PROMOTE OWNERSHIP

“Many of the Century Club companies engage in some type of profit-sharing, employee ownership, or participatory management practices. Even without any type of formal ownership, employees in these companies develop an ownership attitude – it’s their company.” Vicki Tenhaken, Lessons from the Century Club Companies

“I’m comforted as an owner when all of the key employees own a lot of stock. It makes them much less focused on short-term things. They’re much more focused on ‘Will this make the business more valuable in five years, ten years?’’ Bill Ackman

“When people feel they own an organiztion, they perform with greater care and devotion.” Michael Abrashoff

“Show me an organization in which employees take ownership, and I will show you one that beats its competitors.” Michael Abrashoff

“Giving equity to employees is perhaps the key element to making startups work.” Sam Altman, OpenAI

“Today, more than 80% of our associates own Wal-Mart stock, either through profit-sharing or on their own, and personally I figure most of the other 20% either haven't qualified for profit sharing, or haven't been with us long enough to catch on. Over the years, we've also had a variety of incentive and bonus plans to keep every associate involved in the business as partners.” Sam Walton, Walmart

“Give your managers a vested interest in their business and amazing things can happen.’ Kent Taylor, Texas Roadhouse

“All employees as owners - this generates bonding within the company. I unreservedly support that all, and that really does mean all employees become owners.” Percy Barnevik, ABB

“If you take employee ownership, it’s hard to make an argument against it. It’s good for workers, good for corporate cultures, good for communities, and good for investors.” Peter Stavros, KKR

“To get employees to engage, contribute, and exceed expectations, you need to give team members a slice of ownership. When people are incentivized as partners and treated as partners, they'll act like partners.” Ron Shaich, Panera Bread

“Today, every team member at O’Reilly becomes a stockholder within six months of working for the company.” David O’Reilly, O’Reilly Automotive

“[Put] the employees into the company as stockholders so that they will have more than a wage interest. As far as the officers are concerned, I have always taken the position that their stock holdings ought to be so material that the dividends will mean more to them than their salaries. That takes them out of the class of hired men. And it is right and proper that the officers should stand or fall with the company, for what they do makes or breaks the company.” Harvey Firestone, Firestone Tires

‘‘Perhaps the two most important incentives are the profit-sharing plan and the stock ownership plan. All of our full time store people share in the profits of their individual retail operation. This is paid in cash at each inventory period. In addition to sharing the profit which they have personally been involved in producing at their own store, employees also share in the profits of the company through our profit sharing-retirement trust plan. Publix sets aside 15% of the net profit before taxes and places this in trust for all eligible employees. They have 100% vested interest in their trust with 10 years participation. This profit-sharing plan and trust now has total assets of almost $86 million.” George Jenkins, Publix

"Sharing stock ownership with workers and building ‘ownership cultures’ has proven time and again to be a win-win initiative. Ownership cultures work. Happier, more engaged employees lead to stronger businesses with more cohesive cultures and better returns." Peter Stavros, KKR

“When presenting the new stock [to ‘partners’] in 1927, Jim Casey remarked, ‘There is no bigger incentive than for someone to work for himself.’ The stock offering assured better management – from frugality to employee motivation – which in turn contributed to increased profits.” Greg Nieman, Big Brown, UPS

“United Parcel Service was a pioneer in employee-ownership, unique in an era of sweatshops and heavy-handed management that often necessitated union intervention. Its employees became the family.” Greg Nieman, Big Brown, UPS

“We have a very exceptional 401(k) plan where we give employees if they put in 6%, we match it normally with 5% HEICO stocks. Many, many of our working people, I'm talking about factory workers, shipping clerks, secretarial help or millionaires, some are multimillionaires, all as a result of stock that HEICO has given them. They take a personal pride in being a HEICO team member. It's not as though, hey, I'm working and I hate my job. They understand that they are being compensated and rewarded by having shares of HEICO's stock given to them by the company. They didn't pay for it. So, that brings their interest aligned with all shareholders.” Laurens Mendelson, Heico

“Today, Wawa associates own more than 38% of the company through the ESOP.” Howard Stoeckel

“When you’re 41% owned by people who work for you, it’s a very powerful thing. I get terrific satisfaction out of seeing people retire and live the dreams they want to in retirement and they can do that because of the stock ownership plan. It drives teamwork and it drives emotion. It’s a huge win for us.” Dick Wood, Wawa

“Twenty-one percent of the company is owned by teammates. 60% of teammates are owners. If you own a share you will care more. It’s something embedded in our DNA in the 1970’s. We think it’s a real differentiator.” Andy Watts, Brown & Brown

“Experiencing how powerful and motivating that sense of ownership is, I’ve always encouraged and helped my employees over the years to be owners in our company as well.” Charles Schwab

“Owning a piece of the company gave so many of our partners a tremendous sense of pride, demonstrating that we respected our people enough to share our success.” Howard Schultz, Starbucks

“Of one thing I am certain - the employees ought to have some stock interest, and we have made that compulsory - a condition of employment. And I also believe that the officers should have their savings in the company they work for.” Harvey Firestone, Firestone Tires

“We also believe an organization responds best when performance expectations are clear, concise, rigidly reinforced and, most importantly, rewarded when met and handsomely rewarded with equity when performance expectations are exceeded. The use of Watsco equity with key leaders has played an important role in our success in two ways – getting our organization to think long-term and to act as owners.” Albert H. Nahmad, Watsco

"One of the reasons our results are better than our competitors is that all of our stock is owned by employees - people who are actively engaged in our business. Each one is, in fact, a part owner of our company and is, in a sense, working for himself. Certainly this should, and I believe it does, provide a definite incentive to our employees and a corresponding benefit to the company." Peter Kiewit

“Today, our directors, officers and employees maintain meaningful ownership of the company, most of which does not vest until an individual’s career with the company is complete. The benefits of long-term thinking come to our leaders in the long-term, a very important parallel in our minds.” Albert H. Nahmad, Watsco

“Why do the employees care? Because they are owners of the company (100% of all regular employees who have worked there for at least a year own company stock, and over 50% regularly purchase shares in addition to those that come as a benefit from employment. Around here, Max DePree says, ‘The employees act as if they own the place.’” James O’Toole, Leadership is Art

"When I joined the [KI – office furniture] company there were just three shareholders, and there was no information about how we were doing financially. Today, everyone is an owner, and I have tried to teach every person, right down to the technicians on the shop floor, how to think like a businessperson." Richard J. Resch

“When people get stock in the company they work for, they have something real in their hands, a guarantee that they’re going to receive a portion of the wealth they help create.” Jack Stack, SRC Corporation

“A company of owners will outperform a company of employees any day of the week. We do everything we can to instill  the habits of ownership in people, and to encourage them to think and act like owners.” Jack Stack

“People ask me all the time, ‘How do you get people to be so nice? How do you get them to be so productive? How do you get them up early in the morning and work late at night?’ It’s easy. When people have ownership of something, they do what it takes to improve the value of that ownership. It truly does make a difference.” Ed Crenshaw, CEO Publix

"The basic principle which I believe has contributed more than any other to the building of our business as it is today, is the ownership of our company by the people employed in it." Jim Casey, Founder UPS

“Employee ownership is credited by the people inside and outside the company with having done more than any other thing toward making our company and our people so notably successful financially and otherwise.” Jim Casey, Founder UPS

“Our people are our most valuable asset. We believe that the dedication of our employees results in large part from our distinctive ‘employee-owner’ concept. Currently, employees and retirees own about two-thirds of our outstanding shares. Every one of our executive officers has more than 25 years of service with UPS and has accumulated a meaningful ownership stake in our company.” UPS Prospectus 1999

“We wanted to underpay people in cash compensation. We wanted to over-equitize them, but we wanted to pay them when they generate intrinsic value.” Nick Howley, Transdigm

“I decided right off the bat that key people, I would give them a chance to buy a piece of their company, so it would be their company, not just mine.” Barclay Simpson, Simpson Manufacturing

“I am in favour of employee shareholdings. We are in a period of truly exceptional economic growth. Involve employees in growth by allowing them to purchase seems to me essential for social consensus and the motivation of company personnel.” Bernard Arnault, LVMH

“Our partners fuel our success and we believe deeply in the importance of each employee partner having ownership in the company to share collectively in that success.” Todd Schneider, Cintas

“Kiewit’s philosophy has been that the best way to encourage decision-makers to exercise the good judgment of an owner was, simply put, to be an owner.” ‘Kiewit - An Uncommon Company’

“I couldn't give [my first two employees, Harry Sonneborn and June Martino, who worked tirelessly and neglected their families] them raises to compensate them for their past efforts, but I could make sure they would be rewarded when McDonald's became one of the country's major companies, which I never doubted it would. I gave them stock - ten percent to June and twenty percent to Harry - and ultimately it would make them rich. At the time, of course, Chicago Transit Authority tokens would have been worth more." Ray Kroc, McDonalds

“We have 60% of our teammates are shareholders. That creates a different mindset in the organization. How you make decisions is different if you look at that as your money? How you lead is different when you think that the investment you're making matters? Our teammates think about our business, they care, they ask the questions.” Julie Turpin, Brown & Brown

“A.P. Giannini was one of the very first American businessmen to promote employee ownership and profit sharing. At the time of his death nearly 40 percent of Bank of America’s shares were owned by its employees.” A.P Giannini – Banker of America

“As far back as 1923, Mr. Giannini was turning over in his mind an idea for liberalizing the extra-compensation plan for the bank's working force. ‘It is my wish to leave the control of the bank in the hands of its employees,’ he told the Coast Banker. The following year the new plan was announced. All the features of the old program, such as life insurance and pensions, were retained. In addition provision was made for the acquisition of bank stock. These benefits were open to all employees and to all officers, with the exception of A. P. Giannini. Under the new arrangement the bank annually set aside 40 per cent of its net earnings as a gift to its workers. How much an individual received depended on his own thrift. What he saved from his salary toward the purchasing of stock the bank matched with a like amount, plus additional contributions computed on the basis of length of service, the employee's pay, and whether he was single or married.” A.P Giannini – Banker of America

“[The] plan of employee compensation— over and above normal salaries — is to be used by employees in acquiring an ever-increasing share in the ownership and control of the Bank. Employees are thus put in a position to capitalize their efforts in behalf of the Bank and build themselves up to a position it would otherwise be impossible for them to attain. That in working out this plan stockholders would be benefited has been frankly admitted. That is only fair.” A.P Giannini – Banker of America

“Put simply, companies generate more ideas and create more value when more people get a piece of the action and a seat at the table. ‘A host of studies show that workers at firms where employees have a significant stake tend to be more productive and innovative, to retain staff better and to fire them less readily,’ notes the Economist in an article titled, ‘Turning Workers into Capitalists.’ But ‘these findings come with a proviso. The effects often depend on whether the employees’ ownership stake also brings a greater say in how the firm is run.” Bill Taylor, Simply Brilliant

“Our unique family-oriented culture, the powerful economics of our business, and its widely dispersed economic ownership make Pershing Square a unique and special place to spend one’s career. Our small scale and long-tenured employee base also reduce risks, particularly in a regulatorily-sensitive industry.” Bill Ackman

“There's a big difference between being a renter of the corporate asset, as I say, and being an owner. If you're an owner, think of it like having a rent-a-car. If you have a rent-a-car and it gets dirty or a little scratch in it, you're not going to fuss too much about it. If it's your car, you're going to be really upset about it. You'll keep it very clean.” Henry Kravis

“I think the issue of ownership is the most critical thing that you can give to someone. I just see a huge difference between people who own a business, even if it is a small business, and professional managers in big companies.” Ralph Shey, Scott Fetzer [a BRK company.]

“We would want the operating members of your family (business we are acquiring) to retain a 20% interest in the business. We need 80% to consolidate earnings for tax purposes, which is a step important to us. It is equally important to us that the family members who run the business remain as owners. Very simply, we would not want to buy unless we felt key members of present management would stay on as our partners.” Warren Buffett

SHARE THE PROFITS

“In addition to paying salaries of between $18 and $30 a week, which were extremely generous for the food industry, Billy Ingram [co-founder of White Castle] believed that his employees would sell more hamburgers and strive to maximize the company's profits if he devised a tangible incentive system. Accordingly, in only the third year of operation in Wichita, Ingram established a generous bonus system that distributed a fund composed of year-end profits to all White Castle employees. Ingram's purpose for the bonus, however, went beyond that of rewarding employees for a year of superior productivity. He also wanted to promote the habits of saving and thrift among his workers” David Gerard Hogan

“All [of the] Buffett CEOs have a direct financial interest in their business. Their compensation plans are simple and are directly tied to the results of their own enterprise.” Robert Miles, ‘The Buffett CEOs’

“Sharing the earnings, sharing the profit with your people, treat them well, pay them better, that is all a part of it.” Andrew Cherng, Panda Express

“I now believe that profit sharing, if properly managed, is one of the best means of drawing the entire company together into a common effort.” S.C Johnson, Johnson Wax

“I truly believe we are a high-performing company because of profit sharing. Our earnings are better because of it.” S.C Johnson, Johnson Wax

"The decision to commit ourselves to giving the associates more equitable treatment in the company, was without a doubt the single smartest move we ever made at Wal-Mart." Sam Walton

“The only way people will be loyal to an organization is if they are shown appreciation, given respect, and rewarded with good pay and a piece of the action.” Robert Spector, Nordstrom

“All employees are called associates, and all of them are paid well - far above industry norms. They receive benefits and vacation days. They can participate in profit-sharing and retirement plans.” Lynsi Snyder, In-N-Out Burger

“I knew we had to make each and every crew member a partner in sharing in the earnings we created for our fund investors, earnings that our crew had helped to create, just as soon as circumstances would permit.’ John C Bogle, Vanguard

“My thinking has always been, if I give away half the profits I still have half left; if I share $10m with people, I still have $10m left over. I don't understand why businessmen can't do this, as it is unselfish for good reasons. It helps a lot of other people." Les Schwab, Les Schwab Tires

“Our compensation is quite different than most of other companies. While salaries are just average, an individual could make a lot of money if his branch makes a lot of money. Outside investors should like this system. The price of a stock depends largely on earnings; so strong earnings can drive both the pay of our people and the price of our stock. These seem to be commonsensical truisms. I guess my question to you is, why don’t more American businesses follow these same ideas?” Barclay Simpson, Simpson Manufacturing

 “I set up right away, a percentage of the profits that go [to the people], depending on how much money they made in the company -  they get a percentage. If they have a really good quarter, they can get a ton of money. A ton. And their salaries are just average. It’s worked extremely well over the years. It even has worked — I’ve been surprised that we haven’t lost a bunch of people in the great recession, because our sales and profits went down substantially. They’re still there; we’re still making good money. But we’ve kept almost all of our people.” Barclay Simpson, Simpson Manufacturing

“Let’s say you make $100,000 for the business and I give you 10% of that as a bonus, or $10,000. By that logic, if you make us $1 million, you get $100,000. Would I rather have you make the extra $10,000 or $100,000? It’s obvious. I’d much rather pay you $100,000. The more you make, the more the business makes. Why wouldn’t I want that to happen.” Jack Taylor, Enterprise-Rent-A-Car

“ABC Supply returns 51 percent of after-tax net income to the work force in bonuses. Close to half of the company's managers making an average of $100,000 or more started out as roof loaders, warehouse workers, or truck drivers.” ABC Supply

“The profit-sharing plan has been many years in the making and is still in the experimental stage. Mr. Patterson approached wages never with the thought of how little he could pay, but first to see how much he could pay, and then to find what he could give in addition to the wages. The welfare work and the various employee helps were not in place of wages—they were in addition to payments which were uniformly higher than elsewhere paid for the same sort of work.” John H Patterson, National Cash Register

“If I give someone a piece of the action or a bonus based on profits, they are going to do a better job every time.” Jack Taylor, Enterprise-Rent-A-Car

"Lincoln Electric puts thirty-two cents of every pre-tax dollar into a shared bonus pool." Bill Taylor, 'Simply Brilliant'

“Over the past twenty years, the incentives and profit sharing paid by ServiceMaster to its people have averaged 45 to 50 percent of incremental growth in earnings.” C. William Pollard, ServiceMaster

“As an owner, share the wealth with those who’ve helped you along the way. You stand on the shoulders of so many great people - reward them.” Kent Taylor, Texas Roadhouse

“A 1954 profile noted that long before the practice became commonplace Old Dominion offered profit sharing through retirement funds and year-end bonus.” Jeffrey Rogenden, Old Dominion

“All our staff get a salary commensurate with what the local market pays for their specialty and experience. Additionally though, they all share in the worldwide overall revenues of the company.” Michael Bloomberg

“Our company shares its financial success: High salaries, significant revenue sharing, and generous expense reimbursement are part of everyone's package.” Michael Bloomberg

“Everyone participates in our firmwide (as opposed to branch or product or department) success. For senior people, this revenue sharing can be 50 to 75 percent of their total yearly compensation. If we have a bad year, the most junior employees get hurt, and those who are running the company do too. In good times, both groups have smiles on their faces.” Michael Bloomberg

“Many company founders go down the drain being greedy. If you want to build your company, you have to deal your key people in. If you take care of everyone who is working hard to help you, you take care of yourself. An organisation is able to grow and profit when the key people share in the future, when you tell your people that this is their company, too.’ David Thomas, founder Wendy’s

“We put in the first profit-sharing plan in the airline industry. Our people were very cognizant that they were owners.” Herb Kelleher

“To make sure that it’s not just those on the shop floor who benefit from success, we give all our central departments a profit share at the end of the financial year.” Julian Richer, Richer Sounds, Ethical Capitalist

“We gradually evolved some basic labour policies which are very simple in statement. In-deed, they are commonplace except in execution. Here they are: (1) Provide the best possible working conditions. (2) Try to pay a somewhat higher wage than any one else pays. (3) Provide rewards and facilities over and above what any other company provides. (4) Insist that foremen treat their men as human beings. (5) Avoid the strict definition of the duties of any supervisor or foreman, in order that no man may easily pass the buck.” Harvey Firestone

"When you study the loyalty leaders, you usually find that the most radical departures from the norm involve restructuring frontline rewards. The front line is where your customer’s experience can be most dramatically affected. And in most firms, it is frontline compensation that seems to have drifted furthest from the basic partnership structures that share excess value." Fred Reichheld, ‘The Loyalty Effect’

"There are plenty of historical precedents for paying people the right way. For example, on the old New England whaling ships, officers and crew signed on knowing that food and lodging would be provided but that the real compensation would be a prearranged percentage of the gross revenues earned by the voyage. Somewhere along the line, however, companies shifted to paying by the hour rather than by results. One of the worst business decisions ever made, it has continually eroded the potential for real partnership with frontline employees." Fred Reichheld, ‘The Loyalty Effect’

“Wages and salaries are a sort of profit-sharing fixed in advance, but it often happens that when the business of the year is closed, it is discovered that more can be paid. And then more ought to be paid. When we are all in the business working together, we all ought to have some share in the profits - by way of a good wage, or salary, or added compensation.” Henry Ford

“We announced and put into operation in January, 1914, a kind of profit-sharing plan in which the minimum wage for any class of work and under certain conditions was five dollars a day. At the same time we reduced the working day to eight hours - it had been nine - and the week to forty-eight hours. This was entirely a voluntary act. All of our wage rates have been voluntary…. We made the change not merely because we wanted to pay higher wages and thought we could pay them. We wanted to pay these wages so that the business would be on a lasting foundation. We were not distributing anything - we were building for the future. A low wage business is always insecure.” Henry Ford

“If you expect a man to give his time and energy, fix his wages so that he will have no financial worries. It pays. Our profits, after paying good wages and a bonus - which bonus used to run around ten millions a year before we changed the system - -show that paying good wages is the most profitable way of doing business.” Henry Ford

“We now have a minimum wage of six dollars a day paid without reservation. The people are sufficiently used to high wages to make supervision unnecessary.” Henry Ford

“Paying people more than they expect has been one of Quiktrip’s secrets to success, in spite of the fact it has never been a secret at all. By paying more, Quiktrip attracted better people and kept them longer. Reduced turnover saved time and money. It was such a simple idea that I was (and still am) shocked that our competitors never copied it.” Chester Cadiex QuikTrip

“Employees should be given the opportunity to earn the best compensation in the industry.” Dick Erickson, Sun Tire

“Lincoln Electric doesn’t make many headlines, but it has made history since 1958 by vowing to never lay off a single employee and, since 1934, by sharing a big chunk of its profits with its Cleveland-area employees. In a decidedly unglamorous field, and in the face of recessions, financial collapses, and rapid technology shifts, Lincoln Electric has achieved something unrivalled by recognising that people are at their most productive when they get a piece of the action and a seat at the table.” William Taylor, ‘Simply Brilliant’

“Guys will understand a cable system a hell of a lot better if they have skin in the game.” John Malone

“[John Malone’s] TCI made millionaires of many middle managers, and even a few secretaries, and the payoff built loyalty among employees. In the first 16 years of the company, not one key executive had left for another job. TCI’s outside share-holders benefited as well.” Cable Cowboy

“Profits are important, sharing them is important.” Bennett Helzberg, Helzberg Diamonds

“I shared the profits with people in the business.” Barclay Simpson, Simpson Manufacturing

“Another feature of the Endicott Johnson policy which was not clearly understood at first was the equal division of surplus profits between the workers and the common stockholders, begun in 1919. Elsewhere such surplus goes only to stockholders - often after deduction of generous bonuses to worthy chiefs for their skillful management of the business. In the Endicott Johnson organization the surplus was to be split in half between certain stockholders and workers.” Endicott Johnson

“I've always wanted to share with our workers what we earn together. Mere money has no brains, no part in the management. All it is entitled to is security and a fair interest on the investment.” George F Johnson, Endicott Johnson

 OWNER MENTALITY

“If you’re a restaurant owner and a new restaurant opens across the street, serving the same food, how do you feel? You feel like someone is putting your livelihood at risk, threatening you, threatening your family. It’s personal, because the restaurant is your dream. But if you are a waiter and a new restaurant opens across the street how do you feel? At best, indifferent. Actually, there’s now competition for your services. Many companies inadvertently create waiters. We work tirelessly to create restaurant owners.” AB Inbev Executive, ‘Intelligent Fanatics’

 “Our store managers treat the business as if it's their own. We empower them to have an owner's perspective. These leaders have the most direct impact on the experience of our customers through the quality, friendliness, and cleanliness standards they uphold.” Lynsi Snyder, In-N-Out Burger

“Our compensation philosophy has always been to incentivize Team Members to “run it like you own it,” and we continually evaluate and benchmark our comprehensive compensation programs to ensure they remain competitive, providing an important tool to attract and retain the best and most qualified Team Members in every market. We provide financial incentives to all store Team Members through various incentive compensation programs. Store team members have the opportunity to earn incentive pay that increases their base hourly wage consistent with their individual performance or the performance of their store. Store managers, district managers, region directors and division vice presidents have the ability to earn additional compensation above their salary or base hourly wage based upon the performance of their stores. In addition, beginning with the district manager level, we augment our competitive programs with share-based compensation. We believe our incentive compensation programs significantly increase the motivation and overall performance of our Team Members.” O’Reilly Automotive, Annual Report

"We want people to feel like they are on our team. We want them to think like long-term owners." A.J. Nahmad, Watsco

“Warren Buffett’s agreement to allow many of our management team to own 10% of the company made many of our team wealthy over time and provided an ownership mentality, which I believe is the key to success.” Eugene Toombs, Mitek

“We ran the business by giving great authority to whoever was running the stations. They felt, and rightly so, they owned 100 percent of it. We also gave people options and they became quite well-to-do.” Tom Murphy, Capital Cities

“We would be an ideal organization if every individual could feel that they were in business for themselves, running their own operations within the framework of the group. Both they and the company would be significantly enhanced.” Robert Pritzker, Marmon 

“When employees think, act and feel like owners everybody wins.' Jack Stack

"We expect the associates to run their store like it is their own business, tailoring a great deal of the product selection to local needs and buying local products." Arthur Blank, Home Depot

“Our compensation philosophy has always been to incentivize Team Members to “run it like you own it.” O’Reilly Annual Report

“Business owners care more about the performance and longevity of their company than anyone else. After all, their livelihoods, reputations, and futures depend on the operations success. Few do as much as Enterprise to truly allow employees to behave and be compensated as owners.” Kirk Kazanjian, Enterprise-Rent-A-Car

“These Workers Act Like Owners (Because They Are)” .. UNLIKE so many other chief executives, Cecil Ursprung will never be accused of losing sight of his shareholders. He sees them every day — in the parking lot, in the hallways, even on the factory floor. That's because, as chief executive of the Reflexite Corporation, he runs an enterprise largely owned by the people who work there: 500 employees who attend town hall meetings to discuss strategic issues, get monthly updates on finances and operating results and are steeped in the company's overall performance.  "My bosses are all around me," Mr. Ursprung said in an interview at the company's technology center in Avon, Conn. "Three-quarters of the equity of this company is in the hands of people who have a direct impact on the business. We attract people who want to be in business for themselves, just not by themselves." William Taylor, Simply Brilliant

"People are at their best when they're in a constant state of mild dissatisfaction, when they're always looking to make things a little better. That's what ownership does. It's remarkable what gets unleashed when people share in the wealth they help create." Cecil Urspring, Reflexite

“In the position of owners, we become more accountable for our personal performance. Owners cannot walk away from concerns. So, the accountability of all of us begins to change. Ownership demands increasing maturity on everyone's part. Maturity is probably expressed best in a continually rising level of literacy: business literacy, participative literacy, ownership literacy, competitive literacy. The group of owners committed to the same organization, to the same goals, to the same value systems must be knowledgeable in many areas. Ownership demands a commitment to be as informed about the whole as one can be.” Max DePree, Leadership is Art

“It is an important element of Endicott Johnson policy that every worker shall be his own boss-which stimulates self-respect and keeps down the overhead charge on every shoe.” William Inglis

“From the beginning, Charles Walgreen considered store managers to be the linchpin in the chain and encouraged them “to think of themselves as independent retailers with a large and worthwhile organization behind them – not, in contrast to the policies of other chains in or out of the drug field, above them. This sense of ownership and independence inspires the best effort from store managers to this day – and is one reason turnover at that level is virtually nonexistent.” John Bacon

“We want owners. One of the strengths of Amazon over the first 30 years is that we've hired really smart, motivated, inventive, ambitious people who have been great owners. And, that means that our teammates are constantly asking themselves, ‘What would I do if this was my own money?’ ‘What would I do if I started this company and I was the majority owner?’ ‘Hey, I know I’ve only been asked to own a part of this project, but I’m not sure if the other parts are being driven well—should I stick my nose into this and make sure or just trust somebody’s got it?’ Owners feel accountable. They care deeply about the quality and effectiveness of what they own, and view the company’s mission as their mission (we want missionaries, not mercenaries).” Andy Jassy

“