Tom Peters

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

— Tom Peters

Excellent firms don't believe in excellence - only in constant improvement and constant change.

— Tom Peters

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

— Tom Peters

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.

— Tom Peters

Bosses: You make your living going to meetings. Hence any meeting that does not bubble and incite enthusiasm is a forever-lost opportunity.

— Tom Peters

EXCELLENCE in <140 Characters: Cherish your people, cuddle your customers, wander around, “try it” beats “talk about it,” Excellence or else, tell the truth.

— Tom Peters

Creating in all employees the awareness that their best efforts are essential and that they will share in the rewards of the company's success.

— Tom Peters

Without exception, the dominance and coherence of culture proved to be an essential quality of the excellent companies.

— Tom Peters

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.

— Tom Peters

Most of their real innovation comes from the market

— Tom Peters

Test fast, fail fast, adjust fast.

— Tom Peters

Every excellent company we studied is clear on what it stands for, and takes the process of value shaping seriously. In fact, we wonder whether it is possible to be an excellent company without clarity on values and without having the right sorts of values.

— Tom Peters

Life is too short for non-WOW projects.

— Tom Peters

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

— Tom Peters

The vitality of our network will determine our professional fate.

— Tom Peters

Reward excellent failures. Punish mediocre successes.

— Tom Peters

Service is the highest human calling.

— Tom Peters

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

— Tom Peters

Do not even flippantly badmouth anybody this week. Button it up.

— Tom Peters

The Big Four: Out-read 'em. Out-study 'em. Out-present 'em. Out-listen 'em.

— Tom Peters

As project chief you are creating a narrative, a story, a good yarn. If you look at the process-journey that way, you and your gang will … dramatically up the odds of a WOW outcome!

— Tom Peters

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

— Tom Peters

The Peters Principles: Enthusiasm. Emotion. Excellence. Energy. Excitement. Service. Growth. Creativity. Imagination. Vitality. Joy. Surprise. Independence. Spirit. Community. Limitless human potential. Diversity. Profit. Innovation. Design. Quality. Entrepreneurialism. Wow.

— Tom Peters

What is my personal strategy for the next 10 hours? Who can I talk with or what can I volunteer for to learn something new?

— Tom Peters

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

— Tom Peters

If you want to achieve Excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less than Excellent work. The first 99.9% of getting from here to there is the determination to do it and not to compromise, no matter what set of road blocks those around you erect.

— Tom Peters

Have fun/Make it fun. … All human endeavor is about emotion. Zest, joy, pride—and fun—are near the heart of any successful enterprise.

— Tom Peters

Make the collective, professional pursuit of listening skills per se a keystone of corporate 'culture'.

— Tom Peters

The most important personal ‘core competence’ by far is a rich set of relationships.

— Tom Peters

The well-served customer...is an appreciating asset. Every small act on her or his behalf ups the odds of repeat business, add-on business, and priceless word-of-mouth referral.

— Tom Peters

Training in listening, in statistical techniques and problem cause-and-effect analysis, in group problem solving, in sophisticated financial analysis (for everyone)—and then constant retraining, for upgrading and learning new skills—simply must become the norm, for realtor, banker, or high-tech wizard.

— Tom Peters

The ... moral responsibility ... of every leader is staggering—an opportunity to be of service to (literally) civilization. Or not.

— Tom Peters

Read deep! Read often! Out-READ the 'Competition'!!!

— Tom Peters

Ask! Interviewing/information extraction is an (exceptionally important) ‘art’ that must be mastered!

— Tom Peters

Success is about executing what you are doing today with unquestionable, breathtaking excellence.

— Tom Peters

someone with whom I have an intimate relationship

— Tom Peters

in it with me for the long haul

— Tom Peters

someone with whom I co-invent the future

— Tom Peters

No such thing as a 'non-leader.' Every day offers every one of us scads of leadership opportunities.

— Tom Peters

R&D/good times and bad times. R&D may have to take its lumps in tough times ... But beware of cutting too much muscle.

— Tom Peters

Design, writ large, is increasingly the route to product or service differentiation.

— Tom Peters

Passionate servant leaders, determined to create a legacy of earthshaking transformation in their domain create/must necessarily create organizations which are ... no less than Cathedrals in which the full and awesome power of the Imagination and Spirit and native Entrepreneurial flair of diverse individuals is unleashed ... In passionate pursuit of jointly perceived soaring purpose and personal and community and client service Excellence.

— Tom Peters

Punctuality at meetings influences culture of punctuality, i.e., promise-keeping in general, on-time deliveries, etc.

— Tom Peters

Organizations exist only to serve. Leaders exist only to serve.

— Tom Peters

In the private or public sector, in big business or small, we observe that there are only two ways to create and sustain superior performance over the long haul. First, take exceptional care of your customers ... via superior service and superior quality. Second, constantly innovate. That’s it.

— Tom Peters

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.

— Tom Peters

Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing.

— Tom Peters

Communication is everyone's panacea for everything.

— Tom Peters

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.

— Tom Peters

Business is about people. It's about passion. It's about bold ideas, bold small ideas or bold large ideas.

— Tom Peters