Top 15 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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A career is a portfolio of projects that teach you new skills, gain you new expertise, develop new capabilities, grow your colleague set and constantly reinvent you as a brand.

Superb relationships are at the heart of success. Kindness is the core of superb relationships.

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!

A blizzard of small steps and memorable touches are more important than ‘breakthrough’ attempts. So, take those constant small steps forward into the unknown.

Machines can automate a lot of things, but design is something humans do best.

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

Brains are in; heavy lifting is out. That's the essential nature of the new knowledge-based economy. Therefore, the development of knowledge is close to job No. 1 for corporations.

Professional success requires ... drive, initiative, commitment, involvement, and—above all—enthusiasm.

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

Hire for all jobs based on empathy. Employ people who care about people; everything else can be trained.

Design that matters infuses HR and Purchasing and Finance as much as product development.

An organization, no matter how ‘technologically transformed,’ is at the end of the day no more/no less than: PEOPLE SERVING PEOPLE. (And as leader, your job is: SERVE THE PEOPLE WHO SERVE THE PEOPLE.) (One last thing: The people we serve are our Customers AND our Communities.)

Most important things take lots of time. Peerless quality. Relationship building. Developing people. Superb design. EXCELLENCE.

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

In the private or public sector, in big business or small, we observe that there are only two ways to create and sustain superior performance over the long haul. First, take exceptional care of your customers ... via superior service and superior quality. Second, constantly innovate. That’s it.