22/04/2014
Tom Peters was amazing last week in Mauritius. So much energy, so inspiring! I have read some of his books, my preferred one being ‘Design -Innovate/differentiate/communicate, Tom Peters Essentials, DK Publishing’ (which incidentally I think should be renamed “Branding”) but seeing him performing in such a way at 71 was quite WOW!!!
Ok, as Tom Peters puts it at the beginning of his ‘show’, most of the stuff presented were BFOs “Blinding Flash(es) of the Obvious. Granted. But still, most of the time we forget!
I liked his obsession with Listening (the 18s test, OMG!), so very important in the business environment, especially when one is consultant, but also in our daily live. How many times do we hear our kids saying, are you listening to me? Tom Peters is right; ‘listening courses should be compulsory at school and in the business environment’. The MBWA concept, Managing By Wandering Around is also essential and I often see while I am auditing clients that this does not happen (if it did, I would not see what I see!!!), the 12 +2 magic worlds “What do you think? How can I help? What have you learned? Thank You”. The importance of reading, curiosity, kindness (Kindness=Repeat business=Profit), apology, training (CTO on par with CFO/CMO!!! how daring!), the importance of treating employees like customers (again, I see very different levels in companies in Mauritius) nicely put in his quote “EXCELLENT customer experience depends … entirely … on EXCELLENT employee experience! If you want to WOW your customers, FIRST you must WOW those who WOW the customers!
Interesting to note that Tom Peters touches a lot of subjects common to the concept of Branding without mentioning that word even once. I wonder why and will ask him! The parking lot of Disney, the Kingfisher’s Sunglasses, the creation of Chief Design Officer and The CXO, Chief eXperience Officer positions in companies are all excellent examples of branding initiatives.
Some other great lessons or quotes I can particularly relate to: “Whoever Tries The Most Things Wins”, the “Bottleneck is at the … top of the bottle (G Hamel, Harvard Business review)” so very very true!!!… “Do one thing every day that scares you (E. Roosevelt), the BFO 10: cross-functional excellence => 220 lunches not to be missed out, the importance of corporate Culture building, of Women and the fact that Ex*****on IS Strategy (stop planning, get on with action!).
Last but not least, I loved the fact that I can now, thanks to Tom Peters, describe Brand In One as a ‘Micro-Multinational’… Wow… Fantastic! And as he said, whatever the size, one needs to try to be the “Best in the world of something”. Working on it, Mr Peters, every minute of the day! =)
Thanks for sharing all these most valuable tips & Bravo Tom! Come back soon. We need you. Period!
Check Tom peters' website for more inspiration www.tompeters.com. Enjoy!