DATE: Wednesday, October 8, 1997            TAG: 9710080513

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MICHAEL CLARK, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   72 lines

STILL PASSIONATE ABOUT EXCELLENCE FIVE-TIME AUTHOR STAYS ON MESSAGE DURING DAYLONG PROGRAM AT CHRYSLER HALL.

Passion and excellence: Tom Peters has spent the past 15 years using one in pursuit of the other.

The workplace hasn't been the same since 1982, when Peters' published ``In Search of Excellence.'' A second book, ``A Passion for Excellence,'' echoed the theme, and three subsequent works also carried the message that innovation and growth were vital to the survival of any organization.

Peters brought his passion and his message to Chrysler Hall Tuesday for a daylong program, ``Lessons in Leadership,'' sponsored by Old Dominion University.

Based on Peters' fifth book, ``In Pursuit of WOW!,'' the program drew about 650 people, paying $399 each, to see the flamboyant author in action.

Peters, who speaks loudly as he paces in front of the stage and moves through the aisles, quoted management expert Cynthia Kellams' warning to every employee:

``If you can't say why you made your company a better place, you're out.''

He related his experience in the Navy, working for a lieutenant commander who effectively navigated the intricate politics of the Pentagon because he ``didn't know he was a lieutenant commander.''

The lesson, he said, is that ``powerlessness is a state of mind. If you think you're powerless, you are.''

Far from powerless, Peters loudly proclaims his mission in Chapter 15 of his newest book, ``The Circle of Innovation,'' to be published Nov. 7. The last chapter announces, ``We're here to live life out loud.''

That belief could explain the use of a graphic layout similar to Marshall McLuhan's famous book, ``The Medium is the Message.'' And that is no coincidence, Peters said during a break in the program.

``Oh, I'm a big fan of McLuhan's,'' he said. ``I'm very interested in the presentation of information.''

The McLuhan influence also extends to Peters' latest buzzwords.

``One worries about the hype, but in 10 years, electronic commerce will change the world,'' he said. ``We'll continue to become a global village.''

Putting his philosophy into practice, Peters will put his new book on the Internet the week before it's published.

``There's a lot happening,'' Peters said. ``This is not the Sesame Street generation; it's the Nintendo and Sega generation. This is the sound-bite age; people are digesting things differently.''

But there is still passion, he said.

The demands of passion, he writes in ``The Circle of Innovation,'' are obsession, enthusiasm, fixation, people, truth and loudness.

The emphasis on passion can be seen as a ``squaring of the circle'' from earlier books, Peters said. ``But it's not new.''

Some of Peters' drive, he said, can be traced back to two tours of duty in Vietnam. That service led to a distrust and distaste for then-Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.

``I have a hatred of the sterility of McNamarian thought,'' he said.

That passion inspired Peters' second chapter of ``In Search of Excellence.''

Titled ``The Rational Model,'' Peters wrote, ``Professionalism in management is regularly equated with hardheaded rationality. . . . It flourished in Vietnam, where success was measured by body counts . . . and its grand panjandrum was Robert McNamara.''

Passion for his message also keeps Peters on the road. After his Chrysler Hall appearance, he will continue to commute between home in Vermont and his business and second home in California's Silicon Valley.

In the last few months of 1997, he will complete his 93-date speaking schedule. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

BILL TIERNAN

The Virginian-Pilot

Tom Peters...

[Bookjacket cover]

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