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Peter Drucker on Business

1909–2005 Austria

← All quotes by Peter Drucker

8 quotes

The basic definition of the business and of its purpose and mission have to be translated into objectives.

MANAGEMENT: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices (1973)

There is only one valid definition of a business purpose: to create a customer.

The Practice of Management (1954)

Free enterprise cannot be justified as being good for business. It can be justified only as being good for society.

The Practice of Management (1954)

There is a point of complexity beyond which a business is no longer manageable.

MANAGEMENT: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices (1973)

Business has only two basic functions: marketing and innovation.

Growth as a goal, to repeat, is delusion. William James, the American philosopher, talked of the "bitch goddess success." A philosopher of business today might well talk of the "bitch goddess growth."

MANAGEMENT: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices (1973)

That people even in well paid jobs choose ever earlier retirement is a severe indictment of our organizations -- not just business, but government service, the universities. These people don't find their jobs interesting.

"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.

MANAGEMENT: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices (1973)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Peter Drucker (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.