BROADCASTS.com

Early in my career, I spent my commute listening to audiobooks in my 1996 Ford Taurus. The tinny car speakers shook as Tom Peters spoke about excellence and management by walking around. Through landmark books such as\xa0In Search of Excellence,\xa0The Pursuit of Wow!\xa0and his latest,\xa0The Excellence Dividend, Tom challenges conventional wisdom with an unparalleled bias toward action. I\u2019m thrilled to share my conversation with Tom Peters on this week\u2019s On Brand podcast presented by\xa0Twenty20.\nAbout Tom Peters\nTom Peters\xa0is a leading business management guru and founder of the Tom Peters Company. He continues to be in constant demand for lectures and seminars. In 2017, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Thinkers50 and the Jack Covert Award for Contribution to the Business Book Industry from 800-CEO-READ. Peters is the bestselling author of seventeen books, including\xa0In Search of Excellence\xa0(with Robert H. Waterman, Jr.), which is often cited as among the best business books ever written. Arriving at an equally troubling time, his latest book,\xa0The Excellence Dividend, is a self-described \u201csequel of sorts\u201d to this modern business classic.\nEpisode Highlights\nTom\u2019s work has inspired me my entire career. But I had to ask \u2026\xa0Why write another book? \u201cThere are significant consistencies,\u201d Tom noted with what was happening when\xa0In Search of Excellence\xa0was first released and now. \u201cAnd we still haven\u2019t gotten it! Every 60 months or so, I\u2019ve just had it up to my eyeballs and I sit down and write another damn book that says do your managing by walking around.\u201d\nThe Brand Called You at (Almost) 20.\xa0Tom\u2019s landmark 1999 essay and book,\xa0A Brand Called You, offered the first-ever major work on personal branding. And it\u2019s as true now as it was then. \u201cNineteen years later, it\u2019s a survival necessity. You can no longer survive as #129 (on your employee badge). You have to be someone that stands for something.\u201d We also spent some time talking about why personal branding is still misunderstood.\n\u201cHard is soft and soft is hard.\u201d\xa0Tom offered his insights on the true nature of the key skills involved in business today. The hard stuff \u2014 numbers, for example \u2014 are really soft. And the soft stuff like culture is actually really hard.\nBusiness education today.\xa0Tom is on a quest. \u201cI want the MBA to stand for a Masters of Business Arts.\u201d Citing author and organizational effectiveness expert Henry Mintzberg, Tom noted that while MBAs are hired more and make more at graduation, 20 years later liberal arts grads have risen to more leadership roles. It was at this point that Tom complimented me for having a theatre arts degree!\nTom and I may be sending Mark Zuckerberg a copy of\xa0The Darkest Hour.\xa0One of my favorite things about Tom\u2019s writing and speaking, are the parallels he draws to great leaders in history. FDR and Churchill weren\u2019t experts at economics and military strategy, but they inspired. They led. Zuck could learn a thing or two in navigating the current crisis at Facebook.\nWhat brand has made Tom smile recently?\xa0Like much of his thinking, Tom is in a class of his own when it comes to citing smile-worthy brands. While Apple, Nike, and Southwest Air are oft-cited, Tom provided the inaugural listing of Ziplock bags. They do everything \u2014 from keeping your iPhone safe to making a cool sound when you close them. You\u2019ll never think of Ziplock bags the same way again!\nTo learn more,\xa0go to\xa0tompeters.com\xa0or\xa0excellencenow.com.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices