Title and author: looking for wow by Tom Peters
Content synopsis:
In this 1994 bestseller, Tom Peters collects anecdotes, interviews, observations, and insights. While some of the content on it is a bit dated, most of it is still current and relevant. It stimulates thought and challenges us to reconsider all the truths about business, management and how to motivate people.
Peters collected these things for over 25 years. It’s kind of like a hodgepodge of things without a cohesive design. I think she intended it that way. These are things that were or were not included in other books he wrote. What most of them have in common is a tendency to challenge contemporary thinking and ways of doing things. There are so many good ideas and challenging questions in the book that it’s hard to characterize it in one sentence.
Now talk about how to do things. It talks about how to motivate the people who work for us and with us. It challenges us to look ahead, to break the mold, to find new ways of doing things and to be creative. It recognizes the importance of emerging Asia in the market and the value of diversity in the workplace.
I probably highlighted more quotes and observations in this book than in many others. It is full of intriguing thoughts. Some of his ideas go against the common wisdom of our time. He attacks the goals and says that they have little value. He challenges hierarchical structures and discussed what was then a relatively new concept in floor management systems.
It brings together small groups of entrepreneurs and invites them to discuss issues that concern them and are active in their businesses. The emphasis here is on what is changing, what is no longer working, and more importantly, what is now working.
Even though some of the events he discusses date back to the early 1990s, it’s remarkable how much of them are relevant today. The change we see in the world today, in business and society, did not happen overnight. It evolved over many decades and we only see a snapshot of what it looks like at any given time. In this book you see that snapshot of 1994 but you also see the direction of things to come, things new or even revolutionary then and well established now.
Utility:
Although this book contains some practical advice on how to work with people, how to manage organizations in a new global economy, etc., its greatest contribution is to stimulate thinking about change and how we should keep up with it and use it. This book still makes you think and still challenges many things you think you know.
Readability/Writing Quality:
Well written, this book is one you can put down and come back to at any time. You can even start anywhere in the book and stop and skip. It is not built from a structure. It is a collection of things, some new, some old, some perhaps more valid than others.
Notes about the author:
Tom Peters calls himself a business visionary. He is a consultant and author who speaks regularly with Fortune 500 companies and writes for all of us.
Three great ideas you can use:
1. When choosing a career: Do what excites you, not what the statistics say will generate the most job opportunities. If you can’t be passionate about your work, you’re likely to get bored or worse.
2. Design is important, both in products and services. You must learn the importance of design in order to expand and be successful.
3. While Peters admits that he likes incrementalism, the gradual improvement of things, he argues that the world is changing too fast to rely on it entirely. The current change must be rapid and somewhat radical to be effective in the market.
Release information:
looking for wow by Tom Peters
Copyright: 1994 by Excel / Published by Vintage Books, Random House.
