Home » [2021] Top 19 Peter Drucker Quotes for Effective Management

[2021] Top 19 Peter Drucker Quotes for Effective Management

by Bob

Source: Inc. Magazine

Do you want to know what effective management is? Here are Peter Drucker quotes that’ll teach you the basics of great management to grow your business.

 

Peter Drucker was a management consultant, author, and educator. He is among the most popular influential thinkers on management theory and practice. He was also known as the Father of Modern Management, who developed the concept of management by objectives and self-control. His writings became the foundations of modern businesses worldwide which helped a lot of entrepreneurs succeed in their respective industries.

Drucker also depicted managers as leaders with distinct responsibilities. His writings portrayed the demands and difficulties of being a manager. 

So, if you are here to learn about what effective management is, you’ve come to the right place! Let these Peter Drucker quotes help you become a better and wiser business manager.

 

4 Powerful Peter Drucker Management Quotes

A businessman in a while polo holding a pen over a printed bar graph on the table

Source: Freepik

Among the key factors that determine a business’s success is good management. It all starts with the people who give the orders. Learning how to be an effective manager and also a good leader can greatly improve your business’s productivity and sales. 

Below are Peter Drucker quotes on leadership and management to guide you in managing your business: 

 

“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” – Peter Drucker

It is easier for a manager to do the things that are already known as “right”. But, only a true leader knows how to think, act and lead wisely even in tough times.

 

“Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.” – Peter Drucker

Managers should be leaders whose task is not only to set strict working hours and give orders. They should also be great leaders who know how to motivate their team to improve their performance.

 

“Management by objective works – if you know the objectives. Ninety percent of the time you don’t.” – Peter Drucker

The management by objective approach involves the implementation of concrete goals that you and your team should follow. But no matter how effective this approach is, if you don’t understand your objectives well, success would be impossible to achieve.

 

“Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results, not attributes.” – Peter Drucker

Sometimes, being a leader doesn’t always equate to getting a lot of nods and being liked by everyone. You cannot please everyone, period. You’d also get a lot of dislikes and objections as every person has different objectives. But the reality is, it’s not about how many likes you get as a leader, but on how much accomplishments you give to the company and how much $h!t you solved.

 

Related article: Leadership: Being Liked vs. Being Effective

 

4 Eye-Opening Peter Drucker Innovation Quotes

Innovation is defined as the development of new ideas that can improve how things are done to achieve better results. It is improving your business’s processes and creating new products and services to increase your profitability. 

 

Let’s learn more about the importance of innovation to business through these Peter Drucker quotes below:

 

“Innovation is the specific tool of entrepreneurs, the means by which they exploit change as an opportunity for a different business or a different service.” – Peter Drucker

True entrepreneurs search for change to create an opportunity to bring new and more practical solutions to the needs of their target customers. They know how to respond to change well to ensure the success of their business.

 

“If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.” – Peter Drucker

As mentioned earlier, innovation is all about creating new products that can make the life of your users easier. And if you want to create something unique, you need to change your old ways and try a whole new strategy.

 

“Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two – and only these two — basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are ‘costs’.” – Peter Drucker

Of course, you already know that marketing is important in driving customers to your business. However, it is not easy to market a common commodity as you may have a lot of competitors. This is why innovation is also important if you want to offer something unique to your customers that your competitors can’t.

 

“Making changes to better appeal to customers is INNOVATION.” – Peter Drucker

Offering products and services that can improve the life of your customers is good. But, offering them something new and something better allows your business to grow and produce better profits. 

 

3 Wise Peter Drucker Communication Quotes

Effective communication in business is how the manager and the employees interact with each other to align with the company’s core values and reach their goals. It helps in keeping employees informed, reducing errors, eliminating silos, and improving organizational practices. 

 

a man in suit watching his computer

Source: Pexels

 

Let’s take a look at Peter Drucker’s thoughts on communication below:

 

“The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.” – Peter Drucker

Communication is not always about hearing only, it is more about listening and understanding beyond what is being said. A successful manager knows how to listen and observe what’s needed even when nothing is said.

 

“Communication always makes demands. It always demands that the recipient become somebody, do something, believe something. It always appeals to motivation.” – Peter Drucker

Let’s take marketing for example. When you are doing business, you communicate your product to your customers through marketing. When you do this, you demand them to take a look at your product, buy it, and then try it. Once they start buying your products, that’s when you succeed.

 

“Communication is always ‘propaganda’. The emitter always wants to get something across.” – Peter Drucker

We don’t communicate just for the sake of talking. We communicate because we want to convey information to the receiver. We want to successfully influence their opinions or convince them to agree to what we’re saying. Again, it’s the same thing when you market your products.

 

A businesswoman in a beige suit holding a highlighter in front of a whiteboard

Source: Pexels

 

4 Meaningful Peter Drucker Strategy Quotes

Having a good business strategy is crucial in building a strong brand name that will be trusted and chosen by your target customers. Your business’s sales as well as its success will always depend on how effective your strategies are. 

Check out these strategy quotes to help you make more rational plans for your business:

 

“Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.” – Peter Drucker

Plans are just the start of your theoretical success. Unless you start pulling it off into action, it won’t transform and materialise. It’s like saying, don’t just plan. Get out there and make it happen!

 

“Entrepreneurial strategy has more chance of success the more it starts out with the users – their utilities, their values, their realities… Hence, entrepreneurship always needs to be market-focused, indeed, market-driven.” – Peter Drucker

Giving importance to the users of your products will give more assurance to your business’s success. The more you focus on the needs of your customers, the higher chances that you will be creating products that will surely sell to your target market.

 

“Still, entrepreneurial strategy remains the decision-making area of entrepreneurship and therefore the risk-taking one. It is by no means hunch or gamble. But it also is not precisely science. Rather, it is judgement.” – Peter Drucker

Entrepreneurial strategy defines your whole organization’s mission and vision, so it is crucial that you formulate a good one. Also, it is important that every employee understands your goals clearly. This makes sure that all of you are focused in one direction.

 

“Unless strategy evaluation is performed seriously and systematically, and unless strategists are willing to act on the results, energy will be used up defending yesterday.” – Peter Drucker

Strategy evaluation is something that you should take very seriously because it helps assess how well your business is performing relative to your goals. And, unless you act on your strategic plan to drive results, you just wasted your time strategizing.

 

4 Motivational Peter Drucker Quotes on Change

In the world of business, embracing change will help ensure that your business will survive in the years to come. What might have worked for the last decades cannot be guaranteed to also work for the succeeding years. Thus, adapting to change is necessary if you want to grow your business. 

 

Let’s end our list with these notable quotes about change from 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

Nothing ever stays the same as the continuous improvement of technology is leading the world to modernization. You need to learn how to embrace change and keep up with them if you want to succeed.

 

“Company cultures are like country cultures. Never try to change one. Try, instead, to work with what you’ve got.” – Peter Drucker

Like country cultures, it is not easy to change the things that your company has been accustomed to doing because this can lead your company to chaos. You can make some improvements to your current practices but never change them.

 

“The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday’s logic.” – Peter Drucker

In times when your business is faced with big obstacles, dealing with them using the old ways is not going to be practical. Again, change will always happen whether you want it or not. So you need to change your ways, too, if you don’t want your business to fail.

 

“One cannot manage change. One can only be ahead of it.” – Peter Drucker

Your business won’t be able to survive that long unless you are going to update yourself with society’s trends. This is where you’ll learn to adapt and innovate whenever needed. Treat changes as opportunities for you to improve your business.

 

 A word CHANCE and a hand holding a pink letter G below the letter C

Source: Freepik

 

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Wrapping Up

Developing a successful entrepreneurial strategy will always require effective leadership skills. You shouldn’t only be a manager, you should also be a good leader who can embrace change and innovation.

 

Also, it is recommended to conduct a target market analysis before you start planning your business strategy. Customer needs change over time, so sticking with your old ways is not a wise thing to do. Hopefully, you’ve learned a lot from our list of the best Peter Drucker quotes on management here.

 

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