University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
Circle of Innovation
Book

Circle of Innovation

You Can't Shrink Your Way to Greatness

Tom Peters
Knopf, 1997
First Edition: 1997
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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

Tom Peters, the well-known management consultant and seminar leader who co-authored In Search of Excellence, emphasizes the critical importance of organizational innovation in response to massive changes in society, technology and business. Companies that don’t innovate will vanish in today’s flood of transformation and competition. Peters highlights major business shifts, such as the growing professionalism of the work force, the trend toward decentralization and the increasing power of the consumer. His prescription is destruction, change, innovation and revolution. Catchy slogans, quotes and exclamation points galore highlight his major points, such as look for the "WOW! factor" and "Think Brand!" In the spirit of innovation, the book is written in a jazzy style with big space-eating photographs, bold graphics, splashy headlines, illustrations, jumbo quotes and pumped-up graphics. The format, drawn from Peters’ corporate presentations, is a distraction, but getAbstract.com recommends Peters’ book to managers who seek his core lesson: how to help your organization succeed in a changing world.

Summary

Completely Reinvent Yourself and Your Business

Today’s revolution in technology and society requires a complete reinvention of your organization and yourself. In the last decade, such movements as downsizing and re-engineering have marked this revolutionary transition. Companies have become more streamlined with fewer managers, and have reorganized around processes rather than structural units. This continual change will require even greater transformations. As a modern manager, you face the challenge of reinventing yourself and your organization. Organizations must be "de-constructed" or "remade" to succeed.

For some, these are unsettling and scary times, but they are also full of opportunity for those who are willing to innovate. Take the initiative in seeking ways to improve and update. Don’t be complacent. New competitors wait to leapfrog ahead of you. The "circle of innovation" goes through 15 key steps toward innovation and radical organizational change: The lessons of the 15 steps are:

  1. "Distance is dead" - The entire globe is competing against you.
  2. "Destruction is cool" - It’s too late to change by inches. Tear down, then...

About the Author

Tom Peters is the co-author of In Search of Excellence (with Robert H. Waterman) and A Passion for Excellence (with Nancy Austin) and the author of Thriving on Chaos, Liberation Management and The Tom Peters Seminar.

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