The pursuit of Wow! : Every Person's Guide to Topsy-Turvy Times

by Tom Peters
Published by Vintage Books, 1994


CD Book Club Reviews The Pursuit of WOW!
3.5 stars out of 5

by June Thompson, Continuing Development VP
In "The Pursuit of WOW!," Tom Peters presents a collection of observations and ways to stand out from the crowd. Peters is very inspirational at some points, and demonstrates great creativity in coming up with some of the ideas. However, those members of the CD book group who discussed it felt that another level of depth would have enhanced the book's own WOW impact.

The observations range from one-liners to entire chapters on entrepreneurship and diversity. These two chapters consisted of group discussions with entrepreneurs and Federal Express employees, respectively. I did enjoy the things he wrote about the diversity advantage, and comments he drew from that group. Along with a third group discussion section, however, these were the easiest parts of the book to read. The rest of the book has an extremely choppy feel and doesn't flow well.

There are also portions of the book where Peters contradicts himself. In one chapter he states, "Praise in public, punish in private." Later, he heaps praise upon a plumbing company which uses heavy doses of (public) peer pressure to control its employees. As one of their team leaders says, "We send people home [for the day] if their truck's not clean..." Peters also vehemently decries the practice of random drug testing at companies (calling himself a "Bill of Rights freak"), yet praises this plumbing company with a strict grooming code (no long hair, long beards, or long sideburns).

One reader commented that the book left her thinking, "How can I apply this to what I do?" Many of the ideas are geared toward things management and CEOs should be doing, which contradicts (again) the book's subtitle "Every Person's Guide to Topsy-Turvy Times." There are some ideas which could be applied on an individual level; however, the lack of examples of implementation of the ideas inhibits that.