Shareholders Quotes

Our people, our shareholders, me, Bill Gates, we expect to change the world in every way, to succeed wildly at everything we touch, to have the broadest impact of any company in the world.

Steve Ballmer

Impact, People, World

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I basically believe the medical insurance industry should be nonprofit, not profit-making. There is no way a health reform plan will work when it is implemented by an industry that seeks to return money to shareholders instead of using that money to provide health care.

Dianne Feinstein

Believe, Medical Insurance, Reform

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Today we have a health insurance industry where the first and foremost goal is to maximize profits for shareholders and CEOs, not to cover patients who have fallen ill or to compensate doctors and hospitals for their services. It is an industry that is increasingly concentrated and where Americans are paying more to receive less.

Dianne Feinstein

Doctors, Goal, Today

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He or she must be successful in economic terms, but always within an ethical framework. Whether his or her constituency is a corporation and its shareholders or the customers in a small and privately held business, his or her first responsibility is to serve that constituency.

Lee R. Raymond

Responsibility, Successful, Corporations

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Shareholder value is a result, not a strategy . . . Your main constituencies are your employees, your customers and your products.

Jack Welch

Strategy, Results, Employee

"Simple sermon on ethics won't do". www.theguardian.com. November 11, 2011.

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Shareholders have the right and obligation to set the parameters of corporate behavior within which management pursues profit.

Eliot Spitzer

Management, Behavior, Profit

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Shareholder activism is not a privilege - it is a right and a responsibility. When we invest in a company, we own part of that company and we are partly responsible for how that company progresses. If we believe there is something going wrong with the company, then we, as shareholders, must become active and vocal.

Mark Mobius

Believe, Responsibility, Progress

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If you're long-term oriented, customer interests and shareholder interests are aligned.

Jeff Bezos

Long, Interest, Term

"Jeff Bezos on Leading for the Long-Term at Amazon". "HBR IdeaCast" with Adi Ignatius, hbr.org.

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Customers should be number 1, Employees number 2, and then only your Shareholders come at number 3.

Jack Ma

Leadership, Business, Numbers

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We do not view the company itself as the ultimate owner of our business assets but instead view the company as a conduit through which our shareholders own assets.

Warren Buffett

Views, Investing, Owners

Richard J. Connors, Warren Buffett (2010). “Warren Buffett on Business: Principles from the Sage of Omaha”, p.190, John Wiley & Sons

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... Our first priority should be the people who work for the companies, then the customers, then the shareholders. Because if the staff are motivated then the customers will be happy, and the shareholders will then benefit through the company's success.

Richard Branson

People, Priorities, Benefits

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When management owns stock, then rewarding the shareholders becomes a first priority, whereas when management simply collects a paycheck, then increasing salaries becomes a first priority.

Peter Lynch

Priorities, Salary, Firsts

Peter Lynch (2012). “One Up On Wall Street: How To Use What You Already Know To Make Money In”, p.143, Simon and Schuster

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Your employees come first. And if you treat your employees right, guess what? Your customers come back, and that makes your shareholders happy. Start with employees and the rest follows from that.

Herb Kelleher

Firsts, Egomania, Treats

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On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world.

Jack Welch

Ideas, World, Faces

"GMO Capital's James Montier Destroys The Idea That Maximizing Shareholder Value Is Good" by Myles Udland, www.businessinsider.com. December 2, 2014.

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The customer is number one, the employee is number two and the shareholder is number three. If the customer is happy, the business is happy, and the shareholders are happy.

Jack Ma

Two, Numbers, Three

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Companies that grow for the sake of growth or that expand into areas outside their core business strategy often stumble. On the other hand, companies that build scale for the benefit of their customers and shareholders more often succeed over time.

Jamie Dimon

Hands, Organization, Growth

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There are certainly valid reasons for taking a company private, and it's also possible that C.E.O.s perform better when monitored by a small number of owners in a private company rather than by the dispersed and often uninterested shareholders of a public corporation.

James Surowiecki

Small Numbers, Corporations, Reason

"Private Lies". www.newyorker.com. August 28, 2006.

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When Wal-Mart brings water down to the Katrina victims, it's not doing that to be nice; it's doing it to make larger profits and to increase the value of its shares. If its actions are not accomplishing those objectives, the shareholders can sue the executives, and sue them successfully, because it is illegal for them to act on behalf of any other reason than increasing the value of their shares. There is nothing wrong with that. That is the way that they were created and the way we want them to function to increase prosperity in the market.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Nice, Water, Want

Interview with David Kupfer, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. October 26, 2006.

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Government is the people's business and every man, woman and child becomes a shareholder with the first penny of tax paid.

Ronald Reagan

Children, Men, People

Ronald Reagan, Michael Reagan (2016). “The Last Best Hope: The Greatest Speeches of Ronald Reagan”, p.7, Humanix Books

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It's an unbelievable responsibility to influence decisions, shareholder value and most important to me, people's careers and livelihoods.

Andrea Jung

Responsibility, Careers, People

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In an age where everything and everyone is linked through networks of glass and air, no one - no business, organization, government agency, country - is an island. We need to do right by all our stakeholders, and that's how you create value for shareholders. And one thing is for sure - no organization can succeed in a world that is failing.

Don Tapscott

Country, Organization, Islands

"The Seven Imperatives for Highly Successful Business Revolutionaries" by Don Tapscott, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 23, 2012.

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DaimlerChrysler made significant progress in the year 2005, but our earnings are still not where we want them to be. We intend to grow profitably and to create added value over the long term - for the benefit of our customers, employees and shareholders.

Dieter Zetsche

Years, Long, Progress

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Far too many executives have become more concerned with the four P's -- pay, perks, power and prestige -- rather than making profits for shareholders.

T. Boone Pickens

Business, Four, Pay

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I have got this letter which actually goes out the day after I die. It has already been written. And it says that: "Yesterday I died". And then it says: "That's bad news for me, but it's not bad news for you, the shareholders of Berkshire". And then I go on and explain what is going to happen. I know that is one time when they will be really interested in hearing from me.

Warren Buffett

Yesterday, News, Goes On

"Warren Buffett: 'My elephant gun is loaded'". Interview with Dominic Lawson, www.telegraph.co.uk. September 22, 2002.

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If the employees come first, then they're happy. A motivated employee treats the customer well. The customer is happy so they keep coming back, which pleases the shareholders. It's not one of the enduring green mysteries of all time, it is just the way it works.

Herb Kelleher

Airline Business, Green, Way

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