The Quotation IndexThe trusted reference for quotations and the sources behind them
Tag Tag Organisational culture
In the end self-confidence mostly comes from a gut-level realization that nobody has ever died from making a wrong business decision, or taking inappropriate action, or being overruled. And everyone in your operation should be made to understand this.
Andrew S. Grove High Output Management · 1983

Quotes

“Business success contains the seeds of its own destruction. The more successful you are, the more people want a chunk of your business and then another chunk and then another until there is nothing left. I believe that the prime responsibility of a manager is to guard constantly against other people’s attacks and to inculcate this guardian attitude in the people under his or her management.”

Andrew S. Grove · High Output Management, 1983 · Primary source

“Our hiring was always focused on people right out of school. We had a few key hires like Charles Simonyi who came in with experience. But most of our developers, we decided that we wanted them to come with clear minds, not polluted by some other approach, to learn the way that we liked to develop software, and to put the kind of energy into it that we thought was key.”

Bill Gates · Smithsonian Interview: Bill Gates, 1993 · Primary source

“If I think something’s a waste of time or inappropriate I don’t wait to point it out. I say it right away. It’s real time. So you might hear me say That’s the dumbest idea I have ever heard many times during a meeting”

Bill Gates · Playboy Interview: Bill Gates, 1994 · Primary source

“The most important speed issue is often not technical but cultural. It’s convincing everyone that the company’s survival depends on everyone moving as fast as possible.”

Bill Gates · Business @ the Speed of Thought, 1999 · Primary source

Related Tags

Decision-making 35 Initiative 21 Microsoft 10 Competition 3 Software development 3 Urgency 3 Self-confidence 2 Recruitment 2 Risk-taking 1 Market share 1 Competitive defence 1 Strategic vigilance 1 Graduate hiring 1 Direct feedback 1 Meetings 1 Constructive disagreement 1 Execution speed 1 Change management 1 Competitiveness 1