Quotes by Harold S. Geneen

A true leader has to have a genuine open-door policy so that his people are not afraid to approach him for any reason.
– Harold S. Geneen
Do you want my one-word secret of happiness - It's growth - mental, financial, you name it.
– Harold S. Geneen
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.
– Harold S. Geneen
He suffered from paralysis by analysis.
– Harold S. Geneen
I don't believe in just ordering people to do things. You have to sort of grab an oar and row with them.
– Harold S. Geneen
If you keep working you'll last longer and I just want to keep vertical. I'd hate to spend the rest of my life trying to outwit an 18-inch fish.
– Harold S. Geneen
In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later.
– Harold S. Geneen
It is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises-but only performance is reality.
– Harold S. Geneen
It is much more difficult to measure nonperformance than performance.
– Harold S. Geneen
It's better to take over and build upon an existing business than to start a new one.
– Harold S. Geneen
Leadership cannot really be taught. It can only be learned.
– Harold S. Geneen
Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions.
– Harold S. Geneen
Management manages by making decisions and by seeing that those decisions are implemented.
– Harold S. Geneen
Management must manage!
– Harold S. Geneen
Managers in all too many American companies do not achieve the desired results because nobody makes them do it.
– Harold S. Geneen
Performance stands out like a ton of diamonds. Nonperformance can always be explained away.
– Harold S. Geneen
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.
– Harold S. Geneen
The five essential entrepreneurial skills for success: Concentration, Discrimination, Organization, Innovation and Communication.
– Harold S. Geneen
The worst disease which can afflict business executives in their work is not, as popularly supposed, alcoholism; it's egotism.
– Harold S. Geneen
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.
– Harold S. Geneen
You cannot run a business, or anything else, on a theory.
– Harold S. Geneen