Tom Peters’
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
Zagreb/ICPE/05 June 2008
“The capacity
to
develop
close
and
Tom Peters’
enduring relationships is the mark of
a leader. Unfortunately, many leaders
of major companies believe their job
is to create the strategy, organization
structure and organizational
processes—then they just delegate
the work to be done, remaining aloof
from the people doing
Zagreb/05
June
2008
the
work.” —Bill George,
Authentic
Leadership
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
To appreciate
this presentation [and ensure
that it is not a mess], you need
Microsoft fonts:
NOTE:
“Showcard Gothic,”
“Ravie,” “Chiller”
and “Verdana”
Tom Peters’
I.
Have.
Nothing.
New.
To.
Say.
Zagreb/05 June 2008
$2.3 trillion
“The West spent …
on foreign aid over the last five decades and
still has not managed to get twelve-cent
medicines to children to prevent half of all
malaria deaths. The West spent $2.3 trillion
and still not managed to get three dollars to
each new mother to prevent five million child
But I and
other
L(+21)
= many
L(-21)
deaths. …
like-minded people keep
trying, not to abandon aid to
the poor, but to make sure it
reaches them.”
$2.3 trillion
“The West spent …
on foreign aid over the last five decades and
still has not managed to get twelve-cent
medicines to children to prevent half of all
malaria deaths. The West spent $2.3 trillion
and still not managed to get three dollars to
each new mother to prevent five million child
Leadership(21A.D.)
=
deaths. … But I and many other
Leadership(21B.C.)
like-minded people keep
trying, not to abandon aid to
the poor, but to make sure it
reaches them.”
“Ninety percent
of success is
showing up.”
—Woody Allen
“Allied commands depend
on mutual confidence
[and this confidence]
is gained, above all,
through the development
of friendships.”
—General D.D. Eisenhower,
Armchair General* (05.08)
*“Perhaps his most outstanding ability [at West Point] was
the ease with which he made friends and earned the trust
of fellow cadets who came from widely varied backgrounds;
it was a quality that would pay great dividends during his
future coalition command
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
“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 the
Annual Meeting)
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 service of
others.**
**Employees, Customers, Suppliers, Communities, Owners, Temporary partners
“Excellence can be obtained if you:
... care more than others think
is wise;
... risk more than others think
is safe;
... dream more than others think
is practical;
... expect more than others think
is possible.”
Source: Anon. (Posted @ tompeters.com by
K.Sriram, November 27, 2006 1:17 AM)
Slides at …
tompeters.com
“We Have …
Thank
you,
Starbucks!
Sports: You
beat
yourself!
Internal
organizational
excellence* ** =
Deepest “Blue
Ocean”
*A “Blue ocean” is by definition
very profitable … and will be
quickly copied. “sustainable
blue” (Internal
organizational excellence) is
far more difficult to copy.
Thank
you Rich!
“Mapping your
competitive
position”*
or …
*Rich D’Aveni/HBR
The “Have
you …” 50*
*See Appendix One
1. Have you in the
last 10 days …
visited a customer?
2. Have you called a
customer … TODAY?
*
*
*
1. Have you in the last 10 days … visited a
customer?
2. Have you called a customer … TODAY?
3. Have you in the last 60-90 days … had a seminar in which several folks from the
customer’s operation (different levels, different functions, different divisions) interacted,
via facilitator, with various of your folks?
4. Have you thanked a front-line employee for a
small act of helpfulness … in the last three days?
5. Have you thanked a front-line employee for a small act of helpfulness … in the
last three hours?
6. Have you thanked a frontline employee for carrying around a great attitude … today?
7. Have you in the last week recognized—publicly—one of your folks for a small act of
cross-functional co-operation?
8. Have you in the last week recognized—publicly—one of “their” folks (another function)
for a small act of cross-functional co-operation?
9. Have you invited in the last month a leader of another function to your weekly team
priorities meeting?
10. Have you personally in the last week-month called-visited an internal or external
customer to sort out, inquire, or apologize for some little or big thing that went awry? (No
reason for doing so? If true—in your mind—then you’re more out of touch than I dared
imagine.)
#1
“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 U.S. companies. They
found that
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
$10,000,000/Day
Mission impossible?
$36B/’98
minus
$675M/‘07
$10,000,000/Day
You don’t
get better
by being
bigger. You
Dick Kovacevich:
The last
word:
There is
no “last
word.”
“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
C.E.O.
to
C.D.O.
Chief
Destruction
Officer
“It is not the
strongest of the
species that survives,
nor the most
intelligent, but the
one most responsive
to change.”
—Charles Darwin
#2
#1 Exporter?
#4 Japan
#2 USA
#2 China
#4 Japan
#3 USA
#2 China
#1 Germany
Reason?
Daimler?
BASF?
Siemens?
Reason!!!
Mittelstand
Or …
Goldmann
Produktions
(11/50%/$5M/”dip and coat,” expensive pigments
vs “through coloring,” fades Bekro Chemie)
Focus: “A recent study by [Stanford]
Business School faculty shows that
producers whose offerings or
expertise are more clearly
associated with one or two product
categories have better sales
than those whose goods or
professional identity span multiple
categories. More focused producers throw off
subtle hints that they know their stuff, which is
not lost on customers. In short, says professor
Michael Hannan, ‘The jack of all trades is the
master of none governs consumer choices of
whose goodies to buy.’ ” —Stanford Business, 0208
“All Strategy Is Local:
True competitive advantages
are harder to find and maintain
than people realize. The
Focus:
odds are best in
tightly drawn markets,
not big, sprawling
ones”
—Title/ Bruce Greenwald & Judd Kahn/HBR09.05
Jim’s
Group
Jim’s Mowing Canada
Jim’s Mowing UK
Jim’s Antennas
Jim’s Bookkeeping
Jim’s Building Maintenance
Jim’s Carpet Cleaning
Jim’s Car Cleaning
Jim’s Computer Services
Jim’s Dog Wash
Jim’s Driving School
Jim’s Fencing
Jim’s Floors
Jim’s Painting
Jim’s Paving
Jim’s Pergolas [gazebos]
Jim’s Pool Care
Jim’s Pressure Cleaning
Jim’s Roofing
Jim’s Security Doors
Jim’s Trees
Jim’s Window Cleaning
Jim’s Windscreens
Note: Download, free, Jim Penman’s book:
What Will They Franchise Next? The Story of Jim’s Group
The Red
Carpet
Store
Joel Resnick/Flemington NJ
(referenced in Fame Junkies)
#3
The
black
swan
1982 (-) =
200
Years (+)
1982/Default Latin
America =
years
200
[Total historical earnings]
The Black Swan: The Impact of the
Highly Improbable, Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Career =
1 or 2
black swans
Resilience!
Hiring: CEO, 100%
Training
Structure
Systems (e.g. IS/IT)
“Culture”
“Character is more crucial now
than ever, because in times of
great uncertainty past
performance is no indicator of
future performance. Experience
falls away and all you’re left
with is character.” —David Rothkopf,
founder of a firm that helps chief
executives manage risks
#4
revenue
matters
most
“Our whole
story is
growing
revenue.”
—Vernon Hill (Top-line driven; standard
is bottom-line driven by cost cutting)
The Commerce Bank Model
“cost cutting
is a death
spiral.”
Source: Fans! Not customers. How Commerce Bank
Created a Super-growth Business in a No-growth Industry,
Vernon Hill & Bob Andelman
C
*Chief
O*
Revenue
Officer
#5
Give
good
tea!*
*Norm, Ben
“A body can
pretend to care,
but they can’t
pretend to be
there.”
— Texas Bix Bender
“I call 60 CEOs
to
wish them happy
New Year. …”
[in
the first week of the year]
—Hank Paulson, former CEO, Goldman Sachs
Source: Fortune, “Secrets of Greatness,” 0320.05
You = Your
calendar*
*Calendars
never lie
“It’s always
showtime.”
—David D’Alessandro, Career Warfare
ell sell sell sell
ell sell sell sell
ell sell sell sell
ell sell sell sell
ell sell sell sell
Conrad Hilton, at a gala
celebrating his life,
was asked, “What was
the most important
lesson you’ve learned in
your long and
distinguished career?”
His immediate answer:
“remember
to tuck the
shower curtain
inside the
bathtub”
2-cent
candy
<TGW
vs.
>TGR
“Buy in”“Ownership”Authorial bragging
rights-“Born again”
Champion = One
Line of Code!
“We have a
‘strategic plan.’
It’s called doing
things.”
— Herb Kelleher
“This is so simple it sounds stupid, but it is amazing
how few oil people really understand that
you only find
oil if you drill
wells.
You may think you’re finding it
when you’re drawing maps and
studying logs, but you have to drill.”
Source: The Hunters, by John Masters, Canadian O & G wildcatter
“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
“Experiment
fearlessly”
Source: BW0821.06, Type A Organization Strategies/
“How to Hit a Moving Target”—Tactic #1
“Fail .
Forward.
Fast.”
High Tech CEO, Pennsylvania
ry it. Try it. Screw
t up. Try it. Try it
Try it. Try it. Try it
ry it. Screw it up
Try it. Try it. try i
ry it. Screw it up
“You miss
100% of
the shots you
never take.”
—Wayne Gretzky
De-central-iza-tion!
Enemy
#1
I.C.D.
Inherent/Inevitable/
Immutable Centralist Drift
Note 1:
Note 2: Jim Burke’s 1-word vocabulary: “No.”
Ex-ecu-tion!
“Execution is
strategy.”
—Fred Malek
“Get the strategy
right, the rest will
take care of itself.”
MP:
“Get the people and
execution right,
the strategy will
take care of itself.”
TP:
“Execution is a
systematic
process
of rigorously
discussing hows and whats, tenaciously
following through, and ensuring
accountability.”
—Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/ Execution:
The Discipline of Getting Things Done
Ac-counta-bil-ity!
30%
MH: 80%
CF:
(no salesfolk)
(salesfolk)
6:15A.M.
DECENTRALIZATION.
EXECUTION.
ACCOUTABILITY.
6:15A.M.
X =XFX*
*Excellence = Cross-functional Excellence
1. It’s
our organization to make work—or not. It’s not “them,” the
outside world that’s the problem. The enemy is us. Period.
2. Friction-free! Dump 90% of “middle managers”—most are advertent or inadvertent “power
freaks.” We are all—every one of us—in the Friction Removal Business, one moment at a time,
now and forevermore.
3. No “stovepipes”! “Stove-piping,” “Silo-ing” is an Automatic Firing Offense. Period. No
appeals. (Within the limits of civility, somewhat “public” firings are not out of the question—that
is, make one and all aware why the axe fell.)
4. Everything on the Web. This helps. A lot. (“Everything” = Big word.)
5. Open access. All available to all. Transparency, beyond a level that’s “sensible,” is a de facto
imperative in a Burn-the-Silos strategy.
Project managers rule!! Project managers running XF (crossfunctional) projects are the Elite of the organization, and seen as
such and treated as such. (The likes of construction companies
have practiced this more or less forever.)
6.
7. “Value-added Proposition” = Application of integrated resources. (From the entire supplychain.) To deliver on our emergent business raison d’etre, and compete with the likes of our
Chinese and Indian brethren, we must co-operate with anybody and everybody “24/7.” IBM, UPS
and many, many others are selling far more than a product or service that works—the new “it” is
pure and simple a product of XF co-operation; “the product is the co-operation” is not much of a
stretch.
????
% XF
lunches*
*Measure!
Never
waste a
lunch!*
Promote “FRSs” (Friction
Reduction Specialists—nobody
can figure out what they “do’”
but when they’re around things
mysteriously get done
(Women? Not clear)
FRSs kin to HROs, IROs (Hurdle
Removal Officers, Impedance
Reduction Officers)
K.i.s.s.
*Keep It Simple, Stupid
90K in U.S.A. ICUs on any
given day; 178 steps/day
in ICU.
50%
stays result
in “serious complication”
Source: Atul Gawande, “The Checklist” (New Yorker, 1210.07)
**Peter Pronovost, Johns Hopkins,
2001
**Checklist, line infections
**1/3rd at least one error when he started
**Nurses/permission to stop procedure
if doc, other not following checklist
**In 1 year, 10-day line-infection rate:
11% to …
0%
Source: Atul Gawande, “The Checklist” (New Yorker, 1210.07)
“[Pronovost] is focused on work that is
not normally considered a significant
contribution in academic medicine. As a
result, few others are venturing to extend
Yet his work
has already saved more
lives than that of any
laboratory scientist in
the last decade.”
his achievements.
—Atul Gawande,
“The Checklist” (New Yorker, 1210.07)
“Beware of the
tyranny of making
Small Changes to Small
Things. Rather, make
Big
Changes to
Things.”
Big
—Roger Enrico, former Chairman, PepsiCo
“Beware of the tyranny of making
Small
Things.
Small
Changes to
Rather, make Big
Big Things …
using Small, Almost
Invisible
Straightforward
Levers with Big
Systemic Impact.”
Changes to
—TP
“How to flush
$500,000 down
the toilet in one
easy lesson!!”
TP:
< CAPEX
> People!
Brand =
Talent.
PUT HR AT THE
HEAD OF THE HEAD
TABLE. BEST
PEOPLE. NOBLEST
MISSION.
The Dream
Manager
—Matthew Kelly
???
% of people
with …
… Dreams
The Dream Manager
—Matthew Kelly
“An organization can only become the-best-version-ofitself to the extent that the people who drive that
organization are striving to become better-versions-ofthemselves.” “A company’s purpose is to become thebest-version-of-itself. The question is: What is an
employee’s purpose? Most would say, ‘to help the
company achieve its purpose’—but they would be wrong.
That is certainly part of the employee’s role, but an
employee’s primary purpose is to become the-bestversion-of-himself or –herself. … When a company
forgets that it exists to serve customers, it quickly goes
Our employees are our
first customers, and our most
important customers.”
out of business.
“… but Tom, how do we find out
what it is that people really want?”
Exec:
Tom (after a long pause and a lot of thought
—and I’m not kidding):
“… but Tom, how do we find out
what it is that people really want?”
Exec:
Tom (after a long pause and a lot of thought—and I’m
“Ask
’em.”
not kidding):
EMPHASIZE
THE “SOFT
SKILLS.”
“A man
without a
smiling face
must not open
a shop.”
—Chinese Proverb
2/year =
legacy.
#1 cause of
Dis-satisfaction?
The “Big Three”
st
1
Marriage
Parenthood
Line Supervisor*
*Accomplishment through others
‘do’
“Leaders
people.
Period.”
—Anon.
“The role of the Director is to create a
space where the actors and
become more
than they’ve ever been
before, more than
they’ve dreamed of
being.”
actresses can
—Robert Altman, Oscar acceptance speech
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
“Leaders
‘SERVE’
people.
Period.”
—inspired by Robert Greenleaf
“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
“We are a
‘Life Success’
Company.”
Dave Liniger, founder, RE/MAX
“I have always
believed that the
purpose of the
corporation is to be a
blessing to the
employees.” *
—Boyd Clarke
*TP: An “organization” is, in fact and after all
is said and done, a/the “house” in which
most of us “live” most of the time.
Organizations exist to serve. Period.
Leaders live to serve. Period.
Passionate servant leaders, determined to create a
legacy of earthshaking transformation in their domain
create/must necessarily create organizations which
no less than Cathedrals in
which the full and awesome
power of the Imagination and
Spirit and native
Entrepreneurial flair of
diverse individuals is
unleashed … In passionate pursuit of jointly
are …
perceived soaring purpose and personal and community
and client service Excellence.
The Customer Comes
Second: Put Your
People First and
Watch ’Em Kick Butt
—Hal Rosenbluth and Diane McFerrin Peters (no relation—be delighted if she was)
“Every child is
born an artist.
The trick is to
remain an
artist.” —Picasso
“Do one thing
every day
that scares
you.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt
Kevin Roberts’ Credo
1. Ready. Fire! Aim.
2. If it ain’t broke ... Break it!
3. Hire crazies.
4. Ask dumb questions.
5. Pursue failure.
6. Lead, follow ... or get out of the way!
7. Spread confusion.
8. Ditch your office.
9. Read odd stuff.
10.
Avoid moderation!
We are the
company
we keep
The “Hang Out Axiom”: At
its core, every (!!!)
relationship-partnership
decision (employee,
vendor, customer, etc)
is a strategic decision
about:
“Innovate,
‘Yes’ or ‘No’ ”
Measure “Strangeness”/Portfolio Quality
Staff
Consultants
Vendors
Out-sourcing Partners (#, Quality)
Innovation Alliance Partners
Customers
Competitors (who we “benchmark” against)
Strategic Initiatives
Product Portfolio (LineEx v. Leap)
IS/IT Projects
HQ Location
Lunch Mates
Language
Board
“Normal” =
“o for 800”
“Freak
Fridays”
—once a month
invite somebody interesting, in any field, to have lunch
with your gang
Single
greatest act
of pure
imagination
Hard Is Soft
Soft Is Hard
Hard Is Soft (Plans, #s)
Soft Is Hard (people,
customers, values,
relationships))
“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 is
[Yet] I came to see in
my time at IBM that culture
isn’t just one aspect of the
very, very hard.
game —it is the
game.”
—Lou Gerstner,
Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance
Hard Is Soft
Soft Is Hard
R.O.I.R.
Return On
Investment In
Relationships
Q/Systems Salesperson: “I make the
sale, and then the company screws up
the engineering or delivery or one of a
dozen things. Any suggestions?
“Spend less
time with your
customers!”
A/TP:
C(I)>C(E)
Relationships
(of all varieties):
THERE
ONCE WAS A TIME WHEN A
THREE-MINUTE
PHONE CALL WOULD
HAVE AVOIDED SETTING OFF THE
DOWNWARD SPIRAL THAT RESULTED
IN A COMPLETE RUPTURE.
THE PROBLEM IS
RARELY/NEVER THE
PROBLEM. THE
RESPONSE TO THE
PROBLEM INVARIABLY
ENDS UP BEING THE
REAL PROBLEM.
“I’m sorry.”
“Courtesies of a small and
trivial character are the
ones which strike
deepest in the grateful
and appreciating heart.”
—Henry Clay
The Manager’s Book
of Decencies: How
Small /gestures
Build Great
Companies.
—Steve Harrison, Adecco
Cause
Space
(worthy of commitment)
(room for/encouragement
for initiative)
Decency
(respect, humane)
Cause
Space
(worthy of commitment)
(room for/encouragement
for initiative-adventures)
Decency
(respect, grace,
integrity, humane)
service
(worthy of our clients’ & extended
family’s continuing custom)
excellence
(period)
Cause
Space
Decency
service
excellence
servant leadership
Cause
Space
Decency
service
(worthy of commitment)
(room for/encouragement for initiative-adventures)
(respect, grace, integrity, humane)
(worthy of our clients’ & extended
family’s continuing custom)
excellence
servant leadership
(period)
Don’t forget
the “it”!
“It suddenly
occurred to me …
“It suddenly occurred
to me that in the space
of two or three hours
never
he
talked
about cars.” —Les Wexner
“Not long ago, I heard one
studio chief utter the
unthinkable: ‘What would
happen if I made a movie I
actually looked forward
to seeing?’ ”
—Peter Bart, Editor in Chief,
Variety; former Paramount exec, “Hollywood’s Model Doesn’t
Produce Art, or Much Profit” (NYT/0721.06)
A pox on
“micromarketing”
“Forget China,
India and the
Internet: Economic
Growth Is Driven
by
Women.”
—Headline,
Economist, April 15, 2006, Leader, page 14
“Women are
the majority
market”
—Fara Warner/The Power of the Purse
“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, April 15
most significant
variable in every
“The
sales situation is the
gender
of the buyer, and
more importantly, how the
salesperson communicates
to the buyer’s gender.”
—Jeffery Tobias Halter, Selling to Men, Selling to Women
The Perfect Answer
Jill and Jack buy
slacks in black…
“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.” —Aude Zieseniss de Thuin, Financial
boys in the school system.
Times, 10.03.2006
“AS LEADERS,
WOMEN
RULE:
New Studies find that
female managers outshine their male
counterparts in almost every measure”
TITLE/ Special Report/ BusinessWeek
10 UNASSAILABLE REASONS WOMEN RULE
Women make [all] the financial decisions.
Women control [all] the wealth.
Women [substantially] outlive men.
Women start most of the new businesses.
Women’s work force participation rates have
soared worldwide.
Women are closing in on “same pay for same
job.”
Women are penetrating senior ranks rapidly
[even if the pace is slow for the corner
office per se].
Women’s leadership strengths are exceptionally well
aligned with new organizational effectiveness
imperatives.
Women are better salespersons than men.
Women buy [almost] everything—commercial
as well as consumer goods.
So what exactly is the point of men?
It’s gotta be
a majority …
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“People turning 50
more
than half of
today have
their adult life
ahead of them.”
—Bill Novelli,
50+: Igniting a Revolution to Reinvent America
2000-2010 Stats
18-44: -1%
55+: +21%
(55-64:
+47%)
We are the Aussies & Kiwis & Americans &
Canadians. We are the Western Europeans &
Japanese. We are the fastest growing, the
biggest, the wealthiest, the boldest, the
most (yes) ambitious, the most experimental &
exploratory, the most different, the most
indulgent, the most difficult & demanding,
the most service & experience obsessed, the
most vigorous, (the least vigorous,) the most
health conscious, the most female, the most
profoundly important commercial market in
the history of the world—and we will be the
Center of your universe for the next twentyfive years. We have arrived!
EXCELLENCE.
SOUL I.
DESIGN.
All Equal Except …
“At Sony we assume that all products of
our competitors have basically the same
technology, price, performance and
Design is the only
thing that
differentiates one
product from another
in the marketplace.”
features.
—Norio Ohga
“Design is
treated like
a religion at
BMW.”
—Fortune
“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
Design is
the fundamental
soul of a man-made
creation.”
the meaning of design.
—Steve Jobs
Hypothesis:
DESIGN is
the principal
difference
between love
and hate!*
*Not “like” and “dislike”
O*
C
*Chief
Design
Officer
#38.1
EXCELLENCE.
SYSTEMS.
DESIGN.
K.I.S.S.
Lisbon/New Biz:
Weeks
to …
Minutes
(!!!!)
First Steps: “Beauty Contest”!
1. Select one form/document:
invoice, airbill, sick leave policy,
customer returns claim form.
2. Rate the selected doc on a scale of
1 to 10 [1 = Bureaucratica
Obscuranta/Sucks; 10 = Work of
Art] on four dimensions:
Beauty. Grace.
Clarity. Simplicity.
3. Re-invent!
4. Repeat, with a new selection,
every 15 working days.
Beauty
Grace
Clarity
Simplicity
Up,
Up,
Up,
Up
the Value-added Ladder.
Auckland/pm
taipei/vp
singapore/pm
bangkok/dpm
flanders
amsterdam/MPs
barcelona/ma
Kuala Lumpur/CM
lisbon/ma
dublin/pm
buenos aires
sao paulo
Warsaw/MPs
london/mps
milan
SEOUL/Ma
mexico d.f./m
istanbul/dpm
dubai/rfm
oman/rfm
usa
stockholm/mps
shanghai
maurittius/pm
johannesburg
bucharest/CM
EXCELLENCE.
VALUE ADDED.
UP THE LADDER.
NoT Optional.
The Value-added Ladder/ “BEDROCK”
Raw Materials*
*Farmers and Miners (“Degree”: Weightlifting)
The Value-added Ladder/ THINGS
Goods*
Raw Materials
*Engineers and Factory Workers (Degree: Engineering)
The Value-added Ladder/TRANSACTIONS
Services*
Goods
Raw Materials
*Clerks (Degree: Process Engineering)
EXCELLENCE.
VALUE-ADDED LADDER I.
SOLVE IT.
IBM:
$55B*
*Also HP-EDS
IB :
$55B*
M
*Also HP-EDS
“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
Huge: Customer
Satisfaction
versus
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
The Value-added Ladder/TRANSFORMATION
Customer Success/
Gamechanging
Solutions
Services
Goods
Raw Materials
“support function” /
“cost center”/
“overhead”
or …
Up,
Up,
Up,
Up
the Value-added Ladder.
EXCELLENCE.
VALUE-ADDED LADDER II.
EXPERIENCE IT.
“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
“The [Starbucks] Fix” Is on …
“We have
identified a ‘third
place.’
And I really believe
that sets us apart. The third place is
that place that’s not work or home. It’s
the place our customers come for
refuge.” —Nancy Orsolini, District Manager
Experience: “Rebel Lifestyle!”
“What we sell is the
ability for a 43year-old accountant
to dress in black
leather, ride through
small towns and have
people be afraid
of him.”
Harley exec, quoted in Results-Based Leadership
The Value-added Ladder/ MEMORABLE CONNECTION
Spellbinding
Experiences*
Customer Success/Implemented
Gamechanging Solutions
Services
Goods
Raw Materials
*Theatrical Skills (Degree: Theater Arts)
C
*Chief e
O*
Xperience Officer
Up,
Up,
Up,
Up
the Value-added Ladder.
EXCELLENCE.
VALUE-ADDED LADDER III.
DREAM IT.
Furniture vs. Dreams
“We do not sell ‘furniture’ at Domain.
We sell dreams. This
is accomplished by addressing the
half-formed needs in our customers’
heads. By uncovering these needs,
we, in essence, fill in the blanks. We
convert ‘needs’ into ‘dreams.’
Sales are the inevitable
result.”
— Judy George, Domain Home Fashions
“The sun is setting on the Information Society—even
before we have fully adjusted to its demands as
individuals and as companies. We have lived as hunters
and as farmers, we have worked in factories and now we
live in an information-based society whose icon is the
We stand facing the
fifth kind of society: the
Dream Society. … Future products will
computer.
have to appeal to our hearts, not to our heads. Now is the
time to add emotional value to products and services.”
Rolf Jensen/The Dream Society:How the Coming Shift from
Information to Imagination Will Transform Your Business
The Value-added Ladder/ EMOTION
Dreams Come True*
Design-driven Spellbinding
Experiences
Customer Success/Implemented
Gamechanging Solutions
Services
Goods
Raw Materials
*Psychologists (Degree: Psychology)
EXCELLENCE.
SOUL II.
THE STORY.
“Storytelling
is the core
of culture.”
—Branded Nation: The Marketing of Megachurch,
College Inc., and Museumworld, James Twitchell
Market Power =
Story Power
Best
story
wins!
“We are in the twilight of a society based on data. As
information and intelligence become the domain of
computers, society will place more value on the one human
ability that cannot be automated: emotion. Imagination, myth,
ritual - the language of emotion - will affect everything from
our purchasing decisions to how we work with others.
Companies will thrive on
the basis of their stories
and myths.
Companies will need to
understand that their products are less important than their
stories.” —Rolf Jensen, Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies
The Value-added Ladder/ EMOTION
Dreams Come
True/Best Story Wins*
Design-driven Spellbinding Experiences
Customer Success/Implemented
Gamechanging Solutions
Services
Goods
Raw Materials
*Anthropology (Degree: Anthropology)
Up,
Up,
Up,
Up
the Value-added Ladder.
Ladder.2008: 3 of 6!
Lovemark
Dreams Come True
Spellbinding Experiences
Gamechanging Solutions
Services
Goods
Raw Materials
New (3 of 6) Value-added “Ladder”:
Plays to Women’s Inherent Strengths!
Dreams Come True/F
Spellbinding Experiences/F
Gamechanging Solutions/F
Services/F-M
Goods/M
Raw Materials/M
EXCELLENCE.
DOES MATTER
MATTER?
“What Isn’t
Matter Is What
Matters”
—section title, Branded Nation: The Marketing of Megachurch,
College Inc., and Museumworld, James Twitchell
VA “Teaching Moment”
“Andy pointed to
a molding,
about halfway
up the wall …”
The Boot … and
Timberland
The Tomato/
Farmer … and
Campbell’s
Ladder.2008: 3 of 6!
Lovemark
Dreams Come True
Spellbinding Experiences
Gamechanging Solutions
Services
Goods
Raw Materials
EXCELLENCE.
BEDROCK.
LEADERSHIP.
THE 9Ps.
THE 1 M.
THE 1 E
THE 9Ps.
PURPOSE.
PASSION.
Potential.
Presence.
Personal.
PERSISTENCE.
PEOPLE.
Potent.
Positive.
PURPOSE.
PASSION.
Potential.
Presence.
Personal.
PERSISTENCE.
PEOPLE.
Potent.
Positive.
“People want to be part of
something larger than
themselves. They want to be
part of something they’re
really proud of, that they’ll
fight for, sacrifice for ,
trust.”
—Howard Schultz, Starbucks (IBD/09.05)
PURPOSE.
PASSION.
Potential.
Presence.
Personal.
PERSISTENCE.
PEOPLE.
Potent.
Positive.
“I am a …
Dispenser of
Enthusiasm!”
—Ben Zander
PURPOSE.
PASSION.
Potential.
Presence.
Personal.
PERSISTENCE.
PEOPLE.
Potent.
Positive.
“The role of the Director is to create a
space where the actors and
become more
than they’ve ever been
before, more than
they’ve dreamed of
being.”
actresses can
—Robert Altman, Oscar acceptance speech
PURPOSE.
PASSION.
Potential.
Presence.
Personal.
PERSISTENCE.
PEOPLE.
Potent.
Positive.
MBWA
PURPOSE.
PASSION.
Potential.
Presence.
Personal.
PERSISTENCE.
PEOPLE.
Potent.
Positive.
“You must
be
the change you
wish to see in the
world.”
Gandhi
PURPOSE.
PASSION.
Potential.
Presence.
Personal.
PERSISTENCE.
PEOPLE.
Potent.
Positive.
Relentless: “One of
my superstitions had always been
when I started to go anywhere or
not to
turn back , or stop,
to do anything,
until the thing intended was
accomplished.” —Grant
PURPOSE.
PASSION.
Potential.
Presence.
Personal.
PERSISTENCE.
PEOPLE.
Potent.
Positive.
‘do’
“Leaders
people.
Period.”
—Anon.
PURPOSE.
PASSION.
Potential.
Presence.
Personal.
PERSISTENCE.
PEOPLE.
Potent.
Positive.
Kevin Roberts’ Credo
1. Ready. Fire! Aim.
2. If it ain’t broke ... Break it!
3. Hire crazies.
4. Ask dumb questions.
5. Pursue failure.
6. Lead, follow ... or get out of the way!
7. Spread confusion.
8. Ditch your office.
9. Read odd stuff.
10.
Avoid moderation!
“Do one thing
every day
that scares
you.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt
PURPOSE.
PASSION.
Potential.
Presence.
Personal.
PERSISTENCE.
PEOPLE.
Potent.
Positive.
“[other]
admirals more
frightened of
losing than
anxious to win”
On NELSON:
PURPOSE.
PASSION.
Potential.
Presence.
Personal.
PERSISTENCE.
PEOPLE.
Potent.
Positive.
#47
THE 1M.
The 1m
The greatest danger
for most of us
is not that our aim is
too high
and we miss it,
but that it is
too low
and we reach it.
Michelangelo
#48
THE 1E.
“Breakthrough” 82*
People!
Customers!
Action!
Values!
*In Search of Excellence
An
emotional, vital, innovative,
joyful, creative,
entrepreneurial endeavor
that elicits maximum
Enterprise* ** (*at its best):
concerted human
potential in the
wholehearted service of
others.**
**Employees, Customers, Suppliers, Communities, Owners, Temporary partners
“Excellence can be obtained if you:
... care more than others think
is wise;
... risk more than others think
is safe;
... dream more than others think
is practical;
... expect more than others think
is possible.”
Source: Anon. (Posted @ tompeters.com by
K.Sriram, November 27, 2006 1:17 AM)
If Not
Excellence,
What?
“The capacity
to
develop
close
and
Tom Peters’
enduring relationships is the mark of
a leader. Unfortunately, many leaders
of major companies believe their job
is to create the strategy, organization
structure and organizational
processes—then they just delegate
the work to be done, remaining aloof
from the people doing
Zagreb/05
June
2008
the
work.” —Bill George,
Authentic
Leadership
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
Appendix One
The “Have
you …” 50
“Mapping your
competitive
position”
or …
While waiting last week [early December 2007] in the Albany airport to
board a Southwest Airlines flight to Reagan, I happened across the
latest Harvard Business Review, on the cover of which was a yellow
sticker. The sticker had on it the words “Mapping your competitive
position.” It referred to a feature article by my friend Rich D’Aveni. His
work is uniformly good—and I have said as much publicly on several
occasions dating back 15 years. I’m sure this article is good, too—
though I didn’t read it. In fact it triggered a furious negative “Tom
reaction” as my wife calls it. Of course I believe you should worry
But instead of
obsessing on competitive position and other
abstractions, as the B-schools and
consultants would always have us do, I
instead wondered about some “practical
stuff” which I believe is more important to
the short- and long-term health of the
enterprise, tiny or enormous.
about your “competitive position.”
“Unfortunately many
leaders of major
companies believe their
job is to create the
strategy, organization
and organization
processes—remaining
aloof from the people
doing the work.” —George
Kohlrieser, Hostage at the Table (GK is, among other things, a
hostage negotiator with a 95% success rate)
1. Have you in the last 10 days … visited a
customer?
2. Have you called a customer … TODAY?
3. Have you in the last 60-90 days … had a seminar in which several folks from the
customer’s operation (different levels, different functions, different divisions) interacted,
via facilitator, with various of your folks?
4. Have you thanked a front-line employee for a
small act of helpfulness … in the last three days?
5. Have you thanked a front-line employee for a small act of helpfulness … in the
last three hours?
6. Have you thanked a frontline employee for carrying around a great attitude … today?
7. Have you in the last week recognized—publicly—one of your folks for a small act of
cross-functional co-operation?
8. Have you in the last week recognized—publicly—one of “their” folks (another function)
for a small act of cross-functional co-operation?
9. Have you invited in the last month a leader of another function to your weekly team
priorities meeting?
10. Have you personally in the last week-month called-visited an internal or external
customer to sort out, inquire, or apologize for some little or big thing that went awry? (No
reason for doing so? If true—in your mind—then you’re more out of touch than I dared
imagine.)
1. Have you in the last
10 days … visited a
customer?
2. Have you called a
customer … TODAY?
Blog1231.07
FLASH!
FLASH!
FLASH!
FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION!
FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION!
FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION!
OLD YEAR’S RESOLUTION!
Call (C-A-L-L!) (NOT E-MAIL!) 25-50 (NO LESS THAN 25)
people … TODAY * …to thank them for their support this
year (2007) …
and wish them and their families and colleagues a
Happy 2008! ** *** **** ***** ******
*Today = TODAY = N-O-W (not “within the hour”)
**Remember: ROIR > ROI. ROIR = Return On Investment in Relationships.
Success = ƒ(Relationships).
***This is the most important piece of advice I have provided this year.
****This is … Not Optional.
*****Trust me: This is fun!!!!
******Trust me: This “works.”
Happy 2008!!!
I posted this at
tompeters.com on New
Year’s Eve 2007.
11. Have you in the last two days had a chat with someone (a couple of levels down?) about specific deadlines
concerning a project’s next steps?
12. Have you in the last two days had a chat with someone (a couple of levels down?) about specific deadlines
concerning a project’s next steps … and what specifically you can do to remove a hurdle? (“Ninety percent of
what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get things done.”—Peter “His eminence”
Drucker.)
13. Have you celebrated in the last week a “small” (or large!) milestone reached? (I.e., are you a milestone
fanatic?)
14. Have you in the last week or month revised some estimate in the “wrong” direction and apologized for making
a lousy estimate? (Somehow you must publicly reward the telling of difficult truths.)
15. Have you installed in your tenure a very
comprehensive customer satisfaction scheme
for all internal customers? (With major consequences for hitting or missing
the mark.)
16. Have you in the last six months had a week-long, visible, very intensive visit-“tour” of external customers?
17. Have you in the last 60 days called an abrupt halt to a meeting and “ordered” everyone to get out of the office,
and “into the field” and in the next eight hours, after asking those involved, fixed (f-i-x-e-d!) a nagging “small”
problem through practical action?
18. Have you in the last week had a rather thorough discussion of a “cool design thing” someone has come
across—away from your industry or function—at a Web site, in a product or its packaging?
19. Have you in the last two weeks had an informal meeting—at least an hour long—with a frontline employee to
discuss things we do right, things we do wrong, what it would take to meet your mid- to long-term aspirations?
20. Have you had in the last 60 days had a general meeting to discuss “things we do wrong” … that we
can fix in the next fourteen days?
UniCredit Group/
UniCredito Italiano* **
—3rd party measurement
—Customer-initiated
measurement
—Primary $$$$ incentives
—“Factories”
—Primary Corporate Initiative
—Etc
*#13
**TP/#1
The director of staff services at
the giant financial services firm,
UniCredit Group, installed the
most thorough internal customer
satisfaction measures scheme
I have seen—with exceptional
rewards for those who make the
grade with their internal
customers.
21. Have you had in the last year a one-day, intense offsite with each (?) of your
internal customers—followed by a big celebration of “things gone right”?
22. Have you in the last week pushed someone to do some family thing that you fear
might be overwhelmed by deadline pressure?
23. Have you learned the names of the children of everyone who reports to you? (If
not, you have six months to fix it.)
24. Have you taken in the last month an interesting-weird outsider to lunch?
25. Have you in the last month invited an interesting-weird outsider to sit in on an
important meeting?
26. Have you in the last three days discussed something interesting, beyond your
industry, that you ran across in a meeting, reading, etc?
27. Have you in the last 24 hours injected into a meeting “I ran across this
interesting idea in [strange place]”?
28. Have you in the last two weeks asked someone to report on something, anything
that constitutes an act of brilliant service rendered in a “trivial” situation—
restaurant, car wash, etc? (And then discussed the relevance to your work.)
29. Have you in the last 30 days examined in detail (hour
by hour) your calendar to evaluate the degree “time
actually spent” mirrors your “espoused priorities”?
(And repeated this exercise with everyone on team.)
30. Have you in the last two months had a presentation to the group by a “weird”
outsider?
You = Your
calendar*
*Calendars
never lie
All we have is our time. The
way we spend our time is
our priorities, is our
“strategy.” Your calendar
knows what you really
care about. Do you?
31. Have you in the last two months had a presentation to the group by a customer,
internal customer, vendor featuring “working folks” 3 or 4 levels down in the vendor
organization?
32. Have you in the last two months had a presentation to the group of a cool,
beyond-our-industry ideas by two of your folks?
33. Have you at every meeting today (and forever more) re-directed the conversation
to the practicalities of implementation concerning some issue before the group?
34. Have you at every meeting today (and forever more) had an end-of-meeting
discussion on “action items to be dealt with in the next 4, 48 hours? (And then made
this list public—and followed up in 48 hours.) And made sure everyone has at least
one such item.)
35. Have you had a discussion in the last six months about what it would take to get
recognition in local-national poll of “best places to work”?
36. Have you in the last month approved a cool-different training course for one
of your folks?
Have you in the last month taught a front-line
training course?
37.
38. Have you in the last week discussed the idea of Excellence? (What it means, how
to get there.)
39. Have you in the last week discussed the idea of “Wow”? (What it means, how
to inject it into an ongoing “routine” project.)
40. Have you in the last 45 days assessed some major process in terms of the
details of the “experience,” as well as results, it provides to its external or internal
customers?
41. Have you in the last month had one of your folks attend a meeting you were supposed to go
to which gives them unusual exposure to senior folks?
42. Have you in the last 60 (30?) days sat with a trusted friend or “coach” to discuss your
“management style”—and its long- and short-term impact on the group?
43. Have you in the last three days considered a professional
relationship that was a little rocky and made a call to the person
involved to discuss issues and smooth the waters? (Taking the
“blame,” fully deserved or not, for letting the thing-issue fester.)
44. Have you in the last … two hours … stopped by someone’s (two-levels “down") officeworkspace for 5 minutes to ask “What do you think?” about an issue that arose at a more or
less just completed meeting? (And then stuck around for 10 or so minutes to listen—and
visibly taken notes.)
45. Have you … in the last day … looked around you to assess whether the diversity pretty
accurately maps the diversity of the market being served? (And …)
46. Have you in the last day at some meeting gone out of your way to make sure that a normally
reticent person was engaged in a conversation—and then thanked him or her, perhaps
privately, for their contribution?
47. Have you during your tenure instituted very public (visible) presentations of performance?
48. Have you in the last four months had a session specifically aimed at checking on the
“corporate culture” and the degree we are true to it—with all presentations by relatively junior
folks, including front-line folks? (And with a determined effort to keep the conversation
restricted to “real world” “small” cases—not theory.)
49. Have you in the last six months talked about the Internal Brand Promise?
50. Have you in the last year had a full-day off site to talk about individual (and group)
aspirations?
Relationships
(of all varieties):
THERE
ONCE WAS A TIME WHEN A
THREE-MINUTE
PHONE CALL WOULD
HAVE AVOIDED SETTING OFF THE
DOWNWARD SPIRAL THAT RESULTED
IN A COMPLETE RUPTURE.
R.O.I.R.
Return On
Investment In
Relationships
Job
One.
“You
must
care.”
—General
Melvin Zais
“Courtesies of a small and
trivial character are the
ones which strike
deepest in the grateful
and appreciating heart.”
—Henry Clay