Tom Peters's True Confessions (Continued)

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My seventh confession: Search was perfect. There are no mistakes in it. None, none, none. The eight basic principles that I wrote down on that pad of yellow paper in May 1980, and that became the eight key elements of the book, were right. They were right for 1982. They were accurate. They were correct. Nothing was wrong with them in 1982.

So where's the confession, you ask? Well, the book is flawed as hell. And we told one big lie -- unintentionally, but a lie nonetheless.

Here's why it was perfect: We absolutely nailed the eight points of the compass that people needed to think about and work on ... in 1982. I could quibble with my own language, with the choice of words for some of the eight points -- but they were the right eight points. If you look at the world of business in 1982, those eight points said what needed to be said. Period. End of story.

That said, there were flaws. Atari was one of them. Wang Laboratories was another. In hindsight, there were whole categories of business changes that were headed directly at us that we completely whiffed on. They simply weren't important at the time, hadn't arrived yet on the scene, or were still too superficial to make an impact. Information technology, for example. We vaguely implied that it would be important -- we talked about organizations that were flatter and more flexible. But the notion of working at Internet speed with Internet-enabled communications within and between organizations? We blew it on that one.

We missed the importance of speed -- although we did preach the power of action over endless rounds of planning. We ignored the global economy. It's an all-American book. (We, too, were caught up in the "American malaise." Remember Jimmy Carter?) Search didn't even extend as far as Toronto or Tijuana, let alone to more distant shores. There isn't an entrepreneur in the book. It's all about big companies. We were McKinsey grunts, after all, and the book is a perfect reflection of that world. I doubt that there's a woman in the book either. If you went through the entire index of people who appear in Search, I would not be surprised if there wasn't a single woman or person of color on the list. Those are flaws.

And then there's our one big -- albeit unintentional -- lie. The enemy of Search was "the one best way." It was the practice of scientific management that said to managers, Find the one best way, and you'll win. The book tried to blow away that one-best-way mentality once and for all. But in the process, we inadvertently substituted our own set of God-given truths, our own patent-medicine prescription for excellence -- in perpetuity. People read Search and took away the message that we had written down on the tablets about the new truths on how to win: Do these things, and God will smile down on you. Now and forevermore. Follow these eight rules, and glory will rain upon you.

We forgot to include a warning label. Warning! Nothing is permanent. Anything in excess is a poison. And remember: Everything in business is a paradox. To be excellent, you have to be consistent. When you're consistent, you're vulnerable to attack. Yes, it's a paradox. Now deal with it!

That said, today I hold myself blameless. First, my feeling is that anyone who's idiot enough to read a business book and follow the words exactly to the letter is just that -- an idiot. And second, Search should have been seen as a negative guarantee, not a positive one. A positive guarantee would say, Follow these eight principles, and you will win -- guaranteed. I'd never say that -- not then, not now. But what I would say is, Ignore these eight principles, and you will fail -- guaranteed. If you do none of these things, I can promise you that your company will never come close to being an excellent one. Not for a moment, let alone for an eon. Ignore these eight principles at your peril -- for you will lose. That's no lie, and it's still true today.

My eighth true confession? I would never write Search today. I'm not interested in Searching for excellence anymore. I'm interested in interesting.

Implicit in Search was the notion that we could write a prescription for the ages that would tell you how to make your company excellent -- today, tomorrow, and forever. The truth is, I don't care if companies are excellent. And I sure don't care if they stay excellent. What I care about is what we can learn today -- now! -- by taking a look at companies and people who are doing stuff that's interesting.