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Tom Peters asked me to "craft the foreword"
for his new book, and I am honored to do so. It may be superfluous—he has never had
one in his earlier books and needs no help from me in setting his own stage. So, to add to
the usefulness of his latest work, I am adopting the role of the reader, walking in front
(of the book) and pointing to some of its potential. Soon to be published by Alfred A.
Knopf, Inc., here follows the foreword to Tom Peters’ Circle of Innovation. - Dean
LeBaron And Here's... Tom... Again Dean LeBaron Business—successful business—is more visceral than cerebral. If we study what others do, we may find ways to read markets, but we will never discover ways to lead them. Tom Peters is more visceral than cerebral. He feels business in his gut. I don’t mean to ignore his doctorate from Stanford, his years in McKinsey’s ivory tower, or his enormous contributions to management theory and practice, beginning with the publication of In Search of Excellence. But what distinguishes Tom is this: passion and passionate energy. He moves when he sees opportunity. He hurts when he sees mediocrity. He exults when he sees innovation. Tom is a friend. A few months ago, he invited me to one of his trademark seminars in Detroit. I had read his books, worked with him on business problems, dined with him, bantered with him as friends often do. In our case, given the global nature of our travel schedules, the banter is frequently electronic. While I watched him in Detroit, I was reminded of evangelists. Like them, Tom is transforming peoples’ lives. Like them, he conveys profound and passionate beliefs. And, like them, he heals. While evangelists use the power of the spirit to heal the body, Tom uses the power of ideas to transform business. Tom moves globally (he’s comfortable anywhere), pillories the guilty (including himself), never sleeps (I can tell by the time stamp on his emails), and reads and retains everything (his reading list would credit a good college library). He processes ideas from everywhere and puts his own spin on them. No one is a harsher critic of Tom than Tom. The decay rate of ideas in his head is faster than a child’s attention span. Tom is always testing himself. He thrives in the soup of change. He is always, if you will forgive the pun, in search of something better, something "wow." His intellectual bar is rising all the time. So he experiments, usually in public. Once in a while, he falls flat, but most of the time he soars. You have to make mistakes, he says. You need to have a quota of mistakes, and Tom has his. Tom is sometimes accused of inconsistency, and he is guilty—thank goodness. He believes that any idea worth having is worth changing, and I, and many others, agree. Creative thinkers like Tom are different from the rest of us. They see what we overlook. Tom takes an idea and turns it into what others can’t. He turns learning organizations into forgetting organizations. He turns change management into an exercise in destruction. He turns hotel housekeepers into Michaelangelos. Like all explorers, Tom leads us on a path of discovery. Like all true innovators, he is both maverick and a champion of mavericks. We meet people he admires, such as Percy Barnevik of Asea Brown Boveri ABB, Bill Gates of Microsoft, and Alfred Sloan of General Motors. You don’t have to be alive to be admired by Tom, but you do have to really have lived. His many stories of success and failure illuminate our own situations. Lakeland Hospital shows us that no job description is sacrosanct. It illustrates the limits of reengineering as well as opportunities for entirely new structures. It demonstrates that technology we can’t understand, can’t anticipate, and can’t control may be life or death for us and our businesses. We can appreciate the originality of Tom’s books and seminars, but we really should do more. What Tom writes is important, but what you do with it is what really counts. His exhortations are nothing if not applied. I suspect Tom places more value in how we read his book than how he writes it. It is easy to follow him—just go with the flow. It’s tempting to read quickly, not pausing to ponder nuances. Personally, I imagine Tom would approve of that approach. But I suggest a second read with a pencil or highlighter. Take notes. They are the first step in what I’m sure will be an unfolding conversation with Tom. I know from experience it’s a conversation like no other. Tom ends his book with a chapter entitled, "We’re Here To Live Life Out Loud." It’s a paraphrase of a quote from French novelist Emile Zola, and one I’ve heard him repeat often, and, I might add, loudly. Tom has turned up the volume for me. I think The Circle of Innovation will do the same for you. Dean LeBaron |
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