Charles Koch quotes

I believe my business and non-profit investments are much more beneficial to societal well-being than sending more money to Washington.
-- Charles Koch

#Believe #Investment #Profit

A truly free society is based on a vision of respect for people and what they value,
-- Charles Koch

#People #Vision #Values

I want my legacy to be greater freedom, greater prosperity and a better way of life for my family, our employees and all Americans. And I wish the same for every nation on earth.
-- Charles Koch

#Wish #Want #Way

But it [crony capitalism] erodes our overall standard of living and stifles entrepreneurs by rewarding the politically favored rather than those who provide what consumers want.
-- Charles Koch

#Entrepreneur #Erode #Want

Successful companies create value by providing products or services their customers value more highly than available alternatives. They do this while consuming fewer resources, leaving more resources available to satisfy other needs in society. Value creation involves making people's lives better. It is contributing to prosperity in society.
-- Charles Koch

#Business #Successful #People

Our vision controls the way we think and, therefore, the way we act the vision we have of our jobs determines what we do and the opportunities we see or don't see.
-- Charles Koch

#Jobs #Opportunity #Thinking

Embrace change. Envision what could be, challenge the status quo, and drive creative destruction.
-- Charles Koch

#Creative #Challenges #Embrace

To do meaningful work is to contribute - to create value in society.
-- Charles Koch

#Meaningful #Meaningful Work #Values

Far too many businesses have been all too eager to lobby for maintaining and increasing subsidies and mandates paid by taxpayers and consumers.
-- Charles Koch

#Subsidies #Maintaining #Taxpayers

The role of business is to provide products and services that make peoples lives better - while using fewer resources - and to act lawfully and with integrity.
-- Charles Koch

#Integrity #Roles #Resources

I believe that cronyism is nothing more than welfare for the rich and powerful, and should be abolished.
-- Charles Koch

#Powerful #Believe #Rich

When you start attacking cronyism and peoples political interests, it gets nasty.
-- Charles Koch

#Political #Nasty #Attacking

We needed to be uncompromising with our workforce, to expect 100 percent of our employees to comply 100 percent of the time with complex and ever-changing government mandates. Striving to comply with every law does not mean agreeing with every law. But, even when faced with laws we think are counter-productive, we must first comply. Only then, from a credible position, can we enter into a dialogue with regulatory agencies to demonstrate alternatives that are more beneficial. If these efforts fail, we can then join with others in using education and/or political efforts to change the law.
-- Charles Koch

#Change #Mean #Thinking

We have the best leaders and the most depth of leadership we've ever had. If I get hit by a truck, maybe it would get me out of the way and it would go better.
-- Charles Koch

#Leader #Depth #Way

Being captive to quarterly earnings isn't consistent with long-term value creation. This pressure and the short term focus of equity markets make it difficult for a public company to invest for long-term success, and tend to force company leaders to sacrifice long-term results to protect current earnings.
-- Charles Koch

#Sacrifice #Long #Leader

Many businesses with unpopular products or inefficient production find it much easier to curry the favor of a few influential politicians or a government agency than to compete in the open market.
-- Charles Koch

#Business #Agency #Government

In general, an asset should be sold when it has greater value to a buyer. This happens when a buyer has a complimentary business or capability that would enable them to do more with that business. Many businesses we have exited were not failures, but had simply reached a point in their life cycle where they no longer provided a core capability or served as a platform for growth.
-- Charles Koch

#Business #Growth #Platforms

We strive to hire and retain only those who embrace our MBM® Guiding Principles, which encompass integrity, compliance, value creation, Principled Entrepreneurship, customer focus, knowledge, change, humility, respect and fulfillment.
-- Charles Koch

#Integrity #Humility #Focus

Most power is power to coerce somebody. We don't have the power to coerce anybody.
-- Charles Koch

#Power

I studied what principles under-laid peace and prosperity and concluded the only way to achieve societal well-being was through a system of economic freedom.
-- Charles Koch

#Principles #Way #Prosperity

The easy way to make money is to get special political privilege. From the beginning of time, business has cozied up to government and gotten restrictions on competition and subsidies and stuff.
-- Charles Koch

#Government #Political #Competition

No centralized government, no matter how big, how smart or how powerful, can effectively and efficiently control much of society in a beneficial way. On the contrary, big governments are inherently inefficient and harmful.
-- Charles Koch

#Powerful #Smart #Government

If there is wrong, you don't say we have to get rid of it gradually. If injustice exists, you need to eliminate it immediately.
-- Charles Koch

#Needs #Injustice

When everyone gets something for nothing, soon no one will have anything, because no one will be producing anything.
-- Charles Koch

#Responsibility

Citizens who over-rely on their government to do everything not only become dependent on their government, they end up having to do whatever the government demands. In the meantime, their initiative and self-respect are destroyed.
-- Charles Koch

#Responsibility #Government #Self

Repeatedly asking for government help undermines the foundations of society by destroying initiative and responsibility. It is also a fatal blow to efficiency and corrupts the political process.
-- Charles Koch

#Responsibility #Blow #Government

As an engineer, I understood that the natural world operated according to fixed laws. Through my studies, I came to realize that there were, likewise, laws that govern human wellbeing. It seemed to me that these laws are fundamental not only to the wellbeing of societies, but also to the miniature societies of organizations. Indeed, that is what we found when we began to apply these principles systematically at Koch Industries. Through our observation of how they could create prosperity in an organization, I began to systematize my beliefs into Market-Based Management.
-- Charles Koch

#Law #Organization #World

We try to evaluate how much value an employee is creating here and reward them accordingly.
-- Charles Koch

#Creating #Trying #Rewards