Enterprise Excellence 1

Quotes

These quotes are intended to inspire, challenge and provoke. They are offered on their own merits and do not necessarily reflect the thinking of Transforming Business.

'There is virtually no distinction between being a responsible citizen and a successful business...they are one and the same for Wal-Mart today.' Lee Scott, CEO of Wal-Mart.

'It is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work.' Jim Collins, author of best-selling business books Good to Great and Built to Last.

'The future is not inevitable. We can influence it, if we know what we want it to be.' Charles Handy, best-selling author and business guru.

'We do not serve because we are transformed but we are transformed when we serve.' Jose Ramon Alcantara Mejia

'We cannot understand what is happening globally unless we understand religion.' Sir Bob Geldof, singer-songwriter, activist and self-proclaimed atheist.

'Without applying business eyes and business thinking, development will fail. Kurt Hoffman, Director, Shell Foundation and principal author of the Foundation's Enterprise Solutions to Poverty.

'The proper calling of a foundation is not just to do good, but to change how good is done' Carl Schramm, president and CEO of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

'Global poverty as we see it today - the billion plus people that live on less than a dollar a day - it totally unacceptable to any Christian.' Lord Brian Griffiths, Goldman Sachs.

'I want to be a trader because it's a good profession. I can earn money. I want to sell biscuits, chocolate and sugar.' Sintayhu Shewatatik, a nine-year-old Ethiopian boy.

'When you get a mobile phone it is almost like having a card to get you out of poverty in a couple of years.' Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank and Grameen Phone in Bangladesh.

'The poor need business to invest in their future. Business needs the poor because they are the future.' Slogan used by the United Nations Development Programme.

'Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.' Winston Churchill.

'One should not withdraw from individuals and commit to the community what they can accomplish by their own enterprise and industry' Pope Pius XI in Quadragesimo Anno.

'Companies have to wake up to the fact that they are more than a product on a shelf. They're behaviour as well' Robert Haas, Levi Strauss.

'Any damn fool can put on a deal, but it takes genius, faith and perseverance to create a brand'. David Ogilvy of Ogilvy & Mather.

'Spirituality...is the new resource for business creativity, personal leadership, and social harmony. It is regularly enlisted to empower the manager to be a better person, create a better business, and contribute to a better society.' Laura Nash, Harvard Business School.

'Nobody talks of entrepreneurship as survival, but that's exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking.' Dame Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop.

'Economics is (now) about emotion and psychology.' Robert Shiller, Professor of Economics, Yale University.

'Business is a social act. It is not about individualism. It's about working in teams'. Will Hutton, CEO of the Work Foundation.

'The rancorous public debate over business ethics and corporate reform has lacked a few crucial ingredients: a genuine love for business and human enterprise, the confidence that the American corporation is 'worth saving', a sense that it is fully worthy of our loftiest ideals and most focused energies.' Warren Bennis, Professor of Business Administration, University of Southern California.

'Be the change you wish to see in the world.' Mahatma Gandhi

'Man was not made for the service of economies; economies were made to serve mankind; and men and women were made – so we believe – to serve one another, not just ourselves.' Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi.

'Spiritual and material progress do not always go hand in hand. Some might even argue they never can. However, most people would accept that improving the lives of the entire human family must draw not only on the talents, effort, and organization of millions of people, but also on common values, such as the conviction that no one is truly well-off while others are desperately poor, and that the world's knowledge and opportunities should be available to all.' James Wolfensohn, former President of the World Bank, and George Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury, in Faith in Development.

'Sometimes it falls on a generation to be great. You can be that generation.' Nelson Mandela.

'We look at photos of people living in extreme poverty but see first and foremost their humanity and spirit and dedication.Their eyes don't call for our pity, but for our camaraderie and partnership and empathy.' Jeffrey Sachs, Professor of Sustainable Development, Columbia University.

'Poverty is the deprivation of opportunity.' Amartya Sen, Nobel economics laureate.

'Business cannot succeed in societies that fail. Likewise, where and when business is stifled, societies fail to thrive.' Björn Stigson, President, WBCSD.

'Let us choose to unite the power of markets with the authority of universal ideals. Let us choose to reconcile the creative forces of private entrepreneurship with the needs of the disadvantaged and the requirements of future generations.' Kofi Annan.

'All business and all business leaders – for good or ill - are engaged in processes which underpin values in human behaviour.' Robert Davies, CEO, Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum.

'We have the knowledge, resources, and capabilities to make global capitalism work in a more inclusive and socially responsible manner while retaining – indeed enhancing – its economic benefits.' John Dunning, Emeritus Professor of International Business, Universities of Reading (UK) and Rutgers (USA)

'Successful economies have always been supported by a strong moral basis.' Hans Kung, President of the Global Ethics Foundation.

'Soul-friendly companies...have always existed, but it is now, in this time of stress and turbulent change, that they are emerging as leaders with something extraordinary to offer the world, a way of working that uses spiritual principles to achieve success.' Georgeanne Lamont, author of Spirited Business.

'Values cannot be speedily forgotten if it is inconvenient or commercially expedient. Values have to have meaning and longevity; otherwise they are valueless. You cannot embrace innovation up to a point or only sometimes. Branding demands commitment; commitment to continual re-invention; striking cords with people to stir their emotions; and commitment to imagination. It is easy to be cynical about such things, much harder to be successful.' Sir Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin.