That’s Tom Peters via YouTube.

Initially, he talks about teenagers when referring to a quote from Thomas Friedman, but if you step back a bit, “do your homework” could – and should – be applied to all of us.

Perhaps Tom felt it was easier to make the point about China and India (especially given the “clean your plate” anecdote), but it really isn’t about China or India at all (more on that in a moment).

It’s about competition in general.

Depending on what you do, your fiercest competition might come from Seattle (Amazon), Bentonville (WalMart), Guangzhou, Pittsburgh, Mumbai, Memphis (FedEx) or right down the street.

Once someone has put you out of business (CPSIA and similar issues notwithstanding), it really doesn’t matter where the competition came from, whether it was WalMart, Amazon, Radio Shack or Joe’s Electronics.

No matter how you slice it, the people selling all those cheap Chinese-made electronics (or whatever) put you out of business.

Or your competition ships all their customer service or manufacturing jobs offshore, cutting their costs drastically. “Suddenly”, you can’t compete.

Once your payroll checks start bouncing, you’re still history, no matter what the cause.

If only Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, Obama, your Governor or Congress had done something…

Please leave a comment and tell me… who/what do you blame?

We’ll talk more about this as the week progresses.

Yesterday’s Eagle Court reminded me of the last few moments of this short 2 minute video guest post from Tom Peters.

Note for those who might cringe at, be disgusted by or even “hate” the thought of a company earning the “obscene profits” extols: Mr Peters is a Democrat who spoke on the Obama campaign trail in 2008.

Can you imagine watching the heads of 2 political parties would have discussing that? Irony is beautiful sometimes.

My amusement aside, I urge you to take the video deadly serious: Get rid of the “average” stuff/processes/people in your business (or improve them).

Do it with enthusiasm and without prejudice.

photo credit: lepiaf.geo

Today’s guest post is from a pinnacle of business wisdom, Tom Peters.

First, a quote:

I am constantly asked for “strategies/‘secrets’ for surviving the recession.” I try to appear wise and informed—and parade original, sophisticated thoughts. But if you want to know what’s really going through my head, see the list that follows” – Tom Peters

Here’s the list Tom is talking about.

While you might think Tom’s remark is unusual, my experience has been that – without exception – every one of the “pinnacles” of business success that I have personally met and talked to have talked about the stuff on Tom’s list more than anything else.

Which should tell you something…

photo credit: kevindooley

Today’s guest post comes from none other than Tom Peters.

He introduces his “XF-50″, which he calls 50 Ways to Enhance Cross-Functional Effectiveness and Deliver Speed, “Service Excellence” and “Value-added Customer ‘Solutions’”.

Sure are a lot of quotes and buzzwords there, but I think you’ll find that they are quoted for a reason.

Go check it out, I think you’ll find it worthwhile.