Business

Every business makes money as a secondary purpose. It's the coincidental result of creating customer value and changing the world in some way that people are willing to pay for and find valuable. That is the primary activity of a business – and you happen to get paid for it.

NFL Wide Receiver for Tampa Bay Buccaneers & Super Bowl Champion

The only real competitive advantage that's durable is cost and innovation – as long as innovation happens along the trajectory that takes into account stakeholders, not just shareholders. Your customers, employees, shareholders, and communities in which you operate are all stakeholders. If you innovate, you need to think about all these groups – and then, guess what, the shareholders will benefit.

NFL Wide Receiver for Tampa Bay Buccaneers & Super Bowl Champion

Until now, we had an insolvency problem – but we didn't have a liquidity problem that could trigger that insolvency because interest rates were so low. Now they're rising, and the mother of all debt crises is going to occur.

Economist known for predicting the 2008 financial crisis.

We are facing the mother of all debt crises. When you look at the data on private and public debt, the debt to GDP ratio was near 200% of global GDP in 1999, today it's more like 350% and rising. In advanced economies, it's over 420% and in China, 330% and rising.

Economist known for predicting the 2008 financial crisis.

This is an ultra-competitive category, and that means that there's real value being created. If nobody shows up to the party, it's probably not a great party. When it comes to staying competitive, I've always focused on the customer and worked backwards from there.

Entrepreneurial businesses innovate, change, evolve and meet customer needs… it's about creating things that people value and love.

I've worked in a lot of different types of business in my career, and you can certainly get tied in knots when you want to create a great 'thing' but can't figure the business model to make it work. My approach was simple- if I didn't make those businesses profitable, I couldn't' innovate. Nobody will fund innovation in perpetuity – you need to make money; you need to deliver value to your customers. When people ask me whether we want growth or profit, I say yes! Both!

Entrepreneurship is not for everybody, and it's also worth noting that you're not entitled to be a great entrepreneur. You're not entitled to be successful if you start a company, in fact the most likely outcome is that you won't be. Sometimes I meet founders and entrepreneurs who complain about how hard their fundraising or engineering challenges are… Guess what… yes…. It's really f***ing hard. That's the truth.

I spent 20 years in executive search, and I was hired by my clients to call 'the most successful people' in the world. Bold face names in bold face organisations. It was my job to recruit them away on behalf of my clients- it would sound difficult right? I would call super successful people and try to get them to do something different. However it wasn't that hard, because despite all the success, which is why I was calling them, they were not very happy which is why they were calling me back.

We can prove, with over 150 companies we've invested in – that you can simultaneously create value for the investor, and society. The reality is this- you can create value economically and socially in parallel – there isn't a contradiction.

Founder of Lotus Development Corporation & Digital Pioneer

I hope that the totality of what I've done, or that which Freada and I have done together, really gives people a sense of hope and possibility, in a practical way, that business can be a constructive force in the world and genuinely help make the world a better place for everyone.

Founder of Lotus Development Corporation & Digital Pioneer

We have lived through an era where success has been defined only in financial terms- leaving out any consideration of the impact of business on communities or the world. Just because accounting standards don't require you to measure certain things, doesn't mean those things aren't real.

Founder of Lotus Development Corporation & Digital Pioneer

Most of the venture backed businesses, and venture capital firms, are a mirror-tocracy not a meritocracy! Senior executives are disproportionately drawn from a narrow stratum of society – in the US, this means Ivy-League Schools such as Stanford. They tend to be overwhelmingly white (and increasingly now Asian) but certainly overwhelmingly male.

Founder of Lotus Development Corporation & Digital Pioneer

Despite being a perpetrator, Holmes began with a noble objective: to create a technology that would benefit society. We're well aware that her venture veered off course, but her initial intention was rooted in altruism. Perhaps the adage 'fake it 'til you make it' took on a life of its own in her case.

Theranos founder convicted of fraud for deceiving investors about blood-testing technology

He was a powerful figure who amassed considerable wealth for a select few—if they were fortunate and early enough in his scheme. Despite the exorbitant returns that should have raised eyebrows, those benefitting often turned a blind eye, choosing not to question the source of their profits. Yes, there were individuals who asked probing questions, but Madoff had crafted such an aura of invulnerability around himself that any questioning was met with swift exclusion from his investment circle. He was effectively untouchable.

Perpetrator of Largest Ponzi Scheme in US History

We took bold risks with unconventional styles and vibrant hues, but the crux of the matter remained that our marketing image always resonated with a particular sense of cool. It created this compelling narrative: if you owned a pair of UGG boots, you were undoubtedly cool.