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

Peters, Tom

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375401571 ISBN 13: 9780375401572

Publisher: Knopf, 1997

Synopsis

Tom Peters--brilliant, original, and perhaps the most inspiring and listened-to business thinker of our time--has a lot on his mind these days. And he wants to share it in The Circle of Innovation.

The world of business is in a permanent state of flux, he argues, a state of chaos in which constant innovation is the only survival strategy--for the individual and for the organization. And he presents here a lifesaving handbook--both provocative and practical--designed to turn any organization into a perpetual innovation machine.

In 400 seminars in 47 states and 22 countries in the last five years, Peters has reexamined, refined, and reinvented his views on innovation. Now he brings those seminars--and his passion--to the reader in a landmark book. It is meant, he writes, to both "terrify" and "enlighten." These are "times of matchless peril for those who fail to grasp the nettle...and times of matchless opportunity for those who do."

To keep us alert, limber, and ready for action, he provokes and cajoles in chapter after chapter. Among his institutions and revelations:

We Are All Michelangelos. He shows how to transform every "jobholder" into a full-fledged businessperson.
All Value Comes from the Professional Services. How to convert sluggish staff units into Vital Centers of Intellectual Capital Accumulation.
The System is the Solution. How to build great systems--which go far beyond nuts and bolts.
Create Waves of Lust. Quality is not the automatic advantage it recently was. There is a pressing need to reverse the rising tide of product and service "commoditization."
Tommy Hilfiger Knows. In a crowded marketplace, branding is far more important than ever before.
It's a Woman's World. How to capitalize on the fact that women purchase/are purchasing agents for well over half of U.S. commercial and consumer goods.
Little Things Are the Only Things. As the Blight of Sameness encroaches on market after market, design is often the best tool in services or manufacturing for sustainable differentiation.
We're Here to Live Life Out Loud. Why transformational leaders of the future must have laser-like focus, tell the truth, and live on the lunatic fringe.
The hallmarks of Tom Peters legend are an insatiable curiosity, an agile intellect, a pragmatic perspective, and an uncanny ability to gauge the global zeitgeist. These qualities are all brought to bear as Peters sets out to engage, enrage, and ultimately empower his readers, amid forces that are reshaping not only business but every aspect of human experience.

About this title

Review:

Business guru Tom Peters has been recognized for his originality and perception since coauthoring one of the most influential management books of all time: 1982's In Search of Excellence. Now, in his seventh work, The Circle of Innovation: You Can't Shrink Your Way to Greatness, he presents a provocative new vision for prospering in the "permanent state of flux" ruling today's business world. By juxtaposing short text passages and bold graphic images, Peters simply but passionately offers his prescription--perpetual innovation--in a nontraditional manner intended to foster individual interpretation. --Howard Rothman

From the Publisher:

"In his inimitable style, Tom Peters has again produced a provocative, incisive handbook to help executives meet the unprecedented challenges of today's business world."
--Frederick W. Smith, Chairman of the Board and CEO, FedEx

"Tom Peters feels business in his gut. He moves when he sees opportunity. He hurts when he sees mediocrity. He exults when he sees innovation...Tom takes an idea and turns it into what others can't. He has turned up the volume for me. I think The Circle of Innovation will do the same for you."
--From the Foreword by Dean LeBaron, founder of investment innovator Batterymarch Financial Management, and trustee of the Santa Fe Institute

"In The Circle of Innovation Tom Peters has created a 'literary highway' full of billboards that smack you right in the face."
--Hal F. Rosenbluth, President and CEO, Rosenbluth International

"If you think the internet is hot, wait until you read The Circle of Innovation. Tom Peters gives us real-life examples of people who are revolutionizing their businesses in an inspiring and exciting style."
--Judy George, CEO, Domain Home Fashions

"Tom Peters is a mental catapult crashing ideas into the walls of conventional thinking. The Circle of Innovation is another of his iconoclastic and seminal works."
--Herbert D. Kelleher, Chairman of the Board, President & Chief Executive Officer, Southwest Airlines

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0375401571
• ISBN 13: 9780375401572
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 544