John Harvey-Jones quotes:

Go for civil engineering, because civil engineering is the branch of engineering which teaches you the most about managing people. Managing people is a skill which is very, very useful and applies almost regardless of what you do.

It is the responsibility of leadership and management to give opportunities and put demands on people which enable them to grow as human beings in their work environment.

It horrifies me that ethics is only an optional extra at Harvard Business School.

If you are doing things the same way as two years ago, you are almost certainly doing them wrong.

In order to solve problems, information has to be shared; and not only information, but doubts, fears and questions.

People who don't make mistakes are no bloody good to you at all.

People are unlikely to know that they need a product which does not exist and the basis of market research in new and innovative products is limited in this regard.

Planning is an unnatural process; it is much more fun to do something. The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression.

How do you know you have won? When the energy is coming the other way and when your people are visibly growing individually and as a group.

Problems can only be solved by the people who have them. You have to try and coax them and love them into seeing ways in which they can help themselves.

The only companies that innovate are those who believe that innovation is vital for their future.

Everyone thinks I'm a smart arse who can solve any bloody problem. I'm not. I'm just a very old businessman and a very experienced businessman who made every mistake in the book and can recognise one when I see one.

The trouble is that all-encompassing though information technology may be, it will always convey facts and numbers ... what it does not convey is perception, belief and motivation.

Good business should contain something for both parties.

The task of industry is continuously, year on year, to make more and better things, using less of the world's resources.

There is practically no area of business where the difference between rhetoric and actuality is greater than in the handling of people.

It is surprising, in the welter of questions that one gets at (AGMs), how few actually relate to the performance of the company, or the decisions taken by the board in particular areas.