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115+ Works 7,678 Members 63 Reviews 6 Favorited

About the Author

Tom Peters, public speaker and author, graduated from Cornell University and received a M.B.A. and Ph.D. from Stanford University. He has also received honorary doctorates from the University of San Francisco and Rhodes College. He was in the U. S. Navy during Vietnam and later served as a senior show more White House drug abuse advisor (1973-74). He worked for McKinsey & Company from 1974 to 1981. He holds about 75 seminars a year and has created and starred in a series of corporate training films. He is the co-author of In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies, which was a New York Times bestseller for three years. This book and subsequent titles have become bestsellers in Europe, Latin America and Asia. Peters contributes to several newspapers and journals, including writing a bimonthly column for Forbes ASAP. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Allison Shirreefs

Series

Works by Tom Peters

Re-imagine! (2003) 540 copies
The Pursuit of Wow! (1994) 484 copies
The Tom Peters Seminar (1994) 313 copies
Pasion Por La Excelencia (1987) 10 copies
Excellence Now (2012) 9 copies
Super Projet (2001) 6 copies
En busca del boom (1995) 5 copies
Tom Peters Live (1991) 3 copies
L'entreprise libérée (1993) 3 copies
Sixty (2005) 2 copies
Tænk nyt (1998) 2 copies
Prosperare sul caos (1989) 1 copy
Credibility 1 copy
INNOVAR O DESAPARECER (2008) 1 copy

Associated Works

The Leadership Challenge (1987) — Foreword, some editions — 2,486 copies
Moments of Truth (1989) — Foreword — 213 copies
The Lovemarks Effect: Winning in the Consumer Revolution (2006) — Contributor — 39 copies

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Legal name
Peters, Thomas J.
Birthdate
1942-11-07
Gender
male
Nationality
USA
Birthplace
Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Places of residence
Ithaca, New York, USA
Washington, D.C., USA
Education
Cornell University (B.A. civil engineering ∙ 1965)
Cornell University (1966)
Stanford University (M.B.A.)
Stanford University (Ph.D)
Occupations
naval officer
senior drug-abuse advisor
management consultant
independent consultant
Organizations
United States Navy (1966-1970)
The White House (1973-1974)
McKinsey & Company (1974-1981)
Awards and honors
honorary doctorate, State University of Management, Moscow, 2004
British Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) as one of the world's Quality Gurus., 1990
Short biography
Peters was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He went to Severn School for High School and attended Cornell University, receiving a bachelor's degree in civil engineering in 1965, and a master's degree in 1966. He then studied business at Stanford Business School, receiving an M.B.A. and Ph.D.. In 2004, he also received an honorary doctorate from the State University of Management in Moscow.

From 1966 to 1970, he served in the United States Navy, making two deployments to Vietnam as a Navy Seabee, then later working in the Pentagon. From 1973 to 1974, he worked in the White House as a senior drug-abuse advisor, during the Nixon administration. Peters has acknowledged the influence of military strategist Colonel John Boyd on his later writing.

From 1974 to 1981, Peters worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, becoming a partner and Organization Effectiveness practice leader in 1979, and then in 1981, he went solo and became an independent consultant.

In 1990, Tom Peters was honoured by the British Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) as one of the world's Quality Gurus.
Without much doubt, Peter Drucker and Tom Peters have shaped the idea of modern management more than any others over the last six decades. Drucker is said to have "invented" management as a discipline worthy of study—in particular, he gave management of large firms the essential tools to deal with their post-World War II enormity, complexity, and growing global reach. Tom Peters, in turn, led the way in preparing management for the current era of staggering change, starting in the mid-1970s.

Members

Reviews

Tom put his heart into this as his capstone book. Displayed in an energetic design, his most important concepts come in rapid-fire format. The main point, over and over, is that leadership is about caring for your people, the ones who make it happen, and the customers they serve.
 
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jpsnow | 1 other review | Feb 12, 2023 |
Interesting, and I think I learned a few things. But there was way too much of the book focused on women as a market. Actually liked Barletta's chapters better than Peters's.
 
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MarkLacy | 1 other review | May 29, 2022 |
Not everyone is going to like Peters' style, and I'm not sure I do either. But he had many important things to say in this book, and I found it very helpful. I also recommended it to people at work.
 
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MarkLacy | 2 other reviews | May 29, 2022 |
I'm so not a fan of stream of consciousness writing, but there are exceptions to every rule and Tom Peters is one. What he says appeals to me. For example: Tom says the 4 most important words are: “What do you think?” I've been saying for years those are the four most important words! He also says: “How are we doing?” [to the customer]. Four more good words. Snippets; staccato thoughts; wisdom nuggets. Where Peters's early works tended to the pedantic, his later material has been distilled to just the points. And, as I said, it appeals to me.

Biggest takeaway:
EXCELLENCE is not an “aspiration.” Excellence is the next five minutes.

Obvious, right? Anyway, selected highlights, my comments in [brackets]:

If you agree with the above [listening is important], shouldn’t listening be . . . a Core Value?
“We are Effective Listeners – we treat Listening EXCELLENCE as the Centerpiece of our Commitment to Respect and Engagement and Community and Growth” – or some such
[Again, obvious, and yet the only time I've ever known "listening" to be an evaluation factor was in kindergarten and first grade.]

What about Listening?
Or negotiating?
Or hiring?
Or promoting?
Or giving help?
Or asking questions?
Or expressing appreciation?
Or …
All these latter items, and many more such as “giving help” and “apologizing” and “conducting meetings’” are what managers … DO FOR A LIVING. Each of these arenas are vital to leaders’ effectiveness—or ineffectiveness!
And on meetings...
Meetings are #1 thing bosses do. Therefore, 100% of those meetings [should have]:
EXCELLENCE.
ENTHUSIASM.
ENGAGEMENT.
LEARNING.
TEMPO.
[be a] WORK-OF-ART.
How many ineffective meetings have I sat through? Worse, how many ineffective meetings have I been responsible for? (I tried to not have them, but I'm sure I have contributed to the problem.)

[We all hear "service" as a core value]
Organizations exist to serve.
Period.
Leaders exist to serve. Period.
Service is a beautiful word.
Service is character, community, commitment.
(And profit.) [For private sector, obviously]
Service is a beautiful word.
Service is not “Wow.”
Service is not “raving fans.”
Service is not “a great experience.”
Service is “just” that –
SERVICE.
[Period}]

[And his Twitter-world summary]:
In Search of Excellence basics in 127 characters including quotation marks and spaces:
“Cherish your people, cuddle your customers, wander around, ‘try it’ beats ‘talk about it,’ pursue excellence, tell the truth.”
[Peters is big on Hewlett Packard's "Management by wandering around." (MBWA) I adapted that for me as "Management by walking about" because while I can wander, I usually do it with some purpose.}
… (more)
 
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Razinha | 1 other review | Oct 27, 2021 |

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Statistics

Works
115
Also by
15
Members
7,678
Popularity
#3,174
Rating
½ 3.7
Reviews
63
ISBNs
309
Languages
17
Favorited
6

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