Peter F. Drucker Boxed Set (8 Books) (The Drucker Library)

CHAPTER TEN

What Is a Business?

A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE IS created and managed by people, not by forces. Economic forces set limits to what management can do. They create opportunities for management’s action. But they do not by themselves determine what a business is or what it does. Nothing could be sillier than the oft-repeated assertion that “management only adapts the business to the forces of the market.” Management not only has to find these forces, it has to create them.

Another conclusion is that a business cannot be defined or explained in terms of profit. Asked what a business is, the typical business man or business woman is likely to ...