Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This is the second title in a series of books from Tom Peters, the author of In Search of Excellence, aimed at stimulating the reader's thinking about business. This book covers wide-ranging topics such as people's love of bigness, building the curious corporation, how crisis can be a teacher and what to do when failure looks like success. It is intended to be a stimulant rather than a pacifier.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Business visionary Peters wants to give readers the tools to survive in the tumultuous world of the Nineties. His widely read book, In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best Run Companies (1982), changed the way business does business, and this one is aimed to help us win in this brazen new era. More than 200 thought- and action-provoking tactics and strategies will turn readers into proactive, action-oriented winners in the 21st-century marketplace. Small graphics and illustrations emphasize such gems as "Service with Soul," and "Return phone calls, fast." To succeed, individuals and organizations must stand out from the growing crowd of lookalikes; in his words, "Being average has never had much appeal. Better fail with flair in pursuit of something neat." There is something for everyone in this book.-Susan C. Awe, Jefferson Cty. P.L. System, Arvada, Col. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Though Peters has gained more than his share of critics, his high-priced seminars remain wildly popular, and those who attend become enthusiastic supporters, vowing that their lives have been changed. But Peters sometimes contradicts himself, and the dozen years after his groundbreaking In Search of Excellence find almost two-thirds of his excellence standard-bearers failed or in trouble. This is Peters' second of the publisher's original paperback editions--with "simultaneous Random House AudioBook" ($12)!--following last summer's The Tom Peters Seminar: Crazy Times Call for Crazy Organizations. Depending on one's view of Peters, it might be summed up as either "the best of Peters" or "the rest of Peters." It consists of 210 observations, snippets, aphorisms, conceits, and quotes, "loosely collected by topic in 13 more-or-less chapters," that have been gathered by Peters over the last several years and haven't found room in his seminars or other books. Given that barrage of ideas, the reader is guaranteed more than an occasional "WOW!" ~--David Rouse

Kirkus Book Review

Like an old carny barker pushing the latest elixir, Peters (Liberation Management, 1992, etc) holds out the key to business success in the post-industrial, idea-intensive economy. It doesn't, however, appear to be the kind of key that opens doors, but rather the kind of key you stick in your back and wind up until you go careening around the business world in an Energizer-bunny frenzy of manic creativity. Mixed into this entertaining spiel (``I have a friend who's a housepainter. He doesn't chug Mylanta; he doesn't pop Prozac; and he doesn't have a future, at least not by my dad's standards'') are some interviews and round-table discussions with business managers about what does and doesn't work in making projects successful, employees productive, and customers happy. The overarching attitude is one of impatience with a starched-collar approach to business as Peters exhorts the entrepreneurs of the '90s to be brave, try new things, and avoid ruts.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Tom Peters, public speaker and author, graduated from Cornell University and received a M.B.A. and Ph.D. from Stanford University. He has also received honorary doctorates from the University of San Francisco and Rhodes College.

He was in the U. S. Navy during Vietnam and later served as a senior White House drug abuse advisor (1973-74). He worked for McKinsey & Company from 1974 to 1981. He holds about 75 seminars a year and has created and starred in a series of corporate training films.

He is the co-author of In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies, which was a New York Times bestseller for three years. This book and subsequent titles have become bestsellers in Europe, Latin America and Asia. Peters contributes to several newspapers and journals, including writing a bimonthly column for Forbes ASAP.

(Bowker Author Biography)