Peter Drucker Decision Quotations

Decision making is the specific executive task.

Strategic planning is the continuous process of making present entrepreneurial (risk-taking) decisions systematically and with the greatest knowledge of their futurity; organizing systematically the efforts needed to carry out these decisions; and measuring the results of these decisions against the expectations through organized, systematic feedback.

A management decision is irresponsible if it risks disaster this year for the sake of a grandiose future.

Executives do many things in addition to making decisions. But only executives make decisions. The first managerial skill is, therefore, the making of effective decisions.

Decisions exist only in the present.

One has to make a decision when a condition is likely to degenerate if nothing is done.

The most common source of mistakes in management decisions is the emphasis on finding the right answer rather than the right question.

Political freedom is neither easy nor automatic, neither pleasant nor secure. It is the responsibility of the individual for the decisions of society as if they were his own decisions-as in moral truth and accountability they are.

The largest 100 corporations hold 25 percent of the worldwide productive assets, which in turn control 75 percent of international trade and 98 percent of all foreign direct investment.The multinational corporation...puts the economic decision beyond the effective reach of the political process and its decision-makers, national governments.

There is no perfect strategic decision. One always has to pay a price. One always has to balance conflicting objectives, conflicting opinions, and conflicting priorities. The best strategic decision is only an approximation - and a risk.

Profit is not the explanation, cause, or rationale of business behavior and business decisions, but the test of their validity.

"The area in which the executive first encounters the challenge of strength is in staffing. The effective executive fills positions and promotes on the basis of what a man can do. He does not make staffing decisions to minimize weaknesses but to maximize strength."

The question that faces the strategic decision maker is not what his organisation should do tomorrow. It is, what do we have to do today to be ready for an uncertain tomorrow?

Nobody in the world is as good at making decisions as the Japanese.

Important decisions are risky. They should be controversial. Acclamation means that nobody has done the homework.

Of all the decisions an executive makes, none is as important as the decisions about people, because they determine the performance capacity of the organization.

Decisions of the kind the executive has to make are not made well by acclamation. They are made well only if based on the clash of conflicting views...The first rule in decision-making is that one does not make a decision unless there is disagreement.

Unless a decision has degenerated into work, it is not a decision; it is at best a good intention.

In areas where they are simply incompetent, smart executives don’t make decisions or take actions. They delegate.

No decision has been made unless carrying it out in specific steps has become someone's work assignment and responsibility.

The 1st question the effective decision-maker asks is: 'Is this a generic situation or an exception?'

More business decisions occur over lunch and dinner than at any other time, yet no MBA courses are given on the subject.

Once the facts are clear the decisions jump out at you.