“The organizations that tend to grind to a halt are the organizations that are afraid to make decisions.”

Culture: “For any company what the actual culture is doesn’t really matter, what’s important is that it’s a strong culture and it’s consistent throughout the entire company.”

Fun: “Nantucket Nectars started as a floating store and I thought of it really as a way to have fun and not have to work. It’s like playing fort as a kid, where there’s no end game, it’s just to have fun.”

The Head-Knocker: “We also like to say that you will learn more about the prospects of a company by looking at the head-knocker, which is what my grandfather called CEOs.”

Mission: “The original concept was, we are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.”

Product: “Probably the single largest thing that distinguishes us from any other piano company is the piano itself.”

Hidden value: “After emerging from bankruptcy we had only $3 million in total assets. It forced us to realize we had just one untapped potential – the IP for hundreds of characters. Most had been dormant for decades, but I sensed that Spiderman alone had more hidden value than anyone realized; so we started joint ventures on major motion pictures.”

Pioneering micro-financing: “When we started the idea of Trickle Up and the movement of micro-financing, I knew that if we could help people – mostly impoverished women in Africa -- to start their own businesses they could build pride and help contribute to a better life for their families and a better world. We sensed there was a combination of reaching out, teaching business basics and giving the financial resources so that people could create their own opportunities and livelihoods. I am so pleased we have been able to help over 150,000.” (Note: Princess Diana presented the Woman of the World Award to Millie. When I asked about the photo, Millie told me “it wasn’t just me, I shared the award.” I asked with whom and Millie replied, “Mother Teresa”.)

Core values: “We brought in new operations, systems and products which helped fuel tremendous growth, but never left my grandfather’s core values of being respectful to people, having 100% customer satisfaction, and of course the love for the great outdoors.”

Talent: “One of our foundation principles is one great person is as good as three people.”

Work life balance: “I have actually replaced the idea of work life balance with what I think is a higher concept and that is just simply having an integrated life.”

The future: “The cellphone will go away and what’s going to happen is your glasses or contact lenses are going to have an augmented reality layer that will allow you to see whatever it is you need to see. It’s silly to hold a screen.” - Jay Walker, Founder of numerous companies including Priceline, and holder of over 650 patents

Change: “When you’re a change agent, the past is against you.”

Business model: “Our model is we extract value from waste.”

Turnaround: “We needed to turn things around quickly. They cut costs to the point where they were literally taking the chicken out of the chicken soup.”

Creativity: “Resist the usual … don’t just go with whatever one else is doing.”

Hiring: “It’s pretty easy to spot the overwhelming or the underwhelming candidate, It’s the ‘whelming’ candidate you must avoid at all costs, because that’s the one who can and will do your organization the most long-lasting harm.”

The CEO Role: “I always refer to myself as director of the orchestra – he doesn’t need to know how to play every instrument, but he has to make sure that all the great musicians that he has working for him play the same music.”

Launching a company: “We started making neckties so we wouldn’t need to wear them anymore.”

Differentiation: “There were 9,600 banks who were all really pretty much the same. We said, let’s create something new – a bank built to change the American mindset, so we all can value the concept of saving money.”

Product Introductions: “The science of new product successes is they need to be visually appealing and have a popular price point, and most importantly solve a broad problem so they can reach masses.”

Turnarounds: “I’m not sure you have the luxury to be sequential.”

Client focus: “You are either serving a client or you are helping a colleague serve a client.”

Communication: “The whole idea is to filter up issues and filter down communications.”

Mission: “Peter Drucker taught me that your mission has to be concise enough to fit on a tee shirt.”

Risk: “I use the philosophy of three principles of insurance: don’t risk a lot for a little, don’t risk more than you can afford to lose, and consider the odds.”

Ideas: “Ideas are really fragile. It’s really easy to kill an idea, especially in the early stages. So someone has to be its defender.”

Obstacles: “Obstacles uncover our greatest opportunities … for example, the reason Steve Jobs had us build the first iPhone was because he knew about our failure with the ROKR.”

Purpose: “Pablo Picasso said, ‘The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.’ My gift is making money, and my purpose is giving it away.”

Challenges: “Life is what you put into it, life is what you get out of it and life will be full of challenges. I look at challenges, from a religious standpoint, as the way God puts a speed bump in your road of life and it’s up to you to slow down and get over that speed bump.”

Strategy: “Companies aren’t winning because they don’t have a strategy. They confuse strategy with having a vision or plan.”

Economics: “I’d like to change the word from capitalism to the free enterprise system. “

Hobby to company: “We were having a dinner party and everyone was talking about their favorite restaurants, so we decided to try them and come back. And that shared hobby turned into Zagat Survey.”

Positioning: “We were sitting in a meeting and I noticed that everybody was popping these things into their mouths, as if they were potato chips. And with the whole idea of healthy snacking really coming to the forefront around that time, we came up with the idea of repositioning Craisins as a healthy snack alternative instead of just being in the baking aisle.”

Women owner opportunity: “There has been tremendous growth in the number of women-owned and women-led businesses, however, only about 3% of them gross over a million dollars.”

Excellence: “Excellence is a way of life that sustains us and inspires us.”

Women CEOs: “The pipeline is here for women to become CEOs … we must continue to develop women throughout their careers,”

Business model: “We have transformed the alternative investing process and made previously out-of-reach asset classes accessible to wealthy investors.”

Focus: “I strive for simplicity.”

Brand: “It’s easy to introduce new capabilities, products, and services around your brand. But, in the end, you."

Big ideas: “The surge that mattered most in Iraq was the surge of ideas.... the big ideas that guided our effort and that were, in most cases, the exact opposite of what we had been doing the year prior to the Surge.”

Expansion: “Interestingly, what I learned at West Point like, having small fighting units, was the key to building MTV International … (That said), we don't take ourselves too seriously. Remember, I’m the one who brought Beavis and Butt-Head to Russia!”

New markets: “When we get into a community, we establish ourselves and build the relationships locally”

Product: “A great tea should have the same taste cool as it does hot or warm.”

Vision: “I wasn’t thinking about building a company with lots of stores and lots of people, It was really I saw a vision, I had a picture of these comfortable, simple clothes that were timeless.”

Products: “If you don’t have women running P&L operations, you won’t have products that the buying public wants. Women today make 83% of buying decisions.”

The benefit of smaller offices: “I started by opening up my office and tore down the walls, What used to hold six people now holds 16. This has significantly advanced communciations and interactions.”

Meetings: “You can slide the horse across the table at somebody and say, ‘ Hey, stop beating the dead horse.’ “

Brand: “We are very, very, careful with this brand because it takes a lot of time to build a brand, as you would know, and it’s quite easy to destroy a brand.”

Management: “Episodic micromanagement is underrated.”

Recognition: “I said, if I ever have a chance to build a company, I’m going to make recognition the number one value in the company.”

Purpose: “With KIND, what we are trying to do is to inspire kindness among strangers, encourage them to get outside their comfort zone and to be kind towards one another.”

Communication: “In this digital age where everything is in email or a text, to get a handwritten note is more rare and more special.”

Decisions: “Fundamentally we teach that there is no right answer. There are two, three, four, or five right answers.”

Decisions: “Fundamentally we teach that there is no right answer. There are two, three, four, or five right answers.”

Robert Reiss and Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, CEO Celebrity Cruises, on Celebrity Beyond Inaugural Voyage. While the ship and restaurants are remarkable, the staff anticipates needs in an unparalleled way. Also we cannot forget the one and only Captain Kate!

The New York Stock Exchange welcomed Women Business Collaborative on Friday, March 4, 2022, in celebration of Women’s History Month. To honor the occasion, Edie Fraser, CEO, rings The Closing Bell®. Photo Credit: NYSE

Robert, with his daughter Molly Reiss and mom Ellen at the Harvard Club, receiving The Ideagen Global Lifetime Leadership Award 2022 for focus on The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. Earlier that day at the UN, Robert interviewed Deepak Chopra and Dr. Sanjay Rishi on the CEO's role in building a better world. As a special note, at the UN, they sang happy birthday to Ellen Reiss to celebrate her 88th!

Robert Reiss with George Sifakis, CEO Ideagen Global, receiving The Ideagen Global Lifetime Leadership Award 2022 for focus on The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The Harvard Club on October 27th, 2022.