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A mission statement should define the business that the organization wants to be in, not necessarily what it is in.

— Russell L. Ackoff Re-Creating the Corporation (1999)

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More quotes by Russell L. Ackoff

When a business is bought, it is bought for its potential—for its future, not its past.

Re-Creating the Corporation (1999)

Over time, every way of thinking generates important problems that it cannot solve.

Re-Creating the Corporation (1999)

The only managers that have simple problems have simple minds.

Ackoff (2007)

The lower the rank of managers, the more they know about fewer things. The higher the rank of managers, the less they know about many things.

p. 2 cited in: Gregory H. Watson (2010)

The basic managerial idea introduced by systems thinking, is that to manage a system effectively, you might focus on the interactions of the parts rather than their behavior taken separately.

Russell L. Ackoff and Fred Emery (1972)

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An artisan busies himself with his work for three hours each day and spends nine hours in study.

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The rule of my life is to make business a pleasure and pleasure my business.

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A business of high principle generates greater drive and effectiveness because people know that they can do the right thing decisively and with confidence.

Marvin Bower The Will to Manage (1966)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Russell L. Ackoff (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.