Enterprise Excellence 3

These quotes are intended to inspire, challenge and provoke. In particular we hope that they will promote excellence in enterprise and simulate fresh ideas, debate and practice regarding enterprise solutions to poverty.

Quotes are offered on their own merits; they do not necessarily reflect the thinking of Transforming Business.

Quotes

'Millions of people in the world's poorest countries remain enslaved by the chains of poverty. It is time to set them free.' Nelson Mandela.

'The poverty problems faced by the world demand resources that far exceed those generated by either public funds or charity.' Allan Bussard, CEO, Integra Ventures.

'In an age of interdependence, global citizenship - based on trust and sense of shared responsibility - is a crucial pillar of progress. At a time when more than one billion people are denied the very minimum requirements of human dignity, business cannot afford to be seen as the problem. Rather, it must work with governments and all other actors in society to mobilize global science, technology and knowledge to tackle the interlocking crises of hunger, disease, environmental degradation and conflict that are holding back the developing world.' Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General.

'Where there is no bread, there is no law; where there is no law, there is no bread.' Rabbi Elazar Ben Azariah (ca 90 CE - ca 155 CE).

'Aid is the process by which the poor in rich countries subsidize the rich in poor countries.' Prof Peter Bauer (1915-2002), development economist.

'Aid can be immensely effective in leveraging higher private investment into developing countries. If a significant proportion of overseas development aid can be devoted to creating the right environment for business, capital flows into developing countries could grow significantly.' WBSC, Business for Development.

'I can't express in words how happy I am. Not long ago I was almost begging for money to feed my family. Today, I've got my own house and enough money to feed my children and send them to school.' Gulbadan Nesa, a Bangladeshi mother who started a business with a micro-loan from the Grameen Bank.

'Hope, even more than necessity, is the mother of invention.' Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.

'There's no such thing as no chance.' Henry Ford.

'An enterprising person is one who comes across a pile of scrap metal and sees the making of a wonderful sculpture. An enterprising person is one who drives through an old decrepit part of town and sees a new housing development. An enterprising person is one who sees opportunity in all areas of life.' Jim Rohn, business author.

'Saying something's impossible is merely an excuse not to try.' Anon.

'No one can guarantee you a job other than satisfied customers. That's the only thing that works. Nothing creates work other than products and services you provide that create satisfied customers.' Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric.

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves. Abraham Lincoln.

'The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are heading.' Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

'There are some things one can only achieve by a deliberate leap in the opposite direction.' Franz Kafka.

'Private firms are at the heart of the development process. Driven by the quest for profits, firms of all types - from farmers and micro-entrepreneurs to local manufacturing companies and multinational enterprises - invest in new ideas and new facilities that strengthen the foundation of economic growth and prosperity. They provide more than 90% of jobs - creating opportunity for people to apply their talents and improve their situations. They provide the goods and services needed to sustain life and improve living standards. They are also the main source of tax revenues, contributing to public funding for health, education and other services. Firms are thus central actors in the quest for growth and poverty reduction.' World Bank, World Development Report 2005.

'Developing countries present a real opportunity for sustainable consumption. There, we can start from a clean slate and develop appropriate products and services that serve people's needs in a more efficient, integrated way.' Paul Meyer, CEO, Voxiva.

'On the NGO side, we are witnessing a shift of understanding of the potential to work with business.' Mike Aaronson, Director, Save the Children.

'Economic history is the most fundamental branch of history; not the most important. Foundations exist to carry better things.' Sir John Clapham (1873-1946), Professor of Economic History at Cambridge.

'Human beings are not things needing to be motivated and controlled; they are four dimensional - body, mind, heart, and spirit.' Stephen Covey, best-selling business author.

'The forces, movements, and energies that today we call religious, spiritual, or faith-based have related through the ages in diverse ways to the spheres of life that today we call economic and that we see embodied in business and commerce.' Prof Martin Marty, University of Chicago.

'By refusing the teach students about ethics, we abandon an important part of our historical mission. Society needs graduates who have at least a basic sense of ethics.' Steven Schwartz, VC of Brunel University, addressing the National Conference of University Professors, January 2005.

'There is a continuum that runs from character to productivity. Who you are and what you believe make a difference to those who look to you for leadership. The values you live will reach the bottom line of your company.' Walter Wright, business writer.

'Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right of being able to do what we ought.' Lord Acton.

'Within the character of the citizen, lies the welfare of the nation.' Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC).

'The ultimate is not to win, but to reach within the depths of your capabilities and to compete against yourself.' Billy Mills, Olympic Gold Medallist in 1964.

'If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that, if it is comfort or money it values more, it will lose that too. William Somerset Maugham, English playwright and novelist, in 1941. 

'Extremism in the defence of liberty is no vice...Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.' Barry Morris Goldwater, candidate for US presidency, 1964.

'If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large.' William Wilberforce.

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how." Friedrich Nietzsche

"If we are to be really great people, we must strive in good faith to play a great part in the world. We cannot avoid meeting great issues. All that we can determine for ourselves is whether we shall meet them well or ill." Theodore Roosevelt

"Every great man is always being helped by everybody, for his gift is to get good out of all things and all persons." John Ruskin

'The ability to form organizations depends on institutions like property rights, contracts, and a system of commercial law. But it also depends on a prior sense of moral community, that is, an unwritten set of ethical rules or norms that serve as the basis of social trust'. Francis Fukuyama.

'A new consensus has emerged. This sees organizations as living systems in which relationships are much more important than structures and processes'. Tim Morgan, former CEO of the Industrial Society.

'We need to create the conditions in which people can make their own decisions and be responsible for their actions. That applies both outside the company as we try to be a force for good in society - and inside the company as we motivate people to think and act in a socially responsible manner.' Luc Vandevelde, former Chairman and CEO of Marks and Spencer.

'The pursuit of commerce reconciles nations, calms wars, strengthens peace, and commutes the private good of individuals into the common benefit of all. (...) Commerce penetrates the secret places of the world, approaches shores unseen, explores fearful wildernesses, and in tongues unknown...carries on the trade of mankind. Hugh of St Victor (1096-1141).

'There is no question that the world needs peace to prosper, and prosperity to have peace; that the quality of ecological and social environments have become inextricably dependent on the visions and strategies of business leaders.' Prof Nancy Adler, McGill University.

'Another name for peace is development.' Pope John Paul II.

'Poverty is pain; it feels like a disease. It attacks a person not only materially but also morally. It eats away one's dignity and drives one into total despair.' A poor woman in Moldova.

'If the cause of poverty is marginalization, the cure is inclusion.' Richard J Neuhaus.