Louis V. Gerstner Jr. Quotes

I don't care about revenues.

My investors expect me to maximize profits.

What we are doing is increasing our focus on cash flow, return on investment, and value creation.

I truly believe that the combination of a strong top line together with a strong bottom line is what makes for a sustainable business.

Relative to Google or the kind of turnaround we're seeing, we do care about profitability. That is our goal in every one of the areas where we invest.

Revenue cures everything in the business world.

We expect all our businesses to have a positive impact on our top and bottom lines. Profitability is very important to us or we wouldn't be in this business.

Profit or perish... There are only two ways to make money: increase sales and decrease costs.

We want to be the volume number one, but also we want to have 8 percent in operating profit.

I have a hard time with businesses that don't make money at some point.

Remember, if your business isn't making money, then you and your employees aren't, either.

For the most part, earnings and market value growth are a result of reduced expenses.

If we want, we can be profitable, but we are focusing on growth. We don't comment on profitability, but we do look at it internally. And many of our Ola cities are profitable. But our focus across all cities is growth.

Our first fiscal year, we were profitable.

Our continued investment in productivity will add to our margins, and you'll see that reflected in the bottom line earnings.

We care about margins.

Our progress isn't just limited to the operation. Financially, we have been performing well. United's 2015 earnings were one of the best in the company's history, and we made significant progress shrinking the margin gap with our closest competitors, strengthening our balance sheet, and returning significant cash to shareholders.

Profit is the most global aspect of a business, and it is cross-functional.

The Profit and Loss Statement tells you a lot about how your business is doing. It can also help you to determine ways that you can go about saving money so that you get to bring more money home! Basically, the P&L statement measures all of your income sources verses all your business expenses for any given period of time.

Market leadership can translate directly to higher revenue, higher profitability, greater capital velocity, and correspondingly stronger returns on invested capital.

Control your expenses better than your competition. This is where you can always find the competitive advantage.

Business 2.0 was hugely profitable last year, and will be profitable this year.

Just as we are enhancing the customer side of our marketplace, we are also looking for ways to increase our contributor expense.

Margin is a customer concept.

I liked being CEO of Blockbuster, but my job is to put it on the bottom line for shareholders.