Tom Peters Quotes

Organizations exist to serve. Period. Leaders live to serve. Period.

A career is a portfolio of projects that teach you new skills, gain you new expertise, develop new capabilities, grow your colleague set, and constantly reinvent you as a brand.

Leaders trust their guts. "Intuition" is one of those good words that has gotten a bad rap. For some reason, intuition has become a "soft" notion. Garbage! Intuition is the new physics. It's an Einsteinian, seven-sense, practical way to make tough decisions. Bottom line, circa 2001 to 2010: The crazier the times are, the more important it is for leaders to develop and to trust their intuition.

Don't 'tolerate' mistakes. Embrace them!

How do you achieve excellence? ... Stop doing non-excellent stuff!

You can
only improve what you measure.

The difference between great and average is, mostly, having the imagination and zeal to re-create yourself daily.

Remember: You are the only human being in the world who can help this particular customer at this particular moment in time.

If you're a leader, your whole reason for living is to help human beings develop - to really develop people and make work a place that's energetic and exciting and a growth opportunity, whether you're running a Housekeeping Department or Google. I mean, this is not rocket science.

Bold botches are to be cherished.

The best leaders are the best notetakers, best askers, and best learners.

A passive approach to professional growth will leave you by the wayside.

Everyone has a chance to learn, improve, and build up their skills.

Forget all the conventional 'rules' but one. There is one golden rule: Stick to topics you deeply care about and don't keep your passion buttoned inside your vest. An audience's biggest turn-on is the speaker's obvious enthusiasm. If you are lukewarm about the issue, forget it!

As a consumer, you want to associate with brands whose powerful presence creates a halo effect that rubs off on you.

The principal reason, invariably, most "successful" giant companies rather quickly become also-rans, or just amorphous blobs on the competitive landscape, is their failure to re-tool in anything like a fundamental way. In fact, the worse things get, typically, the more they dig in their heels and defend yesterday's turf.

The greatest difficulty in the world is not for people to accept new ideas, but to make them forget old ideas.

Leaders' careers will usually be determined by their handling of one or two critical events that no one could possibly anticipate or plan for.

The best leaders ... almost without exception and at every level, are master users of stories and symbols.

Are you placing enough interesting, freakish, long shot, weirdo bets?

If not excellence, what? If not excellence now, when?

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.

Far too many managers have lost sight of the basics, in our opinion: quick action, service to customers, practical innovation, and the fact that you can't get any of these without virtually everyone's commitment.

Stellar teams are invariably made up of quirky individuals who typically rub each other raw, but they figure out - with the spiritual help of a gifted leader - how to be their peculiar selves and how to win championships as a team ... at the same time.

Customers perceive service in their own unique, idiosyncratic, emotional, irrational, end-of-the-day, and totally human terms. Perception is all there is!

In today's economy there are no experts, no 'best and brightest' with all the answers. It's up to each one of us. The only way to screw up is to not try anything.

Innovation comes only from readily and seamlessly sharing information rather than hoarding it.

Inspiring visions rarely (I'm tempted to say never) include numbers.

Nearly 100% of innovation-from business to politics-is inspired not by "market analysis" but by people who are supremely pissed off by the way things are.

Quite simply, no matter how hard you try, no matter how "open" you are, you'll end up surrounded by "yes people." It's hard not to believe people who are repeating your own ideas. Resist the temptation.

Public Speaking is a skill that can be studied, polished, perfected. Not only can you get good at it, you can get damn good at it and it makes a heck of a difference.

Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, manufacturing ... layout, processes, and procedures.

Your calendar never lies. All we have is our time. The way we spend our
time is our priorities, is our strategy. Your calendar knows what you
really care about. Do you?

All white-collar work is project work. The single salient fact that touches all of our lives is that work is being reinvented.

In McKinsey's world, all of life is one of two things: strategy or organization.

Ready, fire, aim. Do it! Make it happen! Action counts. No one ever sat their way to success.

If you really want to kill morale, have layoffs every two months for the next two years.

The common wisdom is that ... managers have to learn to motivate people. Nonsense. Employees bring their own motivation.

Screw-ups are the mark of excellence.

I know it sounds crazy, but you've got to let what you're going to do find you, rather than you pursuing it.

We cannot innovate without opening the door to havoc.

Winners must learn to relish change with the same enthusiasm and energy that we have resisted it in the past.

Champions are pioneers, and pioneers get shot at. The companies that get the most from champions, therefore, are those that have rich support network so their pioneers will flourish. This point is so important it's hard to overstress. No support systems, no champions. No champions, no innovations.

Only those who constantly retool themselves stand a chance of staying employed in the years ahead.

Momentum is a fragile force. Its worst enemy: procrastination. Its best friend: a deadline (think Election Day). Implication no. 1 (and there is no no. 2): Get to work! NOW!

Obviously, despite hard work and heroic efforts, many dreams don't come true. But if we don't dare to dream and then throw muscle, heart, and soul into making the dream come true, then WoW Projects-and all of the emotional, intellectual, spiritual, and financial riches that they bring will surely NOT be our lot in life!

Only pissed-off people change the world.

If you love your company and love what you do, you will serve your customers better-period!

"Old" is definitely not cool in America. Never has been.

GIVE THE WORLD A CLEAR PICTURE OF WHO YOU ARE.

Mastery is great, but even that is not enough. You have to be able to change course without a bead of sweat, or remorse.

Effective visions are lived in details, not broad strokes.

The 'value added' for most any company, tiny or enormous, comes from the Quality of Experience provided.

The day firing becomes easy is the day to fire yourself.

Divas do it, golfers do it, pilots do it, violists do it, sprinters do it, soldiers do it, surgeons do it, astronauts do it ... only business people think it isn't necessary to train.

WORK ON YOUR STORY! He/she who has the best story wins! In life! In business! The White House!

Nothing good or great can be done in the absence of enthusiasm.

Become a "learning organization". Shuck your arrogance - "if it isn't our idea, it can't be that good" - and become a determined copycat/ adapter/ enhancer.

Confidence means non-paralysis, a willingness to act, and act decisively, to start new things and cut failing ventures off.

Integrity may be about little things as much or more than big ones.

South Africa has all the tools to compete in the new global village - an eager workforce, ready to take on any challenge.

The dominant culture in most big companies demands punishment for a mistake, no matter how useful, small, invisible ...

Advantage comes not from the spectacular or the technical. Advantage comes from a persistent seeking of the mundane edge.

I think it's wonderful to save the world, but you need to be part of the world, too.

Most corporations fail to tolerate the creative fanatic who has been the driving force behind most major innovations. Innovations, being far removed from the mainstream of the business, show little promise in the early stages of development. Moreover, the champion is obnoxious, impatient, egotistic, and perhaps a bit irrational in organizational terms. As a consequence, he is not hired. If hired, he is not promoted or rewarded. He is regarded as "not a serious person," "embarrassing," or

Transforming leadership, [is defined as] leadership that builds on man's need for meaning, leadership that creates institutional purpose ... he is the value-shaper, the exemplar, the maker of meanings ... he is the true artist, the true pathfinder.

If you are not confused then you are not paying attention.

To sell is above all to master the art and science of listening.

Have you thanked a front-line employee for carrying around a great attitude ... today?

When you choose a managerial path, you are choosing to devote your life to people. Period.

Learning is a matter of intensity not elapsed time.

Give a lot, expect a lot, and if you don't get it, prune.

Cost does not equal value ... and low cost parts decrease brand equity for a very long time.

The idea of intimately entwining with customers [to get ideas] is an idea whose time has come.

The widespread availability of information is the only basis for effective day-to-day problem solving, which abets continuous improvement programs.

Listen while you can, so that you can lead when you must.

If a window of opportunity appears, don't pull down the shade.

My half-baked reading of history is that we continue to go through these waves of entrepreneurial explosion followed by merger mania and consolidation. Out of that come big sluggish companies that eventually collapse under the weight of what they've created, and are killed off by the next wave of entrepreneurs.

In the great city of San Francisco, where I used to live, at 2 in the morning every other Victorian house has somebody who is writing the great American novel. And the city is not loaded with James Joyces or Virginia Woolfs. But entrepreneurship is about distorted views of reality.

Forget loyalty. Or at least loyalty to one's corporation. Try loyalty to your Rolodex-your network-instead.

I wrote the book based on a blog that I keep. I also tweet. I don't think that for an incredibly old fart I'm totally behind the power curve. I really believe that the essentials of human relationships remain the same.

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.

If you're not confused, you're not paying attention.

In some organizations, they can succeed if they are simply good at making presentations to the board of directors or writing strategies or plans. The tragedy is that these talents mask real deficiencies in overall management capabilities. These talented performers run for cover when grubby operating decisions must be made and often fail miserably when they are charged with earning a profit, getting things done and moving an organization forward.

Had Twitter been invented earlier, my books would have been shorter.

I don't want an epitaph on my gravestone that says, 'He would have pursued some big dreams in his life, but other people wouldn't let him.

Life is too short for non-WOW projects.

I believe in the age of the Internet, Facebook and Twitter, that relationships are everything.

'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.

All business success rests on something labeled a sale, which at least momentarily weds company and customer.

Power lies in the details, and the tenacious pursuit of such hidden levers can pay off enormously. While you don't want to get a reputation as a prissy worrywart, worrying about the details in private is important. You may think you are the world's greatest speaker, but if the auditorium's sound system is singing static - well, forget it.

Treat the customer as an appreciating asset.

Musing on the phrase 'waste of time.' So much more complex than it appears. Many 'wastes of time' small talk, daydreaming are imperatives.

Leadership is about tapping the wellsprings of human motivation - and about fundamental relations with one's fellows.

Listen to Everyone. Ideas come from everywhere

Do it, fix it, try it.

A little (or more) boat burning would do many enterprises a world of good.

The simple act of paying positive attention to people has a great deal to do with productivity.

If the other guy is getting better, then you'd better be getting better faster than the other guy is getting better ... or you're getting worse.

It's relatively simple. If we're not getting more, better, faster than they are getting more, better, faster, then we're getting less, no better or more worse.