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Tom Peters [1942-0] American

Rank: 101
Businessman, Writer

Thomas J. "Tom" Peters is an American writer on business management practices, best known for In Search of Excellence.

Business, Change, Cool, Design, Leadership, Chance, Communication, New Year's, Politics, Positive, Society, Success, Technology, Wisdom

Quote	Tags	Rank
If a window of opportunity appears, don't pull down the shade.	Leadership	101
Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, manufacturing... layout, processes, and procedures.	Business, Design	102
Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing.	Leadership	103
Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else.		104
Communication is everyone's panacea for everything.	Communication	105
Excellent firms don't believe in excellence - only in constant improvement and constant change.	Change	106
Celebrate what you want to see more of.	New Year's	107
If you're not confused, you're not paying attention.		108
Leaders don't create followers, they create more leaders.		109
Remember my mantra: distinct... or extinct.		110
'In Search of Excellence' - even the title - is a reminder that business isn't dry, dreary, boring, or by the numbers. Life at work can be cool - and work that's cool isn't confined to Tiger Woods, Yo-Yo Ma, or Tom Hanks. It's available to all of us and any of us.	Business, Cool	111
If you really want to kill morale, have layoffs every two months for the next two years.		112
The magic formula that successful businesses have discovered is to treat customers like guests and employees like people.		113
South Africa has all the tools to compete in the new global village - an eager workforce, ready to take on any challenge.		114
The whole secret to our success is being able to con ourselves into believing that we're going to change the world because statistically we are unlikely to do it.	Change, Success	115
Stop being conned by the old mantra that says, 'Leaders are cool, managers are dweebs.' Instead, follow the Peters Principle: Leaders are cool. Managers are cool too!	Cool	116
Everyone has a chance to learn, improve, and build up their skills.	Chance	117
Community organizing is all about building grassroots support. It's about identifying the people around you with whom you can create a common, passionate cause. And it's about ignoring the conventional wisdom of company politics and instead playing the game by very different rules.	Politics, Wisdom	118
Mittelstand companies are incredibly focused and almost always family-run. The young men and women go through the apprenticeship system and learn that the goal is excellence.		119
Business is about people. It's about passion. It's about bold ideas, bold small ideas or bold large ideas.	Business	120
Statistically and emotionally, I believe that the way I can be of help to society is by doing what I know and what I've been good at.	Society	121
As a consumer, you want to associate with brands whose powerful presence creates a halo effect that rubs off on you.		122
The simple act of paying positive attention to people has a great deal to do with productivity.	Positive	123
One simply cannot pay tribute to Stephen Covey without saying at the outset that he was a lovely human being.		124
I know it sounds crazy, but you've got to let what you're going to do find you, rather than you pursuing it.		125
Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me, Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.		126
For the blue-collar worker, the driving force behind change was factory automation using programmable machine tools. For the office worker, it's office automation using computer technology: enterprise-resource-planning systems, groupware, intranets, extranets, expert systems, the Web, and e-commerce.	Technology	201
The workplace revolution that transformed the lives of blue-collar workers in the 1970s and 1980s is finally reaching the offices and cubicles of the white-collar workers.		202
My problem is not that I see all 17 sides of any issue, but I'm equally passionate about all 17 sides simultaneously.		203
Test fast, fail fast, adjust fast.	Business	204
Winners must learn to relish change with the same enthusiasm and energy that we have resisted it in the past.		205
We found that the most exciting environments, that treated people very well, are also tough as nails. There is no bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo... excellent companies provide two things simultaneously: tough environments and very supportive environments.		206
Give a lot, expect a lot, and if you don't get it, prune.		207
Design is so critical it should be on the agenda of every meeting in every single department.	Design	208
The best leaders... almost without exception and at every level, are master users of stories and symbols.		209
I don't want the 35-year-olds in my audience to think of me as as 'pops' giving the kind of advice that only 65-year-olds can understand.		210
Vision is dandy, but sustainable company excellence comes from a huge stable of able managers.		211
Leaders understand the ultimate power of relationships.		212
All white-collar work is project work. The single salient fact that touches all of our lives is that work is being reinvented.		213
A passive approach to professional growth will leave you by the wayside.		214
The top athletes are consummate pros who work obsessively at their craft. Approach yours the same way.		215
Mastery is great, but even that is not enough. You have to be able to change course without a bead of sweat, or remorse.		216
I endorse a lot of people - sometimes people say I endorse too many books. And my response has always been the same: If I can get one case study that can give me one good idea that I can implement for $25, or for these days one-third of that on Kindle, I've gotten a very good deal.		217
All business success rests on something labeled a sale, which at least momentarily weds company and customer.		218
Anybody who is an entrepreneur is a person who essentially has impaired judgment. The odds of success are zilch.		219
If your company has a clean-desk policy, the company is nuts and you're nuts to stay there.		220
I think it's wonderful to save the world, but you need to be part of the world, too.		221
As far as I'm concerned, the first business leader who was able to establish a cult of personality around his tenure was Lee Iacocca.		222
Today brands are everything, and all kinds of products and services - from accounting firms to sneaker makers to restaurants - are figuring out how to transcend the narrow boundaries of their categories and become a brand surrounded by a Tommy Hilfiger-like buzz.		223
One of the biggest problems of 'In Search of Excellence' is that it focused on giant, publicly-traded companies. There are thousands upon thousands of excellent companies. Some of them are two-person accountancies in a community of three thousand people.		224
I don't read many business books. I read good fiction. Business is about people, so my favorite business books are anything by Dickens.		225
'In Search of Excellence' was an afterthought, the runt of the McKinsey consulting litter, a hip-pocket project that was never supposed to amount to much.		226
Good managers have a bias for action.		301
Business book writing for me is when some set of ideas gets stuck in my mind, I write a book about it. I haven't got a theory and I haven't got a framework.		302
I had no idea what I was doing when I wrote 'Search.' There was no carefully designed work plan. There was no theory that I was out to prove.		303
I think economics is about passion. Economic progress, whether it is a two-person coffee shop or whether it is Netscape, is about people with brave ideas. Because it is brave to mortgage the house, when you've got two kids, to start a coffee shop.		304

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