Quotes By 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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

The computer is a moron.

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

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

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

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

Making good decisions is a crucial skill at every level.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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