Tom Peters’ Manifestos2002
The Solutions Imperative:
From “Customer
Satisfaction” to
“Customer Success”
Version 03.01.2002
1. Base Case …
“Customers will try ‘low cost
providers’ … because
the
Majors have not
given them any clear
reason not to.”
Leading Insurance Industry Analyst
SWA >
American +
Continental + Delta + Northwest +
United + USAirways.
Source: Boston Globe (12.22.2001)
Getting Beyond Lip Service!
“No longer are we only an
insurance provider. Today, we
also offer our customers the products
and services that help them achieve
their dreams, whether it’s financial
security, buying a car, paying for home
repairs, or even taking a dream
vacation.”—Martin Feinstein, CEO, Farmers Group
TP2002: GE Industrial Systems.
Farmers. Message I: Same-same
kills. Go way up the VA Chain. (Or
else.) Transformation or bust: Fullservice/ solutions provider. Great
rep … but … NOBODY OWNS
THE SPACE. Message II: All
dogs must learn … lotsa … new
tricks. (Bad news: Everybody’s after the same
space. Mr. Darwin is on the prowl!)
Diversity Marketing …
Communities of Interest … Bank of
America relationship … specialized
acquisitions … Farmers Agency
Dashboard … HelpPoint …
licensed financial planners …
etc. … etc. … etc.
2002: Same-Same-Same …
Farmers = GE =
Oracle = MCAA =
Biotech &
Pharmaceutical
Trainers = Omnicom
GE/IS: “We don’t sell circuit breakers.”
Farmers: “We don’t sell insurance.”
Oracle: “We don’t sell apps-in-boxes.”
MCAA: “We don’t sell ‘a job.’”
B&T Trainers: “We don’t sell pills.”
Omnicom: “We don’t sell ads.”
(Seagate: “We sell the sexiest boxes …
and we’re proud of it.”)
Exec, CTFA: “The dirty little
secret amidst an ‘age of
consolidation’: It’s not all
We
need some very
cool products!”
‘channel management.’
“I see us as being in
the art business. Art,
entertainment and mobile
sculpture, which,
coincidentally, also
happens to provide
transportation.”
Bob Lutz:
Source: NYT 10.19.01
Whaddaboutheproduct?
20 of 26
7 of top 10
2. The Enemy …
“Quality as defined by few
defects is becoming the
price of entry for
automotive marketers
rather than a competitive
advantage.”
J.D. Power
“While everything may
it is also
increasingly
the same.”
be better,
Paul Goldberger on retail, “The Sameness of Things,”
The New York Times
“We make over three new
product announcements a
day. Can you remember
them?
Our customers can’t!”
Carly Fiorina
“The ‘surplus society’ has a surplus of
similar companies, employing
similar people, with similar
educational backgrounds, working in
similar jobs, coming up with similar
ideas, producing similar things, with
similar prices and similar quality.”
Kjell Nordstrom and Jonas Ridderstrale,
Funky Business
“Companies have
defined so much ‘best
practice’ that they
are now more or less
identical.”
Jesper Kunde, A Unique Moment
10X/10X
“Customers will try ‘low cost
providers’ … because
the
Majors have not
given them any clear
reason not to.”
Leading Insurance Industry Analyst
3. A Pitiful
Showing …
“Our military structure
today is essentially one
developed and
designed by
Napoleon.”
Admiral Bill Owens, former Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
From:
To:
Weapon v.
Weapon
Org structure v.
Org structure
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
“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
“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 your mind,
but how to get the old
ones out.”
Dee Hock
“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
Read This!
Whoever
Makes the Most
Mistakes Wins: The
Paradox of Innovation
Richard Farson & Ralph Keyes:
4. A White Collar
Revolution …
108 X 5
vs.
8X1
= 540 vs. 8 (-98.5%)
The Pincer 5
1 “Destructive” entrepreneurs/
Global Competition
.
2 “White Collar Robots”
.
3 THE INTERNET!
.
[E.g.: GM + Ford + DaimlerChrysler]
4. Global Outsourcing
[E.g.: India, Mexico]
5. Speed!!
IBM’s Project
eLiza!*
* “Self-bootstrapping”/ “Artilects”
“So what does Drexel’s
demise tell us about
Enron? Companies may
die (or commit suicide), but
ideas—if they’re any good—
survive.”
James Surowiecki, The New Yorker
Every job done
in W.C.W. is also
done “outside”
…for profit!
Answer: PSF!
[Professional Service Firm]
Department Head
to …
Managing Partner,
HR [IS, etc.] Inc.
“P.S.F.”: Summary
H.V.A. Projects (100%)
Pioneer Clients
WOW Work (see below)
Hot “Talent” (see below)
“Adventurous” “culture”
Proprietary Point of View (Methodology)
W.W.P.F. (100%)/Outside Clients (25%++)
Model PSF …
(1) Translate ALL departmental
activities into discrete
W.W.P.F. “Products.”
(2) 100% go on the Web.
(3) Non-awesome are
outsourced (75%??).
(4) Remaining “Centers of
Excellence” are retained &
leveraged to the hilt!
7 Rules for Leading/THRIVING in a Recession+
1. It’s ALREADY too late.
2. Show up & tell the truth—CREDIBILITY rules.
3. Kill with KINDNESS.
4. Sharp pencils are imperative—but don’t forget that
the CUSTOMER & our TALENT & RISKY
INVESTMENTS are still our long-term Bread & Butter.
5. Everything’s different, everything’s the same—it’s
the NEW ECONOMY, more than ever, stupid!
6. “Use” the trauma to mount the bold initiatives you
should have long before mounted: Flux =
OPPORTUNITY.
7. We’re in a War of Organizational Models—from retail
to the Pentagon. IDEAS MATTER MOST.
5. Searching for
New Bases for
Value Added …
The
Day!
09.11.2000: HP bids
$18,000,000,000
for
PricewaterhouseCoopers
consulting business!
“These days, building
the best server isn’t
enough. That’s the
price of entry.”
Ann Livermore, Hewlett-Packard
HP … Sun … GE … IBM
… UPS … UTC …
General Mills … Springs
… Anheuser-Busch …
Carpet One … Delphi …
Etc. … Etc.
“We want to be the
air traffic
controllers of
electrons.”
Bob Nardelli, GE Power Systems
“Customer Satisfaction” to
“Customer Success”
“We’re getting better at [Six
Sigma] every day. But we really
need to think about the customer’s
profitability. Are customers’
bottom lines really benefiting from
what we provide them?”
Bob Nardelli, GE Power Systems
Keep In Mind:
Customer
Satisfaction
versus
Customer
Success
HP … Sun … GE … IBM
… UPS … UTC …
General Mills … Springs
… Anheuser-Busch …
Carpet One … Delphi …
Etc. … Etc.
Gerstner’s IBM: Systems
Integrator of choice. (BW/12.01).
Global Services: $35B.
Pledge/’99: Business Partner
Charter. 72 strategic partners,
aim for 200. Drop many inhouse programs/products.
HP … Sun … GE … IBM
… UPS … UTC …
General Mills … Springs
… Anheuser-Busch …
Carpet One … Delphi …
Etc. … Etc.
“UPS wants to take over the
sweet spot in the endless loop
of goods, information and
capital that all the packages
[it moves] represent.”
ecompany.com/06.01 (E.g., UPS Logistics
manages the logistics of 4.5M Ford vehicles,
from 21 mfg. sites to 6,000 NA dealers)
HP … Sun … GE … IBM
… UPS … UTC …
General Mills … Springs
… Anheuser-Busch …
Carpet One … Delphi …
Etc. … Etc.
New Springs = Turnkey
Collections.
Flexible sourcing.
Packaging.
Merchandising.
Promotion.
Systems & Site mgt.
Omnicom:
57%
(of
$6B) from marketing services
Who was the
number one
employer of
architecture school
grads in the U.S.
last year?
The Pursuit of … Whatever:
Accenture to “do” AT&T’s
sales & customer service … for
$2.6B/5 years … savings to
AT&T of 50%. Accenture to
“do” Avaya’s corporate learning
& training.
Source: BW (02.04.2002)
“VISIONS OF A BRAND-NAME
OFFICE EMPIRE. Sam Zell is not a man
plagued by self doubt. Mr. Zell controls public
companies that own nearly 700 office buildings
in the United States. … Now Mr. Zell says he will
transform the real estate market by turning
those REITs into national brands. … Mr. Zell
believes [clients] will start to view those offices
as something more than a commodity chosen
chiefly by price and location.”
(12.16.2001)
–New York Times
Everybody is
going after the
same space!
Problem:
“Assetless
Company”
John Bryan, CEO, on selling all
Sara Lee’s manufacturing
“Don’t own
nothin’ if you
can help it. If you
can, rent your
shoes.”
F.G.
Better Red than Dead?/
Better Dead than Red?
“We will see more and
more outsourcing of
discovery processes.”
Craig Venter
Better Red than Dead?/
Better Dead than Red?
“If we completely
outsourced all of our genetic
analysis, we’d be held
hostage by outside people.”
Brian Spear, Director of
Pharmacogenomics, Abbott Labs
Pfizer:
1,000
projects with
academics and biotechs. Novartis:
30%
of R&D is via
collaborations.
“The move toward outsourced
manufacturing represents an obvious
opportunity for contract manufacturers [such
as Flextronics: $93M to $15B, ’93-’01], but it’s also a
potential boon to product innovation. The
future of gadget-making is not about
making gadgets; it’s about imagining them.
Someone else makes the imaginary real.
‘All that money that used to go to fund
infrastructure is going into design and
innovation,’ says Flex CEO Michael Marks.”
Wired/11.2001
Markets to networks. Hierarchies to networks.
Sellers and buyers to suppliers and users.
Ownership to access. (Age of Access.)
Marginalization of physical property. Weightless
economy. Protean generation. Outsourcing of
everything. Franchising of everything. (Business
format franchising.) (Leasing DNA.) Everything is a
service/platform for services delivery. (Give away
the goods, charge for the services. VALUE = THE
RELATIONSHIP. “Share of market” to “Share of
customer.”) Every business is show business.
Source: Jeremy Rifkin, The Age of Access
6. “It” Adds Up to
an “Experience” …
“Experiences are as
distinct from services
as services are from
goods.”
Joseph Pine & James Gilmore, The Experience Economy:
Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage
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
The “Experience Ladder”
Experiences
Services
Goods
Raw Materials
1940: Cake from flour, sugar (raw
materials economy): $1.00
1955: Cake from Cake mix (goods
economy): $2.00
1970: Bakery-made cake (service
economy): $10.00
1990: Party @ Chuck E. Cheese
(experience economy) $100.00
Message:
“Experience” is the
“Last 80%”
P.S.: “Experience” applies to all work!
1940: Cake from flour, sugar (raw materials
economy): $1.00
1955: Cake from Cake mix (goods economy):
$2.00
1970: Bakery-made cake (service
economy):
$10.00
1990: Party @ Chuck E. Cheese
(experience economy)
$100.00
“I see us as being in
the art business. Art,
entertainment and mobile
sculpture, which,
coincidentally, also
happens to provide
transportation.”
Bob Lutz:
Source: NYT 10.19.01
The “Experience Ladder”
Experiences
Services
Goods
Raw Materials
Ladder Position
Measure
Solutions
Success
Services
Satisfaction
Goods
Six-sigma
7. Cut The [Internal]
Crap …
Dell’s OptiPlex Facility
Big Job: 6
to 8 hours.
(80,000 per day)
Parts Inventory:
square feet.
The Real “New Economy”
“Only a few times in history
have interaction costs
radically changed—one was
the railroads, then the telegraph
and telephone. We’re going
through another one right now.”
Jeff Skilling, Enron
“In an era when terrorists use
satellite phones and encrypted
email, US gatekeepers stand
armed against them with pencils
and paperwork, and archaic
computer systems that don’t
talk to each other.”
Boston Globe (09.30.2001)
“Once devised in Riyadh, the tasking order took hours
to get to the Navy’s six aircraft carriers—because the
Navy had failed years earlier to procure the proper
communications gear that would have connected the
Navy with its Air Force counterparts. … To
compensate for the lack of communications capability,
the Navy was forced to fly a daily cargo mission from
the Persian Gulf and Red Sea to Riyadh in order to
pick up a computer printout of the air mission tasking
order, then fly back to the carriers, run photocopy
machines at full tilt, and distribute the documents to
the air wing squadrons that were planning the next
strike.” –Bill Owens, Lifting the Fog of War
Cisco!
90% of $20B (=$50M/day)
Annual savings in service
and support from customer
self-management: $550M
(P.S.: C.Sat e >> C.Sat h)
Secret Cisco: Community!
Customer Engineer
Chat Rooms/Collaborative
Design ($1B “free” consulting) (45,000
customer problems a week solved via
customer collaboration)
The Real “News”: X1,000,000
TowTruckNet.com
Welcome to D.I.Y. Nation: “Changes
in business processes will emphasize
self service. Your costs as a business
go down and
perceived
service
goes up because
customers are conducting it
themselves.”
Ray Lane, Oracle
Anne Busquet/ American Express
Not: “Age of the Internet”
“Age of
Customer
Control”
Is:
Amen!
“The Age of the
Never Satisfied
Customer”
Regis McKenna
“Teens and young
adults are flocking to the Web for
health-related information as much
as they are downloading music
and playing games online and
more often than shopping online,
according to a national survey
from the Kaiser Family
Foundation.”
Reuters (12.11.01):
“One in Four
Internet Users
Seek Religious
Information”—Reuters
(12.24.2001) (“God trumps money, sex.”)
One Person’s Opinion
TP to reporter:
“Service is
MUCH better! Would you go
back to bank tellers and phone
operators? Value that I place on
a “smile”: 3 on a scale of 10. Value
I place on fast & accurate “digital”
response: 11 on a scale of 10!!
“CRM has, almost
universally, failed
to live up to
expectations.”
Butler Group (UK)
CGE&Y (Paul Cole): “Pleasant
“Systemic
Opportunity.” “Better job
of what we do today” vs. “Rethink overall
enterprise strategy.”
Transaction” vs.
Read It Closely: “We
don’t sell
We
sell speed.”
insurance anymore.
Peter Lewis, Progressive
WebWorld = Everything
Web as a way to run your business’s innards
Web as connector for your entire supply-demand chain
Web as “spider’s web” which re-conceives the industry
Web/B2B as ultimate wake-up call to
“commodity producers”
Web as the scourge of slack, inefficiency, sloth,
bureaucracy, poor customer data
Web as an Encompassing Way of Life
Web = Everything (P.D. to after-sales)
Web forces you to focus on what you do best
Web as entrée, at any size, to World’s Best at Everything
as next door neighbor
Message: eCommerce
is not a
technology play! It is a
relationship, partnership,
organizational and
communications play, made
possible by new
technologies.
Message: There
is no such
thing as an effective B2B or
Internet-supply chain
strategy in a low-trust,
bottleneckedcommunication, six-layer
organization.
“Ebusiness is about rebuilding
the organization from the
ground up. Most companies today
are not built to exploit the Internet.
Their business processes, their
approvals, their hierarchies, the
number of people they employ … all of
that is wrong for running an
ebusiness.”
Ray Lane, Kleiner Perkins
Jargon Bath!
Bureaucracy free …
Systemically integrated …
Internet intense …
Knowledge based …
Time and location free …
“Instantly” responsive …
Customer centric …
Mass customization enabled.
Translation …
Bureaucracy free = Flat org, no B.S.
Systemically integrated = Whole supply chain
tightly wired/ friction free
Internet intense = Do it all via the Web
Knowledge based = Open access
Time and location free = Whenever, wherever
“Instantly” responsive = Speed demons
Customer centric = Customer calls the shots
Mass customization enabled = Every product
and service rapidly tailored to client
requirements
“Supply Chain” 2000:
“When Joe Employee at Company X launches his
browser, he’s taken to Company X’s personalized
home page. He can interact with the entire scope of
Company X’s world – customers, other employees,
distributors, suppliers, manufacturers, consultants.
The browser – that is, the portal – resembles a My
Yahoo for Company X and hooks into every network
associated with Company X. The real trick is that Joe
Employee, business partners and customers don’t
have to be in the office. They can log on from a cell
phone, Palm Pilot, pager or home office system.”
Red Herring (09.2000)
The Real “New Economy”
“Imagine a chess game in which, after every half
dozen moves, the arrangement of the pieces on
the board stays the same but the capabilities of
the pieces randomly change. Knights now move
like bishops, bishops like rooks … Technology
does that. It rubs out boundaries that separate
industries. Suddenly new competitors with new
capabilities will come at you from new directions.
Lowly truckers in brown vans become geeky
logistics experts. …”
Business 2.0 (8.2001)
“Suppose – just suppose – that the Web is a new world
we’re just beginning to inhabit. We’re like the earlier
European settlers in the United States, living on the
edge of the forest. We don’t know what’s there and we
don’t know exactly what we need to do to find out: Do
we pack mountain climbing gear, desert wear, canoes,
or all three? Of course while the settlers may not have
known what the geography of the New World was
going to be, they at least knew that there was a
geography. The Web, on the other hand, has no
geography, no landscape. It has no distance. It has
nothing natural in it. It has few rules of behavior and
fewer lines of authority. Common sense doesn’t hold
here, and uncommon sense hasn’t yet emerged.”
David Weinberger, Small Pieces Loosely Joined
8. Create
“Beautiful
Systems.”
Fred S.’s “mediocre”
thesis. Herb K.’s
napkin.
Great design =
One-page
business plan (Jim
Horan)
K.I.S.S.:
Gordon Bell (VAX
500/50.
daddy):
Chas.
Wang (CA): Behind schedule?
Cut least
productive 25%.
“Most companies would do more
business on the Internet if they
fired their entire marketing
department and replaced it with
people who could produce
interactive content that actually
made it easier for users to buy.”
Jakob Nielsen, Nielsen Norman Group
SWA
Simple!!!!!!!!!!!! (customers call
because the process is so easy they can’t
believe they’re done)
30% of revenues directly from
site (vs. 6% for others)
Source: Business Week (09.00)
Read It Closely: “We
don’t sell
We
sell speed.”
insurance anymore.
Peter Lewis, Progressive
have. Must
hate. / Must
design. Must undesign.
Systems: Must
Mgt. Team
includes … EVP
(S.O.U.B.)
Executive Vice President, Stomping Out Unnecessary Bullshit
Revised wisdom: Forget
“best
practice” (stultifying).
Concentrate on: Driving
out “worst practice.”
Source: Equinox Manifesto (12.01)
“Ninety percent of what
we call ‘management’
consists of making it
difficult for people to
get things done.” – P.D.
First Steps: “Beauty Contest”!
1. Select one form/document: invoice, air bill,
sick leave policy, customer returns-claim form.
2. Rate the selected doc on a scale of 1 to 10 [1 =
Bureaucratica Obscuranta/ Sucks; 10 = Work
of Art] on four dimensions: Beauty.
Grace. Clarity. Simplicity.
3. Re-invent!
4. Repeat, with a new selection, every 15 working
days.
9. Renaissance
Man/Woman
Emerges …
“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
N.W.O./Holy Moly:
Unemployment up 2%
… Real wage growth
highest since 60s …
Productivity soaring.
Source: BW/02.11.2002
Minimum New Work SurvivalSkillsKit2001
Mastery
Rolodex Obsession (vert. to horiz. “loyalty”)
Entrepreneurial Instinct
CEO/Leader/Businessperson/Closer
Mistress of Improv
Sense of Humor
Intense Appetite for Technology
Groveling Before the Young
Embracing “Marketing”
Passion for Renewal
Brand You, Big Time!
I AM AN
ARMY OF
ONE
Distinct
… or Extinct.
Message:
“My ancestors were printers in
Amsterdam from 1510 or so until
1750 … and
during that
entire time they didn’t
have to learn anything
new.”
Peter Drucker, Business 2.0 (08.22.00)
3 Weeks in May
“Training” & Prep: 187
“Work”: 41
(“Other”: 17)
1%
vs.
367%
Divas do it. Violinists do it.
Sprinters do it. Golfers do it.
Pilots do it. Soldiers do it.
Surgeons do it. Cops do it.
Astronauts do it. Why don’t
businesspeople do it
[very much]?
Invent. Reinvent. Repeat.
Source: HP banner ad
10. “Solutions
100%
Work That Matters
[WOW Flavor] …
Imperative” =
“Reward excellent
failures. Punish
mediocre
successes.”
Phil Daniels, Sydney exec
Language
matters! Wow!
BHAG! “Takes
your breath
away!”
“Intimidate their
[users] imaginations”
… “Where’s the
revolution?” –J Allard,
on the Xbox
Your Current Project?
1. Another day’s work/Pays the
rent.
4. Of value.
7. Pretty Damn Cool/Definitely
subversive.
10. WE AIM TO CHANGE THE
WORLD. (Insane!/Insanely
Great!/WOW!)
“Learn not
to be
careful.”
Photographer Diane Arbus,
to her students
Goal: Drive
out fear.
(Deming
et al.)
Solution:
(alone?)
Passion
drives out fear.
Source: Equinox Manifesto (12.01)
He who has the
quickest O.O.D.A.
Loops* wins!
*Observe. Orient. Decide. Act. /
Col. John Boyd
BOTTOM LINE
The Enemy!
Joe J. Jones
1942 – 2001
HE WOULDA DONE SOME
REALLY COOL STUFF
BUT …
HIS BOSS WOULDN’T
HIM!
LET
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
Characteristics of the “Also rans”*
“Minimize risk”
“Respect the chain of
command”
“Support the boss”
“Make budget”
*Fortune, article on
“Most Admired Global Corporations”
Rule No. 1 (and there are no other
How do we configure
our company/operation so
that we’re truly able to
provide talented people the
“ride of their lives”?
rules):
Source: Equinox Manifesto (12.01)
Sales2001
The Sales25: Great Salespeople …
1. Know the product. (Find cool mentors, and use them.)
2. Know the company.
3. Know the customer. (Including the customer’s
consultants.) (And especially the “corporate culture.”)
4. Love internal politics at home and abroad.
5. Religiously respect competitors. (No badmouthing, no
matter how provoked.)
6. Wire the customer’s org. (Relationships at all levels &
functions.)
7. Wire the home team’s org. and vendors’ orgs.
(INVEST Big Time time in relationships at all levels & functions.)
(Take junior people in all functions to client meetings.)
Great Salespeople …
8. Never overpromise. (Even if it costs you your job.)
9. Sell only by solving problems-creating profitable
opportunities. (“Our product solves these problems, creates
these unimagined INCREDIBLE opportunities, and will make you
a ton of money—here’s exactly how.”) (IS THIS A “PRODUCT
SALE” OR A WOW-ORIGINAL SOLUTION YOU’LL BE DINING OFF
5 YEARS FROM NOW? THAT WILL BE WRITTEN UP IN THE
TRADE PRESS?)
10. Will involve anybody—including mortal enemies—if
it enhances the scope of the problem we can solve and
increases the scope of the opportunity we can
encompass.
11. Know the Brand Story cold; live the Brand Story. (If
not, leave.)
Great Salespeople …
12. Think “Turnkey.” (It’s always your problem!)
13. Act as “orchestra conductor”: You are responsible
for making the whole-damn-network respond. (PERIOD.)
14. Help the customer get to know the vendor’s
organization & build up their Rolodex.
15. Walk away from bad business. (Even if it gets you fired.)
16. Understand the idea of a “good loss.” (A bold effort
that’s sometimes better than a lousy win.)
17. Think those who regularly say “It’s all a price issue”
suffer from rampant immaturity & shrunken imagination.
18. Will not give away the store to get a foot in the door.
19. Are wary & respectful of upstarts—the real enemy.
20. Seek several “cool customers”—who’ll drag you into
Tomorrowland.
Great Salespeople …
21. Use the word “partnership” obsessively, even
though it is way overused. (“Partnership” includes folks at
all levels throughout the supply chain.)
22. Send thank you notes by the truckload. (NOT ENOTES.) (Most are for “little things.”) (50% of those notes are
sent to those in our company!) Remember birthdays. Use
the word “we.”
23. When you look across the table at the customer,
think religiously to yourself: “HOW CAN I MAKE THIS
DUDE RICH & FAMOUS & GET HIM-HER PROMOTED?”
24. Great salespeople can affirmatively respond to the
query in an HP banner ad: HAVE YOU CHANGED
CIVILIZATION TODAY?
25. Keep your bloody PowerPoint slides simple!
11. The V.A./Solutions
Imperative = The
Talent
Imperative …
“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
Sports
Franchise GM
Model 25/8/53:
From “1, 2 or you’re out” [JW]
to …
“Best Talent in each
industry segment to build
best proprietary
intangibles” [EM]
Source: Ed Michaels, War for Talent (05.17.00)
Message: Some
people are
better than other
people. Some people
are a helluva lot
better than other
people.
“Diversity defines the health and
wealth of nations in a new century.
Mighty is the mongrel. … The hybrid is hip. The
impure, the mélange, the adulterated, the
blemished, the rough, the black-and-blue, the
mix-and-match – these people are inheriting the
earth. Mixing is the new norm. Mixing trumps
isolation. It spawns creativity, nourishes the
human spirit, spurs economic growth
and empowers nations.”
G. Pascal Zachary, The Global Me:
New Cosmopolitans and the Competitive Edge
The Cracked Ones Let in the Light
“Our business needs a massive
transfusion of talent, and talent, I
believe, is most likely to be found
among non-conformists,
dissenters and rebels.”
David Ogilvy
enough
weird people in
“Are there
the lab these days?”
V. Chmn., pharmaceutical house, to a lab director (06.01)
12. V.A. =
“Freakiness” …
Saviors-in-Waiting
Disgruntled Customers
Off-the-Scope Competitors
Rogue Employees
Fringe Suppliers
Wayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision: Beat the Competition by Focusing on
Fringe Competitors, Lost Customers, and Rogue Employees
CUSTOMERS: “Futuredefining customers may
account for only 2% to 3%
of your total, but they
represent a crucial
window on the future.”
Adrian Slywotzky, Mercer Consultants
COMPETITORS: “The
best swordsman
in the world doesn’t need to fear
the second best swordsman in the
world; no, the person for him to be afraid of is
some ignorant antagonist who has never had a
sword in his hand before; he doesn’t do the
thing he ought to do, and so the expert isn’t
prepared for him; he does the thing he ought not
to do and often it catches the expert out and
ends him on the spot.”
Mark Twain
Employees: “Are there
enough weird
people in the lab these
days?”
V. Chmn., pharmaceutical house, to a lab director (06.01)
Suppliers: There
is an ominous
downside to strategic supplier
relationships. An SSR supplier is not
likely to function as any more than a mirror
to your organization. Fringe suppliers that
offer innovative business practices need
not apply.”
Wayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision: Beat the Competition by Focusing on
Fringe Competitors, Lost Customers, and Rogue Employees
WEIRD IDEAS THAT WORK: (1) Hire slow learners (of the
organizational code). (1.5) Hire people who make you
uncomfortable, even those you dislike. (2) Hire people you
(probably) don’t need. (3) Use job interviews to get ideas, not
to screen candidates. (4) Encourage people to ignore and defy
superiors and peers. (5) Find some happy people and get them
to fight. (6) Reward success and failure, punish inaction.
(7) Decide to do something that will probably fail, then convince
yourself and everyone else that success is certain. (8) Think of
some ridiculous, impractical things to do, then do them.
(9) Avoid, distract, and bore customers, critics, and anyone who
just wants to talk about money. (10) Don’t try to learn anything
from people who seem to have solved the problems you face.
(11) Forget the past, particularly your company’s success.
Bob Sutton, Weird Ideas that Work: 11½ Ideas for Promoting,
Managing and Sustaining Innovation
The
GM/VC
leadership.
“model” of
The Top Creators of Shareholder Value
Accept depressed earnings
for several quarters to
support hot product
Expense rather than capitalize new
venture costs
Bonuses without caps
Source: Fortune (09.17.2001)
13. Tomorrow’s Organizations
= Itinerant
Potential
Machines …
TALENT POOL TO DIE FOR. Youthful.
Insanely energetic. Value creativity. Risk
taking is routine. Failing is normal … if
you’re stretching. Want to “make their
bones” in “the revolution.”Love the new
technologies. Well rewarded. Don’t plan to
be around 10 years from now.
TALENT POOL PLUS. Seek out and work
with “world’s best” as needed (it’s often
needed). “We aim to change the world, and
we need gifted colleagues—who well may
not be on our payroll.”
BRASSY-BUT-GROUNDED-LEADERSHIP. Say “I
don’t know”—and then unleash the TALENT.
Have a vision to be DRAMATICALLY
DIFFERENT—but don’t expect the co. to be
around forever. Will scrap pet projects, and
change course 180 degrees—and take a big
write-off in the process. NO REGRETS FROM
SCREW-UPS WHOSE TIME HAS NOT-YETCOME. GREAT REGRETS AT TIME & $$$
WASTED ON “ME TOO” PRODUCTS AND
PROJECTS.
BRASSY-BUT-GROUNDED-LEADERSHIP. (Cont.)
“Visionary” leaders matched by leaders with
shrewd business sense: “HOW DO WE TURN A
PROFIT ON THIS GORGEOUS IDEA?” Appreciate
“market creation” as much as or more than
“market share growth.” ARE INSANELY AWARE
THAT MARKET LEADERS ARE ALWAYS IN
PRECARIOUS POSITIONS, AND THAT MARKET
SHARE WILL NOT PROTECT US, IN TODAY’S
VOLATILE WORLD, FROM THE NEXT KILLER
IDEA AND KILLER ENTREPRENEUR. (Gates.
Ellison. Venter. McNealy. Walton. Case. Etc.)
ALLIANCE MANIACS. Don’t assume that
“the best resides within.” WORK WITH A
SHIFTING ARRAY OF STATE-OF-THE-ART
PARTNERS FROM ONE END OF THE
“SUPPLY CHAIN” TO THE OTHER.
Including vendors and consultants and …
especially … PIONEERING CUSTOMERS …
who will “pull us into the future.”
TECHNOLOGY-NETWORK FANATICS. Run the
whole-damn-company, and relations with all
outsiders, on the Internet … at Internet speed.
Reluctant to work with those who don’t share
this (radical) vision.
POTENTIAL MACHINES-ORGANISMS. Don’t
know what’s coming next. But are ready to jump
at opportunities, especially those that
challenge-overturn our own “way of doing
things.”
14. V.A./
Solutions
Imperative = The
Brand …
“Brand Promise” Exercise: (1) Who
Are WE? (poem/novella/song, then 25 words.)
(2) List three ways in which we are
UNIQUE … to our Clients. (3) Who
are THEY (competitors)? (ID, 25 words.)
(4) List 3 distinct “us”/“them”
differences. (5) Try “results” on
your teammates. (6) Try ’em on a
friendly Client. (7) Try ’em on a
skeptical Client!
1st Law Mktg Physics: OVERT BENEFIT (Focus: 1 or
2 > 3 or 4/“One Great Thing.”
Source #1: Personal Passion)
2ND Law: REAL REASON TO BELIEVE (Stand &
Deliver!)
RD
3
Law: DRAMATIC
DIFFERENCE (Execs Don’t Get It:
See the next slide.)
Source: Jump Start Your Business Brain, Doug Hall
2 Questions:
“How likely are you to
purchase this new product or
service?” (95% to 100% weighting by execs)
“How unique is this new
product or service?” (0% to 5%*)
*No exceptions in 20 years – Doug Hall,
Jump Start Your Business Brain
The Heart of
Branding …
“WHO ARE
WE?”
WHAT’S
OUR
STORY?
DO THE
HOUSEKEEPERS
& CLERKS “BUY
IT”?
[ARE YOU V-E-R-Y SURE?]
“EXACTLY
HOW ARE WE
DRAMATICALLY
DIFFERENT?”
“ WHY DOES IT
MATTER TO
THE CLIENT?”
“EXACTLY HOW DO I
PASSIONATELY
CONVEY THAT
DRAMATIC
DIFFERENCE TO THE
CLIENT ?”
15.
The Solutions Imperative:
From “Customer
Satisfaction” to
“Customer Success.”
The …
Solutions25
1. It’s the (OUR!) organization, stupid!
2. Friction free!
3. No STOVEPIPES!
4. “Stovepiping” is a F.O.—Firing Offense.
5. ALL on the Web! (ALL = ALL.)
6. Open access!
7. Project Managers rule! (E.g.: Control the purse
strings and evals.)
8. VALUE-ADDED RULES! (Services Rule.)
(Experiences Rule.) (Brand Rules.)
9. SOLUTIONS RULE! (We sell SOLUTIONS.
Period. We sell PRODUCTIVITY &
PROFITABILITY. Period.)
10. Solutions = “Our ‘culture.’ ”
11. Partner with B.I.C. (Best-In-Class). Period.
12. All functions contribute equally—IS, HR, Finance,
Purchasing, Engineering, Logistics, Sales, Etc.
13. Project Management can come from any function.
14. WE ARE ALL IN SALES. PERIOD.
15. We all invest in “wiring” the customer
organization.
16. WE ALL “LIVE THE BRAND.” (Brand = Solutions.
That MAKE MONEY FOR OUR CUSTOMERPARTNER.)
17. We use the word “PARTNER” until we all want to
barf!
18. We NEVER BLAME other parts of our organization
for screwups.
19. WE AIM TO REINVENT THIS INDUSTRY!
20. We hate the word-idea “COMMODITY.”
21. We believe in “High tech, High touch.”
22. We are DREAMERS.
23. We deliver . (PROFITS.) (CUSTOMER SUCCESS.)
24. If we play the “SOLUTIONS GAME” brilliantly, no
one can touch us!
25. Our TEAM needs 100% I.C.s (Imaginative
Contributors). This is the ULTIMATE “All Hands”
affair!
26. This is a hoot!
Q: Is that all there is?
A: Quite possibly.
“Roche’s New Scientific Method”—
Fast Company. And? X-Functional
Teams (NO STOVEPIPES!).
“Fail fast.” “The only way to
embrace a technological revolution,
Roche has discovered, is to unleash
an organizational revolution.”
“No longer are we
only an insurance
provider. Today, we also offer our
customers the products and services that help
them achieve their dreams, whether it’s financial
security, buying a car, paying for home repairs,
or even taking a dream vacation.”—Martin Feinstein,
CEO, Farmers Group
Farmers: “We don’t sell insurance.”
GE/IS: “We don’t sell circuit breakers.”
Oracle: “We don’t sell apps-in-boxes.”
MCAA: “We don’t sell ‘a job.’”
B&T Trainers: “We don’t sell pills.”
Omnicom: “We don’t sell ads.”
(Seagate: “We sell the sexiest boxes …
and we’re proud of it.”)
Thank You