Lawrence Bossidy Quotations

We expect strong defense aftermarket revenues combined with some renewed interest in business jet travel to partially offset softness in commercial air transport markets, ... These factors plus accelerated cost productivity gains are expected to help offset income lost from the commercial air transport business.

We expect our 1999 sales to grow faster than the global economy as a result of new product introductions in each of our business units, expected demand for aircraft safety systems, market-share growth in the aerospace aftermarket, capacity expansion in turbochargers and recovery in the electronics market,

Acquiring these shares will advance our plan to acquire the remaining shares of AMP as soon as practical.

It's a clarion call. I use examples. There may be a number of businesses that may be beyond salvation. The airlines obviously lead the list.

The near-term economic outlook still presents some difficulties in the first half of the year, ... We're also convince the company is ready to maximize the benefits of an anticipated economic recovery in the second half of the year.

I don't think it has any long-term consequences. I think it will be decided on a case-by-case basis.

He's not a hollering and screaming guy. He's not a guy who's going to stand before you and give you a big speech.

I'm just going to keep going and goind and going until I can't go anymore.

Execution is a systematic process of rigorously discussing hows and whats, tenaciously following through, and ensuring accountability.

Execution is the job of the business leader.

People tend to look at their businesses from the inside out - that is, they get so focused on making and selling their products that they lose awareness of the needs and buying behaviors of their customers.

I saw that leaders placed too much emphasis on what some call high level strategy, on intellectualizing and philosophizing, and not enough on implementation. People would agree on a project or initiative, and then nothing would come of it.

At the end of the day you bet on people, not on strategies.

If you can't describe your strategy in twenty minutes, simply and in plain language, you haven't got a plan. 'But,' people may say, 'I've got a complex strategy. It can't be reduced to a page.' That's nonsense. That's not a complex strategy. It's a complex thought about the strategy.

If you don't have the best people you hurt everyone.

Self-awareness gives you the capacity to learn from your mistakes as well as your successes. It enables you to keep growing.

In its most fundamental sense, execution is a systematic way of exposing reality and acting on it. Most companies don't face reality very well. ... Realism is the heart of execution, but many organizations are full of people who are trying to avoid or shade reality. Why? It makes life uncomfortable.

Complexity has nothing to do with intelligence, simplicity does.

How people talk to each other absolutely determines how well the organization will function.

Execution is the ability to mesh strategy with reality, align people with goals, and achieve the promised results.

I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day you bet on people, not on strategies.