Novel Investor

Compounding investing wisdom...

  • Home
  • About
  • Library
  • Quotes
  • Resources

Quotes on Management

Quote Categories

Active Management, Aging, Bear Market, Behavior, Benchmarks, Bonds, Bull Market, Business, Career, Cash, Cash Flow, Competitive Advantage, Compound Return, Cyclical Stocks, Decisions, Diversification, Dividends, Earnings, Economic Cycle, Economics, Economists, Expansion, Fees, Forecasting, Gambling, Gold, Growth Stocks, Index Funds, Inflation, Interest Rate, Investing, Knowledge, Liquidity, Losses, Luck, Management, Margin Trading, Market Bubbles, Market Correction, Market Crash, Market Cycle, Market Efficiency, Market History, Market Timing, Math, Mistakes, Probability, Real Estate, Recession, Return, Risk, Risk Management, Savings, Security Analysis, Selling, Shareholders, Short Selling, Special Situations, Speculation, Stock Market, Stock Picking, Stocks, Taxes, Technology, Time Horizon, Turnover, Uncertainty, Valuation, Value Investing, Volatility, Wall Street,

Quote Authors

Arnold Van Den Berg, Arthur Rock, Benjamin Graham, Bernard Baruch, Bill Miller, Charles Ellis, Charlie Munger, Chris Browne, Chuck Akre, Daniel Kahneman, David Abrams, David Swensen, Dean LeBaron, Dean Williams, Edward Thorp, Edwin Lefevre, Fred Schwed Jr, George Soros, Henry Singleton, Hetty Green, Howard Marks, Joel Greenblatt, John Bogle, John Kenneth Galbraith, John Maynard Keynes, John Neff, John Stuart Mill, John Templeton, Lou Simpson, Marty Whitman, Meir Statman, Michael Price, Mohnish Pabrai, Myron Scholes, Paul Tudor Jones, Peter Bernstein, Peter Cundill, Peter Lynch, Philip Carret, Philip Fisher, Richard Thaler, Robert Kirby, Robert Shiller, Robert Wilson, Seth Klarman, Stanley Druckenmiller, T. Rowe Price, Walter Schloss, Warren Buffett,

“
A good record doesn’t necessarily prove good management. Outside economic factors such as the business cycle can make any company look good for a while.
”

Robert Wilson
Source: link
Back to top.

“
Good management has an extraordinary way of making money for you, and bad management, no matter how favorable the environment, has a way of missing opportunities.
”

Robert Wilson
Source: link
Back to top.

“
The market gets obsessed with quarterly results when there are surprises, when management is surprised. And management, as you well know, usually is.
”

Robert Wilson
Source: link
Back to top.

“
Good ideas and good products are a dime a dozen. Good execution and good management -- in a word, good people -- are rare.
”

Arthur Rock
Source: link
Back to top.

“
The biggest problem in starting high-tech businesses is the shortage of superior managers. There is too much money chasing too few good managers.
”

Arthur Rock
Source: link
Back to top.

“
One of the things I have learned over the years is how important management is in building or subtracting from value.
”

Lou Simpson
Source: link
Back to top.

“
I think the management should tell it like it is at all times and not be a big promoter of its own stock.
”

Charlie Munger
Source: link
Back to top.

“
The kind of executives who have a Buffet-like mindset and never get in trouble are a minority group, not a majority group.
”

Charlie Munger
Source: link
Back to top.

“
Neither the corporate executive nor the investment manager can allow himself to be lulled into the belief that any company, regardless of its record of achievement, must necessarily provide satisfactory rates of growth.
”

Peter Bernstein
Source: link
Back to top.

“
Past corporate successes are only frail guides to future good fortune.
”

Peter Bernstein
Source: link
Back to top.

“
I like dealing with someone who is not trying to figure how to get the fixtures in the executive washroom gold-plated.
”

Warren Buffett
Source: link
Back to top.

“
The very top officers of a company ought to have the equivalent of one year's salary invested in the company. If they can't demonstrate such faith in their own ability, why should I?
”

Philip Carret
Source: link
Back to top.

“
If the balance sheet figures look right, I come to the next and hardest part -- appraising management.
”

Philip Carret
Source: link
Back to top.

“
If a company has a sound balance sheet with minimal long-term debt, good growth prospects and responsible management, then the stock should be interesting.
”

Philip Carret
Source: link
Back to top.

“
If managers can't think of anything else to do with their money they should pay dividends. If they have good places to invest it, that's much better.
”

Philip Carret
Source: link
Back to top.

“
Change creates opportunities to grow, but it also creates opportunities to slip.
”

Philip Fisher
Source: link
Back to top.

“
I have stressed management, but even so, I haven't stressed it enough. It is the most important ingredient.
”

Philip Fisher
Source: link
Back to top.

“
It's not what industry you're in, it's what you're doing right that your rivals haven't yet figured out.
”

Philip Fisher
Source: link
Back to top.

“
Buy slowly stocks of companies that will capitalize on the problems of scarcity and social need. Companies with excellent management.
”

Philip Fisher
Source: link
Back to top.

“
I want companies that welcome dissent, rather than stifle it, that don't penalize people who criticize what management is doing.
”

Philip Fisher
Source: link
Back to top.

“
The things most companies boast about are yesterday's story.
”

Philip Fisher
Source: link
Back to top.

“
We don't go into companies with the thought of effecting a lot of change. That doesn't work any better in investments than it does in marriages.
”

Warren Buffett
Source: link
Back to top.

“
I want to be in businesses so good that even a dummy can make money.
”

Warren Buffett
Source: link
Back to top.

“
I feel the same way about managing that I do about investing: It's just not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results.
”

Warren Buffett
Source: link
Back to top.

“
I am a better investor because I am a businessman, and a better businessman because I am an investor.
”

Warren Buffett
Source: link
Back to top.

“
When a manager with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, the reputation of the business remains intact.
”

Warren Buffett
Source: link
Back to top.

“
In business, you don’t have to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results. You have to have a sound approach, but you don’t have to be brilliant.
”

Warren Buffett
Source: link
Back to top.

“
When you find a really good business run by first-class people, chances are a price that looks high isn’t high. The combination is rare enough, it’s worth a pretty good price.
”

Warren Buffett
Source: link
Back to top.

“
If you just buy businesses that your idiot nephew can run, you're going to do all right.
”

Warren Buffett
Source: link
Back to top.

“
Perhaps nothing is more indicative of the quality of a company's management than its accounting methods.
”

Benjamin Graham
Source: link
Back to top.

“
Despite the advantages of size, wealth, a good name and a long tradition, a large enterprise will cease to be profitable if the men at the head get hardening of the arteries or atrophy of the brain tissue or if their heirs prove unequal to inherited responsibilities. Momentum alone will not carry a business forward under such circumstances. Some younger and more aggressive group will assume the leadership of the industry.
”

Philip Carret
Source: link
Back to top.

“
If it's a choice between investing in a good company in a great industry, or a great company in a lousy industry, I'll take the great company in the lousy industry any day. Good management, a strong balance sheet, and a sensible plan of action will overcome many obstacles, but when you've got weak management, a weak balance sheet, and a misguided plan of action, the greatest industry in the world won't bail you out.
”

Peter Lynch
Source: link
Back to top.

“
Spinoffs have a terrific, terrific record in my lifetime. When companies get spun off, something seems to happen to them. They get better run, even though they were well run before.
”

Peter Lynch
Source: link
Back to top.

“
The harsh truth is that yesterday's reinvention doesn't mean as much as today's execution and tomorrow's competition. Just as old companies sometimes have to learn new tricks, new companies have to keep changing.
”

Peter Lynch
Source: link
Back to top.

“
A lot of great companies have made a lot of decisions you haven't heard about because they decided not to do something. Some of the best decisions they did do was to not do something.
”

Peter Lynch
Source: link
Back to top.

“
The companies that do well, look out five, six, seven years, and some decisions they make may not be the right thing for the next year.
”

Peter Lynch
Source: link
Back to top.

“
In a public service corporation, bad management may curtail profits or produce losses, good management may turn a weak corporation into a strong one.
”

Philip Carret
Source: link
Back to top.

“
We've seen what happens to companies whose chief executive gets the best press. They are often the ones who end up with the least profits.
”

Henry Singleton
Source: link
Back to top.

“
We tried to buy good companies to start with. We don't think there are supermen who can renovate them and transform them into wonderful, highly profitable enterprises. We can't do it, and history shows that nobody else can do it, either.
”

Henry Singleton
Source: link
Back to top.

“
Our accounting is set to maximize cash flow, not reported earnings. Smoothing reported earnings just has to take a backseat.
”

Henry Singleton
Source: link
Back to top.

“
I do not define my job in any rigid terms but in terms of having the freedom to do what seems to me to be in the best interests of the company at any time.
”

Henry Singleton
Source: link
Back to top.

“
Our attitude toward cash generation and asset management came out of our own thought process. It is not copied. After we acquired a number of businesses we reflected on aspects of business. Our own conclusion was that the key was cash flow.
”

Henry Singleton
Source: link
Back to top.

“
I like to steer the boat each day rather than plan ahead way into the future.
”

Henry Singleton
Source: link
Back to top.

“
I believe in maximum flexibility, so I reserve the right to change my position on any subject when the external environment relating to any topic changes too.
”

Henry Singleton
Source: link
Back to top.

“
The official who keeps one eye on his business and one on the stock market is not likely long to be numbered among the leaders.
”

Philip Carret
Source: link
Back to top.

“
To consider stocks by groups rather than by individual companies is further to ignore the vital factor of management.
”

Philip Carret
Source: link
Back to top.

“
Perhaps the most important rule in management is "Get the incentives right."
”

Charlie Munger
Source: link
Back to top.

“
Modern life creates successful bureaucracy and successful bureaucracy breeds failure and stupidity.
”

Charlie Munger
Source: link
Back to top.

“
Averaged out, betting on the quality of a business is better than betting on the quality of management. In other words, if you have to choose one, bet on the business momentum, not the brilliance of the manager.
”

Charlie Munger
Source: link
Back to top.

Want to compound your investing wisdom?

Find Out More

Learning

  • Library
  • Book Notes
  • Quotes

Return Tables

  • Asset Class Returns
  • Stock Sector Returns
  • International Stock Market Returns
  • Emerging Markets Returns
  • Historical Returns

Connect

Search

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact

© 2023 Novel Investor · All Rights Reserved · Terms of Use · Privacy Policy · Disclaimer