Customer Reviews

The Circle of Innovation: You Can't Shrink Your Way to Greatness

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Be warned that if you like unusual formats, you'll find this book refreshing. If you hate anything unusual, you may not like this book.

The Circle of Innovation is written in slide book form. This is the form that consultants use for seminars. Each exhibit that the seminar attendees will see is included, along with a page of script that covers the content of the exhibit. The result is highly enjoyable, as you vicariously imagine being in the room with Tom Peters, the world's most sought-after business speaker.

The exhibits are wonderfully funny and evocative, and use all kinds of visual tricks to get and keep your attention. I had people all over the plane looking over my shoulder to see them, as I read the book on a recent flight.

Tom Peters also walks his talk, and really lives with passion -- which strongly comes through in this book. His interpretations of the world are almost always tied to quotes from important thinkers and business leaders, which gives the book a relevance and immediacy that a more intellectual book would have lacked.

I found this book to be very satisfying to read. It affected me at a very fundamental level, so I could tell that I was "getting" the message. The result is a most impressive example of a way to communicate through books. The principles seem to be sound in most cases (although not all markets are dominated by women purchasers -- such as boxing gloves, football tickets, Viagra, etc. -- but many are, such as cars), and they should stimulate your thinking to expand the scope of the innovations you think about.

The book could have been improved with a consideration of processes that work better than others for getting the innovation work done. For that assistance, you will have to look elsewhere. In the meantime, do read, think about, enjoy, and apply the lessons of The Circle of Innovation.

Another good book on innovation is Peter Drucker's Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

THE CIRCLE OF INNOVATION is written in slide book form. This is the form that consultants use for seminars. Each exhibit that the seminar attendees will see is included, along with a page of script that covers the content of the exhibit. The result is highly enjoyable, as you vicariously imagine being in the room with Tom Peters, the world's most sought-after business speaker. The exhibits are wonderfully funny and evocative, and use all kinds of visual tricks to get and keep your attention. I had people all over the plane looking over my shoulder to see them, as I read the book on a recent flight. Tom Peters also walks his talk, and really lives with passion -- which strongly comes through in this book. His interpretations of the world are almost always tied to quotes from important thinkers and business leaders, which gives the book a relevance and immediacy that a more cerebral book would have lacked. I found this book to be very satisfying to read. It affected me at a very fundamental level, so I could tell that I was "getting" the message. The result is a most impressive example of a way to communicate through books. The principles seem to be sound in most cases (although not all markets are dominated by women purchasers -- such as boxing gloves -- but many are such as cars), and they should stimulate your thinking to expand the scope of the innovations you think about. The book could have been improved with a consideration of processes that work better than others for getting the innovation work done. For that assistance, you will have to look elsewhere. In the meantime, do read, think about, enjoy, and apply the lessons of THE CIRCLE OF INNOVATION.

Peters zeros in on innovation as the touchstone for success, along with a passionate presentation of fifteen other related ideas such as: distance is dead; destruction is cool; we are all Michelangelos; welcome to the white - collar revolution; the intermediary is doomed; and the system is the solution. The book's visual layout model's its theme which is - It is the end of the world as we know it, so whatever made you successful in the past won't in the future. What, then, can you do? The answer is...innovation! This is another WOW book, exuding the excitement and novelty that makes Tom Peters, himself, a living example of what he passionately and entertainingly writes about. Peters delivers content in a form that breaks all book 'rules,' using a plethora of P. T. Barnum pizazz. Among business books, that's innovative! I don't think Peters expects or wants you to read this book, but to experience it. It is a bit more like a roller-coaster than a book, with zigs and zag! s and lots of zip. Still, for all its flare, this is not a ground-breaking work, falling short of Peters' Liberation Management.

Save your money because there are far better business books available. I purchased Tom Peters' Circle of Innovation based on the recommendation from a business associate. As soon as the book arrived I realized that I had wasted nearly $25.00. Tom Peters saw an opportunity and has packaged his business notes in order to earn another million. There are few new thoughts in the book. The writing style is breathless like the evening news, and the graphical presentation is similar to a comic book.

Other business books are far better. Tom Peters, with his top-tier business school and consulting credentials, may claim to understand enterprise but Tom Peters needs to get his hands dirty with honest experience. Other authors such as Ricardo Semler in Maverick actually accomplished what Tom Peters discusses. Instead of reading Tom Peters talk about change and the future, read Ricardo Semler describing implementing actual change in a company. And then look out if a compa! ny following Semler's ideas decides to compete in your industry.

Tom Peters has great promise, but I believe that he needs actual business experience to complete his resume. He appears to lack the commitment, passion, and the deeper understanding that can only come from actually implementing ideas and living with the results and the criticism.

After reading Circle of Innovation, my one overriding desire was to ask Mr. Peters for a full price refund.

This book epitomizes the silicon valley market-first, study-later (or never) approach that inflated the speculative high-tech market in the late 90s and subsequently left many of those innovaters and their investors out on the street.

To be sure, this book makes a lot of good points about the importance of pushing an organization for innovation and driving the top line. I once worked for a 150 year old company that was managed such that everyone who dealt with it became aware of its age. This would have been a good book for them. However, the overall approach seems too radical, even reckless, to me. Speed and change are of course desireable, often, but when businesses take gambles, they do so with other people's money and livelihoods. The book was lacking in solid advice about how to implement quick change thoughtfully.

I also didn't appreciate the writing style. The "slides followed by commentary" layout was okay, although I don't think it added much. But the prose was so informal and cutesy that it made the book unnecessarily tedious to read. ("Read. R-E-A-D. Yup, that's what I said, READ! And I mean it." That kind of writing.) My two-year-old enjoyed the photos.

It was worthwhile reading this book for its perspective, but sitting here in the fall of 2001, I can only give it a half-hearted recommendation.

Is it any wonder that the Baffler's Thomas Frank gives this super-guru such a hard time?

Peters hijacks the 60s era rhetoric of revolution and creative mayhem and spins it into an ego stroker for the Palm Pilot and BMW set.

So what if you manufacture overpriced paper cups for a living. You're in business and business is COOL! You're hip! You're CREATIVE! You're a REVOLUTIONARY.

Destruction is cool too... but don't go smashing up the WTO or IMF. NO! Blow up your own organization! Be ineficient! Forget the rules! R-E-V-O-L-U-T-I-O-N!

Of course we all know this isn't a book for people burning to change the world, or for those already overflowing with creative energy. It's a self help book for execs who want to sell more paper cups, move to a better suburb and buy a new imported car. If that's you then buy it. It's fun. Go a little crazy and feel good about yourself.

If it's not here's a B-I-G Idea: Forget it.

WARNING! This book is not for the die hard, stuffy, stereotypical management theorist. It is a innovative and easy to read look into the world of management "Tom Peters" style. What has now become a trade-mark writing style Peters uses a very personal style to get across some sensational ideas.

Even though it was written pre-dotcom bust AND it is almost 6 years old, a lot of the ideas are still very relevant.

Short, punchy and still very enlightening!

Don't be overwhelmed by the size of this book. You can go through it rather quickly since most of the pages have graphical text - big fonts and just like PPT presentations. If you are not used to or don't like graphics and presentations, you may have a hard time with this book (as you can see from other reviews). But it is kind of a breakthough book in terms of the style.
Most of the ideas are very useful, most of the examples are very genuine in how it relates to the theory.

For those who may be annoyed with the style of this book, my only request is, look beyond the style for the content or the gist.

Peters excells in this thought provoking book on innovation. This book will cause you to re-think age old principals and ideas that are cemented into your thinking. Written, truely, like a Power Point presentation with exceptional visuals- a reader can review tid bits of the information at a time- with gaps of time imbetween. Great for busy execs that travel.

This book WILL change the way you think. Great Job Tom Peters!

While his examples may change with time, Tom clearly is enthusiastic about what is going on in the world, and has radical ideas how to respond. Be radical. Innovate. This book is based on his seminars and is very slide specific. However, I listened to the audio tape, and found the reading of the slides message by a different voice, allowed the "picture" to become clear in my mind. This is still no substitute for one of his live programs, but great for a refresher.