Performance is Reality

"I think it is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises - but only performance is reality."Harold S. Geneen
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Harold "Hal" Sydney Geneen (January 22, 1910—November 21, 1997), was an American businessman most famous for serving as president of the ITT Corporation. Geneen was born in Bournemouth, Hampshire, England and immigrated to the U.S. as an infant with his parents. He studied accounting at New York University.

During 1959–1972 he was the president and CEO of International Telephone and Telegraph Corp. (ITT). He grew the company from a medium-sized business with $760 million sales in 1961 into multinational conglomerate with $17 billion sales in 1970. He extended its interests from manufacturing of telegraph equipment into insurance, hotels, real estate management and other areas. Under Geneen's management, ITT became the archetypal modern multinational conglomerate. ITT grew primarily through a series of approximately 350 acquisitions and mergers in 80 countries. Some of the largest of these were Hartford Fire Insurance Company (1970) and Sheraton Hotels.