The Tom Peters Interview – “Excellence NOW”

In what may be one of the great understatements, Tom Peters’ mother once remarked that her son “was a pretty good talker.” We’ve had the pleasure, along with you, of watching Tom over many decades and know that his particular brand of “talk” led a revolution in management aka they way people run enterprises, leading to a re-definition of what work itself has become.   He summed up what is possible for the new world of work if you were willing to fight for excellence in another word he made into a business icon, (one of the last two last words that Steve Jobs was said by his sister Mona Simpson to have uttered)…WOW! As in Oh wow!  Perhaps his friend Warren Bennis said it best: “If Peter Drucker invented modern management, Tom Peters made it Technicolor.”

Over a decade ago, starting around the year 2000, Tom repeatedly warned global audiences that tectonic plates were shifting and the “White Collar Revolution” i.e., the destruction of status quo jobs, as we know them, was coming.   Given that he was more than his desired standard for himself, “five minutes ahead,” on the restructuring of said global economy, we were anxious to hear his take NOW, with the turmoil in the markets and the minds of business people, and the shaky state of consumer confidence. We caught up with Tom a few weeks ago between speeches, and on the eve of the publication of his newest book, an e-book only available on i-Tunes, Excellence Now.

IX: And how are you?

Tom: I’m getting older – the only thing that counts is to look in the mirror…and know that you did something that mattered.

IX: I haven’t talked to you in a while. But I feel like I talk to you because I see your tweets fly across the screen of my iPhone.

Tom: I know! I love it. I’m having fun with Twitter – it’s a disciplining medium.

IX: But a medium seemingly designed for you…you of the sound bite!

Tom: Had Twitter been invented earlier, my books would have been shorter.

IX: But probably not your speeches.

Tom: Very funny.

IX: Here in fact is how you summarized In Search of Excellence in 127 characters including quotation marks and spaces: “Cherish your people, cuddle your customers, wander around, ‘try it’ beats ‘talk about it,’ pursue excellence, tell the truth.”You brought it into the public’s consciousness with In Search of Excellence in 1982. Where are you on “excellence” today?

Tom: I’m fundamentally not interested in the Fortune 500 companies – in US, Mexico, anywhere. The real backbones of economic growth are small and medium businesses. What really interests me is the degree to which excellence is practiced by the one-woman accountancy – the woman who left JP Morgan Chase to start her own CPA shop or investment banking business, the five guys in the start-up who are inventing stuff. That’s where I look for excellence now. These are people who are committed to finding the right circumstance, making the difference. Of course we need the big guys – but when it comes to innovation, small and medium businesses are where it’s at. Most of the other gurus write about GE and publicly traded companies.   I say…’You guys can take of care yourselves.’ Give me the 16, 66 or 166 person enterprise any day.

IX: Let’s go back to the beginning of your obsession with excellence. How did it start?

Tom: It started long ago – in the 80′s, as the term that Nancy Austin and I to the best of my knowledge invented was “Pockets of Excellence.”   Here’s what it meant.  You can be stuck in the biggest shit organization – and you can still be the role model – since it’s your life…and it’s not their life. I lectured everyone – even elementary school principals on it.  No one should be a victim of any system.

IX: What should be most important to business people right now?

Tom: No one disagrees that there are few things that are more important than innovation or growth these days. I’m adding a small twist to that – it’s what I call my innovation equality act. When we think of innovation traditionally we think of R&D and new product development. Innovation and R&D budgets of significance are equally important in every single piece of the organization. They are important in the Logistics function, in HR, Training, and Finance. Innovation and R&D are about every single nook and cranny within the organization. It’s not just a marketing thing. Think about it. An R&D budget that only cares about new product development. That is genuinely and truly dumb. You are just as likely to find that elusive competitive advantage in Purchasing or HR as you are in Engineering.

IX: The world’s economy is kind of a mess isn’t it. What do you think?

Tom: What our leaders have singularly failed at this moment is to do the Churchill, Mandela, Roosevelt thing…smile in the face of shit covering the fan…you have to worry about confidence every day.   Leaders have to find and use the right tone…magic confidence is probably the right idea.

The real opportunities are in tough times. Ironically – - historically – many innovations have come in times of war – I will dream up any damn time in history and show you that innovation and crappy times are handmaidens.

IX: So we all have to be handmaidens?

Tom: It’s more important now. It’s more legitimate…and if you’re smart, you can get more cover. And particularly – the work you do matters more than ever. It continues to brand you. It’s a magical time for brand you. The work we did in those little books nailed it: The WowProject50, The PSF50…and the BrandYou50. The targets for that kind of focused personal work are anywhere, everywhere…the one person accountancy…the one laid off person…can use social media, twitter, create their own apps and their own opportunities.

IX: What are some of the areas ripe for innovation today?

Tom: No! You are NOT going to trap me with that one! Too many to name — the duller the niche the better. OK. Here’s one: Patient Safety, patient-centric care in hospitals. 90% of screw ups in hospitals are in sports terminology ‘unforced errors.’ There was a fabulous cover story by Sharon Begley in Newsweek…the essence of which was ‘not another drug that interacts with other drugs badly with only you to referee.’

IX: Given all of this what would your next book be?

Tom: I’m not sure I’ll take this on but if I were going to do another big research-driven book I’d call it In Search of Excellence – Examples of America’s Safest Hospitals.

IX: And you have a new e-book, Excellence Now, with a great Credo that people can download.  I like the line about being an explorer.

Tom: The answer is still Excellence. The book is a bunch of short takes on excellence….

IX: And in closing?

Tom: One riff that I have been using that I really like…Excellence is not an aspiration. Excellence is what you do in the next five minutes.

IX: Happy Birthday Tom.

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Julie Anixter is Chief Innovation Officer at Maga Design and the managing editor and co-founder of Innovation Excellence.  She worked with Tom for five years on a variety of WOW Projects.

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