Peter Drucker didn’t say “culture eats strategy for breakfast,” but reality rarely gets in the way of a good quote.
But what does it mean?
I think what ‘not Drucker’ meant was that MBA tactics will always be subverted by the power of systems, and that systems disguise themselves as culture (“what are things like around here.”)
So a more accurate restatement of the fictional quote would be, “Systems eat tactics for breakfast.”
Maybe that would have been a better subtitle for my book.
PS I was on Tim Ferriss’ podcast this week. You can see 500 of my video and podcast appearances here.
In the words of Harry Truman, “42% of all the quotes on the internet are misattributed.”
January 31, 2025