From 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. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Book Description
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. Focusing on how the business climate has changed, this inspirational book outlines how the new world of business works, explores radical ways of overcoming outdated, traditional company values, and embraces an aggressive strategy that empowers talent and brand-driven organizations where everyone has a voice.


Book Info
Text sets out a new business design and redefined business thinking. Topics cover new context, technology, value, brand, markets, work, people, and mandate. Includes index, references; and attractive, multi-color layout.


About the Author
Author, provocateur, and business visionary Tom Peters is recognized around the globe as one of the most influential and revolutionary management gurus of the last century. The author of more than 10 best-selling books on innovative business practices, including the groundbreaking In Search of Excellence, Peters gives more than 100 major seminars each year and serves as the chairman of Tom Peters Company.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

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. Focusing on how the business climate has changed, this inspirational book outlines how the new world of business works, explores radical ways of overcoming outdated, traditional company values, and embraces an aggressive strategy that empowers talent and brand-driven organizations where everyone has a voice.

Author Biography: Author, provocateur, and business visionary Tom Peters is recognized around the globe as one of the most influential and revolutionary management gurus of the last century. The author of more than 10 best-selling books on innovative business practices, including the groundbreaking In Search of Excellence, Peters gives more than 100 major seminars each year and serves as the chairman of Tom Peters Company.

FROM THE CRITICS

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.

Soundview Executive Book Summaries

Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age
Tom Peters is on a mission to reinvent the modern business. As the internationally bestselling author of In Search of Excellence and many other books, Peters has made a name for himself as a world-renowned innovative management guru who continues to create better ways for executives to succeed through change and reap the benefits of pursuing "the (Increasingly Possible) Impossible Dream."

Peters explains that he was inspired to write Re-Imagine! because he is "madder than hell." Throughout his book, he rants about the organizational barriers and the egos of "petty tyrants" thwarting the good intentions of enterprising people in numerous ways. After each rant, which appear at the beginning of each chapter, he sets out to reinstall the will, passion and know-how into every executive and employee who is ready to take on a renewed sense of individual responsibility.

Exciting Services and Opportunities
Peters explains that business is at its best when it aims to foster growth and deliver exciting services to customers and exciting opportunities to employees. In an effort to empower organizations and the people who can use their instinctive curiosity and creativity to drive them forward, he shows them how to add value in a meaningful way using invention, service, creativity, vision and innovation.

To drive readers toward the colorful light he envisions, Peters launches a full-scale assault on the opportunities lurking beneath the surface of complacent bureaucracies that are slowly becoming obsolete in their old-fashioned ways. Peters believes in the idea that we are "on the verge of the biggest and most profound wave of economic change in a thousand years," and writes that clinging to ideals like order and efficiency is not going to help organizations create the true innovation they need to survive in this new environment. His vision for better business includes a new breed of enterprise that is flexible, empowered, innovative and entrepreneurial. He touts Wal-Mart, Microsoft and Charles Schwab as examples of businesses that have embraced change and left deeply-imbedded competitors in the dust. He explains that organizations must train themselves to embrace an entirely new set of rules. Cunning, speed and surprise are the roads to competitive advantage these days, he writes, and hypercompetition is the only competition that is left.

Against Zero Defects
Throughout Re-Imagine!, Peters challenges and lays to waste many of the management practices that have been flaunted as the answers to every organizational problem known to the business world, and replaces them with a new way of thinking about succeeding in the current marketplace. When he states that he is "100% Against Zero Defects," he explains that zero defects is great in an environment that is known, but says it is "Death Itself ... in Ambiguous Surroundings."

Peters writes that it is time to destroy the myths of business and get to the act of reinvention. While quoting as well as challenging hundreds of business leaders and their books, he is able to shatter age-old hype and replace it with the wisdom of the people who have gotten it right and succeeded by challenging the business status quo.