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No job is more vital to our society than that of the manager. It is the manager who determines whether our social institutions serve us well or whether they squander our talents and resources.

Henry Mintzberg

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Henry Mintzberg
Age: 85
Born: 1939
Born: September 2
Author
Economist
Sociologist
University Teacher
Writer
Montreal
Quebec
Talent
Manager
Society
Talents
Whether
Vital
Jobs
Managers
Social
Determine
Wells
Serve
Well
Institutions
Squander
Resources
Determines

More quotes by Henry Mintzberg

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Anecdotal data is not incidental to theory development at all, but an essential part of it.
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An obsession with control generally seems to reflect a fear of uncertainty.
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Why does every generation have to think that he lives in the period with the greatest turbulence?
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Corporations are economic entities, to be sure, but they are also social institutions that must justify their existence by their overall contribution to society.
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So technologies, whether it is a telephone or an iPhone, computers in general or automobiles, television even, all individualize us. We all sit in front of our iPhones and communicating but are we really communicating?
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Leadership, like swimming, cannot be learned by reading about it.
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Strategic planning is not strategic thinking. Indeed, strategic planning often spoils strategic thinking, causing managers to confuse real vision with the manipulation of numbers.
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Learning is not doing it is reflecting on doing.
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Basically, managing is about influencing action. Managing is about helping organizations and units to get things done, which means action. Sometimes, managers manage actions directly. They fight fires. They manage projects. They negotiate contracts.
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What we call a financial crisis is really at its core a crisis of management, and not just a crisis of management, but a crisis of management culture. ...In other words, what you had is a detachment of people who know the business from people who are running the business.
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Companies are communities. Theres a spirit of working together. Communities are not a place where a few people allow themselves to be singled out as solely responsible for success.
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An unsuccessful manager blames failure on his obligations the effective manager turns them to his own advantage. A speech is a chance to lobby...a visit to an important customer a chance to extract trade information.
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Technologies tend to undermine community and encourage individualism.
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If you ask managers what they do, they will most likely tell you that they plan, organise, co-ordinate and control. Then watch what they do. Don't be surprised if you can't relate what you see to those four words.
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Everyone is against micro managing but macro managing means you're working at the big picture but don't know the details.
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Strategy-making is an immensely complex process involving the most sophisticated, subtle, and at times subconscious of human cognitive and social processes.
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Strategy is not the consequence of planning, but the opposite: its starting point.
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Corporations are social institutions. If they don't serve society, they have no business existing
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Management and leadership are not separate spheres. The two skills work together in the larger realm of “communityship.
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We find that the manager, particularly at senior levels, is overburdened with work. With the increasing complexity of modern organizations and their problems, he is destined to become more so. He is driven to brevity, fragmentation, and superficiality in his tasks, yet he cannot easily delegate them because of the nature of his information.
Henry Mintzberg