Drucker, Peter Ferdinand

US (Austrian-born) author, economist, and management sociologist

immigrated to US 1937 (naturalized citizen 1943)

wrote "The End of Economic Man: A Study of the New Totalitarianism" 1939, "The Future of Industrial Man: A Conservative Approach" 1942, "The Practice of Management" 1954, "The Effective Executive" 1967, "Post-Capitalist Society" 1993, memoir "Adventures of a Bystander" 1979

• "Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes... but no plans."
• "Leadership is not magnetic personality--that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not'making friends and influencing people'--that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations."
• "The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said."
• "Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes."
• "Management means, in the last analysis, the substitution of thought for brawn and muscle, of knowledge for folkways and superstition, and of cooperation for force. It means the substitution of responsibility for obedience to rank, and of authority of performance for the authority of rank. Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision."