Jim Barksdale with over 35 years of business experience emphasizes focus as key.
He’s known for saying “keep the main thing the main thing.”
He leads Barksdale Management Corporation a philanthropic firm started in 1999.
Barksdale previously headed Netscape AT&T Wireless and was a high-ranking executive at Federal Express.
He’s on several boards including Time Warner and FedEx and was on the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.
In 2000 he donated $100 million to start The Barksdale Reading Institute in Mississippi aiming to boost early childhood reading.
Here are some of the powerful quote by Jim Barksdale.
Best Jim Barksdale Quotes
I’ve tended to work at fast-growing companies that improve the way business gets done. ~ James Barksdale.
This is a marvelous way to put people together on the Web. ~ James L. Barksdale.
Take our own company as an example: We’re living proof, we jump with our own parachutes. ~ James Barksdale.
I was telling the truth. I feel like we got that point across. ~ James Barksdale.
When I started at Federal Express, not many people thought of using overnight package delivery as a viable way to conduct business. ~ James Barksdale.
One of Netscape’s main attractions to customers from Day One is that we provide alternatives. And that’s cherished by many customers – certainly not all. ~ James Barksdale.
In those markets, people have more of a choice because they’re not forced to adopt the product that comes with their operating system. ~ James Barksdale.
Well, another market is being created now out of Internet technology. ~ James L. Barksdale.
Our people are excited about building solutions, and it’s rewarding to see how much fun Netscape employees have doing something they think is relevant and important. ~ James Barksdale.
One of the most disappointing things is we don’t see enough residential construction – especially affordable housing. ~ James Barksdale.
Famous Jim Barksdale Quotes
The ability of our people to think quickly and create great products in this whole new world of Internet open standards is not only essential to our success but is also one of the things that impresses me most about Netscape. ~ James Barksdale.
We provide many options in many product areas that they seem to want to adopt, and that’s working well for us. ~ James Barksdale.
Where we can compete on merit, we do very well. ~ James Barksdale.
The fact is we have very few facts. The purpose of the Internet Policy Institute is to gather the kind of data that’s going to be essential to develop the Internet. ~ James Barksdale.
One problem was that my direct testimony was in writing, so a lot of people didn’t get to see it. I hope they see it, because I think it built a very strong case. ~ James Barksdale.
We’re no longer a small business; we’re a large organization spread around the world. I can’t imagine Netscape growing as fast as it has if it weren’t for the way we use our products. ~ James Barksdale.
We’re building a great company, and we’re very excited about the future of the company. ~ James Barksdale.
If you want to work on the core problem, it’s early school literacy. ~ James Barksdale.
I think we’re proving ourselves as we go along. The past several months our strategy has been evolutionary – making maximum advantage of our client browser, as well as our enterprise software for people who want to build Web sites. ~ James Barksdale.
I think they should separate Microsoft’s application group from its operating system group. ~ James Barksdale.
No longer do we have to go looking for information – we can find it on the Internet, our intranet, or our extranet with the click of a mouse. ~ James Barksdale.
Top Jim Barksdale Quotes
I want my testimony to stand on that point. But I would point out that Zona Research Inc. showed we have increased market share among business users, educational users, and government users over the past several months – and that’s more recent than the IDC report. ~ James Barksdale.
You folks are like the pig at a ham and egg breakfast. You are committed. ~ James Barksdale.
There are no pat answers – we’re pushing through some new frontiers, and lessons of the past don’t always apply. ~ James Barksdale.
Of course, nothing happens until somebody sells something. ~ James L. Barksdale.
We can provide beta software to our developers in advance of the general public. We can easily link up with external partners, customers, and suppliers. ~ James Barksdale.
If we have data, let’s look at data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine. ~ James Barksdale.
We can collaborate with a Netscape employee or partner who’s halfway around the world. We can distribute information and software to customers and shareholders, and get their feedback. ~ James Barksdale.
The highest compliments leaders can receive are those that are given by the people who work for them. ~ James Barksdale.
I think the touchstone is to give consumers a full, fair choice without the power of a monopoly operating system pushing them in a direction that free competition might or might not achieve. ~ James Barksdale.
Popular Jim Barksdale Quotes
There’s a push and shove between people who want to take the beach and build condominiums and some local people who don’t want to have anything to do with that. ~ James Barksdale.
After all, it’s the future of business communication that we’re looking toward. ~ James Barksdale.
We’ve tapped into a huge demand, and it’s up to us to fulfill that demand and to be creative doing it. ~ James Barksdale.
That’s the ultimate gratification in any business situation – do customers buy the product? And do they use it and do they come back and buy more of it? ~ James Barksdale.
In my column series ‘The Main Thing,’ I often talk about how Internet technology can improve the way people communicate – both within a business and between a business and its customers and partners. ~ James Barksdale.
I don’t believe in government regulation of the software industry. ~ James Barksdale.
Well, the sales of our products clearly demonstrate their value to businesses and to individuals. ~ James Barksdale.
We also provide a lot of services with our consulting group that allow people to take maximum advantage of the Net economy. Those all seem to resonate with customers and are providing a good strong base going forward. ~ James Barksdale.
Here is a TEDx video about the power of networks by Jim Barksdale.
So these were the 38 top Jim Barksdale quotes and sayings.
If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other posts on Bill Gates quotes and Steve Jobs quotes.
