Tom Peters

            
             Motivation continues to be a pervasive theme in the organizational world. Several theories have been advanced on what truly motivates people in the work place, some having survived the rigors of real world application better than others. Early theorists, such as Maslow and Herzberg, provided a framework upon which contemporary theories have been built. One of those contemporary theorists, Tom Peters, turned the organizational behavior world upside-down in the 1980's with his untraditional approach to management, quality, empowerment and ultimately, motivation. His principles have been successfully applied by many companies, including UPS, Dell Computer, 3M, IBM, and Wal-Mart.
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             Peters - A Bios.
             He describes himself as a prince of disorder, champion of bold failures, maestro of zest, professional loudmouth, corporate cheerleader, lover of markets, capitalist pig, and card-carrying member of the ACLU (Peters, 2003). Other business magazines have described him as Ur-guru (guru of gurus) of management, and business' best friend and worst nightmare (Peters, 2003). He is the author of several books, has made a series of videos, and has also written numerous articles that have been published in newspapers as well as magazines. He is an editor for a column in Tribune Media Services (Independent Policy Forum) and travels the world conducting over 80 seminars a year. .
             This candid yet flamboyant business philosopher is none other than Tom Peters, the co-author of In Search of Excellence, a book that also was undoubtedly the stepping-stone that helped launch his career as a motivational speaker and management consultant after it's first publishing in October of 1982. .
             Tom is a graduate of Cornell University where he earned two engineering degrees (B.C.E., M.C.E.) and also Stanford University where he obtained an M.B.A. and a Ph. D. But it was his stint at McKinsey & Co., where he teamed up with Robert H.