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The Tom Peters Weblog

Dispatches from the New World of Work

Mr Speaker, May I Respectfully Offer An Amendment ...Today

A couple of years ago, outgoing HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said that obesity, especially childhood obesity, was a bigger longterm problem than terrorism. And surely there are numbers to support that point—numbers from which there's no place to hide.

To deal with this issue, a host of governmental, as well as private sector, programs have been launched with varying degrees of success here, there, and surely not yet everywhere.

Massachusetts is the latest to jump toward the bandwagon. The first page of the Boston Globe of 8 January led with this headline: "State Readies Campaign to Curb Obesity Epidemic." Among other things, 1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th graders will be sliced, diced, and weighed, and the results in the form of Body Mass Index will be the hallmark of a health Report Card that will be sent home to the parents of the heavyweights, along with guides to abet remedial action. There's a lot more to the story, but the report card is the centerpiece.

In my own small way, I've been among those railing for years at the pronounced bias of our health system toward fixing things after they're broken rather than obse

Me! Me! Me! Me!Today

Did you know, my dear young, under-55 readers, that me and mine, those of us over 55, "are more active in online finance, shopping, and entertainment than those under 55?" That's the word from respected Forrester Research. The quote is from a story in USA Today, 8 January, titled, "Older Folks Like Tech Toys, Too." Tomorrow, the humongous Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show will have its first "Silvers Summit" in recognition of the above.

My reaction?
Duh!

I repeat in this Blog for the Umpteenth Time: The Mother of All Markets for Approximately Everything for the next quarter-century is the deeply underappreciated, insanely underserved Boomer-Geezer clan of 100 million or so in the U.S. alone. (Then add the Super-silver EU and Super-silver Japan, and the story grows even more important.)

"Silver Summit"?
This market is not about "silver initiatives."
This market is the market—the rest is details.

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That I Should Live So LongToday

Agree with Jim Cramer?
Agree 100% with Jim Cramer?
Agree 100.00% with Jim Cramer?

Yup.

He was interviewed by Chris Matthews last night on Hardball. In his typically, shall we say, raised voice he said-screamed-ranted that we need the giant stimulus package.

Right now.
Not on President's Day.
Right now.
Or insane amounts of shit are quite likely to hit the fan and get sprayed, to be selfish, all over you and me—from head to toe.

I agree.

(FYI, try this link to "The Horrible Jobs Report May Save the Economy.")

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Innovate or Die: The Innovation114A Menu of [Essential] Innovation TacticsPart Four: Tactic #76 through #114Yesterday

[If the numbering in this post doesn't seem to jive with yesterday's, that's because the list of 110 tactics seems to have grown in the course of the week; we've adjusted accordingly. As promised, however, a PDF of all 114 tactics is also available.—CM]

Adhocracy.
Love It or Leave It.

76. Projects "emerge." Recall "spontaneous discovery process," our item #3. Most projects invent themselves, rather than being the product of a formal planning process; and their growth into something big is also mostly organic. An effective culture of innovation is largely ad hoc—which drives many senior managers crazy. If they can't "get it," then they don't belong.

77. Leadership is on the fly. Things change rapidly. Teams are born and teams die. Yesterday's leader is today's follower—and vice versa. Developing "on the fly" leadership skills is no walk in the park. First, it must be perceived as a describable and learnable skill. (Hint: Women are better at this than men. Arguably, much better.)

78. Plan-less-ness. If your organization chart "makes sense," then you probably don't have an innovative enterprise. Adhocracy requires letting go of linearity assumptions.

Skunkworks.
Creating Parallel Universes.
Invisible/Shadow Organizations.

79. Parallel Universe/Unit within u

This Is Not a RecessionJanuary 7

Don't think of our current economic crisis as a recession. Instead, think of it as a recalibration.

Everything is different now.

If you think of it as a recession, you may be tempted to "hunker down" and wait for the economy to cycle back.

If you think of it as a recalibration, you will be motivated to focus on what you have to do differently, since everything is different now.

The way your business generates results is different, now.

Your customers think differently, now.

Your customers care about different things, now.

Your customers act differently, now.

Your customers may actually be different people, now.

Customers aren't disposable anymore; more than ever, you have to create sustainable customer relationships.

Everything is different now.

I'm posting this on January 7, 2009. One thing I'm convinced of is that the world I am working in today is different from any world I have ever done business in. The world has been reset. We can no longer look at the "LY" column on reports to use last year as a benchmark for what will happen this year.

(Please join me on January 9th for my free 2009 Readiness Teleseminar. You can register here. I'll address six questions that you must answer, to thrive in '09. Please sign up, and if you can't make it live you'll receive an audio recor