Re-Imagine! Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age (Hardcover)

by Tom Peters (Author) "On September 11, 2001, a tiny band of Internet-savvy fundamentalists humbled the world's only superpower..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, United States, Technicolor Rules (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
After decades with Knopf, influential management guru Peters switches to DK in an effort to "reinvent the business book," and while the results don't quite live up to the hyperbole, the new publisher allows for a looser design strategy that complements the author's increasingly stream-of-consciousness writing. Gray dotted lines lead from the main text to sidebars topped with category-identifying icons, and words' size, color and even typeface refuse to stay stable within a single sentence. (Design is clearly on his mind; one of the book's best passages is a rant against the poor ergonomics of the desk chairs in hotel suites.) The book's themes are mostly the same ones Peters has been developing since 1997's The Circle of Innovation and its follow-ups: small professional service firms are the wave of the future, successful companies sell dreams instead of products, and so on. Some of his ideas, like the unlimited potential of the Internet, have begun to wear a bit thin, while others need overhauling thanks to the recession. There are strong chapters on the spending power of women and the need to restructure the American education system, but not all the new twists are as satisfying. He takes on the 9/11 attacks in two business analogies: while the first interpretation of 9/11-small improvisational teams succeed against bloated infrastructures-rings true, many readers may find the second conclusion ("the Age of Large Numbers of Human Beings Crammed into Tall Towers is over") a bit tactless. But give Peters credit for being willing to stick his neck out, and expect loyal readers to follow him down this path once again.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
In Tom's world, it's always better to try a swan dive and deliver a colossal belly flop than to step timidly off the board while holding your nose. -- Fast Company, October 2003

No matter how his message is transmitted, what's wonderful about Peters is his restless mind and love of learning. -- USA TODAY, November 13, 2003

Peters is passionate, egotistical, evangelical, outrageous and often maddeningly simplistic- but always provocative and fun. -- Washington Post, October 26, 2003

Peters is the Michel Foucault of the management world: a scourge of the rationalist tradition and a celebrant of the creative necessity of chaos and craziness. -- Financial Times, September 23,2003

Tom Peters is the most provocative and engaging(as well as annoying and threatening) management guru running loose in America Today. -- CBS MarketWatch, October 28, 2003

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: DK Publishing; 1ST edition (October 6, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078949647X
• ISBN-13: 978-0789496478
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (68 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #196,020 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Peters' best yet--including its failures!, January 8, 2004

By	David E. Rogers (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Before we take a step further, I have to come clean:

While managing my career, I have placed bets on Tom Peters.

There. I feel much better. And (Pete Rose's overdue confession aside) it's completely true. I have indeed gambled on Tom Peters. Not on Peters himself, but on his ideas and his advice.

His three little books from 1999--"The Brand You 50," "The Professional Service Firm 50" and "The Project 50"--played a powerful role in my decision to leave a truly dead-end job in 2000 and become a free agent. My career and my life are immeasurably richer today, thanks in part to Peters' passionate and sometimes bombastic ideas.

Given that, you'd be right to guess that I snapped up his latest work, "Re-Imagine! Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age" in the blink of an eye. I'm glad I did, though I'm not saying that Re-Imagine! is flawless. It's not. But it is eminently worthy of your time and especially so if you have never read Peters before.

Let's start with the book itself--not its contents, but its design. In jumping from his longtime publisher Knopf to design-driven DK (Dorling Kindersley), Peters takes a big chug of his own medicine. In previous books (and continuing in Re-Imagine), he has argued that design is critical to success. And this book's design is indeed a departure from "traditional" business books. It doesn't look like management book nor act like a management book. It's chockful of vivid photos, bold colors (especially Peters' trademark red), icons and imaginative screening. Marginal callouts are not fluff, but vital expressions of the soul of the book, linked to corresponding paragraphs by soft-colored swoops and lines.

It's a great experiment. I'm just not sure it how well it works. For example, many of the photos have a stock, even clip-art, feel to them--and the credits indeed reveal their stock origins. Sometimes the screened words, colors and images behind the text make reading unnecessarily difficult. Yet I loved the way the marginal callouts drew and amplified key points--and the "Was/Is" comparisons at the end of each chapter are simply marvelous.

In short, the daring design is a mixed bag. It's taking a risk--something Peters himself preaches. He's fond of quoting Phil Daniels: "Reward excellent failures. Punish mediocre successes." To this reader, Re-Imagine's design falls into the former category.

Fortunately, it's what Peters says that's most important. And Re-Imagine! is the single best work TP has produced, and a terrific summary of the ideas he has been spouting for umpteen years. If you haven't read Peters and wonder what all the noise is about, this is the best place to begin.

But hang tough. After an inspiring, even startling, introduction, Re-Imagine! starts slowly. Those used to Peter's histrionics and fireworks might feel disappointed. I certainly was--until I realized what was happening. Like a great litigator, TP builds his case quietly and firmly, building a bedrock that can handle the bomb bursts of his later frenzies. Momentum builds as Peters steadily presents his theme: We're in a new business climate and we'd better make some big changes.

And what changes does Peters propose--or, shall I say, demand? Try these on for size:

* Basing all business (from the smallest department to the biggest megacorp) on projects and the professional service firm model, thus increasing value.

* Embracing branding and design--and providing experiences to Clients rather than just products and services.

* Charging after new markets: Boomers, seniors and--especially--women.

* Relentlessly pursuing talent, especially among (again) women.

* Rebuilding education to prepare young minds for the new world they will soon face.

Oh, that's all. It's typical of Peters to hold nothing back. And I think that's what makes him so invaluable. For too long, it has been "business as usual" with most "management gurus" spouting the party line. How many Enrons and MCIs--indeed, how many Californias and Iraqs--will we have to see before we get the message that some mighty BIG changes are in order, not just in business life but in life itself? How many once-impregnable giants must topple before someone catches a clue? We need more loud, boisterous, devil-may-care prophets like Peters stirring up trouble.

Is TP always right? Heck, no. He'd be the first to admit it--and does in one of my favorite chapters, a look back at his seminal work (with Bob Waterman), 1982's "In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies." But being correct isn't at issue. We need new ideas, new practices, new ways of working before hell arrives in the proverbial handbasket--and the more ideas we can try, the better. We all need to enjoy some excellent failures.

After all this, I've sold Peters short. Only a reader (not a reviewer) can experience TP's manic punctuation, capitalization and sometimes stream-of-consciousness phrases--and grapple with his profound understanding of our challenging business climate.

Take a gamble. Read Re-Imagine!

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Chaotic Compilation of Crusading Canon, May 9, 2004

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

If you have never read any of Tom Peters' books, you can skip the earlier ones and just read this one.

If you have read all of his earlier books, you can skip this one.

If you have read some of the earlier books, you can just read the topics in this one that are skipped in the earlier ones you have read. I suspect that that won't be too many.

Tom Peters is our most passionate management guru. He explodes all over his audience in anger, annoyance, passion and rapture. It's a marvelous show . . . and I highly recommend it.

He's also open to new ideas. This book, for instance, gratefully acknowledges contributions from dozens of other authors, CEOs, business thinkers and members of his own family (especially his wife). If you don't read very many business books, I was impressed to see that he cited a very high percentage of the best management books of the last dozen years or so. So if you have read very little on the subject, this book will serve you well.

As intriguing as the book is, it has important limitations. First, the format can be all but impossible to read (especially where text is printed over grey images) in places.

Second, he has blind spots in several areas that make the advice come out somewhat jaundiced. For instance, he hates anything to do with eliminating errors (such as the quality movement and Six Sigma) as though using those methods destroy any chance for innovation in any other area. In my research, I've seen innovation in every dimension of a company exist just fine side-by-side with efforts to eliminate errors and improve quality, whenever different people worked on different aspects of innovation from those working on quality improvement and error elimination.

He correctly points out that women are underestimated and under-served as customers. But in big companies, men still run the show (except at a few bellwethers like Avon Products) . . . and he just ignores the question of how to market to influential men as though it were irrelevant.

Finally, he's been traveling in the exalted circles of the biggest, most influential people and companies for so long that he doesn't have any new examples from the top up-and-coming performers or any new guidance for start-ups. So he's unfortunately dated in his illustrations. That makes the message one that seems to be tame . . . because it is aimed at those who can feel safe in ignoring it as they sit in their palatial suites in the largest companies.

The story is amazingly redundant in the book. There's a microcosm of virtually the whole message of the book in almost every chapter. The repetition is primarily helpful for persuasiveness. It is annoying though if you already get the message.

You can boil the book down to this message: Innovation rules. You need to get off-beat people to work on innovation to have a chance. Everyone's job is innovation. Passion drives successful innovation by creating beautiful, simple systems and wonderful emotional experiences for customers and employees. The leader's job is to create an environment for such innovation. Be ready to fall down, pick yourself up, and try again. Focus your innovation as much as possible on those areas where few others are looking.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars New look but same old story, February 11, 2004

By	J. Phillips-powell (Brighton, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It's been said before, but love him or hate him one thing Tom Peters always achieves is the near impossible feat of making business sound interesting. I've done a management degree and had to read no end of dross that is largely irrelevant in today's economy. Tom Peters was not part of my course reading list, but I've read all his books cover to cover out of choice because no matter what you think of his views and ideas, the guy does manage to connect - and that is partly the problem with Re-Imagine...

This latest book will appeal more than ever to devoted Tom Peters followers (of which there are many), but I also think it will leave them feeling shortchanged. He's really gone to town on the design, making it look more like a website than a book (he's said himself he now writes in "web-English"). He's also upped the ante with some of his statements that are designed to provoke a reaction, such as his musings on 9/11.

However when you get down to the nitty-grittty - ie his ideas and what he actually has to say - Tom Peters is in fact covering old ground. Women as a marketing opportunity? He said much the same in the 1999 Reinventing Work series, and it has also been said to much better effect by the likes of Faith Popcorn. Wow projects have been part of his mantra since the early 90s. Personal Brand Equity was covered in 1999 and has been flogged to death in recent years by just about every leadership and career consultant going. War For Talent? Do me a favour.

Management books need to appeal to either the theorist or the practitioner. This book will do neither. Its too subjective, opinionated and lacking in fact-based analysis to appeal to MBA students and the like. But then its also too wooly to appeal to a manager trying to get to grips with the realities of today's business environment. The Reinventing Work books had useful and practical checklists (Things To Do) at the end of each chapter that you could literally tick-off to help you with implementing Tom's ideas in practice. The new book has plenty of lists and literally shouts at you when telling you what to do, but it's not as practical as the T.T.D. lists of his previous books. For example, in The Talent 50, Peters' #1 is to "Make talent your top priority". Good advice, but not much use to the average leader who is perpetually drowning under the weight of their inbox and "to do" lists. What's more Peters also seems to insist that you make everything a priority - Talent, Women, Baby Boomers, Sales, destroying everything you hold dear and working in a building with no more than two floors. There is no central core to this book, only a vague pointer that we have to learn to "love the mess".

That said, Peters remains as ever a provocative read and this book will probably sell by the bucketload. He knows how to make a point and he is certainly more readable than most. Unfortunately what you end up with is something originally packaged, both from a design and writing perspective, but at its core lacking in original content. For me his pocket-sized Reinventing Work books were more digestable and for their time were more transformative.