[what we first learned in the 80s is that…] Firms that earned superior levels of customer loyalty and retention also earned consistently higher profits–and they grew faster as well….[W]e learned that customer loyalty is inextricably linked to employee and investor loyalty and that major improvements in the one often require […]
Quotes
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On advice-giving: People don’t care what you know until they know that you care. — source unknown One of my favorite Far Side cartoons shows a man in his bedroom getting dressed for the day. A sign by his mirror reminds him, “First Pants, Then Shoes”. This cartoon and the […]
Early in my career, the management team of a large professional firm asked my opinion about how they were conducting their affairs. I responded with a very honest, direct and candid answer–”Here are the things you are messing up, and this is what you should have been doing!” To my […]
Old saying: When you owe the bank $10,000 and can’t pay up, you’re in trouble. When you owe the bank $10,000,000 and you can’t pay up, the bank is in trouble.
Venture capitalist Howard Morgan long spoke of the “Four P’s” of sizing up a business for potential investment: People, Product, Plans and Profits. Later, he added two more: Starting about 1996, when I was a lead investor in Idealab, I was inspired by Bill Gross to add a Fifth P. […]
Some of you will be going into business. For that you need two eyes. With one eye you have to check accounts receivable and accounts payable, overhead and profit margins, payroll and insurance costs. With the other you have to attend to your employees – are they receiving just reward […]
If I don’t practice one day, I know it; two days, the critics know it; three days, the public knows it. — Jascha Heifetz, quoted in Forbes Magazine‘s Thoughts on the Business of Life