Robert Chase Townsend (1920–98) was an American business executive and author. He is best known for transforming Avis Rent-a-Car into a rental car giant.
Born in Washington, D.C., Townsend grew up in Great Neck, New York. He attended Princeton and worked as an officer in the U.S. Navy, serving in World War II.
After the war, Townsend worked at American Express 1948–62. As president and chairman of Avis 1962–69, Townsend transformed the struggling auto rental company into a credible force in the industry, fueled by the “We Try Harder” advertising campaign (1962–65.) After 1969, Townsend was a leadership consultant at Congressional Monitor (later renamed Washington Monitor, Leadership Directories, and Leadership Connect.)
Townsend’s best-selling books are Up the Organization: How to Stop the Corporation from Stifling People and Strangling Profits (1970; revised 2007) and Further Up the Organization (1984.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Robert C. Townsend
Top management is supposed to be a tree full of owls-hooting when management heads into the wrong part of the forest. I’m still unpersuaded they even know where the forest is.
—Robert C. Townsend
Topics: Management
If you don’t do it with excellence, don’t do it at all! Because if it’s not excellent, it won’t be profitable or fun, and if you’re not in business for fun or profit, what the hell are you doing there?
—Robert C. Townsend
Topics: Business, Excellence
When you get right down to it, one of the most important tasks of a leader is to eliminate his people’s excuse for failure.
—Robert C. Townsend
Topics: Leadership, Failure, Excuses
Many ideas are good for a limited time—not forever.
—Robert C. Townsend
Topics: Ideas
True leadership must be for the benefit of the followers, not the enrichment of the leaders.
—Robert C. Townsend
Topics: Leaders, Leadership
Getting there isn’t half the fun—it’s all the fun.
—Robert C. Townsend
Is what I’m doing or about to do getting us closer to our objective?
—Robert C. Townsend
Topics: Time, Time Management, Focus
If you shoot for the stars and hit the moon, it’s OK. But you’ve got to shoot for something. A lot of people don’t even shoot.
—Robert C. Townsend
Topics: Stars, Action
A good manager doesn’t try to eliminate conflict; he tries to keep it from wasting the energies of his people. If you’re the boss and your people fight you openly when they think that you are wrong—that’s healthy.
—Robert C. Townsend
Topics: Management
Consultants are people who borrow your watch and tell you what time it is, and then walk off with the watch.
—Robert C. Townsend
Topics: Professionalism, Experts
A good leader needs to have a compass in his head and a bar of steel in his heart.
—Robert C. Townsend
Topics: Leadership, Leaders
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