Synopsis
What, according to Tom Peters, Chairman of Tom Peters Company, is the problem with the way people do business today? Well-intentioned people who like to get things done are being thwarted at every step of the way by absurd organizational barriers and by the egos of petty tyrants.
Focusing on how the business climate has changed, this inspirational audiobook outlines how the new world of business works, explores radical ways of overcoming outdated company values, and embraces an aggressive strategy that empowers talent and brand-driven organizations where everyone has a voice.
His vision: Employees who dance from project to project, making "it" up as they go along. Enterprise that reduces the bureaucracy to almost nothing. Societies that educate their young to break the rules and invent vivid new futures.
More than just a how-to book for the 21st century, Re-imagine! is a call to arms, a passionate wake-up call for the business world, educators, and society as a whole.
Publishers Weekly
After decades with Knopf, influential management guru Peters switches to DK in an effort to "reinvent the business book," and while the results don't quite live up to the hyperbole, the new publisher allows for a looser design strategy that complements the author's increasingly stream-of-consciousness writing. Gray dotted lines lead from the main text to sidebars topped with category-identifying icons, and words' size, color and even typeface refuse to stay stable within a single sentence. (Design is clearly on his mind; one of the book's best passages is a rant against the poor ergonomics of the desk chairs in hotel suites.) The book's themes are mostly the same ones Peters has been developing since 1997's The Circle of Innovation and its follow-ups: small professional service firms are the wave of the future, successful companies sell dreams instead of products, and so on. Some of his ideas, like the unlimited potential of the Internet, have begun to wear a bit thin, while others need overhauling thanks to the recession. There are strong chapters on the spending power of women and the need to restructure the American education system, but not all the new twists are as satisfying. He takes on the 9/11 attacks in two business analogies: while the first interpretation of 9/11-small improvisational teams succeed against bloated infrastructures-rings true, many readers may find the second conclusion ("the Age of Large Numbers of Human Beings Crammed into Tall Towers is over") a bit tactless. But give Peters credit for being willing to stick his neck out, and expect loyal readers to follow him down this path once again. (Oct.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.