Book Review: “Re-imagine!”, Tom Peters

Re-imagine!
By Tom Peters
Reviewed by David Perkins

Re-image! By Tom Peters

I first read Re-imagine! in 2007 just after it was published. I picked it up again the other day. I did so because Re-imagine! is about “Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age” and the world economy has – I think it is fair to say – crumbled. There’s chaos everywhere. The ultimate catalyst that caused me to pick up the book again was a call from an old friend of mine. She said, “Perk, ah, you’re not going to like this, but I think I’m in big trouble here.” She was talking about her business of 60 employees. She doesn’t think she can make it anymore, facing possible bankruptcy and personal financial ruin because she personally guarantees the debt.

Tom Peters, widely recognized as one of the greatest business writers and thinkers of our generation and author of In Search of Excellence – possibly the #1 business book of the past 25 years – wrote Re-imagine! after the dot-com bust, 2001 terrorist attacks and well after President George W. Bush’s proclamation of “the end of major combat operations” in Iraq (i.e., right before we realized that we might be in over our heads).

Peters explains that he is “mad as hell” about our dysfunctional governments, military, corporations, etc.

Well, I wonder how he feels now?

I’ll bet he’s madder than hell. But that’s not the point.

Re-imagine! is right on target for you and me. Tom Peters passionately explains that “in this age of disruption,” when businesses rise and fall in years instead of decades, and a band of loosely connected people with cell phones and a few $3 box cutters can evade the $500 billion U.S. defense infrastructure and take our country to its knees (i.e., “9/11″), the conventional will surely die. Times are different. Status quo is gone.

This is not an economy or a time when status quo is going to do much for you or me or anyone. Peters includes many great quotes, one of which is:

“    If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.”
General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff, U.S. Army

Re-imagine! speaks to me today even more than it did two years ago.

First, with chaos there’s opportunity. For example, I have a consulting client whose #1 competitor just failed. My client purchased the assets of that company for a fraction of what it would have cost just a year ago. The result for my client will be higher volumes and significantly greater pricing power. To be sure, my client is taking SOME risk by spending more on his business, but the odds are it’ll pay off big time. He does not have his head in the sand. He’s letting chaos play into his hand. He’s ready and willing to watch for opportunity, take risk and attempt to craft a new reality.

Most of us are not the dominant players in our industries. When status quo reigns and everyone is making money, what are the odds of dethroning the dominant player? The more likely scenario is to allow change, a disruption, to weaken the big boys, and therein is our opportunity to do things differently. Do things better. Do things smarter. Or just do things a lot cheaper so that we are able to survive the bad times when others cannot.

Second, today’s economy is about intangible assets. It’s not about control of the land, or bricks and mortar, or commodities, or “factors of production.” It’s about ideas, creativity, innovation, speed, focus, branding, image, etc. As such, brainpower wins, and business owners must attract, retain and empower smart people who are creative, innovative and at the forefront of technology.

Third, radical and rapid advances in information technologies drive ever-expanding opportunities to innovate and differentiate. As a business owner, you have a choice. Either stand by and allow others to innovate and eventually render you obsolete, or become an innovator and render others obsolete. Of course, nobody really knows which innovations in method, process or organization will be viable. Which ones will resonate or add and build value? So the key is rapid innovation. Trial and error. Willingness to fail and “look stupid.” It’s these people, organizations and businesses that will find breakthroughs, and survive and thrive.

Of course, Tom Peters has a heck of a lot to say in Re-imagine! A lot of lessons for you and me. It’s not a book that you sit down and read in a day or two, or even a week. It’s weighty. Disruptive to your thinking. By design, I suspect.

To my friend whose business is failing, I say, “Fight like hell. I’ll help.” Survival is all it’s about today. But if failure happens, the phoenix WILL rise again. We’ve all experienced failure. So often, we come to realize that it was what was supposed to happen. We would not change it. It’s natural. We become transformed into something better. More appropriate. More comfortable. Trust, and know, my friend, that there is a bright future ahead for you. It’s the mystery of life.