Tom Peters is in town and should not be missed. Peters has been a major inspiration, reference and guiding light for Get Down To Business in the past few years. Why is that? Because since his early days of "In Search Of Excellence", till today, Tom Peters has been talking human-to-human, not as merely a business conservative! Attending one of his seminars is like going soul searching, but in business terms. You end up asking yourself questions, simple questions you thought you always had their answers. Managers are often too busy looking "outside" to spend enough energy looking "inside". They spend most of their meeting time searching for better ways for improvement, often forgetting the inside. Peters' words would come as a sort of mediation, a wake-up call! This time around, Peters focuses on three main themes. They could be summoned in three words "Perform, Innovate, Dominate". He envisions this as follows: Perform: You and your business: Why the business of business is business and always should be. Innovate: You and your leadership skills: Identifying the three types of leadership, the creator, the destroyer and the preserver Dominate: You and your market: What's hot and what's not? Who will win and who's going to lose in the New World Order? In his seminars, Peters will exert no effort to attack his guest managers and leaders throwing his harsh, but still humorous, comments about the way business is conducted today! His drive is on how the business world could become a better place for everyone, only if those managers took the time to just check the realities. In its original basic form, performance should be linked to pre-set targets that are articulated to all employees who, in turn, internalise the message and subsequently convey it to their customer. We all know that, but we tend to forget it at times! Leadership could play a major role in capturing more opportunities and integrate those into those pre-set targets. Peters' reading in leadership goes to the three styles: creator, destroyer and preserver. Could it be that Tom Peters would see the leader as creator of updated customer-oriented processes, destroy old-fashioned "we've-always-done-it-this-way" standards and preserve the good old culture, values and visions that keep the business rolling? And finally, what would ultimately keep you in the business in those turbulent times. The New World Order has changed a lot of our business beliefs. It is a major on-going paradigm shift that leaves not many businesses surviving. And when the dust clears, not many businesses will be standing tall. Which key duties any good leader needs to observe and maintain to keep his/her company upfront? Peters talks about market domination, not merely surviving in the crazy world. The answers to those challenges come from within the leaders as they go through a Tom awareness session, if you may call it that. Those moments of truth are simple, almost naïve, but hardly get considered. Let's consider the little big things….little solutions that impact a long term business, and a long lasting customer-employee-leader relationship. Final words: In his own words, Tom Peters said: "Have you at every meeting today (and forevermore) re-directed the conversation to the practicalities of implementation concerning some issue before the group?" "High ethical standards--business or otherwise--are, above all, about treating people decently. To me, that means respect for a person's opinions, privacy, background, dignity, and natural desire to grow." "In Search of Excellence ... Delightfully, our research showed that some very human "basics"-doing rather than talking, focusing on the growth and well-being of our people and our customers, and being clear about "what we care about around here" --were the apparent bedrock of superior performance.” "Do something ... in the next half hour! Don't let yourself get stuck! There is ... ALWAYS ... something little you can start/do in the next thirty minutes to make a wee, concrete step forward with a problem-opportunity.” "Leadership is all about love: Passion, Enthusiasm, Appetite for Life, Engagement, Commitment, Great Causes & Determination to Make a Damn Difference, Shared Adventures, Bizarre Failures, Growth, Insatiable Appetite for Change."
