Tom Peters Reads A LOT – Part 2

Tom Peters Reads A LOT – Part 2

In 2018 I reviewed The Excellence Dividend by Tom Peters. One thing I was struck with while reading that book was the astonishing number of books and articles cited throughout the text. I compiled a list of the 137 books and did a companion post called Tom Peters Reads A LOT.

Fast-forward to 2021, I just finished reading Tom’s latest book, Excellence Now: Extreme Humanism—here is my review. I’ve counted 121 books quoted or recommended in the text, listed below in order of first mention. I’ve only read 10 of these. Titles in bold link to my review. Others link to Amazon.com.

In section 14.62, Leading/Reading, Tom writes, “Breadth! Breadth! Breadth! The main idea is to open your mind and broaden your scope of knowledge. Creativity is a by-product of breadth… And in your areas of expertise, outread the buggers. You never know nearly as much as you think you know about much of what you do.” He certainly practices what he preaches.

Introductory Pages

• Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• The Road to Character by David Brooks

Chapter 1. First Things Before First Things

• Hostage at the Table: How Leaders Can Overcome Conflict, Influence Others, and Raise Performance by George Kohlrieser
• Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence that Caring Makes a Difference by Stephen Trzeciak and Anthony Mazzarelli
• Safe Patients, Smart Hospitals: How One Doctor’s Checklist Can Help Us Change Healthcare from the Inside Out by Peter Pronovost
• The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business by Patrick Lencioni
• Bo’s Lasting Lessons: The Legendary Coach Teaches the Timeless Fundamentals of Leadership by Bo Schembechler
• The Language of Kindness: A Nurse’s Story by Christie Watson
• Managers, Not MBAs: A Hard Look at the Soft Practice of Managing and Management Development by Henry Mintzberg
• The Fuzzy and the Techie: Why the Liberal Arts Will Rule the Digital World by Scott Hartley
• You Can Do Anything: The Surprising Power of a “Useless” Liberal Arts Education by George Anders
• Sensemaking: The Power of the Humanities in the Age of the Algorithm by Christian Madsbjerg
• Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein
• They Call Me Coach by John Wooden
• Knight, My Story by Bobby Knight
• Uncontainable: How Passion, Commitment, and Conscious Capitalism Built a Business Where Everyone Thrives by Kip Tindell
• How She Does It: How Women Entrepreneurs Are Changing the Rules of Business Success by Margaret Heffernan
• Creating Leaders in the Classroom: How Teachers Can Develop a New Generation of Leaders by Hillarie Owen
• Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big by Bo Burlingham
• Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent by Isabel Wilkerson

Chapter 2. Excellence is the Next Five Minutes

• Servant Leadership: A Journey Into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness by Robert Greenleaf
• Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value by Bill George
• Why Most Things Fail: Evolution, Extinction and Economics by Paul Ormerod
• The Healing Organization: Awakening the Conscience of Business to Help Save the World by Raj Sisodia and Michael Gelb
• The Passion Economy: The New Rules for Thriving in the Twenty-First Century by Adam Davidson
• Retail Superstars: Inside the 25 Best Independent Stores in America by George Whalin
• Simply Brilliant: How Great Organizations Do Ordinary Things in Extraordinary Ways by William Taylor
• Enough: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life by Jack Bogle
• The Golden Passport: Harvard Business School, the Limits of Capitalism, and the Moral Failure of the MBA Elite by Duff McDonald

Chapter 3. Strategy is a Commodity. Execution is an Art

• Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan

Chapter 4. People Really First

• Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur by Richard Branson            ‎
• The One Thing You Need to Know About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success by Marcus Buckingham (Tom says “There is no one in this arena whom I respect more than Marcus Buckingham”)  ‎
• A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to Building Great Business by Ari Weinzweig
• The Relationship Economy: Building Stronger Customer Connections in the Digital Age by John DiJulius
• Weology: How Everybody Wins When We Comes Before Me by Peter Aceto
• The Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly
• Joy, Inc: How We Built a Workplace People Love by Richard Sheridan
• The Unpublished David Ogilvy
• Nice Companies Finish First: Why Cutthroat Management is Over–and Collaboration Is In by Peter Shankman with Karen Kelly
• Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose by Raj Sisodia, Jag Sheth, and David Wolfe
• The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs and Boost Profits by Zeynep Ton
• Patients Come Second: Leading Change by Changing the Way You Lead by Paul Spiegelman and Britt Berrett
• Employees First, Customers Second: Turning Conventional Management Upside Down by Vineet Nayar
• The Customer Comes Second: Put Your People First and Watch ‘Em Kick Butt by Hal Rosenbluth
• No More Feedback: Cultivate Consciousness at Work by Carol Sanford
• The Practice of Management by Peter Drucker

Chapter 5. Extreme Sustainability

• Sustainable by Design: Explorations in Theory and Practice by Stuart Walker
• The Green to Gold Business Playbook: How to Implement Sustainability Practices from Bottom-Line Results in Every Business Function by Daniel Esty and P.J. Simmons
• Sustainable Excellence: The Future of Business in a Fast-Changing World by Aron Cramer and Zachary Karabell
• Green Giants: How Smart Companies Turn Sustainability into Billion-Dollar Businesses by E. Freya Williams
• Confessions of Radical Industrialists: Profits, People, Purpose–Doing Business by Respecting the Earth by Ray Anderson and Robin White
• Sustainable Business: Key Issues by Helen Kopnina and John Blewitt
• The Sustainable Design Book by Rebecca Proctor
• Aesthetic Sustainability: Product Design and Sustainable Usage by Kristine Harper
• Cradle to Cradle: Re-Making the Way We Make Things by Michael Braungart and William McDonough
• Elegant Simplicity: The Art of Living Well by Satish Kumar              

Chapter 6. Design as Soul, Design as Who We Are

• The Design Dimension: The New Competitive Weapon for Business by Chris Lorenz
• The Business Romantic: Give Everything, Quantify Nothing, and Create Something Greater Than Yourself by Tim Leberecht
• The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown
• The Soft Edge: Where Great Companies Find Lasting Success by Rich Karlgaard
• The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value is remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness by Virginia Postrell
• The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman
• Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things by Donald Norman
• Religion in Wood: A Book of Shaker Furniture by Edward Deming Andrews and Faith Andrews
• Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands by Kevin Roberts
• The Power of Design: A Force for Transforming Everything by Richard Farson
• The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okahura
• Fitch on Retail Design by Rodney Fitch
• Design for Life: Creating Meaning in a Distracted World by Stuart Walker
• Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions by Guy Kawasaki

Chapter 7. Things Gone Right, Emotionally Engaging Experiences

• The Power of Small: Why Little Things Make All the Difference by Linda Kaplan and Robin Koval
• The Manager’s Book of Decencies: How Small Gestures Build Great Companies by Steve Harrison

Chapter 8. Top-Line Focus

• The Three Rules: How Exceptional Companies Think by Michael Raynor and Mumtaz Ahmed

Chapter 11. Social Media. Everyone is “In the Brand”

• Youtility: Why Smart Marketing Is about Help Not Hype by Jay Baer
• The Social Employee: How Great Companies Make Social Media Work by Cheryl and Mark Burgess

Chapter 12. $28 Trillion Women’s Market. Underserved “Oldies” Market

• The Power of the Purse: How Smart Businesses Are Adapting to the World’s Most Important Consumers by Fara Warner
• Marketing to Women: How to Increase Your Share of the World’s Largest Market by Marti Barletta
• Why She Buys: The New Strategy for Reaching the World’s Most Powerful Consumers by Bridget Brennan
• What Women Want: The Global Marketplace Turns Female Friendly by Paco Underhill
• The Soccer Mom Myth: Today’s Female Consumer, Who She Really IS, Why She Really Buys by Michele Miller and Holly Buchanan
• Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
• Age Power: How the 21st Century Will Be Ruled by the New Old by Ken Dychtwald
• Ageless Marketing: Strategies for Reaching the Hearts and Minds of the New Customer Majority by David Wolfe and Robert Snyder
• 50+ Igniting a Revolution to Reinvent America by Bill Novelli
• Marketing to the Mindset of Boomers and Their Elders by Carol Morgan and Doran Levy
• Marketing to Prime Time Women by Marti Barletta

Chapter 13. Whoever Tries the Most Stuff (and Screws the Most Stuff Up the Fastest) Wins

• Bloomberg by Bloomberg by Michael Bloomberg
• Serious Play by Michael Schrage
• Principles of Political Economy by John Stuart Mills (1806-1873)
• The Prisoner by Marcel Proust
• The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies by Scott Page
• Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw
• Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool’s Guide to Surviving with Grace by Gordon McKenzie
• AHA! 10 Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit and Find Your Great Ideas by Jordan Ayan
• Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins by Richard Farson and Ralph Keyes

Chapter 14. Leading with Compassion and Care

• Don’t Squat With Your Spurs On: A Cowboy’s Guide to Life by Texas Bix Bender
• Charlie Wilson’s War by George Crile
• Career Warfare by David D’Alessandro
• 1776 by David McCullough
• Leadership the Hard Way: Why Leadership Can’t Be Taught and How You Can Learn It Anyway by Dov Frohman
• Wait: The Art and Science of Delay by Frank Portnoy
• Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger 
• It’s Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy by Mike Abrashoff
• Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life, One Conversation at a Time by Susan Scott 
• Disraeli: The Victorian Dandy Who Became Prime Minister by Christopher Hibbert
• The Virgin Way: How to Listen, Learn, Laugh, and Lead by Richard Branson
• How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman
• Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain (Tom says, “Quiet is my pick as the best business book of the century to date.”)
• Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall (Tom says “There is no one in this arena whom I respect more than Marcus Buckingham”)  ‎
• Take the Lead: Motivate, Inspire, and Bring Out the Best in Yourself and Everyone Around You by Betsy Myers
• What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful by Marshall Goldsmith
• Effective Apology by John Kador
• Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler
• Primal Leadership: Unleashing the Power of Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
• Patient Advocacy for Health Care Quality: Strategies for Achieving Patient-Centered Care by JoAnne L. Earp, Elizabeth A. French, Melissa G. Gilkey
• Kindness in Leadership by Gay Haskins, Mike Thomas and Lalit Johri
• Mastering Civility: A Manifesto for the Workplace by Christine Porath
• The Power of Nice: How to Conquer the Business World with Kindness by Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval
• Survival of the Friendliest: Understanding Our Origins and Rediscovering Our Humanity by Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods
• Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? Inside IBM’s Historic Turnaround by Lou Gerstner
• Management Lessons from Mayo Clinic: Inside One of the World’s Most Admired Service Organizations by Kent D. Seltman and Leonard Berry

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Peters, Thomas J. Excellence Now: Extreme Humanism. Networlding Publishing, 2021. Buy from Amazon.com

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