(2003-10-08) Tom Peters Talk Notes

Caught the Tom Peters act courtesy of SyBase/AvantGo. Would have gotten a free copy of his book, but couldn't stand to sit through the rest of the day of sales hooey. Some semi-quotes:

• PharmCos are going to all die. The merger phase is the death throes. They can't innovate, and their sales model is ridiculous.
• Jim Collins (Built To Last) is horribly wrong. We're in an Age of Discontinuity, and his incrementalist approach will kill you.
• White Collar jobs are going to disappear over the next decade to the same degree that Blue Collar jobs did. It's just a matter of who gets you: cheap labor from India (Off Shoring), or a silicon wafer (automation).
• ERP systems have been screwed up by internal politics - VPs saving their jobs just like Blue Collar Labor Unions tried to block things like containerization. But the outcome is pre-ordained. (ergo the previous point)
• Netscape is his favorite company. It was born, changed the world, and died, all in 60 months.

Another thought: responsiveness at the edge means either

• Slack (excess) capacity at that point to move into a new opportunity (it seems like Best Practices is to keep reducing slack)
• the power to cancel/delay existing activities/commitments (re-allocate resources) (who/how decide when this is appropriate? how do your internal/external customers feel about this?)