Graham Turner Quotes

110 Graham Turner Quotes

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[On FCL] In one hundred years time it will be a different organization altogether – travel might be a minor part of the overall business by then.
Graham Turner

On the positive side our external managers have dragged us kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century. The downside is that our lean mean operation has probably become a bit soft.
Graham Turner

If our business model is right, external factors only play a minor part. The most impactful issues are the internal ones, such as not recruiting the right people or support costs getting out of control. That’s been our history.
Graham Turner

We have to live by our philosophies and stick by our purpose.
Graham Turner

[On not worrying about the stock market] We can’t worry about that – all we can do is keep growing our profit and our business.
Graham Turner

[On retirement] That would be after I’m dead. If I retired before then, it would just mean I wasn’t passionate about my business.
Graham Turner

Many people look at FCL and talk about how big we are. They talk about our shop numbers, our acquisitions, and our overseas operations. As far as we’re concerned we’ve come a long way. We’ve got a long way to go.
Graham Turner

Usually FCL has been a pretty innovative company, not so much in the product or technology sense, but in the way we do things… In truth it has just been basic bloody commonsense…
Graham Turner

Almost anyone heavily involved in a business small or large can only do it with the help and support of close family.
Graham Turner

Our attitude is something that we can control; often it’s the only thing that we do have control over, in fact. The message is simple therefore: we each have a hand in shaping our destiny.
Graham Turner



There is no final destination.
Graham Turner

Nothing could be more powerful than an organization – whether it be of a thousand or 20,000 – where each one of those 20,000 genuinely believed they owned the seat they were sitting at, and took full responsibility for their own and the organisation’s success.
Graham Turner

Once you had all the physical stuff in place – if you did your sales system right; got the best people; had a good location; fitted out the shops well; developed a well-recognised brand; serviced your customers correctly; got the right products – that your business would make good money. But we found that’s probably only half the story. The other half of the story is more spiritual…
Graham Turner

Many senior managers in most companies are left-brain males, or male-oriented females, and the spiritual side gets left behind a lot. Yet, once you get to a certain stage of development within an organization, that’s where you’ll get most of the improvement out of it.
Graham Turner

The measurement of your spiritual application will come in your results, in your bottom line.
Graham Turner

Whipping people into shape doesn’t work. If you can’t trust them they shouldn’t be there.
Graham Turner

You’ve got to trust them and give them ownership of what they are doing. If you’ve selected them correctly then people will take ownership with both hands.
Graham Turner

[In a business] Fear and bullying can work for the short term, even 10 years, but won’t be lasting.
Graham Turner

A true team leader has a high self esteem, high confidence, empathy – spiritual things that come from someone who is at peace with themselves.
Graham Turner

[On a shop team] If the leader of that team felt genuine ownership of that business, imagine what a competitor would have to do to knock you off. They would have to be awfully good to attack 20,000 people who vehemently believed that they had ownership in the business.
Graham Turner



We try to look at the Australian Aborigines. Most people have a good understand of how they lived as hunters and gatherers. If you didn’t structure it that way you might end up with a structure that conflicts with what people have an inherent need for.
Graham Turner

Workplace in modern society has to inevitably take over the inherent needs that humans have; that the villages, tribes and families used to provide.
Graham Turner

People have to work in a close-knit family, and that family has to be very supportive. If it’s not, you get people who are stressed and people who leave.
Graham Turner

The ones who have a close-knit family are the ones who enjoy the work the most, have the most fun, experience less stress, and find a purpose for celebration in what they do.
Graham Turner

The company is like a living organism or entity beyond just the physical. If you want the company to survive long term, you’ve got to understand that it is a living, breathing thing, and survival depends on it getting enough oxygen, food, and having the structure right.
Graham Turner

A fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay is just complete nonsense.
Graham Turner

You use incentives to reward behaviours and attitudes you want. It’s got to be seen as a reward for doing what is wanted and not a punishment for being withheld.
Graham Turner

[On the leaders he admires] Michael Chaney, Nelson Mandela, Gerry Harvey and Warren Buffett.
Graham Turner

We will never put off any salespeople during tough times. We are helped by the fact that our performance-based wage costs can decrease by up to ten per cent, but the main reason is that we know that enquiry comes back very quickly and then we’ll need these people more than ever.
Graham Turner

Start with a lucky break. Then have a clear dream… and stay focused and passionate about achieving your dream. Accept that it is mainly about having the attitude and working with the right people; the business or field is unimportant.
Graham Turner



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