Peter Drucker

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

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

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

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

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

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.’

Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.

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.

Today knowledge has power. It controls access to opportunity and advancement.

Management by objective works – if you know the objectives. Ninety percent of the time you don’t.

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.

The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

The purpose of a business is to create a customer.

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

Never mind your happiness; do your duty.

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.

The computer is a moron.

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

Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes… but no plans.

Business, that’s easily defined – it’s other people’s money.

Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.

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.

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

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

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

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

Making good decisions is a crucial skill at every level.

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