Business

A brand has to be authentic and be born of a personal passion. If you, its creator, doesn't want the product, no one else will. If you want it, chances are it will be wanted around the world. Desires are universal and speak in every language.

Renowned Fashion Designer & Founder of DKNY Brand

Resumes are not the way to find people. It's a connection and an instinct you have to listen to. I don't micro-manage, I give them enough rope to hang themselves.

Renowned Fashion Designer & Founder of DKNY Brand

I wasn't thinking about success or being 'big' or creating a huge business. I was thinking about answering a need, a void, creating something that wasn't there before.

Renowned Fashion Designer & Founder of DKNY Brand

I don't believe in a one-size-fits-all approach for talent, you have to approach every individual and opportunity from a bespoke perspective.

Music executive and manager, founder of Meadows and Q&A platform

I haven't remained still since I started in business, I am always moving forward, always looking ahead. I have always said 'the sky is the limit' and have lived by that motto every day.

Founder and Chairman of Graff Diamonds, luxury jeweler and gemstone merchant

I assumed this was just a fact of life in the UK, but because I saw the warmth of some people's welcome in the business community in particular, I overlooked it…

We adopted in Portugal a National Strategy for Entrepreneurship: Startup Portugal. A strategy that aims to make Portugal the ideal space to create, test, fail and try again.

Prime Minister of Portugal (2015-2024)

I believe many of our new generation of entrepreneurs put too much significance on money, and not enough on ideas. If you have a great idea, and the skills to execute that idea, the money will come.

If you are someone who has generated wealth, you have the responsibility to make sure this money is used to benefit the community. This is something that exists in all philosophies, cultures, and all religions. You have an obligation to the people around you, and your society.

The key to being successful in business is trust, you have to trust the people you work with. This trust must co-exist with competence. First and foremost the people in your business have to be extremely competent at what they do, and then it's up-to you as a leader to have trust in them.

I used to say to all my people that yes- we can celebrate our successes, and we have to succeed, but the failures are what will sink the business or hold it back.

Billionaire British entrepreneur and founder of Phones 4u mobile retailer

Without truthfulness I would never have been able to grow anything of any significance, I would have been 'found out.' Having truthfulness and ethics within a business creates trust among employees at all levels and is critical.

Billionaire British entrepreneur and founder of Phones 4u mobile retailer

You cannot run a business without great people, who are incentivised to be great; and so, you must protect them, and pay them appropriately.

Billionaire British entrepreneur and founder of Phones 4u mobile retailer

There are no people called entrepreneurs but people perform entrepreneurial functions at different times. Edison performed great entrepreneurial acts. But he was also fierce opponent of innovation when it threatened his business interests.

Leading African innovation and development scholar at Harvard Kennedy School

With Foursquare, our original app was a good idea but it wasn't a hundred million users good idea. The data behind the app, and what we do with the data? That's our good idea. That's our hundred million dollars in revenue idea.

Co-Founder of Foursquare, Location-Based Social Networking Pioneer

I don't really like the term entrepreneur because I think to some it implies that you start businesses for the sake of starting businesses. My view is this. If there's something you want to see in the world that doesn't exist, go build that thing. If that means you have to build a company? so be it.

Co-Founder of Foursquare, Location-Based Social Networking Pioneer