Top quotes by Peter Drucker

We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn. Votes: 23

The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity. Votes: 22

Suppliers and especially manufacturers have market power because they have information about a product or a service that the customer does not and cannot have, and does not need if he can trust the brand. This explains the profitability of brands. Votes: 20

The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself. Votes: 20

People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. Votes: 20

Checking the results of a decision against its expectations shows executives what their strengths are, where they need to improve, and where they lack knowledge or information. Votes: 19

Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action. Votes: 19

The new information technology... Internet and e-mail... have practically eliminated the physical costs of communications. Votes: 17

Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes. Votes: 14

The best way to predict the future is to create it. Votes: 14

Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things. Votes: 14

Accept the fact that we have to treat almost anybody as a volunteer. Votes: 13

Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship. The act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth. Votes: 12

Company cultures are like country cultures. Never try to change one. Try, instead, to work with what you've got. Votes: 11

Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done. Votes: 11

No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings. Votes: 10

Most discussions of decision making assume that only senior executives make decisions or that only senior executives' decisions matter. This is a dangerous mistake. Votes: 9

Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed. Votes: 9

Never mind your happiness; do your duty. Votes: 8

Teaching is the only major occupation of man for which we have not yet developed tools that make an average person capable of competence and performance. In teaching we rely on the 'naturals', the ones who somehow know how to teach. Votes: 7

So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work. Votes: 7

A manager is responsible for the application and performance of knowledge. Votes: 5

The most efficient way to produce anything is to bring together under one management as many as possible of the activities needed to turn out the product. Votes: 5

The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager. Votes: 3

The purpose of a business is to create a customer. Votes: 1

Business, that's easily defined - it's other people's money. Votes: 0

Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes." Votes: 0

Any time I have seen someone accomplishing something magnificent, they have been a monomaniac with a mission. A single-minded individual with a passion. Votes: 0

Adequacy is the enemy of excellence. Votes: 0

The computer actually may have aggravated management's degenerative tendency to focus inward on costs. Votes: 0

Large organizations cannot be versatile. A large organization is effective through its mass rather than through its agility. Fleas can jump many times their own height, but not an elephant. Votes: 0

My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions. Votes: 0

Leadership is defined by results not attributes. Votes: 0

Teaching is the only major occupation of man for which we have not yet developed tools that make an average person capable of competence and performance. In teaching we rely on the 'naturals,' the ones who somehow know how to teach. Votes: 0

Some of the best business and nonprofit CEOs I've worked with over a sixty-five-year consulting career were not stereotypical leaders. They were all over the map in terms of their personalities, attitudes, values, strengths, and weaknesses. Votes: 0

The fewer data needed, the better the information. And an overload of information, that is, anything much beyond what is truly needed, leads to information blackout. It does not enrich, but impoverishes. Votes: 0

Most Americans do not know what their strengths are. When you ask them, they look at you with a blank stare, or they respond in terms of subject knowledge, which is the wrong answer. Votes: 0

The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said. Votes: 0

Management by objective works - if you know the objectives. Ninety percent of the time you don't. Votes: 0

Knowledge is being applied to knowledge itself. It is now fast becoming the one factor in production, sidelining both capital and labour. Votes: 0

human beings need community. If there are no communities available for constructive ends, there will be destructive, murderous communities... Only the social sector, that is, the nongovernmental, nonprofit organization, can create what we now need, communities for citizens... What the dawning 21st century needs above all is equally explosive growth of the nonprofit social sector in building communities in the newly dominant social environment, the city. Votes: 0

They wrongly believe that good intentions move mountains. Bulldozers move mountains. But there are exceptions. Votes: 0

Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision. Votes: 0

Every single social and global issue of our day is a business opportunity in disguise Votes: 0

There are just two questions to ask to attain success in business: First, "What business am I in?" Second, "How's business?" Votes: 0

The "non-profit" institution neither supplies goods or services not controls. Its "product" is neither a pair of shoes nor an effective regulation. Its product is a changed human being. The non-profit institutions are human-change agents. Their "product" is a cured patient, a child that learns, a young man or woman grown into a self-respecting adult; a changed human life altogether. Votes: 0

Business is society's change agent. Votes: 0

To survive and succeed, every organization will have to turn itself into a change agent Votes: 0

Innovation requires us to systematically identify changes that have already occurred in a business - in demographics, in values, in technology or science - and then to look at them as opportunities. It also requires something that is most difficult for existing companies to do: to abandon rather than defend yesterday. Votes: 0

Few companies that installed computers to reduce the employment of clerks have realized their expectations... They now need more, and more expensive clerks even though they call them 'operators' or 'programmers.' Votes: 0

Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it. It is what the client or customer gets out of it. Votes: 0

The really important things are said over cocktails and are never done. Votes: 0

Trust is congruence between what you say and what you do. Votes: 0

The productivity of people requires continuous learning, as the Japanese have taught us. It requires adoption in the West of the specific Japanese Zen concept where one learns to do better what one already does well. Votes: 0

The greatest change in corporate culture - and the way business is being conducted - may be the accelerated growth of relationships based... on partnership. Votes: 0

Providing more desirable products, services, and customer experiences is vital to the continued existence of any business. And that is INNOVATION. Votes: 0

Everything must degenerate into work if anything is to happen. Votes: 0

One reason for the tremendous increase in health-care costs in the U.S. is managerial neglect of the "hotel services" by the people who dominate the hospital, such as doctors and nurses. Votes: 0

Doing the right thing is more important than doing the thing right. Votes: 0

The ultimate resource in economic development is people. It is people, not capital or raw materials that develop an economy. Votes: 0

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all. Votes: 0

If there is any one secret of effectiveness, it is concentration. Effective executives do first things first and they do one thing at a time. Votes: 0

Efficiency is doing better what is already being done. Votes: 0

The most common source of mistakes in management decisions is the emphasis on finding the right answer rather than the right question. Votes: 0

Strategic planning is the continuous process of making present entrepreneurial (risk-taking) decisions systematically and with the greatest knowledge of their futurity; organizing systematically the efforts needed to carry out these decisions; and measuring the results of these decisions against the expectations through organized, systematic feedback. Votes: 0

What we need is an entrepreneurial society in which innovation and entrepreneurship are normal, steady and continuous. Votes: 0

The only things that evolve by themselves in an organization are disorder, friction and malperformance. Votes: 0

Management means, in the last analysis, the substitution of thought for brawn and muscle, of knowledge for folkways and superstition, and of cooperation for force. It means the substitution of responsibility for obedience to rank, and of authority of performance for the authority of rank. Votes: 0

Capitalism as a social order and as a creed is the expression of the belief in economic progress as leading toward the freedom and equality of the individual in a free and open society. Marxism expects this society to result from the abolition of private profit. Capitalism expects the free and equal society to result from the enthronement of private profit as supreme ruler of social behavior... Votes: 0

With Christianity, freedom and equality became the two basic concepts of Europe; they are themselves Europe. Votes: 0

Only three things happen naturally in organizations: friction, confusion, and underperformance. Everything else requires leadership. Votes: 0

Business exists to supply goods and services to customers and economic surplus to society, rather than to supply jobs to workers and managers or even dividends to shareholders. Votes: 0

Great wisdom not applied to action and behavior is meaningless data. Votes: 0

Successful careers are not planned. They develop when people are prepared for opportunities because they know their strengths, their method of work, and their values. Knowing where one belongs can transform an ordinary person - hardworking and competent but otherwise mediocre - into an outstanding performer. Votes: 0

Leadership is lifting a person's vision to high sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations. Votes: 0

The honest work of yesterday has lost its social status, its social esteem. Votes: 0

Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for. A product is not quality because it is hard to make and costs a lot of money, as manufacturers typically believe. This is incompetence. Customers pay only for what is of use to them and gives them value. Nothing else constitutes quality. Votes: 0

A business is not defined by its name, statutes, or articles of incorporation. It is defined by the business mission. Only a clear definition of the mission and purpose of the organization makes possible clear and realistic business objectives. Votes: 0

That people even in well paid jobs choose ever earlier retirement is a severe indictment of our organizations -- not just business , but government service, the universities. These people don't find their jobs interesting. Votes: 0

Now that knowledge is taking the place of capital as the driving force in organizations worldwide, it is all too easy to confuse data with knowledge and information technology with information. Votes: 0

Value added" is a meaningless concept for a retail business , for a bank, for a life insurance company, and for any other business which is not primarily engaged in manufacturing. Votes: 0

By themselves, character and integrity do not accomplish anything. But their absence faults everything else. Votes: 0

The largest 100 corporations hold 25 percent of the worldwide productive assets, which in turn control 75 percent of international trade and 98 percent of all foreign direct investment.The multinational corporation...puts the economic decision beyond the effective reach of the political process and its decision-makers, national governments. Votes: 0

Everything requires time. It is the only truly universal condition. All work takes place in time and uses up time. Yet most people take for granted this unique, irreplaceable, and necessary resource. Nothing else, perhaps, distinguishes effective executives as much as their tender loving care of time. Votes: 0

Every three or four years I pick a new subject. It may be Japanese art; it may be economics. Three years of study are by no means enough to master a subject but they are enough to understand it. SO for more than 60 years I have kept studying one subject at a time. Votes: 0

Businesses once grew by one of two ways; grass roots up, or by acquisition... Today businesses grow through alliances - all kinds of dangerous alliances. Joint ventures and customer partnerings which, by the way, very few people understand. Votes: 0

Planning is actually incompatible with an entrepreneurial society and economy. Planning is the kiss of death of entrepreneurship. Votes: 0

Knowledge is power. In post-capitalism, power comes from transmitting information to make it productive, not hiding it. Votes: 0

Don't take on things you don't believe in and that you yourself are not good at. Learn to say no. Effective leaders match the objective needs of their company with the subjective competencies. As a result, they get an enormous amount of things done fast. Votes: 0

No single piece of macroeconomic advice given by the experts to their government has ever had the results predicted. Votes: 0

Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else. Votes: 0

More business decisions occur over lunch and dinner than at any other time, yet no MBA courses are given on the subject. Votes: 0

Teaching 23-year-olds in an MBA programme strikes me as largely a waste of time. They lack the background of experience. You can teach them skills - accounting and what have you - but you can't teach them management. Votes: 0

Meetings are a symptom of bad organization. The fewer meetings the better. Votes: 0

You cannot prevent a major catastrophe, but you can build an organization that is battle-ready, where people trust one another. In military training, the first rule is to instill soldiers with trust in their officers - because without trust, they won't fight. Votes: 0

The computer is a moron. Votes: 0

The basic economic resource - the means of production - is no longer capital, nor natural resources, nor labor. It is and will be knowledge. Votes: 0

We can ill afford to have activities conducted as "non-profit," that is, as activities that devour capital rather than form it, if they can be organized as activities that form capital, as activities that make a profit. Votes: 0

Conductors do not know how the oboe does its work, but they know what the oboe should contribute. Votes: 0

When a subject becomes totally obsolete we make it a required course. Votes: 0

The individual is the central, rarest, most precious capital resource of our society. Votes: 0

There is the general belief that the corporation income tax is a tax on the "rich" and on the "fat cats." But with pension funds owning 30% of American large business-and soon to own 50%-the corporation income tax, in effect, eases the load on those in top income brackets and penalizes the beneficiaries of pension funds. Votes: 0

Ideas are cheap and abundant; what is of value is the effective placement of those ideas into situations that develop into action. Votes: 0

Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes... but no plans. Votes: 0

We can say with certainty - or 90% probability - that the new industries that are about to be born will have nothing to do with information. Votes: 0

Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all. Votes: 0

The concept of profit maximization is, in fact, meaningless. Votes: 0

The knowledge that we consider knowledge proves itself in action. What we now mean by knowledge is information in action, information focused on results. Votes: 0

Don't solve problems. Pursue opportunities. Votes: 0

Customers pay only for what is of use to them and gives them value. Nothing else constitutes quality. Votes: 0

Follow effective action with quiet reflection. Votes: 0

The enterprise that does not innovate ages and declines. And in a period of rapid change such as the present, the decline will be fast. Votes: 0

There is every indication that the period ahead will be an innovative one, one of rapid change in technology , society , economy , and institutions . Votes: 0

When the business grows, the person who founded it is incredibly busy. Rapid growth puts an enormous strain on a business. You outgrow your production facilities. You outgrow your management capabilities. Votes: 0

Profit is not the explanation, cause, or rationale of business behavior and business decisions, but the test of their validity. Votes: 0

Far too much reorganization goes on all the time. Organizitis is like a spastic colon. Votes: 0

There's an enormous number of managers who have retired on the job. Votes: 0

Through systematic terror, through indoctrination, through systematic manipulation of stimulus, reward, and punishment, we can today break man and convert him into brute animal ... The first step toward survival is therefore to make government legitimate again by attempting to deprive it of these powers... by international action to ban such powers. Votes: 0

The single most important thing to remember about any enterprise is that there are no results inside its walls. The result of a business is a satisfied customer. Votes: 0

The single most important thing to remember about any enterprise is that results exist only on the outside.The result of a business is a satisfied customer. The result of a hospital is a satisfied patient. The result of a school is a student who has learned something and puts it to work ten years later. Inside an enterprise there are only costs. Votes: 0

The world economy is not yet a community--not even an economic community...Yet the existence of the "global shopping center" is a fact that cannot be undone. The vision of an economy for all will not be forgotten again. Votes: 0

If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old Votes: 0

"The area in which the executive first encounters the challenge of strength is in staffing. The effective executive fills positions and promotes on the basis of what a man can do. He does not make staffing decisions to minimize weaknesses but to maximize strength." Votes: 0

Unless strategy evaluation is performed seriously and systematically, and unless strategists are willing to act on the results, energy will be used up defending yesterday. Votes: 0

Cultivate a deep understanding of yourself - not only what your strengths and weaknesses are but also how you learn, how you work with others, what your values are, and where you can make the greatest contribution. Because only when you operate from strengths can you achieve true excellence. Votes: 0

Strong people have strong weaknesses. Votes: 0

Successful leaders don't start out asking, 'What do I want to do?' They ask, 'What needs to be done?' Then they ask, 'Of those things that would make a difference, which are right for me?' Votes: 0

The fundamental reality for every worker, from sweeper to executive vice-president, is the eight hours or so that he spends on the job . In our society of organizations, it is the job through which the great majority has access to achievement, to fulfillment, and to community. Votes: 0

That the government's power under the Taft-Hartley Act to stop a strike by injunction so clearly strengthens the hand of the employer-even though it is used only when a strike threatens the national health, welfare, or safety-is a grave blemish and explains much of union resistance to the Act. Votes: 0

In the Western tradition, we have focused on teaching as a skill and forgotten what Socrates knew: teaching is a gift, learning is a skill. Votes: 0

Every enterprise is learning and teaching institution. Training and development must be built into it on all levels, training and development that never stop. Votes: 0

People learn the most when teaching others. Votes: 0

Innovation opportunities do not come with the tempest but with the rustling of the breeze. Votes: 0

Nothing else, perhaps, distinguishes effective executives as much as their tender loving care of time. Votes: 0

Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility. Votes: 0

The great challenge to management today is to make productive the tremendous new resource, the knowledge worker. This, rather than the productivity of the manual worker, is the key to economic growth and economic performance in today's society. Votes: 0

Executives owe it to the organization and to their fellow workers not to tolerate nonperforming individuals in important jobs. Votes: 0

If war production should remain the only way out of a long-term depression, industrial society would be reduced to the choice between suicide through total war or suicide through total depression. Votes: 0

Capital formation is shifting from the entrepreneur who invests in the future to the pension trustee who invests in the past. Votes: 0

The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday's logic. Votes: 0

what's absolutely unforgivable is the financial benefit top management people get for laying off people. There is no excuse for it. No justification. This is morally and socially unforgivable, and we will pay a heavy price for it. Votes: 0

Everybody has accepted by now that change is unavoidable. But that still implies that change is like death and taxes - it should be postponed as long as possible and no change would be vastly preferable. But in a period of upheaval, such as the one we are living in, change is the norm. Votes: 0

The great mystery isn't that people do things badly but that they occasionally do a few things well. The only thing that is universal is incompetence. Strength is always specific! Nobody ever commented, for example, that the great violinist Jascha Heifetz probably couldn't play the trumpet very well. Votes: 0

Financial " synergy " is a will-o'-the-wisp.It looks good on paper, but it fails to work out in practice. Votes: 0

Teamwork is neither "good" nor "desirable." It is a fact. Wherever people work together or play together they do so as a team. Which team to use for what purpose is a crucial, difficult and risky decision that is even harder to unmake. Managements have yet to learn how to make it. Votes: 0

Plans are worthless, but planning is invaluable. Votes: 0

For the first four years, no new enterprise produces profits. Even Mozart didn't start writing music until he was four. Votes: 0

A manager sets objectives - A manager organizes - A manager motivates and communicates - A manager, by establishing yardsticks, measures - A manager develops people . Votes: 0

The only thing we know about the future is that it will be different. Votes: 0

Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes. Votes: 0

"Plastic moments" are those periods that overlap when the old has gone but the new has not yet arrived and when the course of history is more open to being shaped and steered than any other time. Votes: 0

(Waste = Loss): The first rule of business is to survive and the guiding principle of business economics is not the maximisation of profit, it is the avoidance of loss Votes: 0

...because knowledge rapidly deteriorates unless it is used constantly, maintaining within an organization an activity that is used only intermittently guarantees incompetence. Votes: 0

..there is need for a person to be generally educated. Otherwise you shrivel up much too soon. Whether this means reading the bible (I read the New Testament every few years) or reading the great 19th century novelists (the greatest and shrewdest judge of people and of society who ever lived), or classical philosophy (which I cannot read-it puts me to sleep immediately), or history (which is secondary). What matters is that the knowledge worker, by the time he or she reaches middle age, has developed and nourished a human being rather than a tax accountant or a hydraulic engineer. Votes: 0

[Entrepreneurship] is by no means hunch or gamble. But it also is not precisely science. Rather, it is judgment. Votes: 0

[T]hroughout the ages to be educated meant to be unproductive.... our word "school" - and its equivalent in all European languages - derives from a Greek word meaning "leisure. Votes: 0

[The masses] ... must turn their hopes toward a miracle. In the depths of their despair reason cannot be believed, truth must be false, and lies must be truth. "Higher bread prices," "lower bread prices," "unchanged bread prices" have all failed. The only hope lies in a kind of bread price which is none of these, which nobody has ever seen before, and which belies the evidence of one's reason. Votes: 0

A business enterprise must continue beyond the lifetime of the individual or of the generation to be capable of producing its contributions to economy and to society. Votes: 0

A business exists because the consumer is willing to pay you his money. You run a business to satisfy the consumer. That isn't marketing. That goes way beyond marketing. Votes: 0

A fundamental responsibility of leadership is make sure that everybody knows the mission, understands it, lives it. Votes: 0

A man should never be appointed into a managerial position if his vision focuses on people's weaknesses rather than on their strengths. Votes: 0

A management decision is irresponsible if it risks disaster this year for the sake of a grandiose future. Votes: 0

A manager's task is to make the strengths of people effective and their weakness irrelevant - and that applies fully as much to the manager's boss as it applies to the manager's subordinates. Votes: 0

A person can perform only from strength. One cannot build performance on weakness, let alone on something one cannot do at all. Votes: 0

A primary task of management in the developed countries in the decades ahead will be to make knowledge productive. Votes: 0

A success that has outlived its usefulness may, in the end, be more damaging than failure. Votes: 0

A superior who works on his own development sets an almost irresistible example. Votes: 0

Above all, innovation is not invention. It is a term of economics rather than of technology. Votes: 0

Absolute size by itself is no indicator of success and achievement, let alone of managerial competence. Being the right size is. Votes: 0

Adversarial power relationships only work if you never have to see or work with the bastards again. Votes: 0

All companies are service companies; some also manufacture products. Votes: 0

All earlier pluralist societies destroyed themselves because no one took care of the common good. They abounded in communities but could not sustain community, let alone create it. Votes: 0

All economic activity is by definition "high risk." And defending yesterday--that is, not innovating--is far more risky than making tomorrow. Votes: 0

All good strategy eventually degenerates into work. Votes: 0

All great change in business has come from outside the firm, not from inside. Votes: 0

Almost everybody today believes that nothing in economic history has ever moved as fast as, or had a greater impact than, the Information Revolution. But the Industrial Revolution moved at least as fast in the same time span, and had probably an equal impact if not a greater one. Votes: 0

Although he reputedly hated the label of 'guru', Peter Drucker was, by any standards, the greatest management guru the world has yet seen. In 1996, the McKinsey Quarterly journal described him as the 'the one guru to whom other gurus kowtow' and Robert Heller described him as 'the greatest man in the history of management', praise indeed for a man who described himself as 'just an old journalist'. Votes: 0

An effective executive builds on strengths - their own strengths, the strengths of superiors, colleagues, subordinates, and on the strength of the situation. Votes: 0

An employer has no business with a man's personality. Employment is a specific contract calling for a specific performance. Any attempt to go beyond that is usurpation. It is immoral as well as an illegal intrusion of privacy. It is abuse of power. An employee owes no "loyalty," he owes no "love" and no "attitudes"-he owes performance and nothing else. The task is not to change personality, but to enable a person to achieve and to perform. Votes: 0

An employer has no business with a man's personality. The task is not to change personality, but to enable a person to achieve and to perform. Votes: 0

An established company which, in an age demanding innovation, is not able to innovation, is doomed to decline and extinction. Votes: 0

An executive should be a realist; and no one is less realistic than the cynic. Votes: 0

An institution which is financed by a budget - or which enjoys a monopoly which the customer cannot escape - is rewarded for what it deserves rather than what it earns. It is paid for 'good intentions' and 'programs'. It is paid for not alienating important constituents rather than satisfying any one group. It is misdirected by the way it is being paid into defining performance and results as what will produce the budget rather than as what will produce contribution. Votes: 0

An organization belongs on a sick list when promotion becomes more important to its people than accomplishment of their job they are in. It is sick when it is more concerned with avoiding mistakes than with taking risks, with counteracting the weaknesses of its members than with building on their strength. But it is sick also when "good human relations" become more important than performance and achievement. Votes: 0

And no matter how serious an environmental problem the automobile poses in today's big city, the horse was dirtier, smelled worse, killed and maimed more people, and congested the streets just as much. Votes: 0

As a manager you're paid to be uncomfortable. If you're comfortable, it's a sure sign you're doing things wrong. Votes: 0

As a rule we perceive what we expect to perceive... The unexpected is usually not received at all. Votes: 0

As soon as you move one step up from the bottom, your effectiveness depends on your ability to reach others through the spoken and written word. Votes: 0

As to the idea that advertising motivates people, remember the Edsel. Votes: 0

As with every phenomenon of the objective universe, the first step toward understanding work is to analyze it. Votes: 0

Balance Sheets are meaningless. Our accounting systems are still based on the assumption that 80% of costs are manual labor. Votes: 0

Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business has two and only two functions: Marketing and Innovation. Marketing and Innovation produce results. All the rest are costs. Votes: 0

Brilliant men are often strikingly ineffectual. They fail to realize that the brilliant insight is not by itself achievement. They never have learned that insights become effectiveness only through hard systematic work. Votes: 0

Business enterprise is an organ of society. There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer. Votes: 0

Business has only two basic functions - marketing and innovation. Votes: 0

Business purpose and business mission are so rarely given adequate thought is perhaps the most important cause of business frustration and failure. Votes: 0

Businesses are not paid to reform customers. They are paid to satisfy customers. Votes: 0

But innovation is more than a new method. It is a new view of the universe, as one of risk rather than of chance or of certainty. It is a new view of man's role in the universe; he creates order by taking risks. And this means that innovation, rather than being an assertion of human power, is an acceptance of human responsibility. Votes: 0

Capitalism is being attacked not because it is inefficient or misgoverned but because it is cynical. And indeed a society based on the assertion that private vices become public benefits cannot endure, no matter how impeccable its logic, no matter how great its benefits. Votes: 0

Change is the norm; unless an organization sees that its task is to lead change, that organization will not survive. Votes: 0

Charisma becomes the undoing of leaders. It makes them inflexible, convinced of their own infallibility, unable to change Votes: 0

Communication always makes demands. It always demands that the recipient become somebody, do something, believe something. It always appeals to motivation. Votes: 0

Communism is evil. Its driving forces are the deadly sins of envy and hatred. Votes: 0

Concentration is the key to economic results. No other principle of effectiveness is violated as constantly today as the basic principle of concentration.... Our motto seems to be, "Let's do a little bit of everything." Votes: 0

Culture eats Christianity for breakfast. Votes: 0

Culture eats strategy for breakfast, Votes: 0

Decision making is the specific executive task. Votes: 0

Decisions exist only in the present. Votes: 0

Decisions of the kind the executive has to make are not made well by acclamation. They are made well only if based on the clash of conflicting views...The first rule in decision-making is that one does not make a decision unless there is disagreement. Votes: 0

Defending yesterday is far more risky than making tomorrow. Votes: 0

Do first things first, and second things not at all. Votes: 0

Do not believe that it is very much of an advance to do the unnecessary three times as fast. Votes: 0

Do what you do best, and outsource the rest. Votes: 0

Don't try to innovate for the future. Innovate for the present! Votes: 0

During periods of discontinuous, abrupt change, the essence of adaptation involves a keen sensitivity to what should be abandoned - not what should be changed or introduced. A willingness to depart from the familiar has distinct survival value. Votes: 0

Economists talk about profit motive, but nothing motivates modern man more than a chance to avoid taxes! Votes: 0

Economists think the poor need them to tell them that they are poor. Votes: 0

Education can no longer be the sole property of the state. Votes: 0

Education gives you neither experience nor wisdom. Votes: 0

Effective innovations start small. They are not grandiose. They try to do one specific thing. Votes: 0

Effective organizations put people in jobs in which they can do the most good. They place people -- and allow people to place themselves -- according to their strengths. Votes: 0

Effective people are not problem minded; they're opportunity-minded. They feed opportunities and starve problems. They think preventively. Votes: 0

Efficiency, which is doing things right, is irrelevant until you work on the right things. Votes: 0

Elephants have a hard time adapting. Cockroaches outlive everything. Votes: 0

Entrepreneurs believe that profit is what matters most in a new enterprise. But profit is secondary. Cash flow matters most. Votes: 0

Entrepreneurship is ârisky mainly because so few of the so-called entrepreneurs know what they are doing. Votes: 0

Entrepreneurship is neither a science nor an art. It is a practice. Votes: 0

Entrepreneurship rests on a theory of economy and society. The theory sees change as normal and indeed as healthy. And it sees the major task in society - and especially in the economy - as doing something different rather than doing better what is already being done. That is basically what Say, two hundred years ago, meant when he coined the term entrepreneur. It was intended as a manifesto and as a declaration of dissent: the entrepreneur upsets and disorganizes. As Joseph Schumpeter formulated it, his task is "creative destruction. Votes: 0

Erroneous assumptions can be disastrous. Votes: 0

Every few hundred years in Western history there occurs a sharp transformation. Within a few short decades, society - its worldview, its basic values, its social and political structures, its art, its key institutions - rearranges itself. We are currently living through such a time. Votes: 0

Every first-rate editor I have ever heard of reads, edits and rewrites every word that goes into his publication.... Good editors are not 'permissive'; they do not let their colleagues do 'their thing'; they make sure that everybody does the 'paper's thing.' A good, let alone a great editor is an obsessive autocrat with a whim of iron, who rewrites and rewrites, cuts and slashes, until every piece is exactly the way he thinks it should have been done. Votes: 0

Every organization has to prepare for the abandonment of everything it does. Votes: 0

Every organization must be prepared to abandon everything it does to survive in the future. Votes: 0

Every success creates new opportunities. So does every failure. Votes: 0

Every time you do something that is important, write down what you expect will happen. Votes: 0

Executives do many things in addition to making decisions. But only executives make decisions. The first managerial skill is, therefore, the making of effective decisions. Votes: 0

Fascism is the result of the collapse of Europe's spiritual and social order catastrophes broke through the everyday routine which makes men accept existing forms, institutions and tenets as unalterable natural laws. They suddenly exposed the vacuum behind the facade of society. Votes: 0

Few relationships are as critical to the business enterprise itself as the relationship to government. The manager has responsibility for this relationship as part of his responsibility to the enterprise itself. To a large extent the relationship to government results from what businesses do or fail to do. Votes: 0

Focus on opportunities, not problems. Votes: 0

For new technology to replace old, it has to have at least ten times the benefit. Votes: 0

For the social ecologist language is not "communication." It is not just "message." It is substance. It is the cement that holds humanity together. It creates community and communication. Social ecologists need not be "great" writers; but they have to be respectful writers, caring writers. Votes: 0

Fortunately or unfortunately, the one predictable thing in any organization is the crisis. That always comes. That's when you do depend on the leader: The job of the leader is to build an organization that is battle-ready, that has high morale, that knows how to behave, that trusts itself, and where people trust one another. Votes: 0

Free enterprise cannot be justified as being good for business. It can be justified only as being good for society. Votes: 0

Growth that adds volume without improving productivity is fat. Growth that diminishes productivity is cancer. Votes: 0

History has been written not by the most talented but by the most motivated. Votes: 0

I have been saying for many years that we are using the word 'guru' only because 'charlatan' is too long to fit into a headline. Votes: 0

I have no interest in celebrities. If all the superrich disappeared, the world economy would not even notice. The superrich are irrelevant to the economy. Votes: 0

I no longer think that learning how to manage people, especially subordinates, is the most important for executives to learn. I am teaching above all else, how to manage oneself. Votes: 0

I think the growth industry of the future in this country and the world will soon be the continuing education of adults. ...I think the educated person of the future is somebody who realizes the need to continue to learn. That is the new definition and it is going to change the world we live in and work in. Votes: 0

I would hope that American managers-indeed, managers worldwide-continue to appreciate what I have been saying almost from day one: that management is so much more than exercising rank and privilege, that it is much more than "making deals." Management affects people and their lives. Votes: 0

Ideas are like frog eggs: you've got to lay a thousand to hatch one. Votes: 0

Ideas are somewhat like babies--they are born small, immature, and shapeless. They are promise rather than fulfillment. In the innovative company executives do not say, "This is a damn-fool idea." Instead they ask, "What would be needed to make this embryonic, half-baked, foolish idea into something that makes sense, that is an opportunity for us? Votes: 0

If "socialism" is defined as "ownership of the means of production"--and this is both the orthodox and the only rigorous definition--then the United States is the first truly Socialist country. Votes: 0

If a business is to be considered a continuous process, instead of a series of disjointed stop-and-go events, then the economic universe in which a business operates-and all the major events within it-must have rhyme, rhythm, or reason. Votes: 0

If a government commission had worked on the horse, you would have the first horse that could operate its knee joint in both directions. The trouble is it couldn't have stood up. Votes: 0

If general perception changes from seeing the glass as 'half-full' to seeing it as 'half empty' there are major innovative opportunities. Votes: 0

If something fails despite being carefully planned, carefully designed, and conscientiously executed, that failure often bespeaks underlying change and, with it, opportunity. Votes: 0

If the feudal knight was the clearest embodiment of society in the early Middle Ages, and the "bourgeois" under Capitalism, the educated person will represent society in the post-capitalist society in which knowledge has become the central resource. Votes: 0

If you can't measure it, you can't change it. Votes: 0

If you have more than five goals, you have none. Votes: 0

If you have too many problems, maybe you should get out of business. There is no law that says a company must last forever. Votes: 0

If you want it, measure it. If you can't measure it, forget it. Votes: 0

If you want to improve how you manage time - stop doing what doesn't need to be done! Votes: 0

If you want to know what the future is, be part of its development. Votes: 0

If you want to predict the future create it. Votes: 0

If you're not living life on the edge, you're taking up too much space. The best way to predict the future is to create it. Votes: 0

I'm a writer. I could not or would not ever run a business. I don't even have a secretary. And contrary to some of the stereotypes, entrepreneurs are not loners. I am. Votes: 0

I'm better about things than about people. I'm more interested in people, but I'm better at ideas. Votes: 0

Important decisions are risky. They should be controversial. Acclamation means that nobody has done the homework. Votes: 0

In a few hundred years, when the history of our time will be written from a long-term perspective, it is likely that the most important event historians will see is not technology, not the Internet, not e-commerce. It is an unprecedented change in the human condition. For the first time - literally - substantial and rapidly growing numbers of people have choices. For the first time, they will have to manage themselves. And society is totally unprepared for it. Votes: 0

In a rural society communities are "given" for the individual. Community is a fact, whether family or religion, social class or caste. Votes: 0

In all recorded history there has not been one economist who has had to worry about where the next meal would come from. Votes: 0

In book subjects a student can only do a student's work. All that can be measured is how well he learns, rather than how well he performs. All he can show is promise. Votes: 0

In business school classrooms they construct wonderful models of a non- world. Votes: 0

In most organizations, the bottleneck is at the top of the bottle. Votes: 0

In the knowledge economy everyone is a volunteer, but we have trained our managers to manage conscripts. Votes: 0

In the managerial organization, the top people sit in judgment; in the innovative organization it is their job to encourage ideas, no matter how unripe or crude. Votes: 0

In the modern corporation the decisive power, that of the managers , is derived from no one but the managers themselves controlled by nobody and nothing and responsible to no one. It is in the most literal sense unfounded, unjustified, uncontrolled and irresponsible power. Votes: 0

In the next economic downturn there will be an outbreak of bitterness and contempt for the supercorporate chieftains who pay themselves millions. In every major economic downturn in US history the villains have been the heroes during the preceding boom. Votes: 0

In the political, the social, the economic, even the cultural sphere, the revolutions of our time have been revolutions "against" rather than revolutions "for"... On the whole throughout this period the man--or party--that stood for doing the positive has usually cut a pathetic figure; well meaning but ineffectual, civilized but unrealistic, he was suspect alike to [by both] the ultras of destruction and the ultras of preservation and restoration. Votes: 0

In todays economy, the most important resource is no longer labor, capital or land; it is knowledge Votes: 0

Increasingly, politics is not about "who gets what, when, how" but about values, each of them considered to be absolute. Politics is about "the right to life." It is about the environment. It is about gaining equality for groups alleged to be oppressed. None of these issues is economic. All are fundamentally moral. Votes: 0

Information is the manager's main tool, indeed the manager's capital, and it is he who must decide what information he needs and how to use it. Votes: 0

Innovation is the specific tool of entrepreneurs, the means by which they exploit change as an opportunity for a different business or a different service. Votes: 0

Innovation is the specific tool of entrepreneurs, the means by which they exploit change as an opportunity for a different business or a different service. It is capable of being presented as a discipline, capable of being learned, capable of being practiced. Entrepreneurs need to search purposefully for the sources of innovation, the changes and their symptoms that indicate opportunities for successful innovation. And they need to know and to apply the principles of successful innovation. Votes: 0

Innovative efforts should never report to line managers charged with responsibility for ongoing operations. The new project is an infant and will remain one for the foreseeable future, and infants belong in the nursery. The 'adults', that is, the executives in charge of existing businesses or products will have neither the time nor understanding for the infant. Votes: 0

Inside an organization there are only cost centers. The only profit center is a customer whose check has not bounced. Votes: 0

Institutions mistake good intentions for objectives. They say "health care"; that's an intention, not an objective. Votes: 0

It does not follow from the separation of planning and doing in the analysis of work that the planner and the doer should be two different people. It does not follow that the industrial world should be divided into two classes of people: a few who decide what is to be done, design the job, set the pace, rhythm and motions, and order others about; and the many who do what and as they are told. Votes: 0

It does not matter whether the worker wants responsibility or not, The enterprise must demand it of him. Votes: 0

It has been said, and only half in jest, that a tough, professionally led union is a great force for improving management performance. It forces the manager to think about what he is doing and to be able to explain his actions and behavior. Votes: 0

It is better to pick the wrong priority than none at all. Votes: 0

It is commonly believed that innovations create changes - but few ever do. Successful innovations exploit changes that have already happened. Votes: 0

It is easier to raise the performance of one leader than it is to raise the performance of a whole mass. Votes: 0

It is more productive to convert an opportunity into results than to solve a problem - which only restores the equilibrium of yesterday. Votes: 0

It is willingness of people to give of themselves over and above the demands of the job that distinguishes the great from the merely adequate. Votes: 0

It takes far less energy to move from first-rate performance to excellence than it does to move from incompetence to mediocrity. Votes: 0

It's up to you to carve out your place, to know when to change course, and to keep yourself engaged and productive during a work life that may span some 50 years. Votes: 0

It's amazing how many things busy people are doing that never will be missed. Votes: 0

It's more important to do the right thing than to do things right. Votes: 0

Keep the boss aware. Bosses, after all, are held responsible by their own bosses for the performance of their subordinates. They must be able to say: "I know what Anne [or John] is trying to do. Votes: 0

Keep your eye on the task, not on yourself. The task matters, and you are a servant Votes: 0

Knowledge applied is productivity. Votes: 0

Knowledge has become the key economic resource and the dominant-and perhaps even the only-source of competitive advantage. Votes: 0

Knowledge has become the key resource of the world economy. Votes: 0

Knowledge is information that changes something or somebody - either by becoming grounds for actions, or by making an individual (or an institution) capable of different or more effective action. Votes: 0

Knowledge is the source of Wealth. Applied to tasks we already know, it becomes Productivity. Applied to tasks that are new, it becomes Innovation... Votes: 0

Leaders grow; they are not made. Votes: 0

Leaders shouldn?t attach moral significance to their ideas: Do that, and you can?t compromise. Votes: 0

Leadership is all about getting results. Votes: 0

Leadership is all hype. We've had three great leaders in this century-Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. Votes: 0

Leadership is an achievement of trust. Votes: 0

Leadership is more doing than dash. Votes: 0

Leadership is not rank, privileges, title or money. It is responsibility. Votes: 0

Listening (the first competence of leadership) is not a skill, it is a discipline. All you have to do is keep your mouth shut. Votes: 0

Listening is not a skill; it is a discipline. Votes: 0

Loafing" is easy, but "leisure" is difficult. Votes: 0

Long range planning does not deal with future decisions, but with the future of present decisions. Votes: 0

Look at government programs for the past fifty years. Every single one - except warfare - achieved the exact opposite of its announced goal. Votes: 0

Look upon every obstacle as part payment towards your success. Votes: 0

Luck never built a business. Prosperity and growth come only to the business that systematically finds and exploits its potential. Votes: 0

Making changes to better appeal to customer is INNOVATION. Votes: 0

Management and entrepreneurship are only two different dimensions of the same task. An entrepreneur who does not learn how to manage will not last long. A management that does not learn to innovate will not last long. Votes: 0

Management and union may be likened to that serpent of the fables who on one body had two heads that fighting each other with poisoned fangs, killed themselves. Votes: 0

Management has authority only as long as it performs. Votes: 0

Management is not being brilliant. Management is being conscientious. Votes: 0

Management must take the lead in making obsolete its own products and services rather than waiting for a competitor to do so. Votes: 0

Managers are agents of transformation, converting the workforce in developed countries from one of manual workers to one of highly educated knowledge workers. Votes: 0

Managers are the basic and scarcest resource of any business enterprise. Votes: 0

Managing innovation will increasingly become a challenge to management, and especially to top management, and a touchstone of its competence. Votes: 0

Many studies of research scientists have shown that achievement (at least below the genius level of an Einstein, Bohr, or a Planck) depends less on ability in doing research than on the courage to go after opportunity. Votes: 0

Marketing and innovation make money. Everything else is a cost. Votes: 0

Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Votes: 0

Marketing is not a function, it is the whole business seen from the customer's point of view. Votes: 0

Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business. Votes: 0

Miracles are great, but they're so damn unpredictable. Votes: 0

Mission defines strategy, and strategy defines structure. Votes: 0

Morale in an organization does not mean that âpeople get along together; the test is performance not conformance. Votes: 0

Most executives have learned that what one postpones, one actually abandons ... timing is a most important element in the success of any effort. To do five years later what would have been smart to do five years earlier, is almost a sure recipe for frustration and failure. Votes: 0

Most innovators are successful to the extent to which they define risks and confine them. Votes: 0

Most leaders don't need to learn what to do. They need to learn what to stop. Votes: 0

Most of what you hear about entrepreneurshi p is all wrong. It's not magic; it's not mysterious; and it has nothing to do with genes. It's a discipline and, like any discipline, it can be learned. Votes: 0

Most organizations staff their problems & starve their opportunities. Votes: 0

Most people think they know what they are good at. They are usually wrong... And yet, a person can perform only from strength. Votes: 0

Mother Teresa's numerical results were not her greatest contribution. Instead, she made the world-and especially India-conscious of compassion. Votes: 0

Never ask who's right. Start out by asking what is right. And you find that out by listening to dissenting, disagreeing opinions. Votes: 0

Never underrate the boss! The boss may look illiterate. He may look stupid. But there is no risk at all in overrating a boss. If you underrate him he will bitterly resent it or impute to you the deficiency in brains and knowledge you imputed to him. Votes: 0

No business can do everything. Even if it has the money, it will never have enough good people. It has to set priorities. The worst thing to do is a little bit of everything. This makes sure that nothing is being accomplished. It is better to pick the wrong priority than none at all. Votes: 0

No decision has been made unless carrying it out in specific steps has become someone's work assignment and responsibility. Votes: 0

No executive has ever suffered because his subordinates were strong and effective. Votes: 0

No financial man will ever understand business because financial people think a company makes money. A company makes shoes, and no financial man understands that. They think money is real. Shoes are real. Votes: 0

No matter how deeply wedded one may be to the free enterprise system (and I, for one, am wedded for life), one has to accept the need for positive government; one has to consider government action on a sizable scale as desirable rather than as a necessary evil. Votes: 0

No one has ever failed to find the facts they are looking for. Votes: 0

No one learns as much about a subject as one who is forced to teach it. Votes: 0

No organization can depend on genius; the supply is always scarce and unreliable. It is the test of an organization to make ordinary human beings perform better than they seem capable of, to bring out whatever strength there is in its members, and to use each man's strength to help all the others perform. The purpose of an organization is to enable common men to do uncommon things. Votes: 0

No other area offers richer opportunities for successful innovation than the unexpected success. Votes: 0

No society can function as a society, unless it gives the individual member social status and function, and unless the decisive social power is legitimate. Votes: 0

Nobody can predict the future; the idea is to have a firm grasp of the present. Votes: 0

Nobody in the world is as good at making decisions as the Japanese. Votes: 0

Not to innovate is the single largest reason for the decline of existing organizations. Not to know how to manage is the single largest reason for the failure of new ventures. Votes: 0

Objectives are not commands; they are commitments. Votes: 0

Objectives are not fate; they are direction. They are not commands; they are commitments. They do not determine the future; they are a means to mobilize resources and energies of the business for the making of the future. Votes: 0

Objectives can be compared to a compass bearing by which a ship navigates. A compass bearing is firm, but in actual navigation, a ship may veer off its course for many miles. Without a compass bearing, a ship would neither find its port nor be able to estimate the time required to get there. Votes: 0

Of those things that would make a difference, which are right for me? Votes: 0

Once a year ask the boss, "What do I or my people do that helps you to do your job?" and "What do I or my people do that hampers you? Votes: 0

Once the facts are clear the decisions jump out at you. Votes: 0

One can either work or meet. One cannot do both at the same time. Votes: 0

One cannot buy, rent or hire more time. The supply of time is totally inelastic. No matter how high the demand, the supply will not go up. There is no price for it. Time is totally perishable and cannot be stored. Yesterday's time is gone forever, and will never come back. Time is always in short supply. There is no substitute for time. Everything requires time. All work takes place in, and uses up time. Yet most people take for granted this unique, irreplaceable and necessary resource. Votes: 0

One cannot hire a hand; the whole man always comes with it. Votes: 0

One cannot manage change. One can only be ahead of it. Votes: 0

One does not "manage" people. The task is to lead people. Votes: 0

One does not start with facts. One starts with opinions. Votes: 0

One has to make a decision when a condition is likely to degenerate if nothing is done. Votes: 0

One of the great movements in my lifetime among educated people is the need to commit themselves to action. Most people are not satisfied with giving money; we also feel we need to work. Votes: 0

Organizationally what is required - and evolving - is systems management. Votes: 0

Organizations are no longer built on force, but on trust. Votes: 0

Our job in life is to make a positive difference, not prove we're right. Votes: 0

Our most important education system is in the employees' own organization. Votes: 0

Our society has become an employee society. Votes: 0

People alone of all the resources can grow and develop. Votes: 0

People are effective because they say 'no,' because they say, 'this isn't for me.' Votes: 0

People in any organization are always attached to the obsolete - the things that should have worked but did not, the things that once were productive and no longer are. Votes: 0

People who need certainty are unlikely to make good entrepreneurs. Votes: 0

Political freedom is neither easy nor automatic, neither pleasant nor secure. It is the responsibility of the individual for the decisions of society as if they were his own decisions-as in moral truth and accountability they are. Votes: 0

Production is not the application of tools to materials, but logic to work. Votes: 0

Profit for a company is like oxygen for a person. If you don't have enough of it, you're out of the game. But if you think your life is about breathing, you're really missing something. Votes: 0

Profit is not a cause but a result- Votes: 0

Profit is not the purpose of a business, but rather the test of its validity Votes: 0

Profitability is the sovereign criterion of the enterprise. Votes: 0

Progress is obtained only by exploiting opportunities, not by solving problems. When you solve problems, all you do is guarantee a return to normalcy. Votes: 0

Quality of character doesn't make a leader, but the lack of it flaws the entire process. Votes: 0

Replace your pursuit of success with the pursuit of contribution. Votes: 0

Results are obtained by exploiting opportunities, not by solving problems. Votes: 0

Results is all that separates one company from another. Votes: 0

SÃ¶ren Kierkegaard has another answer: human existence is possible as existence not in despair, as existence not in tragedy; it is possible as existence in faith... Faith is the belief that in God the impossible is possible, that in Him time and eternity are one, that both life and death are meaningful. Votes: 0

Salvation by society failed the most where it promised the most, in the communist countries. But it also failed in the West. Practically no government program enacted since the 1950s in the Western world - or in the communist countries - has been successful. Votes: 0

Schools will change more in the next 30 years than they have since the invention of the printed book. Votes: 0

Shoes are real. Money is an end result. Votes: 0

Since we live in an age of innovation, a practical education must prepare a man for work that does not yet exist and cannot yet be clearly defined. Votes: 0

Society, community, family are all conserving institutions. They try to maintain stability, and to prevent, or at least to slow down, change. But the organization of the post-capitalist society of organizations is a destabilizer. Because its function is to put knowledge to work - on tools, processes, and products; on work; on knowledge itself - it must be organized for constant change. Votes: 0

Spontaneity is an infinite number of rehearsed possibilities. Votes: 0

Strategic management is not a box of tricks or a bundle of techniques. It is analytical thinking and commitment of resources to action. But quantification alone is not planning. Some of the most important issues in strategic management cannot be quantified at all. Votes: 0

Strategy is a commodity, execution is an art. Votes: 0

Success always obsoletes the very behavior that achieved it. Votes: 0

Success in the knowledge economy comes to those who know themselves - their strengths, their values, and how they best perform. Votes: 0

Success? Odd as it seems, you will achieve the greates results in business and career if you drop the word 'achievement' from your vocabulary and replace it with 'contribution'. Votes: 0

Successful people know they need to get many things done-and done effectively. Therefore, they concentrate their time and energy on doing one thing at a time-and on doing first things firs. Votes: 0

Succession planning often results in the selection of a weaker representation of yourself. Votes: 0

Systematic change requires a willingness to look on change as an opportunity. Votes: 0

Technology is not about tools, it deals with how Man works. Votes: 0

That knowledge has become the resource, rather than a resource, is what makes our society "post-capitalist. Votes: 0

The 1st question the effective decision-maker asks is: 'Is this a generic situation or an exception?' Votes: 0

The arts alone give direct access to experience. To eliminate them from education - or worse, to tolerate them as cultural ornaments - is antieducational obscurantism. It is foisted on us by the pedants and snobs of Hellenistic Greece who considered artistic performance fit only for slaves... Votes: 0

The basic definition of the business and of its purpose and mission have to be translated into objectives. Votes: 0

The bÐµÑt wÐ°Ñ tÐ¾ predict ÑÐ¾ur future ÑÑ tÐ¾ create it. Votes: 0

The best plan is only a plan... unless it degerates into work. Votes: 0

The better a man is, the more mistakes he will make, for the more new things he will try. Votes: 0

The better a man is, the more mistakes he will make, for the more new things he will try. I would never promote to a top-level job a man who was not making mistakes...otherwise he is sure to be mediocre. Votes: 0

The building of a personality beyond its normal limitations. Votes: 0

The company is not and must never claim to be home, family, religion, life or fate for the individual. It must never interfere in his private life or his citizenship. He is tied to the company through a voluntary and cancellable employment contract, not through some mystical or indissoluble bond. Votes: 0

The corporation is the "master", the employee is the "servant". Because the corporation owns the means of production without which the employee could not make a living, the employee needs the corporation more than vice versa. Votes: 0

The correct assumption is that what individuals have learned by age twenty-one will begin to become obsolete five to ten years later and will have to be replaced-or at least refurbished-by new learning, new skills, new knowledge. Votes: 0

The critical factor of a problem is the element that has to be changed before anything else can be changed. Votes: 0

The critical question is not "How can I achieve?" but "What can I contribute?" Votes: 0

The customer rarely buys what the company thinks it's selling. Votes: 0

The days of the 'intuitive' manager are numbered. Votes: 0

The dilemma of modern society: the conflict between the need for capital formation at a high rate and the popular condemnation of interest and dividends as "unearned income" and "capitalist," if not as sinful and wicked. Votes: 0

The effective executive knows that it is easier to raise the performance of one leader than it is to raise the performance of a whole mass. She therefore makes sure she puts into the leadership position, into the standard-setting, the performance-making position the person who has the strength to do the outstanding pacesetting job. This always requires focus on the one strength of a person and dismissal of weaknesses as irrelevant unless they hamper the full deployment of the available strength. Votes: 0

The enterprise can fulfill its human and social functions only if it prospers as a business. Votes: 0

The enterprise, by definition, must be capable of producing more or better than all the resources that comprise it. Votes: 0

The essence of management is to make knowledge productive. Votes: 0

The experience of the human race indicates strongly that the only person in abundant supply is the universal incompetent. Votes: 0

The fault is in the system and not in the men. Votes: 0

The final test of greatness in a CEO is how well he chooses a successor and whether he can step aside and let the successor run the company. Votes: 0

The first organization structure in the modern West was laid down in the canon law of the Catholic Church eight hundred years ago. Votes: 0

The first step toward making the worker achieving is to make work productive. Votes: 0

The fruit of your work grows on other people's trees Votes: 0

The greatest challenge to organizations is the balance between continuity and change. You need both. At different times, the balance is slightly more over here, or slightly more over there, but you need both. And balance is basically the greatest task in leadership. Organizations have to have continuity, and yet if there is not enough new challenge, not enough change, they become empty bureaucracies, awfully fast. Votes: 0

The healthier a new venture and the faster it grows, the more financial feeding it requires. Votes: 0

The individual needs the return to spiritual values, for he can survive in the present human situation only by reaffirming that man is not just a biological and psychological being but also a spiritual being, that is creature, and existing for the purposes of his Creator and subject to Him. Votes: 0

The job of a professional manager is not to like people. It is not to change people. It is to put their strengths to work. Votes: 0

The key to greatness is to look for people's potential and spend time developing it. Votes: 0

The large organization has to learn to innovate, or it won't survive. Votes: 0

The leader of the past was a person who knew how to tell. The leader of the future will be a person who knows how to ask. Votes: 0

The leader sees leadership as responsibility rather than as rank and privilege. Votes: 0

The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say "I." And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say "I." They don't think "I." They think "we"; they think "team." They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but "we" gets the credit. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done. Votes: 0

The manager is a servant. His master is the institution he manages and his first responsibility must therefore be to it. Votes: 0

The manager who comes up with the right solution to the wrong problem is more dangerous than the manager who comes up with the wrong solution to the right problem. Votes: 0

The moment people talk of "implementing" instead of "doing," and of "finalizing" instead of "finishing," the organization is already running a fever. Votes: 0

The monomaniac is unlikely to succeed. Most leave only their bleached bones in the roadless desert. But the rest of us, with our multiple interests instead of a single mission, are certain to fail and have no impact at all. Votes: 0

The more successful the unit, the more difficult it is to make sure that the large company doesn't put the same expectations on it as it does for the rest of the company. When it's a new venture, whether it's outside or inside the business, it's a child. And you don't put a 40-pound pack on a 6-year-old's back when you take her hiking. Votes: 0

The most critical case in a corporation, especially a big one, is when everything goes well, when you have accomplished your objectives. When the temptation is to work twice as hard instead of saying, "We have accomplished our objectives, we have to think again." Votes: 0

The most effective way to manage change is to create it. Votes: 0

The most important contribution management needs to make in the 21st century is ... to increase the productivity of knowledge work and the knowledge worker Votes: 0

The most important decisions in organizations are people decisions, and yet only the military, and only recently, has begun to ask, "If we assign this general to lead this base, what do we expect him to accomplish?" Votes: 0

The most important work of the executive is to identify the changes that have already happened. The important thing . . . is to exploit the changes that have already occurred and to use them as opportunities. Votes: 0

The most important, and indeed the truly unique, contribution of management in the 20th century was the fifty-fold increase in the productivity of the MANUAL WORKER in manufacturing. The most important contribution management needs to make in the 21st century is similarly to increase the productivity of KNOWLEDGE WORK and the KNOWLEDGE WORKER. Votes: 0

The most probable assumption is that no currently working 'business theory' will be valid 10 years hence. Votes: 0

The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of wrong answers. The true dangerous thing is asking the wrong question. Votes: 0

The most valuable assets of a 20th-century company were its production equipment. The most valuable assets of a 21st-century institution, whether business or nonbusiness, will be its knowledge, workers, and their productivity. Votes: 0

The need to manage oneself is creating a revolution in human affairs. Votes: 0

The new always looks so puny-so unpromising-next to the reality of the massive, ongoing business. Votes: 0

The one person to distrust is the one who never makes a mistake. Either he is a phony, or he stays with the safe, the tried, and the trivial. Votes: 0

The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers. Votes: 0

The only industries that function well are the industries that take responsibility for training. The Japanese, you know, assume that when you first come to work you know absolutely nothing. School isn't preparation for work and never was. Votes: 0

The only real difference between one organization and another is the performance of its people. Votes: 0

The only skill that will be important in the 21st century is the skill of learning new skills.Everythi ng else will become obsolete over time. Votes: 0

The organization is, above all, social. It is people. Votes: 0

The paradox of the prophet: his very success is his failure. The prophet whose time has come no longer shocks; he entertains. Votes: 0

The Pertinent Question is NOT how to do things right - but how to find the right things to do, and to concentrate resources and efforts on them. Votes: 0

The postwar WWII GI Bill of Rights-and the enthusiastic response to it on the part of America's veterans-signaled the shift to the knowledge society. Future historians may consider it the most important event of the twentieth century. We are clearly in the midst of this transformation; indeed, if history is any guide, it will not be completed until 2010 or 2020. But already it has changed the political, economic and moral landscape of the world. Votes: 0

The problem in my life and other people's lives is not the absence of knowing what to do but the absence of doing it. Votes: 0

The purpose of an organization is to enable ordinary humans beings to do extraordinary things. Votes: 0

The purpose of information is not knowledge. It is being able to take the right action. Votes: 0

The question that faces the strategic decision maker is not what his organisation should do tomorrow. It is, what do we have to do today to be ready for an uncertain tomorrow? Votes: 0

The race for Quality has no finish line - so technically, it's more like a death march. Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things. Votes: 0

The real achiever do one thing at a time. Votes: 0

The real development I've seen of people in organizations, especially in big ones, comes from their being volunteers in a nonprofit organization - where you have responsibility, you see results, and you quickly learn what your values are. There is no better way to understand your strengths and discover where you belong than to volunteer in a nonprofit. That is probably the great opportunity for the social sector - and especially in its relationship to business. Votes: 0

The relevant question is not simply what shall we do tomorrow, but rather what shall we do today in order to get ready for tomorrow. Votes: 0

The rule should be to minimize the need for people to get together to accomplish anything. Votes: 0

The single minded ones, the monomaniacs, are the only true achievers Votes: 0

The society of organizations is new-only seventy years ago employees were a small minority in every society. Votes: 0

The subordinate's job is not to reform or reeducate the boss, not to make him conform to what the business schools or the management book say bosses should be like. It is to enable a particular boss to perform as a unique individual. Votes: 0

The success and ultimately the survival of every business, large or small, depends in the last analysis on its ability to develop people. This ability is not measured by any of our conventional yardsticks of economic success; yet, is the final measurement. Votes: 0

The successful person places more attention on doing the right thing rather than doing things right. Votes: 0

The talk you hear about adapting to change is not only stupid, it's dangerous. The only way you can manage change is to create it. Votes: 0

The task of leadership is to create an alignment of strengths so strong that it makes the system's weaknesses irrelevant. Votes: 0

The task of management is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant. Votes: 0

The three most charismatic leaders in this century inflicted more suffering on the human race than almost any trio in history: Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. What matters is not the leader's charisma. What matters is the leader's mission. Votes: 0

The tool user, provided the tool is made well, need not, and indeed should not, know anything about the tool. Votes: 0

The true business of every company is to make and keep customers. Votes: 0

The Welfare State, which begun in Imperial Germany for the truly indigent and disabled, has now become "everybody's entitlement" and an increasing burden on those who produce. Votes: 0

The worker's effectiveness is determined largely by the way he is being managed. Votes: 0

The world political system is till based on the concept of the national sovereign state. For the first time therefore, in three hundred years economy and sovereignty are becoming divorced from each other. Votes: 0

The young knowledge worker whose job is too small to challenge and test his abilities either leaves or declines rapidly into premature middle age, soured, cynical, unproductive. Votes: 0

There are companies that are good at improving what they're already doing. There are companies that are good at extending what they're doing. And finally there are companies that are good at innovation. Every large company has to be able to do all three - improve, extend, and innovate - simultaneously. Votes: 0

There are no creeds in mathematics. Votes: 0

There are only two things in a business that make money - innovation and marketing, everything else is cost. Votes: 0

There are two types of people in the business community: those who produce results and those who give you reasons why they didn't. Votes: 0

There are usually half a dozen right answers to what needs to be done. Yet, unless a person makes the risky and controversial choice of only one, he will achieve nothing. Votes: 0

There is a great need for a new approach, new methods and new tools in teaching, man's oldest and most reactionary craft. There is great need for a rapid increase in the productivity of learning. There is, above all, great need for methods that will make the teacher effective and multiply his or her efforts and competence. Teaching is, in fact, the only traditional craft in which we have not yet fashioned the tools that make an ordinary person capable of superior performance. In this respect, teaching is far behind medicine, where the tools first became available a century or more ago. Votes: 0

There is a point at which a transformation has to take place. Votes: 0

There is a point of complexity beyond which a business is no longer manageable. Votes: 0

There is an unbroken chain of opposition to the introduction of economic freedom and to the capitalist autonomy of the economic sphere... In every case the opposition could only be overcome - peacefully or by force - because of the promise of capitalism to establish equality... That this promise was an illusion we all know. Votes: 0

There is no perfect strategic decision. One always has to pay a price. One always has to balance conflicting objectives, conflicting opinions, and conflicting priorities. The best strategic decision is only an approximation - and a risk. Votes: 0

There is no reason to believe that the people who staff the managerial and professional positions in our service institutions are any less qualified, any less competent or honest, or any less hard-working than the men who manage businesses. Conversely, there is no reason to believe that business managers, put in control of service institutions, would do better than the 'bureaucrats'. Indeed, we know that they immediately become bureaucrats themselves. Votes: 0

There is nothing worse than doing the wrong thing well. Votes: 0

There is one qualification the manager cannot acquire but must bring to the task. It is not genius; it is character. Votes: 0

There is the risk you cannot afford to take, and there is the risk you cannot afford not to take. Votes: 0

There's no such thing as knowledge management; there are only knowledgeable people. Information only becomes knowledge in the hands of someone who knows what to do with it. Votes: 0

There's nothing so useless than executing a task efficiently when it actually never should have been executed at all. Votes: 0

This society in which knowledge workers dominate is in danger of a new "class conflict" between the large minority of knowledge workers and the majority of workers who will make their livings through traditional ways, either by manual work... or by service work. The productivity of knowledge work - still abysmally low - will predictably become the economic challenge of the knowledge society. On it will depend the ability of the knowledge society to give decent incomes, and with them dignity and status, to non knowledge people. Votes: 0

Thus, for those who are willing to go out into the field, to look and to listen, changing demographics is both a highly productive and a highly dependable innovation opportunity. Votes: 0

Time is the scarcest resource.... Votes: 0

Time is totally perishable and cannot be stored. Yesterday's time is gone forever, and will never come back. Time is always in short supply. There is no substitute for time. Everything requires time. Votes: 0

To be a manager requires more than a title, a big office, and other outward symbols of rank. It requires competence and performance of a high order. Votes: 0

To be effective, every knowledge worker, and especially every executive, therefore needs to dispose of time in fairly large chunks. To have small dribs and drabs of time at his disposal will not be sufficient even if the total is an impressive number of hours. Votes: 0

To improve communications, work not on the utter, but the recipient. Votes: 0

To make a living is no longer enough. Work also has to make a life. Votes: 0

To make knowledge productive, we will have to learn to see both forest and tree. We will have to learn to connect. Votes: 0

To make the future demands courage. It demands work. But it also demands faith. Votes: 0

To satisfy the customer is the mission and purpose of every business. Votes: 0

To succeed in this new world, we will have to learn, first, who we are. Few people, even highly successful people, can answer the questions, Do you know what you're good at? Do you know what you need to learn so that you get the full benefit of your strengths? Few have even asked themselves these questions. Votes: 0

Tomorrow always arrives. It is always different. And even the mightiest company is in trouble if it has not worked on the future. Being surprised by what happens is a risk that even the largest and richest company cannot afford, and even the smallest business need not run. Votes: 0

Tomorrow everybody - or practically everybody - will have had the education of the upper class of yesterday, and will expect equivalent opportunities. That is why we face the problem of making every kind of job meaningful and capable of satisfying every educated man. Votes: 0

Too many leaders try to do a little bit of 25 things and get nothing done. They are very popular because they always say yes. But they get nothing done. Votes: 0

Trees die from the top. No one should ever become a strategist unless he or she is willing to have his or her character serve as a model for subordinates Votes: 0

Understanding our strengths, articulating our values, knowing where we belong -- these are also essential to addressing one of the great challenges of organizations: improving the abysmally low productivity of knowledge workers. Votes: 0

Universities won't survive. The future is outside the traditional campus, outside the traditional classroom. Distance learning is coming on fast. Votes: 0

Unless a decision has degenerated into work, it is not a decision; it is at best a good intention. Votes: 0

Unless the power of the corporation can be organized on an accepted principle of legitimacy, it will be taken over by a Central government Votes: 0

Unless we realize that the essence of Nazism is also an attempt to solve a universal problem of Western civilization - that of the industrial society - and that the basic principles on which the Nazis base this attempt are also in no way confined to Germany, we do not know what we fight for or what we fight against... The war is being fought for the structure of industrial society--its basic principles, its purposes, and its institutions. Votes: 0

Use feedback analysis to identify your strengths. Then go to work on improving your strengths. Identify and eliminate bad habits that hinder the full development of your strengths. Figure out what you should do and do it. Finally, decide what you should not do. Votes: 0

Vision without execution is delusion. The joy is in the results Votes: 0

We all have a vast number of areas in which we have no talent or skill and little chance of becoming even mediocre. In those areas a knowledge workers should not take on work, jobs and assignments. It takes far more energy to improve from incompetence to mediocrity than it takes to improve from first-rate performance to excellence. Votes: 0

We always remember best the irrelevant. Votes: 0

We can't make people better by trying to eliminate their weaknesses, but we can help then perform better by building on their strengths. Votes: 0

We do not need more laws . No country suffers from a shortage of laws. We need a new model . Votes: 0

We have only one alternative: either to build a functioning industrial society or see freedom itself disappear in anarchy and tyranny. Votes: 0

We have tried to substitute mass for purpose. We have tried to regain military potency of defense by making it gigantic, unwieldy, complex. It never works. Votes: 0

We know nothing about motivation. All we can do is write books about it. Votes: 0

We live in an age of unprecedented opportunity: If you've got ambition and smarts, you can rise to the top of your chosen profession, regardless of where you started out. Votes: 0

We no longer even understand the question whether change is by itself good or bad. We start out with the axiom that it is the norm. We do not see change as altering the order. We see change as being order itself-indeed the only order we can comprehend today is a dynamic, a moving, a changing one. Votes: 0

We spend a lot of time teaching leaders what to do. We don't spend enough time teaching leaders what to stop. Half the leaders I have met don't need to learn what to do. They need to learn what to stop Votes: 0

We will have to learn to lead people rather then to contain them. Votes: 0

We've spent the last 30 years focusing on the T in IT, and we'll spend the next 30 years focusing on the I. Votes: 0

What can I contribute that will significantly affect the performance and the results of the institution I serve? Votes: 0

What gets measured gets managed. Votes: 0

What is the major problem? It is fundamentally the confusion between effectiveness and efficiency that stands between doing the right things and doing things right. There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all. Votes: 0

What is the manager's job? It is to direct the resources and the efforts of the business toward opportunities for economically significant results. This sounds trite - and it is. But every analysis of actual allocation of resources and efforts in business that I have ever seen or made showed clearly that the bulk of time, work, attention, and money first goes to problems rather than to opportunities, and, secondly, to areas where even extraordinarily successful performance will have minimal impact on results. Votes: 0

What managers decide to stop doing is often more important than what they decide to do. Votes: 0

What people in business think they know about the customer and market is likely to be more wrong than right...the customer rarely buys what the business thinks it sells him. Votes: 0

What the customer buys and considers value is never a product. It is always utility, that is, what a product or a service does for the customer. Votes: 0

What we are good at comes easy, and we believe that unless it comes hard, it can't be very good. Votes: 0

What you have to do and the way you have to do it is incredibly simple. Whether you are willing to do it is another matter. Votes: 0

What's measured improves Votes: 0

When a resource is scarce, you increase its yield. Votes: 0

When Henry Ford said, "The customer can have a car in any color as long as it's black," he was not joking. Votes: 0

When it rains manna from heaven, some people put up an umbrella. Others reach for a big spoon. Votes: 0

Whenever anything is being accomplished, it is being done, I have learned, by a monomaniac with a mission. Votes: 0

Wherever an impact can be eliminated by dropping the activity that causes it, this is therefore the best-indeed the only truly good-solution. Votes: 0

Without institution there is no management. But without management there is no institution. Votes: 0

Work is a process, and any process needs to be controlled. To make work productive, therefore, requires building the appropriate controls into the process of work. Votes: 0

Work is an extension of personality. It is achievement. It is one of the ways in which a person defines himself, measures his worth, and his humanity. Votes: 0

Working with people is difficult, but not impossible. Votes: 0

Yet there is nothing more dangerous than to be premature in exploiting a change in perception. Votes: 0

You can either take action, or you can hang back and hope for a miracle. Miracles are great, but they are so unpredictable. Votes: 0

You cannot build performance on weaknesses. You can build only on strengths. Votes: 0

You cannot predict the future, but you can create it. Votes: 0

You can't manage knowledge.Knowledge is between two ears and only between two ears. Votes: 0

You can't manage what you don't measure. Votes: 0

You must accept that if the computer is a tool, it is the job of tool user to know what to use it for. Votes: 0

Your first and foremost job as a leader is to take charge of your own energy and then help to orchestrate the energy of those around you. Votes: 0

Any organisation develops people; it either forms them or deforms them. Votes: 0

The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. Votes: 0

Here I am, fifty-eight, and I still don't know what I'm going to be when I grow up. Votes: 0

Top management as a function and as a structure was first developed by Georg Siemens (1839-1901) in Germany between 1870 and 1880, when he designed and built the Deutsche Bank and made it, within a very few years, into continental Europe's leading and most dynamic financial institution. Votes: 0

Meetings are by definition a concession to a deficient organization. For one either meets or one works. One cannot do both at the same time. Votes: 0

I find more and more executives less and less well informed about the outside world, if only because they believe that the data on the computer printouts are ipso facto information. Votes: 0

Of all the decisions an executive makes, none is as important as the decisions about people, because they determine the performance capacity of the organization. Votes: 0

In areas where they are simply incompetent, smart executives don't make decisions or take actions. They delegate. Votes: 0

Communication is always " propaganda ." The emitter always wants "to get something across. Votes: 0

The computer, being a mechanical moron, can handle only quantifiable data. Votes: 0

The strength of the computer lies in its being a logic machine. It does precisely what it is programed to do. This makes it fast and precise. It also makes it a total moron; for logic is essentially stupid. Votes: 0

One either meets or one works. Votes: 0

The person who will make the greatest contribution to a company is the mature person-and you cannot have maturity if you have no life or interest outside the job. Votes: 0

If war production should remain the only way out of a long-term depression, industrial society would be reduced to the choice between suicide through total war or suicide through total Votes: 0

Do not measure your life by your goals but what you are doing to achieve them. Votes: 0

If a manager spends more than 10 percent of his time on "human relations" the group is probably too large. Votes: 0

True marketing starts...with the customer, his demographics, his realities, his needs, his values. It does not ask, "What do we want to sell?" It asks, "What does the customer want to buy?" Votes: 0

Do the right things instead of trying to do everything right. Votes: 0

Promotion should not be more important than accomplishment, or avoiding instability more important than taking the right risk. Votes: 0

An organization which just perpetuates today's level of vision, excellence, and accomplishment has lost the capacity to adapt. Votes: 0

Top quotes by Peter Drucker

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