The excellence manual

“This is a story about a beautiful woman, a dinner in Paris and the evening I kept my mouth shut,” reads the opening line in bold screaming font of one of the chapters of The Excellence Dividend . It is a chapter on the power of listening and overcoming the 18-second syndrome of interrupting.

Tom Peters certainly knows the art of click-bait — no, not in the pejorative way — to grab your attention and hold it through 467 pages of his rather noisy book that is strewn with screaming statements in capital letters, three hundred quotes from CEOs, and alarmist headlines from business papers.

Initially the book may seem disjointed and jumpy as it is peppered with lists and notes, and jumps from the conventional story telling format to blurbs and management tips, placed in different font styles and sizes (hats off to the publisher for executing this difficult design).

Learning manual

But there is a method to the madness and the explanation is right up front where Peters explains the organising principle of this book. The Excellence Dividend is based on a 17-chapter 4,094 slide Power Point presentation called ‘The Works’ where Peters put his 50-plus years of wisdom, accumulated since his first job as a management trainee.

This book which has hundreds of examples from the corporate world continues Peters’ long-standing obsession with Excellence, which he first gave to the world in 1982 in his superb book In Search of Excellence . Well, before that there was a presentation he made on business excellence. The timing then was right as American businesses were hurting and had resorted to copying from Japanese management principles as the land of the rising sun was experiencing runaway success.

In the age of automation, and AI when the tech tide is inundating the world, certainly businesses again need a guiding light. Can Peters’ excellence narrative, which is packed with simple, actionable tips, be the answer? Passion and commitment to excellence “matter now more than ever before” argues the management guru.

Peters is blunt, no-nonsensical, and forceful. The dynamism of his thoughts and personality leap off the pages of this book just as it does on Twitter where this ‘Red Bull of management thinking’ gives his free and frank opinion on a lot of things and has a huge engaged fan following.

What you should know

A lot of the book is commonsensical wisdom. Pay attention to detail, focus on execution rather than strategy, keep your mouth shut and listen, the starting point is starting so take immediate action and so on. As he quotes Wayne Gretzky, calling it his favourite quote in his 4,000-plus slides library “you miss 100 per cent of the shots you don’t take.”

All these may seem like homilies but it’s the way that Peters tells it that drills it home sharp and clear. For instance, in the chapter on Execution he talks about his stint as a 23-year old US Navy ensign in Vietnam, where the officer gave them the order that they had to build stuff, no matter what the problem, what the quality of material. “Just build stuff. Build it fast. Build it right.”

Peters learnt that there was no need for fancy reports and waiting for analysis. The important thing was to get moving, get the job done (all of which may seem counterintuitive in the age of data and analytics). But in Bold screaming letters he concludes. “Just Build It. Now. Can do.” He approvingly quotes Omar Bradley, the commander of US troops at the World War II D-day landing “Amateurs talk about strategy. Professionals talk about logistics.” Execution comes front, centre and first for Peters.

According to Peters you don’t need a grand plan to achieve Excellence. As he says, “Excellence is the next five minutes.” It can be your next conversation, your next meeting, the flowers you bring to work today. It has to be manifested in our moment to moment behavior.

Certainly, put like that it is a compelling argument. And of course, there is a useful list — the 18 Es of Excellence — to get started on the journey. Among others these include Empathy, energy, experimental, errors (fail faster succeed sooner) and execution.

Wholesome

The book covers a lot of ground — you almost wonder if there is anything that Peters has left out when it comes to management principles. And no wonder somebody calls this book an essential primer for B-school students. There are chapters on putting people first, coping with the tech tsunami of automation and AI, entrepreneurship, leadership, the importance of design, innovation, personal branding, training and development, the significance of diversity and getting women in, leadership excellence and much more.

Personally, I found lots to take away and apply in my day-to-day work. The continuous stress on paying attention to detail and how little things matter, for instance. Interestingly, Peters uses an example from India for this. He describes his journey on Kingfisher Airlines from Mumbai to Delhi. And how the cabin attendant approached all the passengers wearing spectacles and offered to clean the glasses for them. Truly, a little thing, but as Peters says, it’s an incident he will not forget ever. Of course, it’s another story that the customer experience focused Kingfisher Airlines eventually lost the big picture and crash landed.

This is not a book that can be read in a hurry. Well, given its format, it cannot be read in a hurry. It is a book to be absorbed slowly, reflected upon and acted on. And, I must admit, the format actually grows on you — as you can read it from just about anywhere, any page. Go grab it.

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