Management Quotes

Accountability begins with transparency.

Liberalism: To let things slide for the sake of peace and friendship when a person has clearly gone wrong, and refrain from principled argument because he is an old acquaintance, a fellow townsman, a schoolmate, a close friend, a loved one, an old colleague or old subordinate. Or to touch on the matter lightly instead of going into it thoroughly, so as to keep on good terms. The result is that both the organization and the individual are harmed.

Every major industry was once a growth industry. But some that are now riding a wave of growth enthusiasm are very much in the shadow of decline. Others that are thought of as seasoned growth industries have actually stopped growing. In every case, the reason growth is threatened, slowed, or stopped is not because the market is saturated. It is because there has been a failure of management.

There is a great deal of talk about loyalty from the bottom to the top. Loyalty from the top down is even more necessary and much less prevalent. One of the most frequently noted characteristics of great men who have remained great is loyalty to their subordinates.

Patience is also a form of action.

Thinking is easy; action is difficult; to act in accordance with one’s thought is the most difficult thing in the world.

Leadership is not about being in charge. Leadership is about taking care of those in your charge.

Delay is the deadliest form of denial.

Seize the day. Carpe diem.

The best is the enemy of the good.

Management has never been the most important thing for me.

State intervention in economic production arises only when private initiative is lacking or insufficient, or when the political interests of the State are involved. This intervention may take the form of control, assistance or direct management.

I never use my sword when the lash suffices, nor the lash when my tongue is enough.

Vision without execution is delusion.

Beyond a certain point there is no return. This point has to be reached.

Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts

Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.

He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander.

To err is human, to persist is diabolical.

We are free to choose our actions, . . . but we are not free to choose the consequences of these actions.

Leadership is influence.

It appears that there are enormous differences of opinion as to the probability of a failure with loss of vehicle and of human life. The estimates range from roughly 1 in 100 to 1 in 100,000. The higher figures come from the working engineers, and the very low figures from management. What are the causes and consequences of this lack of agreement? Since 1 part in 100,000 would imply that one could put a Shuttle up each day for 300 years expecting to lose only one, we could properly ask "What is the cause of management's fantastic faith in the machinery? .. It would appear that, for whatever purpose, be it for internal or external consumption, the management of NASA exaggerates the reliability of its product, to the point of fantasy.

I do not pretend to step out of my own sphere and to control the internal management of other departments, but it seems to me that as Secretary of the Treasury, I may ask, that, while peace continues, the aggregate of the expenditure of those departments be kept within bounds such as will preserve the equilibrium between the national revenue and expenditure without recurrence to loans.

We shall either find a way or make one.

All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous unpremeditated act without benefit of experience.