more important.