TOM PETERS

If your company has a clean-desk policy, the company is nuts and you're nuts to stay there.

I think it's wonderful to save the world, but you need to be part of the world, too.

As a consumer, you want to associate with brands whose powerful presence creates a halo effect that rubs off on you.

Celebrate what you want to see more of.

Everyone has a chance to learn, improve, and build up their skills.

The workplace revolution that transformed the lives of blue-collar workers in the 1970s and 1980s is finally reaching the offices and cubicles of the white-collar workers.

Business is about people. It's about passion. It's about bold ideas, bold small ideas or bold large ideas.

Remember my mantra: distinct... or extinct.

The simple act of paying positive attention to people has a great deal to do with productivity.

'In Search of Excellence' - even the title - is a reminder that business isn't dry, dreary, boring, or by the numbers. Life at work can be cool - and work that's cool isn't confined to Tiger Woods, Yo-Yo Ma, or Tom Hanks. It's available to all of us and any of us.

Anybody who is an entrepreneur is a person who essentially has impaired judgment. The odds of success are zilch.

If you're not confused, you're not paying attention.

I had no idea what I was doing when I wrote 'Search.' There was no carefully designed work plan. There was no theory that I was out to prove.

A passive approach to professional growth will leave you by the wayside.

Vision is dandy, but sustainable company excellence comes from a huge stable of able managers.

Leaders understand the ultimate power of relationships.

South Africa has all the tools to compete in the new global village - an eager workforce, ready to take on any challenge.

As far as I'm concerned, the first business leader who was able to establish a cult of personality around his tenure was Lee Iacocca.

Community organizing is all about building grassroots support. It's about identifying the people around you with whom you can create a common, passionate cause. And it's about ignoring the conventional wisdom of company politics and instead playing the game by very different rules.

Mastery is great, but even that is not enough. You have to be able to change course without a bead of sweat, or remorse.

Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing.

My problem is not that I see all 17 sides of any issue, but I'm equally passionate about all 17 sides simultaneously.

Today brands are everything, and all kinds of products and services - from accounting firms to sneaker makers to restaurants - are figuring out how to transcend the narrow boundaries of their categories and become a brand surrounded by a Tommy Hilfiger-like buzz.

All business success rests on something labeled a sale, which at least momentarily weds company and customer.

Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, manufacturing... layout, processes, and procedures.