new delhi the mahaguru of management doesnt mince his words some people who extol structures and stability just wish the earth would stop spinning on its axis they wish we could go back to the good old easy days when useless industrial giants dominated i think they are smoking some very funny stuff you can safely expect lots more straight talk when tom peters takes the podium at the indiatimes strategy summit in delhi october 29 and mumbai october 31for peters loves to provoke he is after all the iconoclast who encouraged managers to abandon stability and embrace change who asserted that crazy times call for crazy organisations who guided companies in their search for industrialised excellence then exhorted them to leap to the wow of differentiated passionbut with the dotcom crash still echoing in our ears and the corporate world awash in scandal is it time to abandon revolution as strategy absolutely not he snorts the way the us military used new technology in afghanistan is the beginning of a fundamental change in the way organisational work will be done we are at the very beginning of an enormous telecom and information revolution of which india is going to be one of the biggest beneficiariesachieving wow will be essential to prosper in these turbulent times so what are the 10 rules for getting to wow one is enough he answers leaders should have the nerve to say i dont know and allow employees to explore uncharted territory but is it healthy for organisations to have leaders flying blind were all flying blind for gods sake he erupts look at the number of giant retailers that went broke because they didnt spot walmart on the radar screen every one of those ceos had fancy strategic plans and they didnt know what the hell they were doingthen again its not exactly news that success leads to conservatism and conservatism to failure hence the need for institutions to honour and cherish maverickswhat though if you go the enron way how does one balance essential control and desirable freedom you do your best he responds you understand management is not a mechanical exercise but pure art as alfred sloan said ceos tinker with centralisation and decentralisation throughout their tenures they tighten things when things get too tight they loosen them up then when things get out of control they tighten them up again the notion of getting it absolutely right is utterly absurdbut how does one nurture a culture of innovation throughout this transitioning sorry folks were out of time but if youre looking for some answers why not catch the man himself when he gives gyaan later this month in india it could mean the difference between striving to cope and thriving on chaos