Innovate or die

Tom Peters looks like he's just finished a marathon. The ‘innovation guru', as he has come to be known, has spent the last six hours pacing the hall of the Dubai International Convention Centre and as he comes limping into the interview room to take his seat, there are beads of sweat dripping from his forehead.

Yet for 64 year old Peters, it's a marathon he relishes everytime. "I'm desperately in love with what I do," he gushes, "This is my world and I couldn't live without doing it." While his words might sound overly-emotive, hosting innovation forums has become both Peters' life and livelihood. Last year alone he gave 72 speeches - an average of 1.3 speeches a week - yet he is the last person to refer to himself as an expert: "There's too much uncertainty in the world, too much equivocality, and that's why I don't really believe this guru-ing thing is truly a profession."

As Peters made clear at the start of his ‘Building an Innovation Machine' workshop, there are no ten simple steps for achieving innovation because "that's not the way the world works." Rather he believes that circumstances in life are largely generated by luck and so one can make generalisations that are useful, but to claim certainty is nonsensical. "Anyone who thinks they can make certain prescriptions is insane. It's simply arrogance speaking and it's confusing yourself for God."

That Peters should be making such remarks seems somewhat ironic given that twenty-four years after launching a management revolution with his book ‘In Search of Excellence', the man remains an irreverent force to be reckoned with. His unconventional and revolutionary views have led him to be described as ‘business' best friend and worst nightmare'. It is his reluctance to claim certainty for anything that enables Peters to always see the grey area of any issue and leads him to make such statements as: "I 94% agree with what you're saying."

Perhaps the only exception to the rule is Peters' certainty that innovation is not an option but a prerequisite, as put in his own words: "Innovate or die." He won't be drawn on offering any ‘innovation formulas' but concedes that people power is integral: "It's people but it's some funny combination of ‘pissed off people and playfulness'. It's that old line ‘You've got to stop talking and start doing'. It's people who have an urgent desire to do something and don't mind taking risks."

Peters should know. His determination to introduce change cost him his job as an executive and partner at McKinsey & Company, which he laughs off by saying: "I was right and they were wrong." The fact that he can be so good-humoured about the incident is itself testament to how passionately he believes in the importance of innovation. In fact, he hints as much when he says: "I believe that any time you do something slightly new, the world in small or large measure is on your case. So you have to believe in what you're doing enough to be able to withstand the heat and keep on trucking."

However, while Peters believes that innovation prospers best when allowing people to have a free rein, he does entertain the idea that there can to be controls in place to ensure that the system works: "On the surface level, the answer is ‘of course'. But I personally believe there are enough controls existing today which act as a safety net. You know there are a lot of things that make me lose sleep at night but the world becoming too crazy and innovative is not one of them!" That UAE banks are not doing enough to help young entrepreneurs to innovate was made apparent by a country-wide survey published last month which showed that just 11.4% of those polled said their capital came from banks and other financial institutions. The UAE's first Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Report revealed that about half of those polled used either their own money or received support from their families to start businesses.

The UAE survey was compiled by two Professors at Zayed University as part of the GEM Report in which a total of 2000 Emiratis and expatriates were surveyed across 42 countries, and which ranked the UAE as second lowest last year in terms of entrepreneurial activity. However, the problem is not that the UAE lacks entrepreneurial capabilities, rather there are a lack of formal financial support facilities, despite an abundance of funds. According to Peters, for innovation to be properly fostered in the region, financial facilities need to be improved.

"What we have in the US and definitely Silicon Valley are layers upon layers of innovation support mechanisms. You've got groups of what we call ‘angels' who are entrepreneurially-minded people who will give you US$300,000 at the right moment. From the angels we go to the venture capitalists, then onto the second level funders to the banks, so we've got this shockingly rich financial infrastructure. It's first trench of lending, second trench of lending, seed capital - it's incredibly variegated - and frankly speaking you really need all these forms of investment."

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