Don Peppers is featured in the Q&A on CNN.com
Global Office talks to Don Peppers, the founding partner of management consulting firm, Peppers and Rogers Group.
Global Office: What are you reading?
Don Peppers: I have just finished "Hot Kid" by Elmore Leonard and "Saturday" by Ian McEwan. I am also in the middle of reading about six other books that are not as compelling, but nice to read on an occasional basis. My favorite book of all time is "Guns, Germs and Steel," by Jared Diamond.
GO: Who's been your biggest influence?
DP: My wife, without question, she is not just the love of my life, but she is a really good person -- an angel. I wish I had half the intuitive skills and judgment about people that she has.
GO: What's your biggest mistake?
DP: Not selling enough of my Internet stocks when they were at the top, or even just half way to the top.
GO: Is management an art or a science?
DP: Management is a science. Leadership is an art. You can study management and get better at it, but no matter how much you study leadership, if you are not a leader you are not going to become one.
GO: What do you reach for on your desk when the fire alarm goes off?
DP: My Diet Coke, in the can, not in a plastic bottle. I never leave home without it.
Curriculum Vitae
Don Peppers holds a bachelor's degree in astronautical engineering from the U.S. Air Force Academy and a master's degree in public affairs from Princeton University.
Prior to marketing and advertising, Don worked as an economist in the oil business and as the director of accounting for a regional airline.
Peppers and Martha Rogers founded Peppers & Rogers Group, a customer-focused management consulting firm in 1993.
He has published a number of management books along with Rogers that have collectively sold over a million copies in 14 languages.
He has been ranked by Accenture's Institute for Strategic Change among the global "Top 100 Business Intellectuals" for two years running. Business 2.0 Magazine has named him one of the "foremost business gurus of our times."
For the last 18 months, Peppers has been working on a new book with Rogers called "Return on Customer," (Website: www.returnoncustomer.com). It looks at what companies should think about when managing and growing their business, and what it really means to be "profitable" -- when short term gains must be balanced with long-term value.