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Peter Drucker's insights on Business aren't theoretical—they're battle-tested wisdom from someone who operated at the highest level. This collection distills that experience into quotable principles, each with source context for verification. When you're navigating Business in the real world, these quotes offer the kind of practical guidance that only comes from direct experience.
"Top management as a function and as a structure was first developed by Georg von Siemens (1839-1901) in Germany between 1870 and 1880, when he designed and built the Deutsche Bank and made it, within a very few years, into continental Europe's leading and most dynamic financial institution. p. 605"
"Financial "synergy" is a will-o'-the-wisp.It looks good on paper, but it fails to work out in practice. p. 707"
"Value added" is a meaningless concept for a retail business , for a bank, for a life insurance company, and for any other business which is not primarily engaged in manufacturing. p. 647"
"Without institution there is no management. But without management there is no institution. p. 5"
"Absolute size by itself is no indicator of success and achievement, let alone of managerial competence. Being the right size is. p. 672"
"A primary task of management in the developed countries in the decades ahead will be to make knowledge productive. p. 32"
"Profit is not a cause but a result- p. 71"
"There is a point of complexity beyond which a business is no longer manageable. p. 681"
"The large industrial enterprise is... the representative institution of an industrial society. It determines the individual's view of his society. Under section header: The Enterprise as Society's Mirror"
Inspired by: Peter Drucker (Under section header: The Enterprise as Society's Mirror)
"The prevailing economic theory of business enterprise and behavior, the maximization of profit—which is simply a complicated way of phrasing the old saw of buying cheap and selling dear—may adequately explain how Richard Sears operated. But it cannot explain how Sears, Roebuck or any other business enterprise operates, nor how it should operate. The concept of profit maximization is, in fact, meaningless. p. 59 (1986 ; 45)"
"There is only one valid definition of a business purpose: to create a customer. p. 37"
"Free enterprise cannot be justified as being good for business. It can be justified only as being good for society. p. 41"
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"Use this collection whenever you need Peter Drucker's lens on Business."