Stephen Ambrose Quotes

If in doubt, move decisions up to the President.

To whom one reports is a unit of measure. It measures the exact distance between the player and the center of power. It is the closest we can get to a calibrated answer to the question 'How big am I?' More than the size of an executive's office or even his title, which no one remembers anyway, the fewer people between the player and a 'yes,' the more powerful he is.

When you are a successful business person, you are only as good as your team. No one can do every deal alone.

Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing.

In terms of getting people to experiment more and take more risk, there are at least three things that immediately come to my mind. Number one, of course, is role-modeling it yourself. Number two is, when people take intelligent, smart risks and yet it doesn't work out, not shooting them. And number three, being honest with yourself.

In a corporation, there can only be one guy in the end: the CEO.

I'm not too involved in day-to-day matters. I only supervise at the board level.

The best entrepreneurs I've ever met are all good communicators. It's perhaps one of the very few unifying factors.

No matter how many or how few people you have reporting to you, you must remember that as you climb higher in the ranks, your words will be taken as commands even if you're just thinking out loud.

Problem-solving becomes a very important part of our makeup as we grow into maturity or move up the corporate ladder.

There are three things that are important for a film. Number one is story, number two is story, number three is story. Good actors can save a bad script and make it bearable, but good actors can't make a bad script good - they can just make it bearable.

I think Dwight loves being number two. I don't think he has any desire to be number one. He wants to be number two no matter where he goes. It's like Avis. 'We try harder.' That's Dwight.

If you've been on top of the food chain in the Armed Forces, that's who you are. You're used to dealing with your life in a particular way.

Depending on the level you're at in your company, the higher you go up in rank, usually the longer you can dance.

I work directly for the boss. I listen to everybody, but I have one man whose voice is louder than everybody else's.

The importance of discretion increases with closeness to the top of a hierarchical organization.

The buck stops with me, but I can tick off dozens of very good senior executives that are responsible for hundreds or thousands of people who work for me.

Anyone who critically analyzes a business learns this: that the success or failure of an enterprise depends usually upon one man.

We get our military people to come back and make recommendations to me and I will follow those recommendations. I will follow them very strongly.

How many kings are governed by their ministers, how many ministers by their secretaries? Who, in such cases, is really the chief?

I think most people can identify with the hierarchy of the workplace.

I don't know where we should take this company, but I do know that if I start with the right people, ask them the right questions, and engage them in vigorous debate, we will find a way to make this company great.

Unlike top management at Enron, exemplary leaders reward dissent. They encourage it. They understand that, whatever momentary discomfort they experience as a result of being told they might be wrong, it is more than offset by the fact that the information will help them make better decisions.

You've got to listen but you've also got to lead.

I worry that there are people who are put in positions of authority because they're good talkers, but they don't have good ideas.