The corporation is the “master”, the employee is the “servant”. Because the corporation owns the means of production without which the employee could not make a living, the employee needs the corporation more than vice versa.
The individual needs the return to spiritual values, for he can survive in the present human situation only by reaffirming that man is not just a biological and psychological being but also a spiritual being, that is creature, and existing for the purposes of his Creator and subject to Him.
The moment people talk of “implementing” instead of “doing,” and of “finalizing” instead of “finishing,” the organization is already running a fever.
Plans are worthless, but planning is invaluable.
What the customer buys and considers value is never a product. It is always utility, that is, what a product or a service does for the customer.
Management and entrepreneurship are only two different dimensions of the same task. An entrepreneur who does not learn how to manage will not last long. A management that does not learn to innovate will not last long.
One does not “manage” people. The task is to lead people.
Mission defines strategy, and strategy defines structure.
The enterprise can fulfill its human and social functions only if it prospers as a business.
A business enterprise must continue beyond the lifetime of the individual or of the generation to be capable of producing its contributions to economy and to society.
Miracles are great, but they’re so damn unpredictable.
People learn the most when teaching others.
Yet there is nothing more dangerous than to be premature in exploiting a change in perception.
One does not start with facts. One starts with opinions.
Ideas are cheap and abundant; what is of value is the effective placement of those ideas into situations that develop into action.
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.
The days of the ‘intuitive’ manager are numbered.
The company is not and must never claim to be home, family, religion, life or fate for the individual. It must never interfere in his private life or his citizenship. He is tied to the company through a voluntary and cancellable employment contract, not through some mystical or indissoluble bond.
The world political system is till based on the concept of the national sovereign state. For the first time therefore, in three hundred years economy and sovereignty are becoming divorced from each other.
Executives do many things in addition to making decisions. But only executives make decisions. The first managerial skill is, therefore, the making of effective decisions.