657 Quotes by Peter Drucker

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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