Episode 4: Tom Peters
Highlights:
Tom Peters is not a philosopher or a social historian like Peter
Drucker. He no longer has any all-embracing theories of the
world of organisations nor any formulas for change but he gets
under the skin of an organisation.
His first big book, 'In Search Of Excellence' came out in 1982 and
made Tom a fashionable guru. The book looked at 43 successful
companies and analysed the reasons for their success over twenty
years. Peters and Waterman came up with:
eight characteristics of excellence:
- they were do-ers
- they understood their clients' needs
- they were independent and innovative
- they believed in productivity through people
- they were hands-on and value-driven
- they only did what they did best
- had a simple form and lean staff
- and had a tight-loose structure
and
seven checkpoints for analysis, the Seven S Framework:
Strategy, Structure and Systems, the so-called hard S's
and
Staff, Style, Shared Values and Skills, the so-called soft S's
The trouble was that the 43 excellent companies did not stay excellent
for long. Many, including the star of the book, the computer company
IBM, faltered soon after. Peters apologised in his later
books.
The whole world of work, he realised, was changing. Ninety per cent
of jobs, were likely to be completely transformed or eliminated
in the next ten to twenty years and each of us would have to take
control of our own destiny and look after ourselves. Peters
predicted that women would be more and more important to organisations
because they were better at the softer S factors in Peters' S Framework.
Our next guru is a good friend of Tom Peters and shares his belief
in the need to harness the talents and enthusiasms of the
individual to the mission of the organisation. His name is Warren
Bennis.
Read Tom Peters'
biography
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