Tom Peters’
EXCELLENCE!
“THE WORKS”
A Half-Century’s Reflections/1966-2016
Chapter TWO:
EXCELLENCE
01 January 2016
(10+ years of presentation slides at tompeters.com)
!
Contents/“The Works”/1966-2016/EXCELLENCE
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
ONE: Execution/The “All-Important Last 95%”
TWO: EXCELLENCE (Or Why Bother at All?)
THREE: The “Strategy First” Myth
FOUR: (REALLY) First Things Before First Things
FIVE: 34 BFOs/Blinding Flashes of the Obvious
SIX: Putting People (REALLY!) First
SEVEN: Tech Tsunami/Software Is Eating the World++
EIGHT: People First/A Moral Imperative Circa 2016
NINE: Giants Stink/Age of SMEs/Be The Best,
It’s the Only Market That’s Not Crowded
Chapter TEN: Innovate Or Die/W.T.T.M.S.W./
Whoever Tries The Most Stuff Wins++
Chapter ELEVEN: Nine Value-added Strategies
Chapter TWELVE: Value Added/1ST Among Equals/DESIGN MINDEDNESS
Chapter THIRTEEN: The “PSF”/Professional Service Firm “Model”
as Exemplar/“Cure All”
Chapter FOURTEEN: You/Me/The “Age of ‘BRAND YOU’/‘Me Inc.’”
Chapter FIFTEEN: Women Are Market #1 For Everything/
Women Are the Most Effective Leaders
Chapter SIXTEEN: Leadership/46 Scattershot Tactics
Chapter SEVENTEEN: Avoid Moderation!/Pursue
“Insanely Great”/Just Say “NO!” to Normal
Appendix: Library of Best Quotes
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
This—circa January 2016—is my best shot. It took 50 years to write! (From 1966,
Vietnam, U.S. Navy ensign, combat engineer/Navy Seabees—my 1st “management”
job—to today, 2016.) It is … “THE WORKS.” THE WORKS is presented in
PowerPoint format—but it includes 50,000++ words of annotation, the equivalent of a
250-page book.
The times are nutty—and getting nuttier at an exponential pace. I have taken into
account as best I can (there really are no “experts”) the current context. But I have
given equal attention to more or less eternal (i.e., human) verities that will continue
to drive organizational performance and a quest for EXCELLENCE for the next
several years—and perhaps beyond. (Maybe this bifurcation results from my odd
adult life circumstances: 30 years in Silicon Valley, 20 years in Vermont.)
Enjoy.
Steal.
P-L-E-A-S-E try something, better yet several somethings.* ** *** **** *****
*Make no mistake … THIS IS A 17-CHAPTER BOOK … which happens to be in
PowerPoint format; I invite you to join me in this unfinished—half century to date—journey.
**My “Life Mantra #1”: WTTMSW/Whoever Tries The Most Stuff Wins.
***I am quite taken by N.N. Taleb’s term “antifragile” (it’s the title of his
most recent book). The point is not “resilience” in the face of change;
that’s reactive. Instead the idea is proactive—literally “getting off” on the madness per se; perhaps
I somewhat anticipated this with my 1987 book, Thriving on Chaos.
****Re “new stuff,” this presentation has benefited immensely from Social Media—e.g., I have
learned a great deal from my 125K+ twitter followers; that is, some fraction of this material is
“crowdsourced.”
*****I am not interested in providing a “good presentation.” I am interested in
spurring practical action. Otherwise, why waste your time—or mine?
Note: There is considerable DUPLICATION in what follows. I do not imagine you will read this book straight through.
Hence, to some extent, each chapter is a stand-alone story.
Epigraphs
“Business has to give people enriching, rewarding lives …
or it's simply not worth doing.” —Richard Branson
“Your customers will never be any happier
than your employees.” —John DiJulius
“We have a strategic plan. It’s called ‘doing things.’ ”
“You miss 100% of the shots you never take.”
“Ready. Fire. Aim.”
—Wayne Gretzky
—Ross Perot
“Execution is strategy.”
“Avoid moderation.”
—Herb Kelleher
—Fred Malek
—Kevin Roberts
“I’m not comfortable unless I’m uncomfortable.”
—Jay Chiat
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”
—John DiJulius on social media
“Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which
strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart.” —Henry Clay
“You know a design is cool when you want to lick it.”
“This will be the women’s century.”
—Steve Jobs
—Dilma Rousseff
“Be the best. It’s the only market that’s not crowded.”
—George Whalin
First Principles. Guiding Stars. Minimums.
*EXECUTION! The “Last 99%.”
GET IT (Whatever) DONE.
*EXCELLENCE. Always. PERIOD.
*People REALLY First! Moral Obligation #1.
*EXPONENTIAL Tech Tsunami.
GET OFF ON CONTINUOUS UPHEAVALS!
*Innovate or DIE!
WTTMSW/Whoever Tries The Most Stuff Wins!
*Women Buy (EVERYTHING)!
Women Are the Best Leaders! Women RULE!
*Oldies Have (All of) the Market Power!
*DESIGN Matters! EVERYWHERE!
*Maximize TGRs!/Things Gone RIGHT!
*SMEs, Age of/“Be the Best,
It’s the Only Market That’s Not Crowded”
*Moderation KILLS!
NEW WORLD ORDER
?!
0810/2011:
Apple > Exxon*
0724/2015:
Amazon > Walmart**
*Market capitalization; Apple became #1 in the world.
**Market capitalization; Walmart is a “Fortune 1” company—
the biggest in the world by sales.
Phew.
!
Contents/“The Works”/1966-2016/EXCELLENCE
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
ONE: Execution/The “All-Important Last 95%”
TWO: EXCELLENCE (Or Why Bother at All?)
THREE: The “Strategy First” Myth
FOUR: (REALLY) First Things Before First Things
FIVE: 34 BFOs/Blinding Flashes of the Obvious
SIX: Putting People (REALLY!) First
SEVEN: Tech Tsunami/Software Is Eating the World++
EIGHT: People First/A Moral Imperative Circa 2016
NINE: Giants Stink/Age of SMEs/Be The Best,
It’s the Only Market That’s Not Crowded
Chapter TEN: Innovate Or Die/W.T.T.M.S.W./
Whoever Tries The Most Stuff Wins++
Chapter ELEVEN: Nine Value-added Strategies
Chapter TWELVE: Value Added/1ST Among Equals/DESIGN MINDEDNESS
Chapter THIRTEEN: The “PSF”/Professional Service Firm “Model”
as Exemplar/“Cure All”
Chapter FOURTEEN: You/Me/The “Age of ‘BRAND YOU’/‘Me Inc.’”
Chapter FIFTEEN: Women Are Market #1 For Everything/
Women Are the Most Effective Leaders
Chapter SIXTEEN: Leadership/46 Scattershot Tactics
Chapter SEVENTEEN: Avoid Moderation!/Pursue
“Insanely Great”/Just Say “NO!” to Normal
Appendix: Library of Best Quotes
Chapter TWO
XCELLENCE
E
2.1
X3/4
I wrote a book in 1982.
A few people bought it.
Then, hooray, a few more. …
(One of the reasons, I remain convinced, is
that more or less no one used the word
“business” and “excellence” in the same
sentence. Excellence? Sports. The arts.
Science. But business?? We hardly said that
excellence-in-business was the normal state
of affairs. To the contrary, we said it was ever
so rare—but that we thought we had found a
few exemplar firms for whom excellence was
the watchword.)
In Search of Excellence/1982:
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
Out of our data we teased eight “basics” that
we saw as the Pillars of (Business)
Excellence. Discussing those basics was the
heart of the book.
Action
People
Customers
Values
To be sure, the “Eight Basics.”
(They’ve held up pretty darn well.)
Nonetheless …
In Search of Excellence in …
4
words on the prior slide.
(Circa 1982. Circa 2016.)
People
Execution
Excellence
PXX =
People.
eXecution.
eXcellence.
In Search of
Excellence
… in
3
words.*
(*Circa 1982. Circa 2015.)
Excellence.2016: The Bedrock “Ten Basics”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
A Bias for Action/Serious Play/Execution*
People First/Training-Development Mania
Symbiosis With the Customer
Autonomy and Entrepreneurship
Hands On, Value-Driven
Simple Form, Lean Staff,
Collaboration Imperative
7. Simultaneous Loose-Tight Properties
8. Ubiquitous Design-mindedness
9. Technology Fanaticism
10. Antifragile/Speed Demons
*RED is changes from 1982 list.
Update 2016.
Much the same.
But important changes.
(The changes—as well as the similarities—are
imbedded in the material in this presentation.)
2.2
X140
Excellence “Twitter-ized”
In Search of Excellence “twitter-ized”/
Cherish your
people. Cuddle your
customers. Wander
around. “Try it” beats
“talk about it.” Pursue
Excellence. Tell
the truth.
<140 Characters:
125 characters (with spaces)/Q.E.D.
In Search of Excellence.2016 …
Twitter-ization.
My Story/40+ Years/<140 Characters
**Take charge of your life!
**Aim high!
**Be “Of service”!
**Engage others!
**Follow the Golden Rule!
**Act now!
**Relentless!
**No less than EXCELLENCE!
My life …
Twitter-ized.
( By The Way …)
2.3
In Search of Excellence Beats the Market
ExIn*: 1982-2002/Forbes.com
DJIA: $10,000 yields $85,000
EI: $10,000 yields $140,050
* “Excellence Index”/Basket of 32 publicly traded stocks
from In Search of Excellence companies
ISOE Beats the Market: I am often asked how the
“Excellent companies” have fared. Some, to be sure, were
bombs. But, on the 20th anniversary of the book’s
publication, in 2002, Forbes.com analyzed the stock
market performance of the firms.
The results, FYI, are on the prior slide.
(In addition to the satisfactory performance, Forbes noted
that, unlike the real world of stock-picker indices, this
analysis precluded selling off stocks that were tanking—
hence the Excellence Index is at a big disadvantage to
standard indices; yet it had still done very well.) (For no
particular reason, neither I nor anyone else seems to have
done a subsequent analysis. Frankly, 20 years is a pretty
good test.)
2.4
X6
Just 6 Words*:
But a Core
Philosophy
(*+7 Ss)
Hard is Soft.
Soft is Hard.
Hard
Soft
(numbers, plans)
is Soft.
is Hard.
(people/relationships/culture)
Action.
People.
Customers.
Values.
Some—most?—call these areas “soft”: Where are the numbers
Where are the plans?
Surely there is room for the numbers—and the plans.
But they are the real “soft stuff”—malleable and manipulable.
(As we saw again and again during the 2007+ economic crisis.)
The truly “hard stuff”—which can’t be faked or exaggerated—are
the relationships with, for instance, our customers and our own
people.
“‘Hard’ is ‘soft.’
‘Soft’ is ‘hard.’”
Mantra #1 from In Search of EXCELLENCE.
Mantra 1982.
Mantra 2016.
“THE 7-S MODEL”
STRATEGY
STRUCTURE
SYSTEMS
STYLE
SKILLS
STAFF
SUPER-ORDINATE GOAL
“The 7-S Model”
“Hard Ss”
(Strategy, Structure, Systems)
“Soft SS”
(Style, Skills, Staff, Super-ordinate goal)
“The
7-S Model”
STRATEGY
STRUCTURE
SYSTEMS
STYLE (CORPORATE “CULTURE,” “THE WAY
WE DO THINGS AROUND HERE”)
SKILLS (“DISTINCTIVE COMPETENCE/S”)
STAFF (PEOPLE-TALENT)
SUPER-ORDINATE GOAL (VISION, CORE VALUES)
The “McKinsey 7-S Model” (or simply “7-S
model”) that Bob Waterman and I developed in 1979
(with Tony Athos, Richard Pascale and Julien Phillips)
has stood the test of time—37 years to date. Our
current-day McKinsey colleagues claim it’s still the
“most useful framework for assessing Organizational
Effectiveness”—it underpins a great deal of McKinsey’s
current work.
The idea, encompassed by the “Hard is soft, Soft is
Hard” notion, is that there are “soft Ss” as well as “hard
Ss” that must be considered and managed-as-one to
maximize organization well-being and competitive
strength. Moreover—and here’s the rub—all 7 must in
effect be perfectly aligned to achieve sustaining
Excellence. (No mean feat!)
.
The 7-S model was/is to be laid out this
way. The diagram implicitly introduces
the crucial idea of …
“fit.”
Each of the “Ss” must be considered in
relationship to the other six. This
balancing/high-tension act is at the
center of the leader’s principal role as …
Enterprise Architect.
“If I could have chosen not to tackle the IBM culture head-on, I
probably wouldn’t have. My bias coming in was toward
strategy, analysis and measurement. In comparison, changing
the attitude and behaviors of hundreds of thousands of people
[YET] I CAME TO
SEE IN MY TIME AT IBM
THAT CULTURE ISN’T JUST
ONE ASPECT OF THE GAME
is very, very hard.
—IT IS THE
GAME.”
—Lou Gerstner,
Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance
Hard to describe the meaning of this to
me personally. Gerstner said again and
again when he an I were at McKinsey
that I was full of baloney for focusing on
the “soft” “culture stuff.”
Per this slide, from his autobiography
featuring the IBM years, he apparently
became a convert
!
THE SOFT
EDGE
Pillars of Soft-Edge
Excellence
Trust
Teams
Taste
Smarts
Story
Source: The Soft Edge, Rich Karlgaard
Rich Karlgaard is the publisher of Forbes
magazine—and a Silicon Valley stalwart of the
1st order. So it is especially interesting that he
would write a book on “the soft stuff.” But
The Soft Edge
is just that—and his
arguments are compelling. The bottom line, in
Silicon Valley for example, is that you will not
achieve more than a smidgeon of your tech
potential unless the organization which
carries out your mission emphasizes Rich’s
“soft edge” traits. (Which are quite congruent
with the “7-S Model” just described.)
(The idea holds elsewhere as well. But the point is that
even in Silicon Valley the “soft stuff” is paramount as
one seeks lasting impact and excellence.)
“Far too many companies invest too little time and money
in their soft-edge excellence. … The three main reasons
for this mistake are:
1. The hard edge is easier to
quantify. …
2. Successful hard-edge investment
provides a faster return on
investment. …
3. CEOs, CFO, chief operating
officers, boards of directors, and
shareholders speak the language of
finance. …”
Source: The Soft Edge, Rich Karlgaard
Soft-Edge Advantages
1. Soft-edge strength leads to greater
brand recognition, higher profit margins,
… [It] is the ticket out of
Commodityville.
“2. Companies strong in the soft edge
are better prepared to survive a big
strategic mistake or cataclysmic
disruption …
“3. Hard-edge strength is absolutely
necessary to compete, but it provides
only a fleeting advantage.”
Source: The Soft Edge, Rich Karlgaard
Amen.
(Read the book. PLEASE.)
Hard is Soft.
Soft is Hard.
Hard
Soft
(numbers, plans)
is Soft.
is Hard.
(people/relationships/culture)
McKinsey: Culture > Strategy
“What
matters most to a company over
time? Strategy or culture?”
Wall Street Journal, 0910.13, interview:
Dominic Barton, Managing Director,
McKinsey & Co.:
“Culture.”
McKinsey: People > Strategy
“People Before Strategy”
—title,
lead article, Harvard Business Review July-August 2015,
by McKinsey MD Dominic Barton et al.
McKinsey fought me tooth and nail in the late
1970s. Strategy #1 was the unbending credo.
Times change. The current McKinsey MD is
singing a different tune—in fact from a
different hymnal.
Interesting.
Eh?
2.5
“Mr. Watson, how long
does it take to achieve
excellence?”
Thomas Watson, legendary CEO of IBM.
“One
minute. …”
“One minute. You
make up your mind
to never again
consciously do
something that is
less than excellent.”
EXCELLENCE starts inside you and is
reflected—or not—in your most minute and
temporal behaviors.
"We all start out in life loving our fathers and mothers above
everything else in the world, but that does not close the doors
of love. That prepares us to love our wives and husbands and
children and friends and to cooperate with and show respect
to all worthy individuals with whom we come in contact or
have an opportunity to reach in other ways. We must apply
that to nations and to other businesses.
"We in IBM must not confine our thoughts just to IBM.
We must extend our cooperation to all other businesses
whether we do business with them or not. We are one
cog in the industrial wheel.
"Then as citizens we must extend our respect to all worthy
people in all nations. We are moving along in troublesome
times, but the love of these various things of which I have
spoken and of the people in whom we are interested is
Going to be the great force which will make us all appreciate
the spiritual values which constitute the only solid foundation
on which we can build."
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr. address to IBM Sales and Service
Class 525 and Customer Engineers Class 528,
IBM Country Club, Endicott, NY, October 30, 1941
EXCELLENCE.
2.6
X/BLD
“Everything can be taken
from a man but one thing:
the last of the human
freedoms—to choose one’s
attitude in any given set of
circumstances, to choose
one’s own way.” —Victor Frankl
Frankl, one of the world’s greatest
psychologists, was a survivor of a Nazi
concentration camp.
BLD: Fact is, you CAN
take ANY damned
attitude YOU choose
to work TODAY!
In fact, it's your …
BLD/Biggest
Life
Decision!
BIGGEST.
Up to you.
Soooo…..
EXCELLENCE is
a PERSONAL
choice … NOT
an institutional
choice!
In fact there are few items in this
presentation that are more important than
this one.
Bottom line:
YOUR CHOICE.
PERIOD.
Joe J. Jones
1942 – 2016
HE WOULDA DONE SOME
REALLY COOL STUFF
BUT …
HIS BOSS WOULDN’T
LET HIM!
There are a hundred hundred reasons why
this or that desirable/exciting thing
(SERVICE, EXCELLENCE) “can’t be done
around here”*—or, at least, not today.
But, in the end, it’s
not “theirs.”
your tombstone,
!
(*I hear that damn refrain at every seminar )
2.7
X3/5/7
CAUSE.
SPACE.
(worthy of commitment)
(room for/encouragement
for initiative by ALL)
DECENCY.
(respect, grace,
integrity, civility)
It came out of nowhere … sprang from my
keyboard unbidden. A(nother) “Theory of
Everything” in …
3
words.*
(*What can I say? I keep looking for clarity & brevity in
presenting the main themes of my work since 1976.)
CAUSE.
SPACE.
(worthy of commitment)
(room for/encouragement
for initiative by ALL)
DECENCY.
SERVICE.
(respect, grace, integrity, civility)
(worthy of our clients’ & extended
family’s continuing custom)
EXCELLENCE.
(PERIOD)
CAUSE.
SPACE.
(worthy of commitment)
(room for/encouragement
for initiative by ALL)
DECENCY.
SERVICE.
(respect, grace, integrity, civility)
(worthy of our clients’ & extended
family’s continuing custom)
EXCELLENCE.
(PERIOD)
SERVANT LEADERSHIP.
CAUSE.
SPACE.
DECENCY.
SERVICE.
EXCELLENCE.
SERVANT LEADERSHIP.
I added 2 more ideas/2 more words. Then 1
more idea/another 2 words. Hence in the end,
A … “Theory of Everything” in
7
words.
7 Steps to Sustaining Success
You take care of the people.
The people take care of the service.
The service takes care of the customer.
The customer takes care of the profit.
The profit takes care of the re-investment.
The re-investment takes care of the re-invention.
The re-invention takes care of the future.
(And at every step the only measure is EXCELLENCE.)
Another
7
7 Steps to Sustaining Success
You take care of the people.
The people take care of the service.
The service takes care of the customer.
The customer takes care of the profit.
The profit takes care of the re-investment.
The re-investment takes care of the re-invention.
The re-invention takes care of the future.
(And at every step the only measure is EXCELLENCE.)
And it all starts with …THE PEOPLE.
(a principal theme of this entire book.)
2.8
A Sacred Trust
“LEADERS
‘DO’ PEOPLE.
PERIOD.”
—Anon.
LEADERSHIP
IS A SACRED
TRUST.*
*President, classroom teacher, CEO, shop foreman
!
"Leadership is a
gift. It's given by
those who follow.
You have to be
worthy of it.”
—General Mark Welsh, Commander, U.S. Air Forces Europe
!
2.9
Engineering.
NOT.
A LIBERAL
ART
Response to question on his
(Peter Drucker’s) “most important
contribution”: “I focused this discipline
on people and power; on values,
structure, and constitution; and above
all, on responsibilities—THAT
IS,
I FOCUSED THE DISCIPLINE
OF MANAGEMENT ON
MANAGEMENT AS A TRULY
LIBERAL ART.”
(18 January 1999)
Hard is Soft. Soft is hard.
LIBERAL
ART.* **
Management as a …
(*P-l-e-a-s-e convey that to the business schools—
fat chance getting an iota of reaction.)
(**The consequences of this are enormous. The
impact on people practices, for one giant thing,
are mind boggling—starting, obviously with
hiring.)
“Winning business was more
important than making great
Microsoft
never had the
humanities or
liberal arts in its
DNA.”
products.
—Steve Jobs on Bill Gates and Microsoft
(Vanity Fair/0812)
Characteristic Jobs smartassery—but not
without a dram of truth.
“That 'Useless'
Liberal Arts
Degree Has
Become Tech's
Hottest Ticket.”
Source: title, Forbes cover story (17 August 2015)
Hmmm …
2.10
EXCELLENCE is
NOT NOT
NOT
a “long-
term” "aspiration.”
EXCELLENCE is not a “long-term”
"aspiration.”
EXCELLENCE is the ultimate shortterm strategy. EXCELLENCE is …
THE
NEXT
5
MINUTES.*
(*Or NOT.)
EXCELLENCE is not an "aspiration."
EXCELLENCE is … THE NEXT FIVE MINUTES.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
is your next conversation.
is your next meeting.
is shutting up and listening—really listening.
is your next customer contact.
is saying “Thank you” for something “small.”
is the next time you shoulder responsibility and apologize.
is waaay over-reacting to a screw-up.
is the flowers you brought to work today.
is lending a hand to an “outsider” who’s fallen behind schedule.
is bothering to learn the way folks in finance (or IS or HR) think.
is waaay “over”-preparing for a 3-minute presentation.
is turning “insignificant” tasks into models of … EXCELLENCE.
Translation: Reflect on your last five minutes—
and next five minutes.
Did they/will they measure up to the
“Excellence Standard”?
(That’s all there is, there ain’t no more.)
Next five minutes.
OR NOT.
“I shall tell you a
great secret, my
friend. Do not wait
for the last
judgment; it takes
place every day.”
—Albert Camus
Truer words …
Excellence:
The Thing
About Joe …
2.11
“In a way, the world is a great liar.
It shows you it worships and admires money,
but at the end of the day it doesn’t. It says it
adores fame and celebrity, but it doesn’t, not
really. The world admires, and wants to hold
on to, and not lose, goodness. It admires
virtue. At the end it gives its greatest
tributes to generosity, honesty, courage,
mercy, talents well used, talents that,
brought into the world, make it better. That’s
what it really admires. That’s what we talk
about in eulogies, because that’s what’s
important. We don’t say, ‘The thing about Joe
was he was rich!’ We say, if we can …
“ … We say, if we can …
‘The thing about
Joe was he took
good care of
people.’”
—Peggy Noonan, “A Life’s Lesson,” on the astounding response to the passing of
journalist Tim Russert, The Wall Street Journal, June 21-22, 2008
Phew!
Wow!
Joe J. Jones
1942 – 2015
Net Worth
$21,543,672.48
Not.
$$$$$$:
Not the stuff of tombstones.
Eh?
2.12
EXCELLENCE:
Beyond
Success …
“[This year’s] graduates are told [by
commencement speakers] to pursue
happiness and joy. But, of course, when you
read a biography of someone you admire, it’s
rarely the things that made them happy that
compel our admiration. It’s the things they did
to court unhappiness—the things they did that
were arduous and miserable, which sometimes
IT’S
EXCELLENCE, NOT
HAPPINESS, THAT WE
ADMIRE MOST.”
cost them friends and aroused hatred.
—David Brooks, “It’s Not
About You,” op-ed, New York Times, 30 May 2011
“Strive for
Excellence.
Ignore
success.”
—Bill Young, race car driver
Not only do I agree with this sentiment—but I
think it is profound. In higher mathematics
the accuracy of a new proof is not enough.
The proof must be parsimonious, beautiful in
its own fashion.
In the same way, “ugly success” may have
its virtues, but also its vices. E.g., the
winning sports team that exhibits arrogance
rather than grace toward one’s defeated
opponents.
EXCELLENCE—to me—has its own rewards
per se and is the mightiest of aspirations—
particularly as one looks back in the
hindsight of a decade or two.
Excellence:
Five Or Less
Words To The
Wise
2.13
EXCELLENCE/Five Or Less Words To The Wise
4 most important words: “What do you think?” (Dave Wheeler @
tompeters.com: “Most important 4
words in an organization.”)
4 most important words: “How can I help?” (Boss as CHRO/
Chief Hurdle Removal Officer)
2 most important words: “Thank you!” (Appreciation/
Recognition)
2 most important words: “All yours.” (“Hands-off” delegation/
Respect/Trust)
3 most important words: “I’m going out.” (MBWA/Managing By
Wandering Around/In touch!)
2 most important words: “I’m sorry.” (Power of unconditional
apology = Stunning! Marshall
Goldsmith: #1 exec issue)
5 most important words: “Did you tell the customer?” (Overcommunicate)
2 most important words: “She says …” (“She” is the customer!)
EXCELLENCE/Five Or Less Words To The Wise
2 most important words: “Yes ma’am.” (Women are more often
than not the best managers.)
2 most important words: “Try it!” (My only “for sure” in 49 years:
Herb Kelleher: “We have a strategic
plan, it’s called doing things.”/Bill
Parcells: “Blame no one. Expect
nothing. Do something.”)
3 most important words: “Try it again!” (My only “for sure” 44
years: MOST TRIES WINS.)
2 most important words: “Good try!” (CELEBRATE “good
failures.” Richard Farson/book:
Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes
Wins. Samuel Beckett: “Fail. Fail again.
Fail better.”)
3 most important words: “At your service.” (Organizations exist
to serve. Period. Leaders live to serve.
Period.)
4 most important words: “How are we doing?” (To customers,
regularly.)
4 most important words: “How was Mary’s recital?” (Know your
employees’ kids.)
2 most important words: “Let’s party!” (Celebrate “small wins” at
the drop of a hat.)
EXCELLENCE/Five Or Less Words To The Wise
1 most important word: “No.” (“To don’ts” > “To dos”)
1 most important word: “Yes.” (Hey, give it a shot/Anon. quote:
“The best answer is always, ‘What the
hell.’”/Wayne Gretzky: “You miss
100% of the shots you don’t take.”)
2 most important words: “Lunch today?” (“Social stuff” = Secret
to problem/opportunity #1:/XFX/
cross-functional Excellence.)
4 most important words: “Thank Dick in accounting.” (Readily
acknowledge help from other
functions.)
2 most important words: “After you.” (Courtesy rules.)
3 most important words: “Thanks for coming.” (Civility. E.g., boss
acknowledges employee coming to
her/his office.)
2 most important words: “Great smile!” (Note & acknowledge
good attitude.)
1 most important word: “Wow!” (The gold standard … for
everything.)
1 most important word: “EXCELLENT!” (The … ONLY …
acceptable standard/aspiration.)
2.14
Excellence:
The
19Es
If Not Excellence, What?
If Not Excellence Now, When?
The “19 Es” of Excellence
Enthusiasm. (Be an irresistible force of nature!)
Energy. (Be fire! Light fires!)
Exuberance. (Vibrate—cause earthquakes!)
Execution. (Do it! Now! Get it done! Barriers are baloney!
Excuses are for wimps! Accountability is gospel!
Adhere to the Bill Parcells doctrine: “Blame nobody! Expect nothing! Do something!”)
Empowerment.
(Respect and appreciation! Always ask, “What do you think?”
Then: Listen! Liberate! Celebrate! 100% innovators or bust!)
Edginess. (Perpetually dancing at the frontier, and a little or a lot beyond.)
Enraged. (Determined to challenge & change the status quo!)
Engaged. (Addicted to MBWA/Managing By Wandering Around. In touch. Always.)
Electronic. (Partners with the world 60/60/24/7 via electronic community building
and entanglement of every sort. Crowdsourcing/doing power!)
Encompassing. (Relentlessly pursue diverse opinions—the more diversity the merrier! Diversity per se “works”!)
Emotion. (The alpha. The omega. The essence of leadership. The essence of sales.
Empathy.
The essence of marketing. The essence. Period. Acknowledge it.)
(Connect, connect, connect with others’ reality and aspirations! “Walk
in the other person’s shoes”—until the soles have holes!)
Experience.
(Life is theater! Make every activity-contact memorable! Standard:
“Insanely Great”/Steve Jobs; “Radically Thrilling”/BMW.)
Eliminate. (Keep it simple!)
Errorprone. (Ready! Fire! Aim!
Try a lot of stuff and make a lot of booboos and then try some more stuff
and make some more booboos—all of it at the speed of light!)
Evenhanded.
Expectations.
Eudaimonia.
Excellence.
(Straight as an arrow! Fair to a fault! Honest as Abe!)
(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.” Amen!)
(Pursue the highest of human moral purpose—the core of Aristotle’s philosophy. Be of service. Always.)
(The only standard! Never an exception! Start now! No excuses! If not Excellence, what?
If not Excellence now, when?)
The “19 Es” of EXCELLENCE
Enthusiasm! (Be an irresistible force of nature! Be fire! Light fires!)
Exuberance! (Vibrate—cause earthquakes!)
Execution! (Do it! Now! Get it done! Barriers are baloney! Excuses are
for wimps! Accountability is gospel! Adhere to coach Bill Parcells’
doctrine: “Blame nobody!! Expect nothing!! Do something!!”)
Empowerment! (Respect! Appreciation! Ask until you’re blue in the face,
“What do you think?” Then: Listen! Liberate! 100.00% innovators!)
Edginess! (Perpetually dance at the frontier and a little, or a lot, beyond.)
Enraged! (Maintain a permanent state of mortal combat with the
status-quo!)
Engaged! (Addicted to MBWA/Managing By Wandering Around. In touch.
Always.)
Electronic! (Partner with the whole wide world 60/60/24/7 via all manner
of electronic community building and entanglement. Crowdsourcing
wins!)
Encompassing! (Relentlessly pursue diversity of every flavor! Diversity
per se generates big returns!) (Seeking superb leaders: Women rule!)
Emotion! (The alpha! The omega! The essence of leadership! The
essence of sales! The essence of design! The essence of life itself!
Acknowledge it! Use it!)
The “19 Es” of EXCELLENCE
Empathy! (Connect! Connect! Connect! Click with others’ reality and
aspirations! “Walk in the other person’s shoes”—until the soles
have holes!)
Ears! (Effective listening in every encounter: Strategic Advantage No. 1!
Believe it!)
Experience! (Life is theater! It’s always showtime! Make every contact
a “Wow” ! Standard: “Insanely Great”/Steve Jobs; “Radically
Thrilling”/BMW.)
Eliminate! (Keep it simple!! Furiously battle hyper-complexity and
gobbledygook!!)
Errorprone!
(Ready! Fire! Aim! Try a lot of stuff, make a lot of booboos.
CELEBRATE the booboos! Try more stuff, make more booboos! He
who makes the most mistakes wins! Fail! Forward! Fast!)
Evenhanded! (Straight as an arrow! Fair to a fault! Honest as Abe!)
Expectations! (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
hit it.”)
Eudaimonia! (The essence of Aristotelian philosophy: True happiness is
pursuit of the highest of human moral purpose. Be of service!
Always!)
EXCELLENCE! (The only standard! Never an exception! Start NOW!
No excuses!)
Why
Not I?
2.15.1
Excellence. Always.
If not Excellence,
what?
If not Excellence
now, when?
This is my mantra.
This is my life.
(Fact is, though we rarely “make it,” I find an aspiration
of less than excellence beyond my comprehension.)
The failure to
pursue
EXCELLENCE is
incomprehensible
to me.
We may not “get there”—to EXCELLENCE—
but what is the point of most anything if one
does not aspire to doing “it,” humble or
grand, with passion and in pursuit of an
?
admirable outcome
“If a man is called to be a street
sweeper, he should sweep streets
even as Michelangelo painted, or
Beethoven composed music, or
Shakespeare wrote poetry. He
should sweep streets so well
that all the hosts of heaven and
earth will pause to say, here lived
a great street sweeper who did his
job well.” —Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
To my point …
Some might say this means one should not aspire to
be “more” than a streetsweeper. Dr. King would
doubtless agree at one level. But there is a larger and
more universal point—the aspiration to achieve
EXCELLENCE, the way in which the given task is
performed, not the prestige of the task. Beyond this,
though, is the fact that in 9 of 10 instances an
exhibition of EXCELLENCE per se at anything is one’s
foremost calling card when it comes to moving in
whatever direction one wishes.
(I once heard General Colin Powell say the greatest of
success principles—okay, he said “success”—is to do
today’s job with all one’s might and not waste energy or time
angling for the next job. Excellence/success today is the
ultimate “USP”/Unique Selling Proposition.)
EXCELLENCE.
Now.
EXCELLENCE.
Always.
2.15.2
Shorthand.
EXCELLENCE. Now. EXCELLENCE. Always.
1. People first, second, third, fourth … /The “business”
of leaders is people: to inspire/engage/provide a
trajectory of opportunity—enterprise of every size
and type as “cathedral” for human development.
"When I hire someone, that's when I go to work for
them.” —John DiJulius
1A. Customer comes 2nd/ If you want to best “Wow!”
customers then you must first Wow! those who serve
the customers./"If you want staff to give great
service, give great service to staff.”—Ari Weinzweig,
Zingerman's/ “You have to treat your employees like
customers.” —Herb Kelleher, on his #1 “secret to
success.”
1B. Manager’s sole raison d’etre: Make each of my team
members successful!
1C. Effective organizations: No bit players!
EXCELLENCE. Now. EXCELLENCE. Always.
1D. Appreciation. Acknowledgement. “The deepest
human need is the need to be appreciated.” —
Believe it! A few kind words are often remembered
for years!
1E. 1st line supervisors. Every organization’s … most
important … leadership cadre. Productivity is largely
determined by the caliber of the 1st line boss.
Selection and development of your “sergeants” must
become an “obsession”—almost all do a half-assed
job.
1F. Weird/ There are no “normals” in the history
books!/Insure a healthy supply of oddballs/Diversity of
every flavor = Fresh perspectives! Better decisions!
1G. Memories That Matter. And don’t./ “People stuff”
sticks with you: You’ll look back on the handful of
people you developed who proceeded to change the
world—and the multitude (if you’ve earned it) who
say, “I grew most when I worked with you.” Ever seen
a tombstone engraved with the deceased’s net worth?
EXCELLENCE. Now. EXCELLENCE. Always.
2. You/me: Businesses no longer coddle. You’re in
charge!/ “Brand you” —stand out for something
valuable, or else; learn something new every day, or
else!/“Distinct or Extinct!”
3. Organizations Exist to Serve. PERIOD.
4. EXECUTION/ “Don’t forget to tuck the shower curtain
into the bath tub.” —Conrad Hilton on
his “sweat the details” obsession and #1 “success
secret”/ “Execution is strategy.”
—Fred Malek/ “Execution is the leader’s job #1.”—Larry
Bossidy
4A. “They do … ONE BIG THING at a time.” —Drucker on
successful managers’ #1 trait.
4B. Resilience circa 2011: Understand it. Hire for it.
Promote for it. Obsess on it.
EXCELLENCE. Now. EXCELLENCE. Always.
5. MBWA/Managing By Wandering Around/ Starbucks’
Schultz visits 25 stores a week/ “In touch” is “not
optional”/You = Your calendar/Calendars never lie!
5A. Listening per se = Candidate for Core Value #1/
Listening per se is a profession./“If you don’t listen,
you don’t sell anything.”/Docs interrupt patients after
… 18 seconds. And you?
5B. “What do you think?” “How can I help?” —MBWA
8/Eight words, repeated like a mantra while
“wandering around,” that unlock engagement/
success for multitudes.
5C. Innovate by “Hanging out” /“You are what you
eat.”/ “You will become like the five people you
associate with the most —a blessing or a curse.”/
Want “cool”? Expose yourself to cool! /Manage
“hanging out” zealously-formally —with customers,
interesting outsiders, etc.
EXCELLENCE. Now. EXCELLENCE. Always.
5D. K = R = P (Kindness = Repeat business = Profit.)
“Hard is soft. Soft is hard.” —#1 finding In Search of
Excellence. Kindness is “hard”—and pay off in $$$$.
5E. Apology Power—Awesome power: 3-minute “I’m
sorry” call heals anything—do it religiously!/”Overthe-top” response to even small booboo strengthens
customer relationships!
EXCELLENCE. Now. EXCELLENCE. Always.
6. “Little BIG Things”/Focus on “multipliers”: Walmart
goes to big shopping cart = +50% “big stuff” sales
boost!/“Wash your Hands” —save thousands of lives
P.A. in hospitals!
6A. “Little BIG Things”: SMEs bedrock of all economies.
Nurture them. SME’s battle cry
per George Whalin: “Be the best. It’s the only market
that’s not crowded.”
7. Apple > Exxon in market cap courtesy … DESIGN! /The
big “Duh”: “Cool beats un- cool!”/Design candidate for
“best way to differentiate goods-services in
competitive markets.”
7A. TGRs/Things Gone Right. Wagon Wheel restaurant,
Gill MA—clean restroom with fresh flowers.—we
remember such touches more or less forever/
Manage-measure TGRs.
7B. Scintillating Experiences. Howard Schultz on
Starbucks: “At our core, we’re a coffee
company, but the opportunity we have to extend the
brand is beyond coffee; it’s entertainment.”
EXCELLENCE. Now. EXCELLENCE. Always.
8. WOMEN Buy! WOMEN Rule! WOMEN’s World! Women buy
80% of everything—$28T world market/“Why Warren
Buffett Invests Like a Girl”—e.g., studies harder-holds
longer-less frenzied buying and selling/Women’s
leadership style fits 21st century less-hierarchical
enterprise./Evidence clear— Women well on the way to
21st century economic domination! Brazil’s President
Dilma Rousseff at UN: “the century of women.”
9. Web-Social Media/ “Everyone becomes our valued
partner, a member of our community—and
watchdog”/The Power of Co-creation —my “Top Biz
Book for 2010”/SM can be lynchpin of transformative
strategy—for organizations of every shape and size!
10. Value added via transformation from “Customer
satisfaction” to “ customer success” —huge differenceopportunity! /E.g., IBM Global Services, from
afterthought to $60B/UPS Logistics/MasterCard
Advisors/ IDEO, help clients create “culture of
innovation”/“The Geek Squad”—Best Buy's #1 strategic
point of differentiation.
EXCELLENCE. Now. EXCELLENCE. Always.
11. Innovation “secret” #1: “Most tries wins.” / “A Bias for
Action”—excellence trait #1, In Search of Excellence
/“Ready. Fire! Aim.” —Ross Perot//“Instead of trying to
figure out the best way to do something and sticking
to it, just try out an approach and keep fixing it.”
—Bert Rutan
11A. Try a lot = Fail a lot /“Fail. Forward. Fast.”/ “Fail
faster, succeed sooner”—David Kelley /“Reward
excellent failures, punish mediocre successes”/
Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins —Richard
Farson
11B. “You miss 100% of the shots you never take.”
—Wayne Gretzky
EXCELLENCE. Now. EXCELLENCE. Always.
12. Live WOW!/Zappos creed … “WOW Customers”/
eBay 14,000 employees, Amazon 20,000
employees, Craig’s List 30 employees; regardless of
issue, Where’s your “Wild and Wooly Craig’s
List Option”?/ Final point in superstar adman Kevin
Roberts’ Credo: “Avoid moderation!”
13. EXCELLENCE is a personal choice … not an
institutional choice!
EXCELLENCE is not an “aspiration” —it’s the next five
minutes!
13A. EXCELLENCE. Always. If not EXCELLENCE, What?
If not EXCELLENCE Now, When?
Why
Not II?
2.16
“Why in the
World did you
go to Siberia?”
A half-dozen years ago I went to Novosibirsk,
Siberia, to give a seminar. (Novosibirsk,
center of Soviet scientific excellence, was
now confronting the global economy—and
looking for a new direction.)
The unusual setting caused me to go back to
“first principals” in my thinking about
enterprise.
I asked myself, for starters …
“WHAT’S THE POINT?”
An emotional,
vital, innovative, joyful, creative,
entrepreneurial endeavor that elicits
maximum
ENTERPRISE* (*AT ITS BEST):
concerted human
potential in the
wholehearted pursuit of
EXCELLENCE in
service of others.**
**Employees, Customers, Suppliers, Communities, Owners, Temporary partners
ENTERPRISE*
(*AT ITS BEST)
:
An
emotional, vital,
innovative, joyful, creative,
entrepreneurial endeavor
that elicits maximum
concerted human potential
in the wholehearted
pursuit of EXCELLENCE in
service of others.
Enterprise, as I note … AT ITS BEST.
(Obviously not always achieved—or, alas, even aspired to.)
On the other hand …
if this or something very much like it
is not the aim, then … what is the
point?
(In
(In
(In
(In
Palo Alto.)
Brooklyn.)
Des Moines.)
Novosibirsk.)
Think about it.
Please.
(Also: Consider the opposite of each word here—is, say, “joyless”
acceptable?)
(Photo is me and my interpreter, who turned out to have an economics PhD from the
University of Maryland; on stage in Novosibirsk.)
“It may sound radical, unconventional, and
bordering on being a crazy business idea.
However— as ridiculous as it sounds—joy is the
core belief of our workplace.
Joy
is the reason my company,
Menlo Innovations, a customer software design
and development firm in Ann Arbor, exists. It
defines what we do and how we do it. It is the
single shared belief of our entire team.”
Joy, Inc.:
How We Built a Workplace People Love
—Richard Sheridan,
The systems software industry is tough as nails,
fast-paced—and unforgiving. And yet Menlo CEO
Richard Sheridan insists that his raison d'être,
competitive advantage and success “secret” is …
JOY!
Again, please think about this.
Carefully.
What would be the literal translation in your world?
And:
WHY NOT?
(Seriously.)
Why
Not III?
2.17
“Huge
degree of
care.”
Apple design:
—Ian Parker, New Yorker, 23 March 2015,
on Apple design chief Jony Ives
“Huge degree of care” should—in my
thoroughly biased opinion—be the
hallmark of every professional’s work. In
our own fashion, we should apply Jony
Ive’s standard to everything we do.
Starting—yes—with the emails
we send.
Why not?
Care-in-communication: What could be
more important to a professional?
ORGANIZATIONS
THAT ARE AS
EXCELLENT/WELL
DESIGNED AS AN
APPLE DEVICE
2.18
“New technology, by itself, has little economic benefit.
… The economic benefits arise not from innovation
itself, but from the entrepreneurs who eventually
discover ways to put innovation to practical use—
and, most critically, from the
organizational changes
through which businesses
reshape themselves to take
advantage of new
technology.” —Marc Levinson, The Box: How
the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the
World Economy Bigger
The shipping container only “changed the
world” … decades ... after its creation. First
“everything” had to change. That is, the
entire nature of ports and the transportation
system writ large.
Which is to say, it’s the subsequent and
painstaking and political and “non-instant” …
ORGANIZATIONAL ARRANGEMENTS ... that
make all the difference in moving forward,
not the technology per se.
“Management” as conventionally perceived is a dreary/
misleading/constrained word. E.g., mgt/standard usage =
Shouting orders in the slave galley.
Consider, please, a more encompassing/more accurate definition:
“‘Management’ is the
arrangement and animation
of human affairs in
pursuit of desired
outcomes.”
Management is not about Theory X vs. Theory Y/“top down” vs.
“bottom up.” Management is about the essence of human
behavior (Drucker called management a “liberal art”), how we
fundamentally arrange our collective efforts in order to survive,
adapt—and, one hopes, thrive. (E.g., Hall of Fame management
document: Constitution of the United States of America.)
As Peter Drucker, in particular, taught us, management is
an artform of the utmost importance to humanity—
consider the U.S. Constitution, one of the greatest
management documents in human history. (Yes, it is a
“management document.”)
We think of the care and craft that goes into the design of,
say, an Apple product. But we don’t typically think in the
same way about “management architecture.” That is a
mistake of the first order.
Arrangement of human affairs to produce a
desired and sustainable result is by
definition Leadership Team Task #1. I am
urging you to think about your organizational architecture—
and the achievement of excellence therein—the same way
Steve Jobs thought about one of his landmark Apple
devices.
In Good Business, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (the FLOW guru )
argues persuasively that business has become the center of
society. As such, an obligation to community is front & center.
Business as societal bedrock, per Csikszentmihalyi, has the
“SUM OF
HUMAN WELLBEING.”
NOT
RESPONSIBILITY to increase the …
Business is
“part of the
community.” In terms of how adults collectively spend their
waking hours: Business
IS
the community. And should act
accordingly. The (REALLY) good news: Community mindedness
is a great way (the BEST way?) to have
spirited/committed/customer-centric work force—and, ultimately,
increase (maximize?) growth and profitability.
BUSINESS IS NOT “PART OF THE
COMMUNITY.
IS
BUSINESS
THE COMMUNITY.
HENCE BUSINESS ENTAILS AN
ENORMOUS MORAL COMPONENT..
I love this!
(And “buy it” 100%.)
Read it.
Re-read it.
Think about it.
Discuss it.
Act on it.
Business’ Moral Imperative:
“[INCREASE
THE] SUM OF
HUMAN WELLBEING.”
Source: Good Business, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Yup.
Wow.
(Up for it?*)
(*Actually, circa 2016, you have no
choice.)
(
Now
more than ever—e.g., tech
driven changes are playing havoc with
employment, and we’re barely at the
beginning of the beginning.)
Warren Bennis on superior forms of enterprise:
“Successful
human
communities”
Same idea.
A bit more modest linguistically.
"We all start out in life loving our fathers and mothers above
everything else in the world, but that does not close the doors
of love. That prepares us to love our wives and husbands and
children and friends and to cooperate with and show respect
to all worthy individuals with whom we come in contact or
have an opportunity to reach in other ways. We must apply
that to nations and to other businesses.
"We in IBM must not confine our thoughts just to IBM.
We must extend our cooperation to all other businesses
whether we do business with them or not. We are one
cog in the industrial wheel.
"Then as citizens we must extend our respect to all worthy
people in all nations. We are moving along in troublesome
times, but the love of these various things of which I have
spoken and of the people in whom we are interested is
Going to be the great force which will make us all appreciate
the spiritual values which constitute the only solid foundation
on which we can build."
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr. address to IBM Sales and Service
Class 525 and Customer Engineers Class 528,
IBM Country Club, Endicott, NY, October 30, 1941
EXCELLENCE.
2.19
SERVICE.
PERIOD.
ORGANIZATIONS
EXIST TO SERVE.
PERIOD.
LEADERS LIVE TO
SERVE. PERIOD.
PERIOD.
(And if this is NOT your measure …)
EXCELLENCE. Always.
If not EXCELLENCE, what?
If not EXCELLENCE now, when?
EXCELLENCE is not an "aspiration."
EXCELLENCE is not a "journey."
EXCELLENCE is the next five minutes.
Organizations exist to SERVE. Period.
Leaders exist to SERVE. Period.
SERVICE is a beautiful word.
SERVICE is character, community, commitment.
(And profit.)
SERVICE is a beautiful word.
SERVICE is not "Wow."
SERVICE is not "raving fans."
SERVICE is not "a great experience."
Service is "just" that—SERVICE.
My take on “all this” … understanding the
role of enterprise by combining the call to
SERVE and the aspiration to EXCELLENCE.
(In Search of Excellence, my 1982 book with Bob Waterman,
is generally regarded as the book that married the idea of
Excellence per se to the practice of business. The quest for
Excellence is the unyielding bedrock of enterprise—as we
saw it. And to that I now say with passion and urgency …
add service to excellence at the “co-top” of the veeeeery
short list.)
2.20
EXCELLENCE.
Not.
“At a party given by a billionaire on
Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut
informs his pal, Joseph Heller, that
their host, a hedge fund manager,
had made more money in a single
day than Heller had earned from
his wildly popular novel Catch-22
over its whole history. Heller
responds …
“At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut
informs his pal, Joseph Heller … that their host, a hedge fund
manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had
earned from his wildly popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history.
Heller responds …
‘Yes, but I
have something he
will never have …
Source: John Bogle, Enough. The Measures of Money, Business, and
Life (Bogle is founder of the Vanguard Mutual Fund Group)
At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt
Vonnegut informs his pal, Joseph Heller … that their
host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a
single day than Heller had earned from his wildly
popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history. Heller
responds … Yes, but I have something he will never have
…
enough.
Source: John Bogle, Enough. The Measures of Money, Business, and
Life (Bogle is founder of the Vanguard Mutual Fund Group)
If there is a “must read” book in the current
century that examines the moral role of
business in society, it’s Jack Bogle’s
Enough. The Measures of Money,
Business, and Life.
(The Vonnegut-Heller exchange launches
the book.)
CHAPTER TITLES
“Too Much Cost, Not Enough Value”
“Too Much Speculation, Not Enough Investment”
“Too Much Complexity, Not Enough Simplicity”
“Too Much Counting, Not Enough Trust”
“Too Much Business Conduct, Not Enough
Professional Conduct”
“Too Much Salesmanship, Not Enough
Stewardship”
“Too Much Focus on Things, Not Enough
Focus on Commitment”
“Too Many Twenty-first Century Values, Not
Enough Eighteenth-Century Values”
“Too Much ‘Success,’ Not Enough Character”
Source: Jack Bogle, Enough! (chapter titles)
Revealing—and compelling—chapter titles
from Enough. The Measures of Money,
Business, and Life.
Read it.
P-L-E-A-S-E.
2.21
EXCELLENCE.
Excellence. Always.
If not Excellence,
what?
If not Excellence
now, when?
EXCELLENCE is
a PERSONAL
choice … NOT
an institutional
choice!
EXCELLENCE is not a “long-term”
"aspiration.”
EXCELLENCE is the ultimate shortterm strategy. EXCELLENCE is …
THE
NEXT
5
MINUTES.*
(*Or NOT.)
ORGANIZATIONS
EXIST TO SERVE.
PERIOD.
LEADERS LIVE TO
SERVE. PERIOD.
Hard is Soft.
Soft is Hard.
Hard
Soft
(numbers, plans)
is Soft.
is Hard.
(people/relationships/culture)
APPENDIX
EXCELLENCE 2025
A 15-Point
Human Capital Asset
Development
Manifesto
World Strategy Forum/
The New Rules: Reframing Capitalism
Tom Peters/Seoul/15 June 2012
I was intimidated by the title of a conference I addressed
in Seoul, Korea. Namely, “Reframing capitalism.” And by
the fact that a passel of Nobel laureates in economics
would be addressing the issue. Then it occurred to
me that the mid- to long-term “reframing”
was more about recasting the nature of
work/jobs in, for example, the face of
2020’s artificial intelligence than about
whether the Spanish bailout is $100
billion or $400 billion—as nontrivial as the
latter is. I.e., what the hell will the world’s four billion
or so workers be doing, say, 10 years from now? I’m not
sure that sophisticated econometric analyses will be all
that helpful in determining an answer.
A 15-Point Human Capital Development Manifesto
“Corporate social responsibility” starts at
home—i.e., inside the enterprise! MAXIMIZING
1.
GDD/Gross Domestic Development of the
workforce is the primary source of mid-term and
beyond growth and profitability—and maximizes
national productivity and wealth. (Re
profitability: If you want to serve the customer
with uniform Excellence, then you must FIRST
effectively and faithfully serve those who serve
the customer—i.e. our employees, via
maximizing tools and professional development.)
“Business has to give people enriching,
or it's
simply not
worth doing.”
rewarding lives …
—Richard Branson
2. Regardless of the transient external situation,
development of “human capital” is always the #1
priority. This is true in general, in particular in
difficult times which demand resilience—and
uniquely true in this age in which IMAGINATIVE
brainwork is de facto the only plausible survival
strategy for higher wage nations. (Generic
“brainwork,” traditional and dominant “whitecollar activities, is increasingly being performed
by exponentially enhanced artificial intelligence.)
Regardless of the
transient external
situation,
development of
“human capital” is
always the #1 priority.
Three-star generals and admirals (and
symphony conductors and sports coaches and
police chiefs and fire chiefs) OBSESS about
training. Why is it an almost dead certainty that
3.
in a random 30-minute interview you are unlikely
to hear a CEO touch upon this topic? (I would
hazard a guess that most CEOs see IT
investments as a “strategic necessity,” but see
training expenses as “a necessary evil.”)
Proposition/axiom: The CTO/Chief TRAINING
Officer is arguably the #1 staff job in the
enterprise, at least on a par with, say, the CFO or
CIO or head of R&D. (Again, external
4.
circumstances—see immediately above—are
forcing our hand.)
I would hazard a guess
that most CEOs see IT
investments as a
“strategic necessity,”
but see training
expenses as
“a necessary evil.”
The training budget takes precedence over
the capital budget. PERIOD. It’s easier fun to get
5.
your picture taken next to a new machine. But
how do you get a photo of a new and much
improved attitude in a key distribution center?
But the odds are 25:1 that the new attitude will
add more to the bottom line than will the
glorious state-of-the-art machine.
Human capital development should routinely
sit atop any agenda or document associated
with enterprise strategy. Most any initiative you
6.
undertake should formally address implications
for and contributions to human capital asset
development.
Every individual on the payroll should have a
benchmarked professional growth strategy.
7.
Every leader at every level should be evaluated
in no small measure on the collective
effectiveness of individual growth strategies—
that is, each individual’s absolute growth is of
direct relevance to every leader’s assessed
performance.
Every individual
on the payroll
should have a
benchmarked
professional growth
strategy.
Given that we ceaselessly lament the
“leadership deficit,” it is imperative, and just
plain vanilla common sense, that we maximize
the rate of development of women leaders at
every level—little if anything has a higher
priority. (It is an outrage that this has not been
8.
the case until now—and is still not the case in
far too many institutions.) (And, while there are
no guarantees, women are more likely
dispositionally to take a shine to the imperative
of maximizing human asset development.)
Maximum utilization of and continued
development of “older workers” (to age 70—or
even beyond?) is a source of immense
organizational and national growth and wealth.
9.
The rapidly aging population, with oldies far
more healthy and vital than ever, Ought to be
an opportunity rather than a pain-in-the-butt to
deal with.
The practical key to all human asset
development activities is the 1st-line manager.
10.
(“Sergeants run the Army” is an accurate
commonplace. observation—supported by
development resources.) Hence development of
the full cadre of 1st-line managers is an
urgent—and invariably underplayed—strategic
imperative. Arguably, the collective quality and
development trajectory of 1st-line leaders is an
organization’s #1 human asset development
priority. (Consistent with all the above, the 1stline leader’s skill at “people development” is her
or his top priority—for which she or he must be
rigorously and continually trained.)
11. The national education infrastructure—from
kindergarten to continuing adult education—may
well be National Priority #1. Moreover, the
educational infrastructure must be altered
radically to underpin support for the creative
jobs that will be more or less the sole basis of
future employment and national growth and
wealth creation.
“Every child is born an artist.
The trick is to remain an
artist.”
—Picasso
“Human creativity is the
ultimate economic
resource.”
—Richard Florida
"Creativity can no longer be
treated as an elective.”
—John Maeda
12. Associated with the accelerated priority of
the national education infrastructure is a
dramatically enhanced and appreciated and
compensated role for our teachers—this must
necessarily be accompanied by rigorous
accountability. There is no doubt that
“teaching” (instilling) insatiable curiosity, say,
which is the #1 attribute of a creative person, is
no easy task; however, there is no way that it
can be ducked if one looks at future definitions
of employability.
The very best and the very
brightest and the most
energetic and enthusiastic
and entrepreneurial and
tech-savvy of our university
graduates must—must,
not should—be lured
into teaching!
12. Associated with the accelerated priority of
the national education infrastructure is a
dramatically enhanced and appreciated and
compensated role for our teachers—this must
necessarily be accompanied by rigorous
accountability. There is no doubt that
“teaching” (instilling) insatiable curiosity, say,
which is the #1 attribute of a creative person, is
no easy task; however, there is no way that it
can be ducked if one looks at future definitions
of employability.
The great majority of us work in small
enterprises; hence national growth objectives
based upon human capital development MUST
necessarily extend “downward” to even 1person enterprises. Collective productivity
13.
improvement through human capital
development among small businesses has an
unimaginably large—and underappreciated—
payoff. While many small business appreciate
the notion, they are unprepared to take the
steps necessary to engage their, say, dozen
employees in seeking productivity
improvements.
The great majority of us
work in small enterprises;
hence national growth
objectives based upon
human capital development
MUST necessarily extend
“downward” to even
1-person enterprises.
Needless to say, the activities imagined
here will only be possible if abetted by a
peerless National Information and
Communication Infrastructure. Indeed, the work
14.
here is being done—and the need is appreciated
and reasonably well funded. The effort must
not falter; the new information-based tools are
the coin of the realm.
15. A The good news: We are up to the
challenge. The entrepreneurial spirit is a near
universal, not just available to a privileged few.
One thinks of entrepreneurs, and Richard
Branson or Elon Musk comes to mind. Fair
enough. But there are as many flavors of
entrepreneurial behavior as there are adult
citizens. And, with effort and appropriate
support systems, it is possible to re-kindle that
flair in one and almost all.
“All human
beings are
entrepreneurs. When
Muhammad Yunus:
we were in the caves we were all
self-employed, finding our food, feeding
ourselves. That’s where human history
began . . . As civilization came we
suppressed it. We became labor
because they stamped us, ‘You
are labor.’ We forgot that we
are entrepreneurs.”
Source: The News Hour/PBS/1122.2006