Al Dunlap Quotes
101 Al Dunlap Quotes
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The only barriers in your career are self-imposed.
Al Dunlap
Don’t take the easy way out. It’s always easier to take the easy wrong than the harder right.
Al Dunlap
Don’t be afraid to replace the way things were with the way they should be.
Al Dunlap
Communicate, communicate, communicate.
Al Dunlap
Tie executive pay to shareholder value.
Al Dunlap
The people who invest in a company own it – not the employees, not the suppliers, and not the community.
Al Dunlap
In corporate circles, the world’s most abused minority is the shareholder.
Al Dunlap
Boards of directors perform best when they are aligned with shareholders.
Al Dunlap
Feed a company, starve a culture.
Al Dunlap
Seek out and free the good people. Give them the opportunity to flourish from within.
Al Dunlap
Every business has a message to sell.
Al Dunlap
Even in a thriving company, it often takes the eyes of an outsider to spot the obvious and bring business back to the correct path for the long journey ahead.
Al Dunlap
It is easier for an outsider because an outsider doesn’t get caught up in internal politics, doesn’t get caught up in traditions, doesn’t get caught up in the culture.
Al Dunlap
If you grow up in a culture, you will think and act the way that culture expects you to think and act.
Al Dunlap
[Scott Paper Company] Scott’s packaging was so bad even the products were embarrassed.
Al Dunlap
[On being hired to turn around Scott Paper] I experienced the ‘Oh, God.’ Factor: I thought, what have I signed up for?
Al Dunlap
The Scott people had let their boat take on a lot of water. It was going to take an entire marina of pumps to get all that water out and make the flagship seaworthy again.
Al Dunlap
[At Scott Paper] I told him I would attack costs, put together a high-powered management team, focus strategy around the core business, and get rid of debt. And that’s what I did, from day one.
Al Dunlap
When a business doesn’t do well, no one can stand up and say, ‘Well, I’m not to blame.’ If you were part of the business, you must accept some of the blame. If you were running the company, you must accept most of the blame.
Al Dunlap
Some critics may think I fire people too quickly. But it’s pretty easy to discern who is willing to make changes and who will maintain the status quo. I don’t want the status quo. The former management screwed up. I didn’t want them screwing me up.
Al Dunlap
I was the result of the previous administration’s having created a train wreck out of a once successful company. But people within the company had difficulty accepting that fact…
Al Dunlap
[To an already performing executive] His mandate from me came in two words: ‘Do better.’
Al Dunlap
Scott was the largest tissue company in the world, but it was living in the past.
Al Dunlap
There are no three-year restructuring plans in my line of work.
Al Dunlap
My speciality has been saving companies on the verge of collapse, but I don’t just pull them away from the brink. I give them strength and systems for surviving the long days and nights ahead.
Al Dunlap
People want to be liked; they don’t want to do what’s right if it costs them entry to the clubhouse.
Al Dunlap
I had never before started so close to flatline. Scott [Paper] didn’t need a quick fix, it needed defibrillating.
Al Dunlap
Almost anyone can shred a corporation down to size… more importantly, I also built Scott back up.
Al Dunlap
People love comparing my $101 million against the 11,200 Scott Paper workers who were laid off on my watch. But the two totals are unrelated. The jobs were eliminated because they company couldn’t afford them.
Al Dunlap
Criticism is the price of leadership, in government, sports, business, or the arts.
Al Dunlap
Executives must tackle the doubters and the scathing criticism head-on and not avoid them. If their actions are right and correct, they will also be eminently defensible.
Al Dunlap
Criticism causes managers to fail because no one wants to be criticized.
Al Dunlap
If you’ve been promoted from within, don’t just bring along your friends from the lunchroom. Look for people who challenge you and who have ideas. They will stimulate you and the company.
Al Dunlap
You want people who have been through change before.
Al Dunlap
You only remember 10 percent of what you hear. I believe if you hear it ten times, you are likely to remember 101 percent of it.
Al Dunlap
Business is simple: Don’t overintellectualize it
Al Dunlap
Focus, focus, focus on your handful of goals. If you set too many goals, you will fail. Your intentions will diffuse.
Al Dunlap
Don’t make decisions in rooms full of people. It’s horribly inefficient. The result of the meeting is usually, ‘Let’s have another meeting.’
Al Dunlap
In every good company, and I don’t care how bad the company is, there are some good people buried by layers of corporate politics and bureaucracy. Identify them, remove the shackles of bureaucracy and let them flourish.
Al Dunlap
You have to get to a good cost position and get there quickly.
Al Dunlap
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