lol, I may be wrong but I have a feeling the Tom Peters in question may be the business management consultant.
His book Thriving in Chaos was published in 1987 -
Wikipedia article.
There is also a page full of his business model theory / practice on Businessballs :
In search of excellence
This page summarises the book -
Thriving on Chaos - if it helps, as you read link it to 'our world and Preschool - Customers / Parents who pay the fees, Government grant which allows us to work within the state sector, in 'partnership & in return for compliance to standards. Children are also customers but not fee paying, as such .. they experience the goods provided, the Groups philosophy of provision, activities, duration and enthusiasm of presentation .. Tom considers core elements of business that remain unchangeable and recommends removing the parts that overly complicate matters !
Markets - local competition for places, Sales & securing your registered number of children, Turn over of places and ensuring incoming money matches pay & running costs - security of job - Advertising and reaching parents / carers that can use, access and pass on recommendations of the setting ..
not a great analogy sorry, but hope it helps a little ..
Lean thinking & Simplicity are other processes that reflect/incorporate this idea ..
Another good follow on from this is Ricardo Semler's business model:
Semco in Brazil you tube interview .. it's a pretty stunning concept for company structure .. and schools
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