Tom Peters

In the early 90s, my major professor Karl Kuhnert introduced me to the work of Tom Peters via Peters’ Leadership Alliance video featuring Harley-Davidson, GM, and Johnsonville Sausage. In turn, I showed this video to my Org Behavior students at LSU for years.

Because it included such simple and classic lessons of leadership, I continued to use it even after the video seemed dated. One I’ve always remembered is Pat Carrigan, the first female General Motors assembly plant manager, walking around and introducing herself to all the employees on the factory floor and shaking their hands. What a powerful gesture.

I listened to a podcast of an excellent interview with Peters on Dan Pink’s Office Hours where he talked about experiences that influenced his management thinking. I also found out about his free resource - dozens of management lessons comprised of thousands of slides for studying and teaching management.

Who says a great education has to be expensive?