What makes Pro­fes­sion­al Ser­vice Firms great: integri­ty, lis­ten­ing, and more.

The sec­ond half of the 100 Suc­cess Tips. Also at ChangeTh­is.

The Delaware team at the U.S. Con­sti­tu­tion­al Con­gress had great impact by just being there.

Tom tells a sto­ry of two men, who, by doing very dull things, have made lots of $$$.

On strate­gies to sur­vive and thrive in the Reces­sion, Tom gives 44 ideas.

Some of the most not­ed engi­neer­ing projects in the world came in over budget.

Since only your lega­cy lives on, you must con­scious­ly build it from day one.

A bare-bones out­line of busi­ness wisdom.

Rethink your idea of inno­va­tion. See also “Inno­va­tion Tac­tics.”

Tom presents pros and cons of plan­ning, sys­tems, and measures.

Talk­ing points include: bias for action, inno­vate or die, strat­e­gy second.

Tom’s paean to small busi­ness, includ­ing steps to tak­ing on the big guys: “Wal­lop­Wal­mart.”

Tom’s advice for tough times: “Win With the ‘2Es.’ Exe­cu­tion. Excellence.”

Tom’s per­son­al saga of spon­ta­neous discovery.

The TV show House inspired this list of desir­able prac­tices for busi­ness­es and leaders.

Tom gives his view of the impor­tant ele­ments of busi­ness success.

Twen­ty hard truths about pit­falls and oppor­tu­ni­ties. Also at ChangeTh­is.

Tom explains why who sits next to whom in your office can make a huge difference.

Tom revis­its the first of the basics from In Search of Excel­lence.

For­mer Burg­er King chief Bar­ry Gib­bons says be any­thing oth­er than ordinary.

Tom says you’ll be amazed at the pay­off when you con­cen­trate on the customer.

Improv­ing the appear­ance of a biz is wast­ed if work­er atti­tude isn’t upgrad­ed too.

The health­care indus­try high­lights the impact of kind­ness, with $0 investment.

Serve your exter­nal cus­tomers by serv­ing your employ­ees first. PPT also.

Tom makes the case for hir­ing for pas­sion over experience.

A col­lec­tion of rarely used slides rang­ing from Chi­na’s emer­gence to outsourcing.

Tom says that if you want to get any­thing done—then you are in sales.

If not excel­lence, what else should you be doing with your time, your life? Pow­er­Point, also.

This video was made after the Aliba­ba New­pre­neur of the Year event, 2009.

Tom dis­cuss­es the econ­o­my cir­ca 2009 and gives tips for “new­pre­neurs.”

Tom’s col­lec­tion of wis­dom from H‑named sources now totals 11.

In this video, Tom says that cor­po­ra­tions must be part of the community.

Mar­keters con­tin­ue to ignore the cus­tomers who are spend­ing almost ALL the money.

In this PDF, Tom fore­sees (TOTAL) Vic­to­ry of the Pro­fes­sion­al Ser­vice Firm.

Tom says, “PAY Incred­i­bly Well. Pur­sue DIVERSITY. Seek out THE STRANGE ONES.”

Sub­ti­tle: “The New Econ­o­my’s Hid­den Imper­a­tive.” Writ­ten 15 years ago, still relevant.

Prove your the­o­ry far from the top brass before you pro­pose it to them.

Chap­ter 17, The Works. Extreme times call for extreme language—AND actions.

Tom’s all in favor of attack­ing your own sys­tems in order to bet­ter serve the customer.

Tom’s les­son from Con­rad Hilton is to be sure the lit­tle things get done.

Tom’s opin­ion of big com­pa­nies’ mergers.

A com­men­tary on the devel­op­er of modal con­tainer­iza­tion and the effects of it.

Tom’s take on the sub­prime loans that plagued the hous­ing mar­ket cir­ca 2007–8.

Tom intro­duces his list of mis­judg­ments made by CEOs.

Fifty-sev­en ideas to take you “From Action to Excellence.”

An out­line for dif­fer­en­ti­at­ing your business.

Tom puts some new empha­sis on his bias for action.

Appen­dix 3, Excel­lence. NO EXCUSES! Tom’s fore­word to Rich Karl­gaard’s book.

Chap­ter 3, The Works. SEVEN (VERY) Ques­tion­able “Foun­da­tion Myths.”

Chap­ter 9, The Works. Tom uses Ger­man Mit­tel­stand as exemplars.

There is no Excel­lence with­out cross-func­tion­al Excellence.

Chap­ter 13, The Works. Prof­it inter­nal cus­tomers too.

Tom says: love the mess, work in Tech­ni­col­or, embrace deviance, etc.

A col­lec­tion includ­ing: CEOs Are Idiots and New Econ­o­my, New Biz Degrees, among others.

DID WE MAKE A DRAMATIC, LASTING, GAME-CHANGING DIFFERENCE?

Run your busi­ness like a Pro­fes­sion­al Ser­vice Firm. Also in Project05.

Appen­dix 2, Excel­lence. NO EXCUSES! Exe­cu­tion is more impor­tant than busi­ness systems.

Every­thing Tom learned about small busi­ness in the 25 years from 1981 to 2006.

Includes the themes of decen­cy; curios­i­ty; action; and try, fail, try again.

49 Points of poten­tial Dra­mat­ic Difference.

A col­lec­tion includ­ing “Ten Rea­sons to Get Up in the Morn­ing” and “Sum­mer of Soul.”

An out­line for small busi­ness begin­nings and success.

A baker’s dozen eter­nal ver­i­ties, such as: hire the best talent.

The basics from “Inno­va­tion NEW Short” in list form.

Tom says that cross-func­tion­al min­gling is essen­tial to success!

Tom envi­sions lead­ers in ser­vice to employ­ees … in pur­suit of profit.

Tom gives the sto­ry of the gen­e­sis of the McK­in­sey 7S Framework.

Excel­lence Two: Tom describes two things he obsess­es about.

Man­age­ment as alge­bra­ic func­tions, e.g., S = ƒ(…); “Suc­cess is a func­tion of …”

The response to the prob­lem invari­ably ends up being the real problem.

Every­one is in sales. Also at Change This.

Exe­cu­tion is the best strat­e­gy; an idea enhanced by Exe­cu­tion, by Bossidy and Charan.

Tom finds a busi­ness les­son in every activity!

Col. John Boyd is one of Tom’s exem­plars of a bias for action.

“Tomato TomA[h]to!” A list of “They say… I say” con­trasts. Also at ChangeTh­is.

The reac­tion is often more a prob­lem than the orig­i­nal mis­step. Pow­er­Point, also.

A senior leader need not be the #1 strate­gist; he hires the #1 strategist.

Tom tells us that the sin­gle source of inno­va­tion is angry people.

Phi­los­o­phy of Dave Lin­iger (RE/MAX): Ensure the suc­cess of those who work for you.

209 truths that Tom finds unde­ni­able, such as: “We all have customers.”

Strate­gic strength comes from main­tain­ing supe­ri­or­i­ty in tal­ent and execution.

Forty-six “Secrets” and “Clever Strate­gies” for Deal­ing with the Great Recession.

Hire for atti­tude, char­ac­ter, and proven team­work more than for skill.

Six superbly researched books attack six management/performance Foun­da­tion Myths.

Tom says treat inter­nal cus­tomers (work­force) bet­ter than exter­nal customers.

Tom presents an alter­na­tive to min­i­miz­ing Things Gone Wrong.

Tom presents his case for includ­ing thought­ful­ness in your vision statement.

Tom runs the num­bers on oppor­tu­ni­ties to build your net­work and solve problems.

In this video, Tom reminds us that brand­ing efforts depend on an empha­sis on the talent.

In this video, Tom’s advice is to hang in longer than any­one else thinks is wise.

Tom argues for mar­ket­ing to the over-50 population.

Tom says best prac­tices as busi­ness strat­e­gy can be effec­tive, or not.

A ques­tion from web­site vis­i­tor Jack Webb, “Why don’t big com­pa­nies innovate?”

Pin up this one page in your office, refer to it frequently.

This pre­sen­ta­tion from 2002 has many of Tom’s favorite quotes from that era.

Tom’s 27 man­dates for thriv­ing in unsta­ble times. 

Tom gives his advice on sur­viv­ing the reces­sion, and then thriving.

The Pro­fes­sion­al Ser­vice Firm is one of Tom’s stan­dards of Excellence.

In the wake of 9/11, Tom pon­ders how to fore­stall anoth­er attack.

Tom deliv­ers his edict that you must stand out or be stepped on.

Tom asks you to project your­self into the future and look back on your work’s impact.

Get lots of info in this three-in-one PowerPoint. 

“Who are we?” “What’s our sto­ry?” Every employ­ee should know the answers.

Pur­su­ing Dif­fer­ence: 9 tac­tics for putting your­self ahead of the pack.

A list of what Tom feels should be your first priorities.

Three peo­ple whose wis­dom Tom loves! Video, also.

Find 73 of Tom’s fave tips in this Pow­er­Point, e.g., social media, pow­er of algorithms.

From Nicholas Tale­b’s The Black Swan, Tom culled 44 lessons for thriving.

A mixed bag of quotes on busi­ness merg­ers, writ­ing, fash­ion, med­ical errors, etc. 

Find out if any­thing Tom said about Chi­na in 2004 still has rel­e­vance. Or came true.

The first half of the Suc­cess Tips. Also at ChangeTh­is.

Tom’s 60 beliefs. You can find the PDF at ChangeTh­is, also, and the PPT here.

Con­nec­tiv­i­ty via the Inter­net: the accom­pa­ny­ing advances, changes, and challenges.

One slide offers what Tom con­sid­ers 12 char­ac­ter­is­tics of suc­cess­ful businesses.

Tom defines the aspi­ra­tion of orga­ni­za­tions: To be of service.

TP: “What’ve you done in the past 24 hours to be of ser­vice to your organization?”

A slides pre­sen­ta­tion about how you can become a change agent by man­ag­ing spaces.

In 2002, Tom called the Web “THE 100% SOLUTION … THE WHOLE NINE YARDS.”

Tom says you can’t com­pete with the biggest—instead set your­self apart. Be unique.

A 16-slide snap­shot of what Tom sees as impor­tant for thriv­ing in uncer­tain times.

Tom has a one-sided dis­cus­sion with Jack Welch.

Tom’s 60th birth­day inspired this list of beliefs.

Three trea­tis­es on lead­er­ship: The Leadership50, The Leadership25, and LeadershipSHORT.

Tom out­lines a few dif­fer­ences between his think­ing and Jim Collins’s Good To Great.

The arti­cle that start­ed the per­son­al brand­ing move­ment, at FastCompany.com.

Cain’s book inspired Tom to re-eval­u­ate how we all see the non-talk­ers among us.

Re-imag­ine your business—with a focus on ser­vice to the customer.

32 ways to have cus­tomers who are more than engaged.