John Kay

To learn from mistakes, you must first acknowledge them.

There is a difference between repeatedly engaging in actions you believe will make you popular, and demonstrating the qualities of leadership that prompt people to vote for you.

The true and fair view is subjective, and no accounting principles, however extensive, can cover all conceivable situations.

The lesson of EMI is not that media industries are unique, but that you can lose a lot of money if you overpay for a company with a broken business model, as you can in any other industry.

Every era spawns financial follies. Every era spawns observations that, with hindsight, protagonists wish they had not made.

Like all business success, innovative success is based on matching capabilities to market.

If you aim to create a dynamic, successful business, a state-owned utility is not the place to start.

Maintain a clear sense of long-term objectives but acknowledge the limits on your day-to-day actions.

If financial institutions are to survive, they must behave more like supermarkets

It is particularly easy for those who work in financial institutions to make the mistake of believing that their success is the result of exceptional skill rather than good fortune. Until vanity is vanquished, I anticipate that diversification to the level of incompetence will continue to be a powerful element in business behaviour.