Peter Drucker

Austria
19 Nov 1909 // 11 Nov 2005
Management Consultant / Educator / Author

Quotes

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I have no interest in celebrities. If all the superrich disappeared, the world economy would not even notice. The superrich are irrelevant to the economy.

Forbes, 1987
Few top executives can even imagine the hatred, contempt, and fury that has been created�not primarily among blue-collar workers who never had an exalted opinion of the �bosses� - but among their middle management and professional people.

Forbes, 1987
Long-range planning does not deal with future decisions. It deals with the future of present decisions.

Managing in Turbulent Times (1980)
The most common cause of executive failure is inability or unwillingness to change with the demands of a new position. The executive who keeps on doing what he has done successfully before is almost bound to fail.

The Effective Executive (1967)
Basic assumptions about reality are the paradigms of a social science, such as management.

Management Challenges for the 21st Century (1999)
The first thing practically everyone must learn is to take information responsibly.

Quoted in Techno Vision, 1994
Above all, innovation is not invention. It is a term of economics rather than of technology.

Speech (April 1992)
The measure of innovation is its impact on the environment.

Speech (April 1992)
Knowledge applied to existing processes, services and products is productivity; knowledge applied to the new is innovation.

Interview, Hot Wired (July/August 1993)
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On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays