Comments

Hi Tom

Well done on the 30 years and I've found much of what you have taught me via your books very useful in setting up a successful software company.

I have another angle though - which is that I despair of the effect that most business is having on our planet now. It's far, far worse than it was 30 years ago.

And I now believe that business is unstoppable - it'll keep going and going until something on the planet really, really gives.

And so, looking at your list, what concerns me is that you are giving a message that encourages this growth but says nothing about the side effects - the externalities - the plundering of a planet.

So I guess my challenge to you is about the next 30 years - can we stop the devastation produced by Capitalism and particularly the companies you advise?

Do you see any grounds for optimism - or are we going to ride this train to The End?

And I mean The End?

Best Wishes

Mike

Posted by Mike Bennett at October 27, 2006 9:13 AM

Mike:
Capitalism saves the planet; the countries that are the most ecologically sound are the one's that are the most economically vibrant and developed.

Capitalism innovates. I don't have exact numbers here, but the number of cars have increased by a factor of "x" since my childhood, but the emissions have increased by a factor of 1/10th "x". Air conditioners, refrigerators, etc., etc., etc. are all much more energy efficient and the innovations keep coming.

My company (Panasonic) for example has built a house in Tokyo using innovative technologies that give off virtually zero greenhouse gases.

There's too much to go into here, but my main point is that of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" ; namely, "don't panic."

Posted by Neil Connolly at October 27, 2006 9:51 AM

Hi Tom

Happy birthday... It is no accident that you have been such a good "ideas salesman" for the past thirty years. You are very good at what you do because you work so very hard on being "relevant" to everyone in your audience (readers, seminar participants, corporate workshops, etc). Being "relevant", as you know all too well, does not mean you seek agreement, group think, mindless followers, etc rather it means you challenge people to think! You challenge us all to think our own thoughts and come to our own conclusions about what you have to say. It is the least we (your audience) can do given how hard you work on our behalf to cull ideas and then to present us with a select few aimed at waking us up from our "group think" stupor. For me the salesman Tom Peters (for I know little or nothing about you the man) is and slways has been a prophet of optimism. Tom Peters the salesman is sad sometimes, frustrated some times, angry some times, defiant some times BUT he is always challenging each of us to be the very best we can be. His message over the past thirty years distills down to this. Each of us should know for certain that our very best is very good. Tom the "showman" (as I like to call you Tom) is out there working his butt off trying to provoke us to be our best today and even better tomorrow.

If we all can just be our best then the world will overcome all the big issues today and it will be a better place for all humanity to share tomorrow.

Tom, stay well and have fun!

Richard.

Posted by Richard Lipscombe at October 27, 2006 10:09 AM

Mike,

I agree that the planet "can't take much more of this abuse, Captain" but Excellence Always (and the rest of Tom's messages) don't necessarily preclude population reduction - and in my view it is this action which will achieve the end we desire.

Rick

Posted by Rick at October 27, 2006 12:26 PM

We've posted an analysis of Tom's list and their relevancy to small and medium-sized enterprises here:

http://twoscenarios.typepad.com/maneuver_marketing_commun/2006/10/tom_peters_and_.html

Posted by Mike Smock at October 27, 2006 3:53 PM

Tom,

“C.R.O./Chief Revenue Officer. Sell! Sell! Sell!”
C. R. O.! What a great way to say it.
An I bet I know another Tom who would
have loved it just as much as you:
Thomas “Nothing-Happens-Until-Something-Is-Sold” Watson.

John

Posted by ShakespearesFool at October 27, 2006 5:09 PM

Tom, I agree with you. I love it when business owners say they are not sales people.

Every meeting you go into, there are unknowns. Your heart races, you forget hunger and thirst and you are in the zone. 100% focused on the client. intently listening to every word.

It is a great process! Personally, I feel my energy lift in a sales process no matter the size of the deal.

I have to say, the greatest satisfaction though for me, comes from delivering results which the client did not expect.

Posted by Steve at October 27, 2006 11:15 PM

"B-Schools suck. Teach all … except what's important"

Tom, this quote from you bought back memories of Late London Business School professor Sumantra Goshal. In an article titled "Bad Management Theories are destroying good management practices" , which he wrote a few weeks before his death, he had to say this:

"Business schools do not need to do a great deal more to help prevent future Enrons; they need only to stop doing a lot they currently do. They do not need to create new courses; they need to simply stop teaching same old one's. But, before doing any of this, we - as business school faculty- need to own up to our own role in creating Enrons. Our theories have done much to strengthen the management practices that we are all now so loudly condemning".

Posted by Namith at October 28, 2006 12:21 AM

Namith - thank you, that is a wonderful quote. That is a great example of looking first at ourselves and accepting responsibility for what we create. Where that sort of ethical behaviour exists at the top in business the Enron type of episode does not happen. Sumantra Goshal is not a name I am familiar with - I will do my research - thanks again.

Posted by Trevor Gay at October 28, 2006 9:38 AM

Failure = Normal = Good. ("Reward excellent failure. Punish mediocre success." "Fail faster. Succeed sooner." "Fail. Forward. Fast.")..
I happened to read this in the current series of "Essentials"..guess i am making this a mantra for my leadership role...

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Love the way Tome makes management feel!!!

Posted by Pinak at October 28, 2006 9:56 AM

Effective sales require an imagination environment.

Prospects need to taste the promise before they buy the product. But all too often, salesmen try to create a sales environment...

Jay, from Bangalore

Posted by Jayakumar Hariharan at October 28, 2006 11:12 AM

buddy! i'm troubled by your salesman's bag, simply because i'll always have to do something! anything! not less than wow.

thanks for troubling me :P

Posted by shohra at October 28, 2006 3:21 PM

B-Schools = suck | D-School = cool

So whats a 4th year JD/MBA to do? If I'm not a student at Stanford to take advantage of the d.school; and didn't know about the integrative approach that Roger Martin has introduced at Rotman; and thought that b-school would provide me a channel to businees design and innovation instead of industrial design school...suddenly I feel like I've spent a lot of time and money to define my passion and long-term career goals and now b-schools suck and I've got a generic degree that my soon-to-be alma mater is desperately trying to devalue with an increased focus on executive/part-time students. What can I do going forward to craft a story and position myself to be a part of this movement? I'm smart enough to know that IDEO, et al. are not going to hire me this Spring when I graduate...

Posted by Matt at October 28, 2006 3:22 PM

Waiting for antibiotics to work (chest infection! its must be autumn!), simply everything changes and we change with it here's to your next 30years of changes, well done you....

Posted by Patrick at October 30, 2006 10:34 AM

Hi Matt,

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I'm kind of approaching this from the other way around, a designer needing to know business stuff. I recently graduated from Central St.Martins (UK) MA Design Studies where a few of my classmates had MBA's, M-Consultants from Accenture and Deloitte were in your position, I've spoken to a fair few business design firms, generally speaking the language of business is invaluable, however Minto's Pyramid doesn't cut it as a problem solving tool in that it doesn't really handle the soft stuff or bridge the think-do (dream-think-do!) gap too well... Integrated thinking as I understand it is systems thinking (rebranded), which has currency in the design world in solving complex non-linear problems. Design thinking on top of deductive/inductive reasoning is valued too, but so long as you can help get clients to the future first by whatever means necessary, that's always good position to be in.

Ps. Might be worth speaking to Stanford on the off chance...

Posted by Rachel Dorrell at October 30, 2006 9:45 PM