Tom Peters. Oratory by Tom Peters. Don't joke

Exercise . Take any excuse to say a few words at a meeting, etc.

Focus . Use 5x7 - or better yet 3x5 - inch cards with your main points. Polish these theses. Reduce the number to five... or even less.

Practice . On my wife. Beloved. Best friend. Children. Taxi driver. On my German Shepherd.

Tell stories! Real eloquence = great stories.

Never, never, never, never talk down to your audience.. Demonstrate a-b-s-o-l-y-t-n-o-e respect. They're making this one cold! (Whoever they are.)

Solve your listeners' problems. Your speech should have something for them...personally.

Look into the eyes. (Easier said than done.) At a certain point, you only connect with one person. (Even, as in my case, if there are several thousand in the room.) Speak only for one.

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Tom Peters ( Tom Peters) - one of the largest specialists in the field of management, a world-famous business consultant, member of the International Academy of Management, the World Productivity Association, the International Customer Service Association, and the Society for Quality.

I adore life-as-it-is.
Tom Peters

Tom Peters was born on November 7, 1942 in the USA in Baltimore, Maryland; studied engineering at Cornell University ( Cornell University, Ithaca, New York), then received a Master of Business Administration ( MBA) and PhD from Stanford University. Served in the US Navy during the Vietnam War. In the mid-70s, a young manager became a consultant McKinsey, and in 1981 founded his own consulting company - Tom Peters Group.

Tom Peters is credited with creating the modern business consulting industry. Business magazines describe him as a man who sells business ideas like works of art: “If there is nothing particularly original in your work, no matter how hard you do it, people will still not pay attention to you, which means you will never they won’t pay much for it,” he says.

T. Peters' books are extremely popular, especially among university graduates and middle-aged managers. Many of his ideas became an integral part modern theory. In 1982, co-authored with Robert Waterman ( Robert Waterman), work colleague at McKinsey, he wrote the book "In Search of Excellence" ( In Search of Excellence, 2005) - the first bestseller on management in the twentieth century. Soon the next bestseller was published - “Passion for Excellence” ( A Passion for Excellence, 1985).

“In Search of Excellence” is a publication that can be called a “classic of the genre.” In it, the authors consider models organizational structures the most successful US companies that have achieved amazing results and become leaders in their industries, and describe the latest trends in management. The book is addressed to managers at various levels interested in improving the efficiency of their companies, but will also be useful for a wide range of readers. It is written in a lively, engaging style, replete with interesting facts and stories. It can be read both as a history of successful companies and as a textbook summarizing the answers to the question: “Why did these top managers achieve such brilliant results?”

In this work, Peters emphasizes that successful structural solutions are created only by taking into account “ human factor" His research showed that a reasonable approach to organizational process includes at least seven variables that should be considered independent: 1) strategy, 2) structure, 3) people, 4) systems, 5) capabilities, 6) management style, and 7) shared values (i.e., culture) ). This approach is reflected in the McKinsey 7C model ( rice. 1), in the center of which is the most important element- shared values.

Rice. 1. Types of regulatory documents

Peters views excellence as a cultural phenomenon, the important criteria of which, from his point of view, are quality and customer orientation. He places his main emphasis on modernization And simplification organizations. Peters writes that leading companies have well mastered the “basics of management”: ready-made techniques do not replace reasoning, intelligence does not replace wisdom, analysis should not interfere with activity. These companies worked hard to maintain simplicity in a complex world, championed quality, valued their customers, listened to employees, and embraced innovation. They tolerated "a certain degree of chaos" in the company and were constantly experimenting.

Action oriented. Employees of successful companies are encouraged (“do it, tweak it, try it”) in relation to standard operating procedures.

Proximity to the consumer. Successful companies learn from their customers.

Autonomy and entrepreneurship. Successful companies support the leadership and innovation of their employees.

People as a productivity factor. Leaders of successful companies consider ordinary employees to be the main factor in improving quality and productivity.

Local management, value orientation. Achievements of the organization in much to a greater extent depend on its philosophy rather than on available technological or economic resources.

Loyalty to your calling. Companies that are engaged in a business that is quite familiar to them receive an advantage.

Simple structure, small staff of management personnel. The basic structural forms and systems in successful companies are elegantly simple.

A combination of flexibility and rigidity. The most successful companies combine a reasonable degree of centralization and decentralization.

In relation to the basic principles of management, Peters has always given preference to the transfer of authority in the company. A manager cannot know everything thoroughly; in striving for total control, he risks getting bogged down in useless details. It is better to do something wrong than to do nothing, so people should not be afraid of making a mistake. Having analyzed the reasons for the error and learned, next time they will do everything correctly and, as a rule, better. Peters is a big fan of paradoxes; his favorite expression is: “Reward magnificent failures... punish mediocre successes.” Excellence must be achieved gradually, through a series of small steps leading to a common goal.

Today, Peters is no longer so optimistic - it seems that in reality there are no ideal companies. And the guru, in accordance with his philosophy, boldly modifies the ideas expressed earlier: the main thing is not the pursuit of perfection, the main thing is stand out from the general mass! IN modern world With constantly changing rules and flexible boundaries, the call for companies to stick to their guns sounds like a death sentence. Peters now acts as a futurist and gives recipes for success to top managers. Companies must:

shrink, even completely change its structure;

update;

making workplaces more interesting for employees.

Traditional hierarchical structures are no longer needed; they only hinder progress. In the book “Liberating Management” ( Liberation Mngment, 1992) Peters predicts radical changes in management: “Middle managers in our usual sense have already sung their swan song”; Every employee is forced to “brand” themselves more and more ( to brnd himself). The management guru’s gender prophecy is also interesting: “tomorrow belongs to women.” He believes that women work better in teams than men, so their number among managers will increase. Unlike men, women are the center of attention powers(but not hierarchical power), in addition, they develop relationships more easily, rely on intuition more often, and improvise more easily.

In a series of books including The Brand You 50(1999) and Project 50(1999), Peters focuses on exploring the formation of the "new corporate citizen" ( the new corporte citizen).

In the latest bestseller Imagine! Business Excellence in an Age of Disruption" ( Re-imgine! 2004) Tom Peters writes that the 21st century began on September 11, 2001. Whether we like it or not, a new type of organization will rule this century - fast, flexible, cunning and resilient. He predicts the death of bureaucracy and challenges managers - and all of us - to think! Moreover, “to think beautifully... to think strangely and comprehend much more “changes” than we could have imagined before.” We must understand that we no longer have a choice: soon microprocessors will take over all the routine work, and we will have to re-search for ourselves and our place in the world. (“As happened when we left the farms and came to the factories, and then when we were thrown out of production and moved into skyscrapers for white collar workers”). The Guru considers as his enemies those leaders, managers and economists who are convinced that obtaining a degree MBA and adherence to the learned theoretical principles guarantees their infallibility in business.

The book begins with a very emotional story about a non-trivial event: Peters tried to convince Stanford to revoke his degree MBA. He was prompted to take such a radical step by a TV report he saw - a speech by his former dean, who taught him accounting, and is now a member of the Board of Directors and chairman of the company's audit committee Enron. In his speech, the chief auditor stated that he had no idea about the fraud that led to the collapse of the energy giant, and did everything right! “He still didn’t understand that we live in a different world today!” - Tom Peters exclaims.

In our world, you cannot rely on the past; you need to invent the future every day. Those who win are those who are less bureaucratic, who take risks without fear of losses, and who bet on a person, not a number. In his characteristic paradoxical form, Peters argues that the secret of success is failure, and the secret of great success is great failure.

Principles scientific management no longer work! Today we need to forget everything that the old management relied on: about strategic plans and quality, about assets that can be “touched”. "Sustainable competitive advantage can only be unstable! - says the guru. He carefully examines the changes taking place, not so much in technology or management technologies, but in the very principles of doing business, in the picture of the world of people, as shown in Figure 2.

WAS		EAT
Cost center		Profit center
Procedure-oriented		Customer Focus
Cost minimization		Maximizing added value
Work is completely limited outside the enterprise		Working on the side encouraged in every way
Downsizing or hiring employees when required		We invite the “stars” - and pay accordingly
We carry out the assigned tasks, born of inspiration		Let's participate in "crazy projects"
Increasing “efficiency”		Customizing the “changes”
Office slaves		Proud professionals
Conservatism		Creation

“Purely for the sake of argument,” Peters proposed his “2005 Model of Economics,” in which the formula for success is:

Dell + IBM + Harley-Dvidson = Magic,

where Dell - remove all unnecessary things,
IBM - create stunning added value of services,
Harley-Dvidson - add a truly amazing experience.

In the style of Marx’s manifesto, Peters calls: “Enterprises of all countries - collapse!” Today the time is coming for short-term projects and enterprises without property (but with maximum turnover and a minimum of employees), rather than powerful corporations. “Own nothing if you can help it. Even rent your shoes,” the author repeatedly repeats. The only thing a job should give is freedom. The futurist guru sees the “company of the future” as consisting of 300 people, with only six full-time employees (the CEO, CFO, VP of Alliances and three super project coordinators) and the remaining 294 people being independent contractors. The company does not have a headquarters, but has a very developed information network: all employees are “mobilized” (computers, Cell phones) to the teeth.

The topic of reconsidering attitudes towards people in general is the most important for Tom Peters; he predicts that 80% of all office work as it exists today will disappear or change beyond recognition within the next 15 years. Indeed, “you work 50 hours a week. You're working your ass off. Put up with this nonsense. And what do “they” call you in the end? “They” call you… “cost center” and “overhead”. Horror!.

A special place in the book is given to the topic of attracting and developing talent. How to recognize them? Tom Peters outlines the hallmarks of true corporate talent and tips for finding them:

Shows passion for his work. Look for enthusiasts.

Thinks big. Consider the strategists.

Thirsts for action. Choose action fans over theorists.

Knows how to finish what he starts. Invite people who finish the “remaining two percent” - “the first 98” are great for many...

Inspires those around you. Ask yourself: Does this inspire me personally?

Loves tension. Choose employee “players” who know how to survive in crises.

Has a bunch of “crazy projects”. Call out those whose accomplishments challenge convention and bureaucracy.

The embodiment of eccentricity. In such “weird” times, hire eclectic/weird/special people.

Exudes fun. For all positions, look for not just energetic people, but people with a “spark” who can create an inspired atmosphere.

It is quite difficult to objectively assess the influence of Tom Peters' work on management development. But his books are read all over the world, and many of the ideas he proposed are implemented. His self-assessment is as non-trivial as many thoughts about management. “He would have done something really worthwhile, but his boss didn’t allow him” - this is the epitaph that most modern managers deserve, says Tom Peters. “A similar text could have been written on my tombstone if I had lived the way I did before I was 40.” Now I will ask you to write on it: “He was a player!”

Peters is not only a player with capital letters, but also a brilliant actor. His public speeches, as well as his books, bear a reflection of messianism. Tom Peters' lectures are always a performance, a performance (from 80 to 150 performances per year around the world). They give a boost of optimism and make you think about difficult things - about your business, about competitors, about goals and the cost of achieving them. In 2005, Kyiv top managers who attended the guru’s master class “Business Management in an Era of Change” could see this.

For our traditions and mentality, burdened by communalism and collectivism, Tom Peters’s pathetic attitude towards personal responsibility is probably especially useful: “You write the story of your life yourself, and it depends on you whether you create your own legend or not.”

Article provided to our portal
editorial staff of the magazine

Gene Webb and Lew Young, who inspired this book.

And to Judy, Rob and Kendall, who have been a source of endless inspiration to us.

Preface to the second edition

After growth slowed in many industries, and in some cases we're talking about At least about restoring pre-crisis sales volumes, the issue of efficiency has become a pressing issue for many enterprises.

How to achieve more while staying within limited budgets? How to get the most out of your employees? How can large companies be as fast as small ones, and it is important for small companies to find additional reserves to increase their sustainability.

Most of the answers to questions asked is on the personal plane. The answers lie in the people and the environment in which they work. In relationships within the team, those vibes around the company that help or hinder in attracting suitable employees. In other words, many of the answers are in corporate culture.

What helps companies be the best? What helps you be better than your competitors, create better products, attract better people, and perform better in business? Corporate culture. Of course, she's not the only one. Of course, everything is connected – the quality of management and the ability to finance projects and the efficiency of the company’s daily routine practices. But company culture is the connecting element. Exactly where corporate culture is aimed at creating superiority, where the cultural superiority of companies results in superiority in business and its results.

A strong culture, a winning culture, is present in companies that consider customer service as their mission. Moreover, regardless of the industry - be it steel production or Financial services. A strong corporate culture dictates high quality products. And it is the emphasis on quality and service that distinguishes successful companies.

Another important point is that the level of success is determined by how effective the average employee is. It is not advanced workers or lazy people who ensure the success of the company, but the work of average employees.

In Search of Excellence, we look at case studies of companies that have built strong cultures and outperformed their competitors, thereby creating strong results.

And although the book was written some time ago and in some cases the situation has changed, I am confident that it will be useful to all entrepreneurs and company leaders who are thinking about how to make their companies stronger and ahead of the competition.

Victor Kopchenkov,

Marketing Director at Megaplan

Acknowledgments

Two people have made this book much easier to read than it would have been without their help. This is John Cox and Jennifer Futernick. John took over our first, overly cumbersome, manuscripts, and with his help we bridged the gap between clumsy sketches and something resembling a book. John also helped us a lot through the birth pangs of getting the manuscript in shape during final editing. Jennifer Futernick was the second principal assistant on the book. At first, Jennifer's responsibility was to work with library resources and clarify the information we were interested in. However, as it turned out, Jennifer has an unusually developed sense of the printed word. She not only provided invaluable assistance in editing and proofreading the manuscript, but, more importantly, repeatedly called our attention to structural flaws in the text, statements that we could not support with facts, and verbosity. Jennifer championed our book as if it were her own and devoted an incredible amount of time and energy to working on it.

McKinsey and Company have very kindly supported our efforts to research leading companies. Many partners helped us “polish” the conclusions we came to as a result of our work. We would like to give special thanks to some of them. Warren Cannon and Ron Daniel were the (once only) people who believed in our project from the very beginning. John Katzenbach was constantly encouraging us. Alan Kennedy provided us with intellectual stimulation, as well as the opportunity to test our most unorthodox ideas in “real-life combat conditions” while other fans gasped in horror. Herb Genzler from Munich supported our first steps, believed in the practical value of our work and helped us confirm this belief in consumer trials.

In addition, Julien Phillips, Don Gogel, Jim Bennett, Jim Balone, Rajat Gupta, Bill Price, Ron Bancroft, David Min, and Bill Matassoni of McKinsey and Company were active promoters and editors of stories about leading companies.

We feel especially strongly our intellectual debt to the four luminaries in the field of organizational effectiveness. Carl Wieck of Cornell University, Gene Webb and Hal Leavitt of Stanford, and Herbert Simon of Carnegie Mellon University have been denouncing patterned thinking for decades. Personal acquaintance with the first three of them became a source of inspiration for us. We (like many others) have benefited greatly from Professor Simon's powerful ideas, although we were introduced to them only through books.

The most important contributions to the study of leading companies were made by our friends who work for them. I would especially like to highlight three of them. Rene McPherson of Dana (and now Stanford) was an endless source of inspiration. His track record as chairman of the company's board of directors proves that a mere mortal Maybe move mountains. John Young from Hewlett-Packard donated his time and, more importantly, provided significant support when we needed it most—at the very beginning. We have learned more about innovation from Tate Elder of 3M (now Allied Corporation) than from any other source.

Other notable contributions included Stan Little of Boeing, Stan Abramson of Westinghouse, Alan Gilbert of Emerson, Jim Shapiro and Ken Stahl of Xerox, Larry Small and Jack Heilshorn of Citibank, Jack Welch of GE, and Buck Rogers of IBM. Their belief that we had something to say was even more important to us than the facts they provided us with.

Equally important was the help of hundreds of anonymous participants in more than two hundred groups who became the audience for our presentations. Many of them told real stories, related to the activities of the companies we studied, which - confirming or refuting our arguments - helped make our calculations more convincing.

I adore life-as-it-is.

Tom Peters

T. Peters' books are extremely popular, especially among university graduates and middle-aged managers. Many of his ideas have become an integral part of modern theory. In 1982, co-authored with Robert Waterman ( Robert Waterman), work colleague at McKinsey, he wrote the book "In Search of Excellence" ( In Search of Excellence, 2005) - the first bestseller on management in the twentieth century. Soon the next bestseller was published - “Passion for Excellence” ( A Passion for Excellence, 1985).

“In Search of Excellence” is a publication that can be called a “classic of the genre.” In it, the authors examine models of organizational structures of the most successful US companies that have achieved amazing results and become leaders in their industries, and describe the latest trends in management. The book is addressed to managers at various levels interested in improving the efficiency of their companies, but will also be useful for a wide range of readers. It is written in a lively, engaging style and is replete with interesting facts and stories. It can be read both as a history of successful companies and as a textbook summarizing the answers to the question: “Why did these top managers achieve such brilliant results?”

In this work, Peters emphasizes that successful structural solutions are created only by taking into account the “human factor”. His research showed that a sound approach to organizational process includes at least seven variables that should be considered independent: 1) strategy, 2) structure, 3) people, 4) systems, 5) capabilities, 6) management style and 7) shared values (i.e., culture). This approach is reflected in the McKinsey 7C model ( rice. 1), at the center of which is the most important element - shared values.

Rice. 1. Types of regulatory documents

Action oriented. Employees of successful companies are encouraged (“do it, tweak it, try it”) in relation to standard operating procedures.

Proximity to the consumer. Successful companies learn from their customers.

Autonomy and entrepreneurship. Successful companies support the leadership and innovation of their employees.

People as a productivity factor. Leaders of successful companies consider ordinary employees to be the main factor in improving quality and productivity.

Local management, value orientation. The achievements of an organization depend much more on its philosophy than on the available technological or economic resources.

Loyalty to your calling. Companies that are engaged in a business that is quite familiar to them receive an advantage.

Simple structure, small staff of management personnel. The basic structural forms and systems in successful companies are elegantly simple.

A combination of flexibility and rigidity. The most successful companies combine a reasonable degree of centralization and decentralization.

“I do not advise you to be “holier than the Pope.” Politics is normal. Compromises are eternal. Troubles happen. But there is a limit to everything.

Don't work with dishonest people.

Don't work with people who don't keep their word.

Don't work with people who only care about themselves.

Don't work with idiots."

Tom Peters

Today, Peters is no longer so optimistic - it seems that in reality there are no ideal companies. And the guru, in accordance with his philosophy, boldly modifies the ideas expressed earlier: the main thing is not the pursuit of perfection, the main thing is stand out from the general mass! In today's world of ever-changing regulations and flexible boundaries, telling companies to stick to their guns sounds like a death sentence. Peters now acts as a futurist and gives recipes for success to top managers. Companies must:

shrink, even completely change its structure;

update;

making workplaces more interesting for employees.

In a series of books including The brnd You 50(1999) and Project 50(1999), Peters focuses on exploring the formation of the "new corporate citizen" ( the new corporte citizen).

“In this era, value will be created on the basis of creativity and intellectual capital... we must also (obviously) recognize that our era is truly an era of talent. Who the hell is responsible for commanding the parade, energizing the value creation process itself? People from HR!”

Tom Peters

The diagnosis for classical management is 1% effectiveness.

Of the 100 best companies in the 1917 ranking, 61 went bankrupt within 70 years. Of the 39 that survived by 1987, only 18 were still in the top 100, with the lucky 16 performing 20% below the market average between 1917 and 1987.

Only one of the 100 best companies in the world in 1917 - General Electric- performed better than the market average over the next 86 years.

Vivat GE! But in general - not so impressive...

The principles of scientific management no longer apply! Today we need to forget everything that the old management relied on: about strategic plans and quality, about assets that can be “touched.” “Sustainable competitive advantage can only be unsustainable!” - says the guru. He carefully examines the changes taking place, not so much in technology or management technologies, but in the very principles of doing business, in the picture of the world of people, as shown in Figure 2 .

“Purely for the sake of argument,” Peters proposed his “2005 Model of Economics,” in which the formula for success is:

Dell + IBM + Harley-Dvidson = Magic ,

where Dell - remove all unnecessary things,

IBM - create stunning added value of services,

Harley-Dvidson - add a truly amazing experience.

In the style of Marx’s manifesto, Peters calls: “Enterprises of all countries - collapse!” Today the time is coming for short-term projects and enterprises without property (but with maximum turnover and a minimum of employees), rather than powerful corporations. “Own nothing if you can help it. Even rent your shoes,” the author repeatedly repeats. The only thing a job should give is freedom. The futurist guru sees the “company of the future” as consisting of 300 people, with only six full-time employees (the CEO, CFO, VP of Alliances and three super project coordinators) and the remaining 294 people being independent contractors. The company does not have a headquarters, but it has a very developed information network: all employees are “mobilized” (computers, mobile phones) to the teeth.

A special place in the book is given to the topic of attracting and developing talent. How to recognize them? Tom Peters outlines the hallmarks of true corporate talent and tips for finding them:

Shows passion for his work. Look for enthusiasts.

Thinks big. Consider the strategists.

Thirsts for action. Choose action fans over theorists.

Knows how to finish what he starts. Invite people who finish the “remaining two percent” - “the first 98” are great for many...

Inspires those around you. Ask yourself: Does this inspire me personally?

Loves tension. Choose employee “players” who know how to survive in crises.

Shows curiosity. Vote for those who never stop asking questions.

Has a bunch of “crazy projects”. Call out those whose accomplishments challenge convention and bureaucracy.

The embodiment of eccentricity. In such “weird” times, hire eclectic/weird/special people.

Exudes fun. For all positions, look for not just energetic people, but people with a “spark” who can create an inspired atmosphere.

Peters is not only a Player with a capital P, but also a brilliant actor. His public speeches, as well as his books, bear a reflection of messianism. Tom Peters' lectures are always a performance, a performance (from 80 to 150 performances per year around the world). They give a boost of optimism and make you think about difficult things - about your business, about competitors, about goals and the cost of achieving them. In 2005, Kyiv top managers who attended the guru’s master class “Business Management in an Era of Change” could see this.

Leadership and Management

Thomas J. Peters is one of the world's leading experts in the field of management consulting.

According to Accenture's Institute for Strategic Change, as of May 2002, Tom Peters is ranked second among the most prominent management thinkers (after Michael Porter). The American magazine Fortune called him a “superguru” of management.

Tom Peters holds an MBA and PhD from Stanford University. He served in the US Navy in Vietnam, then in Washington (1966 to 1970). He worked as an adviser to the White House on issues of combating drug addiction (1973-1974), from 1974 to 1981 he worked in consulting company McKinsey.

In his books, he calls for the destruction and interruption of meaningless patterns and rethinking of generally accepted norms, for liberation from the burden of routine, for creativity.

Peters gained worldwide fame with his 1982 book “In Search of Excellence.” According to a poll conducted by Bloomsbury Press in 2002, she became " best book on business of all times."

Tom Peters conducts up to 80 seminars annually in various countries around the world. To date, the number of his listeners is close to 3,000,000 people.

If you don't have a trust fund in your name at hand, a radical restructuring of yourself - becoming a brand I - is simply necessary!

What I am doing now is consistent with the task of building a brand - Am I a brand? If not, well, ask yourself: is this what you’re wasting your time on?

You can't build a brand in a day. Go – walking, not running – in this direction. Play with ideas. Identify your strengths (and weaknesses). Think about “trademarks.” Try them on for yourself. Customize it to suit you. Be focused, but don't panic.

...there is enough audacity in each of us, that audacity that is systematically suppressed by an education system that is mainly focused on teaching us what we should not to do, and hierarchy-obsessed employers who don’t trust us to take initiative and come up with something new. And this initiative strives - greedily! impatiently! - to release.

Be obsessed. Obsessed with the beginning. Obsessed with the end. Obsessed with clients. Your own “signature” of the I-brand. Be obsessed with what DOES matter. Obsession makes our world a little better. Sounds naive? Well, sorry. Cynicism is for losers. It's easy to be cynical. No problem. But cynicism is deadly boring. Have the courage to be naive.

The main obstacle to realizing yourself as a self-brand is in your head. You need to learn to think independently.

Most of us, even if we earn a salary somewhere, need to work at acquiring these business skills. Work consciously.

Improving your business skills will only improve the quality of the services you “sell” within your department.

You simply need to know a lot about something that is of great value to potential clients. Determining factor: no obviously in demand skills = no success as a self-brand.

A lost day... even a lost hour!.. is a LOSS.

You - and only you! – you are ultimately responsible for how much your actions today will strengthen – or weaken – your list of achievements.

You don't have to be born wearing a shirt (or a corporate uniform) to be successful. What you need is passion, conviction, a few friends... and All-consuming desire take the next, usually tiny, step.

From book "Turn yourself into a brand! 50 surefire ways to stop being mediocre »