To say that we live in dangerous and uncertain times is an understatement, and it would have been true even before the world’s COVID-19 experience. The words of Peter Drucker can help guide us through the unprecedented days ahead. I’ve collected and curated 24 quotes pertinent to how individuals and institutions can approach life and work when so much of our daily existence seems disorienting. Each quote includes the name, and year published, of the book it is drawn from. Several are from his lesser-known, but powerful 1980 book Managing in Turbulent Times.
“Every decision is risky: it is a commitment of present resources to an uncertain and unknown future.” – The Daily Drucker, 2004
“If we want the new to have a chance, we must be willing to prune the old that no longer promises results.” – Managing for Results, 1964
“In turbulent times, managers cannot assume that tomorrow will be an extension of today.” – Managing in Turbulent Times, 1980
“It is the very nature of knowledge that it changes fast and that today’s certainties will be tomorrow’s absurdities.” – Post-Capitalist Society, 1993
“Management’s duty is to preserve the assets of the institution in its care.” – Management Challenges for the 21st Century, 1999
“Managers must convert society’s needs into opportunities for profitable business.” – Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, 1974
“One cannot manage change. One can only be ahead of it.” – Management Challenges for the 21st Century, 1999
“Performance in management, therefore, means in large measure doing a good job of preparing today’s business for the future.” – Managing in Turbulent Times, 1980
“Planning is frequently misunderstood as making future decisions, but decisions exist only in the present.” – Peter Drucker’s Five Most Important Questions, 2015
“Planning tries to optimize tomorrow the trends of today. Strategy aims to exploit the new and different opportunities of tomorrow.” – Managing in Turbulent Times, 1980
“Predicting the future can only get you into trouble. The task is to manage what is there and to work to create what could and should be.” – Managing in Turbulent Times, 1980
“Problems go away because someone does something about them.” – Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, 1974
“The future requires decisions-now. It imposes risk-now. It requires action-now.” – Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, 1974
“The future will not just happen if one wishes hard enough.” – Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, 1974
“The large organization has to learn to innovate, or it won’t survive.” – Managing in the Next Society, 2002
“The most effective way to manage change successfully is to create it.” – A Functioning Society, 2003
“There are always good reasons for not doing anything if one starts out searching for the negative.” – Managing for Results, 1964
“There are hidden opportunities in developments that seem to threaten a business or an industry.” – Managing for Results, 1964
“There is a time lag between a major social, economic, or cultural event and its full impact.” – Managing for Results, 1964
“To get at the new and better, you have to throw out the old, outworn, obsolete, no longer productive, as well as the mistakes, failure and misdirections of effort of the past.” – Managing for the Future, 1992
“To survive and succeed, every organization will have to turn itself into a change agent.” – A Functioning Society, 2003
“Tomorrow is being made today, irrevocably in most cases.” – Managing in Turbulent Times, 1980
“We perceive, as a rule, what we expect to perceive. We see largely what we expect to see, and we hear largely what we expect to hear.” – Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, 1974
“Yet surely this is a time to make the future- precisely because everything is in flux. This is a time for action.” – Post-Capitalist Society, 1993
If you find these quotes to be useful and helpful, be sure to check out the Drucker quotes I post each day on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. And if any of these quotes in particular help you and/or your organization in the coming days, please comment about it.