Comments

'Apology' unnecessary – our gratitude is all that is required. Have a rest Tom.

Posted by Trevor Gay at November 17, 2007 7:12 PM

I don't even know you well and I thought your apology unnecessary. Sounds like you need a cuddle. I note your have a lovely Susan to do that :)

I so like the picture of the tree; in fact you offer a really pleasurable set of images from your travels. Nice to have these because I think they inform more about culture and attraction that many commercial sets do.

Posted by Susan Plunkett at November 17, 2007 8:00 PM

Susans are the best! I think the wonderful gnarled tree may be one of those 2,000-year-old olive trees.

Posted by tom peters at November 18, 2007 1:20 AM

It's a lovely tree.

I have been longing to buy one of Carol Drinkwater's books. There is a lovely mystery about her site but the love of the olive trees and the product shines through. Life after acting as an author and olive producer (with husband of course) :):

http://www.caroldrinkwater.com/

Posted by Susan Plunkett at November 18, 2007 5:13 AM

Tom-thanks. Libson is an absolute gem and a favorite stop for me. Hope you had some time to get out, look around and get a bite.

Posted by Kurt Wendelken at November 18, 2007 7:27 AM

Lately this blog has been a little light on substance and a little heavy on fluff. Instead of Dr. Peters' rants and insights we are treated to a steady diet of pictures of all the cool places he is in this week as well as constant bragging about his "insane" travel schedule. What's the point? Tom, do you remember back in about 2004 when you decided blogging was pretty much the new mandatory thing for everyone who wanted to be successful? What happened? This stuff lately just bores me. Same with the slides. I've been seeing mostly the same slides in each presentation since '04. Just because you keep putting them in different packages doesn't make them new. Just my opinion. And for a guy who preaches "destroy it and build something new" you spend a lot of time trumpeting the fact that In Search of Excellence has been around for 25 years.

Posted by just sayin at November 19, 2007 10:06 AM

No apologies necessary....Tom visits places I probably will never see....except for Tom's
insights. Whatever is posted is extremely worthy...after 35+ years of business...
from owner to multi-national's....consulting...
former military.....what Tom evangelizes is what
makes the difference whether it is Search of Excellence...to ReImagine.
This is "real stuff"

Posted by Jim Baker at November 19, 2007 10:43 AM

just sayin. I recall at school having a science teacher who would give the same spiel week 2 day 3 (et al) each year and he'd been doing that for years. No prep any more just delivering the material.

I'm sympathetic to the point yet, sometimes, individual people do seem to arrive at a formula that stands the test of time. When this happens it's going to be difficult doing major re-vamps. It's rather like showing a Shakespeare play a thousand times and then knowing about the best you can do to present differently is to change the context even though the message will stay the same.

Now, this said, if you feel there are short falls in any person's schema then point them out. I'm sorry to say it but I don't really know Tom and that's because I'm coming into the commercial work from academe (and not advertising or marketing). However, I do know another marketer's work very well and I believe their global concept (so to speak) is wanting in some areas. So, you can either pursue evolution (and potentially hearing different things) through pointing out problematics and/or where a schema appears to fail et al.

If you can't detect that in what Tom expresses to the world then you're probably likely to hear similar things frequently.

The message "destroy and create something new" is one of those messages that is perhaps unlikely to [need to] change a lot albeit I would not support change just for the sake of it.

I might ask, how can change evolve when people are holding on so desperately to field ownership?

(Sorry for typos in my posts)

Posted by Susan Plunkett at November 19, 2007 1:33 PM