Working times

I always arrive late at the office, but I make up for it by leaving early

Charles Lamb

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Money

Money does not have ideas

Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher

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Discover

Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.

Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

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Design

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.

Steve Jobs

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Own business

When you own your own business, you only have to work half a day. You can do anything you want with the other twelve hours.

If you know the author of this quote, please react.

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Millionaires

Bart, with $10,000 we’d be millionaires! We could buy all kinds of useful things like…love!

Homer Simpson

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The right direction

Speed is useful only if you are running in the right direction.

Joel Barker

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Survival in Africa

Reminds me of my safari in Africa. Somebody forgot the corkscrew and for several days we had to live on nothing but food and water.

W. C. Fields

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Work

When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt.

Henry Kaiser

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Bad for business

Things that are bad for business are bad for the people who work for the business.

Thomas Dewey

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Courage

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.

quote by Anais Nin

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First law in advertising

The very first law in advertising is to avoid the concrete promise and cultivate the delightfully vague.

Bill Cosby

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Advertising

Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing, but nobody else does.

Stuart Henderson

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What counts

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.

Albert Einstein

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Statistics

62.15% of all statistics are meaningless

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Failures

Failures are divided into two classes – those who thought and never did, and those who did and never thought.

John Charles Salak

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The illusion of communication

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.

quote by George Bernard Shaw

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Prosperous friend

It is in the character of very few men to honour without envy a friend who has prospered.

Aeschylus

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The power of statistics

The average human being is the proud owner of 0.98765 testicles

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Distrust quantitative data

You can use all the quantitative data you can get, but you still have to distrust it and use your own intelligence and judgment.

Alvin Toffler

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Learning technologies

The best technologies for learning are conversations and beer.

Jay Cross at Online Educa 2006, Berlin

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Electricity

Electricity is actually made up of extremely tiny particles called electrons, that you cannot see with the naked eye unless you have been drinking.

Dave Barry

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Home computers

There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.

Ken Olsen , President, Digital Equipment, 1977

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Talent and courage

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.

Erica Jong

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Native American wisdom

Never criticize a man until you've walked a mile in his moccasins.

Native American Proverb

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The average

Not doing more than the average is what keeps the average down.

William Phelps

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Finishing things

One worthwhile task carried to a successful conclusion is worth half-a-hundred half-finished tasks.

Malcolm Forbes

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Empowered organization - Stephen Covey

An empowered organization is one in which individuals have the knowledge, skill, desire, and opportunity to personally succeed in a way that leads to collective organizational success.

Stephen Covey

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Courageous decision

Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.

Peter F. Drucker

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Empowerment

The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.

Theodore Roosevelt

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Opportunities

A pessimist is one who sees a difficulty in every opportunity. An optimist is one who sees an opportunity in every difficulty.

If you know the author of this quote, please react.

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Lawyers

The trouble with law is lawyers.

Clarence Darrow

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Ignorance and knowledge

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge.

Daniel Boorstin

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Do it now

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

If you know the author of this quote, please react

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Honesty

Honesty pays dividends both in dollars and in peace of mind.

B.C. Forbes

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Empowerment - Bill Gates

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.

Bill Gates

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Innovation

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.

Steve Jobs

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Bicycle - Einstein

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving

Albert Einstein

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Criminal

A criminal is a person with predatory instincts who has not sufficient capital to form a corporation.

Howard Scott

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Big/small/fast/slow

The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow.

Rupert Murdoch

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Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew hoping he’ll quickly learn how to chew it.

Roy Ash

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Character

If you don’t have enemies, you don’t have character.

Paul Newman

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Creativity

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.

Albert Einstein

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Just do it

A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.

George Patton

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Be prepared

If I had nine hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first six sharpening my ax.

Abraham Lincoln

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Can - cannot

Those who say it cannot be done should get out of the way of those who are doing it.

If you know the author of this quote, please react

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Follow the leader

A leader is a person you will follow to a place you wouldn’t go by yourself.

Joel Barker

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Fantasy

When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking

Albert Einstein

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Taking risks

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

Anais Nin

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Winning - Sun Tzu

He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight. He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces. He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks. He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared. He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.

Sun Tzu, The Art of War

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Trust

Trust comes on foot, but leaves on horseback.

Johan Thorbecke
(heard at the Fortis information session August 18, 2008)

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Meetings

Meetings are events in which minutes are kept and hours are lost.

If you know the author of this quote, please react

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Design

Designing your product for monetization first, and people second will probably leave you with neither.

Tara Hunt

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Predicting the future

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.

quote by Alan Kay

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Successful teams

Successful teams know who they are, what they want and take ownership and responsibility to achieve it.

Sean Chapple

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Tax avoidance

The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that carries any reward.

John Maynard Keynes

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Good and bad

It seemed the world was divided into good and bad people.
The good ones slept better... while the bad ones seemed to enjoy the waking hours much more.

Woody Allen

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Price and value

What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Oscar Wilde

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Critisism

If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much.

Donald Rumsfeld

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Real success

Real success is finding your lifework in the work that you love.

David McCullough

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Dead horse strategies

The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation , says that, "When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount."

Updated for the 21st century this could mean:

• Appointing a top advertising agency to promote the benefits of the reduced carbon hoofprint of a dead horse compared to the ridiculously out-dated and unsustainable notion of a living horse.
• Off-shoring the stabling and veterinary support of the dead horse to somewhere in the Indian sub-continent.
• Sending the dead horse on an outward bound weekend with other dead horses.

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Smoking

Smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics.

Fletcher Knebel

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Leadership vs management - Stephen Covey

Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.

Stephen Covey

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Statistics as a science

Statistics: The only science that enables different experts using the same figures to draw different conclusions.

Evan Esar

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The use of computers

Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done.

Andy Rooney

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Information

Information is always trying to be free

Marshall McLuhan

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Change

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.

Nelson Mandela

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Design

Good design can't fix broken business models.

Jeffrey Veen

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Money can't buy happiness ?

Whoever said money can't buy happiness simply didn't know where to go shopping.

Bo Derek

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Home computers

There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.

Ken Olsen , President, Digital Equipment, 1977

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Creativity and salesmanship

In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative original thinker unless you can also sell what you create. Management cannot be expected to recognize a good idea unless it is presented to them by a good salesman.

David Ogilvy

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Crime in Germany

The reason there is so little crime in Germany is that it's against the law.

Alex Levin

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Tax

Fine - a tax for doing wrong. Tax - a fine for doing fine

If you know the author of this quote, please react

(also published on http://www.taxtalk.be)

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The power of statistics

USA Today has come out with a new survey - apparently, three out of every four people make up 75% of the population.

David Letterman

Technorati Profile

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Doing nothing

Doing nothing is very hard to do. You never know when you're finished.

Leslie Nielsen

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Other people's money

Business, that's easily defined; it's other people's money

Alexandre Dumas

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Taking risks

If you don't risk anything you risk even more.

Erica Jong

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Learning and being taught

Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.

Churchill

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Insurance

There are worse things in life than death.
Have you ever spent an evening with an insurance salesman?

Woody Allen

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Lies

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.

Benjamin Disraeli

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Got a good business quote ?

Business quotes enthousiasts around the world, unite !

Please react if you know smart, funny, cynical, useful quotes on all aspects of business and management.Simply react to this post or mail to quotesforbusiness@gmail.com

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Courage

Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared.

Eddie Rickenbacker

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Communication

Let us make a special effort to stop communicating with each other, so we can have some conversation.

Judith Martin

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Banks

A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.

Mark Twain

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Income tax

The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.

Albert Einstein

(also published on http://www.taxtalk.be)

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Strategy

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.

Churchill

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Making plans

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.

John Lennon

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Quality management

Management of quality requires quality of management

Deming

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China

When China will wake up, the world will shake.

Napoleon

(Translated from French: "Quand la Chine s'éveillera, le monde tremblera ")

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Choices and decisions

We can try to avoid making choices by doing nothing, but even that is a decision.

Gary Collins

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Confusion

If you're not confused, you're not paying attention.

Tom Peters

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Confusion

Confusion is a word we have invented for an order which is not yet understood

Henry Miller

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Football wisdom

If we have the ball, they can't score.

Johan Cruyff

(translated from Dutch: "Als wij de bal hebben kunnen zij niet scoren")

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React and contribute to Quotes for business

Business quotes enthousiasts around the world, unite !

Please react if you know smart, funny, cynical, useful quotes on all aspects of business and management.

Simply react to this post or mail to quotesforbusiness@gmail.com

Read more »

Management vs. leadership

Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

Stephen Covey

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Price vs. value

Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.

Warren Buffet

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Gerstner on culture

Until I came to IBM, I probably would have told you that culture was just one among several important elements in any organization’s makeup and success—along with vision, strategy, marketing, financials, and the like…
I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn't just one aspect of the game, it is the game. In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value.

Lou Gerstner

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Confidence

Confidence is what you feel before you comprehend the situation

Proverb

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Methods

You can't do today's job with yesterday's methods and be in business tomorrow

If you know the author of this author, please let us know

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Dead horse strategies

The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation , says that, "When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount."

Updated for the 21st century this could mean:

• Buying a computer program to enhance dead horse performance
• Declaring a dead horse less costly than a live one
• Forming a workgroup to find uses for dead horses
• Changing performance requirements for the horse
• Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position

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Dead horse strategies

The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation , says that, "When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount."

Updated for the 21st century this could mean:

• Bringing in a team of external consultants to focus on dead horse optimisation.
• Re-branding the dead horse a 'Fair Trade Horse', and affixing prominent Fair Trade insignia to its hind-quarters.
• Asking Richard Branson if he'd be interested in running a Virgin Dead Horse joint venture.
• Setting up an inquiry into the dead horse, preferably headed by a dead horse and answerable to other dead horses.
• Forming a task force to investigate the dead horse's positive benefits on social enterprise.
• Blaming the dead horse on the sub-prime credit crunch, thereby absolving (and enabling the obscenely generous rewarding of) those responsible for the decision to recruit an emaciated horse, starve it, and keep it in a frozen field (because the stables were sold to property developers years ago).
• Unmasking the dead horse to be in illegal immigrant, therefore author of its own misfortune, and to blame for a lot more than simply being dead on the job.

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Technology in business

The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency.
The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency

Bill Gates

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Knowledge and wisdom

Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens

Jimi Hendrix

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Infinity

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former

Einstein

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Learning from history

Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.

Churchill

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Dead horse strategies

The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation , says that, "When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount."

updated for the 21st century this could mean:

• Nationalising the dead horse
• Re-aligning the organizational aims to better fit the needs of the dead horse. Giving dead horse and rider a good bollocking (a favourite in previous centuries too).
• Re-structuring the dead horse's reward scale to contain a performance-related element (obviously..)
• Suspending the horse's access to the executive grassy meadow until it improves its attitude and makes good all productivity shortfalls.
• Finding a mentor or buddy for the dead horse.
• Examining the cost-savings accruing from de-skilling the dead horse function.
• Outsourcing the management and/or the riding of the dead horse to a specialist dead horse management company

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RAM

"640K ought to be enough for anybody."

Misattributed to Bill Gates of Microsoft, 1981 :
"I've said some stupid things and some wrong things, but not that. No one involved in computers would ever say that a certain amount of memory is enough for all time... I keep bumping into that silly quotation attributed to me that says 640K of memory is enough. There's never a citation; the quotation just floats like a rumor, repeated again and again. "
Bloomberg Business News (19 January 1996); also WIRED (16 January 1997)

(Thanks for the correction, Paul Cobbaut)

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Prediction

"I think there's a world market for maybe five computers."

Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

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