We’ve gathered some of Peter Drucker’s most famous mis-quotations.

Want to test your knowledge?

Drucker Mis-Quotation Quiz

Drucker Never Said
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
Drucker Did Say
“Culture—no matter how defined—is singularly persistent.”

This may be Drucker’s most enduring mis-quotation—it’s catchy and it echoes his caution to managers about culture’s durability. But Drucker never unconditionally asserted that culture would defeat any and every attempt to change it. He did, however, view culture as vital to sustaining organizational and societal values.

Drucker Never Said
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
Drucker Did Say
“…no human being can possibly predict the future, let alone control it.”

Joseph Maciariello, the Drucker Institute’s founding Academic and Research director, wrote in 2011: “Rather than expending energy on trying to predict the future, Drucker is well known for his advice that we ought to try to create what comes next and we ought to advance the future through innovation and change.” But the evidence suggests this particular phrasing is probably best credited to computer scientist Alan Kay, who said, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”