55 Inspired Peter Drucker Quotes (Thought Leader)

Welcome to our collection of 55 (with video) Peter Drucker Quotes!

Top 10 Peter Drucker Quotes

Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results, not attributes.Peter Drucker Quotes Pin
Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results, not attributes. Peter Drucker
There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all. Pin
There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all. Peter Drucker
People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.Pin
People who don’t take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. Peter Drucker
Knowledge has to be improved, challenged and increased constantly, or it vanishes.Pin
Knowledge has to be improved, challenged and increased constantly, or it vanishes. Peter Drucker
Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.Peter Drucker QuotesPin
Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work. Peter Drucker
It is more productive to convert an opportunity into results than to solve a problem - which only restores the equilibrium of yesterday.Pin
It is more productive to convert an opportunity into results than to solve a problem – which only restores the equilibrium of yesterday. Peter F. Drucker
The better a person is, the more mistakes they will make for the more things they will try. Peter Drucker QuotesPin
The better a person is, the more mistakes they will make for the more things they will try. Peter Drucker
Strategy is a commodity, execution is an art.Pin
Strategy is a commodity, execution is an art. Peter Drucker
The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of wrong answers. The true dangerous thing is asking the wrong question.Pin
The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of wrong answers. The true dangerous thing is asking the wrong question. Peter F.Drucker
What's measured improves.Pin
What’s measured improves.  Peter Drucker Quotes
No one learns as much about a subject as one who is forced to teach it.Peter Drucker QuotesPin
No one learns as much about a subject as one who is forced to teach it. Peter Drucker

Drucker on Leadership and Management

A manager is responsible for the application and performance of knowledge.Pin
A manager is responsible for the application and performance of knowledge. Peter Drucker
No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings. Pin
No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings. Peter Drucker
Management is about human beings. Its task is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant.Peter Drucker QuotesPin
Management is about human beings. Its task is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant. Peter F. Drucker
Management by objectives works - if you know the objectives. Ninety percent of the time you don't.Pin
Management by objectives works – if you know the objectives. Ninety percent of the time you don’t. Peter Drucker Quotes
The three most charismatic leaders in this century inflicted more suffering on the human race than almost any trio in history: Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. What matters is not the leader's charisma. What matters is the leader's mission. Pin
The three most charismatic leaders in this century inflicted more suffering on the human race than almost any trio in history: Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. What matters is not the leader’s charisma. What matters is the leader’s mission. Peter F. Drucker
Your first and foremost job as a leader is to take charge of your own energy and then help to orchestrate the energy of those around you.Peter Drucker QuotesPin
Your first and foremost job as a leader is to take charge of your own energy and then help to orchestrate the energy of those around you. Peter F. Drucker
Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.Pin
Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to higher sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations. Peter F. Drucker
Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done.Pin
Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done. Peter Drucker
We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.Peter Drucker QuotesPin
We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn. Peter Drucker
Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.Pin
Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility. Peter Drucker
The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer. Pin
The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.  Peter Drucker
Checking the results of a decision against its expectations shows executives what their strengths are, where they need to improve, and where they lack knowledge or information.Peter Drucker QuotesPin
Checking the results of a decision against its expectations shows executives what their strengths are, where they need to improve, and where they lack knowledge or information. Peter Drucker
The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager.Pin
The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager. Peter Drucker
The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say 'I.' And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say 'I.' They don't think 'I.' They think 'we'; they think 'team.' They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but 'we' gets the credit.... This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done. Pin
The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say ‘I.’ And that’s not because they have trained themselves not to say ‘I.’ They don’t think ‘I.’ They think ‘we’; they think ‘team.’ They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but ‘we’ gets the credit…. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done. Peter Drucker

More Great Peter Drucker Quotes

We all have a vast number of areas in which we have no talent or skill and little chance of becoming even mediocre. In those areas a knowledge worker should not take on work, jobs and assignments. It takes far more energy to improve from incompetence to mediocrity than it takes to improve from first-rate performance to excellence.Pin
We all have a vast number of areas in which we have no talent or skill and little chance of becoming even mediocre. In those areas a knowledge worker should not take on work, jobs and assignments. It takes far more energy to improve from incompetence to mediocrity than it takes to improve from first-rate performance to excellence. Peter Drucker
Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.Peter Drucker QuotesPin
Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things. Peter Drucker
Most discussions of decision-making assume that only senior executives make decisions or that only senior executives' decisions matter. This is a dangerous mistake.Peter Drucker QuotesPin
Most discussions of decision-making assume that only senior executives make decisions or that only senior executives’ decisions matter. This is a dangerous mistake. Peter Drucker
The best way to predict the future is to create it.Pin
The best way to predict the future is to create it. Peter Drucker
The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.Pin
The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the
product or service fits him and sells itself. Peter F. Drucker Quotes
The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.Pin
The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity. Peter Drucker
The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said.Peter Drucker QuotesPin
The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said. Peter Drucker
Never mind your happiness; do your duty.Peter Drucker QuotesPin
<a href=PinTime is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed.” 
Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed. Peter Drucker
The "non-profit" institution neither supplies goods or services not controls. Its "product" is neither a pair of shoes nor an effective regulation. Its product is a changed human being. The non-profit institutions are human-change agents. Their "product" is a cured patient, a child that learns, a young man or woman grown into a self-respecting adult; a changed human life altogether. Peter Drucker QuotesPin
The “non-profit” institution neither supplies goods or services not controls. Its “product” is neither a pair of shoes nor an effective regulation. Its product is a changed human being. The non-profit institutions are human-change agents. Their “product” is a cured patient, a child that learns, a young man or woman grown into a self-respecting adult; a changed human life altogether. Peter F. Drucker
The most efficient way to produce anything is to bring together under one management as many as possible of the activities needed to turn out the product.Pin
The most efficient way to produce anything is to bring together under one management as many as possible of the activities needed to turn out the product. Peter Drucker 
Executives owe it to the organization and to their fellow workers not to tolerate nonperforming individuals in important jobsPin
Executives owe it to the organization and to their fellow workers not to tolerate nonperforming individuals in important jobs. Peter Drucker
Success in the knowledge economy comes to those who know themselves - their strengths, their values, and how they best perform.Peter Drucker QuotesPin
Success in the knowledge economy comes to those who know themselves – their strengths, their values, and how they best perform. Peter Drucker
Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.Pin
Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action. Peter Drucker
Accept the fact that we have to treat almost anybody as a volunteer.Peter Drucker QuotesPin
Accept the fact that we have to treat almost anybody as a volunteer. Peter Drucker
Entrepreneurship rests on a theory of economy and society. The theory sees change as normal and indeed as healthy. And it sees the major task in society - and especially in the economy - as doing something different rather than doing better what is already being done. That is basically what Say, two hundred years ago, meant when he coined the term entrepreneur. It was intended as a manifesto and as a declaration of dissent: the entrepreneur upsets and disorganizes. As Joseph Schumpeter formulated it, his task is 'creative destruction.Peter Drucker Quotes' Pin
Entrepreneurship rests on a theory of economy and society. The theory sees change as normal and indeed as healthy. And it sees the major task in society – and especially in the economy – as doing something different rather than doing better what is already being done. That is basically what Say, two hundred years ago, meant when he coined the term entrepreneur. It was intended as a manifesto and as a declaration of dissent: the entrepreneur upsets and disorganizes. As Joseph Schumpeter formulated it, his task is ‘creative destruction.’ Peter F. Drucker
People in any organization are always attached to the obsolete - the things that should have worked but did not, the things that once were productive and no longer are.Peter Drucker QuotesPin
People in any organization are always attached to the obsolete – the things that should have worked but did not, the things that once were productive and no longer are.  Peter Drucker
 If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.Pin
 If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.  Peter Drucker
Intelligence, imagination, and knowledge are essential resources, but only effectiveness converts them into results.Peter Drucker QuotesPin
Intelligence, imagination, and knowledge are essential resources, but only effectiveness converts them into results. Peter F. Drucker

Peter Drucker Biography

Peter F. Drucker, whose full name was Peter Ferdinand Drucker, was an Austrian-born American management consultant, educator, and author. He was born on November 19, 1909 in Vienna, Austria, and passed away on November 11, 2005 in Claremont, California, United States. Drucker’s writings contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of the modern business corporation. He was also a pioneer in the establishment of management education, and he pioneered the notion of management by objectives.

His family lived in the little community of Kaasgraben, the son of Jewish intellectuals—his mother, Caroline Bondi, had studied medicine and his father, Adolph Bertram Drucker, was a lawyer (now part of Vienna). He grew raised in a house where intellectuals, high-ranking government officials, and scientists, particularly those from the Vienna Circle, would gather to explore new ideas and ideals.

After graduating from Döbling Gymnasium, Drucker found few job options in post-Habsburg Vienna, so he relocated to Hamburg, Germany. He began his career as an apprentice at a well-established cotton trading company, then as a journalist for the Austriaische Volkswirt (The Austrian Economist). While in Hamburg, he spent a lot of time reading novels and history, and he discovered the philosophical writings of Soren Kirkegaard, which had a big influence on him.

Then he landed a position in Frankfurt, writing for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. While he was living in Frankfurt, he attended the University of Frankfurt and received a Ph.D. in international law and public law in the year 1931. Both of Drucker’s early works, “The Jewish Question in Germany” (1932) and an article on the conservative German philosopher Friedrich Julius Stahl (1932), which he penned while he was still a young writer, were torched and outlawed by the Nazi regime. Drucker fled Germany for England in 1933, the same year that Adolf Hitler assumed power there. After working for an insurance business in London for a while, he went on to become the top economist of a private bank there. In addition to that, he got back in touch with his old friend Doris Schmitz, who went to the University of Frankfurt. In 1934, the couple was married.

The pair moved to the United States permanently, where Drucker worked as a correspondent for many British newspapers, notably the Financial Times. He was also a regular contributor to Harper’s Magazine and a columnist for The Wall Street Journal. He also taught economics at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, on a part-time basis. In 1939, he released The End of Economic Man, which launched his career as a freelance writer and business adviser.

Drucker became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1943. From 1942 to 1949, he was a professor of philosophy and politics at Bennington College, and from 1950 to 1971, he was a professor of management at New York University.

After relocating to California in 1971, Drucker established at Claremont Graduate University one of the country’s first executive Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs for working professionals.

His writings have been translated into over 30 different languages. He has written two novels, one autobiography, and a book on Japanese painting. He also produced eight instructive films on management themes. For 20 years, he wrote a regular column in the Wall Street Journal and frequently contributed to the Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Economist. He also worked as a consultant to businesses and non-profit groups far into his nineties.

Must Read
The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done by Peter Drucker

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