Harold Geneen Quotations

Leadership cannot really be taught. It can only be learned.

In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later.

Facts from paper are not the same as facts from people. The reliability of the people giving you the facts is as important as the facts themselves.

The best way to inspire people to superior performance is to convince them by everything you do and by your everyday attitude that you are wholeheartedly supporting them.

It is much more difficult to measure nonperformance than performance.

Management manages by making decisions and by seeing that those decisions are implemented.

I don't believe in just ordering people to do things. You have to sort of grab an oar and row with them.

If your desk isn't cluttered, you probably aren't doing your job.

Every company has two organizational structures: The formal one is written on the charts; the other is the everyday relationship of the men and women in the organization.

Performance stands out like a ton of diamonds. Nonperformance can always be explained away.

You can know a person by the kind of desk he keeps. If the president of a company has a clean desk then it must be the executive vice president who is doing all the work.

A true leader has to have a genuine open-door policy so that his people are not afraid to approach him for any reason.

Managers in all too many American companies do not achieve the desired results because nobody makes them do it.

Uncertainty will always be part of the taking charge process.

We must not be hampered by yesterday's myths in concentrating on today's needs.

It's better to take over and build upon an existing business than to start a new one.

You can't run a business or anything else on a theory.

Performance stands out like a ton of diamonds. Non performance can always be explained away.

Do you want my one-word secret of happiness -- It's growth -- mental, financial, you name it.

If you keep working you'll last longer and I just want to keep vertical. I'd hate to spend the rest of my life trying to outwit an 18-inch fish.

Better a good decision quickly than the best decision too late.

What you manage in business is people

It is much more difficult to measure non-performance than performance. Performance stands out like a ton of diamonds. Non-performance can almost always be explained away

Management must manage!

In the business world, everyone is always working at legitimate cross purposes, governed by self interest.

In a good meeting there is a momentum that comes from the spontaneous exchange of fresh ideas and produces extraordinary results. That momentum depends on the freedom permitted the participants.

The highest art of professional management requires the literal ability to 'smell' a 'real fact' from all others.

Management must have a purpose, a dedication and that dedication must have an emotional commitment. It must be built in as a vital part of the personality of anyone who truly is a manager.

The professional's grasp of the numbers is a measure of the control he has over the events that the figures represent.

If you keep working you'll last longer. I'd hate to spend the rest of my life trying to outwit an 18-inch fish.

When I come upon a man who has a gleaming, empty, clear desktop, I am dealing with a fellow who is so far removed from the realities of his business that someone else is running it for him.

You read a book from beginning to end. You run a business the opposite way. You start with the end, and then you do everything you must to reach it.

Ninety-nine percent of all surprises in business are negative.

Business is many things, the least of which is the balance sheet. It is a fluid, ever changing, living thing, sometimes building to great peaks, sometimes falling to crumbled lumps.

Do you want my one-word secret of happiness? It's growth - - mental, financial you name it.

I think it is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises, but only performance is reality