Quote collection
592 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"To be effective, every knowledge worker, and especially every executive, therefore needs to dispose of time in fairly large chunks. To have small dribs and drabs of time at his disposal will not be sufficient even if the total is an impressive number of hours."
"It does not matter whether the worker wants responsibility or not, ...The enterprise must demand it of him."
"Our society has become an employee society."
"Managers are agents of transformation, converting the workforce in developed countries from one of manual workers to one of highly educated knowledge workers."
"True marketing starts...with the customer, his demographics, his realities, his needs, his values. It does not ask, "What do we want to sell?" It asks, "What does the customer want to buy?""
"Leadership is an achievement of trust."
"Defending yesterday is far more risky than making tomorrow."
"Not to innovate is the single largest reason for the decline of existing organizations. Not to know how to manage is the single largest reason for the failure of new ventures."
"For new technology to replace old, it has to have at least ten times the benefit."
"Management is about human beings. Its task is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant."
"The worker's effectiveness is determined largely by the way he is being managed."
"Most people think they know what they are good at. They are usually wrong... And yet, a person can perform only from strength."
"If you have too many problems, maybe you should get out of business. There is no law that says a company must last forever."
"Use feedback analysis to identify your strengths. Then go to work on improving your strengths. Identify and eliminate bad habits that hinder the full development of your strengths. Figure out what you should do and do it. Finally, decide what you should not do."
"Management must take the lead in making obsolete its own products and services rather than waiting for a competitor to do so."
"Business exists to supply goods and services to customers and economic surplus to society, rather than to supply jobs to workers and managers or even dividends to shareholders."
"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."
"An organization belongs on a sick list when promotion becomes more important to its people than accomplishment of their job they are in. It is sick when it is more concerned with avoiding mistakes than with taking risks, with counteracting the weaknesses of its members than with building on their strength. But it is sick also when "good human relations" become more important than performance and achievement."
"Work is an extension of personality. It is achievement. It is one of the ways in which a person defines himself, measures his worth, and his humanity."