I am in the midst of a summer romance of sorts. I have been surprised and beguiled by stolen moments in the company of Tom Peters (as represented virtually in his bestseller, “Re-imagine! Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age” http://bit.ly/dcBe6p ).
I had avoided getting involved with this superstar business guru, imagining that he would be too American, too evangelical and just too goddamned sales-y for my Scottish sensibilities. My mission to learn more….and more…. about the world of business excellence meant that I gave him a go. How wrong was my imagination? Well, ALMOST TOTALLY! This guy is the real deal. I have fallen for him.
He is American (no bad thing). He is evangelical in a non-religious (Phew!), let’s call it a passionate, enthusiastic and entertaining manner. He is not sales-y (more inspiring, thought-provoking, and YES, HE’S ON THE MONEY $£$£!!)[1]
What I love can be summed up in 3 things:
- THE ENERGY – he uses a “quirky”, non-linear style with *LOTS* of inappropriate punctuation. This would give a traditional English teacher a heart attack but allows his passion and the messages (there are loads of them) to come through.
- THE AMBITION – Don’t do things by half. No sorta. Get on the bus or get off. Set out to be a world beater not an also ran.
- THE KNOWLEDGE – He understands the scale of change that is taking place in this current commercial era. He gets:
- the POWER OF THE WEB and the cultural revolution that is globalisation
- the enormous opportunity provided by the ageing population
- the reality of the age where women are taking charge.
These quotes talked to me:
“If you don’t like change, you’ll like irrelevance even less.”
“The impact of New Technologies…changes everything. Yes…everything!”
“A bureaucrat is an expensive microchip.”
“Reward Excellent Failures! Punish Mediocre Successes!”
“The only way to make a difference is to … Make a Difference.”
“Design = Soul. Believe it.”
“Women are not a niche. Women are the long run!”
These are 3 questions that this book has made me ask myself:
1) Do I continue to totally embrace the transformative potential of new technology and what it can do for a business (and those of its competitors)?[2]
2) Do I restructure organisations to focus on what they are really great at (& outsource the rest)?
3) Am I focusing on a market opportunity that really exists or on what it used to be/I want it to be?
I strongly recommend that if you are not already on board with this stuff either:
- read this book (if you are a reader)
OR
- find someone who has, gets this stuff and pay them to help you apply its lessons to your organisation. (I am more than happy to help you, just get in touch @ http://www.bellevuepartners.co.uk/getintouch.html.)
It applies to every business, whatever sector, whatever size. It is the big stuff. It is the future.
Bellevue Partners will be appearing at Vision, Bristol Media’s conference on 15th & 16th September. We will be co-presenting “From Good to Excellent” workshops on both days with Jonathan Bradley of http://www.trimodus.co.uk. See http://visionbristol.com/ for more details.
Can’t come to see us but want to find out more about us, please visit http://www.bellevuepartners.co.uk.
Our blog archive can be found at http://blog.haggisdigital.com/.
[1] Perhaps I should not be surprised. You don’t become as popular as him without being good at what you do.
[2] I’ve been involved in this interactive internet thing for about 15 years now. It amazes me how much more it still has to deliver.
