Explore Quotes by Tom Peters

We cannot innovate without opening the door to havoc.

Have you thanked a front-line employee for carrying around a great attitude ... today?

Rewards should go to teams as a whole.

And remember: Everything in business is a paradox. To be excellent, you have to be consistent. When you're consistent, you're vulnerable to attack. Yes, it's a paradox. Now deal with it!

Bold botches are to be cherished.

Fact is, the work place to a great extent is "where we live." We need star accountants. Boffo saleswomen. Over-the-top creatives in marketing and new product development. And so on. But, since we're effectively talking about "where we live," good sense and good business and "good" engagement throughout the "supply chain," from vendor's vendor to customer's customer, we would benefit mightily-including on the P & L-if we insisted (!) on: "Pleasant." "Caring." "Engaged."

I don't believe in holy writ. Buy fifty books or twenty-five books, take three weeks off, read them and make up your own theory. The fact that you end up literally burning twenty-two out of twenty-five books is beside the point.

Accept change as a friend. And don't take yourself too seriously.

Treat the customer as an appreciating asset.

Quite simply, no matter how hard you try, no matter how "open" you are, you'll end up surrounded by "yes people." It's hard not to believe people who are repeating your own ideas. Resist the temptation.

Every managerial act must be seen as an unequivocal support for urgency in pursuit of constant testing, change, and improvement.

The widespread availability of information is the only basis for effective day-to-day problem solving, which abets continuous improvement programs.

TRUST, not technology, is the issue of the decade.

Appreciation, applause, approval, respect - we all love it!

My real bottom-line hypothesis is that nobody has a sweet clue what they’re doing. Therefore you better be trying stuff at an insanely rapid pace. You want to be screwing around with nearly everything. Relentless experimentation was probably important in the 1970s-now it’s do or die.

Listen to Everyone. Ideas come from everywhere

Don't settle for less than is possible.

If the person you delegated to does the job twice as well as you would have done it, consider yourself a leader.

Only those who constantly retool themselves stand a chance of staying employed in the years ahead.

Screw-ups are the mark of excellence.

There is no such thing as an insignificant improvement.