Balance Sheets are meaningless. Our accounting systems are still based on the assumption that 80% of costs are manual labor.

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.

Knowledge is the source of Wealth. Applied to tasks we already know, it becomes Productivity. Applied to tasks that are new, it becomes Innovation.

Yet there is nothing more dangerous than to be premature in exploiting a change in perception.

The only skill that will be important in the 21st century is the skill of learning new skills.Everythi ng else will become obsolete over time.

Profit for a company is like oxygen for a person. If you don't have enough of it, you're out of the game. But if you think your life is about breathing, you're really missing something.

Profitability is the sovereign criterion of the enterprise.