🖌️Margaret J Wheatley - Collected Quotes

"Openness to the environment over time spawns a stronger system, one that is less susceptible to externally induced change. [...] Because it partners with its environment, the system develops increasing autonomy from the environment and also develops new capacities that make it increasingly resourceful." (Margaret J Wheatley, "Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World", 1992)

"The things we fear most in organizations - fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances - need not be signs ofan impending disorder that will destroy us. Instead, fluctuations are the primary source of creativity." (Margaret J Wheatley, "Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World", 1992)

"Leadership is always dependent upon the context, but the context is established by the relationships." (Margaret J Wheatley, "Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World", 1992)

"We have created trouble for ourselves in organizations by confusing control with order. This is no surprise, given that for most of its written history, leadership has been defined in terms of its control functions." (Margaret J Wheatley, "Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World", 1992)

"In a complex system, there is no such thing as simple cause and effect." (Margaret J Wheatley, "It's An Interconnected World", 2002)

🖌️Frederick W Taylor - Collected Quotes

"The art of management has been defined, 'As knowing exactly what you want men to do, and then seeing that they do it in the best and cheapest way.' No concise definition can fully describe an art, but the relations between employers and men form without question the most important part of this art. In considering the subject, therefore, until this part of the problem has been fully discussed, the remainder of the art may be left in the background." (Frederick W Taylor, "Shop Management", 1903)

"The writer feels that management is also destined to become more of an art, and that many of the, elements which are now believed to be outside the field of exact knowledge will soon be standardized tabulated, accepted, and used, as are now many of the elements of engineering." (Frederick W Taylor, "Shop Management", 1903)

"It is only through enforced standardization of methods, enforced adoption of the best implements and working conditions, and enforced cooperation that this faster work can be assured. And the duty of enforcing the adoption of standards and enforcing this cooperation rests with management alone." (Frederick W Taylor, "Principles of Scientific Management", 1911)

"The principal object of management should be to secure the maximum prosperity for the employer coupled with the maximum prosperity for each employee." (Frederick W Taylor, "Principles of Scientific Management", 1911)

🖌️Richard L Daft - Collected Quotes

"A mental model can be thought of as an internal picture that affects a leader's actions and relationships with others. Mental models are theories people hold about specific systems in the world and their expected behavior." (Richard Daft, "The Leadership Experience" , 2002)

"Organizations are (1) social entities that (2) are goal-directed, (3) are designed as deliberately structured and coordinated activity systems, and (4) are linked to the external environment." (Richard Daft, "The Leadership Experience" , 2002)

"The key element of an organization is not a building or a set of policies and procedures; organizations are made up of people and their relationships with one another. An organization exists when people interact with one another to perform essential functions that help attain goals." (Richard Daft, "The Leadership Experience" , 2002)

"Systems thinking means the ability to see the synergy of the whole rather than just the separate elements of a system and to learn to reinforce or change whole system patterns. Many people have been trained to solve problems by breaking a complex system, such as an organization, into discrete parts and working to make each part perform as well as possible. However, the success of each piece does not add up to the success of the whole. to the success of the whole. In fact, sometimes changing one part to make it better actually makes the whole system function less effectively." (Richard L Daft, "The Leadership Experience", 2002)

"Systems thinking is a mental discipline and framework for seeing patterns and interrelationships. It is important to see organizational systems as a whole because of their complexity. Complexity can overwhelm managers, undermining confidence. When leaders can see the structures that underlie complex situations, they can facilitate improvement. But doing that requires a focus on the big picture." (Richard L Daft, "The Leadership Experience", 2002)

"Data are raw facts and figures that by themselves may be useless. To be useful, data must be processed into finished information, that is, data converted into a meaningful and useful context for specific users. An increasing challenge for managers is being able to identify and access useful information." (Richard L Daft & Dorothy Marcic, "Understanding Management" 5th Ed., 2006)

"Decision making is the process of identifying problems and opportunities and then resolving them. Decision making involves effort before and after the actual choice." (Richard L Daft & Dorothy Marcic, "Understanding Management" 5th Ed., 2006)

"A paradigm is a shared mindset that represents a fundamental way of thinking about, perceiving, and understanding the world." (Richard L Daft, "The Leadership Experience" 4th Ed., 2008)

"Leaders should be aware of how their mental models affect their thinking and may cause 'blind spots' that limit understanding. Becoming aware of assumptions is a first step toward shifting one’s mental model and being able to see the world in new and different ways. Four key issues important to expanding and developing a leader’s mind are independent thinking, open-mindedness, systems thinking, and personal mastery." (Richard L Daft, "The Leadership Experience" 4th Ed., 2008)

"Management can be defined as the attainment of organizational goals in an effective and efficient manner through planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling organizational resources." (Richard L Daft, "The Leadership Experience" 4th Ed., 2008)

"Strategy is the serious work of figuring out how to translate vision and mission into action. Strategy is a general plan of action that describes resource allocation and other activities for dealing with the environment and helping the organization reach its goals. Like vision, strategy changes, but successful companies develop strategies that focus on core competence, develop synergy, and create value for customers. Strategy is implemented through the systems and structures that are the basic architecture for how things get done in the organization." (Richard L Daft, "The Leadership Experience" 4th Ed., 2008)

"Synergy is the combined action that occurs when people work together to create new alternatives and solutions. In addition, the greatest opportunity for synergy occurs when people have different viewpoints, because the differences present new opportunities. The essence of synergy is to value and respect differences and take advantage of them to build on strengths and compensate for weaknesses." (Richard L Daft, "The Leadership Experience" 4th Ed., 2008)

"Synergy occurs when organizational parts interact to produce a joint effect that is greater than the sum of the parts acting alone. As a result the organization may attain a special advantage with respect to cost, market power, technology, or employee." (Richard L Daft, "The Leadership Experience" 4th Ed., 2008)

"The other element of systems thinking is learning to infl uence the system with reinforcing feedback as an engine for growth or decline. [...] Without this kind of understanding, managers will hit blockages in the form of seeming limits to growth and resistance to change because the large complex system will appear impossible to manage. Systems thinking is a significant solution." (Richard L Daft, "The Leadership Experience" 4th Ed., 2008)

"An organization’s culture is the underlying set of key values, beliefs, understandings, and norms shared by employees. These underlying values and norms may pertain to ethical behavior, commitment to employees, efficiency, or customer service, and they provide the glue to hold organization members together. An organization’s culture is unwritten but can be observed in its stories, slogans, ceremonies, dress, and office layout." (Richard L Daft, "Organization Theory and Design", 3rd Ed., 2010)

"Efficiency refers to the amount of resources used to achieve the organization’s goals. It is based on the quantity of raw materials, money, and employees necessary to produce a given level of output. Effectiveness is a broader term, meaning the degree to which an organization achieves its goals." (Richard L Daft, "Organization Theory and Design", 3rd Ed., 2010)

"Organization theory focuses on the organizational level of analysis but with concern for groups and the environment. To explain the organization, one should look not only at its characteristics but also at the characteristics of the environment and of the departments and groups that make up the organization." (Richard L Daft, "Organization Theory and Design", 3rd Ed., 2010)

"The organization’s goals and strategy define the purpose and competitive techniques that set it apart from other organizations. Goals are often written down as an enduring statement of company intent. A strategy is the plan of action that describes resource allocation and activities for dealing with the environment and for reaching the organization’s goals. Goals and strategies define the scope of operations and the relationship with employees, customers, and competitors." (Richard L Daft, "Organization Theory and Design", 3rd Ed., 2010)

🖌️Boris Yavitz - Collected Quotes

"A second general way to deal with uncertainty is limiting potential losses. If we are unsure what will happen, we then try to maintain a position in which we can bear the adverse results if unpredictable events turn out badly for us. [...] Contingency plans are a device for limiting losses. They provide a fallback alternative if the main goal is unattainable." (Boris Yavitz & William H Newman, "Strategy in Action", 1982)

"An essential feature of all strategic planning is a forecast of the world ahead - or, at best, a forecast of those parts of the environment that will have significant impact on the company's successes and failures. Of course, there will be a variety of uncertainties, and our strategic planning will have to deal with them. Nevertheless, forecast we must if we are to grasp full advantage of the changes that lie ahead." (Boris Yavitz & William H Newman, "Strategy in Action", 1982)

"Managers are being confronted by a wider range of external pressures that must be taken into account in their major decisions [...] includ[ing] environmental protection, employment opportunities for minorities and all sorts of disadvantaged, shielding the consumer, and conforming to increasing government regulations." (Boris Yavitz & William H Newman, "Strategy in Action", 1982)

"One important function of strategy is to counteract a tendency of professional managers to become too conservative and bureaucratic." (Boris Yavitz & William H Newman, "Strategy in Action", 1982)

"[...] strategic change is likely to call for different management techniques than continuous running of well-established business-units. [...] If effectively done, strategic management can have even greater payoffs in rough seas than in clear sailing." (Boris Yavitz & William H Newman, "Strategy in Action", 1982)

"Strategy is not a functional plan, not even a long-run one - such as a five-year marketing plan or a seven-year production plan. Rather, strategy involves the integration of all these functional plans into a balanced overall scheme. In some circumstances one function may drive the others - product development, say, may determine marketing efforts or vice versa. Nevertheless, it is company strategy that sets the priorities and weighs or minimizes the risks. An overall viewpoint is essential."  (Boris Yavitz & William H Newman, "Strategy in Action", 1982)

"Strategy is not a rationalization of what we did last year or of what appears in next year's budget. With a bit of imagination and artful wording, a statement that looks like a strategy can be written around almost any set of activities of a going concern. An actual strategy, in contrast, is a longer-term plan that sets the direction and tone of the shorter-range plans. Unless the strategy provides underlying guidance, its preparation is mere window dressing."  (Boris Yavitz & William H Newman, "Strategy in Action", 1982)

"Strategy is not a response to short-term fluctuations in operations or the environment, nor is it the response to the frequent short-term reports on, for example, sales, labor turnover, weekly output, or competitors' prices that every manager receives. Instead, strategy deals with the predetermined direction toward which these quick responses are pointed. It is concerned with the longer-term course that the ship is steering, not with the waves." (Boris Yavitz & William H Newman, "Strategy in Action", 1982)

"Strategy is not a statement of pious intentions or optimistic wishes. Merely envisioning a future world and selecting an attractive position in that world is not a strategic plan. Instead, a strategy must be feasible in terms of resources that will be mobilized, and it must identify ways by which at least some form of superiority over competitors is to be achieved."  (Boris Yavitz & William H Newman, "Strategy in Action", 1982)

🖌️Chester I Barnard - Collected Quotes

"A formal and orderly conception of the whole is rarely present, perhaps even rarely possible, except to a few men of exceptional genius." (Chester I Barnard, "The Functions of the Executive", 1938)

"A low morality will not sustain leadership long, its influence quickly vanishes, it cannot produce its own succession." (Chester I Barnard, "The Functions of the Executive", 1938)

"A person can and will accept a communication as authoritative only when four conditions simultaneously obtain: (a) he can and does understand the communication; (b) at the time of his decision he believes that it is not inconsistent with the purpose of the organization; (c) at the time of his decision, he believes it to be compatible with his personal interest as a whole; and (d) he is able mentally and physically to comply with it." (Chester I Barnard, "The Functions of the Executive", 1938)

"Effectiveness relates to the accomplishment of the cooperative purpose which is social and non-personal in character. Efficiency relates to the satisfaction of individual motives and is personal in character." (Chester I Barnard, "The Functions of the Executive", 1938)

"Executive work is not that of the organization, but the specialized work of maintaining the organization." (Chester I Barnard, The Functions of the Executive, 1938)

"Organizations endure, however, in proportion to the breadth of the morality by which they are governed. Thus the endurance of organization depends upon the quality of leadership; and that quality derives from the breadth of the morality upon which it rests." (Chester I Barnard, "The Functions of the Executive", 1938)

"Planning is one of the many catchwords whose present popularity is roughly proportionate to the obscurity of its definition." (Chester I Barnard, "The Functions of the Executive", 1938)

"The fine art of executive decision consists in not deciding questions that are not now pertinent, in not deciding prematurely, in not making decision that cannot be made effective, and in not making decisions that others should make. Not to decide questions that are not pertinent at the time is uncommon good sense, though to raise them may be uncommon perspicacity. Not to decide questions prematurely is to refuse commitment of attitude or the development of prejudice. Not to make decisions that cannot be made effective is to refrain from destroying authority. Not to make decisions that others should make is to preserve morale, to develop competence, to fix responsibility, and to preserve authority.
From this it may be seen that decisions fall into two major classes, positive decisions - to do something, to direct action, to cease action, to prevent action; and negative decisions, which are decisions not to decide. Both are inescapable; but the negative decisions are often largely unconscious, relatively nonlogical, "instinctive," "good sense." It is because of the rejections that the selection is good." (Chester I Barnard, "The Functions of the Executive", 1938)

"The making of decisions, as everyone knows from personal experience, is a burdensome task. Offsetting the exhilaration that may result from correct and successful decision and the relief that follows the termination of a struggle to determine issues is the depression that comes from failure, or error of decision, and the frustration which ensues from uncertainty." (Chester I Barnard, "The Functions of the Executive", 1938)

"The executive is primarily concerned with decisions which facilitate or hinder other decisions." (Chester I Barnard, "Organization and Management: Selected Papers", 1948)

"When a condition of honesty and sincerity is recognized to exist, errors of judgment, defects of ability, are sympathetically endured. They are expected. Employees don't ascribe infallibility to leaders or management. What does disturb them is insincerity and the appearance of insincerity when the facts are not in their possession." (Chester I Barnard, "Organization and Management: Selected Papers", 1948)

🖌️Simon Sinek - Collected Quotes

"For values or guiding principles to be truly effective they have to be verbs. It's not 'integrity'," it's 'always do the right thing'. It's not 'innovation', it's 'look at the problem from a different angle'. Articulating our values as verbs gives us a clear idea - we have a clear idea of how to act in any situation." (Simon Sinek, "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action", 2009)

"Great companies don't hire skilled people and motivate them, they hire already motivated people and inspire them. People are either motivated or they are not. Unless you give motivated people something to believe in, something bigger than their job to work toward, they will motivate themselves to find a new job and you'll be stuck with whoever's left." (Simon Sinek, "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action", 2009)

"There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it." (Simon Sinek, "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action", 2009)

"There are leaders and there are those who lead. Leaders hold a position of power or influence. Those who lead inspire us." (Simon Sinek, "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action", 2009)

"When we are selective about doing business only with those who believe in our WHY, trust emerges." (Simon Sinek, "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action", 2009) 

"And when a leader embraces their responsibility to care for people instead of caring for numbers, then people will follow, solve problems and see to it that that leader's vision comes to life the right way, a stable way and not the expedient way." (Simon Sinek, "Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't", 2014)

"Truly human leadership protects an organization from the internal rivalries that can shatter a culture. When we have to protect ourselves from each other, the whole organization suffers. But when trust and cooperation thrive internally, we pull together and the organization grows stronger as a result." (Simon Sinek, "Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't", 2014)

🖌️Peter F Drucker - Collected Quotes

"What the worker needs is to see the plant as if he were a manager. Only thus can he see his part, from his part he can reach the whole. This ‘seeing’ is not a matter of information, training courses, conducted plant tours, or similar devices. What is needed is the actual experience of the whole in and through the individual's work." (Peter F Drucker, "The New Society", 1950)

"A manager sets objectives - A manager organizes - A manager motivates and communicates - A manager, by establishing yardsticks, measures." (Peter F Drucker, "The Practice of Management", 1954)

"Business is a process which converts a resource, distinct knowledge, into a contribution of economic value in the market place. The purpose of a business is to create a cust Au omer. The purpose is to provide something for which an independent outsider, who can choose not to buy, is willing to exchange his purchasing power. And knowledge alone (excepting only the case of the complete monopoly) gives the products of any business that leadership position on which success and survival ultimately depend." (Peter F Drucker, "Managing for Results: Economic Tasks and Risk-taking Decisions", 1964)

"But waste is often hard to find. The costs of not-doing tend to be hidden in the figures. […] Waste runs high in any business. Man, after all, is not very efficient. Special efforts to find waste are therefore always necessary." (Peter F Drucker, "Managing for Results: Economic Tasks and Risk-taking Decisions", 1964)

"Costs - their identification, measurement, and control - are the most thoroughly worked, if not overworked, business area. […] Altogether focusing resources on results is the best and most effective cost control. Cost, after all, does not exist by itself. It is always incurred - in intent at least - for the sake of a result. What matters therefore is not the absolute cost level but the ratio between efforts and their results." (Peter F Drucker, "Managing for Results: Economic Tasks and Risk-taking Decisions", 1964)

"Results are obtained by exploiting opportunities, not by solving problems. [...] Resources, to produce results, must be allocated to opportunities rather than to problems." (Peter F Drucker, "Managing for Results: Economic Tasks and Risk-taking Decisions", 1964)

"The best way to come to grips with one’s own business knowledge is to look at the things the business has done well, and the things it apparently does poorly. […] Knowledge is a perishable commodity. It has to be reaffirmed, relearned, repracticed all the time. One has to work constantly at regaining one’s specific excellence. […] The right knowledge is the knowledge needed to exploit the market opportunities." (Peter F Drucker, "Managing for Results: Economic Tasks and Risk-taking Decisions", 1964)

"There are three different dimensions to the economic task: (1) The present business must be made effective; (2) its potential must be identified and realized; (3) it must be made into a different business for a different future. Each task requires a distinct approach. Each asks different questions. Each comes out with different conclusions. Yet they are inseparable. All three have to be done at the same time: today." (Peter F Drucker, "Managing for Results: Economic Tasks and Risk-taking Decisions", 1964)

"To be able to control costs, a business therefore needs a cost analysis which: Identifies the cost centers - that is, the areas where the significant costs are, and where effective cost reduction can really produce results. Finds what the important cost points are in each major cost center. Looks at the entire business as one cost stream. Defines ‘cost’ as what the customer pays rather than as what the legal or tax unit of accounting incurs. Classifies costs according to their basic characteristics and thus produces a cost diagnosis." (Peter F Drucker, "Managing for Results: Economic Tasks and Risk-taking Decisions", 1964)

"Modern organization makes demands on the individual to learn something he has never been able to do before: to use organization intelligently, purposefully, deliberately, responsibly [...] to manage organization [...] to make [...] his job in it serve his ends, his values, his desire to achieve." (Peter F Drucker, The Age of Discontinuity, 1968)

"Effectiveness is the foundation of success - efficiency is a minimum condition for survival after success has been achieved. Efficiency is concerned with doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things." (Peter Drucker, "Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Challenges", 1973)

"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." (Peter Drucker, "Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Challenges", 1973)

"[Management] has authority only as long as it performs." (Peter F Drucker, "Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices", 1973)

"Managers, therefore, need to be skilled in making decisions with long futurity on a systematic basis. Management has no choice but to anticipate the future, to attempt to mold it, and to balance short-range and long-range goals.[…] 'Short range' and 'long range' are not determined by any given time span. A decision is not short range because it takes only a few months to carry it out. What matters is the time span over which it is effective. […] The skill we need is not long-range planning. It is strategic decision-making, or perhaps strategic planning." (Peter F Drucker, "Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices", 1973)

"Organizationally what is required - and evolving - is systems management." (Peter F Drucker, "Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices", 1973)

"[…] 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." (Peter F Drucker, "Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices", 1973)

"Strategic planning is not the 'application of scientific methods to business decision' […] . It is the application of thought, analysis, imagination, and judgment. It is responsibility, rather than technique. […] Strategy planning is not forecasting. […] Strategic planning is necessary precisely because we cannot forecast. […] Strategic planning does nor deal with future decisions. It deals with the futurity of present decisions. […] Strategic planning is not an attempt to eliminate risk. It is not even an attempt to minimize risk." (Peter F Drucker, "Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices", 1973)

"'Structure follows strategy' is one of the fundamental insights we have acquired in the last twenty years. Without understanding the mission, the objectives, and the strategy of the enterprise, managers cannot be managed, organizations cannot be designed, managerial jobs cannot be made productive. [...] Strategy determines what the key activities are in a given business. And strategy requires knowing 'what our business is and what it should be'." (Peter F Drucker, "Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices", 1973)

"There is a point of complexity beyond which a business is no longer manageable." (Peter F Drucker, "Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices", 1973)

"The manager is a servant. His master is the institution he manages and his first responsibility must therefore be to it." (Peter F Drucker, "Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices", 1973)

"The worker's effectiveness is determined largely by the way he is being managed. (Peter F Drucker, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices", 1973)

"Above all, innovation is not invention. It is a term of economics rather than of technology. [...] The measure of innovation is the impact on the environment. [...] To manage innovation, a manager has to be at least literate with respect to the dynamics of innovation." (Peter F Drucker, "People and Performance", 1977)

"'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 authority of rank. (Peter F Drucker, "People and Performance", 1977)

"Objectives are not fate; they are direction. They are not commands; they are commitments. They do not determine the future; they are means to mobilize the resources and energies of the business for the making of the future." (Peter F Drucker, "People and Performance", 1977)

"[...] the first criterion in identifying those people within an organization who have management responsibility is not command over people. It is responsibility for contribution. Function rather than power has to be the distinctive criterion and the organizing principle." (Peter F Drucker, "People and Performance", 1977)

"[...] when a variety of tasks have all to be performed in cooperation, syncronization, and communication, a business needs managers and a management. Otherwise, things go out of control; plans fail to turn into action; or, worse, different parts of the plans get going at different speeds, different times, and with different objectives and goals, and the favor of the "boss" becomes more important than performance." (Peter F Drucker, "People and Performance", 1977)

"Knowledge work, unlike manual work, cannot be replaced by capital investment. On the contrary, capital investment creates the need for more knowledge work." (Peter F Drucker, "Management in Turbulent Times", 1980)

"The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager." (Peter F Drucker, "Management in Turbulent Times", 1980)

"Top management work is work for a team rather than one man." (Peter F Drucker, "Memos for Management: Leadership", 1983)

"No other area offers richer opportunities for successful innovation than the unexpected success." (Peter Drucker, "Innovation and Entrepreneurship", 1985)

"You cannot prevent a major catastrophe, but you can build an organization that is battle-ready, where people trust one another. In military training, the first rule is to instill soldiers with trust in their officers - because without trust, they won't fight." (Peter Drucker, "Managing the Non-Profit Organization", 1990)

"It is wrong to suppose that if you can't measure it, you can't manage it - a costly myth." (W. Edwards Deming, The New Economics, 1993

"Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes." (Peter F Drucker) 

"So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work." (Peter F Drucker)

🖌️John Naisbitt - Collected Quotes

"In the future, editors won't tell us what to read: We will tell editors what we choose to read." (John Naisbitt, "Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives", 1982)

"Information is an economic entity because it costs someI thing to produce and because people are willing to pay for it. Value is whatever people are willing to pay for. So even if an economy built around information seems less real than one i built around automobiles and steel, it doesn't matter so long as people will pay for information or knowledge."(John Naisbitt, "Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives", 1982)

"The acceleration of technological progress has created an urgent need for a counter ballast - for high-touch experience." (John Naisbitt, "Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives", 1982)

"The new source of power is not money in the hands of a few but information in the hands of the many." (John Naisbitt, "Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives", 1982)

"There are three stages of technological development: First, the new technology or innovation follows the line of least resistance; second, the technology is used to improve previous technologies (this stage can last a long time); and third, new directions or uses are discovered that grow out of the technology itself." (John Naisbitt, "Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives", 1982)

"Trends, like horses, are easier to ride in the direction they are already going." (John Naisbitt, "Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives", 1982)

"We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge." (John Naisbitt, "Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives", 1982)

"We created the hierarchical, pyramidal, managerial system because we needed to keep track of people and the things people did; with the computer to keep track, we can restructure our institutions horizontally." (John Naisbitt, "Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives", 1982)

"We lose all intelligence by averaging." (John Naisbitt, "Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives", 1982)

"We are moving from the specialist who is soon obsolete to the generalist who can adapt."(John Naisbitt, "Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives", 1982)

"Why are we so confident that content analysis is an effective way to monitor social change? Simply stated, because the news hole in a newspaper is a closed system. For economic reasons, the amount of space devoted to news in a newspaper does not change significantly over time. So, when something new is introduced, something else or a combination of things must be omitted. You cannot add unless you subtract. It is the principle of forced choice in a closed system." (John Naisbitt, "Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives", 1982)

"With the coming of the information society, we hove for the first time an economy based on a key resource that is not only renewable but self-generating. Uncontrolled and unorganized information is no longer a resource in an information society. Instead, it becomes the enemy of the information worker. Scientists who are overwhelmed with technical data complain of information pollution and charge that it takes less time to do an experiment than to find out whether or not it has already been done."(John Naisbitt, "Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives", 1982)

"In an information society, education is no mere amenity; it is the prime tool for growing people and profits." (John Naisbitt, "Re-Inventing the Corporation", 1985) 

"Intuition becomes increasingly valuable in the new information society precisely because there is so much data." (John Naisbitt, "Re-Inventing the Corporation", 1985) 

"The most important skill to acquire now is learning how to learn." (John Naisbitt, "Re-Inventing the Corporation", 1985) 

"It is in the nature of human beings to bend information in the direction of desired conclusions." (John Naisbitt, "Mind Set!: Reset Your Thinking and See the Future", 2006)