657 Quotes by Peter Drucker

Few relationships are as critical to the business enterprise itself as the relationship to government. The manager has responsibility for this relationship as part of his responsibility to the enterprise itself. To a large extent the relationship to government results from what businesses do or fail to do.

The worker's effectiveness is determined largely by the way he is being managed.

We know nothing about motivation. All we can do is write books about it.

The race for Quality has no finish line - so technically, it's more like a death march. Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.

I'm a writer. I could not or would not ever run a business. I don't even have a secretary. And contrary to some of the stereotypes, entrepreneurs are not loners. I am.

An institution which is financed by a budget - or which enjoys a monopoly which the customer cannot escape - is rewarded for what it deserves rather than what it earns. It is paid for 'good intentions' and 'programs'. It is paid for not alienating important constituents rather than satisfying any one group. It is misdirected by the way it is being paid into defining performance and results as what will produce the budget rather than as what will produce contribution.

The final test of greatness in a CEO is how well he chooses a successor and whether he can step aside and let the successor run the company.

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.

They wrongly believe that good intentions move mountains. Bulldozers move mountains. But there are exceptions.