by Calculated Risk on 11/11/2005 08:05:00 PM

Management Guru Peter Drucker, 95, Dies

Innovation, listening to your customers, taking care of your employees - it all seems so obvious today. It wasn't so obvious 60 years ago. Here are a few quotes from Drucker:

On bubbles:

"Pigs gorging themselves at the trough are always a disgusting spectacle, and you know it won't last long."

"The average duration of a soap bubble is known. It's about 26 seconds," Drucker said. "Then the surface tension becomes too great and it begins to burst.

"For speculative crazes, it's about 18 months."

On metrics:

"Checking the results of a decision against its expectations shows executives what their strengths are, where they need to improve, and where they lack knowledge or information."

On Leadership:

"Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes."

"Executives owe it to the organization and to their fellow workers not to tolerate nonperforming individuals in important jobs."