Sydney Pollack Quotes

I sometimes wonder how some people can live with themselves in some of the big companies today. So many far-reaching decisions are based on how they will affect the next shareholders' meeting.

'Power Play' is a morality tale for our post-Enron world and - not incidentally - wildly entertaining. Nothing wrong with that.

Actually, that issue of 'Don't be evil' is probably the number one reason we throw out ideas.

You hear entertainers all the time, saying, 'If I couldn't get paid for this, I'd do it for free.' When's the last time you ever heard a business person say, 'If I couldn't get paid for being chairman of British Petroleum, I'd do it for free'?

I'd shrink government in a minute, if I could shrink GM, Bank of America, and all these immoral corporations that operate by an undemocratic code, with no soul and no conscience.

When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom that profit loses.

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.

You know, I never fight for corporate America.

When a business group tells us there is nothing wrong with the environment, naturally they may have good arguments, but we are also sceptical, because we know that they have an interest in these things.

People should be encouraged by things like awards given for corporate governance practices.

Most people think companies are basically evil. They get a bad rap. And I think that's somewhat correct.

Industry leaders have the power to set standards.

My father always told me that all businessmen were sons of bitches, but I never believed it till now.

Excessive pandering to stockholders is as bad as any other form of pandering

Technical problems can be remediated. A dishonest corporate culture is much harder to fix.

I've always felt there was something wrong with Wells Fargo's culture, for a very, very long time.

I support the free enterprise system, and I want companies to make money, but they shouldn't be reaping profits from the deaths of their employees or former employees.

I don't think 'Profit' is devoid of morality. He's just on a different plane than the rest of us.

I started a software company with a couple other folks. It went public. We made plenty of money. And I thought it was this incredible mission, but in fact, we sold software to Haliburton; we sold software to Frito-Lay and Pepsi and all these companies that didn't necessarily do good things.

A corporation has no soul.

And these [pharmaceutical] companies are still threatening to sue. And it's like, you know, do you not have a conscience? Do you not want the world to be a better place? You're still making a profit. How much more of a profit do you want to make?

I have not changed my position. It is the same exact thing. We can not let crazed, insane businessmen who put their bottom line ahead of the planet - And I'm talking about Rex Tillerson.

Google is a very responsible company. It's a generous company, but it's very frugal in many ways.

The Enron scandal is worthy of the highest level of scrutiny, both because of the enormity of the crimes that may have been committed and because of what the largest bankruptcy in American history has already begun to reveal about the weaknesses in our nation's corporate structures and regulatory oversight.

Every technology company should have a red button somewhere in the headquarters where, if they realize they've caused more societal harm than they expected and done more harm than good, they press the button, and the company dissolves instantly.