Business

Jack Ma encouraged the entire company to practice and learn Tai Chi in their free time, it is a practice that allows one to embrace the seeming contradictions in the world, and in business. Let me give you some examples – how do you become a profitable business while also doing good for society?

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.

NFL Wide Receiver for Tampa Bay Buccaneers & Super Bowl Champion

When your business becomes a unicorn and heads for the stratosphere, there's a temptation to slide into the primary activity of the business being turning capital, and so customer focus can get lost. Once you stop putting customer first, the competition will destroy you.

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.

NFL Wide Receiver for Tampa Bay Buccaneers & Super Bowl Champion

The high debt ratios also masked the zombie households, zombie corporates, zombie businesses, zombie banks, zombie shadow banks, zombie governments and zombie countries. They never went bankrupt.

Economist known for predicting the 2008 financial crisis.

One of the greatest myths in the lives of the people I coach is, 'I will be happy when…' as if there is some place to go to. There's only one book that ends with the phrase happily ever after, that's a fairy-tale.

World's Most Cited Executive Coach & Leadership Development Expert

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

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!

Positions are what people say they want, interests are why they want the things they want. In most deadlocked negotiations, people haven't really got down to understanding what's driving the other side.

Negotiation expert and co-director of Harvard's Program on Negotiation

I look at every negotiation as an opportunity to solve a problem between me and the other negotiator. They are not my adversary – I need them – and they need me.

Negotiation expert and co-director of Harvard's Program on Negotiation

The more you're negotiating, the more you're staying at the table and engaging – the more information reveals itself. Value may be hidden initially because the other side doesn't know how to bring it up… how to share it with you without you taking advantage of it… as comfort builds, you gather information, and share it too, that becomes a critical part of the process.

Negotiation expert and co-director of Harvard's Program on Negotiation

You don't want to go into a negotiation thinking you will do A, B & C to get to D… you want to think about your goal – negotiation is not about reaching agreement, it's about meeting your objective as best as possible.

Negotiation expert and co-director of Harvard's Program on Negotiation

Negotiation is really a life skill, and it's essential in this day and age.

Negotiation expert and co-director of Harvard's Program on Negotiation

I've done a few very-right things in my life that I'm proud of, and one of them was getting to know Joey and bringing him into the business. Joey was a gift, and we knew we shouldn't miss out on him.

At most gyms, if you don't show up, nobody cares, and that's the truth. I love gyms, but if you don't show up, nobody will call you, nobody cares, they just take your money and have one less body in the room. We were different, we cared, we wanted you to show up.

The oral care industry and oral products is mainly made out of three or four companies that control 90% of oral care products in the world. All multibillion-dollar, multinational companies. I don't think these companies are stupid. They are run by very intelligent people, but I think the premise has been wrong.