Gerald Levin Quotes

When I was a CEO, the books on management that I read weren't very much help after the first few months on the job. They were all designed to give you directions on how not to screw up your company.

No company should depend on one person no matter how that person is smart or genius, whether it's Apple or News Corp, or Citibank or any other company in the world.

When I was president of the company, I said, 'Okay, I can do this - piece of cake.' Then when you are the CEO, the responsibilities multiply enormously because you worry about everything.

As the CEO, I have to take care of the short term, mid term and the long term.

You're doing a major merger, you got to hope you didn't get it wrong. That's the view of any CEO.

Clearly, as a CEO, you have other functions that are managed by other people.

When you're C.E.O., you have to have two conditions: first, shareholders need to trust you and want you to head your company. The second is that you need to feel the motivation to do the job. So, as long as both are reunited, you continue to do the job. And today, they are reunited.

The lesson is that, No. 1, this management has to be at the highest class possible. No. 2, they have to have a succession plan.

I've said I will be CEO as long as my colleagues want me.

Nobody knows how to be a CEO. It's something you have to learn. It's a very lonely job.

I love criticism. Equitable Life went down because management wouldn't brook criticism, but if you are in business, you have to hear what's going wrong.

At IBM, if we kept our same leadership for 36 years, we'd be bankrupt.

Go for a business that any idiot can run - because sooner or later, any idiot probably is going to run it.

Working for a big company is, I believe, much risker than it looks.

Being a CEO still means sitting across the table from big institutional investors and showing your leadership and having them believe in you.

The problem with naming a No. 2 is you really want to throw all your weight behind the guy who is going to be the leader.

I had no idea until I joined the games industry and met some of the power players, particularly those running large public companies, that much of this world is run by complete clowns.

As a first-time CEO, I wasn't sure if I would scale to run IronPort long-term. But I wanted a legitimate shot at it.

[Describing her role:] It's like running a big corporation and a little country at the same time.

Most corporate disasters are driven not by market forces, but by CEOs messing things up.

If heads don’t roll, nobody makes any changes

I learned a lesson that I don't ever want to be a CEO.

I joined the board of Etsy when it was just three founders, and I helped recruit the COO and CTO, Chad Dickerson, who later became the CEO.

Me being in a managerial position has never crossed my mind. Even in the twilight of my career.

It's stressful when you run a company.