Thomas J. Peters Quotes

American writer on business management practices

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Thomas J. "Tom" Peters (born November 7, 1942) is an American writer on business management practices, best-known for In Search of Excellence co-authored with Robert H. Waterman.

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Alternative Names: Tom Peters • Tom Peters III • Thomas Peters

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‘Soft’ skills will be 10X more important in a virtual/work-at-home world. Team dynamics, individual growth, team creativity will dominate effectiveness.”

someone with whom I co-invent the future

Design, writ large, is increasingly the route to product or service differentiation.

Success is about executing what you are doing today with unquestionable, breathtaking excellence.

Everybody loves being recognized, in any way, large or small. ... Appreciation, applause, approval, respect—we all love it!

Life is too short for non-WOW projects.

Every excellent company we studied is clear on what it stands for, and takes the process of value shaping seriously. In fact, we wonder whether it is possible to be an excellent company without clarity on values and without having the right sorts of values.

What is my personal strategy for the next 10 hours? Who can I talk with or what can I volunteer for to learn something new?

The well-served customer...is an appreciating asset. Every small act on her or his behalf ups the odds of repeat business, add-on business, and priceless word-of-mouth referral.

Tennis or finance or engineering or bartending … this ‘simple’ lesson bears repeating. … Study! Study! Study!

If you want to achieve Excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less than Excellent work. The first 99.9% of getting from here to there is the determination to do it and not to compromise, no matter what set of road blocks those around you erect.

The vitality of our network will determine our professional fate.

Training in listening, in statistical techniques and problem cause-and-effect analysis, in group problem solving, in sophisticated financial analysis (for everyone)—and then constant retraining, for upgrading and learning new skills—simply must become the norm, for realtor, banker, or high-tech wizard.

In the age of advancing AI, humans’ advantage is diversity—twists and turns and acts of customer love and amazement that the algorithms can’t match!

Make the collective, professional pursuit of listening skills per se a keystone of corporate 'culture'.