If 'apple pie' and a business version of 'words to live by from mother', is up your alley, then Tom Peters The Pursuit of WOW!, is the soft cover management book for you!!! Peter's book is an amalgamation of 'everything you were ever taught' and that has slipped your mind, on how to do good business. Primarily aimed at management and entrepreneurs there is a little something for everyone, broken into 210 sections, which are sorted into 13 categories, Peters for the most part, has an informal narrative style that utilises case studies, interviews, personal experience, examples and photographs that are consumer friendly. The end result is that WOW! can be opened at any page or read from beginning to end (although I wouldn't recommend it all in one sitting).
Entrepreneurs' Dream
Another chapter, another group, this time Peters brings together a group of 11 entrepreneurs for "a free-for-all discussion on the perils and joys of starting your own business". The distinct feeling of 'one- up-man-ship' starts to leave a nauseous roiling in the gut, and even Peters himself states "pick your metaphor". Little to no structure is present, while ideas from passion and creativity to staleness and demotion are wildly bounced around.
Attaining Perpetual Adolescence
Peters uses chapter 12 to espouse the value of the 'big concepts' that make a difference (in his humble opinion) to the success of an entrepreneur/manager. Iconoclastic, Inquisitive, Audacious, Crazy, Passionate, Advanced immaturity and Self-improvement, to mention just a few. The problem is, without application, they are just words and words that are hard to spell at that. One gets the distinct impression that he has put the most popular jargon and buzzwords of the moment into a hat and written a sentence on the resulting selection. Hype? Definitely. Practical application? Dicey at best.
In summation, one can't help but be left with the feeling that Peters was beginning to run out of things to write, the format of the chapters became shorter as the book progressed, furthermore the input from him lessened and had less 'wow' the more you read. The knowledge that Peters imparts for most is known, but through laziness, busyness or lack of practicality is not used. Overall the book was generally entertaining, with a sprinkle of enlightenment, and worth a read (if you can get it from the library). Ultimately, the pursuit of 'WOW!' was more like an 'amble after ordinary'.