enterprise

Enterprise from Tom Peters

Found this manifesto over at ChangeThis about the real meaning of enterprise and organization. Tom describes an enterprise as:

Enterprise* (*at its best): An emotional, vital, innovative, joyful, creative, entrepreneurial endeavor that maximizes individuals’ growth and elicits maximum concerted human potential in the wholehearted service of others.

Organization exist to serve people and the bottom line is that people serve people. He also encourages businesses to adopt the Professional Service Firm Idea where your company or department offer a complete turn-key solution to your customers. Your company or department need to do work that is worth paying for.

There's also a section where he teaches us to not let our life be dictated by our competitors. Instead of reacting to what your competitors are doing, you should focus on creating solutions for your customers. In fact, he wants you to love your competitors in order to grow the industry.

We ... are the problem. They are ... not ... the problem. We have one source only of Excellence: Us.

If you are running a team, department or company, this is a must read. Even if you're not, you should still check it out.