Tom Peters’
The Best DEFENSE.
The Best OFFENSE.
EXCELLENCE.
New Zealand Initiative/Auckland/13 March 2014
(Slides at tompeters.com; also see excellencenow.com)
“The greatest satisfaction for management has come not from
the financial growth of Camellia itself, but rather from having
participated in the vast improvement in the living and working
conditions of its employees, resulting from the investment of
many tens of millions of pounds into the tea gardens’
infrastructure of roads, factories, hospitals, employees’ housing
and amenities. … Within the Camellia Group there is a strong
aesthetic dimension, an intention that it should comprise
companies and assets of the highest quality, operating from
inspiring offices and manufacturing in state of the art facilities.
… Above all, there is a deep concern for the
welfare of each employee. This arises not only
from a sense of humanity, but also from the
conviction that the loyalty of a secure and
enthusiastic employee will in the long-term
prove to be an invaluable company asset.”
—Camellia: A Very Different Company
[$600M/$160M/$100M]
“It may sound radical, unconventional, and bordering on
being a crazy business idea. However— as ridiculous as it
sounds—joy is the core belief of our workplace. Joy is the
reason my company, Menlo Innovations, a customer
software design and development firm in Ann Arbor, exists.
It defines what we do and how we do it. It is the single
shared belief of our entire team.”
—Richard Sheridan, Joy, Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love
“joy at work”: “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, Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business
*“Contrary to conventional corporate thinking, treating retail workers much better may make
everyone (including their employers) much richer.” —New York Times/ 01.05.14 (Cited in particular,
“The Good Jobs Strategy,” by M.I.T. professor Zeynep Ton)
EXCELLENT customer
experience depends entirely
on …
EXCELLENT employee
experience!
If you want to WOW your
customers …
FIRST you must WOW those
who WOW the customers!
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
Your principal
moral obligation as a leader is to
develop the skillset, “soft” and
“hard,” of every one of the people
in your charge (temporary as well
as semi-permanent) to the
maximum extent of your abilities.
The good news: This is also the
#1 mid- to long-term …
profit maximization strategy!
CORPORATE MANDATE #1 2014:
1/4,096: excellencenow.com
“Business has to give people enriching,
or it's
simply not
worth doing.”
rewarding lives …
—Richard Branson
“The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our
inability to understand the exponential function.”*
—Albert A. Bartlett
(*GRIN/Genetics + Robotics + Informatics + Nanotechnology)
“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 throes of a Great Restructuring. Our
technologies are racing ahead, but our skills and
organizations are lagging behind.” —Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee,
Race Against the Machine
“The median worker is losing the race against the
machine.” —Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, Race Against the Machine
“Human level capability has not turned out to be a special
stopping point from an engineering perspective. ...”
—Illah Reza Nourbakhsh, Robot Futures
(“I believe that 90 percent of white-collar/‘knowledge-
work’ jobs—which are 80 percent of all jobs—in the U.S.
will be either destroyed or altered beyond recognition in
the next 10 to 15 years.” —Cover/Time/22 May 2000/Tom Peters)
AUTOMATE THIS: HOW ALGORITHMS CAME TO RULE THE WORLD
(Book title, by Christopher Steiner)
“Automation has become so sophisticated that on a typical
passenger flight, a human pilot holds the controls for a grand
total of …
3 minutes. [Pilots] have become, it’s not
much of an exaggeration to say, computer operators.”
—Nicholas Carr, The Atlantic, 11.13
“The combination of new market rules and new
technology was turning the stock market into, in effect,
a war of robots.”
—Michael Lewis
“Almost all health care people get is
going to be done by algorithms within
a decade or two.” —Michael Vassar/MetaMed
“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
(*Ready.
Fire. Aim. —H.R. Perot. WTTMSW —TP Fail. Forward. Fast. —D. Kelley)
Training As
Investment
#1
Is your CTO/Chief Training Officer your top paid “C-level”
job (other than CEO/COO)?
If not, why not?
Are your top trainers paid as much as your top marketers
and engineers?
If not, why not?
Are your training courses so good they make you giggle
and tingle?
If not, why not?
Randomly stop an employee in the hall: Can she/he
meticulously describe her/his development plan for the
next 12 months?
If not, why not?
Why is your world of business any different than the
(competitive) world of rugby, football, opera, theater, the
military?
If “people/talent first” and hyper-intense continuous training are
laughably obviously for them, why not you?
Gamblin’ Man
Bet: >> 5 of 10 CEOs see training
as expense rather than investment.
Bet: >> 5 of 10 CEOs see training
as defense rather than offense.
Bet: >> 5 of 10 CEOs see training
as “necessary evil” rather than
“strategic opportunity.”
Bet: >> 8 of 10 CEOs, in 45-min
“tour d’horizon” of their business,
would not mention training.
Education As
Priority
#1
“Every child is born an artist.
The trick is to remain an artist.”
—Picasso
“All human beings are
entrepreneurs.” —Muhammad Yunus
“Human creativity is the
ultimate economic resource.”
—Richard Florida
"Creativity can no longer be
treated as an elective.” —John Maeda
RADICAL curricular revision
imperative. (STEM/STEAM.)
RADICAL digital strategy.
REVOLUTIONARY new approach to
teacher recruitment/development.
RADICAL re-assessment of tertiary
education (E.g., “MOOC-ization.”)
RADICAL re-assessment business ed.
RADICAL role re-assessment by
corporations.
(Good news: Nobody’s got it right. Kids are doing it without you—if you’ll let them.)
“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
*”Stretching back 40 years for 1,000 [largest] U.S. companies.
[McKinsey researchers] found that
NONE
of the long-term
survivors managed to outperform the market.” —Financial Times
MITTELSTAND*
*“agile creatures darting between
the legs of the multinational
monsters” (Bloomberg BusinessWeek, 10.10)
THE RED
CARPET
STORE
(Joel Resnick/Flemington NJ)
The Magicians of Motueka (PLUS)
!
W.A. Coppins Ltd.*
(Coppins Sea Anchors/
PSA/para sea anchors)
*Textiles, 1898; thrive on
“wicked problems”
U.S. Navy STLVAST (Small To Large Vehicle At Sea
Transfer); custom fabric from W. Wiggins Ltd./Wellington
(specialty nylon, “Dyneema,” from DSM/Netherlands)
—e.g.,
“BE THE BEST.
IT’S THE ONLY
MARKET THAT’S
NOT CROWDED.”
—George Whalin, Retail Superstars: Inside the 25 Best Independent Stores in America
RETAIL SUPERSTARS: INSIDE THE 25 BEST
INDEPENDENT STORES IN AMERICA—George Whalin
JUNGLE JIM’S INTERNATIONAL MARKET, FAIRFIELD, OH:
“An adventure in ‘shoppertainment,’ begins in the parking lot
and goes on to
1,600 cheeses and, yes, 1,400
varieties of hot sauce—not to mention 12,000 wines priced
from
$8-$8,000
you by
a bottle; all this is brought to
4,000 vendors. Customers come from every
corner of the globe.”
BRONNER’S CHRISTMAS WONDERLAND, FRANKENMUTH, MI,
POP 5,000: 98,000-square-foot “shop” features
Christmas ornaments,
50,000
6,000
trims, and anything
else you can name pertaining to Christmas.
“ ‘Commodity’ is a
state of mind.
ANYTHING can be
DRAMATICALLY
differentiated.”
Location/Size Independent: “Today, despite the
fact that we’re just a little swimming pool
company in Virginia, we have the most trafficked
swimming pool website in the world. Five years
ago, if you’d asked me and my business partners
what we do, the answer would have been simple,
‘We build in-ground fiberglass swimming pools’
Now we say,
‘We are the best
in the world
teachers …
… on the subject of fiberglass
swimming pools, and we also
happen to build them.’”
—Jay Baer, Youtility: Why Smart Marketing Is About Help, Not Hype
Biz 2014: Get Aboard the “S-Train”
SM/Social Media.
SX/Social eXecutives.
SE/Social Employees.
SO/Social Organization.
SB/Social Business.
“Insanely great” —Steve Jobs
“Radically thrilling” —BMW
“Astonish me!” —Sergei Diaghilev
“Build something great!” —Hiroshi Yamauchi/CEO Nintendo, to a game designer
“Make it immortal!” —David Ogilvy, to an ad copywriter
Raise your sights!
Blaze new trails!
Compete with the immortals!
—David Ogilvy, on Ogilvy & Mather’s corporate culture
Wanted by Ogilvy & Mather International:
Trumpeter Swans —David Ogilvy
“Every project starts with the same question: ‘How can we do what has never been done before?’”
—Stuart Hornery, Lend Lease
“Let us create such a building that future generations will take us for …
lunatics.” —church hierarchs at Seville
“We are crazy.
We should do something when people say it is ‘crazy.’ When people say something is ‘good,’
it means someone else is already doing it.” —Hajime Mitarai, former CEO, Canon
“You can’t behave in a calm, rational manner. You’ve got to be out on the …
lunatic fringe.”
—Jack Welch
Kevin (“Lovemarks”) Roberts’ Credo
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Ready. Fire! Aim.
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!
Note:
TWO Americans; EIGHT non-Americans (Scotsman,
2 Japanese, Aussie, Russian, German, Spaniard, Kiwi)
VALUE ADDED
As Strategy
DESIGN
As “Tool”
#1
#1
Design Rules!
APPLE market cap
> Exxon Mobil* **
*August 2011
**“Design
is treated like a religion at BMW.”
)
—Fortune
“Only one
company can be
the cheapest. All
others must use
… design.”
—Rodney Fitch, Fitch & Co.
(Source: Insights and Definitions of Design, the [UK] Design Council)
Women BUY
Women RULE
diversity WINS
“Forget CHINA,
INDIA and the
INTERNET: Economic
Growth Is Driven by
WOMEN.”
Source: Headline, Economist
“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
“Research suggests that
to succeed, start by
promoting women.”
“McKinsey & Company found that the international
companies with more women on their corporate boards far
outperformed the average company in return on equity and
other measures. Operating profit was
56 percent higher.”
Source: Nicholas Kristof, “Twitter, Women, and Power,” NYTimes, 1024.13
“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*
*
“You will become like the five people you associate with the
most—this can be either a blessing or a curse.” —Billy Cox
Leading:
The ONE Thing
The THREE Rules
one
“If I had to pick
failing of CEOs, it’s that
don’t read
enough.”
they
—Co-founder of one of the world’s largest and most successful
investment services firms (November 2013)
Michael Raynor and Mumtaz Ahmed’: THE THREE RULES:
How Exceptional Companies Think*:
1. Better before cheaper.
2. Revenue before cost.
3. There are no other rules.
(*From a database of over 25,000 companies from hundreds of industries covering 45 years, they
uncovered 344 companies that qualified as statistically “exceptional.”)
Jeff Colvin, Fortune: “The Economy Is Scary … But Smart
Companies Can Dominate”:
They manage for value—not for EPS.
They keep developing human capital.
They get radically customer-centric.
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
In Search of
KIWI
EXCELLENCE
ASSERTIONS: A BAKER’S DOZEN (1/4)
1. We are in the midst of unprecedented (“exponential”) change
—at once exciting and frightening. And wholly independent of
geographic location.
2. The principal role of the state is to provide for the betterment and
development of its citizens—PEOPLE FIRST.
3. Businesses—small/large/one at a time—are THE engine of national
human capital development. (AND must necessarily act
accordingly.)
4. PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST … maximizes mid- to long-term growth
and financial success for businesses of every size and flavor. (PPF is
NOT a “soft” idea/strategy. It is the … ultimate “hard” idea/strategy.
In Search of Excellence: “Hard is soft. Soft is hard.”)
5. Putting people first means by definition that … SUPERB/MINDBLOWING TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT IS INVESTMENT PRIORITY
#1.
5A. “Insane” commitment to training and development is effectively
guaranteed (!) to mitigate if not reverse “brain drain.” (Make NZ a
net top-talent attractor via … “GUARANTEED” EXCELLENCE IN
HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT. Why the hell not?)
ASSERTIONS: A BAKER’S DOZEN (2/4)
6. Education requires almost a 180-degree reversal—age 4 to 84.
Creativity is long-term national resource #1—and schools (all
around the world) are “excellent” at mercilessly destroying
creativity and its handmaiden, entrepreneurial instinct. (NOBODY
… is “doing it right”—which in and of itself presents an enormous
opportunity!)
6A. The new technologies must be unabashedly AND relentlessly
AND creatively AND audaciously applied to education—age 4 to 84.
(Beware the tenacity of the descendants of Ned Ludd!)
6B. A significant share of the VERY best and VERY brightest of our
university graduates must be radically (BIG incentives) induced to
do “national service” as teachers for a limited period of time.
(Remember: “Exponential” change—youth is imperative in our
teacher corps.)
7. Giant companies are long-term … LOSERS. (The evidence is …
UNEQUIVOCAL.)
7A. Which is to say UNEQUIVOCALLLY: The strength of a nation in
general, and the likes of NZ in particular, is its MITTLESTAND …
smallish to middle-sized specialist superstars committed to …
“OUTRAGEOUSLY HIGH VALUE ADDED.”
ASSERTIONS: A BAKER’S DOZEN (3/4)
7B. New-tech allows locals following any path to be global to an
unprecedented degree—i.e., “micro-multinationals.”
7B1. “Social business” is a buzzphrase that turns out to be “the
real thing.” Radical social engagement practices are changing
the definitions everything from “organizing” to “financing” to
“service/customer experience” to “marketing” … to the essence
of the brand itself.
7C. There are no industry limitations to “Mittelstand-ing”:
ANYTHING is fair game, not just the likes of software/bio-tech.
7D. “Commodity” is a [DISASTROUS] state-of-mind. With
determination and an unwavering commitment to innovation and
excellence … ANYTHING can be DRAMATICALLY differentiated.
7E. Listen to Steve Jobs/BMW: Embrace terms such as “Insanely
Great” and “Radically Thrilling.” (Which can apply to a supply
chain system as well as a scintillating product.)
7F. Public sector-ites: Dramatic improvements in support for
ease-of-doing-business can be accomplished w/o legislation;
government agencies are invariably their own worst enemies.
8. An effective economy, long-term, is built upon: (1) No-holdsbarred human capital development. And: (2) RELENTLESS
EXPERIMENTATION. (“Ready. FIRE. Aim.” “Fail. Forward. Fast.”)
ASSERTIONS: A BAKER’S DOZEN (4/4)
8A. Many/most “eggs in one or two baskets” (products,
partners) is a perilous strategy in general and … LITERALLY
INSANE … in tumultuous times. [Hint: these are “tumultuous
times” of “exponential” change.]
9. A failure to fully take advantage of the talents and energy
of WOMEN is a sign of … STAGGERING ECONOMIC
IGNORANCE.
9A. Women are the premier purchasers of … EVERYTHING.
Men are incapable of designing products for women. Women
tend to be significantly better leaders in the emerging, less
hierarchical world. COMPANIES WITH BALANCED F-M
LEADERSHIP TEAMS PERFORM DRAMATICALLY BETTER
[FINANCIALLY, ETC.] THAN M-DOMINATED INSTITUTIONS.
10. READ. READ. READ. READ. READ. READ. READ. READ.
11. EXCELLENCE is a state of mind. If not EXCELLENCE … why
the hell bother to get up in the morning?
12. “WOW” is a state of mind. If not WOW … why the hell
bother to get up in the morning?
13. New Zealand IS special. New Zealand IS different. Shortterm economic panaceas should not stand in the way of a
strategy based upon “Insanely-High-Value-Added-The-KiwiWay.” Timidity is a loser’s approach amid exponential change.