LONG
Tom Peters’
Re-Imagine:
Excellence
NOW
World Strategy Forum
The New Rules: Reframing Capitalism
Seoul/13 June 2012
(slides @ tompeters.com and excellencenow.com)
“Not Dead Yet”
“Not Dead Yet”
BRIC/2011: $11T/$4K per capita
USA/2011: $16T/$48K per capita
USA/2000: 4% population/30% world GDP
USA/2010: 4% populattion/28% world GDP
USA productivity: ’07/1.7%; ’08/2.1%; ’09/5.4%; ’10/2.4%; ’11/4.1%
FDIC institutions: 4Q/2008/-$38B; 2Q/2011/+$29B
1/2008 to 9/2011: USA consumer savings 0% to 6%/$2.1T saved
Foreign Direct Investment: 2003: $64B; 2008: $328B; 2009: $134B;
2011: $200B+
Exports/2009: USA $1.53T ($1.06T goods, $0.47T services);
Germany $1.36T; China $1.33T
USA/Refined petroleum products/1Q 2011: Imports 2.16M BPD;
Exports 2.49M BPD
“New economy”: Apple (>Exxon) + Google + Facebook = $800B
market cap
Source: Daniel Gross, The Myth of American Decline and the Growth of a New Economy
iPad/$4 billion
of $300 billion negative
USA trade balance with
China (2011)
Cost/Profit Components:
Total labor 7%
(Chinese labor: 2%)
Materials 31%
Distribution: 15%
Profit: 47%
$275 = Imputed
Landed iPad cost:
USA negative trade balance with China
(Actual China cost: $10)
Source: Personal Computing Industry Centre (Economist)
Cost*/Profit Components:
Total labor 7%
(Chinese labor: 2%)
Materials 31%
Distribution: 17%
Profit: 47%
$275 = Imputed
Landed iPad cost:
USA negative trade balance with China
(Actual China cost: $10)
*Biggest non-USA component:
Korea
Source: Personal Computing Industry Centre (Economist)
Q3 2011/BLS
+3.1/Non-farm productivity growth
+3.8/Non-farm output
+0.6/Non-farm hours worked
+5.4/Manufacturing productivity
+4.7/Manufacturing output
-0.6/Manufacturing hours worked
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics/03 November 2011
It’s Getting a Little Weird Out*
Bradesco’s biometric ATM
sensors/blood flow (Economist 0519)
Oscar Pistorius’ sprinting
acumen/approved for
London (WSJ 0602)
DelFly/lighter than your
wedding ring (Economist 0602)
*Kurzweil’s Singularity is nigh?!
“In some sense you can
argue that the science
fiction scenario is already
starting to happen. The
computers are in control.
We just live in their
world.”
—Danny Hillis, Thinking Machines (Wired 01.2011)
“Unless mankind
redesigns itself by
changing our DNA
through altering our
genetic makeup,
computer-generated
robots will take over
the world.” – Stephen Hawking
“Tom, let me tell you the
definition of a good
lending officer. …
“Tom, let me tell you the
definition of a good lending
officer. After church on Sunday,
on the way home with his
family, he takes a little detour
to drive by the factory he just
lent money to. Doesn’t go in or
any such thing, just drives by
and takes a look.”
“The art of war does not
require complicated
maneuvers; the simplest are
the best and common sense is
fundamental. From which one
might wonder how it is
it
is because they try to
be clever.”
generals make blunders;
—Napoleon
“Too Much Cost, Not Enough Value”
“Too Much Speculation, Not Enough Investment”
“Too Much Complexity, Not Enough Simplicity”
“Too Much Counting, Not Enough Trust”
“Too Much Business Conduct, Not Enough
Professional Conduct”
“Too Much Salesmanship, Not Enough
Stewardship”
“Too Much Focus on Things, Not Enough Focus
on Commitment”
“Too Many Twenty-first Century Values,
Not Enough Eighteenth-Century Values”
“Too Much ‘Success,’ Not Enough Character”
Source: Chapter titles from Jack Bogle, Enough.
MBWA
Managing
By
Wandering
Around
or it's simply
not worth
doing
“Business has to give people enriching,
or it's
simply not
worth
doing.”
rewarding lives …
—Richard Branson
7 Steps to Sustaining Success
You take care of the people.
The people take care of the service.
The service takes care of the customer.
The customer takes care of the profit.
The profit takes care of the re-investment.
The re-investment takes care of the re-invention.
The re-invention takes care of the future.
(And at every step the only measure is EXCELLENCE.)
7 Steps to Sustaining Success
You take care of the people.
The people take care of the service.
The service takes care of the customer.
The customer takes care of the profit.
The profit takes care of the re-investment.
The re-investment takes care of the re-invention.
The re-invention takes care of the future.
(And at every step the only measure is EXCELLENCE.)
“The
ONE Question” : “In the last year [3 years, current job],
three
people
name the …
… whose growth you’ve
most contributed to. Please explain where they were at the
beginning of the year, where they are today, and where they are
heading in the next 12 months. Please explain in painstaking detail
your development strategy in each case. Please tell me your biggest
development disappointment—looking back, could you or would you
have done anything differently? Please tell me about your greatest
development triumph—and disaster—in the last five years. What
are the ‘three big things’ you’ve learned about helping people
grow along the way?”
The Memories That Matter
The people you developed who went on to
stellar accomplishments inside or outside
the company.
The (no more than) two or three people you developed who went on to
create stellar institutions of their own.
The longshots (people with “a certain something”) you bet on who
surprised themselves—and your peers.
The people of all stripes who 2/5/10/20 years
later say “You made a difference in my life,”
“Your belief in me changed everything.”
The sort of/character of people you hired in general. (And the bad
apples you chucked out despite some stellar traits.)
A handful of projects (a half dozen at most) you doggedly pursued that
still make you smile and which fundamentally changed the way
things are done inside or outside the company/industry.
The supercharged camaraderie of a handful of Great Teams aiming to
“change the world.”
Organizations
exist to serve.
Period.
Leaders live to
serve. Period.
"When I hire
someone, that's
when I go to
work for
them.”
—John DiJulius, "What's the Secret to
Providing a World-Class Customer Experience"
Oath of Office: Managers/Servant Leaders
Our goal is to serve our customers brilliantly and profitably over
the long haul.
Serving our customers brilliantly and profitably over the long
haul is a product of brilliantly serving, over the long haul, the
people who serve the customer.
Hence, our job as leaders—the alpha and the omega and
everything in between—is abetting the sustained growth and
success and engagement and enthusiasm and commitment to
Excellence of those, one at a time, who directly or indirectly
serve the ultimate customer.
We—leaders of every stripe—are in the “Human Growth and
Development and Success and Aspiration to Excellence
business.”
“We” [leaders] only grow when “they” [each and every one of our colleagues] are
growing.
“We” [leaders] only succeed when “they” [each and every one of our colleagues]
are succeeding.
“We” [leaders] only energetically march toward Excellence when
“they” [each and every one of our colleagues] are energetically marching
toward Excellence.
Period.
EMPLOYEES FIRST, CUSTOMERS SECOND:
Turning Conventional Management Upside Down
Vineet Nayar/CEO/HCL Technologies
"Leadership is a
gift. It's given by
those who follow.
You have to be
worthy of it.”
—General Mark Welsh, Commander, U.S. Air Forces Europe
“I start with the
premise that the
function of leadership
is to produce more
leaders, not more
followers.” Ralph Nader
—
In the Army, 3-star
generals worry about
training. In most
businesses, it's a “ho
hum” mid-level staff
function.
If the regimental commander lost most of his
2nd lieutenants and 1st lieutenants and captains
If he
lost his sergeants it
would be a
catastrophe. The Army and the
and majors, it would be a tragedy.
Navy are fully aware that success on the
battlefield is dependent to an extraordinary
degree on its Sergeants and Chief Petty
Officers. Does industry have the same
awareness?
“People leave
managers not
companies.”
—Dave Wheeler
four most
important
words in any
“The
organization are …
The four most important words in any organization
are …
“What do
you
think?”
Source: courtesy Dave Wheeler, posted at tompeters.com
“The deepest
principal in human
nature is the
craving* to be
appreciated.”
—William James
*“Craving,” not “wish” or “desire” or “longing” —Dale
Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People (“The BIG
Secret of Dealing With People”)
Hard is soft
Soft is hard
Hard is Soft.
Soft is Hard.
“The first step is to measure what
can easily be measured. This is okay
as far as it goes. The second step is
to disregard that which cannot be
measured, or give it an arbitrary
quantitative value. This is artificial
and misleading. The third step is
to presume that what cannot be
measured is not very important.
This is blindness. The fourth step is
to say that what cannot be measured
does not really exist. This is suicide.”
—Daniel Yankelovich (from Enough!, by Jack Bogle)
Excellence1982: The Bedrock “Eight Basics”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
A Bias for Action
Close to the Customer
Autonomy and Entrepreneurship
Productivity Through People
Hands On, Value-Driven
Stick to the Knitting
Simple Form, Lean Staff
Simultaneous Loose-Tight
Properties
“Breakthrough” 82*
People!
Customers!
Action!
Values!
*In Search of Excellence
Why in the
World did you
go to Siberia?
An emotional, vital,
innovative, joyful, creative, entrepreneurial
endeavor that elicits maximum
Enterprise* (*at its best):
concerted human
potential in the
wholehearted pursuit of
EXCELLENCE in service of others.**
**Employees, Customers, Suppliers, Communities, Owners, Temporary partners
> EXXON
Design Rules!
APPLE market cap
> Exxon Mobil*
*August 2011
“Only one company
can be the cheapest.
All others must use
design.”
—Rodney Fitch, Fitch & Co.
Source: Insights, definitions of design, the Design Council [UK]
“Design is
treated like
a religion at
BMW.” —Fortune
“With its carefully conceived mix of colors and textures,
Starbucks
aromas and music,
is more
indicative of our era than the iMac. It is to the Age of
Aesthetics what McDonald’s was to the Age of
Convenience or Ford was to the Age of Mass
Production—the touchstone success story, the exemplar
‘Every
Starbucks store is carefully
designed to enhance the quality
of everything the customers see,
touch, hear, smell or taste,’ writes
of … the aesthetic imperative. …
CEO Howard Schultz.”
—Virginia Postrel, The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic
Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture and Consciousness
Hypothesis:
DESIGN is
the principal
difference
love
and hate!*
between
*Not “like” and “dislike”
“We don’t have a good language to talk about this kind
of thing. In most people’s vocabularies, design means
veneer. … But to me, nothing could be further from the
Design is the
fundamental soul
of a man-made
creation.”
meaning of design.
—Steve Jobs*
*Apple > ExxonMobil
Hypothesis: Men
cannot
design for women’s
!!??
needs
… this will be
the woman’s
century …
“I speak to you with a feminine voice.
It’s the voice of democracy, of equality.
I am certain, ladies and gentlemen,
that this will be the
woman’s century. In the
Portuguese language, words
such as life, soul, and hope are
of the feminine gender, as are other
words like courage and sincerity.”
—President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil,
1st woman to keynote the United Nations General Assembly
“Forget China, India
and the Internet:
Economic Growth Is
Driven by
Women.”
Source: Headline, Economist
“One thing is certain: Women’s rise to power, which is
linked to the increase in wealth per capita, is happening
in all domains and at all levels of society. Women are no
longer content to provide efficient labor or to be
consumers with rising budgets and more autonomy to
spend. … This is just the beginning. The phenomenon
will only grow as girls prove to be more successful than
For a number of
observers, we have already
entered the age of
‘womenomics,’ the economy as
thought out and practiced
by a woman.”
boys in the school system.
—Aude Zieseniss de Thuin, Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society
“Goldman Sachs in Tokyo has
developed an index of 115
companies poised to benefit
from women’s increased
purchasing power; over the
past decade the value of shares
in Goldman’s basket has risen by
96%, against the Tokyo
stockmarket’s
rise of 13%.” —Economist
W>
2X (C + I)*
*“Women now drive the global economy. Globally, they control about $20
trillion in consumer spending, and that figure could climb as high as
$28 trillion in the next five
years
. Their $13 trillion in total yearly earnings could reach $18
trillion in the same period.
In aggregate, women represent a growth market bigger than China and
India combined—more than twice as big in fact. Given those numbers, it would be foolish to ignore or underestimate
the female consumer. And yet many companies do just that—even ones that are confidant that they have a winning
strategy when it comes to women. Consider Dell’s …”
Source: Michael Silverstein and Kate Sayre, “The Female Economy,” HBR, 09.09
“Women are
the majority
market”
—Fara Warner/The Power of the Purse
“AS LEADERS,
WOMEN
RULE:
New Studies find that
female managers outshine their male
counterparts in almost every measure”
TITLE/ Special Report/ BusinessWeek
“Headline 2020:
Women Hold
80 Percent of
Management and
Professional Jobs”
Source: The Extreme Future: The Top Trends That Will
Reshape the World in the Next 20 Years, James Canton
Women’s Strengths Match New
Economy Imperatives: Link [rather than
rank] workers; favor interactivecollaborative leadership style
[empowerment beats top-down decision
making]; sustain fruitful collaborations;
comfortable with sharing information; see
redistribution of power as victory, not
surrender; favor multi-dimensional feedback;
value technical & interpersonal skills,
individual & group contributions equally;
readily accept ambiguity; honor intuition as
well as pure “rationality”; inherently
flexible; appreciate cultural diversity.
Source: Judy B. Rosener, America’s Competitive Secret: Women Managers
“Power Women 100”/Forbes 10.25.10
26 female CEOs of Public Companies:
Vs. Men/Market:
+28% *
(*Post-appointment)
Vs. Industry:
+15%
“Are men
obsolete?”
—Headline, USN&WR
1/8/20
Date: 1/1/11
Activity: USA Boomers
start turning 65
Rate:
1 every 8 seconds
Duration: 20 years
Impacted: EVERYTHING
22/1/10 (USA adult
population will have grown
by 23 million between 2006
and 2016. Ages 18-49 will
have grown by one million,
age 50+ will have grown
by 22 million)
“The New Customer
only
Majority is the …
… adult market with
realistic prospects for
significant sales growth
in dozens of product lines
for thousands of
companies.”
—David Wolfe & Robert Snyder, Ageless Marketing
M
IB
to
B
I
M
$55B*
*IBM Global Services/
“Systems integrator of choice”
Planetary Rainmaker-in-Chief!
“[CEO Sam] Palmisano’s
strategy is to expand tech’s
borders by pushing users—
and entire industries—toward
radically different business
models. The payoff for IBM would be
access to an ocean of revenue—Palmisano
estimates it at $500 billion a year —
that technology companies have never been
able to touch.” —Fortune
“ ‘Results’ are
measured by the
success of all those
who have purchased
your product or
service” —Jan Gunnarsson & Olle Blohm,
The Welcoming Leader
Huge: Customer
“Satisfaction with
product/Service”
versus
Customer
“Success”
UPS
“WHAT CAN BROWN DO FOR YOU?”
“It’s all about solutions. We
talk with customers about
how to run better, stronger,
cheaper supply chains. We
have 1,000 engineers who
work with customers …”
—Bob Stoffel, UPS senior exec
“THE GIANT STALKING BIG OIL: How
Schlumberger Is
Rewriting the Rules of the Energy
Game.”: “IPM [Integrated Project
Management] strays from
[Schlumberger’s] traditional role
as a service provider and moves
deeper into areas once dominated
by the majors.”
Source: BusinessWeek cover story, January 2008
“We’ll do
just about anything
an oilfield owner
would want, from
drilling to
production.”
IPM’s Chief:
boxes* to
“integrated
building systems”
UTC/Otis + UTC/Carrier:
*elevators, air conditioners
“We want to be
the air traffic
controllers of
electrons.”
—Bob Nardelli, then CEO, GE Power Systems
(GE core business that has been making products
such as transformers for decades and decades)
MasterCard
Advisors
I. LAN Installation Co.
II. Geek Squad.
(3%)
(30%.)
III. Acquired by Best Buy.
IV. Flagship of Best Buy
Wholesale “Solutions”
Strategy Makeover.
/46
“We made mistakes, of course. Most of them were
omissions we didn’t think of when we initially wrote the
software. We fixed them by doing it over and over, again
and again. We do the same today. While our competitors
are still sucking their thumbs trying to make the design
perfect, we’re already on prototype version
#5.
By
the time our rivals are ready with wires and screws, we
are on version
#10. It gets back to
planning versus acting: We act
from day one; others plan how
to plan—for months.”
—Bloomberg by Bloomberg
“What are Rutan’s management rules? He
insists he doesn’t have any. ‘I don’t like
rules,’ he says. ‘Things are so easy to change
if you don’t write them down.’ Rutan feels
good management works in much the same
Instead
of trying to figure out the best
way to do something and
sticking to it, just try out an
approach and keep fixing it.”
way good aircraft design does:
—Eric Abrahamson & David Freedman, Chapter 8, “Messy Leadership,”
from A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder
READY.
FIRE.
AIM.
H. Ross Perot (vs “Aim! Aim! Aim!” /EDS vs GM/1985)
In Search of Excellence /1982:
The Bedrock “Eight Basics”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
A Bias for Action
Close to the Customer
Autonomy and Entrepreneurship
Productivity Through People
Hands On, Value-Driven
Stick to the Knitting
Simple Form, Lean Staff
Simultaneous Loose-Tight
Properties
“Experiment
fearlessly”
Tactic #1
Source: BusinessWeek, “Type A Organization Strategies: How to Hit a Moving Target”—
“relentless trial
and error”
Source: Wall Street Journal, cornerstone of effective approach to “rebalancing” company
portfolios in the face of changing and uncertain global economic conditions (11.08.10)
Lesson45:
WTTMSW
Whoever
Tries
The
Most
Stuff
Wins
Better yet:
WTTMSTFW
Whoever
Tries
The
Most
Stuff
The
Fastest
Wins
“Rose gardeners face a choice every spring. The long-term fate of a rose garden
depends on this decision. If you want to have the largest and most glorious roses of the
neighborhood, you will prune hard. This represents a policy of low tolerance and tight
control. You force the plant to make the maximum use of its available resources, by
Pruning hard is a
dangerous policy in an unpredictable environment. Thus, if
you are in a spot where you know nature may play tricks
on you, you may opt for a policy of high tolerance. You will
never have the biggest roses, but you have a muchenhanced chance of having roses every year. You will
achieve a gradual renewal of the plant. In short, tolerant
pruning achieves two ends: (1) It makes it easier to cope
with unexpected environmental changes. (2) It leads to a
continuous restructuring of the plant. The policy of
tolerance admittedly wastes resources—the extra buds
drain away nutrients from the main stem. But in an
unpredictable environment, this policy of tolerance makes
the rose healthier in the long run.” —Arie De Geus, The Living Company
putting them into the the rose’s ‘core business.’
“Reward
excellent failures.
Punish mediocre
successes.”
—Phil Daniels, Sydney exec
Read It
Richard Farson & Ralph Keyes:
Whoever Makes
the Most Mistakes
Wins: The Paradox
of Innovation
“The secret of fast
progress is
inefficiency, fast
and furious and
numerous failures.”
—Kevin Kelly
The Bottleneck …
“The Billion-man
Research Team:
Companies offering
work to online
communities are
reaping the benefits of
‘crowdsourcing.’”
—Headline, FT
“Diverse groups of problem solvers—groups
of people with diverse tools—consistently
outperformed groups of the best and the
brightest. If I formed two groups, one
random (and therefore diverse) and one
consisting of the best individual performers,
the first group almost always did better. …
Diversity trumped
ability.”
—Scott Page, The Difference:
How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups,
Firms, Schools, and Societies
“Who’s the most
interesting person
you’ve met in the
last 90 days? How
do I get in touch
with them?”
—Fred Smith
Vanity Fair:
“What is your most marked
characteristic?”
Mike Bloomberg:
“Curiosity.”
“The
Bottleneck …
“The Bottleneck … Is at
the Top of the Bottle”
“Where are you likely to find people
with the least diversity of experience,
the largest investment in the past,
and the greatest reverence for
industry dogma …
At the top!”
— Gary Hamel/Harvard Business Review
Human creativity
is the ultimate
economic
resource
“My wife and I went to a [kindergarten] parent-teacher
conference and were informed that our budding
refrigerator artist, Christopher, would be receiving a
grade of Unsatisfactory in art. We were shocked. How
could any child—let alone our child—receive a poor grade
His teacher
informed us that he had
refused to color within the
lines, which was a state
requirement for
demonstrating ‘grade-level
motor skills.’ ” —Jordan Ayan, AHA!
in art at such a young age?
Ye gads: “Thomas Stanley has not only found no
correlation between success in school and an ability to
accumulate wealth, he’s actually found a negative
correlation. ‘It seems that school-related evaluations
are poor predictors of economic success,’ Stanley
concluded. What did predict success was a willingness
to take risks. Yet the success-failure standards of most
Most
educational systems reward
those who play it safe. As a
result, those who do well in
school find it hard to take
risks later on.”
schools penalized risk takers.
—Richard Farson & Ralph Keyes,
Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins
“Every child is
born an artist.
The trick is to
remain an
artist.”
—Picasso
“Human
creativity is
the ultimate
economic
resource.”
—Richard Florida,
The Rise of the Creative Class
“The doctor
interrupts
after …*
*Source: Jerome Groopman, How Doctors Think
18 …
seconds!
[An obsession with] Listening is ... the ultimate mark
of
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
is
is
is
is
is
is
is
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
is
is
is
is
...
...
...
...
the heart and soul of Engagement.
the heart and soul of Kindness.
the heart and soul of Thoughtfulness.
the basis for true Collaboration.
the basis for true Partnership.
a Team Sport.
a Developable Individual Skill.* (*Though women
are far better at it than men.)
the basis for Community.
the bedrock of Joint Ventures that work.
the bedrock of Joint Ventures that grow.
the core of effective Cross-functional
Communication* (*Which is in turn Attribute #1 of
organizational effectiveness.)
[cont.]
Respect
.
… and just wait
“I am often asked by
would-be entrepreneurs
seeking escape from life
within huge corporate
structures, ‘How do I
build a small firm for
myself?’ The answer
seems obvious …
Source: Paul Ormerod, Why Most Things Fail: Evolution, Extinction and Economics
“I am often asked by would-be entrepreneurs seeking escape from
life within huge corporate structures, ‘How do I build a small firm for
Buy a
very large
one and just
wait.”
myself?’ The answer seems obvious:
—Paul Ormerod, Why Most Things Fail:
Evolution, Extinction and Economics
“Mr. Foster and his McKinsey colleagues
collected detailed performance data stretching
back
40 years for 1,000
They found that
U.S. companies.
none
of
the long-term survivors managed to
outperform the market. Worse, the
longer companies had been in the
database, the worse they did.”
—Financial Times
“Data drawn from the real world
attest to a fact that is beyond
Everything
in existence tends
to deteriorate.”
our control:
—Norberto Odebrecht, Education Through Work
You don’t
get better
by being
bigger. You
Dick Kovacevich:
M & A success rate as measured
by adding value to the
acquirer:
15%
Source: Mark Sirower, The Synergy Trap
Spinoffs
…
systematically perform
better than IPOs … track
record, profits … “freed
from the confines of the
parent … more
entrepreneurial, more
nimble” —Jerry Knight/ Washington Post/ 08.05
MittELstand* **
*“agile creatures darting between the legs of
the multinational monsters” (Bloomberg BusinessWeek, 10.10)
**E.g. Goldmann Produktion
“agile creatures
darting between
the legs of the
multinational
monsters”
Source: Bloomberg BusinessWeek on the German
MITTELSTAND
Retail Superstars:
Inside the 25 Best
Independent Stores
in America
—by George Whalin
“Be the best.
It’s the only
market that’s
not crowded.”
From: Retail Superstars: Inside the 25 Best
Independent Stores in America, George Whalin
The Red
Carpet
Store
(Joel Resnick/Flemington NJ)
There is more
than one way to
skin a cat!*
REQUIRES
*Every project
(if you’re smart) an
outside look by one/some Seriously Weird Cat/s
—in pursuit of whacked-out options.
14,000
20,000
14,000/eBay
20,000/Amazon
30/Craigslist
Kevin Roberts’ Credo
1. Ready. Fire! Aim.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
If it ain’t broke ... Break it!
Hire crazies.
Ask dumb questions.
Pursue failure.
Lead, follow ... or get out of the way!
Spread confusion.
Ditch your office.
Read odd stuff.
10.
Avoid moderation!
In the beginning,
there was the
daydream …
“The Discipline Of Daydreaming”: “Nearly every major decision of
my business career was, to some degree, the result of daydreaming.
… To be sure, in every case I had to collect a lot of data, do detailed
analysis, and make a data-based argument to convince superiors,
In
the beginning, there was the
daydream. By daydreaming, I mean loose, unstructured
colleagues and business partners. But that all came later.
thinking with no particular goal in mind. … In fact, I think
daydreaming is a distinctive mode of cognition especially well suited
to the complex, ‘fuzzy’ problems that characterize a more turbulent
business environment. … Daydreaming is an effective way of coping
with complexity. When a problem has a high degree of complexity, the
level of detail can be overwhelming. The more one focuses on the
details, the more one risks being lost in them. … Every child knows
how to daydream. But many, perhaps most, lose the capacity as they
grow up. …” —Dov Frohman (& Robert Howard), Leadership The Hard Way:
Why Leadership Can’t Be Taught—And How You Can Learn It Anyway
(Chapter 5, “The Soft Skills Of Hard Leadership”)