Quotables

Photo by Anne Knudsen

“It really is a horrible business! It’s capital intensive, labor intensive, fuel intensive, intensely cyclical, tremendously competitive. The government tells you what you can do in the air and on the ground. Your capital assets travel at 500 miles an hour.”

Southwest Airlines founder and chair Herb Kelleher, whose company, despite it all, is the third largest passenger air carrier in the world and the only major American passenger airline to consistently turn a profit since 9/11–speaking at a View from the Top program in April. [Details]
Video File, 50:04 minutes
 

---

“If you ask where Starbucks came from, most people will say Seattle. But it really came from Milan, with all its espresso bars. Shame on us for being a European company and not thinking that trend could take off around the world.”

Ed Marra, former head of global marketing for the Swiss food conglomerate Nestlé, speaking as part of the Global Speaker Series in February. [Details]

 

---

Photo by Anne Knudsen

“We want to be in a business where you buy all your products from us, and our view is that you really need only two products: a big broadband pipe to your office or home, and a mobile phone. With those two things you’re essentially taken care of.”

Arun Sarin, CEO of Vodafone (Verizon in the United States), the world’s leading mobile telecommunications company, speaking at the View from the Top speaker series in April. [Details]
Video File, 56:38 minutes
 

---

“Charter schools come in lots of different forms, but one key notion is that they manage more than one school. … There is a strong argument that scale can actually increase the quality of education because it allows for the centralization of services. And, if you’re doing a good thing, more is better.”

Debra Meyerson, PhD ’89, Stanford faculty member, speaking at a seminar series in March. Although business principles don’t always work in the classroom, Meyerson said, the success of the charter school movement is due largely to the schools applying efficient business models. [Details]