Long/NEW ORDER/1061
Tom Peters’
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
XAlways Master/08August2006
Slides* at …
tompeters.com
“The [Union senior] officers rode past the
Confederates smugly without any sign
of recognition except by one. ‘When
General Grant reached the line of
ragged, filthy, bloody, despairing
prisoners strung out on each side of
the bridge, he lifted his hat and held it
over his head until he passed the last
man of that living funeral cortege. He
was the only officer in that whole train
who recognized us as being on the
face of the earth.’*”
*quote within a quote from diary of a Confederate soldier
The
Irreducible209+/
Sales122/60TIBs
Tom Peters/0607.2006
A frustrated participant at a seminar for investment bankers in Mauritius listened
impatiently to my explanation of differences of opinion among me, Mike Porter,
“What,
if anything,” he asked,
“do you believe ‘for
sure’?”
Gary Hamel, Jim Collins, etc. Finally, he’d had enough.
I mumbled something, but his query started rumbling
around in my mind. Three days later, wandering on a Sunday in London, the idea of
“the irreducibles” occurred to
me—and I started jotting down notes on stuff I do indeed believe “for sure.” Before
I knew it, a few days later, the list had grown to 209 items. Hence “The
Irreducible209” that follows.
Tom Peters
EXCELLENCE.
THE BASICS.
This is not about …
“customer centrism”
“integrated marketing”
etc.
etc.
etc.
It is about …
C
*Chief
O*
Revenue
Officer
It is about …
sellin’ a whole lotta stuff and
having customers go bananas
with love to the point that
they tell every damn friend they
have and then start buttonholing
strangers on trains and planes
and busses.
Gaspworthy!
Manhole
Cover
Madness and
More ….
That’s a Big
Number ….
Chicagoland’s
Mystery
Disappearances …
THREE
BILLION NEW
CAPITALISTS
—Clyde Prestowitz
43,000
“There is no job that
is America’s God-given
right anymore.”
—Carly Fiorina/HP/January2004
“Deutsche Bank Moves Half of Its
Back-office Jobs to India”/
(500
of 900
Research)
headline/FT/0327
“One Singaporean worker
costs as much as …
3 … in Malaysia
8 … in Thailand
13 … in China
18 … in India.”
Source: The Straits Times/2003
“Thaksinomics” (after Thaksin Shinawatra, PM)/
“Bangkok Fashion City”:
“managed
asset reflation”
(add to brand value of Thai textiles by demonstrating
flair
and design excellence)
Source: The Straits Times/2004
Wal*Mart + Home
Depot + Walt Disney +
Intel + Microsoft +
Pfizer = Flat
Source: “Blue Chip Blues”, Cover, BW, 0417.06
The King Is Dead. Long Live …
Genentech09,
Amgen09
> Merck09
(70K-3/394B-5)
Goodnight
and Good
Luck.
Unparalleled in “Our” Professional Lifetime*
Terrorism
Middle East instability
H5N1
China screw-ups
Globalization backlash
Energy dependence
Environmental threats
Life sciences
“Cold War” with China
Fraying American fabric
U.S. impotence in the face of Asia’s rise
*Current leaders were not Cold War leaders
“This is a dangerous world and
it is going to become more dangerous.”
“We may not be
interested in chaos
but chaos is interested
in us.”
Source: Robert Cooper, The Breaking of Nations:
Order and Chaos in the Twenty-first Century
Good Morning
and Good News.
New Economy?!
Sergey +
Larry >
Harvard/370
“Forget China,
India and the
Internet: Economic
Growth Is Driven
by Women.”
—Headline, Economist,
April 15, 2006, Leader, page 14
EXCELLENCE.
THE GENERAL’S
STORY. (AND
THE ADMIRAL’S)
“If you don’t like
change, you’re
going to like
irrelevance even
less.”
—General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff. U. S. Army
“[Other]
admirals more
frightened of
losing than anxious
to win”
Nelson’s secret:
EXCELLENCE.
THE MANDATE.
“It is not the strongest
of the species that
survives, nor the most
intelligent, but the
one most responsive
to change.”
—Charles Darwin
“The most
successful people
are those who
are good at plan B.”
—James Yorke, mathematician, on chaos theory
in The New Scientist
“We are in a
brawl with no
rules.”
—Paul Allaire
Sam’s
Secret
#1!
“While many people big oil finds
with big companies, over the years
about 80 percent of the oil
found in the United States has been
brought in by wildcatters such
as Mr Findley, says Larry Nation,
spokesman for the American
Association of Petroleum
Geologists.” —WSJ, “Wildcat Producer Sparks Oil
Boom in Montana,” 0405.2006
“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
No. 5.
version
By the time our rivals are
ready with wires and screws, we are on
version
No. 10. It gets back to
planning versus acting: We act
from day one; others plan how
to plan—for months.” —Bloomberg by
Bloomberg
"I think it is very important
for you to do two things:
act on your temporary
conviction as if it was a
real conviction; and when
you realize that you are
wrong, correct course very
quickly.” —Andy Grove
“This is so simple it sounds stupid, but it is amazing
you
only find oil if you
drill wells.
how few oil people really understand that
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
S.A.V.
Screw Around Vigorously
“Reward excellent
failures. Punish
mediocre
successes.”
Phil Daniels, Sydney exec
EXCELLENCE.
STARTERS.
Radio City Music Hall
September 2005
Franchise Lost!
TP:
“How many of you
[600]
crave
really
a new Chevy?”
NYC/IIR/061205
2P.3E.
People.
Product.
Execution.
Enthusiasm.
Excellence.
“Pee Cee Eee-squared Xsquared/PCEEXX:
People
Customers
Enthusiasm
Energy
eXecution
eXcellence
P.P.E.E.R.R.E.
People.
Product.
Execution.
Enthusiasm.
Relentless.
Re-invent.
Excellence.
People.
Product.
Execution.
Enthusiasm.
Relentless.
Re-invent.
Excellence.
The
“3Es”
Tom Peters/02.15.2006
Enthusiasm!
Execution!
Excellence!
EXCELLENCE.
THE WORD.
Synonyms
Purity
Transcendence
Virtue
Elegance
Majesty
Antonyms
Mediocrity
EXCELLENCE.
GAMECHANGER.
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”
ExIn*: 1982-2002/Forbes.com
DJIA: $10,000 yields $85,000
EI: $10,000 yields $140,050
*Forbes/Excellence Index /Basket of 32 publicly traded stocks
Sorry, Jack: The New Rules
Old Rule
Big Dogs Own the Street
Be No.1 or No. 2 in the Market
Shareholders Rule
Be Lean and Mean
Rank Players; Go With the A’s
Hire a Charismatic CEO
Admire My Might
Source: Fortune/07.24.2006
New Rule
Agile Is Best; Big Can Bite
Create Something New
The Customer Is King
Look Out, Not In
Hire Passionate People
Hire a Courageous CEO
Admire My Soul
X06/Excellence2006: The Bedrock Baker’s Dozen
1. A Bias For Action/Culture of Execution = Job One!
2. DECENTRALIZATION! ACCOUNTABILITY!
3. Fail. Forward. Fast.
4. Velocity! Tempo! “Metabolic Management” Matters!
5. INNOVATE … or Die.
6. A Damn Good Product. A Damn Cool Product.
7. Ride the Value Added Curve to the Sky: Insure
“Gamechanging Solutions”; Provide “Spellbinding
Experiences”; Become a “Dream Merchant”; Strive to Be
a “Lovemark;” Seek “Tattoo Brand” status.
8. Relentlessly Pursue the “Big Two” Markets: Women,
Boomers & Geezers.
9. Best Talent Wins! Women Rule! HR at the Head Table!
10. Educate for Creativity, Entrepreneurship & “Brand You”
Independence.
11. Demanded: Radical Technology Strategies!
12. Passion! Enthusiasm! Energy! Excitement! Relentlessness!
13. No Less Than EXCELLENCE. Ever.
X06/Excellence2006: The Bedrock Baker’s Dozen
1. A Bias For Action/A “Culture of Execution” = Job One!
(Must be a Systematic Discipline.)
2. DECENTRALIZATION! ACCOUNTABILITY! (Tom’s “Top Two,” 1965-2005.)
3. Fail. Forward. Fast. (“Reward Excellent Failures, Punish Mediocre Successes.” “Most tries wins.”)
4. Velocity! Tempo! “Metabolic Management” Matters! (Hustle! Adapt!
Win the “O.O.D.A. Loop” War—Confuse Your Competitors!)
5. INNOVATE … or Die.
(“Game-changers” or Bust! Lead the Customer! Shout “NO” to Imitation!)
6. A Damn Good Product. A Damn Cool Product.
(Pursue “Dramatic Difference.”
Design Rules!)
7. Ride the Value Added Curve to the Sky: Insure
“Gamechanging Solutions”; Provide “Spellbinding
Experiences”; Become a “Dream Merchant”; Strive to Be
a “Lovemark;” Seek “Tattoo Brand” status.
8. Relentlessly Pursue the “Big Two” Markets: Women,
Boomers & Geezers. (WOMEN Buy Everything. BOOMERS & GEEZERS Have All the Money!)
9. Best Talent Wins! Women Rule! HR at the Head Table!
(“Weird” Matters Most! A Workplace to Brag About! Educate for Creativity!)
10. Educate for Creativity, Entrepreneurship & “Brand You”
Independence. (The schools have it all wrong!)
11. Demanded: Radical Technology Strategies! (“Incrementalism” Is for Wimps!)
12. Passion! Enthusiasm! Energy! Relentlessness! (Hard Is Soft! Soft Is Hard!)
13. No Less Than EXCELLENCE. Ever. (Excellence … the #1 Thing
That Vaults Us Out of Bed in the Morning, and Matters in the Long run.)
Re-imagine! Speech:
Story Line in 100 Words
or Less
Tom Peters/2006
Re-imagine! Speech: Story Line in 100 Words or Less
1. Wildly altered context (technology, China-India,
global terrorism, etc)
2. Only answer: adaptive skills and bold-breathtaking innovation
(top-line focus rather than cost-cutting focus)
3. Race way, way up the value-added curve (implemented “gamealtering solutions” rather than “services,” “experiences” rather
than “transactions,” and much more)
4. As part of value-added exercise, pursue Ripe & Enormous “new”
markets—Women, Boomers & Geezers
5. Radical (!!!) use of IS-IT
6. A “Roster” of Weird & Wondrous & Entrepreneurial “Talent”
engaged in “Wow Projects”
7. “Metabolic Leadership” (Passionate-Radical Leaders who instill a
Discipline of Execution, a Quick Tempo-Adaptive Culture and
an appetite to “Eat Radical Change for Breakfast”)
(96 words by my count)
Everything You Need to Know about “Strategy”: Tom’s Baker’s Dozen Axioms
1. Do you have Awesome Talent … Everywhere? Do you push that Talent to pursue …
Gaspworthy Quests?
2. Is your Talent Pool loaded with Wonderfully Peculiar People who others would
call “problems”? And what about your Extended Community of customers, vendors et al?
3. Is your Board of Directors as Cool as your product offerings … and does it have
50 percent (or at least one-third) Women Members?
4. Long-term, it’s a “Top-line World”: Is creating a “culture” that cherishes above all things Innovation
and Entrepreneurship your primary aim? Remember: Innovation … not Imitation!
5. Are the Ultimate Rewards heaped upon those who exhibit an Unswerving “Bias for Action,” to
quote the co-authors of In Search of Excellence?
6. Do you routinely use hot, Aspirational Words-terms like “Excellence” and B.H.A.G. (Big Hairy
Audacious Goal, per Jim Collins) and “Let’s make a dent in the Universe” (the Word according
to Steve Jobs)? Is “Reward excellent failures, punish mediocre successes” your de facto motto?
7. Do you subscribe to Jerry Garcia’s dictum: “We do not merely want to be the best of the best, we
want to be the only ones who do what we do”?
8. Do you elaborate on and enhance Jerry G’s dictum by adding, “We subscribe to ‘Best Sourcing’—
and only want to associate with the ‘best of the best’.”
9. Do you Embrace the New Technologies with child-like enthusiasm and a revolutionary’s zeal?
10. Do you “serve” and “satisfy” customers … or “go berserk” attempting to provide every customer
with an “awesome experience” that does nothing less than transform the way she or he sees
the world?
11. Do you understand … to your very marrow … that the two biggest under-served markets are
Women and Boomers-Geezers? And that to “take advantage” of these two Monster “Trends”
(FACTS OF LIFE) requires fundamental re-alignment of the enterprise?
12. Are your leaders Accessible? Do they wear their Passion on their sleeves? Does Integrity ooze out
of every pore of the enterprise? Is “We care” your implicit motto?
13. Do you understand Business
DON’T
TRY TO COMPETE
WITH WAL*MART ON
PRICE OR CHINA
ON COST?
Mantra #1 of the ’00s:
This I Believe: Tom’s Super-TIB25
1. TECHNICOLOR Times.
2. Passion! Enthusiasm! Energy!
3. Action/R.F.A./O.O.D.A. Speed.
4. Screw-ups. BIG SCREW-Ups!
5. Mess! Improv!
6. Revolution! Re-imagine!
7. INNOVATE OR DIE!
8. Decentralize!
9. Bulk is BULL! (Mergers don’t work. FOCUS Does!)
10 “Different” > “Better”
11. eALL/Power Tools for Power Strategies!
12. Forgetting/Destruction.
13. Hot Language Matters!
14. WOW!/WOW Projects.
15. VA Bedrock: The “PSF.” (Professional Service Firm.)
16. Daring.
17. Talent Time! Leaders “Do” People!
18. Talent+/Diversity.
19. Talent++/Women Rule!
20. “Brand You” Universe.
21. Design!
22. Gasp-worthy Experiences/Lovemarks.
23. New Market Demographics/Women/Boomers & Geezers/Green/Wellness.
24. Grace.
25. EXCELLENCE!
“My only goal is to
have no goals. The
goal, every time, is
that film, that very
moment.”
—Bernardo Bertolucci
EXCELLENCE.
CAUSES.
ADVERSARIES.
Causes/1966-2006
Implementation/Small Wins
(Stanford GSB/PhD thesis;
1st on implementation per se)
EXCELLENCE (as a worthy business pursuit)
Management Style/Corporate Culture
Soft “Ss”/7-S (Waterman-Peters complete “business model”;
waaaaay beyond Strategy & Structure)
Structure > Strategy (“We shape our structures, then they shape
us …”—Churchillian paraphrase)
Soft Change Levers (> structure; symbols, patterns & settings)
Close to the Customer (novel idea, circa 1982)
MBWA (Managing By Wandering Around—courtesy a much
more intimate than today HP)
Productivity through People (novel idea, circa 1982)
Chaos/Crazy Times Call for Crazy Organizations
Middle-sized companies are cool
Re-imagine!/Innovate or Die!
Small-ish/Scale & Synergy limits-delusions/anti-Big
Mergers
Causes/1966-2006
Women/Market opportunity
Women/Leaders (right for the times)
Design/Design-as-soul
Wow! (Hot language)
Weird!
Passion!/Enthusiasm!/Exuberance! (as Leader Lever #1)
Brand You (or else)
PSF = Bedrock (add value or bust—every group must
demonstrate economic viability)
PSF + Brand You + WOW Projects = New Biz Logic
Sales/+R > -C (increasing revenue more important than cutting cost)
HealthCare/Wellness-Safety-H5N1
Brand = Talent (best roster wins)
New VA Ladder/Products-Services-SOLUTIONSEXPERIENCES-DREAMKETING (Dream Marketing)-LOVEMARK
Different > > Better
Boomers & Geezers/marketing to new “mega-segment”
Progress?
Excellence1982: The Bedrock “Eight Basics”
1. A Bias for Action
2. Close to the Customer
3. Autonomy and Entrepreneurship
4. Productivity Through People
5. Hands On, Value-Driven
6. Stick to the Knitting
7. Simple Form, Lean Staff
8. Simultaneous Loose-Tight
Properties”
Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?
by George Stalk & Rob Lachenauer/HBS Press
“The winners in business have always played hardball.”
“Unleash massive and overwhelming force.” “Exploit
anomalies.” “Threaten your competitor’s profit
sanctuaries.” “Entice your competitor into retreat.”
Approximately
640 Index entries: Customer/s
(service, retention, loyalty),
worker/s),
4. People (
0. Innovation (
employees, motivation, morale,
product development, research &
development, new products),
0.
M.I.A.*: Talk. (Present.) Listen. (Interview.)
Sell. (Life = Sales.) Do. (Execution-Implementation.)
Talent. (Recruit-Develop-Retain.) Project
Management. (Create. Solicit support.
Execution. Adoption-Client “Culture Change.”)
Product. (“It.”) Innovation. (Design.
Creativity. “Buzz-building.” Politics.) Leadership.
(USMA, etc.) E.Q. (Connect.) “Culture”
Change. (Lasting impact.) Diversity. (Crosscultural Effectiveness.) Career Creation.
(Brand You life-lifestyle.) Wellness. (Life.)
*B.Schools (“M.I.A.” or at most “B.I.A.”—barely in action)
Progress?
Excellence1982: The Bedrock “Eight Basics”
1. A Bias for Action
2. Close to the Customer
3. Autonomy and Entrepreneurship
4. Productivity Through People
5. Hands On, Value-Driven
6. Stick to the Knitting
7. Simple Form, Lean Staff
8. Simultaneous Loose-Tight
Properties”
Noble Bill
“This is not to denigrate
emphasis on leadership,
entrepreneurship,
management and global
business” —WFS
Source: “Brave New World, Bold New B-School”/Tim Westerbeck/BizEd/08.04
Adversaries
B-schools (crappy at soft skills, implementation, leadership)
Strategy-is-all
By-the-numbers management
Dis-passionate management
Focus groups
Intuition discounted
Leading as an intellectual task
Leading without passion
Cool language in Hot times
Dilbert (accepting cubicle slavery)
Bigness per se (severe scale limitations—even at Microsoft)
White guys! (not really, but enough already)
18-44 emphasis in marketing (geezers > youth for foreseeable future)
-Cost > +Revenue (cost cutting more important than organic revenue
growth)
CI (continuous improvement in an age of discontinuous world)
LESS THAN THE NO-HOLDS-BARRED PURSUIT OF
EXCELLENCE
My (Les’s) Dinner with Henri
JUSTWHATIZZITUMAKE?
My (Les’s) Dinner with Henri
JUST WHAT IS IT
YOU MAKE?
Did one of ’em ever turn to
the other and say: “Wow, I
wonder what unimaginable
new tools, otherwise not
possible, will be brought
forth for my daughter
Alice, age 17, because
of this deal?”
Did one of ’em ever turn to
the other and say: “Wow I
wonder what unimaginable
new tools, otherwise not
possible, will be quickly
brought forth for our
customers because of
this deal?”
“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)
Them-Us
Tom Peters/0624.2006
“Them”
“Us”
Strategy
Planning
Marketing
Markets
Customers
Micro-segmentation
Cost minimization
Synergy/“Efficiencies”
“Strategic supplier
Process
Effectiveness
Men
Leadership
Standardization
Big clients
Prestigious Board
EXECUTION
Action
Selling/Sales
Customers
Clients
Big Stuff (Women, Boomers)
Revenue maximization
Decentralization
Pioneering supplier
Project
Excellence
Women
Management + Leadership
Exceptionalism (53 = 53)
COOL clients
INTERESTING Board
“Them”
Big
Growth by merger
Buy market share
Efficient, streamlined
“department”
Certainty-predictability
Fearful of losing
Plan
Careful evaluation
Revised plan
People/Employees
Effective HR department
Benchmark against the
“best”-“industry leader”
“Us”
Mid-size
Organic growth
Create NEW markets
Value-creating “PSF”
Ambiguity-opportunity
Aggressive pursuit
of winning
Prototype
Another prototype
Another prototype
Talent
Rockin’ Talent
Development Center
of Excellence
Benchmark against the
“coolest”
“Them”
“Us”
Benchmark
Orderly career progression
Head
IQ
“Professional”
Stoic, humble leaders
“Future”mark
“Up or Out” (PDQ)
Heart
EQ
Passionate
Noisy, emotional
“characters” in charge
Hire for intangibles
Relentless, pig-headed
determination
Teamwork and disruptive
individuals equal billing
Lead customers
Intimate-Seamless
customer inter-twining
Hire for Resume
Measured-thoughtful
approach
Teamwork comes first
Listen to customers
Customer “involvement”
“Them”
MBM (Management
by memo)
MBA
Shareholder Value
comes first
Work smart
Built to last
Reward successes
“Us”
MBWA
MFA
Great people-product rule
Work hard
Built to Rock the World
Reward (EXCELLENT)
failures
Design 1T
Innovation 1T
Jaw-dropping Experience
Quality first!
Quality first
High-quality
transaction
CVs demo consistent CVs feature Magic Moments
performance
Good grades
Cool stuff
Operational excellence World-rocking INNOVATION
“Them”
Brand
Best analysis wins
“Beyond politics”
Outsource
“Motivate”
“Motivate”
Measured language
Product-Service
Pastel
Better
“Mission success”
Very good
“Us”
Lovemark
Best STORY wins
Politics-is-life, the
rest is details
Bestsource
Send on QUESTS
Invite
HOT language
Gamechanging SOLUTION,
Thrilling EXPERIENCE,
DREAM come true,
LOVEMARK
Technicolor
Different
“Mission EXCELLENCE”
EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
Porter.
Drucker.
Bennis.
Peters.
Importance of Success Factors by Various
“Gurus”/Biased Estimates by Tom Peters
Strategy Systems Passion Execution
Porter
50%
20
15
15
Drucker
35%
30
15
20
Bennis
25%
20
30
25
Peters
15%
25
25
35
Importance of Success Factors by Various
“Gurus”/(Unreliable) Estimates by Tom Peters
Strategy Systems People Passion
Porter
50%
20
20
10
Drucker
25%
35
25
15
Bennis
25%
20
30
25
Peters
15%
20
40
25
good words.
Bad words.
Words that may NOT be
used in my presence:
“Motivate”
“Market”
Words that may NOT be
used in my presence:
“Motivate”
“In the end, management
doesn’t change culture.
Management
invites
the workforce itself to
change the culture.”
—Lou Gerstner
Words that may NOT be
used in my presence:
“Market”
Sell
Sell
Words that may NOT be used in
my presence: “Motivate” …
“Market” … “MBA” … “Plan”
(mostly) … “Worker” … “Job” …
“Task” … “Exceeds
expectations” … “HR” …
“Employee evaluation” … “Man”
(mostly)
… “Shareholder Value”
Words that MAY be used in my presence: “Invite”
… “Sell” (v. “Market”) … “People” (we’d
like to serve) (v. “Market segment”) … “Client” (v.
“Customer”) “OJT/MFA” (v. “MBA”) … “Act”/ “Execute”
(v. “Plan”) … “Talent” (v. “Worker”) …
“Quest”/“Adventure-in-EXCELLENCE” (v. “Job”) …
“Wow Project” (v. “Task”) … “Rockin’ (profit-makin’)
PSF” (v. “Department”) … “Theater” (v. “Office”) …
“Breathtaking Experience” (v. “Transaction” that “Exceeds
expectations”) … “Talent Fanatics Inc” (v. “HR”) …
“Brand You adventure” (v “Career development”)
“Annual Report development session” … (v.
“Employee evaluation”) … “Woman” (v. “Man”) …
(v. “Motivate”)
Words that MAY be used in my presence: …
“Wow!” (v. “Nice”) … “Bloody-minded”
(v. “Committed”) … “Thank you! (v. “____”) …
“Attack”/Innovate (v. “defend”/Entrench)
… “Great stuff. Great people. ‘Do it’
fanatics.” (v. “shareholder value”) …
“EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.”
(v. “Good work”)
(v. “shareholder value”)
Radically Thrilling Language!
“Radically
Thrilling.”
—BMW Z4 (ad)
EXCELLENCE:
MANAGEMENT
VERSUS (??)
LEADERSHIP
LEADERSHIP (Eternal!):
Invigorate a sizeable # of
people to Aspire to Excellence
in pursuit of a Common
(Noble) Goal that revolves
around service-of-exceptionalvalue to Clients
RIGHT
THINGS.
THINGS
RIGHT.
Not!
“Leadership is doing
the right things.
Management is doing
things right.”
—WB et al.
The Twain SHALL Meet!
Leadership: Invite
Associates/Colleagues/Talent to
join a Gaspworthy Adventure in
EXCELLENCE which will provide
matchless Personal and Professional
Growth and be of Dramatically
Different Service
to selected Clients
Management:
Do it!
DRUCKER’S GREAT
CONTRIBUTION: management
per se as a/the principal
determinant of institutional
effectiveness
“Never forget
implementation
boys. In our work it’s
what I call the
‘missing 98
percent’ of the client
puzzle.”
—Al McDonald
“Leadership” v. “Management”
“In [President Bush’s] belief
that America needed to
respond resolutely to the
dangers of terrorism, tyranny
and proliferation, he was mainly
right. His chief failures stem
from incompetent execution.”
—The Economist/05.13.2006
“Execution is
strategy.”
—TP (1983)
“Operations is
policy.”
—Fred Malek (1977)
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
“Why in the
world did
you go to
Siberia?”
The Peters
Principles: Enthusiasm.
Emotion. Excellence. Energy.
Excitement. Service. Growth.
Creativity. Imagination. Vitality.
Joy. Surprise. Independence.
Spirit. Community. Limitless
human potential. Diversity. Profit.
Innovation. Design. Quality.
Entrepreneurialism. Wow.
An emotional,
vital, innovative, joyful, creative,
entrepreneurial endeavor that
elicits maximum concerted
human potential in the
wholehearted service
of others.***
Business* ** (*at its best):
**Excellence. Always.
***Employees, Customers, Suppliers, Communities, Owners, Temporary partners
The
Ultimate
Business:
Creative
Endeavor.
The
Ultimate
Business:
Personal
DevelopmentGrowth
Experience.
The
Ultimate
Business:
Transcendent
Service
Opportunity.
A Comment on Tom Peters in the
Context of the Reagan Revolution …
“Tom Peters and Steve
Jobs did more to make
business cool ‘for the
rest of us’ than any
others.” —Rich Karlgaard, publisher, Forbes
“To me business isn’t about
wearing suits or pleasing
stockholders. It’s about
being true to yourself, your
ideas and focusing on the
essentials.” —Richard Branson
EXCELLENCE.
HTSH.
HTSH: Engage!*
Commit! Engage! Try! Fail! Get up! Try
again! Fail again! Try again! But never,
ever stop moving on! Progress for
humanity is engendered by those who join
and savor the fray by giving one hundred
percent of themselves to their dreams!
Not by those timid souls who remain
glued to the sidelines, stifled by tradition,
and fearful of losing face or giving offense
to the reigning authorities.
Key words: Commit! Engage! Try! Fail! Persist!
*HTST/Hands That Shape Humanity, Tom Peters’ contribution to a Bishop Tutu exhibit
EXCELLENCE.
DEFINED.
Great Companies …
SET
THE
AGENDA.*
* “disturb the sleep of …
(PERIOD.)
AGENDA SETTERS: “Set the Table”/
Pioneers/ Questors/ Adventurers
US Steel … Ford … Toyota … Sears …
GM … ITT … The Gap … Limited …
Wal*Mart … Tesco … P&G … 3M …
Intel … IBM … Apple … Nokia …
Cisco … Dell … MCI … Sun …
Microsoft … Google … Enron …
Schwab … GE … Laker … Southwest
… People Express … Ogilvy … Virgin
… eBay … Amazon … Sony …
Amgen … BMW … CNN … Nike
Built to Last vs Built for Impact
“But what if [former head of strategic planning at Royal
Dutch Shell] Arie De Geus is wrong in suggesting, in The
Living Company, that firms should aspire to live
forever? Greatness is fleeting and, for corporations, it
The ultimate
aim of a business organization, an
artist, an athlete or a stockbroker
may be to explode in a dramatic
frenzy of value creation during a
short space of time, rather than to
live forever.”
will become ever more fleeting.
—Kjell Nordström and Jonas Ridderstråle, Funky Business
“Life is occupied in both perpetuating
itself and in surpassing itself. If all it
does is maintain itself, then living is only
not dying.” —Simone de Beauvoir
“… Longevity has its place, but I’m not
concerned about that now. I just want to
do God’s will, and He’s allowed me to go
up the mountain. And I’ve looked over.
And I have seen the Promised Land.
And I don’t mind. … I may not get there
with you. …” —MLK/Memphis
TP#1*:
Netscape!
*Where would you rather have worked for those 5 years, Netscape
or IBM-HP-Microsoft-Oracle? (Where, 25 years from now, would you
rather to be able to tell someone—e.g., grandchild—that you worked?)
EXCELLENCE.
YOU & ME.
“In Tom’s world, it’s
always better to try a
swan dive and deliver a
colossal belly flop than
to step timidly off the
board while holding
your nose.”
—Fast Company /October2003
“This is the true joy of Life, the
being used for a purpose
recognized by yourself as a
mighty one … the being a force of
Nature instead of a feverish,
selfish little clod of ailments
and grievances complaining that
the world will not devote itself
to making you happy.”
—GB Shaw/Man and Superman
“Life is not a journey to the
grave with the intention of
arriving safely in a pretty and
well-preserved body—but
rather a skid in broadside,
thoroughly used up, totally
worn out, and loudly
proclaiming, ‘Wow, what
a ride!’ ” —anon.
Be-Do
“Work
on me
first.”
—Kerry Patterson,
Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler/Crucial Conversations
“The First step in a
‘dramatic’ ‘organizational
change program’ is
obvious—dramatic personal
change!” —RG
“No leader sets out to be a
leader per se, but rather to
express him- or herself
freely and fully. That is
leaders have no interest in
proving themselves, but an
abiding interest in expressing
themselves.” —Warren Bennis,
On Becoming a Leader
VALUE
ADDED
#1
EXCELLENCE.
REVENUE.
MATTERS.
MOST.
“Analysts … preferred cost cutting, as long as
they could see two or three years of EPS growth. I preached revenue
and the analysts’ eyes would glaze over. Now revenue is ‘in’ because
They
said, ‘Oh my gosh, you
need revenues to grow
earnings over time.’
Well, Duh!”
so many got caught, and earnings went to hell.
—Dick Kovacevich, Wells Fargo
EXCELLENCE.
SELL.
SELL.
SELL.
This is not about …
“customer centrism”
“integrated marketing”
etc.
etc.
etc.
It is about …
… sellin’ a whole lotta stuff and
having customers go bananas
with love to the point that
they tell every damn friend they
have and then start buttonholing
strangers on trains and planes
and busses.
M.I.A.*: Talk. (Present.) Listen. (Interview.)
Sell.
(Life = Sales.)
Do. (Execution-
Talent. (Recruit-Develop-Retain.) Project
Management. (Create. Solicit support. Execution.
Adoption-Client “Culture Change.”) Product. (“It.”)
Innovation. (Design. Creativity. “Buzz-building.” Politics.)
Leadership. (USMA, etc.) E.Q. (Connect.)
“Culture” Change. (Lasting impact.) Diversity.
(Cross-cultural Effectiveness.) Career Creation. (Brand
You life-lifestyle.) Wellness. (Life.)
Implementation.)
*B.Schools (“M.I.A.” or at most “B.I.A.”—barely in action)
“Everyone
lives by selling
something.”
.
– Robert Louis Stevenson
Sell
Sell
C
*Chief
O*
Revenue
Officer
“TAKE THIS QUICK QUIZ: Who manages more
things at once? Who puts more effort into their
appearance? Who usually takes care of the
details? Who finds it easier to meet new
people? Who asks more questions in a
conversation? Who is a better listener? Who
has more interest in communication skills?
Who is more inclined to get involved? Who
encourages harmony and agreement? Who has
better intuition? Who works with a longer ‘to
do’ list? Who enjoys a recap to the day’s
events? Who is better at keeping in touch with
others?”
Source: Selling Is a Woman’s Game: 15 Powerful Reasons Why Women
Can Outsell Men, Nicki Joy & Susan Kane-Benson
TP.27 …
on Selling
(Short) (Personal)
Out-prepare!! (huge time commitment!)
Learn the “culture”
Practice!
Care-Empathy
Listen-Empathetic listening (SC)
“Listen”-Body language
K.I.S.S. (1-page summary. 1 = 1.)
Enthusiasm-ENERGY-“Authenticity”!!
OBVIOUS belief in product
Selling: Solution-Success-Experience-Dream come true-Love-Dramatic Difference
Selling: Better STORY! (“Best story wins”)
Selling: Yourself! (Brand you)
“Obvious” Wow!
No exaggeration!
Spell out commitments!
SIMPLE timeline
Sell “inside”-First! Thorough!
Relationships-“Way down”!!
Time!!!! (E.g., build trust)
Ooze integrity
Introduce to rest of team, esp. “mechanics”
SBWA (5K for 5M)
Remember: Close!
Gotta-make-a-profit (be ready to walk away!)
“Good loss”
Don’t dis competitors!!
Make her-him-target SUCCESSFUL (in a personal way)
C(I)>C(X)
“It’s always
showtime.”
—David D’Alessandro, Career Warfare
GE
(more or less)
:
The Sales122:
122 Ridiculously
Obvious Thoughts
About Selling Stuff
Tom Peters/0402.2006
VALUE
ADDED
#2
EXCELLENCE.
DRAMATIC.
DIFFERENCE.
DOABLE.
EXCELLENCE.
WANTING.
This is not a
“mature
category.”
This is an
“undistinguished
category.”
“The ‘surplus society’ has a surplus of
similar companies, employing similar
people, with similar educational
backgrounds, coming up with similar
ideas, producing similar things, with
similar prices and similar quality.”
Kjell Nordström and Jonas Ridderstråle, Funky Business
Line Extensions:
86 percent of new
products. 62 percent
39
of revenues.
percent of profit.
Source: Blue Ocean Strategy, Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne
“The
Bottleneck Is at
the Top of the Bottle”
“Where are you likely to find people with the least diversity of
experience, the largest investment in the past, and the greatest
reverence for industry dogma:
At the top!”
— Gary Hamel/Harvard Business Review
EXCELLENCE.
DRAMATIC.
DIFFERENCE.
DOABLE.
$415/SqFt/Wal*Mart
$798/SqFt/Whole
Foods
7X. 730A800P.
F12A.*
*’93-’03/10 yr annual return: CB: 29%; WM: 17%;
HD: 16%. Mkt Cap: 48% p.a.
“It’s simple, really,
Tom. Hire for s,
and, above all,
promote for s.”
—Starbucks middle manager/field
“A man
without a
smiling face
must not open
a shop.”
—Chinese Proverb
#1/100
“Best Companies to
Work for”/2005
Wegmans
EXCELLENCE.
#1T.
Donnelly’s
Weatherstrip
Service
Weymouth MA
EXCELLENCE.
#1T.
Cirque
du Soleil!
And the Winner is …
1. Audacity of Vision
2. Innovation/R&D/Design
3. Talent Acquisition &
Development
4. Resultant “Experience”
5. Strategic Alliances
6. Operations
7. Financial Management
8. Overall/Sustaining Excellence
9. “Wow!”
10. Lovemark!
Tattoo Brand: What %
of users would tattoo the
brand name on their body?
Top 10 “Tattoo Brands”*
Harley .… 18.9%
Disney .... 14.8
Coke …. 7.7
Google .... 6.6
Pepsi .... 6.1
Rolex …. 5.6
Nike …. 4.6
Adidas …. 3.1
Absolut …. 2.6
Nintendo …. 1.5
*BRANDsense: Build Powerful Brands through Touch,
Taste, Smell, Sight, and Sound, Martin Lindstrom
Synonyms
Purity
Transcendence
Virtue
Elegance
Majesty
Antonyms
Mediocrity
“A man without a
smiling face must not
open a shop.”
—Chinese Proverb
EXCELLENCE.
NO EXCUSES.
Summary:
WallopWal*Mart16*
*Or: Why it’s so absurdly easy
to beat a GIANT Company
The “Small Guys” Guide: Wallop Wal*Mart16
*Niche-aimed. (Never, ever “all things for all people,” a “miniWal*Mart.)
*Never attack the monsters head
niche business and lukewarm customers.)
on! (Instead steal
*“Dramatically
Different”
(La Difference ... within our
community, our industry regionally, etc … is as obvious as the end
of one’s nose!) (THIS IS WHERE MOST MIDGETS COME UP
SHORT.)
*Compete
on value/experience/intimacy, not
price. (You ain’t gonna beat the behemoths on cost-price in 9.99
out of 10 cases.)
*Emotional bond with Clients,
BIGGIES ON EMOTION/CONNECTION!!)
Vendors. (BEAT THE
“This is an essay about what it takes to create and sell something
remarkable. It is a plea for originality, passion, guts and daring. You can’t
be remarkable by following someone else who’s remarkable. One way to
figure out a theory is to look at what’s working in the real world and
determine what the successes have in common. But what could the Four
Seasons and Motel 6 possibly have in common? Or Neiman-Marcus and
Wal*Mart? Or Nokia (bringing out new hardware every 30 days or so) and
Nintendo (marketing the same Game Boy 14 years in a row)? It’s like trying
The thing that
all these companies have in
common is that they have
nothing in common. They are outliers.
to drive looking in the rearview mirror.
They’re on the fringes. Superfast or superslow. Very exclusive or very
cheap. Extremely big or extremely small. The reason it’s so hard to follow
the leader is this: The leader is the leader precisely because he did
something remarkable. And that remarkable thing is now taken—so it’s no
longer remarkable when you decide to do it.” —Seth Godin, Fast
Company/02.2003
The “Small Guys” Guide: Wallop Wal*Mart16
*Hands-on, emotional leadership. (“We are
a great & cool & intimate & joyful & dramatically
different team working to transform our Clients lives
via Consistently Incredible Experiences!”)
*A community star! (“Sell” local-ness per se.
Sell the hell out of it!)
*An
incredible experience, from the first
to last moment—and then in the followup! (“These guys are cool! They ‘get’ me! They love
me!”)
*DESIGN DRIVEN! (“Design” is a premier
weapon-in-pursuit-of-the sublime for small-ish
enterprises, including the professional services.)
The “Small Guys” Guide: Wallop Wal*Mart16
*Employer of choice. (A very cool, well-paid
place to work/learning and growth experience in at
least the short term … marked by notably progressive
policies.) (THIS IS EMINENTLY DO-ABLE!!)
*Sophisticated
use of information
technology. (Small-“ish” is no excuse for “small
aims”/execution in IS/IT!)
*Web-power! (The Web can make very small very
big … if the product-service is super-cool and one
purposefully masters buzz/viral marketing.)
*Innovative! (Must keep renewing and expanding
and revising and re-imagining “the promise” to
employees, the customer, the community.)
The “Small Guys” Guide: Wallop Wal*Mart16
*Brand-Lovemark* (*Kevin Roberts) Maniacs!
(“Branding” is not just for big folks with big budgets.
And modest size is actually a Big Advantage in
becoming a local-regional-niche “lovemark.”)
*Focus on
How stupid.)
women-as-clients. (Most don’t.
*Excellence! (A small player …
per me … has no right or reason to exist unless they
are in Relentless Pursuit of Excellence. One earns the
right—one damn day and client experience at a time!—
to beat the Big Guys in your chosen niche!)
The Fab Five: What Every Small Biz Needs
Success = DDMMPR/
"D-squared, M-squared, PR” =
DramDiff + Money-Financial
Acumen + Good “Marketing”
Instincts + Stellar People +
Resilience
What I’ve
Learned about
“Small Business”
Tom Peters
26June2006
Passion for PRODUCT.
OBSESSION With Product.
LOVE The Product.
Aim To Be “ONLY ONES WHO DO WHAT WE DO.”
Keep ADDIN’ Stuff.
Invest “UNWISELY” in R&D.
Reside Permanently In The DISCOMFORT Zone.
“Unhealthy” PARANOIA Is A Good Thing.
Add Clients That PUSH-PULL.
SELL. SELL. SELL. SELL.
Go For Broke: CUSTOMER CONTACT PEOPLE.
PERFECTION: Customer Contact People.
Hire for ATTITUDE.
INVITE On An Adventure.
GREAT CFO/Biz Guy-Gal.
NASTY CFO/Biz Guy-Gal.
QUADRANGULAR LEADERSHIP: Visionary-Talent
Fanatic-Project Manager-I.P.M. (I.P.M. = Inspired Profit Mechanic)
More @
Moore
GREAT Logo.
DESIGN!
“OVERDO” Marketing Materials.
WOMEN Roar. WOMEN Rule. WOMEN Buy.
Diversity = $$$$$$
Be RELENTLESS. Cut And RUN.
Product Includes-Features the PACKAGING.
Define Your DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE (R.P.O.V.8)
Best STORY Wins.
DRESS For Success.
First Goal: AMUSE Yourself.
Know YOURSELF.
DON’T Do Stuff You Hate.
“Over-invest” In RELATIONSHIPS.
(R.O.I.R.: Return On Investment in Relationships)
SYSTEMATICALLY “Manage” Relationships.
“Work” The SUPPORT PEOPLE In Client Orgs.
BLOG As If Your Life Depended On It.
SOPHISTICATED Use Of Infotech.
RESPONSE To Problems.
Make ’Em PAY.
CLOSE The Sale.
Invest BIGTIME In PR.
Media FRIENDLY.
Live-To-SCHMOOZE.
Fun/Laughter = $$$$
MBWA: Stay In Touch.
“You Must Be The Change You Wish
To See In The World”/GANDHI
5K For 5M.
Your CALENDAR Never Lies.
OUT: Pastels. IN: Technicolor
JUST SAY “NO” TO C.E.O.: CIO/Chief
Innovation Officer. CSO/Chief Sales Officer.
CWO/Chief Wow Officer
EXCELLENCE Is Very Cool.
“MICRO-MANAGE” Your Reputation.
Wear Your Integrity On Your SLEEVE.
KEEP Your Promises.
EXECUTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“A Man Without A Smiling Face
MUST NOT Open His Shop.”
RECOGNITION!
Work HARD, Not Smart.
“Insanely Great.” THE STANDARD.
Tom/2006/Q97-Q100
Study more.
Renew more.
Tailor more.
Offer more.
Listen more.
Market more.
Practice more.
Challenge more.
Socialize more.
Smile more.
Follow-up more.
Plan execution more.
Cost control more.
“A man
without a
smiling face
must not open
a shop.”
—Chinese Proverb
“It’s always
showtime.”
—David D’Alessandro, Career Warfare
Small Giants:
Companies That
Choose To Be
Great Instead Of
Good —by Bo Burlingham
I HEREBY PLEDGE …
When asked, “What are some examples
of companies stepping up to today’s
challenges?” … I will …
NEVER
AGAIN … offer an example of a
Giant Company; instead I’ll refer to
Cirque du Soleil, Donnelly’s Weatherstrip
Service, 3K tanning salons, 10.6M
women-owned businesses (or the
typically female recipients of
micro-lending) …*
*There is more to Biz Life than Giant Cos … LOTS MORE … that “hidden 99%”
VALUE
ADDED
#3
EXCELLENCE.
NEW MARKETS.
ENORMOUS.
OPPORTUNITIES.
“Idiot” is
too kind a
word.
“That’s a very
diverse* team.”
—Patrick Cescau, CEO, Unilever**
*1 of 14 Board of Directors members is a woman
(not an exec); 2 of 7 Exec Team members
are … Indians. (Source: FT/24-25 June.)
**Approximately
85%
of Unilever’s products
are purchased by … women.
“That’s a
VERY
diverse team.”
—Patrick Cescau, CEO, Unilever* **
*1 of 14 Board of Directors members is a woman
(not an exec); 2 of 7 Exec Team members
are … Indians. (Source: FT/24-25 June.)
**Approximately 85% of Unilever’s products
are purchased by … women.
“That’s a
VERY
sick man.”
—Tom Peters
“EXCELLENCE.”
PITIFUL.
????????
Weenie of the
year, 2006 …
????????
EXCELLENCE.
FOUND.
DUH.
“To be a leader in
consumer products,
it’s critical to have
leaders who represent
the population we
serve.”
—Steve Reinemund/PepsiCo
“EXCELLENCE.”
AARGH.
Good Thinking, Guys!
“Kodak Sharpens Digital Focus
On Its Best Customers:
Women”
—Page 1 Headline/WSJ/0705
EXCELLENCE.
OPPORTUNITY.
“Women are
the majority
market”
—Fara Warner/The Power of the Purse
USA/F.Stats: Short ’n (Very) Sweet
>50% of stock ownership, $13T total wealth (2X in 15 years)
>$7T consumer & biz spending (>50% GDP; > Japan GDP);
>80% consumer spdg (Consumer = 70% all spdg)
57% BA degrees (2002); = ed & social strata, no wage gap
60% Internet users; >50% primary users of
electronic equipment
>50% biz trips
WimBiz: Employees > F500; 10M+: 33% all US Biz
Pay from 62% in 1980 to 80% today; equal if education,
social status, etc are equal
60% work; 46M (divorced, widowed, never married)
Source: Fara Warner, The Power of the Purse
The Perfect Answer
Jill and Jack buy
slacks in black…
1. Men and women are different.
2. Very different.
3. VERY, VERY DIFFERENT.
4. Women & Men have a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y
nothing in common.
5. Women buy lotsa stuff.
6. WOMEN BUY A-L-L THE STUFF.
7. Women’s Market = Opportunity No. 1.
8. Men are (STILL) in charge.
9. MEN ARE … TOTALLY, HOPELESSLY
CLUELESS ABOUT WOMEN.
10. Women’s Market = Opportunity No. 1.
“Women don’t buy
They
join them.”
brands.
EVEolution
2.6
vs.
10. Women’s
Market =
Opportunity
No. 1.
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?
Fara Warner
Read.
This.
Book.
Damn it.
Cases!
McDonald’s (“mom-centered” to “majority consumer”; not
via kids)
Home Depot (“Do it [everything!] Herself”)
P&G (more than “house cleaner”)
DeBeers (“right-hand rings”/$4B)
AXA Financial
Kodak (women = “emotional centers of the household”)
Nike (> jock endorsements; new def sports; majority consumer)
Avon
Bratz (young girls want “friends,” not a blond stereotype)
Source: Fara Warner/The Power of the Purse
“To help revive the company’s sales
and profits, McDonald’s shifted its
strategy toward women from one of
‘minority’ consumers who served as
a conduit to the important children’s
market to one in which women are the
majority consumers and the main
drivers behind menu and promotion
innovation.” —Fara Warner, The Power of the Purse
“The left hand rocks the cradle, The
right hand rules the world.” —DeBeers*
(*created new $4B segment in 5 years)
“In those two simple sentences I saw
a view of women I had not seen
before in advertising. Here was a
company that had the guts to talk
openly about what women were still
struggling to understand and
embrace.” —Fara Warner, The Power of the Purse
Faith, Lys, Marti, Fara …
Targeting the New
Professional Woman:
How to Market and Sell to
Today’s 57 Million
Working Women.
—Gerry Myers
EXCELLENCE.
OPPORTUNITY.
EXCELLENCE.
OPPORTUNITY.
Add It Up!
Doing it right (“Men buy things that other
men will buy for women. I buy things that women
want.”—successful jeweler/F)
Greater workforce/global
participation rate (“bigger contributor
to GDP growth than technology, China, India”)
Higher wages (more seniority,
promotions—even if not to CEO)
Women-owned businesses
(answer to the Glass Ceiling)
EXCELLENCE.
OPPORTUNITY.
Just Say No.
18-44
Stupid Fr*&^ing Idiot-Marketers!
“Critics describe evening
news in unflattering
terms— They’re old!
They’re set in their ways!
They won’t buy iPods!””
Source: Advertising Age, 05.08.06
2000-2010 Stats
18-44: -1%
55+: +21%
(55-64: +47% )
44-65: “New
Customer
Majority” *
*45% larger than 18-43; 60% larger by 2010
Source: Ageless Marketing, David Wolfe & Robert Snyder
“The New Customer
Majority is the only adult
market with realistic
prospects for significant
sales growth in dozens of
product lines for thousands
of companies.”
—David Wolfe & Robert Snyder,
Ageless Marketing
“Baby-boomer
Women: The
Sweetest of
Sweet Spots for
Marketers”
—David Wolfe and Robert
Snyder, Ageless Marketing
“WOMAN of the Year: She’s
the most powerful
consumer in America. And
as she starts to turn sixty
this month, the affluent baby
boomer is doing what she’s
always done—redefining
herself.” —Joan Hamilton, Town & Country, JAN06
“Sixty Is
the New
Thirty”
—Cover/AARP/11.03
EXCELLENCE.
OPPORTUNITY.
Women.
Women business owners.
Boomers-Geezers.
Single-adults (Urban)
Fastest growing demographic:
Single-person
Households (>50% in
London, Stockholm, etc)
Source: Richard Scase
% of homes purchased by
single women: 1981, 10%;
2005, 20%
% of homes purchased by
single men: 1981, 10%;
2005, 9%
Source: USA Today/02.15.06
EXCELLENCE.
OPPORTUNITY.
Women.
Women business owners.
Boomers-Geezers.
Single-adults (Urban)
The
Irreducible209
73.
74.
75.
76.
Exercise.
Paint. (Leader. Portraits of Excellence.)
Best story wins.
“You must be the change you wish
to see in the world.”
77. Two “big ones.” Max. (Priorities.)
78. No “I” in Team. (“I” in Win.)
79. “I” in Win. (No “I” in Team.)
Different 1,
Better 0.
80.
(Better = 0.1)
81. Imitation = Mistake. (Learn, from who?)
82. Choose/battle the “right” competitor.
83. Schools. Creativity. Entrepreneurship.
(Not.)
84. MBAs. Creativity. Entrepreneurship.
Leadership. (Not.)
85. Design. Under-rated. Wildly.
(Still.) (Everything.)
VALUE
ADDED
#4
EXCELLENCE.
VALUE ADDED.
UP THE LADDER.
EXCELLENCE I.
SOLVE IT.
And the “M” Stands for … ?
“Systems
Integrator of choice.”/BW
Gerstner’s IBM:
(“Lou, help us turn ‘all this’ into that long-promised ‘revolution.’ ” )
IBM Global Services*
Services Corp.):
$55B
(*Integrated Systems
“By making the Global Delivery Model both legitimate and mainstream,
we have brought the battle to our territory. That is, after all, the purpose
of strategy. We have become the leaders, and incumbents [IBM, Accenture]
are followers, forever playing catch-up. … However, creating a new
business innovation is not enough for rules to be changed. The
innovation must impact clients, competitors, investors, and society. We
have seen all this in spades. Clients have embraced the model and are
demanding it in even greater measure. The acuteness of their
circumstance, coupled with the capability and value of our solution, has
made the choice not a choice. Competitors have been dragged kicking
and screaming to replicate what we do. They face trauma and disruption,
Investors have
grasped that this is not a passing
fancy, but a potential restructuring
of the way the world operates and
how value will be created in the
future.” —Narayana Murthy, chairman’s letter, Infosys Annual
but the game has changed forever.
Report
The
[Only?]
Answer
PSF
(Professional Service Firm “model”/The Organizing Principle)
+
Brand You
(“Distinct” or “Extinct”/The Talent)
+
Wow! Projects
(“Different” vs “Better”/The Work)
“Big Brown’s New Bag: UPS
Traffic
Manager for
Corporate
America”
Aims to Be the
—Headline/BW/2004
“SCS”/Supply Chain
Solutions: 750 locations;
$2.5B; fastest growing
division; 19 acquisitions,
including a bank
Source: Fast Company
MasterCard
Advisors
I. LAN Installation Co.
II. Geek Squad.
(3%)
(30%.)
III. Acquired by BestBuy.
IV. Flagship of BestBuy
Wholesale “Solutions”
Strategy Makeover.
Gamechanging “Solutions”: Bet-the-Company
IBM
UPS
Xerox
MasterCard
GE
BestBuy
Huge: Customer
Satisfaction
versus
Customer
Success
EXCELLENCE.
NECESSITY.
OPPORTUNITY.
“There is no job that
is America’s God-given
right anymore.”
—Carly Fiorina/HP/January2004
“ ‘Disintermediation’ is overrated. Those who fear
disintermediation should in fact be afraid of
irrelevance—disintermediation is just another way
you’ve become
irrelevant to your
customers.”
of saying that …
—John Battelle/Point/Advertising Age/07.05
43,000
Chicago:
HRMAC
“support
function” / “cost
center”/
“overhead”
or …
Are you …
“Rock
Stars of the
Age of
Talent”
Are you the …
“Principal
Engine of
Value Added”
*E.g.: Your R&D budget as robust as the New Products team?
DD$21M
A review of Jack and Suzy Welch’s Winning claims there are but
two key differentiators that set GE “culture” apart from the herd:
First: Separating financial forecasting and performance
measurement. Performance measurement based, as it usually is, on budgeting
leads to an epidemic of gaming the system. GE’s performance measurement is
divorced from budgeting—and instead reflects how you do relative to your past
performance and relative to competitors’ performance; i.e., it’s about how you
actually do in the context of what happened in the real world, not as compared to a
gamed-abstract plan developed last year.
Second: Putting HR on
a par with finance
and marketing.
The
Irreducible209
117. Negotiation. Make all winners.
(Save face.)
118. Grace makes enemies friends.
119. Network.
120.
Invest in relationships.
(Think ROIR. Return On
Investment in Relationships.)
118. Relationship investment. Forethought.
Calendar item. Intensity.
119. Innovation. Easy. (Hang out
with weird.)
120. Weird = Win. (Weird times.)
121. “The bottleneck is at the top
of the bottle.”
122. Good Board = Weird Board.
(At least, surprising.)
123. No contention, no progress.
EXCELLENCE.
NO OPTION.
PSF.
“ ‘Disintermediation’ is overrated. Those who fear
disintermediation should in fact be afraid of
irrelevance—disintermediation is just another way
you’ve become
irrelevant to your
customers.”
of saying that …
—John Battelle/Point/Advertising Age/07.05
Department Head
to …
Managing Partner,
IS [HR, R&D, etc.] Inc.
Answer:
EXCELLENCE.
NO OPTION.
PSF++.
Core Mechanism:
“Game-changing Solutions”
PSF
(Professional Service Firm “model”/The Organizing Principle)
+
Brand You
(“Distinct” or “Extinct”/The Talent)
+
Wow! Projects
(“Different” vs “Better”/The Work)
The “PSF35”:
Thirty-Five
Professional Service Firm
Marks of Excellence
The PSF35: The Work & The Legacy
1.
CRYSTAL CLEAR POINT OF VIEW
(E very Practice Group: “If you can’t explain your position in eight
words or less, you don’t have a position”—Seth Godin)
2. DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE (“We are the only ones who do what
we do”—Jerry Garcia)
3. Stretch Is Routine (“Never bite off less than you can chew”—anon.)
4. Eye-Appetite for Game-changer Projects (Excellence at Assembling
“Best Team”—Fast)
5. “Playful” Clients (Adventurous folks who unfailingly Aim to Change
the World)
6. Small “Uneconomic” Clients with Big Aims
7. Life Is Too Short to Work with Jerks (Fire lousy clients)
8. OBSESSED WITH LEGACY (Practice Group and Individual: “Dent the
Universe”—Steve Jobs)
9. Fire-on-the-spot Anyone Who Says, “Law/Architecture/Consulting/
I-banking/ Accounting/PR/Etc. has become a ‘commodity’ ”
10. Consistent with #9 above … DO NOT SHY AWAY FROM THE
WORD (IDEA) “RADICAL”
?????
Do good (excellent?!)
work
Make a lot of
money
Pointed
Point of
View!
R.POV8*
*Remarkable Point Of View/8 Words or less/“If you can’t state your
position in eight words or less you don’t have a position.”—SG
Are you the …
“Principal
Engine of
Value Added”
*E.g.: Your R&D budget as robust as the New Products team?
The PSF35: The People & The Leadership
18. TALENT FANATICS (“Best-Coolest place to work”) (PERIOD)
19. EYE FOR THE PECULIAR (Hiring: Go beyond “same old,
same old”)
20. Early Opportunities (vs. “Wait your turn”)
21. Up or Out (Based on “Legacy”/Mentoring as much as
“Billings”/“Rainmaking”)
22. Slide the Old Aside/Make Room for Youth (Find oldsters
new roles?)
23. TALENT IS OBSESSED WITH RENEWAL FROM DAY #1 TO
DAY #“R” [R = Retirement]
24. Office/Practice Leaders Evaluated Primarily on
Mentoring-Team Building Skills
25. A “PROPRIETARY” TALENT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS (GE)
26. Team Leadership Skills Valued Early
27. Partner with B.I.W. [Best In World] Outsiders as Needed
and to Infuse Different Views
The PSF35: The Firm & The Brand
28. EAT-SLEEP-BREATHE-OOZE INTEGRITY (“My life is
my message”—Gandhi)
29. Excellence+ in EXECUTION … 100.00% of the Time
(No such thing as a “small sins”/World Series Ring to
the Batboy!)
30. “Drop everything”/“Swarm” to Support a Harried-On
The Verge Team
31. SPEND AS AGGRESSIVELY ON R&D AS A TECH FIRM OR
CIRQUE DU SOLEIL
32. A PROPRIETARY METHODOLOGY (FBR, McKinsey, Chiat Day, IDEO,
old EDS)
33. Web (Technology) Obsession
34. BRAND/“LOVEMARK” MANIACS (Organize Around a Point
of View Worth BROADCASTING: “You must be the
change you wish to see in the world”—Gandhi)
35. PASSION! ENTHUSIASM! (Passion & Enthusiasm have as
much a place at the Head Table in a “PSF” as in a
widgets factory: “You can’t behave in a calm, rational
manner. You’ve got to be out there on the lunatic
fringe”—Jack Welch)
The PSF35: The Firm & The Brand
28. EAT-SLEEP-BREATHE-OOZE
is my message”—Gandhi)
INTEGRITY (“My life
29. Excellence+ in EXECUTION … 100.00% of the Time
30. “Drop everything”/“Swarm” to Support a Harried-On
The Verge Team
31. SPEND
ON R&D LIKE A TECH FIRM.
32. A PROPRIETARY METHODOLOGY (FBR, McKinsey,
Chiat Day, IDEO, old EDS)
33. BRAND
MANIACS (Organize Around a Point of View Worth
BROADCASTING)
34. PASSION!
35.
ENTHUSIASM!
EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
“PSF” Nirvana
Counselor
Trusted Advisor
PSF + BY +
WP + DD +
E = UVA
PSF (Professional
Service Firm) + BY
(Brand You) + WP (WOW
Projects) +
DD (Dramatic Difference)
+ E (Excellence) =
UVA (Unassailable
Value-Added)
Static/Imitative
Integrity.
Quality.
Excellence.
Continuous Improvement.
Superior Service (Exceeds Expectations.)
Completely Satisfactory Transaction.
Smooth Evolution.
Market Share.
Dynamic/Different
Dramatic Difference!
Disruptive!
Insanely Great! (Quality++++)
Life-(Industry-)changing Experience!
Game-changing!
WOW!
Surprise!
Delight!
Breathtaking!
Punctuated Equilibrium!
Market Creation!
Synonyms
Purity
Transcendence
Virtue
Elegance
Majesty
Antonyms
Mediocrity
EXCELLENCE.
UBIQUITOUS.
PSF.
Trapper: <$20
per beaver pelt.
Source: WSJ
WDCP*: $150 to remove
“problem beaver”; $750-
$1,000 for
flood-control
piping … so that beavers can
stay.
* “Wildlife Damage-control Professional”
Source: WSJ
Answer:
Core Mechanism:
“Game-changing Solutions”
PSF
(Professional Service Firm “model”/The Organizing Principle)
+
Brand You
(“Distinct” or “Extinct”/The Talent)
+
Wow! Projects
(“Different” vs “Better”/The Work)
EXCELLENCE.
ATTITUDE.
TRANSFORMATION.
PSF.
Fleet Manager
Rolling Stock Cost
Minimization Officer
vs/or
Chief of Fleet Lifetime
Value Maximization
Strategic Supply-chain Executive
Customer Experience Director
(via drivers)
“Big Brown’s New Bag: UPS
Traffic
Manager for
Corporate
America”
Aims to Be the
—Headline/BW/2004
Cost
(at All Costs*) Minimization
Professional?
Or/to: Full Partner-
“Purchasing Officer” Thrust #1:
Leader in Lifetime
Value-added
Maximization?
(*Lopez: “Arguably ‘Villain #1’ in GM tragedy”/Anon VSE-Spain)
HCare CIO: “Technology
Executive” (workin’ in a hospital)
Full-scale,
Accountable (life or death)
Member-Partner of XYZ
Hospital’s Senior
Or/to:
Healing-Services
Team
(who happens to be a techie)
PSF Transformation: Credit Department/Trek
Was
Is
Credit Dept
Financial Services
Hammer on dealers until
they pay
Make dealers successful so they
CAN pay
AR sold to 3rd party
commercial co.
Trek is the commercial financial
Company
23 employees
12 employees
Oversee peak AR of $70M
Oversee peak AR of $160M
Identify risky dealers
Identify opportunities
Cost Center
Profit Center
No products
Products: Consulting, MC/Visa,
Stored value of gift cards, Gift card
peripherals, Online payments
Source: John Burke/0330.06
“Typically in a mortgage company or financial
services company, ‘risk management’ is an
overhead, not a revenue center. We’ve become
We pay for
ourselves, and we
actually make money for
the company.”
more than that.
—Frank Eichorn, Director of
Credit Risk Data Management Group, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage (Source:
sas.com)
Mantra:
“Eichorn it!”
Core Mechanism:
“Game-changing Solutions”
PSF
(Professional Service Firm “model”/The Organizing Principle)
+
Brand You
(“Distinct” or “Extinct”/The Talent)
+
Wow! Projects
(“Different” vs “Better”/The Work)
Up,
Up,
Up,
Up
the Value-added Ladder.
The Value-added Ladder/Stuff ‘n’ Things
Goods
Raw Materials
The Value-added Ladder/Stuff & Transactions
Services
Goods
Raw Materials
The Value-added Ladder/Opportunity-seeking
Gamechanging
Solutions
Services
Goods
Raw Materials
Answer:
The
[Only?]
Answer
PSF
(Professional Service Firm “model”/The Organizing Principle)
+
Brand You
(“Distinct” or “Extinct”/The Talent)
+
Wow! Projects
(“Different” vs “Better”/The Work)
Wildlife
Damage-control
Professional
Are you the …
“Principal
Engine of
Value Added”
*E.g.: Your R&D budget as robust as the New Products team?
I. LAN Installation Co.
II. Geek Squad.
(3%)
(30%.)
III. Acquired by BestBuy.
IV. Flagship of BestBuy
Wholesale “Solutions”
Strategy Makeover.
EXCELLENCE 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
“Club Med
is more
than just a ‘resort’; it’s a
means of rediscovering
oneself, of inventing an
entirely new ‘me.’ ”
Source: Jean-Marie Dru, Disruption
“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 43-year-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
Up,
Up,
Up,
Up
the Value-added Ladder.
The Value-added Ladder/Memorable Connection
Spellbinding
Experiences
Gamechanging Solutions
Services
Goods
Raw Materials
Warren Goes
Shopping …
Q: “Why did you buy Jordan’s
Furniture?”
A: “Jordan’s is spectacular.
It’s all showmanship.”
Source: Warren Buffet interview/
Boston Sunday Globe/12.05.2004
C
*Chief e
O*
Xperience Officer
Extraction & Goods: Male
dominance
Services & Experiences:
Female dominance
EXCELLENCE III.
DREAM IT.
Furniture vs. Dreams
“We do not sell ‘furniture’ at Domain.
We sell dreams. This is
accomplished by addressing the halfformed 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
DREAM: “A dream is a complete
moment in the life of a client.
Important experiences that tempt
the client to commit substantial
resources. The essence of the
desires of the consumer. The
opportunity to help clients
become what they want to be.”
—Gian Luigi Longinotti-Buitoni
The Marketing of Dreams (Dreamketing)
Dreamketing: Touching the clients’ dreams.
Dreamketing: The art of telling stories
and entertaining.
Dreamketing: Promote the dream,
not the product.
Dreamketing: Build the brand around
the main dream.
Dreamketing: Build the “buzz,” the
“hype,” the “cult.”
Source: Gian Luigi Longinotti-Buitoni
Up,
Up,
Up,
Up
the Value-added Ladder.
The Value-added Ladder/Emotion
Dreams Come True
Spellbinding Experiences
Gamechanging Solutions
Services
Goods
Raw Materials
“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
C
*Chief Dream Merchant
Big Blue
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
“What Isn’t
Matter Is What
Matters”
—section title, Branded Nation: The Marketing of
Megachurch, College Inc., and Museumworld,
James Twitchell
Gas ………….….. $1.75 per gallon
Lipton Iced Tea .. $9.52 per gallon
Ocean Spray …... $10.00
Gatorade ……….. $10.17
Diet Snapple …... $10.32
STP brake fluid .. $33.60
Pepto-Bismol ….. $123.20
Vicks NyQuil …... $178.13
Evian water ……. $21.19 ($50B-$200B)
Source: Branded Nation: The Marketing of Megachurch, College Inc.,
and Museumworld, James Twitchell (2004)
VA “Teaching Moment”
“Andy pointed to
a molding,
about halfway
up the wall …”
EXCELLENCE IV.
LOVE IT.
“Brands
have
run out of
juice. They’re
dead.”
—Kevin Roberts/Saatchi & Saatchi
Kevin Roberts:
Lovemarks!
Tattoo Brand: What %
of users would tattoo the
brand name on their body?
Top 10 “Tattoo Brands”*
Harley .… 18.9%
Disney .... 14.8
Coke …. 7.7
Google .... 6.6
Pepsi .... 6.1
Rolex …. 5.6
Nike …. 4.6
Adidas …. 3.1
Absolut …. 2.6
Nintendo …. 1.5
*BRANDsense: Build Powerful Brands through Touch,
Taste, Smell, Sight, and Sound, Martin Lindstrom
Up,
Up,
Up,
Up
the Value-added Ladder.
Lovemark
Dreams Come True
Spellbinding Experiences
Gamechanging Solutions
Services
Goods
Raw Materials
Lovemark
Dreams Come True
Spellbinding Experiences
Gamechanging Solutions
Services
Goods
Raw Materials
Damn it …
Lovemark:
IBM
UPS
PSF
Logistics “Department”
HR “Department”
C
O*
*Chief Lovemark Officer
Up,
Up,
Up,
Up
the Value-added Ladder.
Lovemark
Dreams Come True
Spellbinding Experiences
Gamechanging Solutions
Services
Goods
Raw Materials
EXCELLENCE.
SOUL I.
THE STORY.
“Storytelling
is the core
of culture.”
—Branded Nation: The Marketing of Megachurch,
College Inc., and Museumworld, James Twitchell
“Leaders don’t just make
products and make decisions.
Leaders make
meaning.”
– John Seely Brown
Best Story Wins!
“A key – perhaps the key – to
leadership is
the effective
communication
of a story.”
—Howard Gardner/Leading Minds:
An Anatomy of Leadership
Market Power =
Story Power
Exercise: Take a complex
financial-marketstrategic analysis you
are preparing to
present—and convert it
into a high-impact,
mountain-moving
number-less story.*
*Shell’s (et al.) “scenario planning”
C
O*
*Chief Storytelling Officer
EXCELLENCE.
SOUL II.
DESIGN.
All Equal Except …
“At Sony we assume that all products
of our competitors have basically the
same technology, price, performance
Design is the only
thing that differentiates
one product from another
in the marketplace.” —Norio Ohga
and features.
“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 the
Design is
the fundamental soul
of a man-made
creation.”
meaning of design.
—Steve Jobs
“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 of all that is good and bad
‘Every
Starbucks store is carefully designed
to enhance the quality of everything
the customers see, touch, hear, smell
or taste,’ writes CEO Howard Schultz.”
about the aesthetic imperative. …
-—Virginia Postrel, The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic
Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture and Consciousness
Westin’s …
Heavenly
Bed
Hypothesis:
“Design”
is the principle
“metaphor” for the
encompassing Valueadded Imperative!
“If you can’t win on
‘cost,’ then you’re
left with ‘cool.’ ”
—Anon./NZ
C
O*
*Chief Design Officer
EXCELLENCE.
SYSTEMS.
DESIGN.
K.I.S.S.
“One bank is currently
claiming to … ‘leverage its global
footprint to provide effective financial
solutions for its customers by providing
a gateway to diverse markets.”
—Charles Handy
“I assume that it is just
saying that it is there to
‘help its customers
wherever they are’.”
—Charles Handy
450/8
"A business unit strategy
should be less than fifty pages
long and should be easy to
understand. Its essence should
be describable in one page ... If
you can't describe your strategy
in twenty minutes, simply and
in plain language, you haven't
got a plan.” —Larry Bossidy
“I wanted GE to operate with
the speed, informality, and open
communication of a corner
store. Corner stores often have
strategy right. With their limited
resources, they have to rely on
laser-like focus on doing one
thing very well.”
—Jack Welch/Fortune/04.05
Lee’s Rule:
Run It off a
Blackberry!
“The art of war does not require
complicated maneuvers; the
simplest are the best, and
common sense is fundamental.
From which one might wonder
how it is generals make
blunders; it is because they try
to be clever.” —Napoleon on Simplicity, from
Napoleon on Project Management by Jerry Manas.
EXCELLENCE.
VALUE ADDED.
NEW LADDER.
NEW LEADER.
C
*Chief e
O*
Xperience Officer
C
*Chief Dream Merchant
C
O*
*Chief Festivals Officer
C
*Chief Portal Impresario
C
O*
*Chief Conversations Officer
C
O*
*Chief Lovemark Officer
C
O*
*Chief Seduction Officer
C
O*
*Chief Storytelling Officer
C
O*
*Chief Design Officer
C
O*
*Chief WOW Officer
C
*Chief
O*
Revenue
Officer
EXCELLENCE.
EVERYWHERE.
Better By Design: A National Strategy
NZ = Design
Excellence
New Zealand
Spain
Portugal
Ireland
Singapore
Taiwan
Philippines
UAE
Chile
(Romania)
“ ‘MADE IN
TAIWAN’: From
Cheap
Manufacturing to
Chic Branding”
—Headline/Advertising Age/06.05
Taiwan, Your
Partner in
InnoValue
Poster/Bucharest/03.06
London circa 1976: “You can’t
build a ‘real economy’ on
services, finance,
advertising, etc.”
London circa 2006: deliberately
aims to be the “capital of
the 21st century”
The
Irreducible209
163. Own up. Quick. ( Denial. Cancer.)
Celebrate. Often.
165. 78 people = 78 approaches. (Each. Unique.)
164.
166. Weed. Ceaselessly. (Prune. Stupid.
Rules. Non-stop.)
167.
Get out of the way.
(You = The problem.)
168. Smile. Sunny. Optimism. (If it kills you.)
169. Flowers. (Cheery workplace.)
170. Enjoy. (Or get the hell.)
171.
Be intolerant of “sour.”
(1 = Major pollution)
172. No “quick trigger” on promotion.
(Too important.)
173. Evaluation = Lots of study-time.
174. Evaluation = “Life or death” to evaluee.
175. “360” evaluation. No fad.
176.
Exit when you’re done. (Done.
Sooner than you think.)
VALUE
ADDED
#5
EXCELLENCE.
BEDROCK.
INNOVATION
EXCELLENCE.
INNOVATE.
OR. DIE.
What “We” Know “For Sure” About Innovation
Big mergers [by & large] don’t work
Scale is over-rated
Strategic planning is the last refuge of scoundrels
Focus groups are counter-productive
“Built to last” is a chimera (stupid)
Success kills
“Forgetting” is impossible
Re-imagine is a charming idea
“Orderly innovation process” is an oxymoronic phrase
(= Believed only by morons with ox-like brains)
“Tipping points” are easy to identify …
long after they will do you any good
“Facts” aren’t
All information making it to the top is filtered
to the point of danger and hilarity
“Success stories” are the illusions of egomaniacs (and “gurus”)
If you believe the memoirs of CEOs you should be institutionalized
“Herd behavior” (XYZ is “hot”) is ubiquitous
… and amusing
“Top teams” are “Dittoheads”
CEOs have little effect on performance
“Expert” prediction is rarely better than rolling the dice
“A focus on cost-cutting and efficiency has
helped many organizations weather the
downturn, but this approach will ultimately
Only the
constant pursuit of
innovation can ensure
long-term success.”
render them obsolete.
—Daniel Muzyka, Dean, Sauder School of Business,
Univ of British Columbia (FT/09.17.04)
“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
“Forbes100” from 1917 to 1987: 39
members of the Class of ’17 were
alive in ’87; 18 in ’87 F100; 18 F100
“survivors” underperformed the
market by 20%; just 2 (2%), GE &
Kodak, outperformed the market
1917 to 1987.
S&P 500 from 1957 to 1997: 74 members of the Class of ’57
were alive in ’97; 12 (2.4%) of 500 outperformed the market from
1957 to 1997.
Source: Dick Foster & Sarah Kaplan, Creative Destruction:
Why Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the Market
Sluggish + Obese +
Unimaginative + More
Sluggish + More Obese +
More Unimaginative + Even
More Sluggish + Even More
Obese + Even More
Unimaginative = Nissan +
Renault + GM = Innovative
Challenger for Toyota????
??????????????
Crappy Management (GM) +
Arrogant-Overstretched
Management (Carlos G) =
Great Management
GM25/50-75:
“Built to
last”????
Rate of Leaving F500
1970-1990:
Source: The Company, John Micklethwait & Adrian Wooldridge
(1974-200: One-half biggest 100 disappear)
Exit, Stage Right …
CEO “departure” rate, 1995-2004:
+300%
Source: Booz Allen Hamilton (per USA Today/06.13.05)
“I don’t believe in economies of
You don’t get
better by being
bigger. You get
worse.”
scale.
—Dick Kovacevich/Wells
Fargo/Forbes/08.04 (ROA: Wells, 1.7%; Citi, 1.5%; BofA, 1.3%;
J.P. Morgan Chase, 0.9%)
Last week’s “Invincibles”:
Dell
Microsoft
Big Pharma
Scale?
“Microsoft’s Struggle With
Scale”
—Headline, FT, 09.2005
“Troubling
Exits at Microsoft”
—Cover Story, BW, 09.2005
“Too Big to Move Fast?”
—Headline, BW, 09.2005
“TOO BIG TO
GROW: Why Wall
Street has soured on
many of corporate
America’s most admired
and feared companies”
—headline, Newsweek, 0313.06
“When asked to name just one big merger
that had lived up to expectations, Leon
Cooperman, former cochairman of
Goldman Sachs’ Investment Policy
I’m sure
there are success
stories out there, but at
this moment I draw a
blank.”
Committee, answered:
—Mark Sirower, The Synergy Trap
“Almost every personal friend I have in the world
works on Wall Street. You can buy and sell the
same company six times and everybody makes
but I’m not sure
we’re actually
innovating. … Our challenge is to
money,
take nanotechnology into the future, to do
personalized medicine …” —Jeff Immelt/2005
New Economy?!
Genentech09,
Amgen09
> Merck09
(70K-3/394B-5)
Wal*Mart + Home
Depot + Walt Disney +
Intel + Microsoft +
Pfizer = Flat
Source: “Blue Chip Blues”, Cover, BW, 0417.06
More than $$$$
#1 R&D
spending,
last 25 years?
GM
Line Extensions:
86 percent of new
products. 62 percent
39
of revenues.
percent of profit.
Source: Blue Ocean Strategy, Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne
Bacteria.
Productivity of small.
Failure rate of Big Mergers.
Failure rate of Big Companies.
Terrorists.
Galbraith vs Hayek.
(“Left tail” limits.)
Productivity Pandemic
IMAOA: Institute of
Modest Advances
in (Many, Many)
Ordinary Activities
“While many people big oil finds
with big companies, over the years
about 80 percent of the oil
found in the United States has been
brought in by wildcatters such
as Mr Findley, says Larry Nation,
spokesman for the American
Association of Petroleum
Geologists.” —WSJ, “Wildcat Producer Sparks Oil
Boom in Montana,” 0405.2006
Market Share, Anyone?
— 240 industries: Marketshare leader is ROA leader
29% of the time
— Profit /ROA leaders:
“aggressively weed
out customers who
generate low returns”
Source: Donald V. Potter, Wall Street Journal
I HEREBY PLEDGE …
When asked, “What are some examples
of companies stepping up to today’s
challenges?” … I will …
NEVER
AGAIN … offer an example of a
Giant Company; instead I’ll refer to
Cirque du Soleil, Donnelly’s Weatherstrip
Service, 3K tanning salons, 10.6M
women-owned businesses (or the
typically female recipients of
micro-lending) …*
*There is more to Biz Life than Giant Cos … LOTS MORE … that “hidden 99%”
EXCELLENCE.
INNOVATION.
THE REAL STORY.
World Innovation Forum
EVERYTHING YOU
THOUGHT YOU KNEW
ABOUT INNOVATION IS
WRONG
Tom Peters/New York/0524.2006/
Inno.new.LIST.0527
What “We” Know “For Sure” About Innovation
Big mergers [by & large] don’t work
Scale is over-rated
Strategic planning is the last refuge of scoundrels
Focus groups are counter-productive
“Built to last” is a chimera (stupid)
Success kills
“Forgetting” is impossible
Re-imagine is a charming idea
“Orderly innovation process” is an oxymoronic phrase
(= Believed only by morons with ox-like brains)
“Tipping points” are easy to identify …
long after they will do you any good
“Facts” aren’t
All information making it to the top is filtered
to the point of danger and hilarity
“Success stories” are the illusions of egomaniacs (and “gurus”)
If you believe the memoirs of CEOs you should be institutionalized
“Herd behavior” (XYZ is “hot”) is ubiquitous
… and amusing
“Top teams” are “Dittoheads”
CEOs have little effect on performance
“Expert” prediction is rarely better than rolling the dice
Blitzkrieg?
Case: Perceived
Rommel invents Blitzkrieg.
Krauts kick the crap out of the
Frogs in two weeks.
Q.E.D.
Case: Lesson Learned
Planned innovation is
possible, is cool, is effective.
Write it up. Publish.
Case: Reality
Germans cross Meuse into France.
Whoops: French intelligence completely drops
the ball. (Loses track of the Germans—no kidding.)
Germans keep advancing; outrun supply lines;
no land-air co-ordination.
Hitler orders advance stopped.
General never gets the word.
General marches to Paris, virtually unopposed.
Germans shocked.
After the fact, Germans label it “Blitzkrieg.”
Case: Lessons Learned
Do something.
Get lucky.
Attribute luck to superior planning.
Get medals.
Smashing Conventional Wisdom
“Blitzkrieg in fact emerged in a rather haphazard way
from the experience of the French campaign, whose
success surprised the Germans as much as the
French. Why otherwise did the High Command try on
various occasions, with Hitler’s backing, to slow the
panzers down? The victory in France* came about
partly because the German High Command
temporarily lost control of the battle. The decisive
moment in this process was Guderian’s decision to
move immediately westward on 14 May, the day after
the Meuse crossing, wrenching the whole of the rest
of the army along behind him.”
*messed up traffic, little close air support, random heroics by
some small bits of Guderian’s forces, Guderian not a disciple of
the WWI-derived “strategy of indirect approach”
Source: Julian Jackson, The Fall of France
Happy 50!
26April2006
Malcom McLean
Containerization
Lessons
Need-driven
A thousand “parents”
Messy
Evolutionary
“Trivial”
Experimentation
trial &
ERROR
Loooong time for systemic adaptation/s
(many innovations) (bill of lading, standard time)
Not …
“Plan-driven”
The product of “Strategic Thinking/Planning”
The product of “focus groups”
“Consultants have drained a
good deal of the life
from our democracy.
Specialists in caution,
they fear anything they
haven’t tested.”
—Joe Klein, Politics Lost
Get mad. Do
something
about it. Now.
Ubiquitous
“Politics”
“A man of great mediocrity.” —General George Patton
about General Omar Bradley …… “A third-rate general. He
never did anything or won any battle that any other
general could not have won as well or better.” —General
Omar Bradley about Sir Bernard Montgomery …… “If you
want to end the war in any reasonable time, you will have
to remove Ike’s hand from the control of the land battle.”
—Sir Bernard Montgomery about General Dwight
Eisenhower …… “One thing that might help win this war is
to get someone to shoot King.” —General Dwight
Eisenhower about Admiral Ernest King …… “Eisenhower,
though supposed to be running the land war, is on the
golf links at Rhiems—entirely detached and taking
practically no part in running the war.” —Sir Alan Brooke
…… “If the unhelpful British attitude continues, then I
shall go home.” —General Dwight Eisenhower
Source: David Irving, The War Between the Generals: Inside the Allied High Command
Utterback
“A pattern emphasized in the case
studies in this book is the degree to
which powerful competitors not only
resist innovative threats, but actually
resist all efforts to understand them,
preferring to further their positions in
older products. This results in a surge
of productivity and performance that
may take the old technology to
unheard of heights. But in most cases
this is a sign of impending death.”
—Jim Utterback, Mastering the Dynamics of
Innovation
Forget>“Learn”
“The problem is never
how to get new,
innovative thoughts into
but how to
get the old ones
out.”
your mind,
—Dee Hock
“Good management was the
most powerful reason [leading
firms] failed to stay atop their
industries. Precisely because these firms
listened to their customers, invested aggressively in
technologies that would provide their customers
more and better products of the sort they wanted,
and because they carefully studied market trends
and systematically allocated investment capital to
innovations that promised the best returns, they lost
their positions of leadership.”
—Clayton Christensen, The Innovator’s Dilemma
“Chivalry is dead. The new code of conduct is
an active strategy of disrupting the status quo
to create an unsustainable series of competitive
advantages. This is not an age of defensive
castles, moats and armor. It is rather an age of
cunning, speed and surprise. It may be hard for
some to hang up the chain mail of ‘sustainable
advantage’ after so many battles. But
hypercompetition, a state in which sustainable
advantages are no longer possible, is now the
only level of competition.” —Rich D’Aveni,
Hypercompetition: Managing the Dynamics of Strategic Maneuvering
“Acquisitions are about
buying market share. Our
challenge is to
create markets.
There is a big difference.”
—Peter Job, CEO, Reuters
Wendell Phillips, abolitionist:
“Republics exist only on the
tenure of being constantly
agitated. There is no
republican road to safety
but in constant distrust.”
Source: Louis Menand, The Metaphysical Club:
A Story of Ideas in America
“Fail .
Forward.
Fast.”
High Tech CEO, Pennsylvania
First-level
Scientific
Success:
Beyond Brains
First-level Scientific Success
The smartest guy
in the room wins”
Or …
First-level Scientific Success
Fanaticism
Persistence-Dogged Tenacity
Patience (long haul/decades)-Impatience (in a hurry/”do it yesterday”)
Passion
Energy
Relentlessness (Grant-ian)
Enthusiasm
Driven (nuts!)
(Brutal?) Competitiveness
Entrepreneurial
Pragmatic (R.F!A.)
Scrounge (“gets” the logistics-infrastructure bit)
Master of Politics (internal-external)
Tactical Genius
Pursuit of (Oceanic) Excellence!
High EQ/Skillful in Attracting + Keeping Talent/Magnetic
Prolific (“ground up more pig brains”)
Egocentric
Sense of History-Destiny
Futuristic-In the Moment
Mono-dimensional (“Work-life balance”? Ha!)
Exceptionally Intelligent
Exceptionally Clever (methodological shortcuts/methodological genius)
Luck
First-level Scientific Success/Short Form
Scientific Success
(Nobel-level) = Genius +
Execution + Master of
Soft Skills + Enthusiasm
+ Magnetism + Destiny
(sense of) + Energy
Biz Bonanza
Success = DDMMSTERL/
"D-squared, M-squared, STERL” =
DramaticDifference + “Business”
Acumen/Money + Good “Marketing”
Instinct/“Ice-to-Eskimos” Sales Skills
+ Stellar Talent + Aim for Excellence
+ Resilience/Tenacity/Adaptability +
Luck (The “Necessary Nine”: What Every Small Biz
Requires to Excel.) (Big, too.)
“A man of great mediocrity.” —General George Patton
about General Omar Bradley …… “A third-rate general. He
never did anything or won any battle that any other
general could not have won as well or better.” —General
Omar Bradley about Sir Bernard Montgomery …… “If you
want to end the war in any reasonable time, you will have
to remove Ike’s hand from the control of the land battle.”
—Sir Bernard Montgomery about General Dwight
Eisenhower …… “One thing that might help win this war is
to get someone to shoot King.” —General Dwight
Eisenhower about Admiral Ernest King …… “Eisenhower,
though supposed to be running the land war, is on the
golf links at Rhiems—entirely detached and taking
practically no part in running the war.” —Sir Alan Brooke
…… “If the unhelpful British attitude continues, then I
shall go home.” —General Dwight Eisenhower
Source: David Irving, The War Between the Generals: Inside the Allied High Command
Inno64:
Innovation
Strategies
& Tactics
Parallel universe /Exec Ed v res MBA
End run regnant powers/JKC
Find done deals-practicing mavericks/Stone-ReGo
Bell curves2016 in 2006
Non-industry benchmarking
Everything = Portfolio
V.C.s all!
Hot language/Wow-Astonish me-Insanely greatimmortal-Make something great
Lead customers/PW-Embraer
Lead suppliers /Top decile R&D
Weird alliances
Mottos/Paul Arden (“Whatever You Think Think the
Opposite”)
Hire freaks/Enough weird people?
Weird Boards!!!
CEO track record of Innovation (nobody starts
at 45!)
System/GE-Immelt
“Strategic thrust overlay”
Calendar
Big Delta easier than Small
MBWA with freaks-weirdos/JKC
MBWA/Boonies’ labs
V.C.-formal/Intel
Acquire weird
Children’s crusade
Old farts crusade
Go Global at any size
Stop listening to customers
Talent!/Unusual sources-Hire innovators-V.C.s
Eschew giant mergers
Remember: scale economies max out early
Assisted suicide! (“Built to last” = Chimerasnare-delusion)
Burn your press clippings
“Forgetting” “strategy”
Fire all strategic planners
Tempo!
Final product bears little relation to starting
notion
Design! Design! Design! (“culture,” not
program)
All innovation: Pissed-off people
Gut feel rules!
Focus groups suck
Weird focus groups okay
Be-Do philosophy
Celebrations
Culture-little as well as big Inno (“everyonean-innovator”)
Life = Wow Projects
Acknowledge messiness-pursue serendipity
(Blitzkrieg-Containers-Science-Jim
Utterback)
R.F.A.
Culture of execution
4/40: decentralization, execution,
accountability, 615AM
EVP (S.O.U.B.)/Systems-process “un-design”
Diversity for diversity’s sake
Women-Women-Women/customers (they
“are the market,” not a “segment”)-leaders
Boomers-Geezers (“all the money”)
CRO (Chief Revenue Officer) “culture”/topline obsessed
CIO (Chief INNOVATION Officer)
Laughter
Facility-space configuration
Experiments-prototypes
“Reward excellent failures. Punish mediocre
successes.”
Bizarrely high incentives (& penalties)
We are what we eat/We are who we hang out
with (E.g.: Staff-Consultants-Vendors-Out-sourcing
Partners/#, Quality-Innovation Alliance PartnersCustomers-Competitors/who we “benchmark” against
-Strategic Initiatives -Product Portfolio/LineEx v. LeapIS/IT Projects-HQ Location-Lunch Mates-LanguageBoard)
What “We” Know “For Sure” About Innovation
Big mergers [by & large] don’t work
Scale is over-rated
Strategic planning is the last refuge of scoundrels
Focus groups are counter-productive
“Built to last” is a chimera (stupid)
Success kills
“Forgetting” is impossible
Re-imagine is a charming idea
“Orderly innovation process” is an oxymoronic phrase
(= Believed only by morons with ox-like brains)
“Tipping points” are easy to identify …
long after they will do you any good
“Facts” aren’t
All information making it to the top is filtered
to the point of danger and hilarity
“Success stories” are the illusions of egomaniacs (and “gurus”)
If you believe the memoirs of CEOs you should be institutionalized
“Herd behavior” (XYZ is “hot”) is ubiquitous
… and amusing
“Top teams” are “Dittoheads”
CEOs have little effect on performance
“Expert” prediction is rarely better than rolling the dice
InnoTacs
We become
who we hang
out with!
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
Kodak …. Fuji
GM …. Ford
Ford …. GM
IBM …. Siemens, Fujitsu
Sears … Kmart
Xerox …. Kodak, IBM
futuremark
“Don’t
benchmark,
futuremark!”
Impetus: “The future is already here; it’s just
not evenly distributed” —William Gibson
Find ’em!
“Somewhere in your
organization, groups of
people are already doing
things differently and better.
To create lasting change, find
these areas of positive
deviance and fan the flames.”
—Richard Pascale & Jerry Sternin,
“Your Company’s Secret Change Agents,” HBR
“Some people look for
things that went wrong
and try to fix them. I look
for things that went
right, and try to build off
them.”
—Bob Stone (Mr ReGo)
Parallel
universe!
“Venture”
fund: Gerstner/Amex,
Dow/Marriott, Grove/Intel,
Bedbury/Starbucks
“SkunkWorks”/ “ParallelUniverse”
“the
solution”
Source: Scott Bedbury (Others: 3M, Google, Shell, NAVFAC)
“End Run”: E.g. JKC
@ Smith; Continuing Ed in
B.Schools
HEART OF
STRATEGY
“Under his former boss, Jack Welch, the skills GE prized
above all others were cost-cutting, efficiency and dealmaking. What mattered was the continual improvement
of operations, and that mindset helped the $152 billion
industrial and finance behemoth become a marvel of
earnings consistency. Immelt hasn’t turned his back on
But in his GE, the
new imperatives are risktaking, sophisticated
marketing and, above all,
innovation.”
the old ways.
—BW/2005
Immelt on “Innovation
breakthroughs”: Pull out and
fund ideas in each business
that will generate >$100M in
revenue; find best people to
lead (80 throughout GE)
Source: Fast Company/07.05
Conscious
measurement
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?
“Please represent your plan
from last year—
exact same
PowerPoint.” (LG)
Clarity
1@T
JackWorld/
: (1) Neutron
Jack. (Banish bureaucracy.) (2) “1, 2 or out”
Jack. (Lead or leave.) (3) “Workout”
Jack. (Empowerment, GE style.) (4) 6-Sigma
Jack. (5) Internet Jack.
(1-5/Throughout) TALENT JACK!
ACTION
“culture”
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”
“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 No. 5. By the time our rivals are ready
with wires and screws, we are on version
It gets back to planning
versus acting: We act from day
one; others plan how to plan—
for months.” —Bloomberg by Bloomberg
No. 10.
“[Immelt] is now identifying
technologies with which GE
systematically
set out to build
entirely new
industries”
will …
—Strategy+Business, Fall 2005
“You miss 100
percent of the
shots you never
take.”
—Wayne Gretzky
“This is so simple it sounds stupid, but it is amazing
you
only find oil if you
drill wells.
how few oil people really understand that
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
Importance of Success Factors by Various “Gurus”/
Estimates (Unreliable) by Tom Peters
Strategy
Systems
Passion/
Execution
Leadership
Porter
45%
20
20
15
Drucker
35%
30
15
20
Bennis
20%
20
35
25
Peters
15%
20
30
35
tolerate
[encourage?]
failure
“FAIL, FAIL
AGAIN. FAIL
BETTER.”
—Samuel Beckett
“Reward excellent
failures. Punish
mediocre
successes.”
Phil Daniels, Sydney exec
Read This!
Richard Farson & Ralph Keyes:
Whoever Makes
the Most Mistakes
Wins: The Paradox
of Innovation
VALUE
ADDED
#6
EXCELLENCE.
INNOVATION.
REVOLUTION.
ORGANIZATION.
“ORGANIZATION” =
STRATEGY: THE
GUERRILLA
ADVANTAGE
Tom Peters/04August2006
“New Era of War, and U.S. Isn’t
Ready Conflicts of Future:
Nations vs. Networks” —Headline/p1/
International Herald Tribune /31.07.2006
Opening: “Pound
for pound and pounding, the Israeli
military is one of the world’s finest. But Hezbollah, with
the discipline and ferocity of its fighters and its ability to
field advanced weaponry, has taken Israel by surprise.
Now that surprise has rocketed back to Washington and
across the U.S. military.”
“We are into the first great war between nations and
networks. This proves the growing strength of networks
as a threat to American national security.” —John Arguilla,
USNPGS, from “Net Warfare 101”
Small units … agile … lethal
… invisible … guerrilla …
network warfare …
distributed … dispersed …
mobile .. Flat [hierarchy] …
improvisational … etc.
“ORGANIZATION” = STRATEGY: THE GUERILLA
ADVANTAGE: Agile. (Sluggish.) Wily. (Big footprint.) Always
moving. (Seldom moving.) Brownian motion per se bewilders the
enemy. (Blind despite NewTech.) Momentum comes from small
wins. (Small wins invisible, too small scale to execute.) Goal is
converts, not territory. (Protect territory.) Offense. (Defense.)
Travel light; very high “tooth to tail” ratio. (Travel heavy, low “tooth
to tail.) Live off the land. (Tortuous supply chain.)
UNPREDICTABLE; BEHAVIOR NEARLY RANDOM. (VERY
PREDICTABLE; LONG PLANNING CYCLE; OBSERVABLE
FOOTPRINT.) Dug in but not dug in. (Dug in but vulnerable.) No
HQ; floating HQ. (Big HQ at home and away.) Few fixed assets.
(Mostly fixed assets.) Scroungers mentality. (Methodical & complex.)
Mobile communications. (Fixed communications.) Everything,
including people, disposable. (Tight “asset management,” materials &
humans.) No fortress to guard. (Big fortresses which must be
guarded.) Replaceable leaders. (Formal, rule-based hierarchy.) Selfhealing network, like Internet. (Network far more fixed.) Hackers
mentality. (Planner’s mentality.) DECENTRALIZED. (CENTRALIZED.)
KIAs are celebrated. (KIAs are the ultimate loss.) Natural
reorganizations following cell division model. (Methodical, highfriction change.) Few formal layers. (Lotsa formal layers.) Few
rules. (Lotsa rules.)
“ORGANIZATION” = STRATEGY: THE GUERILLA
ADVANTAGE: Management By Vision. (Management by law-rule
books.) Miniaturized but deadly weapons. (Fixed weapons.) Invent
your own arsenal. (Gazillion-year weapons acquisition cycle.)
Multiplier impact by spreading confusion. (Need set-piece victories to
satisfy constituents.) Passion. (Supportive at the level of car decals.)
Little value on current rules. (Value of life paramount.) Ad hoc; RFA
or FFF. (R.A.F. / Ready. Aim. Aim. Aim. Fire.)
SIMPLE PHILOSOPHY
THAT BINDS, FLEXIBLE ORG, FLEXIBLE OPS. (COMPLEX
PHILOSOPHY, INFLEXIBLE ORG, INFLEXIBLE OPS.) Different
time frame; a 1,000 year conflict. (Need to show progress daily.)
Attract youth with more energy and zeal than good sense. (Mature
and inflexible and cautious and methodical.) Minimum need to spin;
as easy to spin a loss as a win. (Battle plans designed & distorted &
diluted to produce spin per se.) Ad hoc. (Due process.) “Media” looks
for wins; media values small wins. (Media fixated by SNAFUs; small
wins beneath the radar.) Win when enemy over-reacts. (Lose if overreact.) Ubiquitous webs. (Ubiquitous bureaucracy.) Recruit,
support, impact follows Virus Model; recruit via Buzz. (All is
formal.) Value of conventional scale declining exponentially. (Still
citizens of a “big is beautiful” age.) Virtually no way to lose; a loss is
a win as much or more than a win is a win. (Virtually no way to win; a
win is often a loss as much as a loss is a loss.)
“It is not the strongest
of the species that
survives, nor the most
intelligent, but the
one most responsive
to change.”
—Charles Darwin
“Active mutators in placid
times tend to die off. They
are selected against.
Reluctant mutators in
quickly changing times are
also selected against.”
—Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan,
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
“The most
successful people
are those who
are good at plan B.”
—James Yorke, mathematician, on chaos
theory in The New Scientist
“If things seem
under control,
you’re just
not going fast
enough.”
—Mario Andretti
Ready.
Fire.
Aim.
Ross Perot
“Crazy Times Call
for Crazy
Organizations”
—Subtitle, The Tom Peters Seminar (1993)
Inflexibility and mass
are favored in static
times. Flexible and
ephemeral are favored
in chaotic times.
Stephen Jay Gould:
Bacteria rule!
Sizeable cases
are virtually
irrelevant
anomalies.
[e.g. humans]
“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
“Forbes100” from 1917 to 1987:
39 members
of the Class of ’17 were alive in ’87;
18 in ’87 F100; 18 F100 “survivors”
underperformed the market by 20%;
just 2 (2%), GE & Kodak,
outperformed the market between
1917 and 1987.
S&P 500 from 1957 to 1997: 74 members of the Class of ’57 were
alive in ’97; 12 (2.4%) of 500 outperformed the market from 1957 to
1997.
Source: Dick Foster & Sarah Kaplan, Creative Destruction:
Why Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the Market
Sluggish + Obese +
Unimaginative + More
Sluggish + More Obese +
More Unimaginative + Even
More Sluggish + Even More
Obese + Even More
Unimaginative = Nissan +
Renault + GM = Innovative
Challenger for Toyota????
??????????????
Crappy Management (GM) +
Arrogant-Overstretched
Management (Carlos G) =
Great Management
What “We” Know “For Sure” About Innovation
Big mergers [by & large] don’t work
Scale is over-rated
Strategic planning is the last refuge of scoundrels
Focus groups are counter-productive
“Built to last” is a chimera (stupid)
Success kills
“Forgetting” is impossible
Re-imagine is a charming idea
“Orderly innovation process” is an oxymoronic phrase
(= Believed only by morons with ox-like brains)
“Tipping points” are easy to identify …
long after they will do you any good
“Facts” aren’t
All information making it to the top is filtered
to the point of danger and hilarity
“Success stories” are the illusions of egomaniacs (and “gurus”)
If you believe the memoirs of CEOs you should be institutionalized
“Herd behavior” (XYZ is “hot”) is ubiquitous
… and amusing
“Top teams” are “Dittoheads”
CEOs have little effect on performance
“Expert” prediction is rarely better than rolling the dice
Excellence: The SE22:
“Origins of
Sustainable
Entrepreneurship”
SE22/Origins of Sustainable Entrepreneurship
1. Genetically disposed to Innovations that upset apple carts (3M, Apple,
FedEx, Virgin, BMW, Sony, Nike, Schwab, Starbucks, Oracle, Sun,
Fox, Stanford University, MIT)
2. Perpetually determined to outdo oneself, even to
the detriment of today’s $$$ winners (Apple, Cirque du Soleil, Nokia, FedEx)
3. Treat History as the Enemy (GE)
4. Love the Great Leap/Enjoy the Hunt (Apple, Oracle, Intel, Nokia, Sony)
5. Use “Strategic Thrust Overlays” to Attack Monster Problems (Sysco,
GSK, GE, Microsoft)
6. Establish a “Be on the COOL Team” Ethos. (Most PSFs, Microsoft)
7. Encourage Vigorous Dissent/Genetically “Noisy” (Intel, Apple,
Microsoft, CitiGroup, PepsiCo)
8.
“Culturally” as well as
organizationally Decentralized
(GE, J&J, Omnicom)
9. Multi-entrepreneurship/Many Independent-minded Stars (GE, PepsiCo)
HP’s Big “Duh”!
Decentralize ($90B)
Undo “Matrix”
Accountability
Source: “HP Says Goodbye To Drama”/
BW/09.05/re Mark Hurd’s first 5 months
DePuySpine/J&J*
70/3
game-changers!
*Still decentralized after all these years!
“No Need for Economies
of Scale: Illinois Tool Revs
Up Innovation by Keeping
Its 655 Units Separate
and Focused”
Source: Headline, BW, 1031.05 (“commodity” producer;
R&D = 1%; Top 100 patent recipient—66th in ’04) ($12B rev
in ’04; CEO David Speer: focus, lean, customer intimacy,
entrepreneurial, employee participation)
“‘Decentralization’
is not a piece of
paper. It’s not me.
It’s either in your
heart, or not.”
—Brian Joffe/BIDvest
SE22/Origins of Sustainable Entrepreneurship
10. Keep decentralizing—tireless in pursuit of wiping out
Centralizing Tendencies (J&J, Virgin)
11. Scour the world for Ingenious Alliance Partners—
especially exciting start-ups (Pfizer)
12. Acquire for Innovation, not Market Share (Cisco, GE)
13. Don’t overdo “pursuit of synergy” (GE, J&J, Time Warner)
14. Execution/Action Bias: Just do it … don’t obsess on
how it “fits the business model.” (3M, J & J)
15. Find and Encourage and Promote Strong-willed/
Hyper-smart/Independent people (GE, PepsiCo, Microsoft)
16. Support Internal Entrepreneurs (3M, Microsoft)
17. Ferret out Talent anywhere/“No limits” approach to
retaining top talent (Virgin, GE, PepsiCo)
SE22/Origins of Sustainable Entrepreneurship
18. Unmistakable Results & Accountability focus from
the get-go to the grave (GE, New York Yankees, PepsiCo)
19. Up
or Out (GE, McKinsey, big consultancies and law firms
and ad agencies and movie studios in general)
20. Competitive to a fault! (GE, New York Yankees, News
Corp/Fox, PepsiCo)
21. “Bi-polar” Top Team, with “Unglued” Innovator #1,
powerful Control Freak #2 (Oracle, Virgin) (Watch out when
#2 is missing: Enron)
22. Masters of Loose-Tight/Hard-nosed about a very few
Core Values, Open-minded about everything else
(Virgin)
“HOW THE COAST GUARD
GETS IT RIGHT”
—Headline, Time, 10.31.2005
*Autonomy
*Flexibility
*“Perhaps the most important
distinction of the Coast
Guard is that it trusts itself”
VALUE
ADDED
#7
BEDROCK.
EXCELLENCE.
ACTION.
EXCELLENCE.
ACTION.
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”
“Ninety percent of what
we call ‘management’
consists of making it
difficult for people to get
things done.” – Peter Drucker
“too
much talk, too
little do”
TP/BW on BigCo Sin #1:
“Never forget
implementation boys.
In our work it’s what I
call the ‘missing 98
percent’ of the client
puzzle.” —Al McDonald, former Managing Director,
McKinsey & Co, to a project team that included TP
“METABOLIC
MANAGEMENT”
The Leadership11
1. Talent Management
2. Metabolic Management
3. Technology Management
4. Barrier Management
5. Forgetful Management
6. Metaphysical Management
7. Opportunity Management
8. Portfolio Management
9. Failure Management
10. Cause Management
11. Passion Management
“The secret of fast
progress is
inefficiency, fast
and furious and
numerous failures.”
—Kevin Kelly
“Active mutators in placid
times tend to die off. They
are selected against.
Reluctant mutators in
quickly changing times are
also selected against.”
—Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan,
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
“How we feel about the evolving future tells us who we
are as individuals and as a civilization: Do we
search for stasis—a regulated,
engineered world? Or do we embrace
dynamism—a world of constant creation,
discovery and competition? Do we value
stability and control or evolution and learning? Do we
think that progress requires a central blueprint, or do
we see it as a decentralized, evolutionary process?? Do
we see mistakes as permanent disasters, or the
correctable byproducts of experimentation? Do we
crave predictability or relish surprise? These two poles,
stasis and dynamism, increasingly define our political,
intellectual and cultural landscape.”
—Virginia Postrel, The Future and Its Enemies
“If things seem
under control, you’re
just not going fast
enough.”
—Mario Andretti
“The most
successful people
are those who
are good at plan B.”
—James Yorke, mathematician, on chaos theory
in The New Scientist
“I’m not comfortable
unless I’m
uncomfortable.”
—Jay Chiat
“If it works,
it’s obsolete.”
—Marshall McLuhan
Boyd on
TEMPO
“The most
successful people
are those who
are good at plan B.”
—James Yorke, mathematician, on chaos theory
in The New Scientist
He who has the
quickest O.O.D.A.
Loops* wins!
*Observe. Orient. Decide. Act./Col. John
Boyd
OODA Loop/Boyd Cycle
“Unraveling the competition” Quick
Transients/Quick Tempo (NOT JUST
SPEED!) Agility “So quick it is
disconcerting” [adversary over-reacts
or under-reacts] “Winners used
tactics that caused the enemy to
unravel before the fight” (NEVER
HEAD TO HEAD)
BOYD: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed
the Art of War (Robert Coram)
“The stuff has got to
be implicit. If it is
explicit, you can’t do
it fast enough.”
—John Boyd
BOYD: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed
the Art of War (Robert Coram)
Tempo!*
70-10
*Boyd/O.O.D.A. Loops/Mike Leach/Texas Tech
70-10/Nebraska/Unk QB 643 yards K.State/
Linemen spread wide/All legals go out for
pass/Defenders confused & tire (Boyd/Tempo
is not speed/“Re-arrange the mind of the enemy”—T.E.
“By changing the geometry of
the game, and pushing the limits of
space and time on the gridiron, Mike
Leach is taking Texas Tech to some
far out places.” —Michael Lewis (NY Times
Lawrence)/
Magazine, 12.04.05, on Mike Leach/Texas Tech)
“In war, delay is fatal.” —Napoleon
“The only way to whip an army is
to go out and fight it.” —Grant
“ … demonstrating the tactic that
would become his hallmark: the
immediate move to seek out the
enemy and attack him” —John Mosier,
on Grant “A good plan executed right
now is far preferable to a ‘perfect’
plan executed next week.” —Patton
Relentless!*
*Churchill, Grant, Patton, Welch, Bossidy, Nardelli (GE execs),
UPS, FedEx, Microsoft/Gates-Ballmer, Eisner, Weill, eBay, NixonKissinger, Gerstner, Rice, Jordan, Armstrong
VALUE
ADDED
#7A
EXCELLENCE.
4/40.
De-central-iza-tion!
“‘Decentralization’
is not a piece of
paper. It’s not me.
It’s either in your
heart, or not.”
—Brian Joffe/BIDvest
“HOW THE COAST GUARD
GETS IT RIGHT”
—Headline, Time, 10.31.2005
*Autonomy
*Flexibility
*“Perhaps the most important
distinction of the Coast
Guard is that it trusts itself”
Ex-ecu-tion!
“Ninety percent of
what we call
‘management’ consists
of making it difficult for
people to get things
done.”
– Peter Drucker
“too
much talk, too
little do”
TP/BW on BigCo Sin #1:
“We have a
‘strategic
plan.’ It’s
called doing
things.”
— Herb Kelleher
“This is so simple it sounds stupid, but it is amazing
you
only find oil if you
drill wells.
how few oil people really understand that
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
“You only find
oil if you
drill wells.”
Source: The Hunters, by John Masters, Canadian O & G wildcatter
“While many people big oil finds
with big companies, over the years
about 80 percent of the oil
found in the United States has been
brought in by wildcatters such
as Mr Findley, says Larry Nation,
spokesman for the American
Association of Petroleum
Geologists.” —WSJ, “Wildcat Producer Sparks Oil
Boom in Montana,” 0405.2006
A man approached JP Morgan, held up an envelope, and said, “Sir, in
my hand I hold a guaranteed formula for success, which I will gladly
sell you for $25,000.”
“Sir,” JP Morgan replied, “I do not know what is in the envelope,
however if you show me, and I like it, I give you my word as a
gentleman that I will pay you what you ask.”
The man agreed to the terms, and handed over the envelope.
JP Morgan opened it, and extracted a single sheet of paper.
He gave it one look, a mere glance, then handed the piece of paper
back to the gent.
And paid him the
agreed-upon $25,000 …
1. Every morning, write a
list of the things that
need to be done that day.
2.
Do them.
Source: Hugh MacLeod/tompeters.com/NPR
“Never forget
implementation
boys. In our work it’s
what I call the
‘missing 98
percent’ of the client
puzzle.”
—Al McDonald
“Execution is
the job of the
business
leader.”
—Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/
Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
“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
“I saw that leaders placed too much
emphasis on what some call ‘highlevel strategy,’ on intellectualizing
and philosophizing, and not enough
on implementation. People would
agree on a project or initiative—and
then nothing would come of it.”
—Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/
Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
“The person who is a little less conceptual but is
absolutely determined to succeed will usually find the
right people and get them together to achieve
objectives. I’m not knocking education or looking for
But if you have to choose
between someone with a staggering IQ
and an elite education who’s gliding
along, and someone with a lower IQ but
who is absolutely determined to
succeed, you’ll always do better with
the second person.” —Larry Bossidy/
dumb people.
Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
"I think it is very important
for you to do two things:
act on your temporary
conviction as if it was a
real conviction; and when
you realize that you are
wrong, correct course very
quickly.” —Andy Grove
“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 No. 5. By the time our rivals are ready
with wires and screws, we are on version
It gets back to planning
versus acting: We act from day
one; others plan how to plan—
for months.” —Bloomberg by Bloomberg
No. 10.
Ac-counta-bil-ity!
“Realism is
the heart of
execution.”
—Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/Execution:
The Discipline of Getting Things Done
“robust
dialogue”
—Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/ Execution:
The Discipline of Getting Things Done
“GE has set a standard
of candor. … There is no
puffery. … There isn’t an
ounce of denial in the
place.” —Kevin Sharer, CEO Amgen,
on the “GE mystique” (Fortune)
6:15A.M.
????????
Work Hard >
Work Smart
“This [adolescent] incident [of getting from point A to point B] is
notable not only because it underlines Grant’s fearless
horsemanship and his determination, but also it is the first known
example of a very important peculiarity of his character:
Grant had an extreme,
almost phobic dislike of
turning back and retracing
his steps. If he set out for somewhere, he would get
there somehow, whatever the difficulties that lay in his way. This
idiosyncrasy would turn out to be one the factors that made him
such a formidable general. Grant would always, always press on—
turning back was not an option for him.”
—Michael Korda, Ulysses Grant
DECENTRALIZATION.
EXECUTION.
ACCOUTABILITY.
6:15A.M.
VALUE
ADDED
#7B
EXCELLENCE.
ACTION.
ROOTS.
GRANT
NELSON
BOYD
BOSSIDY
GRANT
Grant
from the “seminal” biography by:
Jean Edward Smith
“The only way to
whip an army is
to go out and
fight it.” —Grant
Source: John Mosier, Grant
“A generation of American officers had been schooled to believe the
art of generalship required rigid adherence to certain textbook
theorems.”/151 “The nature of Grant’s greatness has been a riddle
to many observers. … did not hedge his bets … disregarded explicit
instructions … nothing to fall back on … violating every maxim held
dear by the military profession … new dimension: ability to learn
from the battlefield … finished near the bottom of his [West Point]
class in tactics … carried the fight to the enemy … maintain the
momentum of the attack … military greatness is the ability to
recognize and respond to opportunities presented.”/152-3 “Grant
had an aversion to digging in.”/153 “Grant had an intangible
advantage. He knew what he wanted.”/153 “Grant’s seven-mile dash
changed the course of the war.”/157 “The one who attacks first will
be victorious.”/158 “dogged”/159 “unconditional surrender”/162
“simplicity and determination”/166 “quickness of mind that allowed
him to make on the spot adjustments … [his] battles were not
elegant set-piece operations”/166 “[other Union general] preferred
preparation to execution … became a friend of detail … suffered
from ‘the slows’ …”/170 Message to Halleck from McClellan: “Do not
hesitate to arrest him” [following great victory]/172 … “learned how
to withstand attacks from the rear” [Army politics]/179
“He never credited the enemy with the capacity to take the
offensive.”/185 “tenacity [like Wellington]”/187 “I haven’t despaired
of whipping them yet” [at a very low point]/195 “Both sides seemed
defeated and whoever assumed the offensive was sure to win.”/200
… “inchoate bond [between Grant and soldiers]”/201 … “The genius
of Grant’s command style lay in its simplicity. Grant never burdened
his division commanders with excessive detail. … no elaborate staff
conferences, no written orders prescribing deployment. … Grant
recognized the battlefield was in flux. By not specifying movements
in detail, he left his subordinate commanders free to exploit
whatever opportunities developed.”/202 “If anyone other than
Grant had been in command, the Union army certainly would have
retreated.”/204 Lincoln (urged to fire Grant): “I can’t spare this
man; he fights.”/205 “Grant turned defeat into Union victory.”/206
“moved on intuition, which he often could not explain or
justify.”/208 “instinctive recognition that victory lay in relentlessly
hounding a defeated army into surrender.”/213 Nathan Bedford
Forrest, successful Confederate commander: “amenable to no
known rules of procedure, was a law unto himself for all military
acts, and was constantly doing the unexpected at all times
and places.”/213
“The genius of Grant’s command style
lay in its simplicity. Grant never
burdened his division commanders
with excessive detail. … no elaborate
staff conferences, no written orders
prescribing deployment. … Grant
recognized the battlefield was in flux.
By not specifying movements in
detail, he left his subordinate
commanders free to exploit whatever
opportunities developed.”
—Jean Edward Smith/GRANT
“The commanding general would be in the field”/228 Lincoln:
“What I want, and what the people want, is generals who will fight
battles and win victories. Grant has done this and I propose to stand
by him.”/231 “retains his hold upon the affections of his men”/232
“Grant’s moral courage—his willingness to choose a path from
which there could be no return—set him apart from most
commanders … were [Grant and Lee] were uniquely willing to take
full responsibility for their actions.”/233 “ … modest … honest …
nothing could perturb … never faltered …”/233 “plan was
breathtakingly simple but fraught with peril”/235 “demonstrating
the flexibility that had become his hallmark”/238 “But like any West
Point trained general, he had difficulty comprehending what Grant
was up to …”/240 “recognized the value of momentum … throw off
balance … blitzkrieg … traveling light … headquarters in the
saddle”/243 “acted as quartermaster”/243 [rushed away so that he
couldn’t receive Halleck’s order] … “like Lord Nelson … telescope to
his blind eye” … “pressing ahead on his own”/245 “focus on the
enemy’s weakness rather than his own”/250
“recognized the value of
momentum … throw
[opponent] off balance …
blitzkrieg … traveling light
… headquarters in the
saddle” —Jean Edward Smith/GRANT
"The art of war is simple
enough. Find out where
your enemy is. Get at him
as soon as you can. Strike
at him as hard as you can
and as often as you can,
and keep moving on." —Grant,
courtesy Richard Cauley at tompeters.com
(original source unknown)
“The art of war does not
require complicated
maneuvers; the simplest are
the best, and common sense
is fundamental. From which
one might wonder how it is
generals make blunders; it is
because they try to be
clever.” —Napoleon on Simplicity, from Napoleon
on Project Management by Jerry Manas.
“Above all the troops appreciated Grant’s unassuming manner. Most
generals went about attended by a retinue of immaculately tailored
staff officers. Grant usually rode alone, except for an orderly or two
to carry messages if the need arose. Another soldier said the
soldiers looked on Grant ‘as a friendly partner, not an arbitrary
commander.’ Instead of cheering as he rode by, they would ‘greet
him as they would address one of their neighbors at home. ‘Good
morning, General,’ ‘Pleasant day, General’ … There was no
nonsense, no sentiment; only a plain businessman of the republic,
there for the one single purpose of getting that command over the
river in the shortest time possible.’” [Grant: 5-feet 8-inches with a
slouch]/232 After the victory at Chattanooga: “The [Union senior]
officers rode past the Confederates smugly without any sign of
recognition except by one. ‘When General Grant reached the line of
ragged, filthy, bloody, despairing prisoners strung out on each side
of the bridge, he lifted his hat and held it over his head until he
passed the last man of that living funeral cortege. He was the only
officer in that whole train who recognized us as being on the face of
the earth.’”/ 281 “Grant was unhappy about going into winter
quarters. He saw no reason to keep the army idle, and the pause
would give the rebels time to reorganize.”/282
“The [Union senior] officers rode past the
Confederates smugly without any sign
of recognition except by one. ‘When
General Grant reached the line of
ragged, filthy, bloody, despairing
prisoners strung out on each side of
the bridge, he lifted his hat and held it
over his head until he passed the last
man of that living funeral cortege. He
was the only officer in that whole train
who recognized us as being on the
face of the earth.’*”
*quote within a quote from diary of a Confederate soldier
From LEE KENNETT’s SHERMAN: “Grant tended to be a simple
listener when these two strategies [for taking Vicksburg] were
being discussed. His own preference may have been impelled as
much by natural inclination as by any arguments he heard. He
wrote afterward: ‘One of my superstitions had always been when I
started to go anywhere or to do anything, not to turn back, or stop,
until the thing intended was accomplished.’”/ 202
“This [adolescent] incident [of getting from point A to point B] is
notable not only because it underlines Grant’s fearless
horsemanship and his determination, but also it is the first known
example of a very important peculiarity of his character:
Grant had an extreme,
almost phobic dislike of
turning back and retracing
his steps. If he set out for somewhere, he would get
there somehow, whatever the difficulties that lay in his way. This
idiosyncrasy would turn out to be one the factors that made him
such a formidable general. Grant would always, always press on—
turning back was not an option for him.”
—Michael Korda, Ulysses Grant
“One of my superstitions
had always been when I
started to go anywhere or
to do anything, not to turn
back, or stop, until the
thing intended was
accomplished.” —Grant
CWVA to MBWA: “In these
days of telegraph and
steam I can command
while traveling and
visiting about.” —U.S. Grant
Managing by wandering
around” —HP circa 1980
Source: Ulysses S. Grant, by Geoffrey Perret
TP’s take: Intuition takes precedence (listen attentively but act on
intuition) … Move today > perfect plan tomorrow [subsequent Patton
line] … Great advantage: When moving, you know what you’re up to
and you’re moving [the one sitting still is, thence, always reactive]
[Boyd: quickest O.O.D.A. loops/Observe. Orient. Decide. Act.
Disorient enemy] … Action! ... Keep moving! … Engage! … Offense!
[weakness-strength: can’t even imagine enemy counter-attacking;
little conception of defense] … Momentum! …. Keep ’em off balance
… … Adjust … Adapt … … Opportunism! … Constantly revise in
accordance with conditions and opportunities in the field [life =
excellence at “Plan B”] … Doggedness … Relentless!! [trait shaped
in early childhood] … Never retreat … Simplicity! … Wide latitude for
division commanders … minimum written orders, conferences, etc
… keep his own council … HQ is Grant & his horse … no retinue! …
commune with soldiers/exude quiet confidence/Approachable …
decent … Self-accountability! … Evade orders (or ignore) … Share
harm & hardship … total victory/ demand “unconditional
surrender”—G’s first claim to fame [Nelson: other Admirals avoid
loss, friend and foe as in Grant’s case vs Nelson’s seek victory] …
[Life 101: politics between the Generals:
E.g., Grant & Halleck]
Insubordinate (when it comes to
delays)/N
Action-oriented/Offense/
Total victory/N
Relentless
Troop Commander par Excellence/N
Leeway to Commanders/N
NELSON
The Nelson Baker’s Dozen
1. Simple-clear scheme (“Plan”) (Not wildly imaginative) (Patton: “A good plan
executed with vigor right now tops a ‘perfect’ plan executed next week.”)
2. SOARING/BOLD/CLEAR/UNEQUIVOCAL/WORTHY/NOBLE/INSPIRING
“GOAL”/“MISSION”/“PURPOSE”/“QUEST”
3. “Conversation”: Engagement of All Leaders
4. Leeway for Leaders: Select the Best/Dip Deep/Initiative demanded/Accountability
swift/Micromanagement absent
5. LED BY “LOVE” (Lambert), NOT “AUTHORITY” (Identify with sailors!)
6. Instinct/Seize the Moment/“Impetuosity” (Boyd’s “OODA Loops”: React more
quickly than opponent, destroy his “world view”)
7. VIGOR! (Zander: leader as “Dispenser of Enthusiasm”)
8. Peerless Basic Skills/Mastery of Craft (Seamanship)
9. Workaholic! (“Duty” first, second, and third)
10. LEAD BY CONFIDENT & DETERMINED & CONTINUOUS & VISIBLE EXAMPLE (In
Harm’s Way) (Gandhi: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world”/
Giuliani: Show up!)
11. Genius (“Transform the world to conform to their ideas,” “Triumph over rules”)
(Gandhi, Lee-Singapore) , not Greatness (“Make the most of their world”)
12. Luck! (Right time, right place; survivor) (“Lucky Eagle” vs “Bold Eagle”)
13. Others principal shortcoming: “ADMIRALS MORE FRIGHTENED OF LOSING
THAN ANXIOUS TO WIN”
Source: Andrew Lambert, Nelson: Britannia’s God of War
Nelson’s Way: A Baker’s Dozen/Short
1. Simple scheme.
2. Noble purpose!
3. Engage others.
4. Find great talent, let it soar!
5. Lead by Love!
6. Trust your gut, not the focus group: Seize the Moment!
7. Vigor!
8. Master your craft.
9. Work harder than the next person.
10. Show the way, walk the talk, exude confidence! Start a Passion
Epidemic!
11. Change the rules: Create your own game!
12. Shake of the pain, get back up off the ground, the timing may
well be
right tomorrow! (E.g., Get lucky!)
13. By hook or by crook, quash your fear of failure, savor your
quirkiness
and participate fully in the fray!
Source: Andrew Lambert, Nelson: Britannia’s God of War
“[other]
admirals more
frightened of
losing than
anxious to win”
On NELSON:
“He above all encouraged
(and prepared) his
subordinates to seize the
initiative whenever
necessary, particularly in
the fog of war —and the
men who served under him
knew what he expected.” —Jay
Tolson, on “The Nelson Touch,” The Battle That
Changed The World
… tireless self-promoter, sought hero status, sought
patronage [suck up] … guts, courage, master of his craft …
passion for pleasures of the flesh, driven by duty, obsessed
(no “work-life balance”) … autocratic, dictatorial … team
player, practitioner of participative management 200 years
before it was popularized, loved hanging out with the lads …
man’s man, lady’s man … diligent manager (e.g., logistics),
powerfully inspirational, spiritual, passionate … ambitious,
aggressive, confident, impulsive, rarely cautious or
circumspect, risk-taker … emotional, spiritual, expressed
feelings openly, classless, fair, self-sacrificing, encouraging,
optimistic … unconventional, did not get along well with
superiors … xenophobic, immodest, impatient, intolerant,
imprudent in public and in private … led from the front, zeal
for action, despair over bureaucrats (“I hate the pen and ink
men”), … lucky … —Stephanie Jones & Jonathan Gosling, Nelson’s Way:
Leadership Lessons from the Great Commander
Fisherisms
Do right and damn the odds.
Stagnation is the curse of life.
The best is the cheapest.
Emotion can sway the world.
Mad things come off.
Haste in all things.
Any fool can obey orders.
History is a record of exploded ideas.
Life is phrases.
Source: Jan Morris, Fisher’s Face, Or, Getting to Know the Admiral
“We must have no
tinkering! No pandering
to sentiment! No regard
for susceptibilities! We
must be ruthless,
relentless, and
remorseless.” —Jan Morris, Fisher’s Face, Or,
Getting to Know the Admiral
“extraordinary
arrogance,
superciliousness,
humor, kindness,
effrontery”
—Jan Morris on Lord
Admiral Jack Fisher, Fisher’s Face, Or, Getting to Know
the Admiral
BOYD
He who has the
quickest
“O.O.D.A.
Loops”* wins!
*Observe. Orient. Decide. Act. /Col. John Boyd
OODA Loop/Boyd Cycle
“Unraveling the competition”/ Quick
Transients/ Quick Tempo (NOT JUST
SPEED!)/ Agility/ “So quick it is
disconcerting” (adversary over-reacts
or under-reacts)/ “Winners used
tactics that caused the enemy to
unravel before the fight” (NEVER
HEAD TO HEAD)
BOYD: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed
the Art of War (Robert Coram)
“Fast Transients”
“Buttonhook turn”
(YF16: “could flick from one
maneuver to another faster
than any aircraft”)
BOYD: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed
the Art of War (Robert Coram)
“Blitzkrieg is far more than lightning
thrusts that most people think of when
they hear the term; rather it was all about
high operational tempo and the rapid
exploitation of opportunity.” —Robert Coram,
Boyd
“Re-arrange the mind of the
enemy” —T.E. Lawrence
“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” —Ali
BOYD: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed
the Art of War (Robert Coram)
F86 vs. MiG/Korea/10:1
Bubble canopy (360 degree view)
Full hydraulic controls (“The F86
driver could go from one maneuver to
another faster than the MiG driver”)
MiG: “faster in raw acceleration and
turning ability”; F86: “quicker in
changing maneuvers”
BOYD: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War (Robert Coram)
USMC COL Mike Wyly: “kept
the enemy off-balance;
they knew Delta
Company [RVN] could
show up anywhere,
anytime”
BOYD: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed
the Art of War (Robert Coram)
“Maneuverists”
BOYD: The Fighter Pilot Who
Changed the Art of War (Robert Coram)
“The stuff has got to
be implicit. If it is
explicit, you can’t do
it fast enough.”
BOYD: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed
the Art of War (Robert Coram)
Eglin Flag: “100% AGAINST
ZERO DEFECTS”
“General, if you’re not having
accidents, your training program
is not what it should be. … You
need to kill some pilots.” —John Boyd
BOYD: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed
the Art of War (Robert Coram)
“To Be
somebody or to
Do something”
John Boyd:
BOYD: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed
the Art of War (Robert Coram)
“If your boss
demands loyalty, give
him integrity. But if he
demands integrity,
give him loyalty.”
—John Boyd
BOYD: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed
the Art of War (Robert Coram)
BOSSIDY
“I saw that leaders placed too
much emphasis on what some
call high-level strategy, on
intellectualizing and
philosophizing, and not enough
on implementation. People
would agree on a project or
initiative, and then nothing
would come of it.” —Larry Bossidy & Ram
Charan/Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
“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
“Execution is
the job of the
business
leader.”
—Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/
Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
(“Leaders
‘do’ people.
Period.” )
—TP
The Leader’s Seven Essential Behaviors
*Know your people and your
business
*Insist on realism
*Set clear goals and priorities
*Follow through
*Reward the doers
*Expand people’s capabilities
*Know yourself
Source: Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/ Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
Action8/VPMR+/Peters on Bossidy
*Knowledge/External Focus (Competitors/Customers)
*Realism/Truth-telling
*Vision
*Projects (Must add up to Vision)
*Milestones
*Commitment/Energy
*RapidReview
*Consequences (+/-)
“Realism is
the heart of
execution.”
—Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/Execution:
The Discipline of Getting Things Done
"A business unit strategy
should be less than fifty pages
long and should be easy to
understand. Its essence should
be describable in one page ... If
you can't describe your strategy
in twenty minutes, simply and
in plain language, you haven't
got a plan.” —Larry Bossidy
“robust
dialogue”
—Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/
Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
Relentless!*
*Churchill, Grant, Patton, Welch, Bossidy, Nardelli (GE
execs), UPS, FedEx, Microsoft/Gates-Ballmer, Eisner,
Weill, eBay, Nixon-Kissinger, Gerstner, Rice, Jordan,
Armstrong
“This [adolescent] incident [of getting from point A to point B] is
notable not only because it underlines Grant’s fearless
horsemanship and his determination, but also it is the first known
example of a very important peculiarity of his character:
Grant had an extreme,
almost phobic dislike of
turning back and retracing
his steps. If he set out for somewhere, he would get
there somehow, whatever the difficulties that lay in his way. This
idiosyncrasy would turn out to be one the factors that made him
such a formidable general. Grant would always, always press on—
turning back was not an option for him.”
—Michael Korda, Ulysses Grant
“The person who is a little less
conceptual but is absolutely determined
to succeed will usually find the right
people and get them together to achieve
objectives. I’m not knocking education
or looking for dumb people. But if you
have to choose between someone with a
staggering IQ and an elite education
who’s gliding along, and someone with a
lower IQ but who is absolutely
determined to succeed, you’ll always do
better with the second person.”
—Larry Bossidy (Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/
Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done)
Duct Tape Rules!
“Andrew Higgins, who built
landing craft in WWII, refused to
hire graduates of engineering
schools. He believed that they only teach you
what you can’t do in engineering school. He
started off with 20 employees, and by the middle
of the war had 30,000 working for him. He turned
out 20,000 landing craft. D.D. Eisenhower told
me, ‘Andrew Higgins won the war for us. He did
it without engineers.’ ” —Stephen Ambrose/Fast Company
Ye gads: “Thomas
Stanley has not
only found no correlation
between success in school and
an ability to accumulate
wealth, he’s actually found a
negative correlation. ‘It seems that school-
related evaluations are poor predictors of economic success,’ Stanley
concluded. What did predict success was a willingness to take risks.
Yet the success-failure standards of most schools penalized risk
takers. Most educational systems reward those who play it safe. As a
result, those who do well in school find it hard to take risks later on.”
Richard Farson & Ralph Keyes, Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins
“We have a
‘strategic plan.’
It’s called doing
things.”
— Herb Kelleher
“This is so simple it sounds stupid, but it is amazing
you
only find oil if you
drill wells.
how few oil people really understand that
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
You only find
oil if you
drill wells.
Source: The Hunters, by John Masters, Canadian O & G wildcatter
Napoleon’ “six winning principles”: Exactitude (sweat the details).
Speed. Flexibility. Simplicity. Character. Moral Force.
Simplicity: “The art of war does not require complicated
maneuvers; the simplest are the best, and common sense is
fundamental. From which one might wonder how it is generals
make blunders; it is because they try to be clever.”
Character: “A military leader must possess as much character as
intellect. Men who have a great deal of intelligence and little
character are the least suited. … It is preferable to have much
character and little intellect.”
Source: Jerry Manas, Napoleon on Project Management
A man approached JP Morgan, held up an envelope, and said, “Sir, in
my hand I hold a guaranteed formula for success, which I will gladly
sell you for $25,000.”
“Sir,” JP Morgan replied, “I do not know what is in the envelope,
however if you show me, and I like it, I give you my word as a
gentleman that I will pay you what you ask.”
The man agreed to the terms, and handed over the envelope.
JP Morgan opened it, and extracted a single sheet of paper.
He gave it one look, a mere glance, then handed the piece of paper
back to the gent.
And paid him the
agreed-upon $25,000 …
1. Every morning, write a
list of the things that
need to be done that
day.
2.
Do them.
Source: Hugh MacLeod/tompeters.com/NPR
“Never forget
implementation
boys. In our work it’s
what I call the
‘missing 98
percent’ of the client
puzzle.”
—Al McDonald
1 of 2,400
6:15A.M.
????????
Work Hard >
Work Smart
VALUE
ADDED
#8
EXCELLENCE.
BEDROCK.
PURPOSE.
“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)
“Management has a lot to do with
answers. Leadership is a function of
questions. And the first question for a
‘Who do
we intend to be?’
leader always is:
Not ‘What are we going to do?’ but
‘Who do we intend to be?’”
—Max De Pree, Herman Miller
“Create a
‘cause,’ not a
‘business.’ ”
G.H.:
“In 1933, Thomas J. Watson Sr. gave a
speech at the World’s
Fair, ‘World Peace through
We stood
for something,
right?”
World Trade.’
—Sam Palmisano
Ah, kids: “What is your vision for
the future?” “What have you
accomplished since your first book?”
“Close your eyes and imagine me
immediately doing something about
what you’ve just said. What would it
be?” “Do you feel you have an
obligation to ‘Make the world a better
place’?”
“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)
EXCELLENCE.
ENTHUSIASM.
ENERGY.
PASSION.
“Nothing is so
contagious as
enthusiasm.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Q: “If it were your $50K
[life’s savings] and my $50K,
what sort of Waiters would
we look for?”
A:
“Enthusiasts!”
“Most important,
upped the
energy level at
he
Motorola.”
—Fortune on Ed Zander/08.05
EXCELLENCE.
DETERMINATION.
DE-TERMIN-ATION
BLOOD-YMIND-EDNESS
Bloodyminded:
Unreasonably
stubborn
Source: The Random House Dictionary of the English Language
“It is no use saying
‘We are doing our
best.’ You have got
to succeed in doing
what is necessary.”
—WSC
First-level Scientific Success
The smartest guy
in the room wins”
Or …
First-level Scientific Success
Fanaticism
Persistence-Dogged Tenacity
Patience (long haul/decades)-Impatience (in a hurry/”do it yesterday”)
Passion
Energy
Relentlessness (Grant-ian)
Enthusiasm
Driven (nuts!)
(Brutal?) Competitiveness
Entrepreneurial
Pragmatic (R.F!A.)
Scrounge (“gets” the logistics-infrastructure bit)
Master of Politics (internal-external)
Tactical Genius
Pursuit of (Oceanic) Excellence!
High EQ/Skillful in Attracting + Keeping Talent/Magnetic
Prolific (“ground up more pig brains”)
Egocentric
Sense of History-Destiny
Futuristic-In the Moment
Mono-dimensional (“Work-life balance”? Ha!)
Exceptionally Intelligent
Exceptionally Clever (methodological shortcuts/methodological genius)
Luck
“Whenever anything is
being accomplished, I
have learned, it is being
done by a monomaniac
with a mission.” —Peter Drucker
"The reasonable man adapts
himself to the world. The
unreasonable one persists in
trying to adapt the world to
himself. Therefore, all
progress depends upon the
unreasonable man.” —GB Shaw,
Man and Superman: The Revolutionists' Handbook.
????????
Work Hard >
Work Smart
“This [adolescent] incident [of getting from point A to point B] is
notable not only because it underlines Grant’s fearless
horsemanship and his determination, but also it is the first known
example of a very important peculiarity of his character:
Grant had an extreme,
almost phobic dislike of
turning back and retracing
his steps. If he set out for somewhere, he would get
there somehow, whatever the difficulties that lay in his way. This
idiosyncrasy would turn out to be one the factors that made him
such a formidable general. Grant would always, always press on—
turning back was not an option for him.”
—Michael Korda, Ulysses Grant
“One of my superstitions
had always been when I
started to go anywhere
or to do anything, not to
turn back, or stop, until
the thing intended was
accomplished.” —Grant
Source LEE KENNETT’s SHERMAN
Relentless!*
*Churchill, Grant, Patton, Welch, Bossidy, Nardelli (GE execs),
UPS, FedEx, Microsoft/Gates-Ballmer, Eisner, Weill, eBay, NixonKissinger, Gerstner, Rice, Jordan, Armstrong
“This is the true joy of Life, the
being used for a purpose
recognized by yourself as a
mighty one … the being a force of
Nature instead of a feverish,
selfish little clod of ailments and
grievances complaining that the
world will not devote itself to
making you happy.” —GB Shaw/
Man and Superman
“It’s always
showtime.”
—David D’Alessandro, Career Warfare
Charles Handy on the “Alchemists”
“Passion was what drove
these people, passion for
their product or their cause.
If you
care enough, you will find out what you need to know.
Or you will experiment and not worry if the experiment
Passion
goes wrong.
as the secret to learning
is an odd secret to propose, but I believe that it works
passion
at all levels and at all ages. Sadly,
is
not a word often heard in the elephant organizations,
nor in schools, where it can seem disruptive.”
????????
Work Hard >
Work Smart
“This [adolescent] incident [of getting from point A to point B] is
notable not only because it underlines Grant’s fearless
horsemanship and his determination, but also it is the first known
example of a very important peculiarity of his character:
Grant had an extreme,
almost phobic dislike of
turning back and retracing
his steps. If he set out for somewhere, he would get
there somehow, whatever the difficulties that lay in his way. This
idiosyncrasy would turn out to be one the factors that made him
such a formidable general. Grant would always, always press on—
turning back was not an option for him.”
—Michael Korda, Ulysses Grant
“One of my superstitions
had always been when I
started to go anywhere
or to do anything, not to
turn back, or stop, until
the thing intended was
accomplished.” —Grant
Source LEE KENNETT’s SHERMAN
“Nothing is so
contagious as
enthusiasm.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Nelson.
Grant.
Churchill.
Geronimo!
“Life is not a journey to the
grave with the intention of
arriving safely in a pretty and
well-preserved body—but
rather a skid in broadside,
thoroughly used up, totally
worn out, and loudly
proclaiming, ‘Wow,
what a ride!’ ” —anon.
"Life is not a journey to the
grave with the intention of
arriving safely in one pretty
and well preserved piece, but
to skid across the line
broadside, thoroughly used
up, worn out, leaking oil,
shouting ‘GERONIMO!’ ”
—Bill McKenna, professional motorcycle racer
(Cycle magazine 02.1982)
"The object of life's
journey is not to arrive at
the grave safely in a well
preserved body, but rather
to skid in sideways, totally
worn out, shouting, 'Holy
Shit, What a
Ride!!!’ ”
—Mavis Leyrer
(feisty OCTOGENARIAN, living in Seattle)
The Cup
Challenge
Tom Peters/0214.2006
For a forthcoming event, I was
asked to provide some
possible “sayings” on
leadership, six words or less,
designed go on coffee mugs
distributed as gifts. The
results, a hasty draft, follow …
“Passion!”
“Energy!”
“Enthusiasm!”
“Passion! Energy! Enthusiasm!”
"Enthusiasm! Enthusiasm! Enthusiasm!"
"Enthusiasm Moves Mountains!"
"Nothing Matches Enthusiasm as a 'Motivator'!"
“Technicolor Times Demand Technicolor Actions”
“Technicolor Times Demand Technicolor People”
“Wow. Now.”
“Re-imagine!”
“Re-imagine! Re-do! Re-vise! Re-vo-lu-tion!”
“Enthusiasm,
the
Ultimate
Virus!”
"Respect!"
“Leaders ‘Do’ People. Period.”
“Credibility. Asset No. 1.”
“Tell the Truth.”
“Truth Wins.”
“Challenge. Challenge. Challenge.”
“Two Big Goals. Tops.”
“Focus. Your Calendar Never Lies”
“Good Story. Good Leader.”
“Best Story Wins.”
“Live the Story.”
“Change the World. Accept Nothing Less.”
"Dream!"
“Dream. The Only Worthwhile Reality.”
“Beware Those Who Agree With You”
“Seek Dissidents. Nurture Dissidents. Cherish
Dissidents”
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
“Excellence!”
“Demand Excellence!”
“Demand Excellence. The Greatest Gift.”
“Excellence, Life’s Gold Standard”
“Stop Talking! Start Doing!”
“Execute. Execute. Execute.”
“‘Good Execution’ Beats ‘Good Strategy’”
“Agility Trumps Size”
"Women make the best bosses!"
“Women Rule. Believe It.”
"You must care!"
“Listen.”
“Ask. ‘Why?’”
“‘Different’ beats ‘Better.’”
“‘Distinct’ or ‘Extinct.’”
“Innovate or Die”
“‘Me Too’ = ‘Me Dead’”
“Talent Time!”
“Best Talent Wins.”
“Moderation Fails in Immoderate Times”
“No Less
Than
Excellence.
Ever.”
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
“In classical times when
Cicero had finished speaking,
the people said, ‘How well he
spoke,’ but when
Demosthenes had finished
speaking, they said, ‘Let
march.’”
us
—Adlai Stevenson
Let us
march.
VALUE
ADDED
#9
motivational
stuff
“Do one thing
every day that
scares you.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt
“ARE YOU BEING
REASONABLE? Most people
are reasonable; that’s
why they only do
reasonably well.”
Source: Paul Arden, Whatever You Think Think the Opposite
"The reasonable man adapts
himself to the world. The
unreasonable one persists in
trying to adapt the world to
himself. Therefore, all
progress depends upon the
unreasonable man.” —GB Shaw,
Man and Superman: The Revolutionists' Handbook.
“If it’s not fun
you’re not doing
it right.”
—Fran Tarkenton
Only
connect!
—E.M. Forster, Howards End
Only connect!
That was the whole of her
sermon.
Only connect the prose and the
passion, and both will be
exalted,
And human love will be seen
at its height.
Live in fragments no longer.
Only connect ...
—E.M. Forster, Howards End
Stop
Doing
It!
“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
Start
Doing
It!
“A year from now
you may wish
You had
started today.”
—Karen Lamb
Paul Arden,
Whatever You Think
Think the Opposite
“ARE YOU BEING
REASONABLE? Most people
are reasonable; that’s
why they only do
reasonably well.”
Source: Paul Arden, Whatever You Think Think the Opposite
“The best piece of advice ever given
was by the art director of Harper’s
Bazaar, Alexey Brodovitch, to the
young Richard Avedon, destined to
become one of the world’s great
photographers. The advice was
simple: ‘ASTONISH ME.’ Bear these
words in mind, and whatever you do
will be creative.”
Source: Paul Arden, Whatever You Think Think the Opposite
“TRAPPED. It’s not because you are
making the wrong decisions. It’s
because you are making the right
ones. We try to make sensible
decisions based on the facts in front
of us. The problem with making
sensible decisions is that so is
everybody else.”
Source: Paul Arden, Whatever You Think Think the Opposite
“I WANT. Making the safe decision is dull,
predictable and leads nowhere new. The
unsafe decision causes you to think and
respond in a way you hadn’t thought of.
And that thought will lead to other
thoughts which will help you achieve
what you want. Start taking bad decisions
and it will take you to a place where
others only dream of being.”
Source: Paul Arden, Whatever You Think Think the Opposite
“ARE YOU BEING
REASONABLE? Most people
are reasonable; that’s why
they only do reasonably well.”
Source: Paul Arden, Whatever You Think Think the Opposite
“THE AGE OF UNREASON. Old golfers don’t
win (it’s not an absolute, it’s a general rule).
Why? The older golfer can hit the ball as far
as the younger one. He chips and putts
equally well. … So why does he take the extra
stroke that denies him victory? Experience.
He knows the downside, what happens if it
goes wrong, which makes him more cautious.
The younger player is either ignorant or
reckless to caution. That is his edge. It is the
same with all of us. Knowledge makes us play
safe. The secret is to stay childish.”
Source: Paul Arden, Whatever You Think Think the Opposite
[If you are a brilliant listener
who rarely interjects the
speaker will think you are
brilliant—because he will have
been listening to himself.]
Source: Paul Arden, Whatever You Think Think the Opposite
“WHAT IS A GOOD
IDEA? One that
happens is. If it
doesn’t, it isn’t.”*
*Even a bad idea that happens is better
than a “good idea” that doesn’t
Source: Paul Arden, Whatever You Think Think the Opposite
“DON’T STAY TOO LONG IN A
JOB. … FIRED? IT’S THE BEST
THING THAT CAN HAPPEN TO
YOU.* (*You hated your situation anyway.) …
DON’T GO TO UNIVERSITY.
GO TO WORK.* (*Going to university
usually means, ‘I don’t know what to do with my
life, so I’ll go to university.’)”
Source: Paul Arden, Whatever You Think Think the Opposite
“DON’T BE NEGATIVE ABOUT
REJECTION. When I was Creative
Director at Saatchi’s I gave a young
man a grilling for producing an
underwhelming piece of work. Later in
the day, somebody told me he was in
his office crying. I went along to
console him. I said, ‘Don’t worry, I was
useless at your age too.’”
Source: Paul Arden, Whatever You Think Think the Opposite
“SIMPLY CHANGE YOUR
LIFE. The world is what
you think of it. So think of
it differently and your life
will change.”
Source: Paul Arden, Whatever You Think Think the Opposite
“Which slogan would you choose for the V&A?
THE MUSEUM OF THE ARTS
THE ART OF THE MUSEUM
THE NEW V&A
IT’S NOT FOR BORING OLD ARTS
AN ACE CAFF WITH QUITE A NICE
MUSEUM ATTACHED
“In a museum, the first question is ‘Where’s the loo?’ the second is ‘Where is the
café?’ A visit to a museum is an outing it should be entertaining as well as
elevating. Curators have to conserve art, and directors are there to serve the
public, the curators and themselves. So put yourself in their position. Which line
are you going to choose? One which will be effective with the public, or one that
preserves the dignity of the V&A? To her everlasting credit, Elizabeth Esteve-Coll,
then Director of the V&A, chose the last line.”
Source: Paul Arden, Whatever You Think Think the Opposite
BONUS
Stating the Obvious:
THE PROBLEM IS
RARELY THE
PROBLEM.
THE PROBLEM IS
RARELY/NEVER THE
PROBLEM. THE
RESPONSE TO THE
PROBLEM INVARIABLY
ENDS UP BEING THE
REAL PROBLEM.* **
*Watergate, M Stewart, BR
**And: PERCEPTION IS ALL THERE IS!
OFTEN AS
NOT/MORE OFTEN
THAN NOT THE
UNDERLYING
PROBLEM IS NOT
MUCH OF A
PROBLEM.
PERCEPTION
IS ALL THERE
IS. PERIOD.*
*From Whole Foods to IBM to the corner deli
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.
Relationships
(of all varieties):
POWER WORDS!
“I’m sorry.”
Sorting Out a Problem/
Misunderstanding with an e-mail:
Don’t delay!
It’s the effort that counts (Long>Short)
Get personal (“authentic”—yuck)
FLAT OUT APOLOGIZE (no equivocality)
Take more blame than you “deserve”
Stating the Obvious:
MORE POWER
WORDS/IDEAS
Thank
You!
MBWA*
*5,000 miles for a 5-minute face-to
-face meeting (courtesy superagent Mark McCormick)
Say it with …
FLOWERS
POWER IDEAS!
You must care.
—General Melvin Zais
The
Irreducible209
188. Handshake. (Quantity. Quality.)
189. Don’t fold your hands in front of
your chest. Ever. (Never.)
190. Simplicity. Redundancy. Resilience.
Bloody-mindedness. Visible
optimism. (Success.) (Repeat.)
Employee Entrance =
Guest Entrance.
192. Put the customer SECOND.
191.
(Thanks, Hal.)
193. Flowers. (Or did I say that before?
No matter if I did.)
194. Big Mergers don’t work. Small
acquisitions can/do work—if you
don’t screw with their energy.
VALUE
ADDED
#10
EXCELLENCE.
BEDROCK.
TALENT.
Brand =
Talent.
Organizing Genius / Warren Bennis
and Patricia Ward Biederman
“Groups become great only when
everyone in them, leaders and
members alike, is free to do his or
her absolute best.”
“The best thing a leader can do for a
Great Group is to allow its
members to discover their
greatness.”
Leadership’s Mt Everest/Mt Excellence
“free to do his or her
absolute best” …
“allow its members to
discover their
greatness.”
“Ninety percent of what
we call ‘management’
consists of making it
difficult for people to get
things done.” – Peter Drucker
“The role of the Director
is to create a space
where the actor or
actress can become
more than they’ve ever
been before, more than
they’ve dreamed of
being.” —Robert Altman, Oscar acceptance
C
O*
*Chief Recruitment Officer
CRO/Chief Recruiting
Officer: #1 strategic issue in
“commoditized” world,
enormous financial services
company. Agent turnover.
15% retention after 4 years.
(Industry average is 11% …
“because that’s the way
it is” )
C
O*
*Chief quest-meister
A Few Lessons from the Arts
Each hired and developed and evaluated in unique ways
(23 contributors; 23 unique contributions; 23 pathways; 23 personalities; 23 sets of
motivators)
Attitude/Enthusiasm/Energy paramount
Re-lent-less!
“Practice is cool” (G Leonard/Mastery)
Team and individual
Aspire to EXCELLENCE = Obvious
Ex-e-cu-tion
Talent = Brand = Duh
“The Project” rules
Emotional language
Bit players. No.
B.I.W. (everything)
Delta events = Delta rosters (incl leader/s)
“My only goal is to
have no goals. The
goal, every time, is
that film, that very
moment.”
—Bernardo Bertolucci
“We are a
‘life Success
Company”’
founder, RE/MAX
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
‘do’ people.
Period.”
—Anon.
From
sweaters to …
Les Wexner:
people!
“The leaders of Great Groups
love talent and know where
to find it. They revel in the
talent of others.”
—Warren Bennis &
Patricia Ward Biederman, Organizing Genius
PARC’s Bob Taylor:
“Connoisseur
of Talent”
Hire very
good
people!
“We believe companies can increase their market cap
50 percent in 3 years. Steve Macadam at Georgia-
changed 20 of his 40
box plant managers to put
more talented, higher paid
managers in charge. He
increased profitability from $25 million to $80
million in 2 years.” —Ed Michaels, War for Talent
Pacific
DD$21M
A review of Jack and Suzy Welch’s Winning claims there are but
two key differentiators that set GE “culture” apart from the herd:
First: Separating financial forecasting and performance
measurement. Performance measurement based, as it usually is, on budgeting
leads to an epidemic of gaming the system. GE’s performance measurement is
divorced from budgeting—and instead reflects how you do relative to your past
performance and relative to competitors’ performance; i.e., it’s about how you
actually do in the context of what happened in the real world, not as compared to a
gamed-abstract plan developed last year.
Second: Putting HR on
a par with finance
and marketing.
EVP/
IBP?*
What’s your company’s …
*Employee Value Proposition, per Ed Michaels et al., The War for Talent;
IBP/Internal Brand Promise per TP
EVP/IBP = Remarkable
challenge, rapid professional
growth, respect, satisfaction,
fun, stunning opportunity,
exceptional reward, amazing
peer group, full membership in
Club Adventure, maximized
future employability
Source: Ed Michaels, The War for Talent; TP
A Few Lessons from the Arts
Each hired and developed and evaluated in unique ways
(23 contributors; 23 unique contributions; 23 pathways; 23 personalities; 23 sets of
motivators)
Attitude/Enthusiasm/Energy paramount
Re-lent-less!
“Practice is cool” (G Leonard/Mastery)
Team and individual
Aspire to EXCELLENCE = Obvious
Ex-e-cu-tion
Talent = Brand = Duh
“The Project” rules
Emotional language
Bit players. No.
B.I.W. (everything)
Delta events = Delta rosters (incl leader/s)
Re-imagine
People Power:
The Talent50
The Talent50
1. People first!
2. Soft is Hard.
3. FUNDAMENTAL PREMISE: We are in an
Age of Talent/ Creativity/Intellectualcapital Added.
4. Talent “excellence” in every part of the
organization.
5. P.O.T./Pursuit Of Talent = Obsession.
6. HR sits at The Head Table.
7. HR is “cool.”
The Talent50
8. Re-name “HR.” (Talent Department, Center of Talent
Excellence)
9. There’s an HR Strategy
10. There is a FORMAL Recruitment Strategy.
11. There is a FORMAL Leadership Development
Strategy.
12. There is a “world class” Leadership Development
Center.
13. There is a FORMAL-STRATEGIC HR Review
Process.
14. The “Top100,” and every unit’s Top10, are
consciously managed.
The Talent50
15. “People/Talent Reviews” are the FIRST
reviews.
16. HR Strategy = Business Strategy.
17. Make it a Cause Worth Signing Up For..
18. Set Sky High Standards.
19. Enlist everyone in
Challenge Century21.
20. Pursue the Best!
21. Up or Out.
22. Ensure that the Review Process has
INTEGRITY.
23. Pay!
The Talent50
24. Training I: Train! Train! Train!
25. TII: 100% “business people.”
26. TIII: 100% Leaders.
27. TIV: Boss as Trainer-in-Chief.
28. Open Communication I: NO BARRIERS.
29. Open Communication II: Share
Information. (ALL!)
30. Respect!
31. INTEGRITY!
32. Treat the Whole Individual.
The Talent50
33. Places of “grace.”
34. MBWA: The “Rudy Rule.”
35. Thank You!
36. Promote for “people skills.”
(ALL ELSE IS SECONDARY.)
37. Honor youth.
38. Early leadership assignments.
39. Fast Tracking is the norm.
40. Create a System of Mentoring.
The Talent50
41. Diversity!
42. Diversity starts on the Board of
Directors.
43. WOMEN RULE.
44. Weird Wins.
45. We are all unique.
46. Bosses “win people over.”
47. GOAL: Adventures of Mutual
Discovery.
48. Foster Independence.
49. Enthusiasm!
50.
Talent
= Brand.
Marcus
Buckingham:
The One Thing You
Need to Know
“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 key difference between
checkers and chess is that in
checkers the pieces all move
the same way, whereas in chess
all the pieces move differently.
… Discover what is unique
about each person and
capitalize on it.” —Marcus Buckingham,
The One Thing You Need to Know
“The mediocre manager believes that most
things are learnable and therefore that the
essence of management is to identify ach
person’s weaker areas and eradicate them.
The great manager believes the opposite.
He believes that the most influential
qualities of a person are innate and
therefore that the essence of management
is to deploy these innate qualities as
effectively as possible and so drive
performance.” —Marcus Buckingham, The One Thing
You Need to Know
“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
EXCELLENCE.
BY INVITATION.
“In the end, management
doesn’t change culture.
Management
invites
the workforce itself to
change the culture.”
—Lou Gerstner
“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
[Yet] I
came to see in my time at
IBM that culture isn’t just
one aspect of the game—
it is the game.” —Lou Gerstner, Who
of people is very, very hard.
Says Elephants Can’t Dance
“Most important, leaders can
conceive and articulate goals
that lift people out of their
petty preoccupations … and
unite them in pursuit of
objectives worthy of their
best efforts.” —John Gardner, No Easy
Victories (from Warren Bennis, On Becoming a Leader)
EXCELLENCE.
WOMEN.
RULE.
LEADERSHIP
SKILLS.
Women’s Negotiating Strengths
*Ability to put themselves in their
counterparties’ shoes
*Comprehensive, attentive and detailed
communication style
*Empathy that facilitates trust-building
*Curious and attentive listening
*Less competitive attitude
*Strong sense of fairness and ability to persuade
*Proactive risk manager
*Collaborative decision-making
Source: Horacio Falcao, Cover story/May 2006, World Business, “Say It Like
a Woman: Why the 21st-century negotiator will need the female touch”
“AS
LEADERS,
WOMEN
RULE:
New Studies find that
female managers outshine their male
counterparts in almost every measure”
Title, Special Report/BusinessWeek
“TAKE THIS QUICK QUIZ: Who manages more
things at once? Who puts more effort into their
appearance? Who usually takes care of the
details? Who finds it easier to meet new
people? Who asks more questions in a
conversation? Who is a better listener? Who
has more interest in communication skills?
Who is more inclined to get involved? Who
encourages harmony and agreement? Who has
better intuition? Who works with a longer ‘to
do’ list? Who enjoys a recap to the day’s
events? Who is better at keeping in touch with
others?”
Source: Selling Is a Woman’s Game: 15 Powerful Reasons Why Women
Can Outsell Men, Nicki Joy & Susan Kane-Benson
????????
Women
Dominate
Economic
Growth.
“Forget China,
India and the
Internet: Economic
Growth Is Driven
by Women.”
—Headline, Economist,
April 15, 2006, Leader, page 14
“Forget China, India and the
Internet: Economic Growth Is
Driven by Women.” [Headline.] “Even today in the
modern, developed world, surveys show that parents still prefer
to have a boy rather than a girl. One longstanding reason boys
have been seen as a greater blessing has been that they are
expected to become better economic providers for their parents’
old age. Yet it is time for parents to think again. Girls may now
be a better investment.” “Girls get better grades in school than
boys, and in most developed countries more women than men
go to university. Women will thus be better equipped for the
new jobs of the 21st century, in which brains count a lot more
than brawn. … And women are more likely to provide sound
advice on investing their parents’ nest—e.g.: surveys show that
women consistently achieve higher financial returns than men
do. Furthermore, the increase in female employment in the rich
world has been the main driving force of growth in the last
couple of decades. Those women have contributed more to
global GDP growth than have either new technology or the
new giants, India and China.”
Source: Economist, April 15, Leader, page 14
“A Guide to Womenomics:
The Future of the World Economy Lies
Increasingly in Female Hands.” (Headline.) More
Continuing on page 73:
stats: Around the globe since 1980, women have filled “two
new jobs for everyone taken by a man.” “Women are
becoming more important in the global marketplace not just
as workers, but also as consumers, entrepreneurs, managers
and investors.” Re consumption, 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%.” A couple of
final assertions: (1) It is now agreed that “the single best
investment that can be made in the developing world” is
educating girls. (2) Also, surprisingly, nations with the highest
female laborforce participation rates, such as Sweden and the
U.S., have the highest fertility rates; and those with the lowest
participation rates, such as Italy and Germany, have the
lowest fertility rates.
Source: Economist, April 15, page 73
“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
“Well-behaved
women rarely
make history.”
—Anita Borg, Institute for Women and Technology
“Nobody gives
you power.
You just take
it.”
—Roseanne
EXCELLENCE.
WOMEN.
SELL.
“TAKE THIS QUICK QUIZ: Who manages more
things at once? Who puts more effort into their
appearance? Who usually takes care of the
details? Who finds it easier to meet new
people? Who asks more questions in a
conversation? Who is a better listener? Who
has more interest in communication skills?
Who is more inclined to get involved? Who
encourages harmony and agreement? Who has
better intuition? Who works with a longer ‘to
do’ list? Who enjoys a recap to the day’s
events? Who is better at keeping in touch with
others?”
Source: Selling Is a Woman’s Game: 15 Powerful Reasons Why Women
Can Outsell Men, Nicki Joy & Susan Kane-Benson
Only
connect!
—E.M. Forster, Howards End
Women
Dominate
Economic
Growth.
Impact! Add It Up!
Primary markets/Everything
(“Men buy
things that other men will buy for women. I buy things that women want.”—
successful jeweler/F. “Women are the majority market” —Fara Warner/The
Power of the Purse. Women as Purchasing Officers, CIOs, etc.)
Greater global workforce
participation rate (“bigger contributor to GDP
growth than technology, China, India”—Economist)
Higher wages
(more seniority, promotions—even if not to
CEO; greater pay equity—even if not equal)
Business “decision makers”
(more
seniority, promotions—even if not to CEO)
Women-owned businesses
(answer to the
Glass Ceiling—10.6M in USA; recipients of “micro-lending”—developing
world)
“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
"Women have been making
educational progress, and the
men are stuck. They haven't
just fallen behind women.
They have fallen behind
changes in the job market.”
—Tom Mortenson, The Pell Institute for the Study of
Opportunity in Higher Education (AOL-AP, 060206)
“The Importance of Sex: Forget China, India, and the
Internet—Economic Growth Is Driven By Women”
*Better grades
*More go to university (“21st century, brains count”)
*“Far more” training to be docs (UK)
*Better investment decisions (greatest wealth
transfer ever)
*Growing female employment rate #1 driver
of growth (women>high tech, China, India)
*More women in gov’t increase econ growth
emphasis (Invest health, ed, infrastructure, poverty)
Source: Economist/0415
EXCELLENCE.
INDIVIDUAL.
BRAND YOU.
Core Mechanism:
“Game-changing Solutions”
PSF
(Professional Service Firm “model”/The Organizing Principle)
+
Brand You
(“Distinct” or “Extinct”/The Talent)
+
Wow! Projects
(“Different” vs “Better”/The Work)
“One of the defining
characteristics [of the change] is
that it will be less driven by
countries or corporations and
more driven by real people. It will
unleash unprecedented creativity,
advancement of knowledge, and economic
development. But at the same time, it will
tend to undermine safety net systems and
penalize the unskilled.” —Clyde Prestowitz, Three Billion
New Capitalists
“If there is nothing very
special about your
work, no matter how hard you
apply yourself you won’t get
noticed, and that increasingly
means you won’t get paid much
either.” —Michael Goldhaber, Wired
New Work SurvivalKit.2006
1. Mastery! (Best/Absurdly Good at Something!)
2. “Manage” to Legacy (All Work = “Memorable”/“Braggable” WOW Projects!)
3. A “USP”/Unique Selling Proposition (R.POV8: Remarkable Point of
View … captured in 8 or less words)
4. Rolodex Obsession (From vertical/hierarchy/“suck up” loyalty to
horizontal/“colleague”/“mate” loyalty)
5. Entrepreneurial Instinct (A sleepless … Eye for Opportunity! E.g.: Small
Opp for Independent Action beats faceless part of Monster Project)
6. CEO/Leader/Businessperson/Closer (CEO, Me Inc. Period! 24/7!)
7. Master of Improv (Play a dozen parts simultaneously, from
Chief Strategist to Chief Toilet Scrubber)
8. Sense of Humor (A willingness to Screw Up & Move On)
9. Comfortable with Your Skin (Bring “interesting you” to work!)
10. Intense Appetite for Technology (E.g.: How Cool-Active is your
Web site? Do you Blog?)
11. Embrace “Marketing” (Your own CSO/Chief Storytelling Officer)
12. Passion for Renewal (Your own CLO/Chief Learning Officer)
13. Execution Excellence! (Show up on time! Leave last!)
Distinct
Extinct
… or
…
“Before you can inspire with
emotion, you must be
swamped with it yourself.
Before you can move their
tears, your own must flow. To
convince them, you must
yourself believe.” —Winston Churchill
“You are the
storyteller of your
own life, and you can
create your own
legend or not.”
—Isabel Allende
12January2006
th,
Happy 300
Brand You!
ACTING: Think of a person as
“troupe of
actors.” (“Many truths
a
about oneself” which must
all be understood if one is to
know oneself.)
Source: A..C. Grayling, The Meaning of Things: Applying Philosophy to Life
“Nobody can prevent you from
choosing to be exceptional.” —Mark Sanborn,
The Fred Factor
“To live is the rarest thing in the world.
Most people exist,
that is all.” –Oscar Wilde
“Make your life itself a creative
work of art.” —Mike Ray, The Highest Goal
“Nobody can prevent
you from choosing to be
exceptional.” —Mark Sanborn, The Fred Factor
“To live is the rarest thing in
the world. Most people exist,
that is all.” —Oscar Wilde
Will you actually
remember it as
worthwhile 10 years
from now?”
—S.H.
“This is the true joy of Life, the
being used for a purpose
recognized by yourself as a
mighty one … the being a force of
Nature instead of a feverish,
selfish little clod of ailments and
grievances complaining that the
world will not devote itself to
making you happy.” —GB Shaw/
Man and Superman
“Tell me, what is it
you plan to do with
your one wild and
precious life?”
—Mary Oliver
“If I can reduce my work to
just a job I have to do, then I
keep myself safely away from
the losses to be endured in
putting my heart’s desires at
stake.”
—David Whyte, Crossing the Unknown Sea:
Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity
“Make each day a
Masterpiece!”
—JW
“Make your life
itself a creative
work of art.”
—Mike Ray, The
Highest Goal
“This is the true joy of Life, the
being used for a purpose
recognized by yourself as a
mighty one … the being a force of
Nature instead of a feverish,
selfish little clod of ailments and
grievances complaining that the
world will not devote itself to
making you happy.” —GB Shaw/
Man and Superman
“To have a firm persuasion in
our work—to feel that what we
do is right for ourselves and
good for the world at exactly
the same time—is one of the
great triumphs of human
existence.” —David Whyte, Crossing the
Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity
“The antidote to
exhaustion is not rest, it
is wholeheartedness.”
—David Whyte, Crossing the Unknown Sea:
Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity
“All of our artistic and religious traditions
take equally great pains to inform us that
we must never mistake a good career for
good work. Life is a creative, intimate,
unpredictable conversation if it is nothing
else—and our life and our work are both
the result of the way we hold that
passionate conversation.” —David Whyte,
Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity
“When was the last
time you asked,
‘What do I want
to be?’ ”
—Sara Ann Friedman, Work Matters
“To Be
somebody or to
Do something”
BOYD: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War
(Robert Coram)
Radically Thrilling Language!
“Radically
Thrilling.”
—BMW Z4 (ad)
HTSH: Engage!*
Commit! Engage! Try! Fail! Get up! Try
again! Fail again! Try again! But never,
ever stop moving on! Progress for
humanity is engendered by those who join
and savor the fray by giving one hundred
percent of themselves to their dreams!
Not by those timid souls who remain
glued to the sidelines, stifled by tradition,
and fearful of losing face or giving offense
to the reigning authorities.
Key words: Commit! Engage! Try! Fail! Persist!
*HTST/Hands That Shape Humanity, Tom Peters’ contribution to a Bishop Tutu exhibit
“Worthy” Ambition vs. “Mere”
Ambition per MILTON
“The difference is well illustrated by the
contrast between the person who says
he ‘wishes to be a writer’ and the
person who says he ‘wishes to write.’
The former desires to be pointed out at
cocktail parties, the latter is prepared
for the long, solitary hours at as desk;
the former desires a status, the latter a
process; the former desires to be, the
latter to do.” —A..C. Grayling, The Meaning of Things:
Applying Philosophy to Life [C.f. JOHN BOYD on “be-do.”]
“Tell me, what is it
you plan to do with
your one wild and
precious life?”
—Mary Oliver
Joe J. Jones
1942 – 2006
HE WOULDA DONE SOME
REALLY COOL STUFF
BUT …
HIS BOSS WOULDN’T
HIM!
LET
T. J. Peters
1942 – 2---
HE WAS A PLAYER!
“It’s always
showtime.”
—David D’Alessandro, Career Warfare
“In Tom’s world, it’s
always better to try a
swan dive and deliver a
colossal belly flop than
to step timidly off the
board while holding
your nose.”
—Fast Company /October2003
“Life is not a journey to the
grave with the intention of
arriving safely in a pretty and
well-preserved body—but
rather a skid in broadside,
thoroughly used up, totally
worn out, and loudly
proclaiming, ‘Wow, what
a ride!’ ” —anon.
EXCELLENCE.
BEDROCK.
SELFMANAGEMENT.
X.Step #1:
Buy a Mirror!
“The First step in a
‘dramatic’ ‘organizational
change program’ is
obvious—dramatic personal
change!” —RG
“Work
on me
first.”
—Kerry Patterson,
Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler/Crucial Conversations
“You must
be
the change you wish
to see in the world.”
Gandhi
“To change minds effectively,
leaders make particular use
of two tools: the stories that
they tell and the lives that
they lead.” —Howard Gardner, Changing Minds
MBWA*
*HS/25+
You = Your
calendar*
*Calendars NEVER lie!!
5,000
miles for a 5
min. meeting!
Mark McCormack:
“The first and greatest
imperative of command
is to be present in
person. Those who
impose risk must be
seen to share it.”
—John Keegan, The Mask of Command
Getting to WOW
Through Mastery of …
The Sales25.
Getting Things Done:
Power &
The
Implementation34.
Presentation
Excellence: The
PresX56
The Interviewing
Excellence:
The IntX31
The Work Matters: On
Self-reliance,
Becoming a “Change
Insurgent” and the
Power of Peculiarities
“Self-reliance never comes
‘naturally’ to adults because they
have been so conditioned to think
non-authentically that it feels
wrenching to do otherwise. … Self
Reliance is a last resort to which a
person is driven in desperation only
when he or she realizes ‘that
imitation is suicide, that he must take
himself for better, for worse, as his
portion.’ ” —Lawrence Buell, Emerson
“For Marx, the path to social betterment was through collective
resistance of the proletariat to the economic injustices of the
capitalist system that produced such misshapenness and
For Emerson, the key was to jolt
individuals into realizing the untapped power
of energy, knowledge and creativity of which
all people, at least in principle, are capable.
He too hated all systems of human
oppression; but his central project, and the
basis of his legacy, was to unchain individual
minds.”
fragmentation.
—Lawrence Buell, Emerson
The Work Matters!
“What we do matters to us. Work
may not be the most important
thing in our lives or the only thing.
We may work because we must,
but we still want to love, to feel
pride in, to respect ourselves for
what we do and to make a
difference.” —Sara Ann Friedman, Work Matters:
Women Talk About Their Jobs and Their Lives
“When was the last
time you asked,
‘What do I want
to be?’ ”
—Sara Ann Friedman, Work Matters
“Happiness” & “Leisure” per ARISTOTLE
HAPPINESS: Eudaimonia … well-doing, living
flourishingly. Megalopsychos … “great-souled,”
“magnanimous.” More: respect and concern for
others; duty to improve oneself; using one’s gifts
to the fullest extent possible; fully aware; making
one’s own choices.
LEISURE: pursue excellence; reflect; deepen
understanding; opportunity to work for higher
ends. [“Rest” vs. “leisure.”]
Source: A.C. Grayling, The Meaning of Things: Applying Philosophy to Life
“Worthy” Ambition vs. “Mere”
Ambition per MILTON
“The difference is well illustrated by the
contrast between the person who says
he ‘wishes to be a writer’ and the
person who says he ‘wishes to write.’
The former desires to be pointed out at
cocktail parties, the latter is prepared
for the long, solitary hours at as desk;
the former desires a status, the latter a
process; the former desires to be, the
latter to do.” —A..C. Grayling, The Meaning of Things:
Applying Philosophy to Life [C.f. JOHN BOYD on “be-do.”]
“If you ask me what I
have come to do in
this world, I who am
an artist, I will reply: I
am here to live my life
out loud.” — Émile Zola
“How Would You
Play Today If You
Knew You Could
Not Play
Tomorrow”
Source: Slogan for Loyola’s lacrosse season, from
coach Diane Geppi-Aikens (Lucky Every Day: The
Wisdom of Diane Geppi-Aikens, by Chip Silverman)
“She made us close our eyes and hear the singers
she was passionate about: Roberta Flack and
Aretha Franklin. ‘Listen to the joy in their voices,’
‘It’s not the words or
the music. They sing with such
great passion, such heart and
soul. You can feel how the singers love what
urged Diane.
they’re doing. It’s not just a job to them. If you want
to excel at anything, you must be passionate.
Otherwise, why waste your time?’ ”
Source: Lucky Every Day: The Wisdom of
Diane Geppi-Aikens, by Chip Silverman
“It’s no longer enough to
be a ‘change agent.’ You
must be a change
insurgent—provoking,
prodding, warning
everyone in sight that
complacency is death.”
—Bob Reich
“Nobody gives
you power.
You just take
it.”
—Roseanne
Characteristics of the “Also rans”*
“Minimize risk”
“Respect the chain of
command”
“Support the boss”
“Make budget”
*Fortune, on “Most Admired Global Corporations”
“Life is not a journey to the
grave with the intention of
arriving safely in a pretty and
well-preserved body—but
rather a skid in broadside,
thoroughly used up, totally
worn out, and loudly
proclaiming, ‘Wow, what
a ride!’ ” —anon.
“In Italy for 30 years under
the Borgias they had warfare,
terror, murder, bloodshed—
and produced Michelangelo,
da Vinci and the
Renaissance. In Switzerland
they had brotherly love, 500
years of democracy and peace,
and what did they produce—
Source: Orson Welles, as Harry Lime, in The Third Man
—the
cuckoo
clock.”
“To Hell With Well
Behaved … Recently a young
mother asked for advice. What, she
wanted to know, was she to do with a
7-year-old who was obstreperous,
outspoken, and inconveniently willful?
‘Keep her,’ I replied. … The suffragettes
refused to be polite in demanding what
they wanted or grateful for getting what
they deserved. Works for me.”
—Anna Quindlen/Newsweek
Back to the Future: The “PSF”/
“Brand You” Idea Circa 1900*
William James (“What Makes a Life
“men with no
trade” “must sell to the
highest bidder their mere
muscular strength for so
many hours per day”
Significant”/1899):
* “Brand You”/2005 = “Tradesman”/1899
“Well-behaved
women rarely
make history.”
—Anita Borg, Institute for Women and Technology
“The key question isn’t ‘What fosters
creativity?’ But it is why in God’s name
isn’t everyone creative? Where was the
human potential lost? How was it
crippled? I think therefore a good
question might be not
why do people create? But why do
people not create or innovate? We
have got to abandon that sense of
amazement in the face of creativity,
as if it were a miracle if anybody
created anything.” —Abe Maslow
“Every child is born an artist.
The trick is to remain an artist.”
—Picasso
VALUE
ADDED
#11
EXCELLENCE.
HEALTHCARE.
HEALTH.
HEALTH
MHHA
YOU DO: Patient Safety.
“Healthcare” to “Health.”
I DO: Transfat, High Fructose
Corn Syrup, #50 Sunscreen,
“Wash your hands”
Griffin Hospital (Planetree)
results: Financially
successful. Expanding
programs-physically.
Growing market share. Only
hospital in “100 Best Cos to
Work for—7 consecutive
years, currently #6. —“Five-Star
Hospitals,” Joe Flower, strategy+business (#42)
“Sanitary revolution”:
mortality in major cities
down
55%
between 1850 and 1915
Source: Tom Farley & Deborah Cohen, Prescription for a Healthy Nation
“Curve
Shifting”
Source: Tom Farley & Deborah Cohen,
Prescription for a Healthy Nation
“Bump into factor”: Extra-size
portions, eat more. Higher
% shelf space snacks, more
obesity. More liquor stores,
more crime. High vs low fat:
Japanese who emigrate to
U.S. suffer 3X increase in
heart disease.
Source: Tom Farley & Deborah Cohen, Prescription for a Healthy Nation
Sprint/Overland Park KS:
Slow elevators, distant
parking lots with
infrequent buses, “food
court” as “poorly” placed
as possible, etc.
Source: New York Times
Wellness
Obesity/-79(-36); BP (140-85 to
90-60); Blood sugar (180-87);
Blood chemistry (normal+);
Cholesterol (140-58);
Metabolic rate/RMR (+250);
Mental state (dramatic
improvement*)
Off …
Univasc (<1/2)
Bextra
Lipitor
Toprol
Propranolol
Aging
reversal!!!!*
*Why wasn’t I “informed”
until age 59?
“Fixes”
Diet
Extreme exercise
Meditation
Supplements
Eliminate all alcohol
(Meds)
TP Recce #1:
Dubai Healthcare City
to
Dubai Health City*
*Cleveland Clinic and Canyon Ranch
T.T.D./
Healthcare27
Healthcare27
1. Fully utilize Physician’s Assistants to do
routine work in a timely fashion. (“Doc in a Kiosk” at
Wal*Mart is great!)
2. Maximize Outpatient services!
3. Short hospital stays work!
4. Support home care to the max. (E.g., “Declaration of
Independents”—Beacon Hill/Boston)
5. STOP THE 100K+ NEEDLESS DEATHS —
much/most of the “quality stuff” is eminently fixable.
(Don Berwick for President! AHA for Hall of Shame!) (Strong, vicious insurer
incentives!!!)
6. FLIP HC 177 DEGREES TO EMPHASIZE
PREVENTION & WELLNESS. (“Steps” are being taken but not
enough. Med schools: Awful! Insurers: Little better. Support for appropriateproven alternative therapies is an important part.) (HUGE INCENTIVES FOR
EFFECTIVE WELLNESS-PREVENTION PROGRAMS-MEASURABLE SUCCESSES.)
T.T.D./
ACTION.
NOW.
Visible Signs/Measures (Creech)
TRAIN. TRAIN. TRAIN. (P.S.)
Med school, Nursing school curriculum (P.S.)
BOLD!/Big change EASIER than
modest change (P.S., etc.)
EXCELLENCE. ONLY. ALWAYS. DAMN IT.
EVP/Patient Safety
P.S.O.s
Fund the living hell out of it (P.S.)
CEO (etc): REFLECT IT IN CALENDAR
EMERGENCY STATUS
H.M.O.s: Big/ENORMOUS (+/-) incentives
for docs, hospitals, etc, etc
BOARD: Patient Safety Committee
BOARD: WPCC Committee
Patient Safety BALDRIDGE (POTUS?)
CERTIFICATION/RE-CERTIFICATION
for One & All (P.S., etc)
WPOCC Rules!!!!!!! (Wellness/
Prevention/Obesity/ChronicCare)
WPOCC: N.G.A. (AK)
INSURANCE COMPANY VISIBILITY/
SPONSORSHIP/MEGA-INCENTIVES
Awards Galore P.S./WPOCC)
BOARD Committee: H5N1
HHS: Split HC & PWO (Ontario)
Write off ½ of med school loan if “pay” with 3-5
years service in Public Health
Glamorize Family Practice, Public Health, etc
FAT legislation?? (Almost certainly) (Density,
HFCS, Transfats, etc., etc.) (A FIRST FOR TP)
SUE the hell out of One & All
re Obesity (Cigarettes II)
Research LEAP @ N.I.H. (Etc, Etc, ETC)
INCENTIVES @ SCHOOLS (BIG!!)
EMR: Intensify!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No leadership position in AHA (AMA?)
(DEANs?) (Etc?) without “Safety tour”
No Medical Chief (>150 beds?)
without “Safety tour”
FORGET ABOUT ME!!! (Except
Wellness, ChroniCare)
VIGOROUSLYSUPPORT Home Care
American OBESITY = African AIDs (??)
ELIMINATE/OBLITERATE HIGH
FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP!
ELIMINATE/OBLITERATE TRANSFATS!
(HFTC/TF = The Real “WMDs”)
FDA: Kill! Kill! Kill! (Please)
CEO Bonus: 50+%: P.S./WPOCC
OBNOXIOUS labels
Incentives for BILLBOARDS
Natl Advertising Council
PARENTING education, etc.
THIS IS NOT A
“PROGRAM” (P.S./WPOCC)
STATE OF
EMERGENCY
March-June 2006:
Sample of
Healthcare “PR”
Docs &
Hospitals
Doctors/Hospitals
53 autopsy studies … 24% misdiagnosis rate
(The Independent, 06.27)
“Medical Guesswork: From heart surgery to prostate care, the health
industry knows little about which common treatments really work”
(Cover, BusinessWeek, 0529) Dr David Eddy/Kaiser Permanente
Care Management Institute: “The problem is we do not know what
we are doing.” Eddy: 15% of what doctors do is “backed by hard
evidence” (BW); in general, 20% to 25%.
“What Doctors Hate About Hospitals” (Cover, Time, 05.01) “It
remains almost a stroke of luck to enter a U.S. hospital and receive
precisely the right treatment.” (Time) “No day passed—not one—
without a medication error. The errors were not rare; they were
the norm” (Don Berwick, on his wife’s treatment) “One medication
was discontinued by a physician’s order on the first day of
admission [Berwick’s wife] and yet was brought by a nurse every
single evening for 14 days straight.” (Time) Harvard Public Health,
2002 study: “More than 1 in 3 doctors reported errors in their own or
a family member’s medical care.” (Time)
Big Pharma
Digger the
Dermatophyte*
*Lamisil/Novartis/#4/$110M/3X in 10 to 100,000
Big Pharma
“Pushing Pills: How Big Pharma Got Addicted To Marketing” (Cover,
Forbes, 05.08) Novartis: #4 best seller, Lamisil, toe fungus, $850 for
3-month treatment, “Digger Dermatophyte” (Forbes) $42 billion on
R&D, $46 billion on marketing and admin. Salespeople: up 100,000 in
last 10 years, 1 per 9 docs vs 1 per 18 docs. (Forbes) Clinical trials
favor sponsor’s drug 90% of the time. “The comparative studies
are a joke.” —Dr Jack Rosenblatt (Forbes)
“Psychiatric Drugs Fare Favorably When Companies Pay for
Studies” (headline, USA Today. 05.25) 57% of studies paid by drug
companies, up from 25% in 1992. Favorable outcome for sponsor:
78%. Sponsored by neutral: 48%. Sponsored by competitor: 28%.
USA Today /American Psychiatric Association)
“Hey, You Don’t Look So Good: As diagnoses of once-rare illnesses
soar, doctors say drugmakers are ‘disease-mongering’ to boost
sales” (feature, BusinessWeek, 05.08)
Intractable
Problems
Other
“Hazardous To Your Health” (New York Times Op-ed on
High Fructose Corn Syrup, 04.11); 112,000
deaths/year, $75 billion/per year associated with too
much fat; 2/3rd of Americans over-weight, 1/3rd children
“Call for Switch to Preventive Measures as 29 billion
[pound] Cost of Heart Disease is Revealed” (headline,
The Independent, 05.15)
“The Fat Police” “Obesity Tests: Every four-year-old
in the country to be officially screened” (headline,
The Independent, 05.21)
“The Politics of Fat” (headline, Time, 03.27); childhood
obesity up
3X
in 25 years
MI
Healthcar
e
STATE OF
EMERGENCY
Funding …………………........... N.A.
Access …………………………… N.A.
Execution of chosen task … D
Priorities ……………………...... F
Big Pharma …………………..... D-
Funding …………………........... N.A.
Access …………………………… N.A.
Execution of chosen task … D
Priorities ……………………...... F
Big Pharma …………………..... DQuality: F
Scientific basis for action: C-/D
Funding …………………........... N.A.
Access …………………………… N.A.
Execution of chosen task … D
Priorities ……………………...... F
Big Pharma …………………..... DEmphasis on Acute care: C
De-emphasis of WPC/WellnessPrevention-Chronic care: F (F-??)
Funding …………………........... N.A.
Access …………………………… N.A.
Execution of chosen task … D
Priorities ……………………...... F
Big Pharma …………………..... D“Me too”: DOvercomplexity/Drug discovery: DDisease creation: DHiring pretty girls: A
Hiring lotsa pretty girls: A
Funding …………………........... N.A.
Access …………………………… N.A.
Execution of chosen task … D
Priorities ……………………...... F
Big Pharma …………………..... D-
Bust
fat docs!
Report
Card.
Re-imagine Healthcare: Reportcard2006
Evidence-based/Outcomes-based ……………….………...... D
Pay-for-performance ………………………………………….… D
IS/IT (general) ………………………………..………………..…. CUse of information (for decisionmaking-measurement) .… CEMR (Electronic Medical Records) ……………………..….... D
CPOE (Computerized Physician Order Entry) ……….……. C-/D
Quality/100K+ unnecessary deaths …………..……… D-(kind)
Acute care to chronic care-home care shift ………….….... D/DAcute-care to Prevention/Wellness Obsession…..… FPatient-centric/Client-centric………………………………….. D
Docs’ acceptance of “evidence-based” …………............… D/D“Revolutionary”-intensity Incentives re evidence …..……. DChildhood obesity epidemic …………………………….. DH5N1 preparedness ………………………………….…….. D
Corporate focus on Prevention/Wellness…………..…..…..... C-/D
Individual focus on Prevention/Wellness…………………..… D
Individuals’ health education/self-management …….…...…. C-
Workforce acceptance of self-responsibility ….…….…...….. CWorkforce transition to “Brand You” attitude……..……..….. C-/D
3 March 2006/Tom Peters
Wash your hands.
Apply #50 sunscreen.
Banish trans fat
Banish high fructose corn syrup.
Exercise “30-7.”
Breathe.
Stockpile for H5N1.* (*not Tamiflu!)
Avoid hospitalization.
Take charge of your health.
Health:
Century21.Job # 1
Quality!
Prevention!
Wellness!
Chronic care!
Childhood obesity!
H5N1!
Quality!
Prevention!
Wellness!
Chronic care!
Childhood obesity!
H5N1!
2 38
m
s
Welcome to the Homer Simpson Hospital
a/k/a
The Killing
Fields
“When I climb Mount
Rainier I face less
risk of death than
I’ll face on the
operating table.”
—Don Berwick, “Six Keys to Safer Hospitals: A Set of Simple Precautions
Could Prevent 100,000 Needless Deaths Every Year,” Newsweek (1212.2005)
The Ultimate “Culture Change”
“Healthcare”
vs.
“Health”
Quality (100K+ deaths)
“Evidence/Outcomes-based” medicine
IS/IT-in-health(care) revolution
Wellness/Prevention
Health“care” to Health “culture” transformation
Wash your hands!
Home-care (as the population rapidly ages)
Med-school re-orientation
“Public health” emphasis
Childhood Obesity
Mind-boggling (15 years?) social-moral-technological
impact of life sciences (“the Singularity”?)
H5N1/WMDs/Environmental degradation
Risk assessment (private, public)
Market opportunity
Public vs/+ Private responsibilities & partnerships
Africa! (Unconscionable failure to attend to/staggering Health consequences for all)
Re-imagine Healthcare: Reportcard2006
Evidence-based/Outcomes-based ……………….………...... D
Pay-for-performance ………………………………………….… D
IS/IT (general) ………………………………..………………..…. CUse of information (for decisionmaking-measurement) .… CEMR (Electronic Medical Records) ……………………..….... C-/D
CPOE (Computerized Physician Order Entry) ……….……. C-/D
Quality/100K+ unnecessary deaths …………..……… D-(kind)
Acute care to chronic care-home care shift ………….….... D/DAcute-care to Prevention/Wellness Obsession…..… D/DPatient-centric/Client-centric………………………………….. D
Docs’ acceptance of “evidence-based” …………............… D/D“Revolutionary”-intensity Incentives re evidence …..……. DChildhood obesity epidemic …………………………….. DH5N1 preparedness ………………………………….…….. D
Corporate focus on Prevention/Wellness…………..…..…..... C-/D
Individual focus on Prevention/Wellness…………………..… D
Individuals’ health education/self-management …….…...…. C-
Workforce acceptance of self-responsibility ….…….…...….. CWorkforce transition to “Brand You” attitude……..……..….. C-/D
3 March 2006/Tom Peters
Tommy Thompson: take
your
meds; chronic illness
75% to 80%; “curative
healthcare system” to
“prevention system”
Source: Advertising Age, 05.08.06
Quality!
Prevention!
Wellness!
Chronic care!
Childhood obesity!
H5N1!
Childhood
Obesity >
Terrorism
Source: Mike Levitt
Bust
fat docs!
Wash your hands.
Apply #50 sunscreen.
Banish trans fat
Banish high fructose corn syrup.
Exercise “30-7.”
Breathe.
Stockpile for H5N1.* (*not Tamiflu!)
Avoid hospitalization.
Take charge of your health.
“Sanitary revolution”:
mortality in major cities
down
55%
between 1850 and 1915
Source: Tom Farley & Deborah Cohen, Prescription for a Healthy Nation
“If God spoke to me by saying, ‘Mark, you’re down to
your last three words: What would you want to say to
your fellow humans that would make the most positive
impact?’ It would be a close call between Love Thy
Wash Your
Hands .
Neighbor and
A close third would be Move,
Move, Move.”
—Mark Pettus, M.D., The Savvy Patient
“The most important thing you can do to keep
from getting sick is to
hands. ”
wash your
—CDC/National Center for Infectious Diseases
Tommy Thompson: take
your
meds; chronic illness
75% to 80%; “curative
healthcare system” to
“prevention system”
Source: Advertising Age, 05.08.06
The
Irreducible209
188. Handshake. (Quantity. Quality.)
189. Don’t fold your hands in front of
your chest. Ever. (Never.)
190. Simplicity. Redundancy. Resilience.
Bloody-mindedness. Visible
optimism. (Success.) (Repeat.)
Employee Entrance =
Guest Entrance.
192. Put the customer SECOND.
191.
(Thanks, Hal.)
193. Flowers. (Or did I say that before?
No matter if I did.)
194. Big Mergers don’t work. Small
acquisitions can/do work—if you
don’t screw with their energy.
VALUE
ADDED
#12
EXCELLENCE.
LEADING.
Leadership23
Leadership23/ML
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Enthusiasm. Energy. Exuberance.
Action. Execution.
Tempo. Metabolism.
Relentless.
Master of Plan B.
Accountability.
Meritocracy.
Leaders “do” people. Mentor. (“Success
creation business.”)
9. Women. Diversity.
10. Integrity. Credibility. Humanity. Grace.
11. Realism.
12. Cause. Adventures. Quests.
Leadership23/ML
13. Legacy.
14. Best story wins.
15. On the edge. (“Wildest chimera of a
moonstruck mind.”)
16. “Reward excellent failures. Punish
mediocre successes.”
17. Different > Better. (“Only ones who do
what we do.”)
18. MBWA. Customer MBWA.
19. Laughs.
20. Repot. Curiosity. Why?
21. You = Calendar. “To Don’t.” Two.
22. Excellence. Always.
23. Nelsonian! (“Other admirals more afraid
of losing than anxious to win.”)
Leadership23/ML
1. Enthusiasm. Energy. Exuberance.
2. Action. Execution.
3. Tempo. Metabolism.
4. Relentless.
5. Master of Plan B.
6. Accountability.
7. Meritocracy.
8. Leaders “do” people. Mentor. (“Success creation business.”)
9. Women. Diversity.
10. Integrity. Credibility. Humanity. Grace.
11. Realism.
12. Cause. Adventures. Quests.
13. Legacy.
14. Best story wins.
15. On the edge. (“Wildest chimera of a moonstruck mind.”)
16. “Reward excellent failures. Punish mediocre successes.”
17. Different > Better. (“Only ones who do what we do.”)
18. MBWA. Customer MBWA.
19. Laughs.
20. Repot. Curiosity. Why?
21. You = Calendar. “To Don’t.” Two.
22. Excellence. Always.
23. Nelsonian! (“Other admirals more afraid of losing
than anxious to win.”)
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!
Sir Richard’s Rules:
Follow your passions.
Keep it simple.
Get the best people to help you.
Re-create yourself.
Play.
Source: Fortune on Branson
Message clarity = CALENDAR +
MBWA + Language + Perceived
INTENSITY/ENTHUSIASM/
ENERGY + Concrete-Visible
support + Prototypes +
Tolerance for Failure/“Good
losses” + Promotions + Tempo +
Resilience + Celebration +
Perceived RELENTLESSNESS +
Training
“No leader sets out to be a
leader per se, but rather to
express him- or herself freely
and fully. That is leaders have
no interest in proving
themselves, but an abiding
interest in expressing
themselves.” —Warren Bennis, On Becoming a
Leader
Let Us
March
Tom Peters/0523.06
“The pen is mightier
than the sword, but
nothing compares
with the vocal cord.”
—DAW/Vineyard Gazette
“The problem with
communication ...is the
ILLUSION that it has
been accomplished.”
—George Bernard Shaw
“Speech is
power: speech is
to persuade, to
convert, to
compel.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Everyone lives by
selling something.”
—Robert Louis Stevenson
“If you don’t
listen, you don’t
sell anything.”
—Carolyn Marland/Managing Director/Guardian Group
“If all my possessions
were taken from me with
one exception, I would
choose to keep the
power of speech, for
by it I would regain all
the rest.”
—Daniel Webster
“The only reason
to give a speech
is to change the
world.”
—JFK
“In classical times when
Cicero had finished speaking,
the people said, ‘How well he
spoke,’ but when
Demosthenes had finished
speaking, they said, ‘Let
march.’”
us
—Adlai Stevenson
Let us
march.
“Nothing is so
contagious as
enthusiasm.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge
“It’s always
showtime.”
—David D’Alessandro, Career Warfare
Message clarity = CALENDAR +
MBWA + Language + Perceived
INTENSITY/ENTHUSIASM/
ENERGY + Concrete-Visible
support + Prototypes +
Tolerance for Failure/“Good
losses” + Promotions + Tempo +
Resilience + Celebration +
Perceived RELENTLESSNESS +
Training
“No leader sets out to be a
leader per se, but rather to
express him- or herself freely
and fully. That is leaders have
no interest in proving
themselves, but an abiding
interest in expressing
themselves.” —Warren Bennis,
On Becoming a Leader
EXCELLENCE.
STRETCH.
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
EXCELLENCE.
KABOOM.
“Beware of the tyranny
of making Small Changes
to Small Things. Rather,
make Big Changes to
Big Things.”
—Roger Enrico, former Chairman, PepsiCo
Five MYTHS About Changing Behavior
*Crisis is a powerful impetus for change
*Change is motivated by fear
*The facts will set us free
*Small, gradual changes
are always easier to
make and sustain
*We can’t change because our brains become
“hardwired” early in life
Source: Fast Company/05.2005
“Reward excellent
failures. Punish
mediocre
successes.”
Phil Daniels, Sydney exec
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!
Stay Hungry.
Stay Foolish.
Steve Jobs
EXCELLENCE.
OFFENSE.
“[Other]
admirals more
frightened of
losing than anxious
to win”
Nelson’s secret:
EXCELLENCE.
TRANSCENDENCE.
THRILLS.
Radically Thrilling Language!
“Radically
Thrilling.”
—BMW Z4 (ad)
C
O*
*Chief Thrills Officer
Synonyms
Purity
Transcendence
Virtue
Elegance
Majesty
Antonyms
Mediocrity
C
O*
*Chief Transcendence Officer
EXCELLENCE.
WOW. NOW.
C
O*
*Chief WOW Officer
C
*Chief
O
!
Officer
“It’s always
showtime.”
—David D’Alessandro, Career Warfare
EXCELLE
ALWAYS
EXCELLENCE.
LET.
US.
MARCH.
“In classical times when
Cicero had finished speaking,
the people said, ‘How well he
spoke,’ but when
Demosthenes had finished
speaking, they said, ‘Let
march.’”
us
—Adlai Stevenson
Let us
march.
“Never doubt that a small
group of committed
people can change the
world. Indeed it is
the only thing that ever
has.”
—Margaret Mead
“A year from now
you may wish
You had
started today.”
—Karen Lamb
EXCELLE
ALWAYS
“It’s always
showtime.”
—David D’Alessandro, Career Warfare
You only find
oil if you drill
wells.
—T he Hunters, by John Masters,
Canadian O & G wildcatter
“I don’t
know
if ‘it’ is possible.’
I do know it’s
‘necessary.’”
TP/Chile:
VALUE
ADDED
#13
The
Irreducible209+/
Sales122/60TIBs
Tom Peters/0607.2006
The
Irreducible209
A frustrated participant at a seminar for investment bankers in Mauritius listened
impatiently to my explanation of differences of opinion among me, Mike Porter,
“What,
if anything,” he asked,
“do you believe ‘for
sure’?”
Gary Hamel, Jim Collins, etc. Finally, he’d had enough.
I mumbled something, but his query started rumbling
around in my mind. Three days later, wandering on a Sunday in London, the idea of
“the irreducibles” occurred to
me—and I started jotting down notes on stuff I do indeed believe “for sure.” Before
I knew it, a few days later, the list had grown to 209 items. Hence “The
Irreducible209” that follows.
Tom Peters
1.
2.
3.
4.
Hare 1, Tortoise 0. (Hare-y times.)
Tempo. (O.O.D.A.)
MBWA.
Appreciation. (“Motivator” #1.)
(Can’t be faked. Good.)
5. Decency.
6. Hurry.
7. Time out.
8. One matters.
9. Big change. Short time. (Alt not work.)
10. Excellence. Always.
11. Passion. Energy. Hustle. Enthusiasm.
Exuberance. (Move mountains. No alt.)
12. You must care.
13. Emotion.
14. Hard is soft. (Soft is hard.)
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
Men. Women. Different. Contend. Connect.
Women. Buy. All. (RU listening?)
Quality. (“Mind-blowing.” Beyond 6-Sigma.)
Re-invent. Re-pot. (Required.)
Jaywalk.
Big change. Small # of people. (Always.)
Experiment. Now.
Failure. Normal.
Most failures, most success.
(Fail. Forward. Fast.)
24. “Reward excellent failures. Punish
mediocre successes.”
25. Women leaders. (Altered times.)
26. Extremism. (Good business. Bad politics.)
27. Innovation source. Only. Extreme irritation.
28. Smile.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
You must care.
Mentor. (Highest ROI.)
Best “roster” wins.
Wow. (Okay in biz.)
We all have customers. (Biz. Personal.)
All contacts = Experiences.
Cirque du Soleil. (Peerless.)
Leaders create space for growth.
Quests. (Only.)
High aspirations, “high” results.
(Self-fulfilling prophecy.)
39. Attitude 1, Skills 0. (Mostly.)
(Attitude 1, Skill 0.3?)
40. Sometimes: Skill 1, Attitude 0.1.
41. Must “love,” not “like.”
42. Wegmans.” (No excuses. “Mere” groceries.)
43. Less than your best. Cheating.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
54.
55.
Brand You. (No alt.)
Self-sufficiency. (Biggest LT turn-on.)
In the moment.
The moment wins.
Tomorrow = Never.
Action 1, Plan 0.1.
“Execution” can be a “system.”
Realism.
Own up. Move on.
Accountability.
Work hard > Work smart. (Mostly.)
Feedback. Necessary. Fast. (R.F.A. in
“RFA times.”)
56. Customers. Listen. Lead. (Paradox.)
57. “On stage.” Always. (GW, FDR, RG =
Supreme actors.)
58.
59.
60.
61.
62.
63.
64.
65.
66.
Master statistical analysis.
Excellence = Set the table.
Legacy. (Will it have mattered?)
“Great.” (Why not?)
Radicals rule. (Think … Olympics.)
!!! = Good.
Red 1, Brown 0. (Red times.)
Talk. Listen. (“Big 2.” Master.)
Politics. (Normal-inevitable state
of affairs. Master.)
67. Student. Forever.
68. “Why?” (Question #1.)
69. Don’t belittle.
70. Respect.
71. All we have: this moment.
(“Moments matter most”?)
72. Now. (Procrastination. Death.)
73.
74.
75.
76.
Exercise.
Paint. (Leader. Portraits of Excellence.)
Best story wins.
“You must be the change you wish
to see in the world.”
77. Two “big ones.” Max. (Priorities.)
78. No “I” in Team. (“I” in Win.)
79. “I” in Win. (No “I” in Team.)
80. Different 1, Better 0. (Better = 0.1)
81. Imitation = Mistake. (Learn, from who?)
82. Choose/battle the “right” competitor.
83. Schools. Creativity. Entrepreneurship.
(Not.)
84. MBAs. Creativity. Entrepreneurship.
Leadership. (Not.)
85. Design. Under-rated. Wildly.
(Still.) (Everything.)
86.
87.
88.
89.
You = Calendar. (Calendar. Never. Lies.)
Laugh.
Handshake. (Quantity. Quality.)
Don’t fold your hands in front of your
chest. Ever. (Never.)
90. Grace. (“Works” in biz.)
91. Weird. Wins. (Weird times.)
92. Crazy times. Crazy orgs.
93. Internet. All.
94. Women. Boomers-Geezers. Market. All.
95. Passion.
(Repeat. So what?)
96. Energy.
(Repeat. So what?)
97. Hustle.
(Repeat. So what?)
98. Enthusiasm. (Repeat. So what?)
99. Exuberance. (Repeat. So what?)
100. Smile.
(Repeat. So what?)
101. Care.
(Repeat. So what?)
102. Simplicity. Redundancy. Resilience. Bloodymindedness. Visible optimism. (Success.)
103. Act. (Repeat. So what?)
104. Appreciate. (Repeat. So what?)
105. Fun. (Biz. Why not?)
106. Joy. (Biz. Why not?)
107. Sales = Life.
108. Marketing = Life.
109. Long-term. “Top line.”
110. Great company = Creates the most
individual success stories. (RE/MAX)
111. Talent first, performance byproduct.
112. Sustained Wow* 1, “Shareholder
value,” 0.2 (*Product, People.)
113. Commitment, by invitation only.
114. Creativity, by invitation only.
115. HR = #1. (Ought to.)
116. Face-to-face. (5K miles, 5 minutes.)
117. Negotiation. Make all winners.
(Save face.)
118. Grace makes enemies friends.
119. Network.
120. Invest in relationships. (Think ROIR.
Return On Investment in Relationships.)
118. Relationship investment. Forethought.
Calendar item. Intensity.
119. Innovation. Easy. (Hang out
with weird.)
120. Weird = Win. (Weird times.)
121. “The bottleneck is at the top
of the bottle.”
122. Good Board = Weird Board.
(At least, surprising.)
123. No contention, no progress.
124. “Crucial conversations.” “Crucial
confrontations.” (Study. Learn. Do.)
125. Honest feedback.
126. Gaspworthy. Yes.
127. “Insanely great.”
128. “Astonish me.”
129. “Make it immortal.”
130. “Will you remember it in 20 years?”
131. No small opportunities. (Reframe.)
132. One playmate, one playpen = Enough.
133. End run. Sensible.
134. Allies are there for the finding.
135. Find successes. Build on successes.
(Pos > Neg. Encourage > Fix.)
136. Somebody’s doing it today. Find ’em.
137. Someone is living 2016 in 2006.
(Find ’em. Study ’em.)
138. Don’t “benchmark,” “futuremark.”
(2016. Happening. Somewhere.)
139. “PMA.” It works.
140. There are no experts. (You are the expert.)
141. Life is short.
142. “Sustained success.” Fat chance.
Make today matter. (“Sustained.” Ha.)
143. Collaborate. (Networked world.)
144. Go solo. (Individual. Unit of
Intellectual Capital.)
145. There are no “perfect” plans. (Do. Wins.)
146. Plans motivate. (Right or wrong.
Sense of purpose.)
147. Never rest.
148. Get some sleep.
149. Winning = Embracing paradox.
150. Ambiguity = Opportunity.
151. Resilience.
152. Relentless-ness.
153. None. Above. Comeuppance.
(GM. Sears. U.S. Steel. DEC.)
154. Be yourself. Period.
155. Never work with jerks. Including
customers. (Life. Too short.)
156. Under-promise, over-deliver.
157. Talent. (Powerful word.)
158. “Customer = Anyone whose actions
affect your results.”
159. Competition stinks. (Seek the soft
spots where you can dominate.)
160. K.I.S.S./Keep It Simple, Stupid.
161. Beauty. (Good biz word.)
162. “See the beauty in a hamburger bun.”
(Go. Ray.)
163.
164.
165.
166.
Own up. Quick. ( Denial. Cancer.)
Celebrate. Often.
78 people = 78 approaches. (Each. Unique.)
Weed. Ceaselessly. (Prune. Stupid.
Rules. Non-stop.)
167. Get out of the way. (You = The problem.)
168. Smile. Sunny. Optimism. (If it kills you.)
169. Flowers. (Cheery workplace.)
170. Enjoy. (Or get the hell.)
171. Be intolerant of “sour.” (1 = Major pollution)
172. No “quick trigger” on promotion.
(Too important.)
173. Evaluation = Lots of study-time.
174. Evaluation = “Life or death” to evaluee.
175. “360” evaluation. No fad.
176. Exit when you’re done. (Done.
Sooner than you think.)
177. Today. Now. My Project. Am. Is. I. Period.
178. “Beautiful” systems. (Good biz phrase.
Not oxymoron.)
179. Build on strengths > Fix weaknesses.
180. “To don’t” = “To do.” (“To don’t” >
“To do” ?)
181. Leaders “Do” People. (Period.)
182. Leaders enjoy leading.
183. Serious leadership training = Serious.
184. Priorities. Obvious. (Or else.)
185. 5 “Priorities” = 0 Priorities.
(3 “Priorities” = 0 Priorities?)
186. People. First. Last. Always.
187. It. Is. Always. The. People.
188. Handshake. (Quantity. Quality.)
189. Don’t fold your hands in front of
your chest. Ever. (Never.)
190. Simplicity. Redundancy. Resilience.
Bloody-mindedness. Visible
optimism. (Success.) (Repeat.)
191. Employee Entrance = Guest
Entrance.
192. Put the customer SECOND.
(Thanks, Hal.)
193. Flowers. (Or did I say that before?
No matter if I did.)
194. Big Mergers don’t work. Small
acquisitions can/do work—if you
don’t screw with their energy.
195. Instinctively “head for the front
line.” (In all contexts.)
196. Success = DDMMPR/"D-squared,
M-squared, PR” = DramDiff +
Money-Financial Acumen + Good
“Marketing” Instincts + Stellar People
+ Resilience (The “fab five”: What.
Every. Small. Biz. Needs.) (Big too.)
197. Core Mechanism (“Game-changing
Solutions”): PSF (Professional Service
Firm “model”) + Wow! Projects
(“Different” vs “Better”) + Brand You
(“Distinct” or “Extinct”)
198. 2011/2016 has already happened.
Find it.
199. Kids “know” kids. Oldies “know” oldies.
Women “know” women. (Staff
accordingly.)
200. Everybody is my customer.
201. Cosset “vendors.”
202. I want to run a Housekeeping department.
(And you?)
203. The military doesn’t follow the “military
model.” (Initiative = Excellence.)
204. No such thing as “going to absurd lengths”
to serve the Customer. (HSM & Lefties.)
205. Forget the “customer.” All = “Clients.”
206. It takes decades to get over “sleights.”
(So don’t sleight.)
207. Don’t “dumb down.” Ever.
NO LESS THAN
EXCELLENCE.
EVER.
209. EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
208.
Work In Progress
XXX. One size fits. One. Only. (Evaluations. Period.)
XXX. Teaching. Individualized. Only. (6 billion people =
6 billion learning trajectories.) (Montessori.)
XXX. First impression. Matters. Shapes all that comes.
Hard to overcome. (Understatement.)
XXX. Jerks. Don’t work with. (Life = Too short.)
XXX. Manage [the hell out of] first impressions.
XXX. Last impression. Matters. Dominates memory.
Hard to overcome. (Understatement.)
XXX. Manage [the hell out of] last impressions.
XXX. Plain English.
XXX. K.I.S.S. (450/8.)
XXX. $798. $55,000,000,000. 3,000,000,000.
7AM-7PM. 6:15AM.
XXX. Donnelly Weatherstrip rules.
XXX. Managers do things right. Leaders do the
right thing. NOT.
Work In Progress
XXX. One size fits. One. Only. (Evaluations. Period.)
XXX. Teaching. Individualized. Only. (6 billion people =
6 billion learning trajectories.) (Montessori.)
XXX. First impression. Matters. Shapes all that comes.
Hard to overcome. (Understatement.)
XXX. Jerks. Don’t work with. (Life = Too short.)
XXX. Manage [the hell out of] first impressions.
XXX. Last impression. Matters. Dominates memory.
Hard to overcome. (Understatement.)
XXX. Manage [the hell out of] last impressions.
XXX. Plain English.
XXX. K.I.S.S. (450/8.)
XXX. $798. $55,000,000,000. 3,000,000,000.
7AM-7PM. 6:15AM.
XXX. Donnelly Weatherstrip rules.
XXX. Managers do things right. Leaders do the
right thing. NOT.
GE
(more or less)
:
The Sales122:
122 Ridiculously
Obvious Thoughts
About Selling Stuff
Tom Peters/0402.2006
This list was first prepared for GE Energy
sales & marketing people in January. It
started with a half-dozen items, and grew
like Topsy. Possibly, given its origins, it’s a
little tilted toward complex, engineeringbased sales. In any event, it makes a perfect
companion to “The Irreducibles209.” This,
too, is effectively a list of “irreducibles.”
Tom Peters
1. “Strategy” overrated, simply “doin’ stuff” underrated. See
Kelleher and Bossidy: “We have a ‘strategic plan,’ it’s called
doing things.”—Herb Kelleher. “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. Action has its own logic—ask Genghis Khan,
Rommel, COL John Boyd, U.S. Grant, Patton, W.T. Sherman.
2. What are you personally great at? (Key word: “great.”) Play
to strengths! “Distinct or Extinct.” You should aim to be
“outrageously good”/B.I.W. at a niche area (or more).
3. Are you a “personality,” a de facto “brand” in the industry?
The Dr Phil of ...
4. Opportunism (with a little forethought) mostly wins.
(“Successful people are the ones who are good at Plan B.”)
5. Little starts can lead to big wins. Most true winners—think
search & Google—start as something small. Many big deals—
Disney & Pixar—could have been done as little-er deals if you’d
had the guts to jump before the value became obvious.
6. Non-obvious targets have great potential. Among many
other things, everybody goes after the obvious ones. Also,
the “non-obvious” are often good Partners for technology
experiments.
7. The best relationships are often (usually?) not “top to
top”! (Often the best: hungry division GMs eager to make a
mark.)
8. IT’S RELATIONSHIPS, STUPID—DEEP AND FROM MULTIPLE
FUNCTIONS.
9. In any public-sector business, you must become an avid
student of “the politics,” the incentives and constraints,
mostly non-economic, facing all of the players. Politicians are
usually incredibly logical—if you (deeply!) understand the
matrix in which they exist.
10. Relationships from within our firm are as important—
often more important—as those from outside—again broad is
as important as deep. Allies—avid supporters!—within and
from non-obvious places may be more important than
relationships at the Client organization. Goal: an “insanely
unfair ‘market share’” of insiders’ time devoted to your
projects!
“Everyone lives by
selling something.”
—Robert Louis Stevenson
11. Interesting outsiders are essential to innovative proposal
and sales teams. An “exciting” sales-proposal team is as
important as a prestigious one.
12. Is the proposal-sales team weird enough—weirdos come
up with the most interesting, game-changer ideas. Period.
13. Lunch with at least one weirdo per month. (Goal: always
on the prowl for interesting new stuff.)
14. Gratuitous comment: Lunches with good friends are
typically a waste of (professional) time.
15. Don’t short-change (time, money, depth) the proposal
process. Miss one tiny nuance, one potential incentive that
“makes my day” for a key Client player—and watch the whole
gig be torpedoed.
16. “Sticking with it” sometimes pays, sometimes not—it
takes a lot of tries to forge the best path in. Sometimes you
never do, after a literal lifetime. (Ah, life.)
17. WOMEN ARE SIMPLY BETTER AT RELATIONSHIPS—don’t
get hung up—particularly in tech firms—on what industriescountries “women can’t do.” (Or some such bullshit.)
18. Work incessantly on your “story”—most economic value
springs from a good story (think Perrier)! In sensitive public
or quasi-public negotiations, a compelling story is of immense
value—politics is about the tension among competing stories.
(If you don’t believe me, ask Karl Rove or James Carville.)
(“Storytelling is the core of culture.” —Branded Nation: The
Marketing of Megachurch, College Inc., and Museumworld,
James Twitchell)
19. Call this 18A, or 18 repeat: Become a first-rate
Storyteller! (“A key – perhaps the key – to leadership is the
effective communication of a story.”—Howard Gardner,
Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership)
20. Risk Assessment & Risk Management is more about
stories than advanced math—i.e., brilliant scenario
construction.
21. Good listeners are good sales people. Period.
22. Lousy listeners are lousy sales people. Period.
23. GREAT LISTENERS ARE GREAT SALES PEOPLE. (Listening
“skills” are hard to learn and subject to immense effort in
pursuit of Mastery. A virtuoso “listener” is as rare as a
virtuoso cello player.) (“If you don’t listen, you don’t sell
anything.”—Carolyn Marland/MD/Guardian Group)
24. Things that are funny to me (American) are often-mostly not
funny to those in other cultures. (Humor is as fine-edged as it
gets, and rarely travels.)
25. You don’t know Jack Squat about other peoples’ cultures—
especially if you are a typically myopic American. (Like me.)
26. Are you a great interviewer? It’s a make or break skill.
(Think Barbara Walters’ skill at extracting unwanted truths from
pros in persona-protection ... in front of 10s of millions of
people.
27. Are you a great (not merely “good”) presenter? Mastering
presentation skills is a life’s work—with stupendous payoff.
28. Work like hell on the Big 2: LISTENING/INTERVIEWING,
PRESENTING. These are “the essence of [sales] life”—and
usually picked-up in an amateurish fashion. Mistake! (Become a
“professional student” of these two areas, achieve Mastery.)
29. Are you good at flowers? Think: FLOWER POWER! (see
Harvey Mackay’s “Mackay 66”—what you should know about a
Client; e.g., birthdays & anniversaries.) (My “flowers budget” is
out of control. Hooray for me.)
30. You can’t do it all—be clear at what you are good at, bad at,
indifferent at. Hubris sucks.
“If you don’t
listen,
you don’t sell
anything.”
—Carolyn Marland/
Managing Director/
Guardian Group
31. The point is not to “prove yourself.” (That’s ego-talk.) Let
the best person present to the Client—perhaps a “lower level”
geek. (“Control freaks” get their just desserts in the long haul—
or sooner.)
32. The numbers will more or less take care of themselves over
the long haul—if the relationship/s is/are solid gold.
33. The Gold Standard in selling: INDISPENSABLE to the Client.
No other goal is worthy.
34. Never stop growing-broadening-deepening the relationship.
The key to “indispensability” is to get the Client more and more
… and more … and then more … imbedded in “our” web. Hence
the so-called “selling process” is only the first step!
35. USE THE WORD “WE” … CONSTANTLY & RELIGIOUSLY!
(E.g.: “We”—the Client & me—“are going to change the world
with this service.”)
36. Don’t waste your time on jerks—it’ll rarely work out in the
mid- to long-term.
37. Genius is walking away from lousy “scores” (deals)—and
accepting the attendant heat. Big Business is the premier home
to Big Egos overpaying by a factor of 2 to 22 with billion$$$$ at
stake. (Think Jerry Levin and AOL Time Warner.)
38. You haven’t a clue as to how this situation will actually play
out—be prepared to move fast in a different direction.
39. Keep your word.
40. KEEP YOUR WORD.
41. Underpromise (i.e., don’t over-promise; i.e., cut yourself a
little slack) even if it costs you business—winning is a long-term
affair. Over-promising is Sign #1 of a lack of integrity. You will
pay the piper.
42. There is such a thing as a “good loss”—if you’ve tested
something new and developed good relationships. A half-dozen
honorable, ingenious losses over a two-year period can pave the
way for a Big Victory in a New Space in year 3.
43. It’s a competitive world out there. New, innovative products
are harder to sell than old stand-bys. Nonetheless, you will be a
long-term star to the extent that you are willing to push the
harder-to-sell-at-the-moment Innovative Products that cement
long-term Client success (Indispensability!) —even if it means a
#s hit this quarter. PART OF YOUR JOB: TAKE CLIENTS ON AN
ADVENTURE THAT PUTS THEM AHEAD OF THE GAME CALLED
(GAMECHANGING—hopefully) COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE!
44. Think “legacy”—what the hell is all this really about for you
and the world? (“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one
wild and precious life?”
—Mary Oliver)
45. THERE ARE NO “MODERATES” IN THE HISTORY BOOKS!
46. Keep it simple! (Damn it!) No matter how “sophisticated” the
product. If you can’t explain it in a phrase, a page, or to your 14year-old ... you haven’t got it right yet.
47. Know more than the next guy. Homework pays. (of course
it’s obvious—but in my work it is too often honored in the
breach.)
48. Regardless of project size, winning or losing invariably
hinges on a raft of “little stuff.” Little stuff is and always has
been everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!—or, “one man’s little stuff is
another man’s 7.6 Richter deal-breaker.”
49. In public settings in particular, face saving is all. When
something changes, allow the other guy to come out looking like
a winner, especially if he has lost. (Even if you must accept the
egg on your face—he will always remember you!)
50. Don’t hold grudges. (It is the ultimate in small mindedness—
and incredibly wasteful and ineffective. There’s always
tomorrow.)
51. IT’S ALWAYS “THE POLITICS”—wee private-sector deal or
giant public sector deal. (Every player, small or large, is angling
for something. Master the calculus of advantage.)
52. To beat the “turnover problem” in key Client posts amidst
long negotiations, invest outrageous amounts of time building a
wide & deep set of relationships with mid-level (& lower!!)
“plodding” “careerists.” The invisible careerists are the
bedrock upon which repeated success is built! (My “Capitol Hill
Axiom”: It’s the 24-year-old LA who in the end briefs the
Senator right before she goes to the Floor to vote.)
53. Speaking of “she”: Gender differences are Enormous—
dealing with a woman and dealing with a man are different
kettles of fish—you must become an A+ student of gender
differences. (E.g.: Men are typically more interested in the
short-term “score.” Women are more interested in the longterm consequences.)
54. “LITTLE PEOPLE” OFTEN HAVE BIG FRIENDS.
55. This is not war, damn it. All parties can win (or not lose,
anyway). And losing bidders can walk away from a deal with
increased respect for you and your team.
56. Never, ever dump on a competitor—the Tom Watson IBM
glory-days mantra.
57. Never forget the “Law of Cousins!” In developing nations
in particular, power brokers at all levels are at least cousins!
Consideration for a second cousin can pay off big time.
58. Speaking of “favors,” jail sucks.
59. Work hard beats work smart. (Mostly.)
60. REPEAT: HE/SHE WHO HAS THE MOST-BEST
RELATIONSHIPS WINS. RELATIONSHIPS ARE THE ESSENCE OF
THE WORK OF THE SALESPERSON. THE HARD ... AND LONG ...
WORK OF THE SALESPERSON.
61. Mano v mano “hardball” is seldom the answer—end runs
based and patient multi-level relationship building via deeperwider networks win.
62. If the deal is wired from below, truly wired, than the socalled “big negotiations” are essentially irrelevant.
63. If every quarter is a “little better” than the prior quarter—
then you are not taking any serious risks.
64. Phones beat email.
“Nothing is so
contagious as
enthusiasm.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge
65. A THREE-MINUTE CALL TODAY CAN AVOID A GAME-LOSER
OF A FIASCO NEXT MONTH. There was always a time when a
little thing could have been addressed that headed off a
subsequent big thing. As to avoiding that call, didn’t someone
say, “Pride goeth before the fall”?
66. Be hyper-organized about relationship management—you
are in the anthropology business. Study the great pols! Brilliant
NRM (network relationship management) is not accidental! It is
not catch-as-catch can. (Football analogies are cute—but deep
political understanding pays the private-school tuition.)
67. Obsess on ROIR (Return On Investment In Relationships).
68. “THANK YOU” NOTES: World’s highest-return investment!!
69. The way to anyone’s heart: Doing a nice thing for their kid.
(But, gawd, does this take a gentle touch.)
70. Scoring off other people is stupid. Winners are always in the
business of creating the maximum # of winners—among
adversaries at least as much as among “partners.”
71. Your colleagues’ successes are your successes. Period.
(Trust me, my greatest personal success—financially as well as
artistically—has been creating a bigger pond in which everyone
wins, even if my “market share” is down.)
72. Lend a helping hand, especially when you don’t have the
time. E.g. share relationships—the more you give away the
more you get in return (just like they say in church).
73. Listen up: “It was much later that I realized Dad’s
secret. He gained respect by giving it. He talked and listened
to the fourth-grade kids in Spring Valley who shined shoes
the same way he talked and listened to a bishop or a college
president. He was seriously interested in who you were and
what you had to say.” —Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Respect.
(I.e., Respect is Cool.)
74. Mentoring is a thrill—and the practical payoff is
enormous. The best mentors have the whole world working
its buns off for them!
75. Hire for enthusiasm. Promote for enthusiasm. Cherish
enthusiasm. REMOVE NON-ENTHUSIASTS—THEY ARE
CANCERS. (“Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm.”—
Samuel Taylor Coleridge. “A man without a smiling face
must not open a shop.”—Chinese Proverb.)
76. IT’S ALWAYS YOUR PROBLEM—you sold it to them.
77. It’s never over: While there may be an excellent service
activity in your company, the “relationship” belongs to You!
Hence the “aftersales” “moments of truth” are at least as—if
not more than*--important to the Continuing Relationship as
the sale “transaction” itself. (*I vote for “more than.”) You’ll
get your biggest “points” with the Client for being an effective
after-the-fact go-between with your company.
78. Don’t get too hung up on “systems integration”—first &
foremost, the individual bits have got to work.
79. For God’s sake don’t over promise on “systems
integration”—it’s nigh on impossible to deliver.
80. On the other hand … winners clamber Up the Value-added
Ladder, and offer ever so much more than “mere” product. ALL
SUCCESSFUL SALES PEOPLE ARE IN THE “SOLUTIONS
BUSINESS”—no matter how jargony that may sound.
81. “Systems” / “Solutions” selling means grappling directly
with “culture change” in Client organizations. (“The business of
selling is not just about matching viable solutions to the
customers that require them. It’s equally about managing the
change process the customer will need to go through to
implement the solution and achieve the value promised by the
solution”—Jeff Thull, The Prime Solution: Close the Value Gap,
Increase Margins, and Win the Complex Sale)
82. Shit happens. That’s what they pay you for.
83. This is not a “GE” or “Ben & Jerry’s” sale—it is a Joe
Jones/Jane Jones sale. YOU ARE THE “BRAND” THE CLIENT
BUYS—especially over the long haul.
84. Duh: You make money, the company makes money—on
repeat business.
85. Master—yes, you—the “PR” Game. “Word of Mouth” is not
accidental! You want Word of Mouth? Make it happen!
86. GOAL #1: MAKE YOUR CLIENT A HERO—YOU ARE NOT THERE
TO GET CREDIT. (“Taking credit” is for egomaniacs. And losers.)
87. “Decent margins,” over the mid- to long-term, are a product
of better relationships, not better “negotiating skill.” (Mostly.)
“You can’t behave
in a calm, rational
manner. You’ve got
to be out there on
the lunatic fringe.”
—Jack Welch
88. In the immortal words of ex-GE Vice Chairman Larry
Bossidy, more or less, “Realism rocks.” (“Bullshit artist” and
“great salesperson,” contrary to conventional wisdom, are
Diametric Opposites. “Truthteller” and Great Salesperson is
more like it.)
89. Be the first to tell the Client bad news (e.g., slipped
delivery); his intelligence sources will tell him fast—you want to
be there first with your story and to enhance your rep as
Truthteller!
90. Work like hell to get a reputation as a valued industry
expert, to become an industry resource.
91. Work the Trade Association angle for all its worth—it may
take a decade to pay off—e.g., when you become an officer or
are on an important panel or testify Before Congress.
92. PAY YOUR DUES IN THE CLIENT ORG AND IN YOUR OWN
ORG!
93. It’s all bloody tactics.
94. You must ... LOVE .... the product! (Period.)
95. YOU MUST LOVE THE PRODUCT!
96. Don’t over-schedule. “Running late” is inexcusable at any
level of seniority; it is the ultimate mark of self-importance
mixed with contempt.
97. Women are better salespeople. (See Addendum.)
98. Women alone understand Women.
99. Actually, Women by and large understand Men better than
Men understand Men.
100.Women purchasers buy Stories and recommendations.
101. Women take longer to become Loyal purchasers, but then
stay Loyal.
102. Men buy Stats.
103. Men decide fast, but are fickle.
104. Men & Women are … VERY, VERY … Different.
105. Women buy most things. Consumer. Increasingly,
professional goods and services.
106. Women’s Market is Opportunity #1.
107. Boomers. Many, many. Lots & lots & lots of … $$$.
108. Boomers-Geezers are very different purchasers than those
in other categories.
109. It takes time to get to know people. (DUH.)
110. The very idea of “efficiency” in relationship
development is ... STUPID.
111. MBWA (still) rules.
112. “Preparing the soil” is the “first 98 percent.” (Or
more.)
113. WORK THE PHONES!
114. Rule 5K-5M: 5K miles for a 5-Minute meeting often
makes sense. (Yes, often.) (Even with constrained travel
budgets.) (Thanks, super-agent Mark McCormack.)
115. Become a student! Study great salespeople!
(Including Presidents.) (“Natural” is a little bit true—but
then Naturals are always the ones who study hardest—
e.g., Jerry Rice.)
116. Become a student! Yes, you can study Relationship
Building. So, study …
117. Beware complexifiers and complicators. (Truly
“smart people” ... Simplify things.)
118. The smartest guy in the room rarely wins—alas,
he usually is aware he’s the
smartest guy. (And needn’t waste his time on
that “soft relationship crap.”)
119. Be kind. It works.
120. Be especially kind when there are screw-ups.
(There’s plenty of time later to
Play the Great Accountability Game.)
121. Presidents never tire of being treated like
Presidents.
122. Luck matters.
So: Good luck!
ADDENDUM: Women Rock … as Salespersons (From Item
#98.)
And the answers are?
“TAKE THIS QUICK QUIZ: Who manages more things at
once? Who puts more effort into their appearance?
Who usually takes care of the details? Who finds it
easier to meet new people? Who asks more questions
in a conversation? Who is a better listener? Who has
more interest in communication skills? Who is more
inclined to get involved? Who encourages harmony and
agreement? Who has better intuition? Who works
with a longer ‘to do’ list? Who enjoys a recap to the
day’s events? Who is better at keeping in touch with
others?”
Source: Selling Is a Woman’s Game: 15 Powerful
Reasons Why Women Can Outsell Men, Nicki Joy & Susan
Kane-Benson
Tom’s
60TIBs*
*TIB = This I Believe
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
1. TECHNICOLOR RULES!
(Passion Moves Mountains!)
2. Audacity Matters!
3. Revolution Now!
4. Question Authority! (& Hire
Disrespectful People.)
5. Disorganization Wins! (LOVE
THE MESS!)
6. Think 3M: Markets Matter Most. ONLY EXTREME
COMPETITION STAVES OFF STALENESS. (You can
take the boy out of Silicon Valley, but you can’t take
Silicon Valley out of the boy!)
7. Three Hearty Cheers for Weirdos. (Bill Gates, Steve
Jobs, Larry Ellison, Scott McNealy, Craig Venter
et al.)
8. Message 2003: Technology Change (Info-sciences,
Biosciences) Is in Its Infancy! (WE AIN’T SEEN
NOTHIN’ YET!)
9. Everything Is Up For Grabs! Volatility Is Thy Name!
(Forever & Ever. Amen.) RE-INVENT … OR DIE!
10. Big Sucks. (Mostly.) (VERY Mostly.)
11. “Permanence” Is a Snare & a Delusion.
(Forget “Built to Last.” It’s Yesterday’s
Idea.)
12. Kaizen” (Continuous Improvement) Is …
Dangerous.
13. DESTRUCTION RULES!
14. Forget It! (“Learning” = Easy. “Forgetting” =
Nigh on Impossible.)
15. Innovation Is Easy: Hang Out with Freaks.
(Employees, Board Members, Customers,
Suppliers, Alliance Partners, Consultants.)
16. Boring Begets Boring. (Cool Begets Cool.)
17. Think “Portfolio.” (We’re All V.C.s.)
18. Perception Is All There Is. (“Insiders” …
ALWAYS … overestimate the Radicalism of
What They’re Up To.)
19. Action … ALWAYS … Takes Precedence.
Think: R.F!A./Ready. Fire! Aim. (REWARD
SUCCESS. REWARD FAILURE. PUNISH …
INACTION.)
20. He Who Makes & Tests the Quickest &
Coolest Prototypes Reigns!
21. Haste Makes Waste. (SO GO WASTE!)
22. Screw-ups are … the … Mark of Excellence.
(“Do It Right the First Time” Is a Very Stupid
Idea.)
23. Play Hard! Play Now! (Cherish Play!)
24. TALENT TIME! (He/She Who Has the Best
“Roster” Rules!)
25. Re-do Education. Totally. (FOSTER
CREATIVITY … NOT UNIFORMITY.) (THE
NOISIEST CLASSROOM WINS.)
26. Diversity’s Hour Is Now!
27. SHE … Is the Best Leader!
28. MARKETING MANTRA: Embrace the “BIG THREE”
Demographics. (1) SHE … is the Customer. (For
everything.) (2) Rapidly Aging Boomers Have …
ALL THE MONEY. (3) Green … Matters.
(TRILLIONS OF $$$$$ Are at Stake.) (NOBODY …
Gets It.) (Mere “Programs” Will Not Suffice.)
29. Re-boot Healthcare. (UNDERSTATEMENT.)
30. WHAT ARE WE SELLING? “Experiences” &
“Solutions” > “Quality” & “Satisfaction.” (The
Traditional Value-added Equation Is Being Set on
Its Ear.)
31. DESIGN = New Seat of the Soul.
32. Branding Is for … EVERYONE. He Who Has
the … BEST STORY … Takes Home the
Marbles.
33. DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE = Only Difference.
34. WORDS/Language Matters … a Lot. (E.g.:
Three Hearty Cheers for “Wow”!)
35. WHAT MATTERS IS STUFF THAT MATTERS.
(Query #1: “Are You Proud of It?”)
36. eALL. (IS/IT: Half-way = No Way.)
37. DREAM … Big! DREAM … Enormous.
DREAM … Gargantuan. (These Are XXXL
Times.)
38. THINK MIKE! (Michelangelo: “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.”)
39. There Is Only … ONE BIG ISSUE. Crossfunctional Communication.
40. Stop Doing Dumb Shit. (SYSTEMATIZE THE
PROCESS OF “UN-DUMBING.”)
41. Beautiful Systems Are … BEAUTIFUL.
42. The … WHITE-COLLAR REVOLUTION … Will
Devour Everything in Its Path.
43. Take Charge of Your Destiny! BrandYou
Moment! DISTINCT … OR EXTINCT!
44. “Powerlessness” Is a State of Mind! Think:
King. Gandhi. De Gaulle.
45. Pursue Adventure … in Every Task.
46. EXCELLENCE … Is a State of Mind.
(Excellence Takes a Minute.) (No Bull.)
47. SHOW UP! (If You Care, You’re There.)
48. YOUR CALENDAR KNOWS ALL. (You =
Calendar.) (Mind Your “TO DON’T” List.)
49. LIFE IS SALES. (The Rest Is Details.)
50. Boss Mantra #1: “I DON’T KNOW.” (“I Don’t
Know” = Permission to Explore.)
51. Management Role 1: GET OUT OF THE WAY.
(Clear the Way.) (“Manager” = Hurdle
Removal Professional.)
52. Epitaph from Hell: “He Woulda Done Some
Truly Cool Stuff … But His Boss Wouldn’t
Let Him.”
53. Change Takes However Long You Think It
Takes. (Eschew … “Incrementalism.”)
54. Respect! (Rule 1: Don’t Belittle!)
55. “Thank You” Trumps All!
56. Integrity Matters! Integrity = Credibility.
(Dennis K. Is a Jerk.)
57. SOFT IS HARD. HARD IS SOFT. (Numbers
Are Soft. People Are Not.)
58. Try Sunny! (Sunny Begets Sunny.
Gloomy Begets Gloomy.)
59. DISPENSE ENTHUSIASM!
60. FUN …Is Not a 4-Letter Word. So, too …
JOY. (And … GRACE.)
The End.
EXCELLE
ALWAYS