Kerry Stokes Quotes

Ethics or simple honesty is the building blocks upon which our whole society is based, and business is a part of our society, and it's integral to the practice of being able to conduct business, that you have a set of honest standards.

Though negotiations are a rough game, you should never allow them to become a dirty game. Once you've agreed to a deal, don't back out of it unless the other party fails to deliver as promised. Your handshake is your bond. As far as I'm concerned, a handshake is worth more than a signed contract. As an entrepreneur, a reputation for integrity is your most valuable commodity. If you try to put something over on someone, it will come back to haunt you.

Be fair in all your dealings, may it be in your family or in your business. At the end of it all, what matters is not how much money you make but how honest you are.

I'm just in an unfortunate business where if you ask me a question I have to answer it honestly and if I don't answer it truthfully then I'm not respected.

There are ways of fighting for your interests. I never do something in business that I wouldn't do in life.

I am still looking for the modern equivalent of those Quakers who ran successful businesses, made money because they offered honest products and treated their people decently... This business creed, sadly, seems long forgotten.

With me, I'm going to have a label where no one is ever cheated, ever.

Integrity is the most needed to succeed in business.

In business, everything starts with integrity. Otherwise it falls apart, though it does take time to find out who has integrity.

A man of business will often deceive you without the slightest scruple, but he will absolutely refuse to commit a theft.

There is no such thing as business ethics. There is only one kind -- you have to adhere to the highest standards.

In matters of business, no woman stops at integrity.

If you pretend that business is beyond morality, that's the kind of morality you get.

Many persons have an idea that one cannot be in business and lead an upright life, whereas the truth is that no one succeeds in business to any great extent, who misleads or misrepresents.

A business is seldom if ever built up except on lines of strictest integrity.

I don't trust a man who talks about ethics when he is picking my pocket. But if he is acting in his own self-interest and says so, I have usually been able to work out some way to do business with him.

When you're building a business or joining a company, you have to be transparent; you can't have two sets of information for two sets of people.

Don't ever break someone's trust. Once you do, then nobody wants to do business with you.

The greatest asset, even in this country, is not oil and gas. It's integrity. Everyone is searching for it, asking, 'Who can I do business with that I can trust?'

I work in a strange business, and 'trust' is a word that's not even in the vocabulary.

There is a yearning for people to return to elementary moral virtues, such as integrity and commitment. We distrust people who have no centering of values. We greatly respect businessmen, for example, if they display those virtues, even if we don't necessarily agree with the people.

Capitalism actually encourages morality because capitalism can't function well if people can't trust each other and people aren't honest, if a deal isn't a deal.

Why can't it be awesome to work for a food company? Why can't we create an environment where people are trying to push each other to do great things, and we're not trying to steal from anybody - we're trying to be good to our farmers and run an honorable business, if there is such a thing anymore?

There's one thing very important to me in business and for the long-term: always be honest with people. For the past 60 years, I always pay my debts.

Corporate executives and business owners need to realize that there can be no compromise when it comes to ethics, and there are no easy shortcuts to success. Ethics need to be carefully sown into the fabric of their companies.