Showcasing a new kind of excellence

Tom Peters

According to Peters, today's new consumer market is “insanely under-served” by almost all companies. This new breed of consumer, which he claims makes up “the most profoundly important commercial market in the history of the world”, are defined by both demographics and habits.

He says, “We are the fastest-growing, biggest, wealthiest, boldest, most ambitious, most experimental and exploratory, most indulgent, most difficult anddemanding, most service and experience obsessed, most vigorous, most health conscious, and the most female market ever."

Live and in person

Peters, one of the world's leading business strategists, will appear live and in person in Johannesburg on 12 March 2008. The event, presented by Global Leaders, is entitled Excellence, Always! and will take place at Gallagher Estate in Midrand.

He claims that excellence and innovation in business need not be limited to small companies and entrepreneurs. “There are 73 flavours of innovation and only one of them is the iPod. There is innovation in hiring and recruiting people, in structures and in processes – and all these are as legitimate as product innovation.

“People tend to think product innovation is everything – but individuals and corporations need to change or they are in trouble. My strongest bias is against large companies: as enterprises get larger, they increase their devotion to the past and their generic sluggishness increases.”

Naming his favourite company as the Cirque de Soleil – “they have a strong talent base, change daily and are creative” – Peters says that real success has nothing to do with size of company, but to do with excellence.

“Owned by women”

“The most important new trend in the US is 11 million companies are owned by women. Some are rubbish (as are some that are owned by men) but some of them are so fabulous that they make you shake your head in awe.

“Women, unlike men, focus naturally on empowerment (rather than hierarchical ‘power'). Women practice improvisation with much greater ease than men. Women are more self-determined than men and appreciate and depend upon their intuition more.”

Indeed, he names Carly Fiorina, former CEO of HP, as his CEO of 2007 – almost two years after she left the company.

“HP, not IBM, became the first US$100 billion infotech company in 2007, and the primary reason was the highly contentious, and surprisingly successful, Compaq acquisition and integration.

“Thanks to the deal's tenacious champion, Carly Fiorina, HP is now seen as a ‘consumer powerhouse' and ‘cool' with scintillating designs which was a laughable idea a few years ago. The transformation agent was Ms Fiorina and this cultural transformation, frankly, makes Jack Welch's work at GE and Lou Gerstner's at IBM a cakewalk by comparison.”

Tom Peters Live and In Person – Excellence, Always! – will be held at The Gallagher Estate, Midrand, Johannesburg on March 12, 2008. For more details, go to www.globalleadersevents.com/peters. Bizcommunity.com is a media partner.