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Peter Drucker

Peter Drucker Quotes

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Peter Drucker, born on November 19, 1909 in Austria and died on November 11, 2005 in the United States, is regarded as the father of modern management. He is one of the greatest management thinkers of the 20th century. Drucker dedicated his life to the study of management theory and practice, and his works have had a profound impact on global enterprise management.

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Famous Peter Drucker Quotes

“A manager sets objectives - A manager organizes - A manager motivates and communicates - A manager, by establishing yardsticks, measures - A manager develops people.”

People Communicate Objectives Managers Organize Yardsticks

Author:Peter Drucker

“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.”

Modern Responsible Managers Corporations Controlled Irresponsible Literal Unjustified

Book:The Future of Industrial Man

Source: The Future of Industrial Man

“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.”

Thinking Has Beens Said Able Action Force Half Behavior Tough Performances Management Unions Managers Improving Jest

Author:Peter Drucker

“The days of the 'intuitive' manager are numbered.”

Managers Intuitive

Book:Management

Source: Management

“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.”

Bigs Order Office Performances Symbols Managers Titles Competence

Author:Peter Drucker

“Managers are the basic and scarcest resource of any business enterprise.”

Resources Managers Enterprise

Author:Peter Drucker

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

Ifs Humans Groups Percent Relation Managers Human Relations

Author:Peter Drucker

“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.”

People Jobs Managers

Author:Peter Drucker

“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.”

Source: The Peter F. Drucker Reader: Selected Articles from the Father of Modern Management Thinking

“What managers decide to stop doing is often more important than what they decide to do.”

Important Managers

Author:Peter Drucker

“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.”

Jobs Economic Workers Customers Managers Goods Surplus Dividends Shareholders Goods And Services

Book:Management

Source: Management

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

Country Transformation Workers Educated Agents Managers Manuals Workforce Converting Developed Country Knowledge Workers

Book:The Peter Drucker Collection on Managing in Turbulent Times: Management: Revised Edition, Management Challenges for the 21st Century, Managing in Turbulent Times, and The Practice of Management

Source: The Peter Drucker Collection on Managing in Turbulent Times: Management: Revised Edition, Management Challenges for the 21st Century, Managing in Turbulent Times, and The Practice of Management

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

Character Genius Tasks Managers Acquire Qualifications

Book:Management

Source: Management

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

Ifs Comfortable Paid Managers Uncomfortable

Author:Peter Drucker

“There's an enormous number of managers who have retired on the job.”

“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.”

Source: Innovation and entrepreneurship: practice and principles

“In the knowledge economy everyone is a volunteer, but we have trained our managers to manage conscripts.”

Knowledge Economy Learning Management Manage Managers Volunteer

Author:Peter Drucker

“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.”

Problem Dangerous Solutions Come Up Managers

Author:Peter Drucker

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

Inspirational Peace Change Leadership Business Leader Management Clever Manage Managers Right Thing Coaching Great Leader Doing The Right Thing Project Management Leadership Training World Leader Being A Leader Inspiring Leader Doing Right Great Leadership Leadership By Famous Leaders Consultants Best Leader Leadership And Management Motivational Leadership Leadership Skills Leadership Vs Management Funny Business Good Leadership Leadership By Great Leaders Greatest Leadership Future Leaders Business Management Leaders Motivational Funny Leadership Leadership Roles First Things First Top Management Leadership Integrity Innovation And Leadership Military Leadership Political Leadership Managing People American Leadership Strategic Management Quality Management Team Management Wise Leaders Participative Leadership Put First Things First Great Management Becoming A Leader Moral Leadership Knowledge Workers Innovative Leadership Management Motivation Inspiring Management

Author:Peter Drucker

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

People Done Difficult Leadership Business Wise Economics Management Managers Funny Inspirational Work Done Future Leaders Business Management Funny Work Managing Change Quality In Business Managing People

Author:Peter Drucker

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

Source: Management

“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.”

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

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

Work Knowledge Learning Performances Responsible Management Manage Managers Application

Book:Post-Capitalist Society

Source: Post-Capitalist Society

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

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

Work Business Responsibility Economy Wise Economics Management Workers Productivity Managers

Book:Managing in Turbulent Times

Source: Managing in Turbulent Times

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

Firsts Responsibility Risk Masters Management Institutions Manage Managers Servant Risk Management

Author:Peter Drucker

“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.”

People Risk Weakness Tasks Management Managers Boss Irrelevant Subordinates Risk Management

Book:Managing for the Future

Source: Managing for the Future

“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.”

People Has Beens Deals Risk Exercise Appreciate Management Privilege Managers Risk Management

Book:Managing in a Time of Great Change

Source: Managing in a Time of Great Change

“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.”

People Knows Men Believe Hard Reason Honest Position He Man Hard Work Institutions Manage Managers No Reason Staff Bureaucracy Qualified Competent Bureaucrats

Author:Peter Drucker

“Few relationships are as critical to the business enterprise as the relationship to the government. Managers have responsibility for this relationship as part of their responsibility to the enterprise itself. It is an area of social impact of the business. To a large extent the relationship to government results from what businesses do or fail to do.”

Government Results Responsibility Failing Critical Managers Enterprise Lobbyists Lobbying

Author:Peter Drucker

“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.”

Needs Use Information Tools Library Managers Librarian

Book:The Changing World of the Executive

Source: The Changing World of the Executive

About the Author

Born: November 19, 1909
Died: November 11, 2005
Known for: Author
Quotes: 599

Related Topics

People Management Business Ifs Organization Needs Decision Knows Managers Results Firsts Innovation Opportunity Leadership Important Leader Customers Doe Inspirational Jobs

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Books & Sources

People and PerformanceRelated source material

ManagementRelated source material

Innovation and EntrepreneurshipRelated source material

Managing in the Next SocietyRelated source material

The Peter F. Drucker Reader: Selected Articles from the Father of Modern Management ThinkingRelated source material

Landmarks of Tomorrow: A Report on the NewRelated source material

Management Challenges for the 21st CenturyRelated source material

Managing for the FutureRelated source material

Get the Right Things Done: The Drucker Collection (6 Items)Related source material

Managing the Non-Profit OrganizationRelated source material

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