Talk with Tom"Celebrate what you want to see more of." Tom Peters
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When we began the Cool Friends section of tompeters.com waaaay back in 1999, the idea was to highlight some of the business (primarily) thinkers who influenced Tom, and whom he often quoted in his slide presentations. As Tom wrote in an earlier intro to this page, "I've long seen much of my role as reading and digesting–and reframing and translating–the work of others I admire ... It's not just that I stand on the shoulders of giants. Rather, I am their mouthpiece, their medium ... "
Initially we just listed the titles of books and then later on we began interviewing these authors as well, to get a fuller picture of the person behind the book. There's no particular agenda here, just books we like. Books that have influenced Tom or books that we think reflect what we like to call 'Tom-World.' Tom may pick up a book in an airport on his way to a flight and if he likes it, he'll call in and say, "Make so and so a Cool Friend." Or someone may send in an email saying "Just read a really good book. You ought to make the author a Cool Friend." (Or a publisher or a PR firm sends along a book ... but, well, actually we rarely interview the authors of those books.) We love the fact that the term Cool Friend means something to our audience. A lot of folks would say, "Well, once you call someone 'cool' they're no longer cool. And that may be true in the rest of the world, but over here in this little corner of the Internet, a 'cool' idea is still pretty cool. And as Tom has said, "if I get one idea from a book I've paid $20 for, that's quite a deal."
We hope these conversations continue to be helpful to you.
The team:
Interviews by Erik Hansen mostly, with a couple by Shelley Dolley
Produced and edited by Shelley Dolley and Cathy Mosca
Cool Friends are listed in the order of newest to oldest.
Click here if you would prefer alphabetical order.
Dan Coyle (No.2)
Author of The Talent Code and The Little Book of Talent: 52 Tips for Improving Your Skills
Posted on 12/17/2012
George Kohlrieser
Author of Hostage at the Table and coauthor of Care to Dare
Posted on 10/29/2012
Francis Gouillart
Francis Gouillart is the co-author (with Venkat Ramaswamy) of The Power of Co-Creation: Build It With Them To Boost Growth, Productivity and Profits
Posted on 02/17/2011
Bill Taylor (No. 2)
Bill Taylor is the author of Practically Radical
Posted on 01/19/2011
Kevin Kelly
Kevin Kelly is the author of What Technology Wants
Posted on 01/06/2011
Richard Pascale
Richard Pascale is coauthor of The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World's Toughest Problems.
Posted on 12/02/2010
Stephen Shapiro (No. 2)
Author of Personality Poker: The Playing Card Tool for Driving High-Performance Teamwork and Innovation
Posted on 11/16/2010
Sally Helgesen (No. 3)
Coauthor of The Female Vision: Women's Real Power at Work
Posted on 10/21/2010
Maddy Dychtwald
Coauthor of Influence: How Women's Soaring Economic Power Will Transform Our World for the Better
Posted on 09/17/2010
James Strock
Author of Serve to Lead: Your Transformational 21st Century Leadership System
Posted on 08/17/2010
Anna Bernasek
Author of The Economics of Integrity: From Dairy Farmers to Toyota, How Wealth Is Built on Trust and What That Means for Our Future
Posted on 07/19/2010
Ed Schein
Organizational culture consultant and author of Helping: How to Offer, Give, and Receive Help
Posted on 05/24/2010
Joy Panos Stauber
Creative Director & Designer for Stauber Design Studio
Posted on 04/22/2010
Bill Warner
Serial entrepreneur who founded Avid and Wildfire, he now works with nonprofits including FutureBoston and Move With Freedom, and helps entrepreneurs with start-ups.
Posted on 03/24/2010
Garrison Keillor
Host of Public Radio's A Prairie Home Companion and author of many books, most recently A Christmas Blizzard
Posted on 12/11/2009
Robert Waterman
Coauthor of In Search of Excellence, and author of The Renewal Factor, Adhocracy, and What America Does Right: Learning from Companies That Put People First
Posted on 11/17/2009
Hal Movius
Author of Built to Win: Creating a World-Class Negotiating Organization
Posted on 10/08/2009
Tara Hunt
Author of The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business
Posted on 09/08/2009
Kathleen Colson
Executive director of the BOMA Fund, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that works to develop new opportunities for education, capacity-building, and entrepreneurial innovation in northern Kenya
Posted on 08/21/2009
John Kador
Author of Effective Apology: Mending Fences, Building Bridges, and Restoring Trust
Posted on 07/10/2009
George Whalin
Founder of Retail Management Consultants and author of Retail Superstars: Inside the 25 Best Independent Stores In America
Posted on 06/16/2009
Diane Hessan
President and CEO of Communispace, one of the fastest growing social networking companies in the U.S.
Posted on 05/29/2009
Matthew May
Author of In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing
Posted on 05/19/2009
Dan Coyle
Author of The Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born. It's Grown. Here's How.
Posted on 04/29/2009
Chris Brogan
Coauthor, with Julien Smith, of Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust
Posted on 03/26/2009
Nick Morgan
Communications coach and author of Trust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma
Posted on 03/04/2009
Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten
Coauthors of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time: What They Say, Why They Matter, and How They Can Help You
Posted on 02/11/2009
David Meerman Scott
Author of World Wide Rave: Creating Triggers that Get Millions of People to Spread Your Ideas and Share Your Stories
Posted on 01/19/2009
Martin Lindstrom
Chairman of Buyology Inc., New York, and BRAND sense Agency, London, and author of Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy
Posted on 12/11/2008
Guy Kawasaki
Entrepreneur, blogger, and author of Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition
Posted on 11/19/2008
Debbie Weil
Author of The Corporate Blogging Book: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know to Get It Right
Posted on 11/03/2008
Norm Brodsky
Coauthor of The Knack: How Street-Smart Entrepreneurs Learn to Handle Whatever Comes Up
Posted on 10/02/2008
Howard Mann
A founder of Sideshow Digital and author of Your Business Brickyard: Getting back to the basics to make your business more fun to run
Posted on 09/15/2008
Richard Thaler
Professor of Economics and Behavioral Science at the Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago, and coauthor of Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness
Posted on 08/26/2008
Dan Ariely
Professor of Behavioral Economics at Duke University and author of Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions
Posted on 07/11/2008
Stephanie Palmer
Author of Good in a Room: How to Sell Yourself (and Your Ideas) and Win Over Any Audience
Posted on 06/13/2008
Steve Yastrow (No. 2)
Founder of Yastrow & Co. and author of We: The Ideal Customer Relationship
Posted on 05/15/2008
Fred Krupp
President of the Environmental Defense Fund and coauthor of Earth: The Sequel—The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming
Posted on 04/11/2008
Rowan Gibson and Peter Skarzynski
Coauthors of Innovation to the Core: A Blueprint for Transforming the Way Your Company Innovates
Posted on 03/26/2008
Dan Roam
Dan Roam is the founder and president of Digital Roam Inc., and the author of
The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures
Posted on 03/13/2008
Michael Hiam
Author of Who the Hell Are We Fighting? The Story of Sam Adams and the Vietnam Intelligence Wars
Posted on 02/28/2008
Ron Crossland
Coauthor of The Leadership Experience: From Individual Success to Organization Significance
Posted on 02/20/2008
Rosabeth Kanter
Former editor of Harvard Business Review and author of America the Principled: 6 Opportunities for Becoming a Can-Do Nation Once Again
Posted on 02/01/2008
Dan Hill
Founder of Sensory Logic, Inc., and author of Body of Truth and Emotionomics: Winning Hearts and Minds
Posted on 01/16/2008
Stephen Bayley (No. 2)
Well-known authority on design and coauthor with Terence Conran of Design: Intelligence Made Visible
Posted on 12/31/2007
Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore
Co-founders of Strategic Horizons LLP and coauthors of Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want
Posted on 12/20/2007
Vicki Donlan
Founder of Women's Business Boston and author of Her Turn: Why It's Time for Women to Lead in America
Posted on 11/23/2007
Matthew Kelly
Founder and president of Floyd Consulting and author of The Dream Manager
Posted on 11/09/2007
Brett Farmiloe and Zach Hubbell
Pursue the Passion: Brett Farmiloe and Zach Hubbell are on a roadtrip to find people passionate about their work along with Jay Whiting and Noah Pollack
Posted on 10/26/2007
Alex Kjerulf
Chief Happiness Officer and author of Happy Hour is 9 to 5: How to Love Your Job, Love Your Life, and Kick Butt at Work
Posted on 10/11/2007
Bill Raeder
President of National Braille Press, a nonprofit Braille publishing company
Posted on 09/26/2007
Marti Barletta (No. 2)
Founder/CEO of The TrendSight Group and author of PrimeTime Women™: How to Win the Hearts, Minds, and Business of Boomer Big Spenders
Posted on 09/13/2007
Penelope Trunk
Author of Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success
Posted on 08/06/2007
Sylvia Hewlett
President of the Center for Work-Life Policy and author of Off-Ramps and On-Ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success
Posted on 07/20/2007
Mark Hurst
Founder of the user experience consulting firm Creative Good and author of Bit Literacy: Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail Overload
Posted on 07/10/2007
Seth Godin (No. 3)
Marketing guru and author of nine books, the latest of which is The Dip: The Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)
Posted on 06/14/2007
Stephen Bayley
Coauthor of Life's a Pitch ... How to Be Businesslike with Your Emotional Life and Emotional with Your Business Life
Posted on 05/23/2007
Dave Freedman
Coauthor of A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder—How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices, and On-the-Fly Planning Make the World a Better Place
Posted on 05/09/2007
Women Gurus Network
Sally Helgesen, Marti Barletta, and Susan Willett Bird speak about Women Gurus Network, the consortium of female gurus they have founded
Posted on 04/25/2007
Robyn Waters
Founder of consulting firm RW Trend and author of The Hummer and the Mini: Navigating the Contradictions of the New Trend Landscape
Posted on 03/23/2007
Don Tapscott
Founder of think tank New Paradigm and coauthor of Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything
Posted on 03/13/2007
Dan Heath
Coauthor with his brother, Chip, of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
Posted on 03/02/2007
Rod Beckström
Co-founder of Global Peace Networks and coauthor of The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations
Posted on 02/22/2007
Mary Brown
Coauthor with Carol Orsborn of BOOM: Marketing to the Ultimate Power Consumer—the Baby Boomer Woman
Posted on 01/29/2007
Andrea Learned
Coauthor of Don't Think Pink and author of the blog Learned on Women and e-book 9 on Marketing
Posted on 01/10/2007
Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell
Authors of Creating Customer Evangelists and Citizen Marketers: When People Are the Messageand the blog Church of the Customer
Posted on 12/29/2006
John Maeda
Founder of the Simplicity Consortium at the MIT Media Lab and author of The Laws of Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life
Posted on 12/13/2006
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Maxine Clark
Founder, Chief Executive Bear, and Chairman of Build-A-Bear Workshop® and author of The Bear Necessities of Business: Building a Company with Heart
Posted on 11/15/2006
Mary Pipher
Author of Writing to Change the World
Posted on 10/27/2006
Bill Taylor and Polly LaBarre
Coauthors of Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win
Posted on 10/12/2006
John Wood
Author of Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children
Posted on 10/03/2006
Bob Tomasko
Author of Bigger Isn't Always Better: The New Mindset for Real Business Growth
Posted on 09/20/2006
John Moore
Author of the Brand Autopsy blog and Tribal Knowledge: Business Wisdom Brewed from the Grounds of Starbucks Corporate Culture
Posted on 09/13/2006
Seth Godin (No. 2)
Author of Small Is the New Big
Posted on 08/16/2006
Robin Wolaner
Founder of Parenting magazine and author of Naked in the Boardroom: A CEO Bares Her Secrets So You Can Transform Your Career
Posted on 07/12/2006
Joseph Finder
Author of Killer Instinct, Company Man, Paranoia, and more
Posted on 06/21/2006
Fred Reichheld
Author of The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth
Posted on 06/06/2006
Jeffrey Pfeffer
Coauthor, with Bob Sutton, of Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management
Posted on 05/23/2006
Catherine Kaputa
Author of U R a Brand! How Smart People Brand Themselves for Business Success
Posted on 05/09/2006
Jeff Angus
Author of Management by Baseball: The Official Rules for Winning Management in Any Field
Posted on 04/25/2006
Daniel Nissanoff
Author of FutureShop: How the New Auction Culture Will Revolutionize the Way We Buy, Sell, and Get the Things We Really Want
Posted on 04/12/2006
Kathryn Cramer
Coauthor of Change the Way You See Everything Through Asset-Based Thinking
Posted on 03/28/2006
Robert Scoble
Author of the scobleizer blog and coauthor of Naked Conversations
Posted on 02/28/2006
Aubrey Daniels
Chairman of Aubrey Daniels International and coauthor of Measure of a Leader: An Actionable Formula for Legendary Leadership
Posted on 02/22/2006
Patricia Ryan Madson
Author of Improv Wisdom: Don't Prepare, Just Show Up
Posted on 02/15/2006
Robert Coram
Author of Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War
Posted on 02/08/2006
Ze Frank
Artist, consultant, teacher, humorist, and maker of "stuff"
Posted on 02/01/2006
Bo Burlingham
Author of Small Giants: Companies That Choose to be Great Instead of Big
Posted on 01/25/2006
Steve Shapiro
Author of Goal-Free Living
Posted on 01/04/2006
Edward Castronova
Author of Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games
Posted on 12/20/2005
Dave Balter
Founder of BzzAgent and coauthor of Grapevine: The New Art of Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Posted on 12/14/2005
Eric Jackson
Author of The PayPal Wars: Battles with eBay, the Media, the Mafia, and the Rest of the Planet
Posted on 12/07/2005
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Ray Kurzweil
Renowned futurist and author of The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology
Posted on 11/28/2005
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Eamonn Kelly
Author of Powerful Times: Rising to the Challenge of Our Uncertain World
Posted on 11/16/2005
John Gartner
Author of The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (a Little) Craziness and (a Lot of) Success in America
Posted on 11/08/2005
Tom Kelley (No. 2)
General Manager of IDEO and coauthor of The Ten Faces of Innovation
Posted on 10/25/2005
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Sally Hogshead
Author of Radical Careering : 100 Truths to Jumpstart Your Job, Your Career, and Your Life
Posted on 10/18/2005
Fara Warner
Author of The Power of the Purse: How Smart Businesses Are Adapting to the World's Most Important Consumers—Women
Posted on 10/07/2005
Rajesh Setty
Author of Beyond Code: Learn to Distinguish Yourself in 9 Simple Steps
Posted on 09/18/2005
Lior Arussy
Author of Passionate and Profitable: Why Customer Strategies Fail and Ten Steps To Do Them Right
Posted on 08/17/2005
Donald Sull
Author of Made In China: What Western Managers Can Learn From Trailblazing Chinese Entrepreneurs
Posted on 07/17/2005
Jason Fried
Founder and president of 37signals and coauthor of Defensive Design for the Web
Posted on 07/01/2005
Dennis Littky
Co-director of the Big Picture Company and director of The Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center in Providence, R.I.
Posted on 06/17/2005
Richard Florida
Author of The Rise of the Creative Class and The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent
Posted on 05/02/2005
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Lisa Johnson
Coauthor of Don't Think Pink: What Really Makes Women Buy—And How to Increase Your Share of This Crucial Market
Posted on 04/26/2005
Dan Pink (No. 2)
Author of A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age
Posted on 04/18/2005
Steve Yastrow
Author of Brand Harmony: Achieving Dynamic Results by Orchestrating Your Customer's Total Experience
Posted on 04/05/2005
Bill Birchard
Author of Nature's Keepers: The Remarkable Story of How the Nature Conservancy Became the Largest Environmental Organization in the World
Posted on 03/28/2005
Jean Lipman-Blumen
Author of The Allure of Toxic Leaders: Why We Follow Destructive Bosses and Corrupt Politicians—and How We Can Survive Them
Posted on 03/14/2005
David Wolfe
Coauthor of Ageless Marketing: Strategies for Reaching the Hearts and Minds of the New Customer Majority
Posted on 02/02/2005
Sharon Whiteley
Sharon Whiteley, CEO of ThirdAge and coauthor of The Old Girls' Network
Posted on 01/20/2005
Lou Carbone
Lou Carbone, author of Clued In: How To Keep Customers Coming Back Again and Again
Posted on 11/08/2004
Rolf Jensen
Rolf Jensen, author of The Dream Society: How the Coming Shift from Information to Imagination Will Transform Your Business
Posted on 09/16/2004
Kevin Roberts
Author of Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands
Posted on 08/24/2004
Martha Barletta
Author of Marketing to Women: How to Understand, Reach and Increase Your Share of the World's Largest Market Segment
Posted on 08/12/2004
Steve Farber
Author of The Radical Leap: A Personal Lesson in Extreme Leadership
Posted on 06/01/2004
Jonas Ridderstråle and Kjell Nordström
Coauthors of Karaoke Capitalism: Management for Mankind
Posted on 04/27/2004
Michael Silverstein
Coauthor, with Neil Fiske, of Trading Up: The New American Luxury
Posted on 03/08/2004
Kenny Moore
Coauthor of The CEO and the Monk: One Company's Journey to Profit and Purpose
Posted on 02/16/2004
Virginia Postrel
Author of The Substance of Style
Posted on 02/13/2004
Howard Rheingold
Author of Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution
Posted on 11/24/2003
Carol Morgan
Coauthor, with Doran J. Levy, Ph.D., of Marketing To The Mind Set Of Boomers And Their Elders: Using Psychographics And More To Identify And Reach Your Best Targets
Posted on 07/08/2003
Richard Farson
Coauthor of Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins: The Paradox of Innovation
Posted on 02/10/2003
Veronique Vienne
Author of The Art of Doing Nothing: Simple Ways to Make Time for Yourself
Posted on 11/12/2002
Scott Bedbury
Author of A New Brand World: 8 Principles for Achieving Brand Leadership in the 21st Century
Posted on 09/30/2002
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Cynthia Froggatt
Author of Work Naked: Eight Essential Principles for Peak Performance In The Virtual Workplace
Posted on 07/19/2002
David Weinberger
Author of Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web
Posted on 05/28/2002
Eliot Levine
Author of One Kid At A Time: Big Lessons From A Small School
Posted on 05/14/2002
Robert Sutton
Author of Weird Ideas That Work: 11 1/2 Practices for Promoting, Managing, and Sustaining Innovation
Posted on 04/08/2002
Sally Helgesen (No. 2)
Author of Thriving in 24/7: Six Strategies for Taming the New World of Work
Posted on 03/15/2002
Tim Sanders
Author of Love is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends
Posted on 02/19/2002
Jane Jacobs
Author of The Nature of Economies and The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Posted on 02/04/2002
Sam Culbert
Coauthor of Don't Kill the Bosses! Escaping the Hierarchy Trap
Posted on 10/25/2001
Dan Pink
Author of Free Agent Nation
Posted on 10/01/2001
Pat McLagan
Author of Change Is Everybody's Business and coauthor of The Age of Participation
Posted on 09/15/2001
Judy Rosener
Author of America's Competitive Secret: Women Managers
Posted on 09/01/2001
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Helen Fisher
Author of The First Sex
Posted on 07/03/2001
Stan Davis
Author of Future Wealth
Posted on 06/18/2001
Paco Underhill
Author of Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping
Posted on 05/21/2001
Ronna Lichtenberg
Author of It's Not Business, It's Personal
Posted on 05/03/2001
Deborah Tannen
Author of You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation
Posted on 04/24/2001
Jordan Ayan
Author of Aha!—10 Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit and Find Your Great Ideas
Posted on 03/30/2001
Susan Willett Bird
The founder and Chief Futurist of Wf360
Posted on 03/07/2001
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Ed Michaels
Former leader of McKinsey & Company's War for Talent Practice and coauthor of The War for Talent
Posted on 02/16/2001
Tom Kelley
General Manager of IDEO, and author of The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm
Posted on 02/02/2001
Rosamund Zander and Benjamin Zander
Authors of The Art of Possibility
Posted on 01/22/2001
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Sally Helgesen
Author of The Web of Inclusion: A New Architecture for Building Great Organizations
Posted on 12/18/2000
J.C. Herz
Author of Joystick Nation: How Video Games Ate Our Quarters, Won Our Hearts, and Rewired Our Minds
Posted on 12/01/2000
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Seth Godin
Author of Unleashing the Ideavirus
Posted on 11/06/2000
David Maister
Author of Managing the Professional Service Firm
Posted on 10/15/2000
David Kelley
Founder and CEO of IDEO, one of America's premier design firms.
Posted on 09/21/2000
William Bridges
Author of Creating You & Co: Learn to Think Like the CEO of Your Own Career
Posted on 09/15/2000
Harriet Rubin
Author of Soloing: Realizing Your Life's Ambition
Posted on 08/26/2000
Faith Popcorn
Coauthor of EVEolution
Posted on 06/26/2000
Micklethwait & Wooldridge
Coauthors of A Future Perfect
Posted on 06/12/2000
Chris Locke
Coauthor of The Cluetrain Manifesto
Posted on 05/25/2000
Jane Applegate
Entrepreneur and author of 201 Great Ideas for Your Small Business
Posted on 03/22/2000
Jesper Kunde
Author of Corporate Religion
Posted on 01/29/2000
Michael Schrage
Author of Serious Play
Posted on 01/05/2000