Peter Drucker Quotes

American business consultant (1909–2005)

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Peter Ferdinand Drucker (November 19 1909 – November 11 2005) was an Austrian-born American writer, management consultant and university professor. In 1943 he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He taught at New York University and Claremont Graduate University respectively.

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Native Name: Peter Ferdinand Drucker

Alternative Names: Peter F. Drucker

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

People in general, and knowledge workers in particular, grow according to the demands they make on themselves. They grow according to what they consider to be achievement and attainment. If they demand little of themselves, they will remain stunted. If they demand a good deal of themselves, they will grow to giant stature — without any more effort than is expended by the nonachievers.

Entrepreneurship, then, is behavior rather than personality trait. And its foundation lies in concept and theory rather than in intuition.

In the 1950s, industrial workers had become the largest single group in every developed country, and unionized industrial workers in mass-production industry (which was then dominant everywhere) had attained upper-middle-class income levels. They had extensive job security, pensions, long paid vacations, and comprehensive unemployment insurance or "lifetime employment." Above all, they had achieved political power... Thirty-five years later, in 1990, industrial workers and their unions were in retreat. They had become marginal in numbers. Whereas industrial workers who make or move things had accounted for two fifths of the American work force in the 1950s, they accounted for less than one fifth in the early 1990s--that is, for no more than they had accounted for in 1900, when their meteoric rise began... By the year 2000 or 2010, in every developed free-market country, industrial workers will account for no more than an eighth of the work force. Union power has been declining just as fast... By the year 2000 or 2010, in every developed free-market country, industrial workers will account for no more than an eighth of the work force. Union power has been declining just as fast.

The major incentive to productivity and efficiency are social and moral rather than financial.

Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.

Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.

A person can perform only from strength. One cannot build performance on weakness, let alone on something one cannot do at all.

The only effective means for bailing out the new are people who have proven their capacity to perform. Such people are always already busier than they should be. Unless one relieves one of them of his present burden, one cannot expect him to take on the new task.

1. What is our mission? 2. Who is our customer? 3. What does the customer value? 4. What are our results? 5. What is our plan?2

Only productivity of the knowledge worker can make it possible for developed countries to maintain their high standard of living against the competition of low-wage, developing economies.

The truly important events on the outside are not the trends. They are changes in the trends.

Effective executives do not race. They set an easy pace but keep going steadily.

Communism is evil. Its driving forces are the deadly sins of envy and hatred.

First things first and last things not at all.