Words matter. These are the best Tom Peters Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
I don’t read many business books. I read good fiction. Business is about people, so my favorite business books are anything by Dickens.
Design is so critical it should be on the agenda of every meeting in every single department.
‘In Search of Excellence’ was an afterthought, the runt of the McKinsey consulting litter, a hip-pocket project that was never supposed to amount to much.
I endorse a lot of people – sometimes people say I endorse too many books. And my response has always been the same: If I can get one case study that can give me one good idea that I can implement for $25, or for these days one-third of that on Kindle, I’ve gotten a very good deal.
Give a lot, expect a lot, and if you don’t get it, prune.
‘In Search of Excellence’ – even the title – is a reminder that business isn’t dry, dreary, boring, or by the numbers. Life at work can be cool – and work that’s cool isn’t confined to Tiger Woods, Yo-Yo Ma, or Tom Hanks. It’s available to all of us and any of us.
Vision is dandy, but sustainable company excellence comes from a huge stable of able managers.
I had no idea what I was doing when I wrote ‘Search.’ There was no carefully designed work plan. There was no theory that I was out to prove.
Community organizing is all about building grassroots support. It’s about identifying the people around you with whom you can create a common, passionate cause. And it’s about ignoring the conventional wisdom of company politics and instead playing the game by very different rules.
Statistically and emotionally, I believe that the way I can be of help to society is by doing what I know and what I’ve been good at.
Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing.
The best leaders… almost without exception and at every level, are master users of stories and symbols.
One simply cannot pay tribute to Stephen Covey without saying at the outset that he was a lovely human being.
I think economics is about passion. Economic progress, whether it is a two-person coffee shop or whether it is Netscape, is about people with brave ideas. Because it is brave to mortgage the house, when you’ve got two kids, to start a coffee shop.
Mittelstand companies are incredibly focused and almost always family-run. The young men and women go through the apprenticeship system and learn that the goal is excellence.
The simple act of paying positive attention to people has a great deal to do with productivity.
As a consumer, you want to associate with brands whose powerful presence creates a halo effect that rubs off on you.
A passive approach to professional growth will leave you by the wayside.
Today brands are everything, and all kinds of products and services – from accounting firms to sneaker makers to restaurants – are figuring out how to transcend the narrow boundaries of their categories and become a brand surrounded by a Tommy Hilfiger-like buzz.
My problem is not that I see all 17 sides of any issue, but I’m equally passionate about all 17 sides simultaneously.
Anybody who is an entrepreneur is a person who essentially has impaired judgment. The odds of success are zilch.
My problem is not that I see all 17 sides of any issue, but I’m equally passionate about all 17 sides simultaneously.
Communication is everyone’s panacea for everything.
Business book writing for me is when some set of ideas gets stuck in my mind, I write a book about it. I haven’t got a theory and I haven’t got a framework.
I know it sounds crazy, but you’ve got to let what you’re going to do find you, rather than you pursuing it.
Leaders understand the ultimate power of relationships.
If your company has a clean-desk policy, the company is nuts and you’re nuts to stay there.
Communication is everyone’s panacea for everything.
Test fast, fail fast, adjust fast.
The top athletes are consummate pros who work obsessively at their craft. Approach yours the same way.
One simply cannot pay tribute to Stephen Covey without saying at the outset that he was a lovely human being.
Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing.
Business is about people. It’s about passion. It’s about bold ideas, bold small ideas or bold large ideas.
Remember my mantra: distinct… or extinct.
Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, manufacturing… layout, processes, and procedures.
All white-collar work is project work. The single salient fact that touches all of our lives is that work is being reinvented.
The whole secret to our success is being able to con ourselves into believing that we’re going to change the world because statistically we are unlikely to do it.
For the blue-collar worker, the driving force behind change was factory automation using programmable machine tools. For the office worker, it’s office automation using computer technology: enterprise-resource-planning systems, groupware, intranets, extranets, expert systems, the Web, and e-commerce.
One of the biggest problems of ‘In Search of Excellence’ is that it focused on giant, publicly-traded companies. There are thousands upon thousands of excellent companies. Some of them are two-person accountancies in a community of three thousand people.
The whole secret to our success is being able to con ourselves into believing that we’re going to change the world because statistically we are unlikely to do it.
Statistically and emotionally, I believe that the way I can be of help to society is by doing what I know and what I’ve been good at.
If you really want to kill morale, have layoffs every two months for the next two years.
One of the biggest problems of ‘In Search of Excellence’ is that it focused on giant, publicly-traded companies. There are thousands upon thousands of excellent companies. Some of them are two-person accountancies in a community of three thousand people.
The simple act of paying positive attention to people has a great deal to do with productivity.
Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me, Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.
The workplace revolution that transformed the lives of blue-collar workers in the 1970s and 1980s is finally reaching the offices and cubicles of the white-collar workers.
Leaders understand the ultimate power of relationships.
‘In Search of Excellence’ – even the title – is a reminder that business isn’t dry, dreary, boring, or by the numbers. Life at work can be cool – and work that’s cool isn’t confined to Tiger Woods, Yo-Yo Ma, or Tom Hanks. It’s available to all of us and any of us.
I think it’s wonderful to save the world, but you need to be part of the world, too.
Business book writing for me is when some set of ideas gets stuck in my mind, I write a book about it. I haven’t got a theory and I haven’t got a framework.
‘In Search of Excellence’ was an afterthought, the runt of the McKinsey consulting litter, a hip-pocket project that was never supposed to amount to much.
I don’t read many business books. I read good fiction. Business is about people, so my favorite business books are anything by Dickens.
Give a lot, expect a lot, and if you don’t get it, prune.
As far as I’m concerned, the first business leader who was able to establish a cult of personality around his tenure was Lee Iacocca.
Everyone has a chance to learn, improve, and build up their skills.
I think economics is about passion. Economic progress, whether it is a two-person coffee shop or whether it is Netscape, is about people with brave ideas. Because it is brave to mortgage the house, when you’ve got two kids, to start a coffee shop.
The top athletes are consummate pros who work obsessively at their craft. Approach yours the same way.
Business is about people. It’s about passion. It’s about bold ideas, bold small ideas or bold large ideas.
If you’re not confused, you’re not paying attention.
Good managers have a bias for action.
