The final test of greatness in a CEO is how well he chooses a successor and whether he can step aside and let the successor run the company.

The most important, and indeed the truly unique, contribution of management in the 20th century was the fifty-fold increase in the productivity of the MANUAL WORKER in manufacturing. The most important contribution management needs to make in the 21st century is similarly to increase the productivity of KNOWLEDGE WORK and the KNOWLEDGE WORKER.

The single most important thing to remember about any enterprise is that there are no results inside its walls. The result of a business is a satisfied customer.

The purpose of an organization is to enable ordinary humans beings to do extraordinary things.

Quality of character doesn't make a leader, but the lack of it flaws the entire process.

There is a point at which a transformation has to take place.

Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for. A product is not quality because it is hard to make and costs a lot of money, as manufacturers typically believe. This is incompetence. Customers pay only for what is of use to them and gives them value. Nothing else constitutes quality.