Tom Peters Business & Career Coach

by Deborah Kotz, Special to AOL Coaches

Never known for conventional blandness, Tom Peters set out to once again reinvent the wheel -- or rather, business book -- with its splashy design and in-your-face rants. If you like a lot of white space and logical flow, this isn’t the book for you. But if you like to be taken for a ride, fasten your seatbelt. You’ll be racing 100 mph through the rapidly changing world of technology and innovation.

"At least 80 percent of white-collar jobs, as we know them today, will either disappear entirely or be reconfigured beyond recognition in just the next 15 years," predicts Peters. This from a man whose predictions usually come to fruition. How to avoid becoming obsolete? First of all, you need to adopt the right lingo. Think innovation rather than accounting. Think profit center rather than cost center. Think talent rather than employees. Think agile alliances rather than clunky bureaucracies. And by all means, embrace the world wide web since e-commerce is here to stay. Soon, more of us will be telecommuting independent contractors rather than permanent employees. Welcome to the brave new world.

'Re-Imagine!' has no 5-point plan for turning yourself into a success, but one clear theme shines through. Being normal and following the status quo will no longer cut it in our rapidly changing world, contends Peters. You’ve got to construct your ho-hum business into a professional service firm that provides a product or service that no one else offers. This applies whether you’re an independent contractor or run an agile alliance with a talent of 500. For every project you’re given, re-imagine it. "DO NOT REST UNTIL THAT PROJECT PASSES THE TESTS OF IMAGINATION." Yes, the all-caps are his, but are you starting to get his drift?

This is not the sort of book that you read through cover to cover and cast aside. It’s a coffee table book to be picked up and gazed upon for a few pages until your brain is spinning and you can’t take it anymore. But it’s also a great conversation starter if you’re sitting around with a few friends. Peters entertains on every page with vivid images, bold type and rousing credos. So Dream! Imagine! Innovate! Or just sit back and enjoy the ride.

1. Buy 'Re-Imagine!'