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One simply cannot pay tribute to Stephen Covey without saying at the outset that he was a lovely human being.

Tom Peters

If there is a single tragic flaw that mars our biggest enterprises, it is conservatism – the failure to fail, and fail big, in an era of unprecedented volatility and ambiguity.
TOM PETERS

Ambiguity Era Flaws Mars Unprecedented Volatility
Vision is dandy, but sustainable company excellence comes from a huge stable of able managers.
TOM PETERS

Able Excellence Vision
I don’t want the 35-year-olds in my audience to think of me as as ‘pops’ giving the kind of advice that only 65-year-olds can understand.
TOM PETERS

Giving Thinking Understand Years
Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, manufacturing… layout, processes, and procedures.
TOM PETERS

Business Design Poor Process Quality
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.
TOM PETERS

Believe Friends Ideas
It doesn’t matter what product or service you’re offering; there is unlimited ability to improve the quality of anything.
TOM PETERS

Anything Matter Offering Quality
Who comes first? Don’t be silly, says King Hal; it’s employees. That is – and this dear Watson, is elementary – if you genuinely want to put customers first, you must put employees more first.
TOM PETERS

Business Customer Genuine Kings Silly
Customers perceive service in their own unique, idiosyncratic, emotional, irrational, end-of-the-day, and totally human terms. Perception is all there is!
TOM PETERS

Educational Funny Leadership
A vibrant, rich, growing corpus of public-domain books is a vital public good – similar to parks, the infrastructure of basic services, and other hallmarks of any advanced society.
TOM PETERS

Book Growing Hallmark Parks
Don’t ‘tolerate’ mistakes. Embrace them!
TOM PETERS

Business Mistake Training
The workplace revolution that transformed the lives of blue-collar workers in the 1970s and 1980s is finally reaching the offices and cubicles of the white-collar workers.
TOM PETERS

Blue Office Revolution White
Celebrate what you want to see more of.
TOM PETERS

Inspirational Life Motivational
The race will go to the curious, the slightly mad, and those with an un-satiated passion for learning and dare-deviltry.
TOM PETERS

Deviltry Mad Passion Race
Success requires a persistent misreading of the odds.
TOM PETERS

Misreading Odds Persistent
The dominant culture in most big companies demands punishment for a mistake, no matter how useful, small, invisible.
TOM PETERS

Culture Mistake Punishment
How do you achieve excellence?…Stop doing non-excellent stuff!
TOM PETERS

Achieve Excellence Stuff

One simply cannot pay tribute to Stephen Covey without saying at the outset that he was a lovely human being.

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One simply cannot pay tribute to Stephen Covey without saying at the outset that he was a lovely human being.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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