You can’t do today’s job with yesterday’s tools and still be in business tomorrow” is a popular business saying of unknown authorship. “You can’t do business today with yesterday’s tools and be in business tomorrow” was cited in print in 1940. The saying has also been widely used in education.
 
 
23 February 1940, Springfield (MA) Daily Republican, pg. 8, col. 4:
The attitude and present condition of some of the eastern railroads illustrates the old adage that says “You can’t do business today with yesterday’s tools and be in business tomorrow.”
(...)
HENRY E. SCHMUCK
West Springfield, February 21, 1940.
   
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NWDA Year Book
Volume 67
1941
Pg. 263:
Never more appropriate in attacking this vital problem was the utterance of wisdom:
 
“You can’t do today’s job with yesterday’s tools if you want to be in business tomorrow.”
   
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Biennial Report of the New Hampshire State Board of Education
Volumes 73-75
1944
Pg. 90:
A maxim has been borrowed from industry, “You can’t do today’s job with yesterday’s tools and be in business tomorrow.”
 
26 January 1949, Altoona (PA) Mirror, “Says Steel Industry Needs Some Tax Relief” (UP), pg. 8, col. 4:
“We can’t use yesterday’s tools for today’s work and be in business tomorrow.”
(Adm. Ben Moreell, president of Jones & Laughlin Steel.—ed.)
 
17 November 1950, Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch, “Method and the ‘Three R’s’” (editorial), pg. 16, col. 1:
“You can’t do today’s job with yesterday’s tools and be in business tomorrow.”
(Dr. Helen K. McIntosh in the NEA Journal.—ed.)
 
2 April 1951, Orville (OH) Courier-Crescent, pg. 4, col. 5:
You can’t do today’s job with yesterday’s tools and be in business tomorrow.
 
11 October 1951, Canton (OH) Repository, “Commissioner Deerwester Says: Parking Must Be Solved To Move City’s Traffic,” pg. 7, col. 1:
“WE CAN’T DO today’s business with yesterday’s tools and be in business tomorrow,” the commissioner concluded.
 
30 January 1952, Albuquerque (NM) Journal, “What’s the Score?” by Rusty Ayers, pg. 12, col. 1:
“You can’t do today’s job with yesterday’s tools and be in business tomorrow.”
 
That sentence was one of several quotations in the latest issue of the New Mexico High School Athletic association bulletin from the office of Morris Ward, executive secretary.
 
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17 November 1952, The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA), “Hundreds Flock to Open House,” pg. 6, col. 4:
He (D. P. Langhell, superintendent of schools—ed.) declared that the future is changing and that the schools are changing and told of improvements in the school rooms in keeping with the times, and said, “You cannot use yesterday’s tools today and be in business tomorrow.”
 
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The Strategy of Creative Thinking
By Bernard B. Goldner
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
1962
Pg. 97:
You can’t do today’s job with yesterday’s tools and still be in business tomorrow. —Anon
   
27 May 1971, Rockford (IL) Register-Republic, “Consultant says raise value of product, not just price,” pg. A21, col. 3:
Whatever the course taken by the steel centers, Callendine warned:
 
“You cannot do today’s job with yesterday’s tools and be in business tomorrow.”
 
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The Ultimate Guide for Student Product Development and Evaluation
By Frances A. Karnes and Kristen R. Stephens
Waco, TX: Prufrock Press
2000
Pg. 206:
“The person who uses yesterday’s tools in today’s work won’t be in business tomorrow.”
—Anonymous
 
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Marketing Your Clinical Practice:
Ethically, Effectively, Economically
By Neil Baum and Gretchen Henkel
Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett
2010
Pg. 363:
You can’t expect to meet the challenges of today with yesterday’s tools and still be in business tomorrow.
Source unknown
   
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William B. Weeks Jr.
‏@WilliamBWeeksJr
Source Unknown “You can’t expect to meet the challenges of today with yesterday’s tools and expect to be in business tomorrow.”
5:18 PM - 18 Nov 2014