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A system is more than the sum of its parts; it is an indivisible whole. It loses its essential properties when it is taken apart. The elements of a system may themselves be systems, and every system may be part of a larger system.

— Russell L. Ackoff Ackoff (1973)

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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)

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

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)

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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.