Success Quote by Harold S. Geneen

Geneen’s list reads less like inspirational poster copy and more like a CEO’s operating system: a stripped-down manual for turning chaos into quarterly results. Coming from the hard-edged world of mid-century conglomerate management (Geneen ran ITT with a reputation for relentless controls), the intent is pragmatic. He isn’t romanticizing entrepreneurship; he’s policing it.

“Concentration” is the anti-shiny-object rule, but also a warning about managerial attention as a scarce resource. “Discrimination” is the most revealing word here: not prejudice, but judgment under pressure - the ability to separate signal from noise, good risk from bad story. It’s a subtle rebuke to the myth that entrepreneurs win by sheer optimism. Geneen’s subtext: optimism without filtering is just expensive self-deception.

“Organization” anchors the list in execution. This is the Geneen worldview: ideas don’t scale, systems do. The placement matters - organization sits between discrimination and innovation, implying that creativity isn’t a lightning bolt; it’s something you can actually operationalize. “Innovation” arrives fourth, deliberately demoted from its usual starring role. That sequencing insists the glamorous part comes after the unglamorous disciplines are in place.

Then “Communication,” last but not least, signals the social reality of enterprise: you’re only as effective as your ability to translate intent across teams, investors, customers. The context here is a corporate era obsessed with accountability and reporting. Geneen is telling would-be founders that success isn’t a personality trait; it’s a repeatable set of behaviors - and the market rewards the boring ones first.