Robert Townsend
Full Name: Robert Chase Townsend
Birthdate: July 30, 1920
Birthplace: Washington, District of Columbia, U.S.A.
Date of Death: January 12, 1998
Occupation: Author and Businessman
Profile: CEO of Avis Rent-a-Car (1962-1965). Best known for
Up the Organization.
Website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Townsend_(author)
Number of Quotes: 5
Get to know your people. What they do well, what they enjoy doing, what their
weaknesses and strengths are, and what they want and need to get from their job.
If you don't do it excellently, don't do it at all. Because if it's not excellent, it won't be
profitable or fun, and if you're not in business for fun or profit, what the hell are you doing there?
Nobody should be chief executive officer of anything for more than five or six
years. By then he's stale, bored, and utterly dependent upon his own cliches.
One of the most important tasks of a manager is to eliminate his people's excuses for failure.
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management is supposed to be a tree full of owls ... hooting when management heads
into the wrong part of the forest. I'm still unpersuaded they even know where the forest is.
Last on Earth
