Harold Geneen Quotes

On this page you can find the TOP of Harold Geneen's best quotes! We hope you will find some sayings from Businessman Harold Geneen's in our collection, which will inspire you to new achievements! There are currently 35 quotes on this page collected since January 22, 1910! Share our collection of quotes with your friends on social media so that they can find something to inspire them!
  • Leadership cannot really be taught. It can only be learned.

    "Managing". Book by Harold Geneen, 1984.
  • 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.

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

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

  • What you manage in business is people

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

    "Managing". Book by Harold Geneen, 1984.
  • 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.

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

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

    "Managing". Book by Harold Geneen, 1984.
  • 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.

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

  • 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.

  • I don't believe in just ordering people to do things. You have to sort of grab an oar and row with them. My philosophy is to stay as close as possible to what's happening. If I can't solve something, how the hell can I expect my managers to.

    "Harold S. Geneen, 87, Dies; Nurtured ITT" by Kenneth N. Gilpin, www.nytimes.com. November 23, 1997.
  • A true leader has to have a genuine open-door policy so that his people are not afraid to approach him for any reason.

    "Managing". Book by Harold Geneen , Chapter Six (Leadership), p. 113, 1985.
  • Uncertainty will always be part of the taking charge process.

  • It is much more difficult to measure nonperformance than performance.

  • The five essential entrepreneurial skills for success are concentration, discrimination, organization, innovation and communication.

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

  • 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.

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

    "Managing". Book by Harold Geneen, p. 86, 1984.
  • If your desk isn't cluttered, you probably aren't doing your job.

  • 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.

  • 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.

    "Hospital Turnarounds: Lessons in Leadership". Book by Terence F. Moore, p. 100, 1999.
  • 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.

  • 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

    "Managing". Book by Harold Geneen, Chapter Six (Leadership), p. 89,
  • Performance stands out like a ton of diamonds. Nonperformance can always be explained away.

  • 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.

    "Managing". Book by Harold Geneen, 1984.
  • I think it is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises, but only performance is reality

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

  • 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.

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  • We hope you have found the saying you were looking for in our collection! At the moment, we have collected 35 quotes from the Businessman Harold Geneen, starting from January 22, 1910! We periodically replenish our collection so that visitors of our website can always find inspirational quotes by authors from all over the world! Come back to us again!

    Harold Geneen

    • Born: January 22, 1910
    • Died: November 21, 1997
    • Occupation: Businessman