Peter Drucker quotes
Born
November 19, 1909 Kaasgraben, Vienna, Austria-Hungary.
Died
November 11, 2005.
Occupation
Management consultant, educator, author.
Peter Ferdinand Drucker was an Austrian-born American management consultant, educator, and author, whose writings contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of the modern business corporation.
The computer is a moron.
– Peter Drucker
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.
– Peter Drucker
Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window.
– Peter Drucker
Never mind your happiness; do your duty.
– Peter Drucker
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.
– Peter Drucker
Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.
– Peter Drucker
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.
– Peter Drucker
Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.
– Peter Drucker
The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.
– Peter Drucker
There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.
– Peter Drucker
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.
– Peter Drucker
The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.
– Peter Drucker
Management by objective works – if you know the objectives. Ninety percent of the time you don’t.
– 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.
– Peter Drucker
A manager is responsible for the application and performance of knowledge.
– Peter Drucker
Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.
– Peter Drucker
The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager.
– Peter Drucker
Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.
– Peter Drucker
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.
– Peter Drucker
Today knowledge has power. It controls access to opportunity and advancement.
– Peter Drucker
Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes… but no plans.
– Peter Drucker
So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.
– Peter Drucker
Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.
– Peter Drucker
My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions.
– Peter Drucker
Company cultures are like country cultures. Never try to change one. Try, instead, to work with what you’ve got.
– Peter Drucker
When a subject becomes totally obsolete we make it a required course.
– Peter Drucker
Accept the fact that we have to treat almost anybody as a volunteer.
– Peter Drucker
Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship. The act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth.
– Peter Drucker
Most discussions of decision making assume that only senior executives make decisions or that only senior executives’ decisions matter. This is a dangerous mistake.
– Peter Drucker
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.
– Peter Drucker
Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done.
– Peter Drucker
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.’
– Peter Drucker
The only thing we know about the future is that it will be different.
– Peter Drucker
Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed.
– Peter Drucker
Making good decisions is a crucial skill at every level.
– Peter Drucker
Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.
– Peter Drucker
The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.
– Peter Drucker
The best way to predict the future is to create it.
– Peter Drucker
The new information technology… Internet and e-mail… have practically eliminated the physical costs of communications.
– Peter Drucker
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.
– Peter Drucker
The purpose of a business is to create a customer.
– Peter Drucker
Executives owe it to the organization and to their fellow workers not to tolerate nonperforming individuals in important jobs.
– Peter Drucker
Business, that’s easily defined – it’s other people’s money.
– Peter Drucker
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.
– Peter Drucker