Tom Peters: People in China Starving For Your Job

Tom Peters: Business Should Be Energetic and Passionate

Tom Peters, a self-described "professional loudmouth" who has been compared to Emerson, Whitman, Thoreau and H.L. Mencken, declares war on the worthless rules and absurd organizational barriers that stand in the way of creativity and success. In a totally outrageous, in-your-face presentation, Tom reveals: A re-imagining of American business; 2 big markets - underserved and worth trillions!; The top qualities of leadership excllence; Why passion, talent and action must rule business today.

Tom Peters: Gain Respect by Giving It

Tom Peters: Innovation is Actually Easy!

Tom Peters: The Brand is the Talent

Tom Peters: Business Today - Too Much Talk, Too Little Do

Tom Peters, a self-described "professional loudmouth" who has been compared to Emerson, Whitman, Thoreau and H.L. Mencken, declares war on the worthless rules and absurd organizational barriers that stand in the way of creativity and success. In a totally outrageous, in-your-face presentation, Tom reveals: A re-imagining of American business; 2 big markets - underserved and worth trillions!; The top qualities of leadership excllence; Why passion, talent and action must rule business today.

Tom Peters: Educate For a Creative Society

Survival and the CEO

Long ago Peter Drucker, the father of business consulting, made a very profound observation that has been lost in the sands of time:
"Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two--and only two--basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business."
Today, when top management is surveyed, their priorities in order are: finance, sales, production, management, legal and people. Missing from the list: marketing and innovation. When one considers the trouble that many of our icons have run into in recent years, it is not easy to surmise that Drucker's advice would have perhaps helped management to avoid the problems they face today.

Ironically, David Packard of Hewlett-Packard fame once observed that "marketing is too important to be left to the marketing people." But as the years rolled on, rather than learn about marketing and innovation, executives started to search for role models instead of marketing models.

Tom Peters probably gave this trend a giant boost with the very successful book he co-authored, In Search of Excellence. Excellence, as defined in that book, didn't equal longevity, however, as many of the role models offered there have since foundered. In retrospect, a better title for the book might have been In Search of Strategy.

More recently, the popular method-by-example book has been Built to Last by James Collins and Jerry Porras. In it, they write glowingly about "Big Hairy Audacious Goals" that turned the likes of Boeing, Wal-Mart Stores, General Electric, IBM and others into the successful giants they have become.

The companies that the authors of Built to Last suggest for emulation were founded from 1812 (Citicorp) to 1945 (Wal-Mart). These firms didn't have to deal with the intense competition in today's global economy. While there is much you can learn from their success, they had the luxury of growing up when business life was a lot simpler. As a result, these role models are not very useful for companies today.

There is a growing legion of competitors coming at new businesses from every corner of the globe. Technologies are ever changing. The pace of change is faster. It is increasingly difficult for CEOs to digest the flood of information out there and make the right choices.
But a CEO can have a future.

The trick to surviving out there is not to stare at the balance sheet but simply to know where you must go to find success in a market. That's because no one can follow you (the board, your managers, your employees) if you don't know where you're headed.

How do you find the proper direction? To become a great strategist, you have to put your mind in the mud of the marketplace. You have to find your inspiration down at the front, in the ebb and flow of the great marketing battles taking place in the mind of the prospect. Here is a four-step process to pursue:
Step 1: Make Sense In The Context
Arguments are never made in a vacuum. There are always surrounding competitors trying to make arguments of their own. Your message has to make sense in the context of the category. It has to start with what the marketplace has heard and registered from your competition.
What you really want to get is a quick snapshot of the perceptions that exist in the mind, not deep thoughts.
What you're after are the perceptual strengths and weaknesses of you and your competitors as they exist in the minds of the target group of customers.
Step 2: Find The Differentiating Idea
To be different is to be not the same. To be unique is to be one of its kind.
So you're looking for something that separates you from your competitors. The secret to this is understanding that your differentness does not have to be product related.
Consider a horse. Yes, horses are quickly differentiated by their type. There are racehorses, jumpers, ranch horses, wild horses and on and on. But racehorses can be differentiated by breeding, by performance, by stable, by trainer and so forth.
Step 3: Have The Credentials
There are many ways to set your company or product apart. Let's just say the trick is to find that difference and then use it to set up a benefit for your customer.
To build a logical argument for your difference, you must have the credentials to support your differentiating idea, to make it real and believable.
If you have a product difference, then you should be able to demonstrate that difference. The demonstration, in turn, becomes your credentials. If you have a leak-proof valve, then you should be able to have a direct comparison with valves that can leak.
Claims of difference without proof are really just claims. For example, a “wide-track” Pontiac must be wider than other cars. British Air as the “world’s favorite airline” should fly more people than any other airline. Coca-Cola as the “real thing” has to have invented colas.
You can’t differentiate with smoke and mirrors. Consumers are skeptical. They’re thinking, “Oh yeah, Mr. Advertiser? Prove it!” You must be able to support your argument.
It's not exactly like being in a court of law. It’s more like being in the court of public opinion.
Step 4: Communicate Your Difference
Just as you can’t keep your light under a basket, you can't keep your difference under wraps.
If you build a differentiated product, the world will not automatically beat a path to your door. Better products don't win. Better perceptions tend to be the winners. Truth will not win out unless it has some help along the way.
Every aspect of your communications should reflect your difference. Your advertising. Your brochures. Your Web site. Your sales presentations.
There's a lot of hogwash in corporate America about employee motivation. Brought to you by the "peak performance" crowd, along with their expensive pep rallies.
The folks who report to you don't need mystical answers on "How do I unlock my true potential?" The question they need answered is, "What makes this company different?"
That answer gives them something to latch on to, and run with.

Aiming for excellence

10/29/2007 Daily Journal


When Tom Peters wrote "In Search of Excellence" with Robert Waterman 25 years ago, "excellence" became a mantra in much of the business world.The book's litany of characteristics of successful companies - close to the customer, a bias for action, autonomy and entrepreneurship, to name a few - were repeated, studied and emulated in companies large, small and in between and became a part of the common business lexicon.National Public Radio named "In Search of Excellence" one of the three most influential business books of the 20th century, and it opened the market to a whole new business literature that took the focus off strategy, budgets and numbers and put it on people -employees and customers. It really was a harbinger of a shift in American business.Peters, who has spent the quarter century since its publication writing and consulting, was in Tupelo last week, still preaching his message that successful businesses are essentially about one thing: Releasing the creative talents and energy of people in the service of others.He appeared at the kickoff of the corporate fundraising campaign for HealthWorks!, a children's interactive health education center under development at the old Kroger building in Gloster Creek Village. The center, scheduled to open in fall 2008, is patterned after the original in South Bend, Ind., which was featured for its highly creative and innovative approach in a 2004 television production by Peters.Long-term plansPeters urged the Tupelo audience not to settle for making incremental progress in childhood obesity, which he described as the most serious problem facing the country. Why not think big - make this a model for the country by turning around not just Northeast Mississippi's obesity problem, but the entire state's.Don't settle for small progress or comparing yourself only to the rest of the state, he said. Aim higher. Tupelo's past achievements suggest it should be thinking in those terms, he said.It was more than inspirational rhetoric. Peters has a point - not just for HealthWorks!, but for any community or regional undertaking.Whether in health care, public education, economic development, neighborhood revitalization, downtown rejuvenation or any of a myriad of other common undertakings, Tupelo and Northeast Mississippi shouldn't settle for good enough, or even better than most in the state. World-class is the vision that will produce results that will be remembered.This community and region have been best when they aimed highest - the Wellspring site, for example. Peters points out that risk-taking and big thinking brings the criticism and debunking of the naysayers, as that project surely did. Yet had the region's leaders not thought big and taken risks, there would have been no Toyota.Communities, like businesses, need to be constantly reinventing themselves. And, like businesses, the best communities are those that unleash their people to stretch the limits of their imaginations.Pie in the sky? Only to those who haven't seen it work because they've never tried it.

Why it is important to write motivational books

October 10 2007: Recently, American motivational speaker Tom Peters was in Kenya. Participants paid as much as Sh80,000 each to listen to him. That shows you how important motivation is. Whatever we do, either as individuals or business leaders, we need words of encouragement, of inspiration, of hope. Enthusiasm is growing worldwide on motivating through books. It’s so easy these days I have written one myself. It’s called Write that Story. But is it fair that people are fed ‘guides,’ ‘revision texts’ or ‘how to’ books, which, essentially are typically spiced up with common sense instructions and manuals on how to get good grades in school, or how to get a partner, or how to turn a struggling business into a Microsoft?Does motivation really work? Do motivational books play a major role in management? Does successful management depend on the level of motivation? Who should write a motivational book? All good biographies are motivating. One of the first books I ever read was Legson Kayira’s I will Try. It tells the personal story of a young man who, desperately in search of higher education, achieved the unbelievable feat of trekking across Africa. Kayira, a village boy in the remote heartland of what is now Zimbabwe, had won a scholarship to a British university. He had a plane ticket, but the nearest airport was in Cairo, over 2,000 kilometres from the southern African republic. After his studies, Kayira returned to his motherland and became a cabinet minister.Kayira’s story is characteristic of many high achievers and successful managers: relentless, go getting, determined, committed, visionary, unwavering. Managers constantly need a shoulder to lean on; they are frequently inspired by certain personalities or literatures that talk about high achievers in management. Today, for example, the story of acclaimed neuro-surgeon Ben Carson, as told in his books, Gifted Hands and Think Big, easily inspires 21st century managers everywhere to try and reach greater heights.So, what propels people to buy or write motivational books? One, they are often based on real life stories, hence there is a high level of reality in them. Two, they are easy to read. The ideas are arranged in simple, clear language. Like things you need to remember for an examination. The examination here ranges from life and death, to successful sales versus poverty or business failure. And that is why, more than anything else, they are embraced by managers, who are geared towards achieving tangible results. Another characteristic of these books is that they are written in an easy-to-understand, self help style. Mastery of communication skills is paramount. They list what are called ‘essential characteristics that make you and your business succeed. Nowadays, motivational books and motivational speakers poke at you from every corner like street banners and billboards. From evangelists to successful business people, the focus is on how you can manipulate your own attitude, your beliefs, your likes, to become a full blown business magnate in your own corporation, oiling your wheels with unmatched excellence.Their authors are best-seller prophets of success and achievement in today’s world of global cut throat competition. They are champions of a sizzling, red hot modern day industrial revolution that seeks to make everyone aim high.Debate on management has since shifted from the confines of boardrooms, academia, and consultancies to a broader, worldwide audience. After religion, motivation is top of the book sales chart in many surveys.Nearly all managers have one such book or other on their table at any one time. The late Peter Drucker, for instance, wrote more on this topic and his ideas have withstood the test of time. And Tom Peters, a consultant, columnist, seminar lecturer and stage performer has infused his energy, style, influence, and ideas to significantly shape our perception of management.And educators, too, have lurched into the motivation business, pushing students to conquer their own fears in order to achieve higher level performance. Did someone say motivation comes from within? No. It is now possible to become what Dave Durand calls a “Legacy Achiever.”They teach a form of ‘learned optimism, that success is a choice, that individuals can determine their own destiny without having to die first. That we should not be helpless in the face of defeat. That setbacks are challenges. Psychologists Martin Seligman sheds light on why optimists are the ones who succeed in life and provides real-world advice and worksheets to help you become an optimist. That attitude is everything, and that if we learn to change our attitude, we can not only change our lives, but the whole world as well. Now, that’s as much music to the average desperado as it is to managers who want to outwit the competition, to turn rejection into direction, as John Fuhrman puts it , and that you can be ‘anything you want.’With titles such as The Power of the Subconscious Mind, these kinds of books are hugely popular with managers, because they dwell on things that cannot be located in an organization’s structure. That is, they dwell on matters of the soul and spirituality. Suffice to say though, that there are certain psycho-social aspects of management that ought to make use of the material contained in spiritually motivating books.Counselling as part and parcel of management cannot ignore these books. Management, in an organisation follows a certain path of success. That is, there are people who act as role models to managers. Hence, it is only natural that managers read about people they regard as their mentors. There are all sorts of books like The Secrets of Success, or Create The Business Breakthrough You Want, which contains articles, biographies and videos of renown business leaders. It is through such readings that managers learn about ideas that their mentors have previously used to climb the ladder to success.Effective human resource management is not possible without an aspect of motivation. Firms hire motivational speakers to inspire employees. A dull workforce can easily compromise the productivity of an organisation. Employees who are not inspired cannot cultivate teamwork. As a manager, it is important to focus on inspiration levels of employees in order to ensure that teamwork and efficiency is maintained at all levels.At another level, motivational books are very crucial in enhancing an employee’s self esteem. Managers are interested in a workforce that can deliver results with minimum supervision. An independent employee usually has high self esteem. There are a lot of books which tell people how to build a strong sense of self esteem; an organisation whose employees have low self esteem cannot be as productive as projected by the management.Motivational Management: Inspiring Your People For Maximum Performance, by Alexander Hiam emphasizes the need to motivate employees to deliver the best results. This kind of book, if well used, can give a manager tips on how to improve the performance of an organisation by establishing certain motivational techniques such as praise, monetary compensation or long service awards. Vision is an important aspect of management, so the secret emphasizes the need to visualize continuous and consistent steps towards achieving one’s desires in life. Such a book can easily enable managers to keep on track, their organisation’s vision by continuously visualizing its goals and objectives.Motivational books also teach decision-making and how to make accurate and timely decisions. A book such as The Six Most Important Decisions by Sean Covey is useful for managers. Almost a rule book, it gives tips and provides a model that has been replicated in many organisations.An organisation adopts a certain behaviour depending on the style of management.A behaviour is something that an organisation has to work on for some time in order to entrench it. There are certain motivational books that specifically focus on aspects of behaviour that lead to effectiveness in management or life in general. For instance, The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People by Stephen R.Covey, one of America’s most sought after speakers and consultants, is in this category of motivational books.The style of management in an organisation informs the behaviour of its employees hence it is crucial that managers adopt a style that informs good behaviour. Literature that focuses on desired behaviour is crucial to an organisation’s effective management. They can be used to shape an organisational behaviour that is desirable. At another level, such material is useful in management counselling. Such books are used by management counsellors to beef up their skills and techniques.A manager whose views are always antagonistic to those of the other employees is likely to bring down an organisation. This kind of behaviour can emanate from personal background challenges among other factors. However books such as The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Pearle can easily change mannerisms and perceptions of wayward managers. This book is a perfect model for behaviour change: some organizations are known to have a rigid management style that impedes rapid progress. It is evident that literatures that focus on positivity are vital to managers who have a problem with perception particularly with regard to an organisation’s challenges. Take for instance an organisation that is debt-ridden: a manager with a pessimistic attitude can make a firm crumble. On the other hand, managers who never say die, who always believe that something good will eventually surface are an asset to an organisation, since they keep it afloat even when things seem to be falling apart. And if books dwelling on positive thinking cannot be ignored in a management set-up, neither can we as individuals ignore them.Motivational books are part and parcel of management function. A poorly motivated workforce has no chance of survival and that is why organizational training cannot be complete without motivation. As managers, we must read to know and act in the best interest of the organisation. If books cannot motivate managers and employees to ensure high productivity, what will?The point is that it is not just top sportsmen and women, or Nobel prize winners, or former presidents, who can write How to be like me stories. Everyone has a story. And that includes you. - (BD, 10 Sep 07)