Jack Cowin Quotes

102 Jack Cowin Quotes

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I don’t get up at the crack of dawn, but I do take my briefcase home at night.
Jack Cowin

After dinner, I often go into my office and do a couple of hours’ work. You’ve got to do that to try to keep up in this age of information overload.
Jack Cowin

You’ve got to try to understand why people do things…
Jack Cowin

Put yourself into a position whereby you can understand their perspective.
Jack Cowin

You’ve got to satisfy your own objectives, but you’ve also got an obligation to satisfy some of the objectives of the people who are working for you. It’s give and take.
Jack Cowin

You’ve got to give somewhat to ensure that team is in harmony, not that you’re ever going to get that 100 percent of the time.
Jack Cowin

Recognise that you can’t do it yourself and that you need other people…
Jack Cowin

[On a business needing different people like a footy team] If all you have are full-backs, you probably won’t score many goals…
Jack Cowin

[On having some people who have been with him for 30 odd years] Longevity of service and loyalty are the building blocks you need.
Jack Cowin

You need people who are prepared to stick with you and go that extra mile.
Jack Cowin



Management is a balancing act.
Jack Cowin

You delegate but you don’t abdicate.
Jack Cowin

[On his businesses] I try to steer it in the right direction, which results in what some people might call interference. But, as the primary shareholder, I’ve got a vested interest and I become involved if I think something isn’t going right or is off track.
Jack Cowin

Family satisfies me.
Jack Cowin

[In 2004 on having four kids aged between 24 and 35] They are all doing their own thing and I’m happy for them to do what they think is in their own best interests. But if any of them had a burning desire to get into the business, we’d probably make that happen.
Jack Cowin

[In 2006 on buying a 60% stake in RailCrew Xpress which services some of the United States’ largest railways] The railway industry in the United States is growing rapidly and this is probably more an opportunistic investment. It is not necessarily synergistic to what we are already doing [in the rest of the business].
Jack Cowin

[In 2006 on experimenting with a Japanese chain ‘Yoshinoya’ in Australia in a joint venture with Mitsui] It is not breaking any records… we are not certain where it is going to go at this stage.
Jack Cowin

I had a burning desire to start my own business…
Jack Cowin

We were in the right place at the right time.
Jack Cowin

[In 2011 on why Competitive Foods has been successful] I think we’ve been fortunate enough to able to attract some very competent people that have been able to help us build a business that’s multi-faceted at this stage of the game, beyond what the roots were when we first started.
Jack Cowin



I think one of the early lessons I learnt was that this is not a sprint, this is a marathon.
Jack Cowin

Identify an opportunity and go for it.
Jack Cowin



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