Event Slides

Tom speaks to the World Financial Group in Las Vegas, NV, 30 July and 31 July 2004.

Offing Health Care Again

The entire health care establishment has been slow to jump aboard the IS train. Though it's starting to get better. At any rate, for a great discussion-review of the topic see this week's U.S. News & World Report's "Special Report," titled "A High Dose of Tech." The lead line is a quote from HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson: "Some grocery stores have better technology than our hospitals and clinics." I'd disagree. I'd have said "most grocery stores ..." Needless to say, there's a high correlation between this issue and the criminal patient-safety statistics I blogged about a couple of days ago. Perhaps I'm super sensitive about this because I'm considering some minor elective surgery: Who in their right mind would voluntarily go near the Killing Fields ... umm ... hospitals?

On the Other Hand

Let there be (health care) kudos as warranted: It's a "little thing," but then most great "customer service" is an accumulation of so-called little things. I had an interview with a prospective surgeon. Upon finishing an exam, he prepared to discuss his hypotheses about my options. "Why don't you get dressed first," he said, "and then we'll sit down in my office." I enquired why I needed to add the extra steps of dressing and going to his office. "Well," he explained, "I have you at a disadvantage when I'm in my white coat and you're half-naked, in a gown, and splayed out on a table. When you're dressed, and I've taken off the white coat, then we can have a professional discussion as equals about your case. After all, it is your case." How refreshing! How rare! (In general, and especially among docs-surgeons!) How brilliant!

Speaking of Health and Wellness ...

I offered my views on wellness in a long blog last week. I revealed that I'd bought the Whole Act about the importance of good breathing practices. (Wow do they work, on the fly, in stressful situations! And the great news—you always have it with you! Your breath, that is.) At any rate I have discovered a brilliant book on the topic, the best I've read so far. Namely, Free Your Breath, Free Your Life, by Dennis Lewis (Shambhala, 2004). No dogmatism. No mysticism. Practical, do-able practices. TP: Learn to breathe! Get a life!

Europe, Reeling

You think the Chinese boom has us (USA) on the run, pity poor Europe. That's the view of Yale B. School dean and BusinessWeek columnist Jeffrey Garten. "Europe: Staring Into the Abyss" is the title of his screed in the August 2nd issue of BW. Later in the same issue, there's another gloomy piece titled "Productivity Paralysis: If Europe Doesn't Boost Spending on Tech, It Will Fall Further Behind." Sky-high wages, miniscule work weeks, interminable vacations, and still recalcitrant unions in "Old Europe" are not a pretty mixture as true globalization—from Shanghai to Bangalore to Prague—picks up steam.

You Must Read ...

I love Mark Stevens' Your Marketing Sucks. (I admit it, I start by loving the title.) Clear language. Strong point of view. Actionable as the dickens. And ... extreme. (My favorite word.) "Extreme Marketing" is the author's mantra. Book came at the perfect time for me. I'm having a knock-down, drag-out tiff with the CEO of a mid-size company over whether or not he needs a fulltime CMO/Chief Marketing Officer. I say yes ... unequivocally. He says "others" (unspecified) can "pick up pieces of your precious marketing thing." I say he's full of crap. I am a champion of inspired, intense, radical marketing—for the one-person accountancy, or mega-corp. I have at least one surprisingly new convert-ally: GE CEO Jeff Immelt just hired that firm's first "CMO." Hooray. (And ... 'bout time.)

You Must Keep Reading ...

Ever read the magazine-journal Foreign Affairs? As pragmatic businessperson, not statecraft aficionado, I suggest you do. Consider the July-August issue. It starts with editor James Hoge's "A Global Power Shift in the Making: Is the United States Ready?" Which in turn ominously begins: "The transfer of power from West to East is gathering pace and soon will dramatically change the context for dealing with international challenges—as well as the challenges themselves." Other good stuff includes a remarkable piece by BP* CEO (and pro environmentalist!) John Browne: "Beyond Kyoto." Starting point: "Global warming is real and needs to be addressed now." (*In their new logo, BP now stands for "Beyond Petroleum." P.S.: Skepticism merited? Of course. But I 90% buy their act.)

Pens, Swords, Etc.

On my studio wall is a framed card that reads, "The pen is mightier than the sword, but nothing compares with the vocal chords." Four days of gavel-to-gavel convention watching have reminded me, a professional speaker, of the difference between bad, mediocre, good, and great speechifying. There was a lot of "not nearly ready for prime time" dross ... and some truly magical moments. I'm also reminded that although I am an avowed "action fanatic," ideas do matter. Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton both said the 2004 election is a "battle for the soul of the nation." Obviously, they'd both like you to vote for John Kerry, but the point is that this vote is, whatever your political persuasion, about a turning point concerning nothing less than the idea of what America is all about.

PENS, SWORDS, VOCAL CHORDS

More Barack Obama: Loved his phrase "audacity of hope." As in: "the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs ... the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name [Barack Obama] who believes that America has a place for him, too." Audacity of Hope ... NICE!

Bonjour, Best Seller

A French economic advisor's tongue-in-cheek attack on corporate culture went largely unnoticed when published in May. Corinne Maier's Bonjour Paresse (Hello Laziness) is subtitled The Art and Necessity of Doing the Least Work Possible for Your Employer, and her employer is not amused. The author's upcoming disciplinary hearing has both the press and the unions coming to her defense. One U.K. article calls the book "an elegantly written call to arms to the 'neo-slaves' of middle management ... condemned to dress up as clowns all week and waste their lives in pointless meetings." (If you parlez francais, this article in Ici will tell you more.) Mme. Maier's next book may well be Bonjour, Reprint: The Art of Letting Your Employer Prove You Were Right.

Tagging Credit

Infineon believes its break-through idea on RFID technology will create sand grain sized tags soon. Which means everything could be tagged. So you enter a shopping mall ... pick up all the stuff you want ... leave the shopping mall and NEVER STOP AT CHECK-OUT. The info on the smart tags immediately uploads to a server which itemizes your purchases, distributes the info to the various stores, and accesses your credit card verification. Ooopps. That is if you have credit card verification. While I love this technology, it does mean the digital divide is increasingly becoming a financial divide. The divide used to mean having enough money for a computer and access. It now may mean having enough credit.

Young folks struggle to manage credit. Over 1.6 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy last year. This doesn't take into account the 1.2 billion or so on the planet below the poverty level.

Some claim this type of technology will enable a leveling of the literacy field. But what about the financial field? Love to hear from some of you about this.

Barney's to Buddha ... WOW!

Opening October 2, the Rubin Museum of Art will turn a darkened Barney's in Chelsea to what the New York Times calls "a glittering showcase for a reclusive spiritual art from the other end of the earth." As the story goes, Donald Rubin, businessman and collector of Himalayan art, noticed the vacant building while stalled in a cab and immediately decided to turn it into a museum like no other. Six years later, this gift to curious minds should garner lots of good karma for Mr. Rubin.

A Pox

A pox on (almost) all their houses!
Republican or Democrat (or Naderite—de facto Republican), November's election is important. And the Conventions are important, absence of drama notwithstanding. Thus I'm with PBS's Jim Lehrer who on Sunday ripped the three "major" (quote marks increasingly merited) networks for granting only an hour a night to live convention coverage. Whoops, a pox on Mr. Lehrer's house, too—at exactly 11:00PM Monday night, PBS cut President Clinton off mid-sentence. That cost them any 2004 Pledge Week $$$ from me, for one. As to the "almost" in my first line of this comment ... hats (way) off to C-SPAN's gavel-to-gavel coverage, which also mercilessly saves us from the ceaseless drone of talking-head commentators.

Not For Everybody!

We all start our journeys toward Greater Awareness as a result of a unique set of circumstances that capture us and turn us toward action at a particular point in time—and not a moment before. My first inclination is not to share. But, I am compelled to write a little something—in case I happen to catch a single soul in the place I was five weeks ago. Read this: Tom's Summer of Soul.

Ye Gads!

Did you ever think you'd see the day when a news headline (07.26.2004) reads, "AT&T Said to Be Takeover Target." KKR/Kolberg, Kravis, Roberts is teaming up with ex-ATT execs to line up a possible bid for the firm. Hard to disagree with Newsweek's summary: "Being taken over by a financial operator like KKR would mark the final fall of [AT&T]." The battering—and fall—of the mighty continues at an unprecedented pace. If you want more of my (strong) views, see the "Destruction Imperative" chapter in my latest book, Re-imagine!

Web Bible

There will doubtless be updates in the world of Internet research, but for now Tara Calishain has written the "bible." Moreover, the lucid and jargon-free style of Web Search Garage means that amateur searchers-researchers like me can benefit immensely. This is not theory: I've known Calishain for years, and used her services continuously; she is the Master! (Note: Her book is coming out Mid-August.)

Coca-Cola in Jerusalem

After arriving in Israel the other day, one of the first things I saw in a newspaper was a full page ad by the Coca-Cola company thanking the Israeli public for naming Coke as the #1 most recognized brand in the country. My reaction: Who cares?

If you've even been within 5 feet of my book, Brand Harmony, you know I think that awareness is the most over-rated branding characteristic. I'm much more interested in the depth of meaning people have for products—and for other things—than I am interested in whether people can recall a product name. Awareness is a much more remote indicator of action than passion is.

Of course people know Coke's name—duh! But in a place that is full of passions, opinions, rich cultures, debates and, yes, zealotry, it seems silly to waste time even acknowledging that lots of people are aware of Coke. Wouldn't it be more interesting to know what products are compelling, not just ubiquitous?

I Know a Good Speech ...

I know a good speech when I hear one. Namely the Democratic Convention keynote by Illinois Senate candidate Barack Obama (text at obama2004.com). The content may or may not have been to your taste depending on your politics, but as a Work of Art there is not much dispute, I shouldn't think. Clear and compelling theme. Perfect pitch. Connection with the immediate and distant audience. Humor and self-deprecation. Memorable stories. Phrases that uplift. Timing to die for. Reminds me of Randy Johnson's "perfect game." By 11 p.m. pundits of the left and right alike were envisioning Obama as the first African-American in the White House. I can buy that, but I'm just as interested in the prospective date for the first woman in the White House. Will I live to see it?

I Know Bad News ...

I know bad news when I read it. I am furious with pols of all stripes that almost 50 million citizens of earth's richest country have no health insurance. I'm furious that the "medical establishment" continues to focus on fixing broken things (you and me) rather than on prevention and wellness. But all that pales by comparison to my outrage at our biggest and most intimate industry (health care) ignoring the ABCs of quality control. Yesterday's news included a report from Denver-based HealthGrades, which revealed that between 2000 and 2002 there were 195,000 hospital deaths per year in the U.S. from preventable medical errors, making such errors (the equivalent of 390 jumbo jets a year going down fully loaded) the 3rd leading cause of death in the U.S. behind heart disease and cancer. Earlier studies, such as one in 1999 from the Institute of Medicine, had pegged the number at a mere 98,000 per year (only 200 or so jumbos worth). To be sure the math is equivocal and the results controversial (particularly in the med establishment, not so keen on having its foul laundry aired in public), but by any measure the number is a disgrace. Key word: preventable.

Comments included in the Boston Globe report I read:

"This should give you pause when you go to the hospital."—Dr Kenneth Kizer, National Quality Forum.

"There is little evidence that patient safety has improved in the last five years."—Dr Samantha Collier

From Tom's Emails

Some links to stuff—recommended by, written by, sponsored by—those who write to Tom.

Proposed innovation conference in Australia
Simplicity is the Key, a book written by a Tom fan
Vermillion, a WOW website/consultancy
Grainesdechangement, a WOW project for French-speaking readers
Don't You Just Hate That?, an amusing little book

Competition's Future

C.K. Prahalad and Venkat Ramaswamy write in their provocative book, The Future of Competition, "Thus, the paradox of the twenty-first-century economy: Consumers have more choices that yield less satisfaction. Top management has more strategic options that yield less value." Paradox resolved: Fewer, significantly better, choices.

What do you think?

A Whole Lotta Bloggin'

Last week's BlogOn 2004 conference at UC Berkeley featured more than 50 panelists from social media pioneers to traditional media company execs and venture capitalists. Microsoft and Six Apart detailed how corporations are using social media to improve customer relations. This wired.com article describes Microsoft's embrace of blogging ... and its success. Their Channel 9 reports more than 700,000 unique visitors per month.

That's about 1,000 people per hour, 24 hours a day. Blog On, indeed.

Perpetual Motion

Corbin and Jonathan, my fiancee's two boys, love spinners on car wheels. Now I see them everywhere, even on shoes. Got me to thinking that we live such frenetic (from the Latin, phrenitis "inflammation of the brain") lives, that even paused at a traffic light or doorstep, we have to feel in motion. Maybe we ought to pause (if a full stop is impossible) and think on it.

Devolution Evolution

A few decades ago, I wondered what "oldies" we'd be listening to by now. "Whip It" was not among my predictions. Yet, Devo performed to a capacity crowd Friday night in Central Park. The New York Times review offers an explanation: "Before MTV existed, Devo understood the power of building an image through video. And before words like "branding" became music-business staples, Devo had its own logo and mock-corporate image. The band [set] out its own doctrine of de-evolution: that human intelligence is rapidly declining."

Does the fact that you can still buy an "energy dome" prove their point?

Newcomers Get New Jobs

New York Times columnist Bob Herbert answers the question, "Who's Getting the New Jobs?" A new study from the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University shows that employment growth over the past few years can be almost entirely attributed to new immigrants to the U.S. According to Herbert:

The study does not mean that native-born workers and long-term immigrants are not finding jobs. ... But as the study tallied the gains and losses since the end of 2000, it found that new immigrants acquired as many jobs as the other two groups lost, and then some.

In the words of Neil Diamond, "They're coming to America. Today."

Wage Gap Walkout

This article in the St. Louis Business Journal attributes the growth in women-owned businesses to the continued wage gap between men and women. According to Brett Miller of The Entrepreneur's Source, women are starting their own businesses at up to twice the rate of men: "It's not surprising that women are turning away from the corporate world, where inequality persists, instead of opting for a bright future of an entrepreneur."

Where are the Leaders?

According to this survey, they are in rural Nebraska:

The poll found that 19- to 29-year-olds and women are potentially underrepresented sources for new community leaders and highlights the need for leadership education.

It looks as if rural Women Roar!

Boomer Tsunami

Every seven seconds, another Baby Boomer turns 50. The unprecedented size of the "senior" population has M.I.T.'s AgeLab and other research centers around the country scrambling to develop new products and services for an age group that will include 71.5 million people by 2030. The boomers will require not only solutions for their serious health issues, but also some innovative gadgets to help them ease into old age. A USA Today article describes the senior explosion as "a tsunami coming at you. You know the tidal wave is going to hit, and it's a question of whether we'll be ready." Ron Crossland raises the same question and provides some answers in his web seminar 2010 Why Leadership Development Matters.

TomSpeak

"We're discussing Re-imagine! at a meeting and we don't know what Q.E.D. means," J.B. Blosser Bittner, chief of the Oklahoma News Bureau, asked us in an email. Good question. Mathematicians and philosophers of yore wrote Q.E.D. (short for quod erat demonstrandum, what was to be proven) at the end of their work to indicate they had proven their point. You don't get smarter by pretending to know more than you do, so asking questions is good.

Q.E.D.

Happy Birthday, Walkman

Would a Walkman by any other name sound as sweet? Plenty of its imitators do, but I'll bet you can't name a single one of them. Since Sony introduced the little masterpiece 25 years ago this month, we've called them all Walkman ... just as we call all gelatin Jello and all facial tissue Kleenex. Brand recognition doesn't get any better than that. This branding comes from Sony's commitment to cool design, cited by Tom in his appearances, with this quote from retired Sony chairman Norio Ohga:

At Sony, we assume that all products of our competitors have basically the same technology, price, performance and features. Design is the only thing that differentiates one product from another in the marketplace.

Training with Yoga

This article by Manika Gupta in the Financial Express profiles a "train-the-trainer" program in India that combines teachings of Tom Peters, Bob Pyke, and yoga. Let's all breathe together now.

See Tom Speak, LIVE!

Coming to London in October! Don't miss your chance to be inspired and energized by what Tom has to say about the future for business. Bookings are now being taken for this premier European event being held in London on 1 October 2004.

Millennium WOW!Project

Today's Wall Street Journal beautifully tells the story of Chicago's new Millennium Park. Nothing other than WOW! can describe this 24-acre landmark. Take a few moments to compare it to another millennium project, the dome in Greenwich, England.

The Naked Crowd

Jeffrey Rosen laments personal branding in his Spiked essay.

Anxious exhibitionists, trained from the cradle to believe that there is no more valuable currency than personal exposure, are not likely to object when their neighbors demand that they strip themselves bare. But just as public intimacy is a kind of delusion, so is the hope of distinguishing ourselves from the crowd by catering to the crowd's insatiable demands for exposure ... As both spectators and actors in the Naked Crowd, we are too willing to surrender privacy for an illusory sense of emotional connection and security. Perhaps we will realise what a poor bargain we have struck only after it is too late.

The Politburo and You

The San Antonio Express-News reports on the U.S. Department of Labor's Workforce Innovations 2004 conference currently being held in its city. After commenting on remarks by the Texas Governor, the article cites Tom:

Business book author Tom Peters was another conference-opening keynote speaker. He told the conference that "we have a hell of a lot of work to do" to meet the challenges of training the work force of the 21st century. He cited a recent conference in Aspen, Colo., where he and former President Clinton were asked if the United States would still be the world's economic leader in 2104. Clinton said yes, but Peters said, "I'd put my money on China. ... The decisions the Chinese politburo will make will be more important in the United States than the ones (Federal Reserve Chairman) Alan Greenspan makes."

Event Slides: NAWB

NAWB Workforce Innovations 2004 in San Antonio, TX, hosts Tom. You can download the slides here.

Tom on Martha

Tom writes about Martha Stewart in Re-imagine!

Until very recently, we lived in a world where "assets" were "things you could touch." A smokestack. A conveyor belt. A bricks-and-mortar store. Then, quite suddenly, we entered a world where the assets of, say, Martha Stewart Omnimedia where things like ... "Perception of Martha." Thus:
Ubiquitous Martha = Billions in Market Capitalization
Martha-as-Indicted-Insider-Stock-Trader = Far (Far!) Less.

And it looks like "Martha-as-Sentenced" will be somewhere in-between.

Fridge Worthy

You know it is a great ad when you tear it out of the magazine to hang on your fridge! This from the Timberland Boot Company:

We look at a statue of SOMEONE GREAT, and we think they've got something we don't. We are trained to think that only a tiny percentage of us have the stuff it takes to be a hero. Not many of us will cure any diseases or slay any dragons, but every single one of us, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US, is called to be a king, a queen, a hero in our ordinary lives. We don't build statues to worship the exceptional life, we build them to remind ourselves what is POSSIBLE IN OUR OWN.

The bottom of the ad states, "This has everything to do with making boots." Talk about engaging our hearts and minds!

Why Training?

I find it interesting that many people I come across think they would make a great writer, actor, executive coach, seminar leader, or even leader with little or no investment in training. ... Odd how they don't feel the same about neurosurgery, instrumentation design, and dentistry.

Think About Your Thoughts

In The Mind and The Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force, Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz argues that the human mind "has the power to change the brain." In helping OCD patients manage their mind through a form of Buddhist mindfulness training, Schwartz changed the lives of those previously paralyzed by Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. He claims that we are much more in control than perhaps we take responsibility for:

... a pharmaceutical company tells us that to cure shyness ("social phobia"), we need only reach for a little pill ... we fall prey to depression, or anxiety, or inability to sustain attention, and are soothed with the advice that we merely have to get our neurochemicals back into balance to enjoy full mental health ... there is significantly more to the story than just biology.

Perhaps this is a good time to start paying attention to the thoughts we think most often!

Event Slides: Motorola

Tom is speaking to Motorola at The Breakers in Palm Beach, FL, today. You can get the slides here.

Grooves and Ruts

Visited the world headquarters of American Express yesterday and heard a great quote credited to the company's former CEO Harvey Golub on how companies with a rich history and long traditions can stay innovative:

Don't let your grooves become ruts.

I love this quote just a tad more than Golub's advice that we grow by working "at the margins of [our] ignorance."

What Were They Thinking?

Atkins ... great brand, right?

Have you seen some of their latest TV commercials? Go to the Atkins site's TV spot brag page and check out the Meet Chicks commercial.

What were they thinking? (A great candidate for the Museum of Badvertising)

Gettin' Out of Bed ...

A friend's request that Tom write down the 5 big things he'd like to get done led to these two slides. Title: Goals-Strategy. Of course, his list has slightly more than 5 items ...

CIO As Chief Communicator

Australia's CIO Magazine's 2004 State of the CIO survey confirms that once again communication rules:

... the single most pivotal skill for success as a CIO is the ability to communicate effectively ... a CIO gets nowhere without getting people to listen and then understand and believe in the propositions offered ... People are moved by content with an appropriate emotional message.

Richard E Boyatzis, Professor and chair of the Department of Organizational Behavior at Weatherhead School of Management asks: "What do you get when you have a really smart, technically expert CIO with little or no EI competencies? A nerd who no one except other nerds listens to unless they are in the mood and patient, which is not too often?" Enough said!

Experiential Learning

India's Business Standard has a great article on why experiential learning and follow-up are so important:

A Xerox Inc. study showed trainees retained a paltry 13 per cent of skills six months after training if managers failed to coach and support them when the skills were actually being applied.

Suhayl Abidi promotes Xerox's seven learning principles as a way to use training to achieve true behavioral change:

1. Learning is a social activity, not an individual activity.
2. Knowledge, activity, and social relations are closely intertwined.
3. Learning is an act of membership.
4. Knowing is engagement in practice.
5. Engagement is inseparable from empowerment. Engagement is inseparable from empowerment.
6. Failure to learn is the normal result of exclusion from participation.
7. We already have a society of lifelong learners, but what is learnt is not necessarily what organisations want.

Will

Next time you have to decide whether to be stubborn think on this quote from the great Vince Lombardi:

The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength. not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.

Cool Friend: Barletta

Take it Live

Register for the next Tom Peters Web Seminar, 19 August 2004, at Noon Eastern time. Subject: Outsource-proof Your Career. With Tom and Dan Pink, author of Free Agent Nation. It's free!

Time on Tom

Looks like someone at Time magazine started reading Tom.

In Search of Stupidity

Earlier in the week we looked for competence. Today, it's stupidity. This book is written under the premise that "it makes more sense to check out stupidity than excellence." Be sure to check out the chapter on the go-go 1990s entitled "Purple Haze All Through My Brain!"

The "Duckstar"

While watching the classic 1961 Disney movie The Parent Trap on DVD with the kids, I watched a special feature introducing Susan Henning-Schultz. Who? Well, Susan was Hayley Mills' body double for the non-fx scenes. Uncle Walt required her to sign away her rights to be billed in the final film, but personally awarded her one of only three "Duckstar" awards ever given. The "Duckstar" is a Donald Duck-shaped Oscar given for the Best Unseen Performance by an Actress. Made me wonder how many "Unseen" performances go unrecognized in business every day?

Women Leaders in Dubai

Tom will be speaking at the Leaders in Dubai event, but what caught our attention were the comments of Nabila Al Anjari, corporate ambassador for Leaders in Dubai.

The future for Arab business women is extremely promising, with traditional family values beginning to support, rather than discourage, female leadership in the public and private sectors.

Nano-Cool

Boyd Clarke wrote two years ago that there are "four converging technologies that will create exponential growth in white-collar productivity: Wireless communication, nano-technology, databases and intelligent systems." General Electric's breakthrough in nano-technology will certainly continue the fulfillment of Tom's prediction (about 10 years ago) that "90 percent of all white-collar jobs will be changed beyond recognition over the next ten years."

The Governator

A quote from California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that we happen to love:

Every governor proposes moving boxes around to reorganize government. I don't want to move boxes around. I want to blow them up.

In Search of...

Tom hates, I mean HATES, the word "competent," but he'll love the humor in this book by Jack Feeney. In fact, the author says Tom inspired him and the title of In Search of Competence: The Incompetent and Sometimes Illegal Black Art of Management. One reader said she can now "talk the talk , walk the walk, and spot a psycho-manager from 50 paces."

Storytelling as Development

Professor Albert A. Vicere writes in the Business News how storytelling can be used as leadership development.

When done the right way—and it's not as easy as it sounds—storytelling by senior executives helps position a company to maintain success when its current generation of leaders departs and a new generation takes the helm.

(It's free, but registration is required at Business News).

Iraqi Women Roar

With a little help from the Marines and the Los Angeles-based charity Spirit of America, Iraqi women in Ar Ramadi will now be able to work at a local sewing center. Lt. Col. John Lutkenhouse reports that the sewing centers are all about giving women the means to "earn money" and gain greater "social empowerment."

Independence Day

NPR celebrates Independence Day with a reading of the Declaration of Independence. The late Red Barber reading the words of Thomas Jefferson is something to hear.

To Be or ...

Assumptions should be tested from time to time. Christian Broda, of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and David Weinstein, of Columbia University, have tested some concerning Japan. It may be more ready for a comeback than we think.

Misty for Tom

An article in the Oregonian on Beaverton School Superintendent reflects on his first impression of Tom:

He gets almost misty-eyed recalling a 1988 speech by Tom Peters.

While we're grateful he was so touched, we think he's missing the point of Tom's message.

Reef to Tank

NPR's story of the journey of tropical fish from coral reefs to aquariums got me to thinking about flat screen panels and webcams. Found a bunch of sources like these, WebCam Central, WebcamSearch, Webcam-Index, etc. An alternative to a live tank in a home, restaurant, or office might be a live window on a variety of fish and other animals you are not likely gonna want to house and feed (see elephants at Zulucam).

New Special Slides

This quote by coach Diane Geppi-Aikens from Lucky Every Day by Chip Silverman gives the theme of Tom's latest special slides presentation, Passion and Purpose:

How would you play today if you knew you could not play tomorrow?

Brand Sequel: Very Funny

We first wrote about the leadership of Steve Koonin and his team of brand gurus at cable television's TNT in The Leader's Voice. Due to the network's continuing success of bringing the "We Know Drama" brand inside, Tom profiled TNT in his 2004 Re-imagine! PBS documentary. Now, for the sequel. Koonin and his team have launched a new brand at TBS, Ted Turner's original Super Station.

TBS will have a new look, a new logo and new tag line—"very funny." The TBS target and positioning were developed through extensive demographic, psychographic and sales research. The network's core target, the comedy lovers, are young adults, who are well-educated, affluent for their age, dual-gender, and love comedic programming of all types. TBS will be the home for comedy lovers and will make viewers laugh out loud and feel good by connecting them to comedy with the stories and characters that they love.

While we're confident the ratings at the "very funny" TBS will increase just as they did when TNT shifted to "We Know Drama," we are more excited to learn how TBS will bring the brand inside.

Our Inspiration at Coudal

After designing our new Tom Peters blog, our friends at Coudal Partners redesigned their own home page and blog. If you want a good July 4th chuckle, check out their latest Fresh Signals post.