Tom Peters Quotes

born 1942 United States

Thomas J. "Tom" Peters (born November 7, 1942) is an American writer on business management practices, best-known for In Search of Excellence co-authored with Robert H. Waterman.

United States
Business theorists
Non-fiction authors
Orators

Also known as: Thomas J. Peters, Thomas Peters

Random Tom Peters quote

50 quotes

EXCELLENCE in <140 Characters: Cherish your people, cuddle your customers, wander around, “try it” beats “talk about it,” Excellence or else, tell the truth.

If not excellence, what? If not excellence now, when?

The Little Big Things: 163 Ways To Pursue Excellence (2010)

No such thing as a 'non-leader.' Every day offers every one of us scads of leadership opportunities.

Punctuality at meetings influences culture of punctuality, i.e., promise-keeping in general, on-time deliveries, etc.

Without exception, the dominance and coherence of culture proved to be an essential quality of the excellent companies.

In Search of Excellence (1982)

Musing on the phrase ‘waste of time.’ So much more complex than it appears. Many ‘wastes of time’—small talk, daydreaming—are imperatives.”

In the age of advancing AI, humans’ advantage is diversity—twists and turns and acts of customer love and amazement that the algorithms can’t match!

‘Soft’ skills will be 10X more important in a virtual/work-at-home world. Team dynamics, individual growth, team creativity will dominate effectiveness.”

Make the collective, professional pursuit of listening skills per se a keystone of corporate 'culture'.

The most important personal ‘core competence’ by far is a rich set of relationships.

Machines can automate a lot of things, but design is something humans do best.

In fact, we wonder whether it is possible to be an excellent company without clarity on values and without having the right sorts of values.

Hire for all jobs based on empathy. Employ people who care about people; everything else can be trained.

Superb relationships are at the heart of success. Kindness is the core of superb relationships.

Success is about executing what you are doing today with unquestionable, breathtaking excellence.

The vitality of our network will determine our professional fate.

The Little Big Things: 163 Ways To Pursue Excellence (2010)

Creating in all employees the awareness that their best efforts are essential and that they will share in the rewards of the company's success.

In Search of Excellence (1982)

Reward excellent failures. Punish mediocre successes.

The Little Big Things: 163 Ways To Pursue Excellence (2010)

Design that matters infuses HR and Purchasing and Finance as much as product development.

Design, writ large, is increasingly the route to product or service differentiation.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Tom Peters (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.