Tom Peters - The Circle of Innovation

PRAISE FOR TOM PETERS

In no small part, what American corporations have become is what Peters has encouraged them to be.

The New Yorker

PRAISE FOR
THE CIRCLE OF INNOVATION
from Amazon.com readers

Simply the best business book I have read, seen or experienced.

Oviedo, Florida

Pure value and insight for every person in the economy. If you want to know how to prepare yourself for the future then get this book.

Chicago, Illinois

One of the best five books I have EVER read.

Woodstock, New York

[A] clear, fresh & provocative book. Re-read it once finished. The style of this book is really fresh, concepts are clear and extremely provocative.

Barcelona, Spain

If you are serious about succeeding in business in the 1990s, and beyond, then you must read this book. It is virtually a blueprint to success!

Toronto, Canada

If you havent read a good business book recently, make this the one you take the time to read!

Cincinnati, Ohio

This is another WOW book. Peters delivers content in a form that breaks all book rules, using a plethora of P. T. Barnum pizzazz.

Culver City, California

Tom Peters is the philosopher-king of business! YEAH!!! I cheered aloud as I read.

San Francisco, California

In Search of Excellence

(with Robert H. Waterman, Jr.)

A Passion for Excellence

(with Nancy Austin)

Thriving on Chaos

Liberation Management

The Tom Peters Seminar

The Pursuit of WOW!

For
Susan * Donna * Ken
Sonny * Herb * Larry * Ian
Whose integrity and appetite for life
epitomize the message of this book.

Whatever made you
successful in the past
wont
in the future.

Lew Platt, chairman and CEO,
Hewlett-Packard

Its the end of
the world
as we know it.

Peter Georgescu, chairman and CEO,
Young & Rubicam

on time, on budget who cares anon.

Phil Danielsjob, company unknownattended a seminar I presented in Sydney, Australia. He offered this trenchant advice: Reward excellent failures. Punish mediocre successes.

Its 1999. Traffic on the internet doubles every 100 days or so. Bandwidth to the home is expanding exponentially. And the White Collar Revolutionso long in comingis accelerating toward us. What occurs between now and 2009 will make the last ten years of downsizing and re-engineering look like pocket change. The way I figure it, once we get down pat the installation of PeopleSoft and SAPs enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, nine out of ten conventional white collar jobs will evaporate.

(Exaggeration? Think about the state-of-the-art lights out distribution center or the modern Midwestern farm compared to the distribution center or family farm of 1925, or even 1950. The grunt laborers havebasicallydisappeared. In general, the similarities are nil. And meanwhile todays accounting shop looks and works about the same as that of Ebenezer Scrooge and Bob Cratchit 150 years ago except for the fluorescent lights and SPARCStations which have replaced candles and quill pens.)

All of this is terrifying and, to me, empowering. Gone is BigCo.s lifetime job security. Gone are career ladders with 17 rungs of middle management. We are, in short, on our own!

We must re-invent ourselvesnow that the white collar robots are beginning to absorb the office dreary-work, just as the blue collar robots now do the heavy lifting. We must renew and renew and renew again. Age 27. Age 57. We must stand for something something distinct. We must make an impact a mark and keep remaking it. We mustallgrow. Learn. Innovate.

Career counselors? Empowerment programs? Forget em. Thats my advice! Empowerment? Yup. As in: EMPOWER YOURSELFNOWOR ELSE.

Which brings me back to Phil Daniels. How is that project of yours going? Will you remember itwith pride and joythree years from now? One year from now? Or will it be J.A.M.S. just another mediocre success?

Bottom line 99: Its a uniquely lousy time to be racking up mediocre successes. Since The Circle of Innovation appeared, my closest colleagues and I have been wrestling with the following question: WHAT IS ESSENTIAL NO. 1 FOR INNOVATION PERSONAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL?

We think we have anthe?answer. Namely: the WOW Project! It is the essence of Brand You (see et seq.) which inspired this book on innovation in the first place.

The WOW Project! The projectsmall or largeremembered a year from now, maybe five years from now. The project that matters that attacks head on the somnolent culture. You/me: We are our projects (and the portfolio thereof, over time). Bosses: Your unit is its projects (the portfolio thereof, over time). Sooooooo how many of those projects are clear cut WOWs? How many will wind down to un-memorable mediocre successes?

After a late 1998 seminar, a prominent CEO of a huge financial services company pulled me aside. You really got to me with your mediocre success riff, he said. We are an information systems company. And yet how many IS [information systems] projects take on a life of their own, lose their WOW, to use your term? The answer, Im afraid, is Damned near all of them.

Well, hes got one word very right: afraid. I fear for all of usGod knows, starting with mewho allow our projects to wind down, to take on a life of their own, to s-l-o-w-l-y de-WOW and become mediocre successes.

My passion for innovation / WOW / crazy / liberationthe de facto titles of my last four booksis soaring. I hope you will consider using the pages that follow as a pump primer, an un-gentle nudge, a fire/conflagration starter. Ive been pleased and flattered by the number of unit or company chiefs whove told me that they took intact four or five chapters from the book and used them as relaunch vehicles for their unit/company strategies.

To quote, in effect, from the last chapter of the book: The time is at hand to live out loud. How about: JUST SAY YES TO LOUD LIVING AND PROJECTS THAT WOW! JUST SHOUT NO TO MEDIOCRE SUCCESSES. HAPPY 2000!

Tom Peters / West Tinmouth, Vermont / 11-20-98

Businesssuccessful businessis more visceral than cerebral. If we study what others do, we may find ways to read markets, but we will never discover ways to lead them.

Tom Peters is more visceral than cerebral. He feels business in his gut. I dont mean to ignore his doctorate from Stanford, his years in McKinseys ivory tower, or his enormous contributions to management theory and practice, beginning with the publication of In Search of Excellence.

But what distinguishes Tom is this: passion and passionate energy. He moves when he sees opportunity. He hurts when he sees mediocrity. He exults when he sees innovation.

Tom is a friend. A few months ago, he invited me to one of his trademark seminars in Detroit. I had read his books, worked with him on business problems, dined with him, bantered with him as friends often do. In our case, given the global nature of our travel schedules, the banter is frequently electronic.

While I watched him in Detroit, I was reminded of evangelists. Like them, Tom is transforming peoples lives. Like them, he conveys profound and passionate beliefs. And, like them, he heals. While evangelists use the power of the spirit to heal the body, Tom uses the power of ideas to transform business.