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 only thing we know about the future is that it will be different.

Here I am, fifty-eight, and I still don't know what I'm going to be when I grow up.

Only three things happen naturally in organizations: friction, confusion, and underperformance. Everything else requires leadership.

The most important work of the executive is to identify the changes that have already happened. The important thing . . . is to exploit the changes that have already occurred and to use them as opportunities.

Free enterprise cannot be justified as being good for business. It can be justified only as being good for society.

A business exists because the consumer is willing to pay you his money. You run a business to satisfy the consumer. That isn't marketing. That goes way beyond marketing.