Drucker on Marketing: Lessons from the World's Most Influential Business Thinker

Chapter 2The Purpose of Business Is Not to Make a Profit

I heard Peter say many strange things when I was his student, but his saying that the purpose of business is not to make a profit has got to be one of the most unusual. I think most of my Drucker classmates agreed with me. Indeed, until Drucker came along, most everyone believed the basic “fact” that the purpose of a business was to make money, in other words, to make a profit. This belief leads to a corollary, another myth, believed by all—that the goal of any business is profit maximization. Whatever your business, your goal should be to make as much profit as possible. If you accept making a profit as a business’s purpose, the second part just follows naturally. This might even seem ...