If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old Peter Drucker More Quotes by Peter Drucker More Quotes From Peter Drucker By themselves, character and integrity do not accomplish anything. But their absence faults everything else. Peter Drucker faults integrity character The most important work of the executive is to identify the changes that have already happened. The important thing . . . is to exploit the changes that have already occurred and to use them as opportunities. Peter Drucker important use opportunity The individual is the central, rarest, most precious capital resource of our society. Peter Drucker resources individuality society Effective innovations start small. They are not grandiose. They try to do one specific thing. Peter Drucker grandiose innovation trying In book subjects a student can only do a student's work. All that can be measured is how well he learns, rather than how well he performs. All he can show is promise. Peter Drucker students book promise Decisions exist only in the present. Peter Drucker decision The new always looks so puny-so unpromising-next to the reality of the massive, ongoing business. Peter Drucker ongoing reality looks We can ill afford to have activities conducted as "non-profit," that is, as activities that devour capital rather than form it, if they can be organized as activities that form capital, as activities that make a profit. Peter Drucker profit form ill If a manager spends more than 10 percent of his time on "human relations" the group is probably too large. Peter Drucker groups humans relation 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. Peter Drucker lobbyists government responsibility The most critical case in a corporation, especially a big one, is when everything goes well, when you have accomplished your objectives. When the temptation is to work twice as hard instead of saying, "We have accomplished our objectives, we have to think again." Peter Drucker business temptation thinking Most executives have learned that what one postpones, one actually abandons ... timing is a most important element in the success of any effort. To do five years later what would have been smart to do five years earlier, is almost a sure recipe for frustration and failure. Peter Drucker smart frustration years In the next economic downturn there will be an outbreak of bitterness and contempt for the supercorporate chieftains who pay themselves millions. In every major economic downturn in US history the villains have been the heroes during the preceding boom. Peter Drucker next hero pay In a rural society communities are "given" for the individual. Community is a fact, whether family or religion, social class or caste. Peter Drucker community class religion Succession planning often results in the selection of a weaker representation of yourself. Peter Drucker succession planning results Trust is congruence between what you say and what you do. Peter Drucker congruence A fundamental responsibility of leadership is make sure that everybody knows the mission, understands it, lives it. Peter Drucker missions responsibility fundamentals Far too much reorganization goes on all the time. Organizitis is like a spastic colon. Peter Drucker reorganization too-much goes-on ..there is need for a person to be generally educated. Otherwise you shrivel up much too soon. Whether this means reading the bible (I read the New Testament every few years) or reading the great 19th century novelists (the greatest and shrewdest judge of people and of society who ever lived), or classical philosophy (which I cannot read-it puts me to sleep immediately), or history (which is secondary). What matters is that the knowledge worker, by the time he or she reaches middle age, has developed and nourished a human being rather than a tax accountant or a hydraulic engineer. Peter Drucker business education philosophy No organization can depend on genius; the supply is always scarce and unreliable. It is the test of an organization to make ordinary people perform better than they seem capable of, to bring out whatever strength there is in its members, and to use each person's strength to help all the other members perform. Peter Drucker strength organization men
