Tom Peters’
Re-Imagine
!
EXCELLENCE
HR Summit and Expo 2013/07 October 2013
Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Center
(slides at tompeters.com; also see excellencenow.com)
7 Steps to Sustaining Success & Excellence
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.)
PART 1:
People FIRST
“Business has
to give people
enriching,
rewarding lives …
1/4,096: excellencenow.com
“Business has to give people enriching,
or it's
simply not
worth doing.”
rewarding lives …
—Richard Branson
A 15-Point Human Capital Asset Development Manifesto
1. Corporate social responsibility” starts at home—i.e.,
inside the enterprise! MAXIMIZING GDD/Gross
Domestic Development of the workforce is the primary
source of mid-term and beyond growth and
profitability—and maximizes national productivity and
wealth.
2. Regardless of the transient external situation,
development of “human capital” is always the #1
priority. This is true in general, in particular in difficult
times which demand resilience—and uniquely true in
this age in which IMAGINATIVE brainwork is de facto the
only plausible survival strategy for higher wage nations.
(Generic “brainwork,” traditional and dominant “whitecollar activities, is increasingly being performed by
exponentially enhanced artificial intelligence.)
Source: A 15-Point Human Capital Asset Development Manifesto/
World Strategy Forum/The New Rules:
Reframing Capitalism/Seoul/15 June 2012
“You have to
treat your
employees like
customers.”
—Herb Kelleher,
upon being asked his “secret to success”
Source: Joe Nocera, NYT, “Parting Words of an Airline Pioneer,”
on the occasion of Herb Kelleher’s retirement after 37 years at Southwest
Airlines (SWA’s pilots union took out a full-page ad in USA Today
thanking HK for all he had done) ; across the way in Dallas, American
Airlines’ pilots were picketing AA’s Annual Meeting)
"If you want staff to
give great service to
customers, you must
first give great
service to staff."
—Founder, Zingerman's (food service)
EMPLOYEES FIRST, CUSTOMERS SECOND:
Turning Conventional Management Upside Down
Vineet Nayar/CEO/HCL Technologies
"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"
“hostmanship”/
“consideration
renovation”
“The path to a hostmanship culture
paradoxically does not go through the
guest. In fact it wouldn’t be totally wrong to say that the guest has nothing to do
with it. True hostmanship leaders focus on their employees. What drives exceptionalism is
finding the right people and getting them to love their work and see it as a passion. ... The
guest comes into the picture only when you are ready to ask, ‘Would you prefer to stay at
a hotel where the staff love their work or where management has made customers its
“We went through the hotel and
made a ... ‘consideration renovation.’
Instead of redoing bathrooms, dining
rooms, and guest rooms, we gave
employees new uniforms, bought flowers
and fruit, and changed colors. Our focus
highest priority?’”
was totally on the staff. They were the
ones we wanted to make happy. We wanted them to
wake up every morning excited about a new day at work.”
—Jan Gunnarsson and Olle Blohm, Hostmanship:
The Art of Making People Feel Welcome.
“ … The guest comes into
the picture only when you
are ready to ask, ‘Would you
prefer to stay at a hotel
where the staff love their
work or where management
has made customers its
highest priority?’”
Brand =
Talent.
B(I) >
B(O)
Our Mission
TO DEVELOP AND MANAGE TALENT;
TO APPLY THAT TALENT,
THROUGHOUT THE WORLD,
FOR THE BENEFIT OF CLIENTS;
TO DO SO IN PARTNERSHIP;
TO DO SO WITH PROFIT.
WPP
“In a world where customers wake up
every morning asking, ‘What’s new,
what’s different, what’s amazing?’
success depends on a company’s
ability to unleash initiative,
imagination and passion of
employees at all levels—and this
can only happen if all those folks are
connected heart and soul to their
work [their ‘calling’], their company
and their mission.” —John Mackey
and Raj Sisoda, Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the
Heroic Spirit of Business
*2/3 vote by team after 90-days probation
for new member to achieve fulltime status
*Total transparency re compensation
*All 7 members of exec team exact same
pay package including bonuses
*Cash plus bonuses of highest paid no
more than 19X average
*Exact same benefits package for all
employees including CEO, though adjusted
for seniority
*Benefits package decided by all hands
vote every 3 years
—John Mackey and Raj Sisoda, Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic
Spirit of Business (“Conscious Hiring and Retention Practices”)
PAUSE: “It
is
the game.”
“If I could have chosen not to tackle the IBM culture head-on,
I probably wouldn’t have. My bias coming in was toward
strategy, analysis and measurement. In comparison, changing
the attitude and behaviors of hundreds of thousands of people
Yet I came to see in
my time at IBM that culture
isn’t just one aspect of the
is very, very hard.
game
—IT IS THE
GAME.”
—Lou Gerstner, Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance
“What matters most
to a company over time,
strategy or culture?
WSJ/0910.13:
Dominic Barton, MD, McKinsey & Co.:
“Culture.”
“I told my board that if they
want to get the share price 50%
in 12-18 months, I can do it
without raising a sweat. But
it will destroy the longterm
prospects of the company—and
they’ll have to do it without
me.” —CEO, large ($10B+) electronic components company
“On the face of it,
shareholder value is the
dumbest idea in the world.
Shareholder value is a
result, not a strategy. …
Your main constituencies
are your employees, your
customers and your
products.” —Jack Welch, FT, 0313.09, page 1
“LEADERS
‘DO’
PEOPLE.”
“Tom, you
left out one
thing …”
“Tom, you left out one
Leaders
enjoy
leading!”
thing …
“LEADERS
‘DO’ PEOPLE.
PERIOD.”
—Anon.
From
sweaters to
people!*
Les Wexner:
*Limited Brands founder Les Wexner queried on astounding
longterm success—said, in effect, it happened because he got
as excited about developing people as he had been about
predicting fashion trends in his early years
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.
“No matter what the
situation, [the great manager’s] first
response is always to think
about the individual
concerned and how things
can be arranged to help that
individual experience
success.”
—Marcus Buckingham,
The One Thing You Need to Know
“The role of the Director is to
create a space where the actors
become
more than they’ve ever
been before,
more than they’ve
dreamed of being.”
and actresses can
—Robert Altman, Oscar acceptance speech
LEADERSHIP
IS A SACRED
TRUST.*
*President, classroom teacher, CEO, shop foreman
"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
The Memories
That Matter
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 long shots (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.”
“Unremarkable” except
for RESULTS: Superb
people developer
(her/his folks invariably
amazed at what
they’ve accomplished!)
“Among the most effective leaders I have
encountered and worked with in half a century,
some have locked themselves into their offices
and others were ultra-gregarious. Some were
quick and impulsive, some studied the situation
and took forever to come to a decision. The one
and only personality trait the
effective ones did have in common
was something they did not have:
They had little or no ‘charisma,’ and
little use for the term.” —Peter Drucker, in
Susan Cain,
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking
The Memories That Matter
Unalloyed pleasure in being informed of the fallaciousness of your
beliefs by someone 15 years your junior and several rungs below you
on the hierarchical ladder.
Selflessness. (A sterling reputation as “a guy always willing to help out
with alacrity despite personal cost.”)
As thoughtful and respectful, or more so, toward thine “enemies” as
toward friends and supporters.
Always and relentlessly put at the top of your list/any
list being first and foremost “of service” to your
internal and external constituents. (Employees/Peers/
Customers/Vendors/Community.)
Treated the term “servant leadership” as holy writ. (And “preached”
“servant leadership” to others—new “non-managerial” hire or old
pro, age 18 or 48.)
Promotion
2/year =
Legacy
“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?”
Promotion Decisions
“life and
death
decisions”
Source: Peter Drucker, The Practice of Management
“A man should never
be promoted to a
managerial position if his
vision focuses on people’s
weaknesses rather than
on their strengths.”
—Peter Drucker, The Practice of Management
“I can’t tell you how many
times we passed up hotshots
for guys we thought were
better people … and watched our
guys do a lot better than the big
names, not just in the classroom, but
on the field—and, naturally, after they
graduated, too. Again and again, the
blue chips faded out, and our little upand-comers clawed their way to allconference and All-America teams.”
—Bo Schembechler (and John Bacon),
“Recruit for Character,” Bo’s Lasting Lessons
Evaluation
EVALUATING
PEOPLE = #1
DIFFERENTIATOR
Source: Jack Welch/Jeff Immelt on GE’s
strategic skill (
!!!!)
#1
“In most companies, the Talent Review Process is a
farce. At GE, Jack Welch and his two top HR people
visit each division for a day. They review the top 20 to
50 people by name. They talk about Talent Pool
The Talent
Review Process is a
contact sport at GE;
it has the intensity and
the importance of the
budget process at most
companies.”
strengthening issues.
—Ed Michaels, War for Talent
Self-evaluation
“To develop
others, start with
yourself.”
—Marshall Goldsmith
“Being aware of
yourself and how you
affect everyone around
you is what
distinguishes a superior
leader.” —Edie Seashore (Strategy +
Business #45)
“How can a high-level leader like _____ be
so out of touch with the truth about
himself? It’s more common than you
In fact, the higher
up the ladder a leader
climbs, the less accurate his
self-assessment is likely to
be. The problem is an acute lack of
would imagine.
feedback [especially on people issues].”
—Daniel Goleman (et al.), The New Leaders
"Everyone thinks
of changing the
world, but no one
thinks of changing
himself."
- Leo Tolstoy
Hiring
“Development can help great
people be even BETTER—BUT
IF
I HAD A DOLLAR TO
SPEND, I’D SPEND 70
CENTS GETTING THE
RIGHT PERSON IN THE
DOOR.”
—Paul Russell, Director, Leadership and Development, Google
the
most important
aspect of business
and yet remains woefully
misunderstood.”
“In short, hiring is
Source: Wall Street Journal, 10.29.08,
review of Who: The A Method for Hiring,
Geoff Smart and Randy Street
Andrew Carnegie’s Tombstone Inscription …
Here lies a man
Who knew how to enlist
In his service
Better men than himself.
Source: Peter Drucker, The Practice of Management
!
The Army Knows
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?
THE
SERGEANTS
RUN THE
ARMY.
PERIOD.
“In great armies, the
job of generals is to
back up their
sergeants.”
—COL Tom Wilhelm, from Robert Kaplan,
“The Man Who Would Be Khan,” The Atlantic
Employee retention & satisfaction & productivity:
Overwhelmingly
based on the
first-line
manager!
Source: Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman, First, Break All the Rules:
What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently
“People leave
managers not
companies.”
—Dave Wheeler
E.g.: Do you have the ...
ABSOLUTE BEST
TRAINING &
DEVELOPMENT
PROGRAMS
IN THE INDUSTRY ...
(or some subset thereof)
for first-line supervisors?
Suggested addition to your statement of Core
“We are obsessed with
developing a cadre of 1st line
managers that is second to
none—we understand that this
cadre per se is arguably one of
our top two or three most
important ‘Strategic Assets.’”
Values:
53 = 53
People are NOT
“Standardized.”
Their evaluations
should NOT be
standardized.
EVER.
Standardized Evaluations?
Sports?
The Arts?
Music?
Theater?
“C-level”?
In the Army, 3-star
generals worry about
training. In most
businesses, it's a “ho
hum” mid-level staff
function.
Why is intensive-extensive
training obvious for the
army & navy & sports
teams & performing arts
groups--but
not
for
the average business?
I would hazard a guess
that most CEOs see IT
investments as a
“strategic necessity,”
but see training
expenses as “a
necessary evil.”
Three-star generals and admirals (and
symphony conductors and sports coaches and
police chiefs and fire chiefs) OBSESS about
training. Why is it an almost dead certainty that
3.
in a random 30-minute interview you are unlikely
to hear a CEO touch upon this topic? (I would
hazard a guess that most CEOs see IT
investments as a “strategic necessity,” but see
training expenses as “a necessary evil.”)
Proposition/axiom: The CTO/Chief TRAINING
Officer is arguably the #1 staff job in the
enterprise, at least on a par with, say, the CFO or
CIO or head of R&D. (Again, external
4.
circumstances—see immediately above—are
forcing our hand.)
The training budget takes precedence over
the capital budget. PERIOD. It’s easier fun to get
5.
your picture taken next to a new machine. But
how do you get a photo of a new and much
improved attitude in a key distribution center?
But the odds are 25:1 that the new attitude will
add more to the bottom line than will the
glorious state-of-the-art machine.
Human capital development should routinely
sit atop any agenda or document associated
with enterprise strategy. Most any initiative you
6.
undertake should formally address implications
for and contributions to human capital asset
development.
(1) Training merits
“C-level” status!
(2) Top trainers should
be paid a king’s
ransom—and be of
the same caliber as
top marketers or
researchers.
Container Store
270/16
10/>100
“Training”
Writ Large
11. The national education infrastructure—from
kindergarten to continuing adult education—may
well be National Priority #1. Moreover, the
educational infrastructure must be altered
radically to underpin support for the creative
jobs that will be more or less the sole basis of
future employment and national growth and
wealth creation.
“Every child is
born an artist. The
trick is to remain
an artist.”
—Picasso
“Human
creativity
is the ultimate
economic
resource.”
—Richard Florida
The very best and the
very brightest and the
most energetic and
enthusiastic and
entrepreneurial and
tech-savvy of our university
graduates must—must,
not should—be lured
into teaching.
Big Data:
Re-Imagining
HR????
“[These HP] pioneers may not realize just
how big a shift this practice is from a
cultural standpoint. The computer is doing
more than obeying the usual mechanical
orders to retain facts and figures. It’s
producing new information that’s so
powerful, it must be handled with a new
kind of care. We’re in a new world in which
systems not only divine new, important
information, but must carefully manage it
as well.” —Eric Siegel, Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict
Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die (based on a real case, an HP “Flight risk” PA
model developed by HR, with astronomical savings potential)
“Flash forward to dystopia. You work in a chic
cubicle, sucking chicken-flavor sustenance from
a tube. You’re furiously maneuvering with a
joystick … Your boss stops by and gives you a
look. ‘We need to talk about your loyalty to this
The organization you work for
has deduced that you are considering
quitting. It predicts your plans and
intentions, possibly before you have
even conceived them.” —Eric Siegel, Predictive
company.’
Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die (based on
a real case, an HP “Flight risk” PA model developed by HR, with
astronomical savings potential)
Reductionist
Leadership
Training
ARE YOU A
“PROFESSIONAL”
WHEN IT COMES
TO PROMOTING
PEOPLE?
Are you a
“professional”
when it comes to
evaluating
people?
Are you a
“professional”
when it comes to
Hiring people?
ARE YOU A
“PROFESSIONAL”
WHEN IT COMES TO
DEVELOPING
PEOPLE?
Are you a
“professional”
when it comes
to … ?*
*The “real stuff” of effective organizational LEADERSHIP
Reductionist Leadership Training
“Aggressive ‘professional’ listener.”
Expert at questioning. (Questioning “professional.”)
Meetings as leadership opportunity #1.
Creating a “civil society.”
Expert at “helping.” (Helping “professional.”)
Expert at holding productive conversations.
Fanatic about clear communications.
Fanatic about training.
Master of appreciation/acknowledgement.
Effective at apology.
Creating a culture of automatic helpfulness by all to all.
Presentation excellence.
Conscious master of body language.
Master of hiring. (Hiring “professional”)
Master of evaluating people.
Time manager par excellence.
Avid practitioner of MBWA/Managing By Wandering Around.
Avid student of the process of influencing others per se.
Student of decision-making and devastating impact of irrational aspects
thereof.
Brilliantly schooled student of negotiation.
Creating a no-nonsense execution culture.
Meticulous about employee development/100% of staff.
Student of the power of “d”iversity (all flavors of difference).
Aggressive in pursuing gender balance.
Making team-building excellence everyone’s daily priority.
Understanding value of matchless 1st-line management.
Instilling “business sense” in one and all.
A 15-Point
Human Capital
Asset
Development
Manifesto
Tom Peters/0615.12
A 15-Point
Human Capital
Asset Development
Manifesto
World Strategy Forum/
The New Rules: Reframing Capitalism
Tom Peters/Seoul/0615.12
A 15-Point Human Capital Development Manifesto
“Corporate social responsibility” starts at
home—i.e., inside the enterprise! MAXIMIZING
1.
GDD/Gross Domestic Development of the
workforce is the primary source of mid-term and
beyond growth and profitability—and maximizes
national productivity and wealth.
2. Regardless of the transient external situation,
development of “human capital” is always the #1
priority. This is true in general, in particular in
difficult times which demand resilience—and
uniquely true in this age in which IMAGINATIVE
brainwork is de facto the only plausible survival
strategy for higher wage nations. (Generic
“brainwork,” traditional and dominant “whitecollar activities, is increasingly being performed
by exponentially enhanced artificial intelligence.)
Three-star generals and admirals (and
symphony conductors and sports coaches and
police chiefs and fire chiefs) OBSESS about
training. Why is it an almost dead certainty that
3.
in a random 30-minute interview you are unlikely
to hear a CEO touch upon this topic? (I would
hazard a guess that most CEOs see IT
investments as a “strategic necessity,” but see
training expenses as “a necessary evil.”)
Proposition/axiom: The CTO/Chief TRAINING
Officer is arguably the #1 staff job in the
enterprise, at least on a par with, say, the CFO or
CIO or head of R&D. (Again, external
4.
circumstances—see immediately above—are
forcing our hand.)
The training budget takes precedence over
the capital budget. PERIOD. It’s easier fun to get
5.
you picture taken next to a hew machine. But
how do you get a photo of of a new and much
improved attitude in a key distribution center?
But the odds are 25:1 that the new attitude will
add more to the bottom line than will the
glorious state-of-the-art machine.
Human capital development should routinely
sit atop any agenda or document associated
with enterprise strategy. Most any initiative you
6.
undertake should formally address implications
for and contributions to human capital asset
development.
Every individual on the payroll should have a
benchmarked professional growth strategy.
7.
Every leader at every level should be evaluated
in no small measure on the collective
effectiveness of individual growth strategies—
that is, each individual’s absolute growth is of
direct relevance to every leader’s assessed
performance.
The practical key to all human asset
development activities is the 1st-line manager.
10.
(“Sergeants run the Army” is an accurate
commonplace. observation—supported by
development resources.) Hence development of
the full cadre of 1st-line managers is an
urgent—and invariably underplayed—strategic
imperative. Arguably, the collective quality and
development trajectory of 1st-line leaders is an
organization’s #1 human asset development
priority. (Consistent with all the above, the 1stline leader’s skill at “people development” is her
or his top priority—for which she or he must be
rigorously and continually trained.)
11. The national education infrastructure—from
kindergarten to continuing adult education—may
well be National Priority #1. Moreover, the
educational infrastructure must be altered
radically to underpin support for the creative
jobs that will be more or less the sole basis of
future employment and national growth and
wealth creation.
The great majority of us work in small
enterprises; hence national growth objectives
based upon human capital development MUST
necessarily extend “downward” to even 1person enterprises. Collective productivity
13.
improvement through human capital
development among small businesses has an
unimaginably large—and underappreciated—
payoff. While many small business appreciate
the notion, they are unprepared to take the
steps necessary to engage their, say, dozen
employees in seeking productivity
improvements.
15. Associated with the above is a RADICAL
reorientation of leadership education and
development—throughout the
enterprise/education/continuing education
infrastructure. (E.g., Among other things, the
MBA and executive education will require
open-heart surgery—aimed at shifting focus
from finance and marketing to human resource
development. ) To deal with the most likely
future employment scenarios, leaders will need
to be masters of the liberal arts—said arts are,
again, the determinant of responding to the
emerging world.
PART 2:
Context &
Excellence
1,000,000
GRIN
G
R
I
N
enetics
obotics
nformatics
anotechnology
“Human level
capability has not
turned out to be a
special stopping point
from an engineering
perspective. ….”
Source: Illah Reza Nourbakhsh, Professor of Robotics, Carnegie Mellon, Robot Futures
RACE
AGAINST
THE
MACHINE
“The root of our problem is not
that we’re in a Great Recession
or a Great Stagnation, but rather
that we are in the early
Great
Restructuring. Our
throes of a
technologies are racing ahead,
but our skills and organizations
are lagging behind.”
Source: Race AGAINST the Machine, Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee
“The median worker is
losing the race against
the machine.”
—Erik Brynjolfsson and
Andrew McAfee, The Race Against the Machine
“A bureaucrat is an
expensive microchip.”
—Dan Sullivan, consultant and executive coach
China
too/Foxconn:
1,000,000
robots in next
3 years
Source: Race AGAINST the Machine, Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee
Post-Great Recession:
Equipment
expenditures
+26%; payrolls flat
Source: Race AGAINST the Machine, Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee
AUTOMATE THIS:
HOW ALGORITHMS
CAME TO RULE
THE WORLD
“Algorithms have already written symphonies
as moving as those composed by
Beethoven, picked through legalese with
the deftness of a senior law partner,
diagnosed patients with more accuracy than a
doctor, written news articles with the
smooth hand of a seasoned reporter, and
driven vehicles on urban highways with far
better control than a human
driver.”
Automate This: How
Algorithms Came to Rule the World
—Christopher Steiner,
Legal industry/Pattern Recognition/
Discovery (e-discovery algorithms):
500
lawyers to …
ONE
Source: Race AGAINST the Machine, Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee
BIG DATA
“Analytics can yield literally hundreds of
millions of data points—far too many for
human intuition to make any sense of the
data. So in conjunction with the ability to
store very big data about online behavior,
researchers have developed strong tools
for data mining, statistically evaluating
correlations between many types and
sources of data to expose hidden patterns
and connections. The patterns predict
human behavior—and even hidden human
motivations.” —Illah Reza Nourbakhsh,
Professor of Robotics, Carnegie Mellon, Robot Futures
“Predictions
based on
correlations lie
at the heart of
big data.”
Source: Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live,
Work, and Think, by Viktor Mayer-Schonberger and Kenneth Cukier
“Flash forward to dystopia. You work in a chic
cubicle, sucking chicken-flavor sustenance from
a tube. You’re furiously maneuvering with a
joystick … Your boss stops by and gives you a
look. ‘We need to talk about your loyalty to this
The organization you work for
has deduced that you are considering
quitting. It predicts your plans and
intentions, possibly before you have
even conceived them.” —Eric Siegel, Predictive
company.’
Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die (based on
a real case, an HP “Flight risk” PA model developed by HR, with
astronomical savings potential)
Power
!
“Flash When I work with experimental digital gadgets, I am always reminded of how
small changes in the details of a digital design can have profound unforeseen effects
on the experiences of the people who are playing with it. The slightest change in
something as seemingly trivial as the ease of use of a button can sometimes alter
For instance, Stanford
University researcher Jeremy
Bailinson has demonstrated that
changing the height of one’s
avatars in immersive virtual
reality transforms self-esteem
and social self-perception.
behavior patterns.
Technologies are
extensions of ourselves, and, like the avatars in Jeremy’s lab, our identities
can be shifted by the quirks of gadgets. It is impossible to work with information
technology without also engaging in social engineering.” —Jaron Lanier,
You Are Not a Gadget
!
Excellence
Hard is Soft.
Soft is Hard.
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
“the joy*
of work”
—John Mackey and Raj Sisoda, Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business
*See also,
Joy Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love
—Richard Sheridan (Menlo Innovations)
Excellence:
NOT an
“Aspiration”
EXCELLENCE is not
an "aspiration.”
EXCELLENCE is …
THE NEXT FIVE
MINUTES.
EXCELLENCE is not an "aspiration."
EXCELLENCE is … THE NEXT FIVE MINUTES.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
is your next conversation.
is your next meeting.
is shutting up and listening—really listening.
is your next customer contact.
is saying “Thank you” for something “small.”
is the next time you shoulder responsibility and apologize.
is waaay over-reacting to a screw-up.
is the flowers you brought to work today.
is lending a hand to an “outsider” who’s fallen behind schedule.
is bothering to learn the way folks in finance [or IS or HR] think.
is waaay “over”-preparing for a 3-minute presentation.
is turning “insignificant” tasks into models of … EXCELLENCE.
EXCELLENCE is not
an institutional
choice.
EXCELLENCE is …
A PERSONAL
CHOICE.
You
can take any damned
attitude you choose
to work today! It's
your BLD/Biggest
Life Decision!
Twitter/BLD/Biggest Life Decision:
PART 3:
Leadership
CONRAD HILTON, at a gala celebrating
his career, was called to the podium
“What were
the most important
lessons you learned
in your long and
distinguished
career?” His answer …
and asked,
“Remember
to tuck the
shower curtain
inside the
bathtub.”
You get ’em in the
door with “location,
location, location”—and
a terrific architect. You
keep ’em coming back
with the tucked in
shower curtain!*
*Profit rarely comes from transaction #1;
it is a byproduct of transaction #2, #3, #4 …
IS
“EXECUTION
STRATEGY.”
—Fred Malek
YOU BEAT
YOURSELF!
Sports:
Does/will the next
presentation you give/
review allot more
time to the process/
details/politics of
“implementing” than
to the “analysis of the
problem/opportunity”?
“EXECUTION IS
THE JOB OF
THE BUSINESS
LEADER.”
—Larry
Bossidy & Ram
Charan/ Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
MBWA25
Managing
By
Wandering
Around
MBWA
“I’m always stopping by our
at least
a week.
stores—
25
I’m also in other
places: Home Depot, Whole Foods, Crate &
Barrel. I try to be
a sponge to pick up as much
as I can.” —Howard Schultz
Source: Fortune, “Secrets of Greatness”
“Most managers spend a great deal of time thinking about what they plan to do, but relatively
little time thinking about what they plan not to do. As a result, they become so caught up …
in fighting the fires of the moment that they cannot really attend to the long-term threats and
risks facing the organization. So the first soft skill of leadership the hard way is to cultivate
the perspective of Marcus Aurelius: avoid busyness, free up your time, stay focused on what
Let me put it bluntly: every leader
should routinely keep a substantial portion of
his or her time—I would say as much as
really matters.
50
percent—unscheduled. … Only when you
have substantial ‘slop’ in your schedule—unscheduled time—will you have the space to reflect
on what you are doing, learn from experience, and recover from your inevitable mistakes.
Leaders without such free time end up tackling issues only when there is an immediate or
visible problem. Managers’ typical response to my argument about free time is, ‘That’s all
Yet we waste so much
time in unproductive activity—it takes an enormous effort
on the part of the leader to keep free time for the truly
important things.” —Dov Frohman (& Robert Howard), Leadership The Hard Way:
well and good, but there are things I have to do.’
Why Leadership Can’t Be Taught—And How You Can Learn It Anyway
(Chapter 5, “The Soft Skills Of Hard Leadership”)
You = Your
calendar*
*The calendar
NEVER
lies.
Don’t >
Do*
* “Don’t-ing” must be systematic
> WILLPOWER
“The ONE THING you
need to know about
sustained individual
success: Discover what
you don’t like doing and
STOP
doing it.”
—Marcus Buckingham, The One Thing You Need to Know
ONE at
a Time
one
“If there is any
‘secret’
to effectiveness, it is
concentration. Effective
executives do first things first
and they do
one thing at a
time.”
…
—Peter Drucker
MBWA 4
MBWA 8
MBWA 12
“The
4
most
important
words in any
organization are …
THE FOUR MOST IMPORTANT WORDS IN ANY ORGANIZATION
“WHAT
DO YOU
THINK?”
ARE …
Source: courtesy Dave Wheeler, posted at tompeters.com
MBWA 8:
Change the World With EIGHT Words
What do you think?*
How can I help?**
*Dave Wheeler: “What are the four most important words in the boss’ lexicon?”
**Boss as CHRO/Chief Hurdle Removal Officer **********************************
MBWA 12:
Change the World
With TWELVE Words
What do you think?*
How can I help?**
What have you learned?***
*Dave Wheeler: “What are the four most important words in the boss’ lexicon?”
**Boss as CHRO/Chief Hurdle Removal Officer **********************************
***What [new thing] have you learned [in the last 24 hours]? ********************* *
Tomorrow: How
many times will you
“ask the WDYT
question”?
[Count ’em!!]
[Practice makes better!] [This is a
STRATEGIC skill!]
Acknowledgement.
“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”)
“The deepest urge
in human nature
is the desire to be
important.”
—John Dewey
(In Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People
(“The BIG Secret of Dealing With People”)
"Appreciative words are
the most powerful force
for good on earth.”
—George W. Crane, physician, columnist
“The two most powerful
things in existence:
a kind word and a
thoughtful gesture.”
—Ken Langone, co-founder, Home Depot
“Employees who
don't feel significant
rarely make
significant
contributions.”
—Mark Sanborn
“Acknowledge” …
perhaps the most
powerful word (and
idea) in the English
language—and
manager’s tool kit!
Meeting Power
!
Complain all
you want, but
meetings
are what you
[boss] do!
Meetings = #1
leadership
opportunity
Every meeting that
does not stir the imagination
and curiosity of attendees and
increase bonding and cooperation and engagement
and sense of worth and
motivate rapid action and
enhance enthusiasm is a
permanently lost opportunity.
Meeting:
FYI: This is … not
… a rant about
“conducting
better meetings.”
#1 CEO
Failing
“If I had to pick one
failing of CEOs, it’s
that they don’t read
enough.”
—Co-founder of one of the largest
investment services firms in the USA/world
Addiction By Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas
Anti-fragile: Things That Gain From Disorder
Automate This: How Algorithms Came to Rule Our World
Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think
Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business
Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World
Creation: How Science Is Reinventing Life Itself
Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About It
Employees First, Customers Second
Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter
Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter
Fab: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop—Fro Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication
Fast Future: How the Millennial Generation Is Shaping the World
The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding From You
Fooled By Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
For the Win: How Game Thinking Can Revolutionize Your Business
The Future Arrived Yesterday
The Gamification Revolution: How Leaders Leverage Game Mechanics to Crush the Competition
How to Create: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed
Knowledge and Power: ?The Information Theory of Capitalism and How It Is Revolutionizing Our World
The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses
Lords of Strategy
Loyalty 3.0: ?How Big Data and Gamification Are Revolutionizing Customer and Employee Engagement
Makers: The New Industrial Revolution
Models Behaving Badly: Why Confusing Illusion with Reality Can Lead to Disaster on Wall Street and in Life
The Myth of American Decline and the Growth of a New Economy
Nanotechnology for Dummies
Open Services Innovation: Rethinking Your Business to Grow and Compete in a New Era
The Org: The Underlying Logic of the Office
The Power of Co-Creation: Build It With Them to Boost Growth, Productivity and Profits
Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie or Die
Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking
Race Against The Machine: How the Digital Revolution Is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity,
and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and the Economy
Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World
Rewire: Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection
Robot Futures
The Rise of the Creative Class
The Shareholder Value Myth: How Putting Shareholders First Harms Investors, Corporations and the Public
The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail—But Some Don’t
The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology
Social Business By Design: Transformative Social Media Strategies for the Connected Company
The Startup of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself and Transform Your Career
Taming the Big Data Tidal Wave: Finding Opportunities in Huge Data Streams With Advanced Analytics
Thinking, Fast and Slow
To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism
Tubes: A journey to the Center of the Internet
Wait: The Art and Science of DelayWhat You Can Change … and What You Can’t
Wired For War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the Twenty-first Century
You Are Not a Gadget
Questionable
Judgment
Skills
Thinking, Fast and Slow
“Why are experts inferior to algorithms? One reason is that
experts try to be clever, think outside the box … This
may work in the odd case, but more often than not it
reduces validity. …”
“The important conclusion from this research is that
an algorithm that is constructed on the back of an
envelope is often good enough to compete with an
optimally weighted formula—and certainly good enough
to outdo expert judgment.”
“It is wrong to blame anyone for failing to forecast accurately
in an unpredictable world. However, it seems fair to
blame professionals for believing they can succeed at an
impossible task.”
Source: Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow
(Chapter: “intuitions Vs. Formulas”)
Clinical versus Statistical Prediction
“There is now [1996] a metaanalysis of studies of the
comparative efficacy of clinical
judgment and actuarial prediction
methods. … Of 136 research
studies from a wide variety of
predictive domains, not more than
5 percent show the clinician’s
predictive procedure to be more
accurate than a statistical one.”
Source: Paul Meehl, Clinical versus Statistical Prediction (1954)
1 Mouth,
Ears
“The doctor
interrupts
after …*
*Source: Jerome Groopman, How Doctors Think
18 …
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
organization effectiveness.)
[cont.]
Respect
.
“I always write
‘LISTEN’ on
the back of my hand
before a meeting.”
Source: Tweet viewed @tom_peters
10 Essential Selling Principles Most Salespeople Get Wrong
1. Assuming the problem that the prospect communicates is
the real problem.
2. Thinking that your sales “presentation” will seal the deal.
3.
Talking too much.
4. Believing that you can sell anybody anything.
5. Overeducating the prospect when you should be selling.
6. Failing to remember that salespeople are decisionmakers, too.
7. Reading minds.
8. Working as an “unpaid consultant” to seal the deal.
9. Being your own worst enemy.
10. Keeping your fingers crossed that a prospect doesn’t
notice a problem.
Source: Forbes/0503.13
*8 of 10 sales
presentations fail
*50% failed sales
presentations … talking
“at” before listening!
—Susan Scott, “Let Silence Do the Heavy Listening,” chapter title,
Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life,
One Conversation at a Time
Suggested addition to your statement of Core
“We are Effective
Listeners—we treat
Listening EXCELLENCE as
the Centerpiece of our
Commitment to Respect
and Engagement and
Community and Growth.”
Values:
*Listening is of the
utmost … STRATEGIC
importance!
*Listening is a proper …
CORE VALUE !
*Listening is … TRAINABLE !
*Listening is a …
PROFESSION !
Helping:
Not For Sissies
Are you a full-fledged
“professional” when it
comes to helping?
What do managers do for a living?
Help!
Right?
How many of us could call ourselves “professional helpers,” meaning that we have
studied—like a professional mastering her musical craft—“helping”? (Not many, I’d
judge.)
Ed Schein:
Helping: How to Offer, Give, and Receive Help
Last chapter: 7 “principles.” E.g.:
PRINCIPLE 2: “Effective Help Occurs When the Helping Relationship Is
Perceived to Be Equitable.
PRINCIPLE 4: “Everything You Say or Do Is an Intervention that
Determines the Future of the Relationship.
PRINCIPLE 5: “Effective Helping Begins with Pure Inquiry.
PRINCIPLE 6: “It Is the Client Who Owns the Problem.”*
(Words matter!! Read a quote from NFL player-turned lawyer-turned professional football coach,
calling his players “my clients.”
(*Love the idea that the employee is a “Client” ! )
Employee as Client!
“Helping” is what we [leaders] “do” for a living!
STUDY/PRACTICE “helping” as you would neurosurgery!
(“Helping”
is your neurosurgery!)
K=R=P
“Courtesies of a small and
trivial character are the
ones which strike deepest
in the grateful and
appreciating heart.”
—Henry Clay
139,380 former
patients from 225 hospitals:
Press Ganey Assoc:
NONE
of THE top 15
factors determining Patient Satisfaction
referred to patient’s health outcome.
Instead: directly related to Staff
Interaction; directly correlated with
Employee Satisfaction
Source: Putting Patients First, Susan Frampton, Laura Gilpin, Patrick Charmel
“There is a misconception that supportive interactions require
more staff or more time and are therefore more costly.
Although labor costs are a substantial part of any hospital
budget, the interactions themselves add nothing to the
KINDNESS IS
FREE.
budget.
Listening to patients or answering
their questions costs nothing. It can be argued that negative
interactions—alienating patients, being non-responsive to
their needs or limiting their sense of control—can be very
costly. … Angry, frustrated or frightened patients may be
combative, withdrawn and less cooperative—requiring far
more time than it would have taken to interact with them
initially in a positive way.”
Source: Putting Patients First, Susan Frampton,
Laura Gilpin, Patrick Charmel
(Griffin Hospital/Derby CT; Plantree Alliance)
Kindness =
Repeat business =
Profit.
K = R = P/Kindness = Repeat business = Profit
Kindness:
Kind.
Thoughtful.
Decent.
Caring.
Attentive.
Engaged.
Listens well/obsessively.
Appreciative.
Open.
Visible.
Honest.
Responsive.
On time all the time.
Apologizes with dispatch for screw-ups.
“Over”-reacts to screw-ups of any magnitude.
“Professional” in all dealings.
Optimistic.
Understands that kindness to staff breeds kindness to others/outsiders.
Applies throughout the “supply chain.”
Applies to 100% of customer’s staff.
Explicit part of values statement.
Basis for evaluation of 100% of our staff.
Responsiveness/
Apology/
“I’m sorry!”
“I regard apologizing as the
most magical, healing,
restorative gesture human
beings can make. It is the
centerpiece of my
work with executives who
want to get better.”
—Marshall Goldsmith, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There:
How Successful People Become Even More Successful.
THERE ONCE
WAS A TIME WHEN A
Relationships
(of all varieties):
THREE-MINUTE
PHONE CALL WOULD
HAVE AVOIDED SETTING OFF THE
DOWNWARD SPIRAL THAT
RESULTED IN A COMPLETE
RUPTURE.*
*divorce, loss of a BILLION $$$ aircraft sale, etc., etc.
THE PROBLEM IS
RARELY/NEVER THE
PROBLEM. THE
RESPONSE TO THE
PROBLEM INVARIABLY
ENDS UP BEING THE
REAL PROBLEM.*
*PERCEPTION IS ALL THERE IS!
Comeback
[big, quick response]
>>
Perfection
Acquire vs. maintain:
5X*
*Hence: Service >> Sales (!!)
“We”
Observed closely: The use of
“I”
or
“we”
during a
job interview.
Source: Leonard Berry & Kent Seltman, chapter 6, “Hiring for Values,”
Management Lessons From Mayo Clinic
hundreds of
times better here
“I am
[than
because of
the support system. It’s like
you were working in an
organism; you are not a
single cell when you are out
there practicing.’”
in my prior hospital assignment]
—quote from Dr. Nina Schwenk, in
Chapter 3, “Practicing Team Medicine,” from Leonard Berry & Kent Seltman,
from Management Lessons From Mayo Clinic
"The personnel committees on all
three campuses have become
aggressive in addressing the issue
of physicians who are not living
the Mayo value of exhibiting
respectful, collegial behavior to all
team members. Some physicians
have been suspended without pay
or terminated.” —Leonard Barry & Kent Seltman,
Management Lessons from Mayo Clinic
"When I was in medical school, I
spent hundreds of hours looking
into a microscope—a skill I never
needed to know or ever use. Yet
I didn't have a single class that
taught me communication or
teamwork skills—something I
need every day I walk into the
hospital.” —Peter Pronovost, Safe Patients, Smart Hospitals
XFX =
#1
XFX = #1*
*Cross-Functional eXcellence
NEVER
WASTE A
LUNCH!
“Allied commands depend on
mutual confidence
and this confidence is
gained, above all
development
of friendships.”
through the
—General D.D. Eisenhower, Armchair General*
*“Perhaps his most outstanding ability [at West Point]
he made friends and earned
the trust of fellow cadets who came from
widely varied backgrounds; it was a quality that would pay
was the ease with which
great dividends during his future coalition command.”
% XF
lunches*
*
Measure!
Monthly! Part of
evaluation! [The PAs Club.]
XFX: SOCIAL
ACCELERATORS …
XFX/Typical Social Accelerators
1. EVERYONE’s [more or less] JOB #1: Make friends in other
functions! (Purposefully. Consistently. Measurably.)
2. “Do lunch” with people in other functions!! Frequently!!
(Minimum 10% to 25% for everyone? Measured.)
3. Ask peers in other functions for references so you can
become conversant in their world. (It’s one helluva sign of ...
GIVE-A-DAMN-ism.)
4. Religiously invite counterparts in other functions to your
team meetings. Ask them to present “cool stuff” from “their
world” to your group. (Useful. Mark of respect.)
5. PROACTIVELY SEEK EXAMPLES OF “TINY” ACTS OF “XFX”
TO ACKNOWLEDGE—PRIVATELY AND PUBLICALLY. (Bosses:
ONCE A DAY … make a short call or visit or send an email of
“Thanks” for some sort of XFX gesture by your folks and some
other function’s folks.)
6. Present counterparts in other functions awards for service
to your group. Tiny awards at least weekly; and an “Annual AllStar Supporters [from other groups] Banquet” modeled after
superstar salesperson banquets.
XFX/: Typical Social Accelerators
16. Formal evaluations. Everyone, starting with the receptionist,
should have a significant XF rating component in their
evaluation. (The “XFX Performance” should be among the Top 3
items in all managers’ evaluations.)
17. Every functional unit should have strict and extensive
measures of “customer satisfaction” based on evaluations from
other functions of its usefulness and effectiveness and valueadded to the enterprise as a whole.
18. Demand XF experience for, especially, senior jobs. For
example, the U.S. military requires all would-be generals and
admirals to have served a full tour in a job whose only goals
were cross-functional achievements.
19. “Deep dip.” Dive three levels down in the organization to fill a
senior role with some one who has been noticeably pro-active on
adding value via excellent cross-functional integration.
20. XFX is … PERSONAL … as well as about organizational
effectiveness. PXFX [Personal XFX] is arguably the #1
Accelerant to personal success—in terms of organizational
career, freelancer/Brand You, or as entrepreneur.
Excellence!
21.
There is a “State of XF Excellence” per
se. Talk it up constantly. Pursue it. Aspire to nothing less.
EXPLICITLY &
VISIBLY &
RELENTLESSLY
MANAGE TO XFX
STANDARD!
“You’re
spending too
much time
with your
customers!”
[bill-paying]
C(I)>C(E)
C(I) > C(E)
(1) “Unfair”
“internal market
share”! (2) Have your
whole organization
zealously working to
make you successful!
Goal/s:
“Success doesn’t depend on the number of
people you know; it depends on the number
high places!”
of people you know in
or
“Success doesn’t depend on the number of
people you know; it depends on the number
of people you know in
‘low’
places!”
More than “performance
evaluation/award”
More than “team accomplishment
evaluation/award.”
Rather: Specific and frequent and
VISIBLE recognition to INDIVIDUALS
who have helped INDIVIDUALS in other
functions—or, for that matter, our own
group. E.g. BIG VISIBLE RECOGNITION
for specific acts, small acts more than
large acts, of selflessly
helping others per se.
PART 4:
Innovation &
Value Added
/47
Lesson47:
WTTMSW
WHOEVER
TRIES
THE
MOST
STUFF
WINS
READY.
FIRE!
AIM.
H. Ross Perot (vs “Aim! Aim! Aim!” /EDS vs GM/1985)
“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
Culture of Prototyping
“Effective prototyping may
THE MOST
VALUABLE CORE
COMPETENCE an
be
innovative organization can
hope to have.” —Michael Schrage
Think about It!?
Innovation =
Reaction to the
Prototype
Source: Michael Schrage
“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)
“FAIL.
FORWARD.
FAST.”
High Tech CEO, Pennsylvania
“REWARD
excellent failures.
PUNISH mediocre
successes.”
—Phil Daniels, Sydney exec
“The essence
of capitalism is
encouraging failure,
not rewarding
success.”
—Nassim Nicholas Taleb/Reason TV/0124.13
“The secret of fast
progress is
inefficiency, fast
and furious and
numerous failures.”
—Kevin Kelly
WTTMSASTMSUTFW
WHOEVER
TRIES
THE
MOST
STUFF
AND
SCREWS
THE
MOST
STUFF
UP
THE
FASTEST
WINS
We Are
What
We Eat.
“You will become
like the five people
you associate with
the most—this can
be either a blessing
or a curse.”
—Billy Cox
WE ARE THE
COMPANY
WE KEEP!
MANAGE IT!
The “We are what we eat”/
“We are who we hang out with”
Axiom: At its core, every (!!!)
relationship-partnership decision
(employee, vendor, customer, etc.,
etc.) is a strategic decision about:
“Innovate,
‘Yes’ or ‘No’ ”
Measure/Manage: Portfolio “Strangeness”/ “Quality”
1. Customers
2. Vendors
3. Out-sourcing Partners
4. Acquisitions
5. Purposeful “Theft”
6. Diversity/“d”iversity
7. Diversity/Crowd-sourcing
8. Diversity/Weird
9. Diversity/Curiosity
10. Benchmarks
11. Calendar
12. MBWA
13. Lunch/General
14. Lunch/Other functions
15. Location/Internal
16. Location/HQ
17. Top team
18. Board
“[CEO A.G.] Lafley has shifted P&G’s focus on
inventing all its own products to developing …
OTHERS’
INVENTIONS AT
LEAST HALF
THE TIME.
One successful
example, Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, based on a product
found in an Osaka market.” —Fortune
“DON’T
BENCHMARK,
FUTUREMARK!”
Impetus: “The future is already here; it’s just
not evenly distributed” —William Gibson
“DON’T
BENCHMARK,
‘OTHER’ MARK!”
Rob McEwen/CEO/
Goldcorp Inc./
Red Lake
GOLD
Wikinomics: How Mass
Collaboration Changes Everything,
Don Tapscott & Anthony Williams
Source:
“The Billion-man
Research Team:
Companies offering
work to online
communities are
reaping the benefits of
‘crowdsourcing.’”
—Headline, FT
“The Bottleneck …
“The Bottleneck is at the …
“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 …
Top of the
Bottle”
— Gary Hamel/Harvard Business Review
We Are What
We Eat: The
“Fred Smith
Question”
“Who’s the most
interesting person
you’ve met in the last
90 days? How do I
get in touch with
them?”
—Fred Smith
TGRs:
LBTs
LITTLE =
Big carts =
Source: Wal*Mart
Bag sizes = New markets:
Source: PepsiCo
2X: “When Friedman
slightly
curved the right angle of
an entrance corridor to one
property, he was ‘amazed at the
magnitude of change in pedestrians’
behavior’—the percentage who
entered increased from one-third to
nearly two-thirds.” —Natasha Dow Schull,
Addiction By Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas
Machine Gambling
“Pleasing” odor #1 vs.
“pleasing” odor #2:
+45% revenue
Source: “Effects of Ambient Odors on Slot-Machine Useage in Las Vegas
Casinos,” reported in Natasha Dow Schull, Addiction By Design:
Machine Gambling in Las Vegas (66% revenue, 85% profit)
<TGW
and …
>TGR
[Things Gone
WRONG-Things Gone RIGHT]
(1) Amenable to rapid
experimentation/
failure “free” (PR, $$)
(2) Quick to implement/
Quick to Roll out
(3) Inexpensive to
implement/Roll out
(4) Huge multiplier
(5) An “Attitude”
TGRs:
CNO
“Customer engagement is moving
from relatively isolated market
transactions to deeply connected
and sustained social
relationships. This basic change
in how we do business will make
an impact on just about
everything we do.”
Social Business By Design: Transformative Social Media Strategies
For the Connected Company —Dion Hinchcliffe & Peter Kim
MillerCoors: Gender imbalance. Women of Sales peer
support. Private network, Attrition plummeted.
Teva Canada: Supply chain excellence achieved. SharePoint/troubleshooting/Strategy-Nets/hooked to other
functions; Moxie social tools, document editing, etc.
IBM: Social business tools/30 percent drop in project
completion time/300K on LinkedIn, 200K on Facebook
Bloomberg: Mobi social media analytics prelude to stock
performance
Intuit: struggling against H&R Block temp
staffing/customers #1 asset/Live Community, focused on
help with transactions (not general, embedded in TurboTax
Social Business By Design: Transformative Social Media Strategies
For the Connected Company —Dion Hinchcliffe & Peter Kim
Gamification
“Gamification presents
the best tools humanity
has ever had to create
and sustain engagement
in people.”
Source: Gabe Zichermann & Joselin Linder, Gamification: How Leaders
Leverage Game Mechanics to Crush the Competition
CMO/ Marketing
CEO/Experience
CNO/eNgagement
“You get a sense of the scale and intricacy
of the task by considering the sound effects
alone: The game contains 54,000 pieces of
audio and 40,000 lines of dialogue.
are
2,700
There
different
noises for footsteps alone
depending on whose foot is
stepping on what.”
—Sam Leith on Halo 3, from Jane McGonigal, Reality Is Broken:
Why Games MakeUs Better and How They Can Change the World
TGRs:
8/80
Customers describing their
service experience as
“superior”:
8%
Companies describing
the service experience they
provide as
“superior”:
80%
—Source: Bain & Company survey of 362 companies, reported in John DiJulius,
What's the Secret to Providing a World-class Customer Experience?
Conveyance: Kingfisher Air
Location: Approach to New Delhi
“May I clean
your glasses,
sir?”
BEGINS
(and ENDS)
It
in the …
PARKING
LOT*
*Disney
<TGW
and …
>TGR
[Things Gone
WRONG-Things Gone RIGHT]
TGRS.
MANAGE ’EM.
MEASURE ’EM.*
*I use “manage-measure” a lot. Translation: These are
not “soft” ideas; they are exceedingly important things
that can be managed—AND measured.
“Experiences
are as distinct
from services
as services are
from goods.”
—Joe Pine & Jim Gilmore, The Experience Economy:
Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage
C
*Chief e
O*
Xperience Officer
Design!
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
*APPLE market cap > Exxon Mobil (August 2011)
“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”
O*
C
*Chief
Design
Officer
“Design is everything.
Everything is design.”
“We are all designers.”
Inspiration: The Power of Design: A Force for
Transforming Everything, Richard Farson
Design is …
*The reception area
*The loo
*Dialogues at the call center
*Every electronic [or paper] form
*Every business process “map”
*Every email
*Every meeting agenda/setting/etc.
*Every square meter of every facility
*Every new product proposal
*Every manual
*Every customer contact
*A consideration in every promotion decision
*The presence and ubiquity of an “Aesthetic sensibility”/
“Design mindfulness”
*An encompassing “design review” process
*Etc.
*Etc.
“Businesspeople don’t
need to ‘understand
designers better.’
Businesspeople need
to be designers.”
—Roger Martin/Dean/Rotman Management School/University of Toronto
M
IBM
IB
to
“Lou, Your mission
is to break the
company up and
release hidden
value!”
“Lou, with all the
money I’ve spent
with you guys, why in
the hell hasn’t my
business been
transformed?”
$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
“You are headed
for commodity
hell if you don’t
have services.”
—Lou Gerstner, on IBM’s coming revolution (1997)
“Big Brown’s New Bag: UPS
Aims to Be the Traffic Manager
for Corporate America” —Headline/BW
“UPS wants to take over the
sweet spot in the endless loop
of goods, information and
capital that all the packages
[it moves] represent.” —ecompany.com
(E.g.,
UPS Logistics
manages the logistics of
4.5M Ford vehicles, from 21 mfg. sites to 6,000 NA dealers)
Huge: “Customer
Satisfaction with
product/Service”
to
“CUSTOMER
SUCCESS”
“ ‘Results’ are
measured by the
success of all those
who have purchased
your product or
service” —Jan Gunnarsson & Olle Blohm,
The Welcoming Leader
Big STINKS:
Mid-size
Superstars/
Roll Out the
Red Carpet
“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
years for
1,000
found that
U.S. companies.
40
They
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
MITTELSTAND* **
*“agile creatures darting between the legs of
the multinational monsters” (Bloomberg BusinessWeek, 10.10)
**E.g. Goldmann Produktion
THE RED
CARPET
STORE
(Joel Resnick/Flemington NJ)
Retail Superstars:
Inside the 25 Best
Independent Stores
in America
—by George Whalin
Jungle Jim’s International Market, Fairfield, Ohio: “An
adventure in
‘shoppertainment,’
as Jungle Jim’s
1,600
cheeses and, yes, 1,400 varieties of hot
sauce —not to mention 12,000 wines priced
from $8 to $8,000 a bottle; all this is brought to
you by 4,000 vendors. Customers come from every
calls it, begins in the parking lot and goes on to
corner of the globe.”
Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland, Frankenmuth, Michigan,
98,000-square-foot “shop” features the
likes of 6,000 Christmas ornaments, 50,000
trims, and anything else you can name if it pertains to
pop 5,000:
Christmas.
Source: George Whalin, Retail Superstars
“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
Small Giants:
Companies That Choose to Be
Great Instead of Big
Small Giants: Companies that Chose to
Be Great Instead of Big (Bo Burlingham)
“THEY CULTIVATED EXCEPTIONALLY INTIMATE
RELATIONSHIPS WITH CUSTOMERS AND SUPPLIERS, based
on personal contact, one-on-one interaction, and mutual
commitment to delivering on promises.
“EACH COMPANY HAD AN EXTRAORDINARILY INTIMATE
RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LOCAL CITY, TOWN, OR COUNTY in
which it did business -- a relationship that went well beyond
the usual concept of `giving back.’
“The companies had what struck me as UNUSUALLY
INTIMATE WORKPLACES.
“I noticed the PASSION that the leaders brought to what the
company did. THEY LOVED THE SUBJECT MATTER, whether it
be music, safety lighting, food, special effects, constant
torque hinges, beer, records storage, construction, dining, or
fashion."
14,000
20,000
14,000
20,000
14,000/eBay
20,000/Amazon
30/Craigslist
“We all agree your
theory is crazy. The
question, which
divides us, is
whether it is crazy
enough.”
—Niels Bohr, to Wolfgang Pauli
“We are crazy. We should do
something when people say
If people
say something is
‘good’, it means
someone else is
already doing it.”
it is ‘crazy.’
—Hajime Mitarai, Canon
Where’s
your “Craig’s List
Every project:
[WOW!]
option”?
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!
“INSANELY GREAT”
STEVE JOBS
“RADICALLY THRILLING”
BMW
Innovation Index: How many
of your Top 5 Strategic
Initiatives/Key Projects score
8 or higher [out of 10] on a
“Weird”/“Profound”/
“Wow”/“Game-changer”
Scale?
!
Excellence
EXCELLENCE. Always.
If not EXCELLENCE,
what?
If not EXCELLENCE now,
when?
1/4,096: excellencenow.com
“Business has to give people enriching,
or it's
simply not
worth doing.”
rewarding lives …
—Richard Branson