{On April 5, 2013, we will celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the First Friday Book Synopsis, and begin our 16th year. During March, I will post 30 posts, hopefully a blog post per day, remembering key insights from some of the books I have presented over the 15 years of the First Friday Book Synopsis. We have met every first Friday of every month since April, 1998 (except for a couple of weather-related cancellations). These posts will focus only on books I have presented. My colleague, Karl Krayer, also presented his synopses of business books at each of these gatherings. I am going in chronological order, from April, 1998, forward. The fastest way to check on these posts will be at Randy’s blog entries — though there will be some additional blog posts interspersed among these 30).}
(Post #1 of 30)
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Synopsis presented April 3, 1998
The Circle of Innovation: You Can’t Shrink Your Way to Greatness by Tom Peters (Alfred A. Knopf, 1997)
It was appropriate to begin this 15 year journey into business books with Tom Peters. He is such a dynamo, overflowing with energy, chomping at the bit to serve up his latest insight. He is a communicator!, and wants to share his latest findings/thinking. He speaks, and writes, IN ALL CAPS AND EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!
In The Circle of Innovation: You Can’t Shrink Your Way to Greatness, Tom Peters focuses on “15 stops along the way” to successful and continual innovation. He conveniently summarizes these at the beginning of his book – convenient for me, because my handout (along with other early handouts) was lost in some computer operator failure (me) a few years ago. (Now, all of my handouts are in multiple places).
Here are those 15 stops:
#1 – DISTANCE IS DEAD – “We’re all next-door neighbors”
#2 – DESTRUCTION IS COOL – It’s “easier to KILL an organization — and repot it — than change it substantially”
#3 – YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT AN ERASER – “Forgetting – not learning — is the highest art”
#4 – WE ARE ALL MICHELANGELOS – “Convert every job into a business”
#5 – WELCOME TO THE WHITE-COLLAR REVOLUTION – “IF YOU CAN’T SAY WHY YOU MAKE YOUR COMPANY A BETTER PLACE (SPECIFICALLY)… YOU’RE OUT.”
#6 – ALL VALUE COMES FROM THE PROFESSIONAL SERVICES – “Make staff units The Vital Centers of Intellectual Capital Accumulation”
#7 – THE INTERMEDIARY IS DOOMED – “We are gutting the center of vertical enterprises. THE INTERMEDIARY IS DYING/DEAD!”
#8 – THE SYSTEM IS THE SOLUTION – “Dept. of Beauty?? YES! It’s W-A-Y beyond reengineering”
#9 – CREATE WAVES OF LUST – “Just shout NO to… commoditization. Embrace: WOW!!!/lusted-after products and services”
#10 – TOMMY HILFIGER KNOWS – “branding is (far) more important than ever before”
#11 – BECOME A CONNOISSEUR OF TALENT – RECRUIT DIVERSITY! HIRE CRAZIES!
#12 – IT’S A WOMAN’S WORLD – “Women purchase/are purchasing agents for well over half the U.S. GDP”
#13 – LITTLE THINGS ARE THE ONLY THINGS – “Design is often the best ‘tool’”
#14 – LOVE ALL, SERVE ALL – “seek a sustainable edge through incredible service”
#15 – WE’RE HERE TO LIVE LIFE OUT LOUD – “revolutionary times call for revolutionary zeal/leaders”15 ideas + 1 idea = INNOVATION/TOP-LINE OBSESSION/WOW!!
I think business is about emotion. Period.
You can see why I started with Tom Peters. Most of his 15 “stops” stand up very well these 15 years later. They reveal why some leaders/companies/organizations/individuals have succeeded, and many have failed. And, I now realize that my “foundational/first” presentation clearly embedded within my soul the idea that constant innovation is the only path to pursue. If not, we will be left behind – so very quickly.
First Friday Book Synopsis 