Peter Drucker Quotes

Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.

Business, more than any other occupation, is a continual dealing with the future; it is a continual calculation, an instinctive exercise in foresight.

I like to pride myself on thinking pretty long term, but not that long term.

The timing of your decision is just as important as the decision you make.

Strategy is about shaping the future.

If we think long term, we can accomplish things that we couldn't otherwise accomplish.

Prudence is foresight and far-sightedness. It's the ability to make immediate decisions on the basis of their longer-range effects.

The long view counts.

The Congress is not willing to think about the long term. They act like activist shareholders, to use that phrase again. They're not thinking about what can we do that will make us richer, safer, and stronger next year, and the year after, and five and 10 years out.

To deal with future we have to deal with possibilities. Analysis will only tell us what is.

I hope people will think very carefully about the future.

Those who plan do better than those who do not plan, even should they rarely stick to their plan.

A leader should be a visionary and have more foresight than an employee.

The pace at eBay was frantic and urgent. We knew that if we didn't move fast, somebody would come into the market and quash us. Participant doesn't make a lot of sense from a financial investment perspective, so it's unlikely that other people will be approaching the business in the same way. So you see less urgency; you see a thoroughness and willingness to spend extra time to get things right. Which I think is really important.

The quality of our thinking will determine the quality of our future

Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential.

The great French Marshall Lyautey once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardner objected that the tree was slow growing and wouldn't reach maturity for 100 years. The Marshall replied, "In that case, there is no time to lose; plant it this afternoon!

A military mindset is objectively analyzing a planned course of action and anticipating the likely consequences before you take that action.

An inch of foreknowledge is worth ten miles of after-thought.

The opportunist thinks of me and today. The statesman thinks of us and tomorrow.

You want to be an alchemist so badly? Don't wait to react to the immediate problem. Plan ahead. Look at the big picture and you won't ever have to deal with that problem. Better to save yourself from a major catastrophe than drag your feet over a bunch of little inconveniences.

Impatience is a poor substitute for a well-considered plan.

The present is never the mark of our designs. We use both past and present as our means and instruments, but the future only as our object and aim.

Thoughtful people are concerned with the future because that is the only area of experience about which anything can be done. We cannot change the past, and the present is gone as soon as it is reported, but the future is that in which we can make a difference.

hindsight is not a strategy.