One of the main lessons I have learned the last five years as Secretary-General is that the United Nations cannot function properly without the support of the business community and civil society. We need to have tripartite support – the governments, the business communities and the civil society.
As somebody who participates in the overall PC ecosystem, it’s totally great when faster wireless networks and standards come out or when graphics get faster. Windows 8 was like this giant sadness. It just hurts everybody in the PC business.
Some people want fame, popularity and huge sales. I’ve always hoped to have a really long career. So I’ve tried to make each of my creative decisions and business decisions to allow for longevity. As a side effect I got really famous and really big. I didn’t realize the two could go together.
Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in business. Large stores, gilt signs, flaming advertisements, will all prove unavailing if you or your employees treat your patrons abruptly. The truth is, the more kind and liberal a man is, the more generous will be the patronage bestowed upon him.
If the opponents of an increase in the minimum wage were correct, then every time you fly to Seattle, you’ve got to bring a bagged lunch because there shouldn’t be any restaurants because they should have all have gone out of business as a result of raising the minimum wage.
You have to respect your parents. They are giving you an at-bat. If you’re an entrepreneur and go into the family business, you want to grow fast. Patience is important. But respect the other party… My dad and I pulled it off because we really respect each other.
As the wonderful agony begins for 1964-65, I sometimes wonder why I do it. I’ve got an insurance business going on the side, and it is starting to grow nicely. Selling insurance fulfills me, in a way, like basketball. But basketball keeps calling me back. I suppose I’ll play until I can’t keep up with the kids any longer.
No matter what you’re doing, whether you have a business with someone, a band with someone, when you feel confident that your idea is going to be embraced, and even if it isn’t, that everyone is going to work on it as hard as they can, then that’s a great thing.
Politicians also have a love affair with the ‘small business exemption.’ Too much paperwork? Too heavy a burden? Not enough time? Just exempt small businesses from the rule. It sounds so pro-growth. Instead it’s an admission that the costs of a regulation just can’t be justified.
The Tea Party is almost solely grassroots-based; business interests have almost no grassroots organization. The Republican Party has for too long been run on behalf of business interests who favor candidates the grassroots hate; the minute that those candidates begin to flag, only loyal Tea Partiers stand behind them.
When I was growing up, there was nobody in my family – not even my mother – who I could look to and be like, ‘I know you’ve never said anything homophobic.’ So, you know, you worry about people in the business who you’ve heard talk that way. Some of my heroes coming up talk recklessly like that.
I have always been an honest trader. I come from a school of traders where there was honour in the deal. No contracts, just a handshake and that’s it, done. That’s the way I prefer to do business but it’s not always possible these days, sadly.
The Maori culture is different than our culture where we’re most likely to introduce ourselves by email or fax and we conduct a lot of business in an impersonal way, whereas for Maori, the only way to do it is to make the pilgrimage and sit down face-to-face and have some tea.
My second business would have succeeded but for competitors’ jealousy. I was selling motorbike gear cheap, but the people I was undercutting complained to the manufacturer and cut off my supply. It showed me how corrupt business can be. When I sold phones, the same thing happened, but this time I was ready.
The movie business is very difficult but the music business is just impossible. So I’ll play in bands and record and play songs with other people, but for me it’s a form of expression that all I need is me. I don’t need cameras or agents, I can just have a piano and sing and feel totally verified.
I had a band with David Gates. There was just a lot of opportunity at that time. But I left for Los Angeles the week after I graduated high school, and I actually left to try to get into the advertising business. That was really why I went out to L.A. My music career was almost an accident.
All the good work in the world will not compensate for the damage that a single facet of the business, or a rogue individual, can do. Insider trading, environmental damage, human-rights violations, and opportunistic practices erode trust and result in net negative impact.
If you are under the illusion that you can start a business and run it at your life’s schedule, you are mistaken. The business is like a starving puppy – when it needs to eat, then it needs to eat regardless of what you have going on personally.
Every employee at Workday thinks about how they are going to help customers be successful. It is a simple formula, but a lot of companies go out, and they don’t listen to their customers; they don’t try to solve hard problems, making it tougher for themselves to create a great business.
The reason why it is so difficult for existing firms to capitalize on disruptive innovations is that their processes and their business model that make them good at the existing business actually make them bad at competing for the disruption.
Over the years, I have found a way to use this business and this platform to talk with people about important issues. To the degree you can bring a sense of purpose to what you do, it makes the relationship with the customer that much more meaningful and purposeful.
When I started going to business school, I started getting calls from my peers asking for my help. I thought, ‘Well, there are a lot of people like me who make a bunch of money and just get so scared of it and don’t know what to do with it.’ I just didn’t want to be 60 years old and broke.
In France, President Francois Hollande is leveraging the next wave of the Internet to jumpstart economic reforms and create jobs for hundreds of thousands of citizens. A historically socialist government, France has had the courage to quickly implement unique partnerships with the business community to drive entrepreneurial spirit and thinking.
If you want to be more productive, then start at the start: get there on time. Whether it is a meeting, a flight, an appointment or a date, it’s important to ensure you are there when you say you will be there. This may feel like an old-fashioned tip to give, but it has served me well for five decades in business.
Learn computer science. It’s extraordinarily helpful. I like recommending learning economics as well so they think in terms of business, they have rational frameworks for looking at the world, but yeah, computer science is an amazing way to get into, even if you want to be CEO, having a tech background is helpful.
