Tom Peters

Peters describes himself as a prince of disorder, champion of bold failures, maestro of zest, professional loudmouth, corporate cheerleader and lover of markets. He is always challenging his audience, and sees chaos as the foundation stone of creativity. Here is an iconoclast who has become part of the establishment.

In an in-depth analytic study released by Accenture in May 2002, Peters scored second among the 'Top 200 Business Intellectuals', behind only Professor Michael Porter who will join him on stage in Dubai this November. He was also recently honoured by membership in Richard Saul Wurman's 'The 1000 Most Creative Individuals in the USA'.

His book with Bob Waterman 'In Search of Excellence' published in 1982 was named one of the 'Top Three Business Books of the Century,' and ranked as the 'greatest business book of all time' in a poll by Britain's Bloomsbury Publishing.

Peters will focus on the following issues at the Leaders in Dubai conference. There will be the chance to discover Peters' three types of leadership and possibly a fourth one: 'The Creator', 'The Destroyer', 'The Preserver', and 'If It Ain't Broke, Break It'.

His speech will explain the importance of creating and maintaining the High Standard Deviation Enterprise. How to create the forgetting organization and how to surround yourself with weirdos in order to innovate?

Then there will be the typically oxymoronic scenarios: fail faster, succeed sooner; 'Leaders need to be the rock of Gibraltar on roller blades'; and creating a dramatic difference - making a dent in the universe. Fortunately Peters is always easier to understand in the flesh than in his epigrammatic turn-of-phrase.

His most recent book, 'Re-imagine! Business excellence in a disruptive age' is a typical attempt to shock an audience awake, and contains more exclamation marks than full-stops. The concluding chapter contains his 50 principles of effective leadership.

On several occasions he suggests that in our world a leader's mantra should be, 'I don't know'. Often the best we can do as leaders is to ask the right questions at the right time - or, according to Peters, even at the wrong time - and to encourage work colleagues to accept the responsibility to search for the right answers.

He stresses throughout this book how leaders must continually re-create, re-articulate, or 're-imagine' themselves, their roles, and their contributions to the world in which they live, work, and play. Leaders must be creators of value. Leaders must be both learners and, simultaneously, un-learners.

Peters is a graduate of Cornell and Stanford and holds honorary degrees from several institutions. He served with the US Navy from 1966 to 1970, was a senior White House drug abuse advisor in 1973-74, and worked at McKinsey & Co. from 1974 to 1981, becoming a partner in 1979. He has never bored an audience in his life!