How do you break your company or product away from the pack of sameness? You’re probably in a business where it can be difficult for customers to distinguish the difference between your products/services and those of your competition. So, how do you stand apart from the crowd? Tom Peters in his book The Pursuit of Wow! suggests… well… creating Wow!
Who:
Tom Peters
What:
“WOW!”
What is it?
Wow is “stepping out (individuals at all levels in a firm and independent contractors) and standing out (corporations and organizations) from the growing crowd of look-alikes. Being average has never had much appeal. Better to fail with flair in pursuit of something neat…”
How is it done?
Tom offers 210 stories… well… chunks of inspiring information, actually… some short, some long. They are all examples of people and companies doing WOW things… While Tom doesn’t offer step-by-step instructions on creating a WOW idea, you will be inspired by his examples. Examples are arranged into these chapters:
- Starters
- Getting Things Done
- Milk, Cookies and Managing People
- Pens, Toilets, and Businesses That Do It Differently
- Just Say No to Commodities (And Yes to Free Spirits)
- Breaking the Mold
- The Wacky World (or [mostly] what have you done about Asia today?)
- Searching for the Diversity Advantage
- Tomorrow’s Strange Enterprises
- Entrepreneurs’ Dreams
- Lists!
- Attaining Perpetual Adolescence
- Parting Shots
Tom published this book fourteen years ago, and the full title of this book still holds true… “The Pursuit of Wow! Every Person’s Guide to Topsy-Turvy Times.”
Check Out
Books
- “The Pursuit of Wow!: Every Person’s Guide to Topsy-Turvy Times”
- “The Project 50 (Reinventing Work): Fifty Ways to Transform Every “Task” into a Project That Matters!”
Online
- “Wow Projects” from the Tom Peter’s company website
Articles by Tom Peters in Fast Company Magazine
(Don’t let the dates of 1999 dissuade you – this writing is just as relevant today as it was then)
- “How to Wow!” (April ‘99)
- “The Wow Project” (April ‘99)
See also my previous DailyFix “How to Be Different” posts:
- Seth Godin and How to Be Different: Create a Purple Cow
- Marty Neumeier and How to Be Different: Zag!
- Bill Schley and How to Be Different: ‘Dominant Selling Idea’
Tags: how+to+be+different, remarkability, The+Pursuit+of+Wow!, tom+peters, Wow!
Another good article on the How of Wow!
http://www.michaelhyatt.com/fromwhereisit/2008/06/the-how-of-wo-1.html