The manager is a servant. His master is the institution he manages and his first responsibility must therefore be to it.
The strength of the computer lies in its being a logic machine. It does precisely what it is programed to do. This makes it fast and precise. It also makes it a total moron; for logic is essentially stupid.
The purpose of information is not knowledge. It is being able to take the right action.
To make a living is no longer enough. Work also has to make a life.
Management is not being brilliant. Management is being conscientious.
Knowledge is being applied to knowledge itself. It is now fast becoming the one factor in production, sidelining both capital and labour.
No business can do everything. Even if it has the money, it will never have enough good people. It has to set priorities. The worst thing to do is a little bit of everything. This makes sure that nothing is being accomplished. It is better to pick the wrong priority than none at all.
Strategic management is not a box of tricks or a bundle of techniques. It is analytical thinking and commitment of resources to action. But quantification alone is not planning. Some of the most important issues in strategic management cannot be quantified at all.
A business is not defined by its name, statutes, or articles of incorporation. It is defined by the business mission. Only a clear definition of the mission and purpose of the organization makes possible clear and realistic business objectives.
The manager who comes up with the right solution to the wrong problem is more dangerous than the manager who comes up with the wrong solution to the right problem.
Our job in life is to make a positive difference, not prove we’re right.
The single minded ones, the monomaniacs, are the only true achievers.
Replace your pursuit of success with the pursuit of contribution.
Do not believe that it is very much of an advance to do the unnecessary three times as fast.
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.
The organization is, above all, social. It is people.
Nobody can predict the future; the idea is to have a firm grasp of the present.
Entrepreneurship is “risky” mainly because so few of the so-called entrepreneurs know what they are doing.
In business school classrooms they construct wonderful models of a non- world.
To satisfy the customer is the mission and purpose of every business.