Stuart Rose Quotations

I actually think the whole concept of retirement is a bit stupid, so yes, I do want to do something else. There is this strange thing that just because chronologically on a Friday night you have reached a certain age... with all that experience, how can it be that on a Monday morning, you are useless?

I was the chief executive once, I've been there. My recommendation to anybody is don't go backwards.

We live in a world where there are a hell of a lot of new inputs that need to be factored in to your business. It used to be just about your employees and your customers. Now there are all the issues about global warming, about sustainability, about ethics and now about gender and the distribution of wealth.

If you wait for customers to tell you that you need to do something, you're too late. Good business leaders should be half a step ahead of what customers want, i.e. they don't actually quite know they want it. That's what innovation's about. With Plan A, we didn't wait for the consumers to tell us.

When I got married in my twenties, I had a happy marriage and happy kids but at some point in time I let it go off the rails I let it go off the rails.

I think fashion is the best value way, the most affordable way in the 21st century, that men and women can express their personality.

I'd go mad if I didn't have things to make me laugh.

When my mother died, my father was in a crisis, my sister was in a crisis, everyone was in a crisis. I went round the night my mother was lying in the kitchen, and I organised everything, from the undertaker to the funeral... I looked after everybody, I sorted it all out and Ive done so ever since.

As retail goes through a fundamental shift into the digital world, I believe Ocado's model and the high standards of customer service it provides will see it emerge as a powerful online player.

Customers want good value, but they care more than ever how food and clothing products are made.

I believe in a uniform for work, but why, because we're men, do we have to be ghettoised into grey suits?

I think that business leaders today have to be more rounded than they used to be, they have to be completely multi-functional and fast-moving.

Our world is moving at an ever-accelerating pace, and with the advent of social media, what happens in New York now can be reported across the globe 60 seconds later.

We've got a bit of growth a bit earlier than expected.

If you are not online, people look at you askance. I think in three to four years' time people will look equally askance at you if you haven't got the ability for consumers to buy what they want, where they want and how they want.

Most employees want to be involved in a successful business and most employees are happy for people running successful businesses to be paid a reasonable wage and a market rate for it, provided they understand the reason. What they hate most of all is pay for failure.

My four criteria: I don't want to work with people I don't like; I don't want to work in a business I either don't like or don't understand; I don't want to work for nothing unless I choose to, and I do a fair amount of that already; and I want to have some fun.

We face a dilemma because although everybody is better off than they've ever been at any time in our history, we've also got the biggest gap between the rich and the poor that we've ever had, and we've potentially got a planet which is going to go bust any day.

I want to please every woman, every time.

There is a responsibility on all companies to look at the quantum of pay and the relationship between the top and the bottom.

Was I the best husband? No. And I regret it.

I am absolutely a free marketeer and I believe the creation of wealth is a good thing and anyone who doesn't really needs to have their head examined - otherwise where are we going to get the schools, the roads, the universities, the third runway, dare I say it?

I've been an employee all my life. Would I wish, if I could rewind it, to have gone down a different route? Possibly, but I've had a great time. Anyway I'm not ruling it out; I could still buy a business.

We are pleased with the progress we are making but there remains much to do.

Three weeks is a long time in retail and there was no humble pie eaten,

People want cheap goods and Italy does not make them. Protectionism does not work

If we get through to January, and continue along this trend, we'll be more confident about the sustainability of what we've delivered this morning,

I am the largest market shareholder of clothing in the U.K. and I am not a destination shop for food. If the clothing market is affected - and it has been - and I hold my market share mathematically, then fine, I am doing no worse than the market is doing, which is exactly the case, but I'm losing revenue.

I have always been an advocate and was, in my last job at M&S, a supporter of the Al Gore dictum that a sustainable business can be a profitable business. We were the first sizeable company in the U.K. to prove that was the case.

I would think that we're probably taking back some market share back off (key rival) Next (NXTNXT) as well,

I think the gear could stand scrutiny against any other designers we have seen so far this week.

Life moves on. It's a bit like having a row with your girlfriend; if you still love her you still love her,

Our job now is to get the conversion rate (from footfall to sales ratio) up. We have to ask, 'Are there enough things to excite you?' We didn't get it right last year; our research on the in-store environment was frankly a bit disappointing,

We have already received such positive feedback from customers we will be extending the range further this autumn.

We have been at pains to point out that we've got the critical three months to Christmas to go. If we get to January and we're on a similar sort of track, then we can start talking about a recovery.

There are a lot of very busy blokes about who wear a suit for work, who go through a lot of wear and tear and who'll want this because of convenience, The customer is time-compressed and, in middle America, also pocket-book compressed.

Costs of fuel, utilities, rent and rates have risen sharply and will have an impact next year.

There's no abhorrence about wearing M&S. We just haven't been delighting the girls.

The trading environment remains difficult and we do not expect this to improve in the next financial year. Progress will become more demanding as we start to come up against growth year on year.

The sum total of all this demonstrates that Philip Green's offer significantly undervalues the business,

The thing about London is that it is a hotbed of new and exciting talent. We don't aim to compete on a like-for-like basis, we aim to do what we can do best.

The business has substantial further trading potential which will be unlocked through a return to the core values of quality, value, service, innovation and trust,

This is an encouraging performance, but there remains much to be done,

It's a solid set of results. I would say so far, so good,

So far, so good, but we ain't cracked it.

Clearly it would be quite nice to get to 400 pence (but) that will only be a journey. The market will decide...what our earnings or potential earnings are worth and price us accordingly,

I don't want to put any odds on it (continuing) at all...we're still talking.

The environment remains very difficult and we have the important Christmas trading period ahead,

Listen, it's not nice to have your mum kill herself, that is difficult. But at the end of the day, it happened a long time ago. My mother was, I hope, not the reason that I have been successful. It's not as simplistic as 'My mum killed herself; I've got to prove myself.' I was very lucky that my parents took an interest in me.

There's no abhorrence about wearing M&S. We just haven't been delighting the girls.

It's P for Progress not R for Recovery.

I have always been an advocate and was, in my last job at M&S, a supporter of the Al Gore dictum that a sustainable business can be a profitable business. We were the first sizeable company in the UK to prove that was the case.

Ultimately, growth is essential for increasing a company's value.

I don't believe in retirement.

I am the largest market shareholder of clothing in the U.K. and I am not a destination shop for food. If the clothing market is affected - and it has been - and I hold my market share mathematically, then fine, I am doing no worse than the market is doing, which is exactly the case, but I'm losing revenue.

We believe responsible business can be profitable business