dispatches from the new world of work

Excellence 2007

You'll notice a new banner at tompeters.com today. 2007 is the 25th anniversary of the publication of In Search of Excellence. Thus the Excellence25 logo on the right side of the banner with the years 1982-2007 running along the bottom. Our focus is not so much a celebration of the book, as much as a celebration of the idea of Excellence, which, as Tom said in his post of 29 December, is as potent today as it was when he first presented it. To that end, this is the first of what we hope are a dozen or more banners from our friend, designer Ken Silvia (he's the man behind the red exclamation point), exploring Excellence. We feel that the banner images convey the timelessness and power of Excellence. We hope you think so, too.

Erik Hansen posted this on 01/05/07.

Comments

1. Perfect Erik - tuning to Design is SO now & important

2. A Banner with Design features is the ultimate - wonderful reminder of art, beauty, heavenliness

3. Hey wait a minute - the man on the left has about the most pronounced temple vein that ever was - and the man in the center is far too fit-looking & handsome!

Posted by sean_designer at January 5, 2007 11:05 AM

Erik - Would be good to see the new banner but sorry to say nothing showing on my screen. Just a solid red block with no image.

Posted by Trevor Gay at January 5, 2007 12:30 PM

Nice banner, but can someone help me, "Who are the people at the top of the page?". Are they famous or something?
(Lemme guess - [l-r] Deming, Kenny G's cousin Lenny and Joni Mitchell)!
Or are they "Net People"? You know, those generic, smiling, usually eyes closed, looking down Internet models which seem to populate every other web page.
Red is big right now!

Posted by Jack at January 5, 2007 1:30 PM

Jack, I'll bet these individuals represent your customers. They come is all shapes, sizes, ages, colors, and genders.

Posted by Craig at January 5, 2007 1:33 PM

I think the guy in the middle is Sean.

Posted by Mike at January 5, 2007 1:37 PM

Trevor, PC or Mac, what operating system, what browser, and maybe we can help you if you're still not seeing the banner.

Posted by Erik Hansen at January 5, 2007 3:48 PM

I think this isn't too tangential, since the subject is Tom's first claim to fame. And anyone can answer this one...

I've been trying to find the origins of the phrase, "Better to seek forgiveness than ask permission", and I've only seemed to find it attributed to two entities -- "conventional wisdom", and Tom Peters.

So, did he coin the phrase, popularize it, or neither?

Posted by Joe Marier at January 5, 2007 10:46 PM

The new banner is elegantly effective and inspiring. Can't wait to tune in for the rest.

Posted by Rick T. at January 6, 2007 12:54 AM

Trevor - same here. The banner is visible on the home page but not on this page.

Congratulations Tom and team for those rocking 25 years of excellence!

Posted by VK Narayanan at January 6, 2007 3:02 AM

Hi Erik - Happy New Year!

My operating system is Windows. I cannot see any image on EITHER Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox browser. I am using PC not mac.

VK says banner 'is visble on home page' but I have Blog as home page - is there another 'home page' I should be looking if so can you or VK provide link and I will check that?

Posted by Trevor Gay at January 6, 2007 8:53 AM

Joe: Alas, not me.

Posted by tom peters at January 6, 2007 9:53 AM

Joe, the quote ("It's easier/better to ask for forgiveness than to get permission") has been attributed to everyone from the Jesuits to the Marines (assuming they're different organizations) as well as to Grace Hopper (Wikipedia) and to Tom (who at the very least has most popularized it). Your request nicely demonstrated the quote, by the way.

Posted by John O'Leary at January 6, 2007 9:53 AM

VK and Trevor, the new banner appears at the top of the home page, www.tompeters.com, which, trevor, is the blog. the new banner does not appear at the top of any of the other underlying pages, such as this comments page. Trevor, what version of Windows?

Posted by Erik Hansen at January 6, 2007 12:13 PM

Thanks, Tom, and John. I hope I didn't take up too much of your time...

Posted by Joe Marier at January 6, 2007 12:16 PM

Hi Erik - Windows XP

Posted by Trevor Gay at January 7, 2007 7:47 AM