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Crazy days call for crazy ways?Narrating Tom Peters

David CollinsEssex Management Centre, University of Essex, Colchester, UK, and

Ceri WatkinsDepartment of Accounting, Finance and Management, University of Essex,

Colchester, UK

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to offer a critical review of the work of Tom Peters.

Design/methodology/approach Notes a degree of narrative experimentation in the works ofTom Peters. Offers a narrative typology to describe this narrative change, suggests a number ofreasons for this narrative experimentation and outlines topics for future research in this area.

Findings The paper suggests that Peters narrative experimentation reflects twin frustrations.Namely Peters frustration with the short-term orientations and innate conservatism of the USbusiness elite and peripheralization in Corporate America.

Originality/value The paper proposes an original narrative typology for the examination ofPeters work and suggests directions for future research.

Keywords Quality management, Narratives, Management gurus, Business excellence

Paper type Literature review

IntroductionThe management commentator, Tom Peters has been celebrated and vilified in turn.For some he is a guru (see Kennedy, 1996, 1998; Crainer, 1998a). For others he is, if not avenerable guru, then at least a cause for celebration because, through his works andpronouncements, he has vivified, popularized and legitimized management (Crainer,1997, p. 275). To many in academia, however, he is a target for debunking. Indeed anumber of management scholars have dismissed Peters as a purveyor of unitaristaphorisms, which masquerade as sage advice (see for example Guest, 1992).

On thing is clear, however, love him or loathe him Tom Peters simply cannot beignored. Despite sustained academic and journalistic attacks (see Carroll, 1983;Maidique, 1983; Business Week, 1984; Aupperle et al., 1986; Hitt and Ireland, 1987; Vander Merwe and Pitt, 2003) he has achieved, and sustained a global mass market for hisideas. Indeed, figures provided by his American publishing agent suggest that in theUSA alone Tom Peters has sold over seven million books since the publication of InSearch of Excellence in 1982 (see Table I).

With the 25th anniversary of the publication of In Search of Excellence fastapproaching, this paper offers a timely review and reanalysis of Peters works onmanagement. Others reviewing the works of Tom Peters have suggested that Peterscommentaries on management are, when viewed over time, contradictory andinconsistent (see Peters, 1997 for a response to these attacks). Disputing this, however,Huczynski (1993) has argued that deeper structures in the work of this author make his

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Received September 2005Revised January 2006Accepted February 2006

Management DecisionVol. 44 No. 5, 2006pp. 658-673q Emerald Group Publishing Limited0025-1747DOI 10.1108/00251740610668905

accounts of the business of management stable over time and attractive topractitioners. While not seeking to detract from such commentaries our concern withPeters work is somewhat different insofar as we are concerned with the narrativeforms, which this commentator uses to shape his accounts of the business world.Observing an oft-repeated Peters maxim: crazy days call for crazy ways, we offer adistinctive analysis and reappraisal of Tom Peters literary career as we suggest thatthis authors narrative of organization and management has itself become increasinglycrazed and fragmented.

Analysing the changes in Peters writings on management we will suggest thatPeters narrative experimentation signals a growing frustration with orthodoxnarrative forms and a growing impatience with the elite of the corporate world.Furthermore we will argue that the narrative change evident in Peters work reflects adesire to forge links with middle America and with the small and middle-sizedbusinesses that, as Peters sees it, represent the way ahead for the US economy (Peters,1989).

Accordingly, the paper is structured as follows: in the following section we willconstruct a stylistic as opposed to a chronological ordering of Peters work as we reflecton the changing narrative structure of this authors accounts of management. Havingsuggested this stylistic ordering, we will then attempt to rationalise the changesobserved. To this end we offer seven overlapping explanations for Peters narrativeexperimentation. Finally we will reflect, briefly, upon the ways in which this attempt tonarrate Tom Peters might be used to suggest, and to inform, future research on thisauthor and on the gurus of management more generally.

A fresh look at the work of PetersBy convention analyses of the canon of Tom Peters work have tended to offerchronological accounts of his works (Crainer, 1997; Collins, 2000; Heller, 2000). Suchchronological renderings are blessed by the twin virtues of simplicity andtransparency. However, in this paper we will argue that there is another means ofstructuring Peters work, which sacrifices neither virtue. Indeed, we will argue that ouralternative rendering of the literary career of Tom Peters actually serves to improveour understanding of this commentator.

TextDate of firstpublication

Hardback salesUSA *

Paperback salesUSA

Total salesUSA

In Search of Excellence 1982 1,400,000 2,800,000 4,200,000A Passion for Excellence 1985 515,000 550,000 1,065,000Thriving on Chaos 1987 450,000 430,000 880,000Liberation Management 1992 152,000 64,000 216,000Tom Peters Seminar 1993 N/A 186,000 186,000The Pursuit of Wow! 1994 N/A 353,000 353,000The Circle of Innovation 1997 122,000 64,000 186,000Re-imagine 2003 No sales data available

Notes: *No reliable, comprehensive sales figures are available for territories outwith the USA;Source: The Tom Peters Group

Table I.Sales figures for the main

works of Tom Peters

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Discussing managements fads and buzzwords Collins (2000) notes certainchanges in the narrative structure of Peters work. In offering this observation Collinsis treading a path previously worn by Stuart Crainer (1997). Yet neither of theseauthors has sought to explain, or to pursue, the implications of this changing narrative.In this paper we hope to remedy this oversight/ omission.

Reflecting our concern with the narrative form of Peters texts we will focusattention on the key works of Tom Peters listed in Table I. We will argue that thiscommentator has produced no fewer than four distinctive narratives of managementsince he burst on to the market for business books in 1982. Before we proceed with thisanalysis, however, we must be clear that Table I omits a number of Peters texts onmanagement. Crucially this listing excludes the 50 series (Peters, 1999a,b,c) and theEssentials collection (Peters and Barletta, 2005a,b,c,d) on the understanding thatthese texts are either:

. signature products; products written by others, in the main, but brandedthrough the application of the Tom Peters label (the 50 series); or

. summaries of ideas previously offered in the book, Re-imagine, which have beenrepackaged to provide travel/ airline friendly editions (the Essentialscollection).

In addition Table I also omits a number of pamphlets published by the Tom PetersGroup. Namely:

(1) Project 04: Snapshots of Excellence in Unstable Times

(2) Women Roar: The New Economys Hidden Imperatives

(3) We Are in a Brawl with No Rules

(4) The Death Knell for Ordinary: Pursuing Difference

(5) Re-inventing Work: The Work Matters!

These pamphlets, which vary from 11 to some 80 pages in length are excluded from thecurrent analysis because, like the Essentials collection, they offer summaries of ideasand arguments that may be found in a more developed form in the eight, key, textslisted in Table I.

A narrative orderingTom Peters is perhaps best known for his first management text, In Search ofExcellence (ISOE), which he published with Bob Waterman in 1982. That Peters is bestknown for this text is somewhat ironic since within the corpus of his work this book isanomalous. ISOE occupies this aberrant position within the Peters catalogue because,unlike all the other texts produced by this author, it utilises a continuous narrativestructure to report the results of a rather traditional piece of business research. None ofthe texts produced in the name of Tom Peters since 1982 has sought to confirm aresearch hypothesis by means of sampling and/ or statistical analysis. Given this, itseems sensible to suggest that ISOE occupies a category on its own a category ofcontinuous narrative work we will label as hypothesis-driven, sample-basedresearch.

In common with ISOE, Peters follow-up text, A Passion for Excellence, produced inconcert with Nancy Austin in 1985 retains a traditional narrative format whereby the

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argument of the text is constructed by means of a series of linked chapters, whichwork, summatively, to produce a (more-or-less) cogent analysis. A similar narrativestructuring is also employed in two, later, texts: Liberation Management (Peters, 1992)and The Tom Peters Seminar (Peters, 1993). Yet unlike ISOE these three texts make nopretence to the norms of academic research: There is no sample population and noworking hypothesis is exposed to the possibility of refutation, in any of these works.Instead Peters conviction and self-belief drive these texts. Thus the texts articulate:

. a belief in the virtues of common sense (see Collins, 2000);

. a belief that the practice of management has been hamstrung by the analyticaltools and practices demanded by the academy and by the board; and

. a belief that good management is simple in purely cognitive terms, butproblematic in social-political terms hence the focus upon the leadershipdifference (Peters and Austin, 1985).

Given this focus upon common sense, we have labelled these three texts asbelief-driven, continuous narratives in distinction to the hypothesis-driven,sample-based research narrative evident in our first categorisation.

Thriving on Chaos produced in 1987 works within a narrative tradition that isunlike the categories so far delineated. Utilising what might be termed a hub andspokes approach (see Gabriel et al., 1992; Collins, 2000 for other examples of this typeof structure). This third type of text obliges readers to study a small number ofintroductory chapters in a pre-ordained, sequential fashion, but then encourages thesereaders to browse the remaining chapters in an order that best reflects their owninterests and concerns. Thus, when introducing Thriving on Chaos Peters tells us thathe has produced 45 prescriptions for management divided into five sections. Howeverhe suggests that these are best read in a non-sequential fashion, and so, proposes thatwhen we have studied his introductory comments we should then proceed to skim anyof the five sections and pick the areas that appear most relevant to [our] competitivesituation (Peters, 1987, p. 40).

Since 1994 Peters has published three texts, which seem impatient with traditional,linear narrative forms. Given this impatience, we have chosen to label these texts aselliptical adventures in hypertext.

On hypertext . . .Hypertext is perhaps most commonly associated with computer-mediated sources ofinformation such as the encyclopaedia, Encarta. In common with more traditionallyformatted encyclopaedias such as the hard copy version of Encyclopaedia Britannica,Encarta seeks to provide a browsing experience, which allows users:

. to search for general information on a specific topic; and

. to pursue linkages within the Encarta database that will allow the browser todevelop a more in-depth appreciation, tailored to their specific information needs.

For example, a search on Loch Ness will provide an initial entry on this, most famousof all Scottish lochs, that might then allow the user to refine their search in relation to,say, topography, social geography, palaeontology, myth and legend or even tourism.

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To facilitate this search capability each Encarta entry has been designed to providea cogent response, which is extremely concise and hence complete on its own terms.Thus each Encarta entry has been designed on the understanding that it could exhaustthe curiosity of the user; and yet each entry must continue to allow the possibility ofon-going inquiry. To this end, Encarta is based on hypertext: Its many entries aredesigned to appear complete at the level of the paragraph. Yet each entry must,simultaneously, suggest to the user the possibility and availability of more in-depthknowledge that is just a double-click away. In this regard hypertext has an ellipticalcharacter.

In making use of this elliptical allusion to describe Peters post-1994 works we aretrying to suggest that his (hyper)texts have a circulating character designed to suggestalmost unlimited possibilities for further/future inquiry. In this regard Petershypertextual narratives are quite unlike his more orthodox narratives: They do notconclude with a full stop, rather they tend to tail off elliptically. . .as they suggestthe prospect of additional information and the possibility of future enlightenment.

As we see it Peters has produced three texts The Pursuit of Wow, Re-imagine andThe Circle of Innovation, which have elliptical characteristics (see Crainer, 1997 for anote of dissent). Of the three texts we have listed as hypertextual in form and characterthe earliest text is perhaps the most clearly hypertextual in form.

The Pursuit of WowThe Pursuit of Wow (Peters, 1994) consists of 210 numbered entries of varying length,which are loosely corralled under 13 headings. Each of these entries, whether 26 pagesor two lines in length is, both complete according to its own terms of reference, andelliptical in the sense that each entry demands to be read and re-read according toits relation(s) to the remaining elements of the text. That said, the text is far from beingfully or properly hypertextual since, aside from grouping the numbered features under13 general headings, the text offers no useful means to construct a deliberate researchstrategy which might, for example, lead the inquiring reader from feature number 72to, say, feature number 147. A similar lack of search/link capability, as we shall see,limits the hypertextuality of Peters (1997) text The Circle of Innovation.

In certain respects, The Circle of Innovation seems to straddle the division betweenthe traditional, linear narrative formats identified in our first three categories, and themore radical, hypertextual approach to authoring described in this, our fourthcategory. At one level this text does seem to be of a standard, linear construction. Itoffers 15 chapters plus an introduction and afterword designed to explain to the readerthe need for innovation; the limits of existing accounts of innovation and the need for amore creative and yeasty response to the proccessual challenges posed byinnovation. Yet, in other respects, the work might be read as an attempt to discouragelinearity for while the book does, indeed, offer a set of chapters, the graphicalrepresentation of these chapters that is used to illustrate the book throughout theeponymous circle of innovation is complete, unbroken and un-numbered. Thenecessary implication of this diagram being that the text, like the circular processes ofinnovation, has no beginning and no end.

Unlike Peters early works (Peters and Waterman, 1982; Peters and Austin, 1985),which offered the reader nothing but closely packed text rendered in a small font size,The Circle of Innovation offers many figures and illustrations; distinct bodies of text

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rendered in a variety of font styles and sizes; acres of white paper and a wholeasparagus-field of exclamation marks. This is a style and layout surely designed toencourage the reader not to read in the traditional, linear sense but to browseelliptically, around and between ideas and themes. Yet despite this, the text offers nomeans to construct a deliberate search strategy. Indeed aside from the 15 way-pointsindicated on the circle of innovation there is, in truth, little to guide a search strategybeyond chance and good fortune[1].

Peters most recent major work (Peters, 2003) is, in one sense, quite unlike any of hisprevious texts. While this, new work, remains part of that category identified as,elliptical adventures in hypertext it is, in important ways, quite different to his otherhypertextual offerings.

Re-imagine is considerably larger than any other of Peters offerings and isprobably best regarded as a coffee table book. At an aesthetic level this is aninteresting and challenging text: it offers a full-colour, as opposed to a black-and-whitepresentation; and it breaches the normal conventions of typography and book designby placing text over photographic images and on luridly coloured backgrounds leading some to complain that this makes certain sections of the book virtuallyunreadable[2]. Furthermore Re-imagine appears to transgress the normal conventionsof authoring through the production of a text designed, it seems, to look like adeveloping notebook, or a work-in-progress.

Work in progressThis section of the paper has been drafted by one of the authors using an A4 pad andan HB Pencil. Actually that is not a fully accurate portrayal. The author of this sectionhas, in fact, been involved in a process of redrafting thanks to the regular incursions ofhis eraser. While redrafting this section the author has left notes for himself and for hisco-author in the text. Some moments ago a short section of text on Loch Ness wasinserted into the margin. A few lines or so ago a sign was inserted in the textindicating, in retrospect, the need for a new paragraph. But you will have to take ourword for this because respectable, publishers do not generally accept such clutteredmanuscripts and do not, knowingly at least, publish works-in-progress. So by thetime you read this text the paragraph will not be new. Indeed from your perspective asreader, the paragraph will seem always to have been where it stands now. And themargin will be empty once more free to pursue its proper task as the drill-sergeant ofthe platoon of 21 consonants, 5 vowels and assorted punctuation marks.

In Re-imagine (Peters, 2003), however, the reader confronts a more unruly text. Thisis a text with filled margins. It is a text pock-marked with underlinings; withdotted-lines and with a variety of other annotations designed to reacquaint areas of thetext, which the normal conventions of typography (and academic reviewing) woulddragoon into separate regiments. These unusual features give Re-imagine a distinctiveand organic feel. Unlike most texts, which struggle to obtain and must struggle tomaintain a fixed character (see Latour, 1987), Re-imagine seems to have a developingand emerging character, which actually obliges the reader to move elliptically. . .asboth reader and author embark on a joint quest for inspirational questions andinspiring responses (see The Economist, 2003).

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In an attempt to summarise this narrative re-ordering of Peters key texts, Table IIoffers both a brief reprise of the analysis offered above and a reminder of the corearguments, which each of the texts seeks to convey.

How might we account for this changing narrative? Weighing up what we know ofTom Peters and what we have been able to ascertain about his project and his, moregeneral, aspirations and orientations, the section, which follows will enact a number ofplausible explanations for Peters narrative experimentation. In this endeavour we willbe guided by Karl Weicks (1995) work on enactment, ambiguity and the flow ofexperience.

Enactment, ambiguity and the flow of experienceReflecting upon the dilemmas of daily life Weick (1995) argues that the fluxing natureof our day-to-day existence obliges us to invent ways of managing ambiguity. Inseeking to cope with such ambiguity, he argues that we act upon the environments weinhabit in a distinctive way.

Central to Weicks discussion of sensemaking is the concept of enactment, whichinsists that we do not exist separately from the worlds we inhabit. Instead, the conceptof enactment argues that we live out our lives by first, creating, or enacting, a world tolive in.

Let us consider a concrete example of sensemaking in action.

The killing of Lauren WrightIn 2001 Tracey Wright was sentenced to a term of imprisonment for her role in thekilling of her step-daughter, Lauren by all accounts a sweet and delicate child of justsix years of age (see The Guardian, 2002). Following the trial Norfolk social services(who should have protected the child) mounted a press conference to explain its part inthe tragic events, which led to the death of Lauren. At this press conference it wasacknowledged that the social services department, which had been monitoring thefamily, had failed in its duty to protect the child. In mitigation, however, Norfolkssocial services argued that it had failed to make sense of the injuries and ailments,suffered by Lauren in the previous months.

Now while it would be correct to say that Norfolks social services department(together with doctors, nurses and teachers) had, somehow, failed to realise that Laurenwas being subject to a sustained and truly terrible, systematic programme of physicaland mental abuse, which would ultimately lead to her death, it would not be accurate tosuggest that the social services department failed to make sense of the evidence ofLaurens abuse. Lauren Wright did not die because Norfolks social servicesdepartment failed to make sense of her injuries. Instead it would be more accurate tosuggest that Lauren died precisely because Norfolks social services department wascontent to make sense of her injuries in a manner, which ruled out child abuse as aplausible explanation. Contrary to the explanation offered at the press conferencecalled by Norfolks social services department, therefore, we should be clear thatNorfolks social service department had indeed made sense of Laurens injuries.Crucially (and tragically) they had accepted the stepmothers explanation that Laurenwas an especially clumsy child, and so, had accepted that this child would, incomparison to her peer group, suffer cuts bruises and broken bones on a more regularbasis. In this regard, and contrary to the alibi rehearsed by Norfolks social services

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Table II.A narrative ordering of

Tom Peters key texts

Crazy days callfor crazy ways?

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professionals, Laurens death is, at least in part, due to the fact the Norfolks socialservices department made sense of the childs injuries, but in a particular way.

Following Weick it is clear that Norfolks social services had, in fact, enacted areality to explain away this childs injuries. Working in concert Laurens socialworkers, teachers and doctors had created a world where Lauren was well-loved andwell-cared for, yet clumsy. Together these people had enacted a world where Laurensinjuries made sense as the innocent results of a small childs clumsy play. Viewed inthese terms, it is apparent that Lauren died, not because of a failure to make sense, butbecause of a willingness to enact or to realise a particular reality by reading into asituation a particular pattern of meaning. Had Norfolks social services realised analternative, abusive, reality by understanding Laurens injuries as symptomatic ofsystematic abuse she might have been alive today.

But what relevance has this tragic digression to our narrative exploration of thework of Tom Peters? Weick suggests that sensemaking is a profoundly social process;a process driven more by reputation, plausibility and identity rather than by pure logic.In short Weick argues that in sensemaking people think as much socially as they docognitively. In fact, he suggests that people think, with their belief system rather thanabout their beliefs. Indeed, Weicks analysis of sensemaking suggests that people thinkbackwards: they see what they believe. And what they believe is tied up closely withtheir own problems and identities.

In taking this fresh look at Tom Peters, and in attempting to construct plausibleexplanations for Peters narrative experimentation, we too, have been thinkingbackwards and we have been doing identity work. In forming judgements as to thenature and value of Peters works, and in shaping hypotheses for the narrativeexperimentation observed in the work of this author, we have been extracting andresponding to cues about the character of Peters and the nature of his project.Furthermore in responding to these cues our thinking has been shaped by ouridentities as critical, (but non-continental) European academics. Had we chosendifferent paths in life; had we perhaps chosen a managerial as opposed to an academiccareer; had we chosen an instrumental as opposed to a critical form of scholarship ourreading of, and our reaction to, the works of Tom Peters would, doubtless, have beenquite different.

In addition it is worth noting that our reading of Tom Peters and our understandingof his orientations and intentions reflects the particular identity that we have, overtime, (re) constructed for this commentator. Whereas we once tended to regard Peters,simply, as an opportunistic purveyor of myths and glib pseudo-solutions for lifescomplex problems, we are now more inclined to view him differently. We haveconstructed in our minds a new identity for Peters, which insists that this complex,thoughtful, stimulating sometimes imaginative broadly liberal man deserves asecond look and merits a critical, yet a more even-handed analytical review. Thus ourre-view of Peters does not, simply, reduce this man to the sum of his analytical failingsnor does it seek to define him in terms of his supposed inconsistency as an analyst/commentator. Instead our review recognises his enduring appeal as a writer andspeaker while seeking to make sense of the literary experimentation that, to date, haseluded academic scrutiny.

Reflecting this new rapprochement the section that follows will consider a numberof plausible explanations for Peters narrative experimentation.

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Accounting for narrative changeIn this section we offer seven, potentially overlapping explanations for the narrativechange and experimentation identified above. Given the constraints of our ownnarrative format, however, we will simply enumerate, and so, separate that which wehave suggested may overlap.

Explanation OneOur first potential explanation for the narrative changes evident in Peters works isbased upon a reading of the context of In Search of Excellence (ISOE) and offerssuggestions as to the ways in which the circumstances of the texts production shapedits format and its tone. Furthermore our first explanation for the narrative changesobserved in Peters work suggests that the initial success of ISOE has served tofacilitate later changes in Peters preferred form of expression.

Much of Peters work on business and management might be read as a rejection ofthe training in business, which he received from Stanford University (see Peters, 2001,2003). At Stanford, Peters was trained in the tools and techniques of business analysis.He was taught that hard data was the foundation of all good business decisions andthat decision-making power must, therefore, rest with a skilled managerial elite. Yetsince 1982 all of Peters publications on management have rejected this tutelage infavour of a belief system which proclaims that soft data provides an appropriatebasis for decision-making and that the talent and skills necessary for the exercise ofdiscretion exist at all levels of the organization. Recognising this radicalism our firstexplanation for Peters narrative experimentation acknowledges and seeks to explainthe anomalous nature of this texts narrative structure while noting the ways in whichhis subsequent texts depart from this narrative. Thus our first proposal suggests thatISOEs conservative format and design should be read as a products of its intrinsicradicalism. We suggest, then, that In Search of Excellence has a conservative lay-outand design, in part, because this is how Peters and Waterman had learned to write atcollege and for clients. But perhaps more importantly ISOE has these distinctivecharacteristics because Peters and Waterman anticipated opposition to their radicalmessage and in the face of this, anticipated, opposition the authors chose a traditionalresearch design and laid out their message in a conventional format in the hope ofminimising their exposure to hostile criticism.

There are precedents for this. Discussing the work of the famous scientist IsaacNewton, Gribbin (1993) notes that when Newton set out to explore and to explain thenature of gravity he employed the notation of differential calculus. However Gribbinobserves that when this work was published Newton anticipated, and was most fearfulof, the hostile reaction of his scientific peers. In an attempt to limit the severity of this,expected, adverse reaction Gribbin observes that Newton chose to express his ideas ina reworked geometrical format to reflect, it is suggested, the preferences (and theanalytical limitations) of Newtons contemporaries in the scientific academy.

No scientist, today, would be lambasted for employing the notation of differentialcalculus as opposed to the geometrical approach to mathematics when discussing thestrange world of physics. Similarly no management commentator would be attacked,today, for proffering an approach to management based around cultural managementand empowerment. But in 1982 this message was novel and flew in the face of acceptedcodes of knowledge and practice.

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Recognising the genesis of the excellence project and its very public success as apublishing venture our first explanation for the changes observed in Peters work runssomething like this: in 1982 Peters and Waterman were preaching a radical message toa conservative elite. Accordingly, they produced a narrative that would be acceptableto this elite. Yet paradoxically, we suggest that the success of this text, effectively,transformed Peters into a brand and changed the very basis of his knowledge claims.Thus we suggest that Peters fame has done much to facilitate his narrativeexperimentation. Indeed our narrative re-ordering of Peters texts demonstrates,clearly, that from 1985 onwards this author has been able to depend upon narrativesthat tap the wells of charisma and belief whereas, in 1982, he was compelled to callupon the authority of a scientific narrative to build his case for business change.

Explanation TwoOur second explanation also recognises the conservative nature of the business andacademic elites as it suggests that Peters narrative experimentation reflects thisauthors growing frustration with Americas corporate elite (see Crainer, 1997; Peters,1989) and might be read as signalling a desire to connect with a different populationmore inclined to accept and to act upon the excellence project.

In their 1982 text Peters and Waterman celebrated the wit, wisdom and energy ofthose Chief Executives who had controlled the helm of Americas excellentorganizations. Yet in later texts Peters seems less taken with the behaviour ofAmericas corporate elite. Indeed in subsequent texts such as A Passion for Excellenceand Thriving on Chaos Peters is clearly impatient with the business elite of America. InThriving on Chaos, for example, he suggests that in the face of changing technology,deregulating markets and shifting consumer preferences, Americas boardrooms havesimply run out of ideas. Addressing those who would seek a response to this,increasingly, chaotic world of business Peters warns:

Dont look to GE for an answer. On the one hand, its former top strategic planner [now a lineexecutive vice-president] is quoted by Business Week in early 1987 as saying that nine out often acquisitions are a waste of time and a destruction of shareholders value. The samearticle goes on to report that GE is thinking of acquiring United Technologies aconglomerate with revenues of $16 billion (Peters, 1987, p. 7).

Faced with such hubris Peters, we suggest, makes two important changes of direction.Firstly his arguments in Thriving on Chaos become more prescriptive (and from 1987,progressively, more abbreviated). Secondly he begins to redefine his heroes in order tocelebrate the energy of smaller firms and the vision of middling entrepreneurs (Peters,1989).

Recognising this growing frustration with Americas corporate elite our secondexplanation for Peters narrative experimentation is based upon the suggestion thatPeters changing narrative structure reflects a willingness to by-pass the elite ofcorporate America (who demand hard data and short-term results) and denotes a desireto link up with the middling and marginal groups who, for the want of a StanfordMBA, are more inclined to accept the faith-based narratives that underpin hispost-1982 texts.

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Explanation ThreeOur third suggestion is also based upon a reading of the core credo that informs Peterswork. However, in this case we suggest that Peters has stopped offering densely packedargumentation and analysis because he has, however belatedly, begun to live up to hisown preferred philosophy. Thus our third explanation observes a certain inconsistencyin the format of Peters early works. These texts, you will recall, celebrated instinct, softdata and managing by walking around while lambasting what had become codified asmanagement. And yet, in ISOE, it took Peters more than 300 densely packed pages ofargument and analysis to express the belief that business needs a simpler, less analyticalapproach. More ironically, A Passion for Excellence required 400 page of argument toexplain that the message of ISOE had been overly complicated; and Thriving on Chaosneeded a 700 pages to give this credo an international flavour.

In contrast later texts such as The Circle of Innovation offer readers what amountsto a 500 page flick book of large type, pictures and blank spaces. This text picks upon earlier arguments made by Peters to the effect that innovation the new by-wordfor excellence is an intuitive and instinctual process. Yet in the Circle of Innovationthis argument is offered in a form that better reflects Peters preference for animaginative, proactive or yeasty approaches to business. In this regard we suggestthat Peters emerging hypertextual approach to business writing may have developedas a reflection of his own distinctive feeling for managing as a process in which thevicissitudes of business are best addressed viscerally.

Explanation FourFor more than a decade now Peters has argued that the arena of commerce is becomingincreasingly capricious and unsettled. As a response to these crazy times he hasargued that managers must embrace crazy ways. For example in The Pursuit ofWow (Peters, 1994) and The Circle of Innovation (Peters, 1997), Peters warns managersthat they must be prepared to change their recruitment practices in order to ensure thatthey hire mavericks attuned to the chaos and craziness of the modern environment ofbusiness

Given this, our fourth explanation for Peters changing narratives suggests that his,preferred, hypertextual format might be read as an attempt to mimic the craziness ofthe environment in the hope that zany and yeasty responses will be precipitated bya swirling or elliptical narrative. In this regard we suggest that Peters hypertextualofferings have been designed

(1) to demonstrate the complex and inter-connected nature of the business world;and

(2) the fast pace of business, technological and societal change; so that

(3) he might precipitate new ways of thinking attuned to the essential character ofglobal capitalism.

Explanation FiveOur fifth explanation is concerned with design. In later texts Peters often complains(see for example his tirade on hotels (Peters, 1994)) that services as well as moretangible, or lumpy products are, too often, designed to reflect needs other than thoseof the user. In an attempt to persuade both producers and consumers of the virtues ofgood design, therefore, Peters has written much in recent years on what we might termthe patterning of the organized world (see Peters, 1994, 1997, 2003; Peters and Barletta,

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2005c). Given this interest in design, and in the end-users of designs, it would surely besurprising if Peters had not begun to experiment with narrative and had failed toquestion the traditional form and function of the management text?

Explanation SixOur sixth explanation reflects upon the limitations of Peters skills as a writer and hispreference for other forms of communication and interaction. In common with Crainer(1997, 1998b), Clark and Greatbatch (2003) have observed that many of those who haveacquired a reputation as business gurus are, in fact, rather poor literary craftsmen.Discussing Peters texts, Crainer (1997) notes that this commentator is, by his ownadmission (see Peters, 1993) a talker; a man more comfortable with the possibilities oftalk than with the constraints of the written text. Given this, our sixth explanation forPeters narrative experimentation is based upon the suggestion that Petershypertextual offerings have been designed self-consciously as attempts to capturethe impact, energy and immediacy that he brings to his seminar performances, butwhich, it seems, he feels less able to bring to more traditional textual formats.

Explanation SevenOur seventh reflection on the changing narrative form of Peters works is, similarly,based upon a calculation of the limits of the written text as opposed to theexpansiveness of the staged seminar performance. Introducing A Passion forExcellence, Peters and Austin (1985) note:

Perhaps five million people have bought copies of In Search of Excellence including its fifteentranslations since its publication in mid-October 1982. If history is any guide, two or threemillion probably opened the book. Four or five hundred thousand read as much as four or fivechapters. A hundred thousand or so read it from cover to cover. Twenty-five thousand tooknotes. Five thousand took detailed notes (Peters and Austin, 1985, p. xi).

Given this sanguine analysis of his following we might suggest that Peters literaryexperimentation may be based upon a cold and rational calculation that there would beno, long term, sustainable market for a traditional narrative on the business ofmanagement. Commenting on his 2003 text, for example, The Economist (20 December,2003) observed:

This is a book for dipping into for five minutes at a time. . .a sort of daily reader for followersof Mr Peters brand of management religion. It may well achieve its goal of takingmanagement ideas to a new younger audience, aged under 30, being famous for their shortattention span and need for instant gratification.

Accordingly, our final explanation for Peters narrative experimentation suggests thathis adoption of a hypertextual narrative format has been designed to reflect the readingpreferences of an audience, increasingly, unwilling (or unable) to devote time andenergy to the lengthy analyses developed through traditional narrative formats.

Concluding commentsStanding on the threshold of the 25th anniversary of the publication of In Search ofExcellence this paper has sought to foster a fresh review and reanalysis of the works of,perhaps, the most famous living commentator on management matters. RecognisingPeters capacity to excite and yet polarise opinion we have sought a middle way

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between the hagiology and the apoplexy that, so often, surrounds this author. To thisend the paper has set out to explore the changing narrative structure of Tom Petersworks as a means of encouraging further reflection on the business of management.

We have proposed a new narrative typology for the works of Tom Peters and wehave, furthermore, sought to make sense of such novel developments by offering seven,overlapping, explanations for the changes observed. Following Weicks (1995) analysiswe have enacted a speculative (if informed) world that seeks to explain this authorschanging narrative. On the strength of our current research we have not been able, norin truth have we sought, to gauge the relative weights of the seven suggestions putforward in this paper. Instead we offer the following, more general, observation. Thuson the basis of our re-view of this notable guru we suggests that Peters narrativeexperimentation should be regarded as the product of a successful career in businesspublishing/ management consulting that has, nevertheless, been tempered by twinfrustrations. These are, namely, a frustration with the structures and strictures ofnarrative orthodoxy and a related frustration with the short-term orientations andinnate conservatism of the US business elite.

In anticipation of further reviews and reanalyses that will, doubtless, emerge as the25th anniversary of the publication of In Search of Excellence dawns our review of TomPeters narrative experimentation suggests and (we hope) precipitates new avenues forcritical, yet constructive research into Tom Peters and the gurus of management moregenerally. Thus our reappraisal of Peters literary career suggests that future researchon this author might do well to:

(1) Reflect upon Dr Peters appeal within particular demographics:. Has Tom Peters truly turned his back on the elite of corporate America?. Has he formed, successfully, a common purpose with middle management

and business entrepreneurs?. Is he now attracting a following among the under-30s?

(2) Reflect upon the longer-term consequences of Peters narrative experimentation.Each of us can remember key tales and vignettes from the early works of Peters,yet, as his works become more terse and abbreviated, there is, perhaps, a dangerthat the works of this author will be come less attractive, less memorable, andso, less portable. So a key question that surely merits further analysis is: WillPeters narrative experimentation impact negatively upon the longevity of hisarguments and analyses?

(3) Consider the future of business publishing. Given the (apparent) limitations ofthe under-30 demographic and Peters frustration with the limitations of theprinted word does Peters narrative experimentation signal the demise of themanagement guru text and the dawn of, what might come to be known as, theDownloadable Doctor; the Guru in an IPod?

Notes

1. In fairness the authors should concede that Peters would probably regard strategy byserendipity as something to encourage and celebrate.

2. The authors are grateful to Robert Heller, founding editor of Management Today for thisobservation.

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Business Week (1984), Whos excellent now?, Business Week, 5 November, pp. 46-54.

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Crainer, S. (1998b), In search of the real author, Management Today, May, pp. 50-4.

(The) Economist (2003), Excellence revisited, The Economist, 20 December, pp. 125-6.

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Gribbin, J. (1993), In Search of the Edge of Time, Black Swan, London.

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Guest, D. (1992), Right enough to be dangerously wrong: an analysis of the In Search ofExcellence phenomenon, in Salaman, G. (Ed.), Human Resource Strategies, Sage, London.

Heller, R. (2000), Tom Peters: The Bestselling Prophet of the Management Revolution, DorlingKindersley, London.

Hitt, M.A. and Ireland, R.D. (1987), Peters and Waterman revisited: the unended quest forexcellence, Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 1 No. 2, pp. 91-8.

Huczynski, A.A. (1993), Management Gurus: What Makes Them and How to Become One,Routledge, London.

Kennedy, C. (1996), Managing with the Gurus: Top Level Guidance on 20 ManagementTechniques, Century Books, London.

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Maidique, M.A. (1983), Point of view: the new management thinkers, California ManagementReview, Vol. 26 No. 1, pp. 151-61.

Peters, T. (1987), Thriving on Chaos: Handbook for a Management Revolution, Guild Publishing,London.

Peters, T. (1989), Doubting Thomas, Inc.com, April, available at: http://pf.inc.com/magazine/19890401/5599.html

Peters, T. (1992), Liberation Management: Necessary Disorganization for the NanosecondNineties, Macmillan, London.

Peters, T. (1993), The Tom Peters Seminar: Crazy Times Call for Crazy Organizations,Macmillan, London.

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Peters, T. (1994), The Pursuit of Wow! Every Persons Guide to Topsy Turvy Times, Macmillan,London.

Peters, T. (1997), The Circle of Innovation: You Cant Shrink Your Way to Greatness, Hodder &Stoughton, London.

Peters, T. (1999a), Reinventing Work: The Project 50, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY.

Peters, T. (1999b), Reinventing Work: The Professional Service Firm 50, Alfred A. Knopf, NewYork, NY.

Peters, T. (1999c), Reinventing Work: The Brand You 50, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY.

Peters, T. (2001), Tom Peterss true confessions, Fast Company, No. 53, available at: www.fastcompany.com/magazine/53/peters.html

Peters, T. (2003), Re-imagine: Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age, Dorling Kindersley,London.

Peters, T. and Austin, N. (1985), A Passion for Excellence: The Leadership Difference, Fontana,London.

Peters, T. and Barletta, M. (2005a), Tom Peters Essentials: Innovate, Differentiate, Communicate,Dorling Kindersley, London.

Peters, T. and Barletta, M. (2005b), Tom Peters Essentials: Develop it, Sell it, Be it, DorlingKindersley, London.

Peters, T. and Barletta, M. (2005c), Tom Peters Essentials: Inspire, Liberate, Achieve, DorlingKindersley, London.

Peters, T. and Barletta, M. (2005d), Tom Peters Essentials: Recognize, Analyze, Capitalize, DorlingKindersley, London.

Peters, T. and Waterman, R. (1982), In Search of Excellence: Lessons from Americas Best RunCompanies, Harper & Row, New York, NY.

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Weick, K. (1995), Sensemaking in Organizations, Sage, London.

Further reading

Peters, T. (1999), We Are in a Brawl with No Rules, Tom Peters Group, Boston, MA.

Peters, T. (2000a), Re-inventing Work: The Work Matters!, Tom Peters Group, Boston, MA.

Peters, T. (2000b), The Death Knell for Ordinary: Pursuing Difference, Tom Peters Group,Boston, MA.

Peters, T. (2001), Women Roar: The New Economys Hidden Imperatives, Tom Peters Group,Boston, MA.

Peters, T. (2004), Project 04: Snapshots of Excellence in Unstable Times, Tom Peters Group,Boston, MA.

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