Unprecedented times. We've seen nothing like this before. The last time things felt out of control was the Great Recession.

A strategy and culture must be created to cope with the pace of change bearing down on us,

Overnight success is one of the most widely held beliefs in the business world. It's also hugely misleading, and adopting this idea could actually be quite damaging for your career and life.

Tom Peters uses a surprising example from the healthcare industry to highlight the kind of impact kindness can have, without any financial investment.

Every organisation with more than one person - maybe even with one person - has got to have systems of some sort. And then as the place grows, the systems get more and more elaborated and eventually they strangle you like vines.

Human beings want to be acknowledged. They want you to acknowledge the problem.

Ho-hum or pretty ordinary may well be worse than awful.

Well, the essence of the economy - our giant economy, anybody’s economy - is really shockingly interesting people who often do very dull things. I’m desperately in love with two guys, and I’ll tell you their stories real quickly.

In New Delhi a couple of weeks ago, I had a general in the Indian Army in the front row. I don't recall the details, but evaluating senior officers for promotion came up.

It is not enough to do your best or try as hard as you can - you must succeed in doing what is necessary.

I spent most of a dreary weekend working on the "stuff" that ought to go into a "credo" or "values statement" or "working rules" or "things we care about" - or something.

We usually think of business strategy as some sort of aspirational market positioning statement. Doubtless that's part of it. But I believe that the number one "strategic strength" is excellence in execution and systemic relationships.

A new client (praise be) asked for 5 bullets about my forthcoming presentation to use for marketing purposes. As an overachiever since about age 5, thanks (?) Mom, I offered up 27.

Once again, we are apparently confronted with a hefty dose of "chaos" - or, at least, the prospect of a substantial period of sub-standard growth.

You well know my bias, especially of late, that it's the nuts and bolts of relationship development and maintenance that make all the difference in outcomes of issues of tactical and strategic importance.

There is a little bistro, Chez Vanille, about 100 yards from my Boston house where you'll find me a couple of days every couple of weeks. The coffee is good to great (and 100 times better than my own), the croissants pure delight.

Recently, I was the featured speaker, along with the visionary and inspiring Mayor of Seoul, at Korea Design Forum 2008. For that event, I created a list of "random" thoughts on design - that is, I excavated my brain to extract the main design ideas I've been shouting about off and on for the last 15 years. After the fact, on the long trip home, I began to mess with the list.

Branding is, well, about ... Everything. On the one hand, that's not very helpful. On the other hand, it reminds us that nothing, absolutely nothing, is irrelevant to individual branding - or branding of a construction company in VT or Megacorp Inc..

Since In Search of Excellence was written, what do you believe is the most dramatic change in the business? Here is where we come out. As Tom Peters charged in 1983, the most successfully run companies are those that have made long-term investments in their employees. By investing time and money in developing Brand You talent, these organisations have been able to seamlessly transition when critical talent retires.