Peter Drucker? Elsie Robinson? Warren Bennis? Stephen R. Covey? Glenn J. Shanahan? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: In the domain of business and entrepreneurship two contrasting statements yield a crucial insight: Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things. The most successful organizations require both efficiency and effectiveness. Another version highlights the following …
Category Archives: Peter Drucker
Strong People Always Have Strong Weaknesses Too
Peter Drucker? Wess Roberts? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: When selecting the head of an organization it is tempting to search for the perfect applicant who excels in everything, i.e., the mythical candidate without flaws. The following two statements provide a counterpoint perspective: Strong people have strong weaknesses, Strong chieftains always have strong weaknesses. This adage …
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Thirty Years from Now the Big University Campuses Will Be Relics. Universities Won’t Survive
Peter Drucker? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The famous management guru Peter Drucker apparently made a provocative prediction about education: Universities won’t survive. Is this quotation accurate? Would you please help me to find a citation? Quote Investigator: In 1997 “Forbes” published an interview with Peter F. Drucker under the title “Seeing things as they really …
Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast
Peter Drucker? Giga Information Group? Mark Fields? Eli Halliwell? Richard Clark? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Business leaders have found that the pre-existing culture of a company can thwart indispensable changes. A popular cautionary aphorism encapsulates this viewpoint. Here are two versions: Culture eats strategy for breakfast. Culture eats strategy for lunch. The famous management guru …
There Is Surely Nothing Quite So Useless as Doing with Great Efficiency What Should Not Be Done At All
Peter Drucker? Gore Vidal? Professor Giddings? Jesse H. Shera? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: I belong to an organization which is expending an inordinate effort perfecting the execution of a task that is peripheral to its mission. A famous management guru spoke about the pointlessness of efficiently performing a function that should not be done at …
Quote Origin: There Is Always a Well-Known Solution to Every Human Problem—Neat, Plausible, and Wrong
Mark Twain? H. L. Mencken? Peter Drucker? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: A popular saying presents a vivid warning about apparent solutions which are too good to be true. Here are four versions: These expressions have been attributed to the famous humorist Mark Twain, the witty curmudgeon H. L. Mencken (Henry Louis Mencken), and the …
When a Subject Becomes Totally Obsolete We Make It a Required Course
Peter Drucker? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: While perusing a book of quotations categorized as outrageous I saw a remark about college education attributed to the famous business guru Peter Drucker: When a subject becomes totally obsolete we make it a required course. I haven’t been able to determine where or when this statement appeared. Is …
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Quote Origin: We Cannot Predict the Future, But We Can Invent It
Dennis Gabor? Abraham Lincoln? Ilya Prigogine? Alan Kay? Steven Lisberger? Peter Drucker? Forrest C. Shaklee? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: I have seen several different versions of an adage about prediction and invention. Here are some examples: These sayings are not identical in meaning, but I think they fit together naturally as a group. Could …
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