Greg Harmeyer > Quotes

“we are to have a meaningful impact, we have to have a vision of leading people to something worthwhile.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“Wealth tends to coincide with situations where extreme value is created. And with extreme value creation comes both opportunities (in the form of job creation) and societal gain (often making healthcare, education, food, clothing, shelter, and entertainment all more accessible). A principle underpinning of capitalism is that the creation of value is an act of service.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“The personality of an organization shows up in its relationships with others; it shows up in its brand; it shows up in marketing; it shows up in social media; it shows up in its lobby; and it shows up anywhere its people get together. And again, it is shaped by how leaders show up.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“Most founder-led and family-owned businesses, as well as many small businesses that have been bought by an individual and even most franchises, have what I call a paternal owner. I mean this in a gender-neutral sense: The owner is a dominant leader, who takes sole responsibility—and control—of the business. The business is an extension of the individual or their family.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“There’s an old adage, “What got you here won’t get you there.” I get it. But I take exception with it as well. Organizations with strong roots—principles, values, and philosophies that shape them—draw on those roots for continued growth. The people who use that adage are often talking about the systems, processes, and structures. It’s true: Those things have to change and evolve over time. But for most great businesses, that’s not “what got them here.” What got you here is your lived values, your lived beliefs. Articulating and developing them is essential.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“What’s more, we believed that layoffs were damaging. We had witnessed this. They damage the lives of those laid off, creating undue stress, and, as I had witnessed at NCR, they destroy the trust, confidence, and courage of those left behind.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“There are two foundational concepts that bring humanity into an organization and both need to be intentionally developed: purpose and character.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“Great, impactful companies are not focused on a three-to-five-year time horizon. When done right, they make investments in culture and community and brand and trust that have indefinite life to them. No investor will have an issue with an indefinite life; what is challenging is that the investments aren’t quick. They are persistent and require repeated doubling down. Trust and brand are not created in a year or two. They are created through repeated commitment to core values, a commitment that, if it is to be valuable and meaningful, is challenging. Often the most valuable and important investments in these things are made when performance is actually below target and the business is struggling. This is when real character is built, both with employees and with customers. The stories that come out of such investments persist over many years. And unfortunately, trust and brand can be damaged very quickly so constant, intentional focus from leadership is a must, regardless of how the business is performing.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“The deep question to ask about values is “What does the organization place value on?” The answers can often be found in two key places: how conflict and adversity are addressed what the organization makes sacrifices for”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“When we take a strengths-based view of people, we recognize their dignity. As leaders, one of the toughest jobs we have is to align an individual’s talents with areas of contribution. When we hire an individual, they are making a commitment to us and an investment of their time, energy, and future options in us. We have a mutual responsibility for their success. It is incumbent upon us to explore their strengths with them to find where they add greatest value. And we have to have a relentless commitment to finding that value. If the ultimate conclusion is that the individual’s strengths don’t best contribute to the organization, the loving thing to do is to help them explore where they will. If you honestly believe in the potential of each individual, you’ll embrace that responsibility courageously.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“At TiER1, we see ourselves as smart but humble; we take our client work seriously but not ourselves seriously; we laugh easily; we’re passionate and compassionate, willing to struggle together and support each other.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“To be more explicit, I believe that healthy, positively impactful companies shouldn’t take a position on socio-political topics. There are a number of reasons for this, but at the core of it is the desire and responsibility to support a fully inclusive environment. If we truly lead diverse and inclusive organizations, then, by definition, our organizations will be filled with people with varying socio-political views. Taking a position on socio-political topics—be it guns, voting issues, environmental issues, abortion, or anything else—leverages the platform of the business for the use of the CEO, owner, or leaders and in the process, undermines inclusivity and alienates people on the other side of whatever position one might take. In the process, it hurts democracy, infringing on the rights and responsibilities of each of us as citizens by putting individuals at odds with their own company.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“Capitalism is not loving. In fact, it has no moral code; as an economic system, it is simply a system for the exchange of value. And it is in this exchange that the social system begins. If the strongest defining trait of capitalism is optimization, its next might be exploitation. At its best, it will exploit inefficiencies and unfulfilled needs and wants. At its worst, left to its own devices, it will exploit people, the environment, and all types of resources.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“There is a specific mindset that is essential on this side of the chasm—a mindset of abundance. It involves a belief that a better world for others is a better world for all. This side of the chasm isn’t about self-denial or about service to others at my expense.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“Defining the worldview of an organization is challenging. I believe an organization is a living organism with its own purpose, values, character, and personality. But these things are directly shaped by us as founders, owners, CEOs, and leaders in general. The organization’s worldview is an extension of our own worldviews. In a highly engaged organization, all people give shape to the organization’s culture. The worldview is more basic though, it’s more foundational. Associates may challenge or question it, but it generally won’t change much over time. Culture is malleable—it is the norms and behaviors and ways people treat each other and work together. Naturally, this will evolve. A worldview is more set. If values and principles are what we believe, our worldviews shape why we believe them. It is the land on which our organization grows.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“This is where many organizations—particularly large, established ones—run into trouble when trying to transform themselves into more human-centered, impactful organizations. While there may be an enlightened leader at the top driving a new direction, reprogramming the mindsets of leaders throughout the organization requires a massive effort. Not because they are not inherently good people—they very often are—but because they were raised up in the work world where conventional mindsets were normal, and they had success in that model. Changing the model challenges their views of their own success, something that is not easy for anyone!”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“Our purpose is activated through our character.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“capitalism isn’t a sufficient social system on its own. And because it isn’t a natural system for prioritizing societal values, it can incorrectly be blamed for the lack of realization of them.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“When individuals form a business, they generally take a risk saying, “I’ll combine your efforts with the efforts of others and create something of greater value than you can do individually. If I’m wrong, I’ll still owe you for your effort. If I’m right, we create disproportionate value and I’ll keep a return for doing that.” Any shareholder who puts something of value into the business (money, know-how, sweat equity) expects to get a return of value for putting that in. However, a key is that return is at risk because until they create value for others as defined by others, they have no value to extract or return.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“When I was young in my career, an established entrepreneurial CEO who had sold a couple of businesses told me, “The number one job of a CEO in a growing business is to keep the business capitalized.” I didn’t really appreciate the idea when he told me that; I thought it was a distortion of focus. But I’ve come to realize that while that may not be the most rewarding job, or even the most value-added job a CEO can do, without doing it, effectively everything else ceases to exist. After years of leading a company—and knowing the struggles of other CEOs—I find something insightful about what he was saying. All business impact starts with sufficient capital”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“It was admittedly great to have moved past survival mode, but after it became evident that we would survive—and likely continue to grow—the question “What now?” repeatedly surfaced. Is that all there is? More growth, more financial success? The risk many businesses run at this stage is they can become absorbed in the transactions. More efficient transactions lead to more financial growth and success, generating increasing wealth. In the process, the business can become hollow. Leaders are excited by the growth and financial rewards, but the business can lose meaning as the organization becomes obsessed with continued financial growth. It was in this process of exploring our future at this stage that this deeper purpose took a deeper hold and a clearer view of organization meaning surfaced. A shift of emphasis occurs over time as organizations evolve. Intentionally managing that shift is an essential task for leaders.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“Leadership is fundamentally about influence. Its real measures are who follows you and where you lead them. Leadership done well is synonymous with impact. Leaders will make an impact, but it may not be what you want. A two-part question all of us as leaders should ask is, “What impact am I making and on whom?”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“As individuals and organizations, our character is defined during times of adversity. It is in adversity that our values and beliefs are shaped and tested. They guide our actions. When well formed, they cement who we are, aligning action with belief. If we are unclear about what we believe or why we believe it, how we show up may vary. Not only will others be disappointed in us but we may find that we are disappointed in ourselves. What we believe matters.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“And to be more acute about it, our capacity to expand our impact is limited by our ability to grow. If you are doing things well; if you are creating value for others, a meaningful place of employment, challenging work, or innovative products; if you view your products and offerings as a service to the world that positively impacts people’s lives; and if, at the end of the day, you are sending employees home as better family members, then growth naturally should be part of your equation. If you’re doing something with a positive impact, it’s natural to want to do more of it. Additionally, the ability to expand and amplify your voice, to reach more people, to serve more broadly are all a function of the ability to grow. Growth—at an organizational level and an individual level—is about fulfilling potential. There is something deeply meaningful about this as it taps into all the talents, strengths, and gifts we have, individually and collectively.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“To believe all of this, one has to believe in abundance, the idea that through innovation, efficiency, improved quality, new ideas, and exploration, we raise the potential outcomes for all in society. Abundance recognizes that improvements for others—which is what capitalist businesses are fundamentally about—ultimately can lead to improvements for all. And it is this efficient drive toward abundance that capitalism contributes to the social good.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“(Note that strategy and culture cannot be separated; culture is part of strategy!)”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“The frustration some express with capitalism—and the overextended interference into it—is misplaced. Capitalism is not the problem. Capitalism does not cause poor education; it does not cause discrimination; it does not cause inadequate healthcare; and it does not cause poverty. And further, the existence of wealth does not cause poverty. Poverty is not caused by wealth; misfortune is not caused by fortune.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“Much like personal character is defined not in what we say but in what we do, so too organizational character is defined by action. And in this case, it is the actions of our leaders that define what an organization is—not one leader, but leaders throughout the organization; the character is a composite of all the actions of all leaders.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“growing a business is extraordinarily challenging. Less than 10 percent of businesses ever exceed $1 million in revenue, and a small fraction of those ever make it to $10 million or more; $100 million or $1 billion is extremely rare.”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World

“Less clear than values is the idea that an organization has a personality. Is your organization playful? Serious? Hard working? Friendly? Compassionate? Helpful? In aggregate, is your organization like someone you like to be around?”
― Greg Harmeyer, Impact with Love: Building Business for a Better World