EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
Tom Peters/“KillerCombo”/22April2006
“Organizations are not
machines. That has been
the central message of all
my books. They are living communities of
individuals. To describe them we need to use the
language of communities and the language of
individuals. That means a mix of words we use in
politics and in ordinary everyday life. The essential
task of leadership (a word from political theory,
unlike the word ‘manager’) is to combine the
aspirations and needs of individuals with the
purposes of the larger community to which they all
belong.” —Charles Handy
P.P.E.E.R.E.
People.
Product.
Execution.
Enthusiasm.
Relentless.
Excellence.
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
Slides at …
tompeters.com
EXCELLENCE.
1982.
Excellence1982: The Bedrock “Eight Basics”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
A Bias for Action
Close to the Customer
Autonomy and Entrepreneurship
Productivity Through People
Hands On, Value-Driven
Stick to the Knitting
Simple Form, Lean Staff
Simultaneous Loose-Tight
Properties”
What is In Search of Excellence all about:
People. Emotion. Engagement.
Exuberance. Action-Execution.
Empowerment. Independence. Initiative.
Imagination. Great Stories. Incredible
Adventures. Trust. Caring. Fun. Joy.
Customer-centrism. Profit. Growth.
“Brand You.” “Dramatic Differences.”
Experiences that Make You “Gasp.”
Excellence. Always.
ExIn*: 1982-2002/Forbes.com
DJIA: $10,000 yields $85,500
EI: $10,000 yields $140,050
*Excellence Index /Basket of 32 publicly traded stocks
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
Synonyms
Purity
Transcendence
Virtue
Elegance
Majesty
Antonyms
Mediocrity
The Peters
Principles: Enthusiasm.
Emotion. Excellence. Energy.
Excitement. Service. Growth.
Creativity. Imagination. Vitality.
Joy. Surprise. Independence.
Spirit. Community. Limitless
human potential. Diversity. Profit.
Innovation. Design. Quality.
Entrepreneurialism. Wow.
An emotional,
vital, innovative, joyful, creative,
entrepreneurial endeavor that
elicits maximum concerted
human potential in the
wholehearted service
of others.***
Business* ** (*at its best):
**Excellence. Always.
***Employees, Customers, Suppliers, Communities, Owners, Temporary partners
The
Ultimate
Business:
Creative
Endeavor.
The
Ultimate
Business:
Personal
DevelopmentGrowth
Experience.
The
Ultimate
Business:
Transcendent
Service
Opportunity.
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
SET
THE
AGENDA.* (Period.)
Great Companies …
* “disturb the sleep of …
AGENDA SETTERS: “Set the Table”/
Pioneers/ Questors/ Adventurers
US Steel … Ford … Toyota … Sears …
GM … ITT … The Gap … Limited …
Wal*Mart … Tesco … P&G … 3M …
Intel … IBM … Apple … Nokia …
Cisco … Dell … MCI … Sun …
Microsoft … Google … Enron …
Schwab … GE … Laker … Southwest
… People Express … Ogilvy … Virgin
… eBay … Amazon … Sony …
Amgen … BMW … CNN … Nike
“But what if [former head of strategic planning at Royal
Dutch Shell] Arie De Geus is wrong in suggesting, in The
Living Company, that firms should aspire to live
forever? Greatness is fleeting and, for corporations, it
The ultimate
aim of a business organization, an
artist, an athlete or a stockbroker
may be to explode in a dramatic
frenzy of value creation during a
short space of time, rather than to
live forever.”
will become ever more fleeting.
—Kjell Nordström and Jonas Ridderstråle, Funky Business
Donnelly’s
Weatherstrip
Service
Weymouth MA
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
First-level
Scientific
Success:
Beyond Brains
First-level Scientific Success
The smartest guy
in the room wins”
Or …
First-level Scientific Success
Fanaticism
Persistence-Dogged Tenacity
Patience (long haul/decades)-Impatience (in a hurry/”do it yesterday”)
Passion
Energy
Relentlessness (Grant-ian)
Enthusiasm
Driven (nuts!)
(Brutal?) Competitiveness
Entrepreneurial
Pragmatic (R.F!A.)
Scrounge (“gets” the logistics-infrastructure bit)
Master of Politics (internal-external)
Tactical Genius
Pursuit of (Oceanic) Excellence!
High EQ/Skillful in Attracting + Keeping Talent/Magnetic
Prolific (“ground up more pig brains”)
Egocentric
Sense of History-Destiny
Futuristic-In the Moment
Mono-dimensional (“Work-life balance”? Ha!)
Exceptionally Intelligent
Exceptionally Clever (methodological shortcuts/methodological genius)
Luck
First-level Scientific Success/Short Form
Scientific Success
(Nobel-level) = Genius +
Execution + Master of
Soft Skills + Enthusiasm
+ Magnetism + Destiny
(sense of) + Energy
Biz Bonanza
Success = DDMMSTERL/
"D-squared, M-squared, STERL” =
DramaticDifference + “Business”
Acumen/Money + Good “Marketing”
Instinct/“Ice-to-Eskimos” Sales Skills
+ Stellar Talent + Aim for Excellence
+ Resilience/Tenacity/Adaptability +
Luck (The “Necessary Nine”: What Every Small Biz
Requires to Excel.) (Big, too.)
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
Summary:
WallopWal*Mart16*
*Or: Why it’s so absurdly easy
to beat a GIANT Company
The “Small Guys” Guide: Wallop Wal*Mart16
*Niche-aimed. (Never, ever “all things for all people,” a “miniWal*Mart.)
*Never attack the monsters head
niche business and lukewarm customers.)
on! (Instead steal
*“Dramatically
Different”
(La Difference ... within our
community, our industry regionally, etc … is as obvious as the end
of one’s nose!) (THIS IS WHERE MOST MIDGETS COME UP
SHORT.)
*Compete
on value/experience/intimacy, not
price. (You ain’t gonna beat the behemoths on cost-price in 9.99
out of 10 cases.)
*Emotional bond with Clients,
BIGGIES ON EMOTION/CONNECTION!!)
Vendors. (BEAT THE
$415/SqFt/Wal*Mart
$798/SqFt/Whole
Foods
7X. 730A800P. F12A.*
*’93-’03/10 yr annual return: CB: 29%; WM: 17%;
HD: 16%. Mkt Cap: 48% p.a.
EXCELLENCE?
ALWAYS?
Franchise Lost!
TP:
“How many of you
[600]
crave
really
a new Chevy?”
NYC/IIR/061205
This is not a
“mature
category.”
This is an
“undistinguished
category.”
“The ‘surplus society’ has a surplus of
similar companies, employing similar
people, with similar educational
backgrounds, coming up with similar
ideas, producing similar things, with
similar prices and similar quality.”
Kjell Nordström and Jonas Ridderstråle, Funky Business
The “Small Guys” Guide: Wallop Wal*Mart16
*Niche-aimed. (Never, ever “all things for all people,” a “miniWal*Mart.)
*Never attack the monsters head
niche business and lukewarm customers.)
on! (Instead steal
*“Dramatically Different” (La
Difference ... within our community, our industry regionally, etc …
is as obvious as the end of one’s nose!) (THIS IS WHERE MOST
MIDGETS COME UP SHORT.)
*Compete
on value/experience/intimacy, not
price. (You ain’t gonna beat the behemoths on cost-price in 9.99
out of 10 cases.)
*Emotional bond with Clients,
BIGGIES ON EMOTION/CONNECTION!!)
Vendors. (BEAT THE
“This is an essay about what it takes to create and sell something
remarkable. It is a plea for originality, passion, guts and daring. You can’t
be remarkable by following someone else who’s remarkable. One way to
figure out a theory is to look at what’s working in the real world and
determine what the successes have in common. But what could the Four
Seasons and Motel 6 possibly have in common? Or Neiman-Marcus and
Wal*Mart? Or Nokia (bringing out new hardware every 30 days or so) and
Nintendo (marketing the same Game Boy 14 years in a row)? It’s like trying
The thing that
all these companies have in
common is that they have
nothing in common. They are outliers.
to drive looking in the rearview mirror.
They’re on the fringes. Superfast or superslow. Very exclusive or very
cheap. Extremely big or extremely small. The reason it’s so hard to follow
the leader is this: The leader is the leader precisely because he did
something remarkable. And that remarkable thing is now taken—so it’s no
longer remarkable when you decide to do it.” —Seth Godin, Fast
Company/02.2003
The “Small Guys” Guide: Wallop Wal*Mart16
*Hands-on, emotional leadership. (“We are
a great & cool & intimate & joyful & dramatically
different team working to transform our Clients lives
via Consistently Incredible Experiences!”)
*A community star! (“Sell” local-ness per se.
Sell the hell out of it!)
*An
incredible experience, from the first
to last moment—and then in the followup! (“These guys are cool! They ‘get’ me! They love
me!”)
*DESIGN DRIVEN! (“Design” is a premier
weapon-in-pursuit-of-the sublime for small-ish
enterprises, including the professional services.)
The “Small Guys” Guide: Wallop Wal*Mart16
*Employer of choice. (A very cool, well-paid
place to work/learning and growth experience in at
least the short term … marked by notably progressive
policies.) (THIS IS EMINENTLY DO-ABLE!!)
*Sophisticated
use of information
technology. (Small-“ish” is no excuse for “small
aims”/execution in IS/IT!)
*Web-power! (The Web can make very small very
big … if the product-service is super-cool and one
purposefully masters buzz/viral marketing.)
*Innovative! (Must keep renewing and expanding
and revising and re-imagining “the promise” to
employees, the customer, the community.)
The “Small Guys” Guide: Wallop Wal*Mart16
*Brand-Lovemark* (*Kevin Roberts) Maniacs!
(“Branding” is not just for big folks with big budgets.
And modest size is actually a Big Advantage in
becoming a local-regional-niche “lovemark.”)
*Focus on
How stupid.)
women-as-clients. (Most don’t.
*Excellence! (A small player …
per me … has no right or reason to exist unless they
are in Relentless Pursuit of Excellence. One earns the
right—one damn day and client experience at a time!—
to beat the Big Guys in your chosen niche!)
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
Donnelly’s
Weatherstrip
Service
Weymouth MA
Cirque
du Soleil!
And the Winner is …
1. Audacity of Vision
2. Innovation/R&D/Design
3. Talent Acquisition &
Development
4. Resultant “Experience”
5. Strategic Alliances
6. Operations
7. Financial Management
8. Overall/Sustaining Excellence
9. “Wow!”
10. Lovemark!
Tattoo Brand: What %
of users would tattoo the
brand name on their body?
Top 10 “Tattoo Brands”*
Harley .… 18.9%
Disney .... 14.8
Coke …. 7.7
Google .... 6.6
Pepsi .... 6.1
Rolex …. 5.6
Nike …. 4.6
Adidas …. 3.1
Absolut …. 2.6
Nintendo …. 1.5
*BRANDsense: Build Powerful Brands through Touch,
Taste, Smell, Sight, and Sound, Martin Lindstrom
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
And the “M” Stands for … ?
“Systems
Integrator of choice.”/BW
Gerstner’s IBM:
(“Lou, help us turn ‘all this’ into that long-promised ‘revolution.’ ” )
IBM Global Services*
Services Corp.):
$55B
(*Integrated Systems
“By making the Global Delivery Model both legitimate and mainstream,
we have brought the battle to our territory. That is, after all, the purpose
of strategy. We have become the leaders, and incumbents [IBM, Accenture]
are followers, forever playing catch-up. … However, creating a new
business innovation is not enough for rules to be changed. The
innovation must impact clients, competitors, investors, and society. We
have seen all this in spades. Clients have embraced the model and are
demanding it in even greater measure. The acuteness of their
circumstance, coupled with the capability and value of our solution, has
made the choice not a choice. Competitors have been dragged kicking
and screaming to replicate what we do. They face trauma and disruption,
Investors have
grasped that this is not a passing
fancy, but a potential restructuring
of the way the world operates and
how value will be created in the
future.” —Narayana Murthy, chairman’s letter, Infosys Annual
but the game has changed forever.
Report
“Big Brown’s New Bag: UPS
Traffic
Manager for
Corporate
America”
Aims to Be the
—Headline/BW/2004
“SCS”/Supply Chain
Solutions: 750 locations;
$2.5B; fastest growing
division; 19 acquisitions,
including a bank
Source: Fast Company
And …
MasterCard
Advisors
Huge: Customer
Satisfaction
Customer
versus
Success
EXCELLENCE?
ALWAYS?
“ ‘Disintermediation’ is overrated. Those who fear
disintermediation should in fact be afraid of
irrelevance—disintermediation is just another way
you’ve become
irrelevant to your
customers.”
of saying that …
—John Battelle/Point/Advertising Age/07.05
Chicago:
HRMAC
“support function” /
“cost center” /
“bureaucratic drag”
or …
Are you …
“Rock
Stars of the
Age of
Talent”
DD$21M
A review of Jack and Suzy Welch’s Winning claims there are but
two key differentiators that set GE “culture” apart from the herd:
First: Separating financial forecasting and performance
measurement. Performance measurement based, as it usually is, on budgeting
leads to an epidemic of gaming the system. GE’s performance measurement is
divorced from budgeting—and instead reflects how you do relative to your past
performance and relative to competitors’ performance; ie it’s about how you
actually do in the context of what happened in the real world, not as compared to a
gamed-abstract plan developed last year.
Second: Putting HR on
a par with finance
and marketing.
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
“support function” /
“cost center” /
“bureaucratic drag”
or …
Answer:
Core Mechanism:
“Game-changing Solutions”
PSF
(Professional Service Firm “model”/The Organizing Principle)
+
Brand You
(“Distinct” or “Extinct”/The Talent)
+
Wow! Projects
(“Different” vs “Better”/The Work)
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
The “PSF35”:
Thirty-Five
Professional Service Firm
Marks of Excellence
The PSF35: The Work & The Legacy
1.
CRYSTAL CLEAR POINT OF VIEW
(E very Practice Group: “If you can’t explain your position in eight
words or less, you don’t have a position”—Seth Godin)
2. DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE (“We are the only ones who do what
we do”—Jerry Garcia)
3. Stretch Is Routine (“Never bite off less than you can chew”—anon.)
4. Eye-Appetite for Game-changer Projects (Excellence at Assembling
“Best Team”—Fast)
5. “Playful” Clients (Adventurous folks who unfailingly Aim to Change
the World)
6. Small “Uneconomic” Clients with Big Aims
7. Life Is Too Short to Work with Jerks (Fire lousy clients)
8. OBSESSED WITH LEGACY (Practice Group and Individual: “Dent the
Universe”—Steve Jobs)
9. Fire-on-the-spot Anyone Who Says, “Law/Architecture/Consulting/
I-banking/ Accounting/PR/Etc. has become a ‘commodity’ ”
10. Consistent with #9 above … DO NOT SHY AWAY FROM THE
WORD (IDEA) “RADICAL”
?????
Do good (excellent?!)
work
Make a lot of
money
Point of
View!
PSF + BY +
WP + DD +
E = UVA
PSF (Professional
Service Firm) + BY
(Brand You) + WP (WOW
Projects) +
DD (Dramatic Difference)
+ E (Excellence) =
UVA (Unassailable
Value-Added)
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
Answer:
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
Trapper: <$20
per beaver pelt.
Source: WSJ
WDCP*: $150 to remove
“problem beaver”; $750-
$1,000 for
flood-control
piping … so that beavers can
stay.
* “Wildlife Damage-control Professional”
Source: WSJ
Answer:
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
Fleet Manager
Rolling Stock Cost
Minimization Officer
vs/or
Chief of Fleet Lifetime
Value Maximization
Strategic Supply-chain Executive
Customer Experience Director
(via drivers)
“Big Brown’s New Bag: UPS
Traffic
Manager for
Corporate
America”
Aims to Be the
—Headline/BW/2004
Cost
(at All Costs*) Minimization
Professional?
Or/to: Full Partner-
“Purchasing Officer” Thrust #1:
Leader in Lifetime
Value-added
Maximization?
(*Lopez: “Arguably ‘Villain #1’ in GM tragedy”/Anon VSE-Spain)
HCare CIO: “Technology
Executive” (workin’ in a hospital)
Full-scale,
Accountable (life or death)
Member-Partner of XYZ
Hospital’s Senior
Or/to:
Healing-Services
Team
(who happens to be a techie)
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
Lead It:
New
“C-Levels”
CXO*
*Chief e
Xperience Officer
C
O*
*Chief Festivals Officer
C
O*
*Chief Conversations Officer
C
O*
*Chief Seduction Officer
C
O*
*Chief Lovemark Officer
C
*Chief Dream Merchant
C
*Chief Portal Impresario
C
O*
*Chief WOW Officer
C
O*
*Chief Storytelling Officer
C
*Chief
O*
Revenue
Officer
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
Flower
Power!
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
Better By Design: A National Strategy
NZ = Design
Excellence
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
“Management has a lot to do with
answers. Leadership is a function of
questions. And the first question for a
‘Who do
we intend to be?’
leader always is:
Not ‘What are we going to do?’ but
‘Who do we intend to be?’”
—Max De Pree, Herman Miller
“In 1933, Thomas J. Watson Sr. gave a
speech at the World’s
Fair, ‘World Peace through
We stood
for something,
right?”
World Trade.’
—Sam Palmisano
Ah, kids: “What is your vision for
the future?” “What have you
accomplished since your first book?”
“Close your eyes and imagine me
immediately doing something about
what you’ve just said. What would it
be?” “Do you feel you have an
obligation to ‘Make the world a better
place’?”
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
Charles Handy on the “Alchemists”:
“Passion was what drove
these people, passion for
their product, passion for
their cause. If you care enough, you will find out
what you need to know. Or you will experiment and not worry if the
experiment goes wrong.
Passion
as the secret to
learning is an odd secret to propose, but I believe that it works at
all levels and at all ages. Sadly,
passion
is not a
word often heard in the elephant organizations, nor in
schools, where it can seem disruptive.”
Kevin Roberts’ Credo
1. Ready. Fire! Aim.
2. If it ain’t broke ... Break it!
3. Hire crazies.
4. Ask dumb questions.
5. Pursue failure.
6. Lead, follow ... or get out of the way!
7. Spread confusion.
8. Ditch your office.
9. Read odd stuff.
10. Avoid moderation!
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
Organizing Genius / Warren Bennis
and Patricia Ward Biederman
“Groups become great only when
everyone in them, leaders and
members alike, is free to do his or
her absolute best.”
“The best thing a leader can do for a
Great Group is to allow its
members to discover their
greatness.”
Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“free to do his or her
absolute best” …
“allow its members to
discover their
greatness.”
“We are a
‘Life Success’
Company’
Dave Liniger, founder, RE/MAX
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
Core Mechanism:
“Game-changing Solutions”
PSF
(Professional Service Firm “model”/The Organizing Principle)
+
Brand You
(“Distinct” or “Extinct”/The Talent)
+
Wow! Projects
(“Different” vs “Better”/The Work)
“You are the
storyteller of your
own life, and you can
create your own
legend or not.”
—Isabel Allende
“Nobody can prevent you from
choosing to be exceptional.” —Mark Sanborn,
The Fred Factor
“To live is the rarest thing in the world.
Most people exist,
that is all.” –Oscar Wilde
“Make your life itself a creative
work of art.” —Mike Ray, The Highest Goal
“This is the true joy of Life, the
being used for a purpose
recognized by yourself as a
mighty one … the being a force of
Nature instead of a feverish,
selfish little clod of ailments and
grievances complaining that the
world will not devote itself to
making you happy.” —GB Shaw/
Man and Superman
Will you actually
remember it as
worthwhile 10 years
from now?”
—S.H.
“Tell me, what is it
you plan to do with
your one wild and
precious life?”
—Mary Oliver
A “position” is not an
“accomplishment.”
—TP
“One who does less
than he can
is a thief.”
—Gandhi
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
“The First step in a
‘dramatic’ ‘organizational
change program’ is
obvious—dramatic personal
change!” —RG
“You must
be
the change you wish
to see in the world.”
Gandhi
“To change minds effectively,
leaders make particular use
of two tools: the stories that
they tell and the lives that
they lead.” —Howard Gardner, Changing Minds
MBWA*
*HS/25+
You = Your
calendar*
*Calendars NEVER lie!!
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
Tom Peters/Novosibirsk/14 April 2006
De-central-iza-tion!
Ex-ecu-tion!
Ac-counta-bil-ity!
6:15A.M.
De-central-iza-tion!
“‘Decentralization’
is not a piece of
paper. It’s not me.
It’s either in your
heart, or not.”
—Brian Joffe/BIDvest
“No Need for Economies
of Scale: Illinois Tool Revs
Up Innovation by Keeping
Its 655 Units Separate
and Focused”
Source: Headline, BW, 1031.05 (“commodity” producer;
R&D = 1%; Top 100 patent recipient—66th in ’04) ($12B rev
in ’04; CEO David Speer: focus, lean, customer intimacy,
entrepreneurial, employee participation)
“HOW THE COAST GUARD
GETS IT RIGHT”
—Headline, Time, 10.31.2005
*Autonomy
*Flexibility
*“Perhaps the most important
distinction of the Coast
Guard is that it trusts itself”
Ex-ecu-tion!
“Ninety percent of
what we call
‘management’ consists
of making it difficult for
people to get things
done.”
– Peter Drucker
“too
much talk, too
little do”
TP/BW on BigCo Sin #1:
“Execution is
the job of the
business
leader.”
—Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/
Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
“Execution is a
systematic
process
of rigorously
discussing hows and whats, tenaciously
following through, and ensuring
accountability.”
—Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/ Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
“We have a
‘strategic plan.’
It’s called doing
things.”
— Herb Kelleher
“This is so simple it sounds stupid, but it is amazing
you
only find oil if you
drill wells.
how few oil people really understand that
You may think you’re
finding it when you’re drawing maps and
studying logs, but you have to drill.”
Source: The Hunters, by John Masters, Canadian O & G wildcatter
“While many people big oil finds
with big companies, over the years
about 80 percent of the oil
found in the United States has been
brought in by wildcatters such
as Mr Findley, says Larry Nation,
spokesman for the American
Association of Petroleum
Geologists.” —WSJ, “Wildcat Producer Sparks Oil
Boom in Montana,” 0405.2006
A man approached JP Morgan, held up an envelope, and said, “Sir, in
my hand I hold a guaranteed formula for success, which I will gladly
sell you for $25,000.”
“Sir,” JP Morgan replied, “I do not know what is in the envelope,
however if you show me, and I like it, I give you my word as a
gentleman that I will pay you what you ask.”
The man agreed to the terms, and handed over the envelope.
JP Morgan opened it, and extracted a single sheet of paper.
He gave it one look, a mere glance, then handed the piece of paper
back to the gent.
And paid him the
agreed-upon $25,000 …
1. Every morning, write a
list of the things that
need to be done that day.
2.
Do them.
Source: Hugh MacLeod/tompeters.com/NPR
Ex-ecu-tion!
“I saw that leaders placed too much
emphasis on what some call ‘highlevel strategy,’ on intellectualizing
and philosophizing, and not enough
on implementation. People would
agree on a project or initiative—and
then nothing would come of it.”
—Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/
Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
“The person who is a little less conceptual but is
absolutely determined to succeed will usually find the
right people and get them together to achieve
objectives. I’m not knocking education or looking for
But if you have to choose
between someone with a staggering IQ
and an elite education who’s gliding
along, and someone with a lower IQ but
who is absolutely determined to
succeed, you’ll always do better with
the second person.” —Larry Bossidy/
dumb people.
Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
“You only find
oil if you
drill wells.”
Source: The Hunters, by John Masters, Canadian O & G wildcatter
Ac-counta-bil-ity!
“Realism is
the heart of
execution.”
—Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/Execution:
The Discipline of Getting Things Done
“robust
dialogue”
—Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/ Execution:
The Discipline of Getting Things Done
“GE has set a standard
of candor. … There is no
puffery. … There isn’t an
ounce of denial in the
place.” —Kevin Sharer, CEO Amgen,
on the “GE mystique” (Fortune)
6:15A.M.
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
“Nothing is so
contagious as
enthusiasm.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
Insanely Great Language!
“Insanely
Great.”
—Steve Jobs
Radically Thrilling Language!
“Radically
Thrilling.”
—BMW Z4 (ad)
“Astonish me!” /S.D.
“Build something
great!” /H.Y.
“Make it
immortal!” /D.O.
Gaspworthy!
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
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
Stay Hungry.
Stay Foolish.
Steve Jobs
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
“It’s always
showtime.”
—David D’Alessandro, Career Warfare
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
EXCELLENCE
ALWAYS.
XCELLEN
ALWAYS.
All You
Need to
Know*
*more or less
In The
Beginning
X82/Excellence1982: The Bedrock
“Eight Basics”
1. A Bias for Action
2. Close to the Customer
3. Autonomy and Entrepreneurship
4. Productivity Through People
5. Hands On, Value-Driven
6. Stick to the Knitting
7. Simple Form, Lean Staff
8. Simultaneous Loose-Tight Properties”
ExIn*: 1982-2002/Forbes.com
DJIA: $10,000 yields $85,500
EI: $10,000 yields $140,050
*Excellence Index/Basket of 32 publicly traded stocks
Yikes
China!
China!
China!
THREE
BILLION NEW
CAPITALISTS
—Clyde Prestowitz
New Economy?!
Sergey +
Larry >
Harvard
“the
metabolically
dominant
soldier”
Source: Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our
Minds, Our Bodies—and What It Means to Be Human, Joel Garreau
“The corporation as we know it,
which is now 120 years old, is
not likely to survive
the next 25 years.
Legally and financially, yes, but
not structurally and
economically.”
—Peter Drucker
“This is a dangerous world and
it is going to become more dangerous.”
“We may not be
interested in chaos
but chaos is interested
in us.”
Source: Robert Cooper, The Breaking of Nations:
Order and Chaos in the Twenty-first Century
Cause
“Create a
‘cause,’ not
a ‘business.’’
—Gary Hamel
“People want to be part of
something larger than
themselves. They want to be
part of something they’re
really proud of, that they’ll
fight for, sacrifice for , trust.”
—Howard Schultz, Starbucks (IBD/09.05)
“Management has a lot to do with
answers. Leadership is a function of
questions. And the first question for a
‘Who do
we intend to be?’
leader always is:
Not ‘What are we going to do?’ but ‘Who
do we intend to be?’” —Max De Pree, Herman Miller
“I never, ever thought of
myself as a businessman.
I was interested in
creating things
I would be
proud of.” —Richard Branson
Quest
“I don’t
know.”
Source: Karl Weick
“Groups become great only when
everyone in them, leaders and
members alike, is free to do his or
her absolute best.”
“The best thing a leader can do for a
Great Group is to allow its
members to discover their
greatness.”
Source: Organizing Genius/Warren Bennis & Patricia Ward
Biederman
Leadership’s Mt Everest
“free to do his or her
absolute best” …
“allow its members to
discover their
greatness.”
“The role of the Director
is to create a space
where the actor or
actress can become
more than they’ve ever
been before, more than
they’ve dreamed of
being.” —Robert Altman, Oscar acceptance
“We are a
‘Life Success’
Company”
—Dave Liniger, RE/MAX
“In the end, management
doesn’t change culture.
Management invites the
workforce itself to
change the culture.”
—Lou Gerstner
Artist
Leader Job 1
Paint
Portraits of
Excellence!
Point of
View!
Best
Story
“Storytelling
is the core
of culture.”
—Branded Nation: The Marketing of Megachurch,
College Inc., and Museumworld, James Twitchell
“It is necessary for the
President to be the
No. 1
actor.”
nation’s
FDR
People
“Leaders
‘do’
people.”
—Anon.
Les Wexner:
From
sweaters to
people!
“Connoisseur
of Talent”
Source: Colleague on PARC’s Bob Taylor
Did We Say “Talent Matters”?
“The top software developers are
more productive than average
software developers not by a factor of
10X or 100X, or even 1,000X,
but
10,000X.”
—Nathan Myhrvold, former Chief Scientist, Microsoft
“We believe companies can increase their market cap
50 percent in 3 years. Steve Macadam at Georgia-
changed 20 of his 40
box plant managers to put
more talented, higher paid
managers in charge. He
increased profitability from $25 million to $80
million in 2 years.” —Ed Michaels, War for Talent
Pacific
Brand =
Talent.
Our Mission
To develop and manage talent;
to apply that talent,
throughout the world,
for the benefit of clients;
to do so in partnership;
to do so with profit.
WPP
DD$21M
A review of Jack and Suzy Welch’s Winning claims there are but
two key differentiators that set GE “culture” apart from the herd:
First: Separating financial forecasting and performance
measurement. Performance measurement based, as it usually is, on budgeting
leads to an epidemic of gaming the system. GE’s performance measurement is
divorced from budgeting—and instead reflects how you do relative to your past
performance and relative to competitors’ performance; ie it’s about how you
actually do in the context of what happened in the real world, not as compared to a
gamed-abstract plan developed last year.
Second: Putting HR on
a par with finance
and marketing.
People
Employees: “Are
there
enough weird
people in the lab
these days?”
V. Chmn., pharmaceutical house, to a lab director
Decency
“It was much later that I realized Dad’s
secret. He gained respect by giving it.
He talked and listened to the fourthgrade kids in Spring Valley who shined
shoes the same way he talked and
listened to a bishop or a college
president. He was seriously
interested in who you were
and what you had to say.”
—Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Respect
Amen!
“What creates trust,
in the end, is the
leader’s manifest
respect for the
followers.”
— Jim O’Toole, Leading Change
“I have always
believed that the
purpose of the
corporation is to be
a blessing to the
employees.”
—Boyd Clarke
Grace
Rodale’s on “Grace” …
elegance … charm …
loveliness … poetry in
motion … kindliness ..
benevolence … benefaction
… compassion … beauty
“Thank
you”
“The two most
powerful things in
existence: a kind word
and a thoughtful
gesture.”
—Ken Langone
“The deepest human need
need to be
appreciated.”
is the
—William James
Intangibles
“Hard is soft.
Soft is hard.”*
*In Search of Excellence
“Organizations are not machines.
That has been the central message of
all my books. They are living communities
of individuals. To describe them we need to
use the language of communities and the
language of individuals. That means a mix
of words we use in politics and in ordinary
everyday life. The essential task of
leadership (a word from political theory,
unlike the word ‘manager’) is to combine
the aspirations and needs of individuals
with the purposes of the larger community
to which they all belong.” —Charles Handy
Message: Leadership is
all about love! [Passion,
Enthusiasms, Appetite for Life,
Engagement, Commitment, Great
Causes & Determination to Make a
Damn Difference, Shared Adventures,
Bizarre Failures, Growth, Insatiable
Appetite for Change.] [Otherwise, why bother?
Just read Dilbert. TP’s final words: CYNICISM STINKS.]
Selfmanagement
“The First step in a
‘dramatic’
‘organizational change
program’ is obvious—
dramatic personal
change!” —RG
You =
Your
Calendar
“You must
be
the change you
wish to see in the
world.”
—Gandhi
“To change minds
effectively, leaders make
particular use
of two tools: the stories
they tell and
the lives they
lead.”
—Howard Gardner, Changing Minds
“Before you can inspire with
emotion, you must be
swamped with it yourself.
Before you can move their
tears, your own must flow. To
convince them, you must
yourself believe.” —Winston Churchill
MBWA
“You can’t lead a
cavalry charge if
you think you
look funny on a
horse.”
—John Peers, President, Logical Machine
Corporation
Curiosity
“Why?”
Ears
“If you don’t
listen, you don’t
sell anything.”
—Carolyn Marland/MD/Guardian Group
Conformity
“While everything may be
it is also
increasingly the
same.”
better,
—Paul Goldberger on retail, “The Sameness
of Things,” The New York Times
“To grow, companies
need to break out of a
vicious cycle of
competitive
benchmarking and
imitation.”
—W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne, “Think
for Yourself —Stop Copying a Rival,” Financial Times/08.11.03
“The short road
to ruin is to
emulate the
methods of your
adversary.”
— Winston Churchill
Conformity
“The Bottleneck is at
the Top of the Bottle”
“Where are you likely to find people with the least diversity of
experience, the largest investment in the past, and the greatest
reverence for industry dogma?
At the top!”
— Gary Hamel/“Strategy or Revolution”/Harvard Business Review
Dramatic
Difference
Point of
View!/Point of
Dramatic
Difference!
PSF!
Donnelly’s
Weatherstrip
Service
Weymouth MA
The “Small Guys” Guide: Wallop Wal*Mart16
*Niche-aimed. (Never, ever “all things for all people,” a “miniWal*Mart.)
*Never attack the monsters head
niche business and lukewarm customers.)
*“Dramatically
on! (Instead steal
Different”
(La Difference ... within our community, our industry regionally, etc
… is as obvious as the end of one’s nose!) (THIS IS WHERE MOST
MIDGETS COME UP SHORT.)
*Compete
on value/experience/intimacy, not
price. (You ain’t gonna beat the behemoths on cost-price in 9.99
out of 10 cases.)
*Emotional bond with Clients,
BIGGIES ON EMOTION/CONNECTION!!)
Vendors. (BEAT THE
“In Tom’s world, it’s always
better to try a swan
dive and deliver a colossal
belly flop than to step timidly
off the board while holding
your nose.” —Fast Company /October2003
“[Immelt] is now identifying
technologies with which GE
systematically
set out to build
entirely new
industries”
will …
—Strategy+Business, Fall 2005
SET
THE
AGENDA.* (Period.)
Great Companies …
* “disturb the sleep of …
AGENDA SETTERS: “Set the Table”/
Pioneers/ Questors/ Adventurers
US Steel … Ford … Toyota … Sears …
GM … ITT … The Gap … Limited …
Wal*Mart … Tesco … P&G … 3M …
Intel … IBM … Apple … Nokia …
Cisco … Dell … MCI … Sun …
Microsoft … Google … Enron …
Schwab … GE … Laker … Southwest
… People Express … Ogilvy … Virgin
… eBay … Amazon … Sony …
Amgen … BMW … CNN … Nike
“But what if [former head of strategic planning at Royal
Dutch Shell] Arie De Geus is wrong in suggesting, in The
Living Company, that firms should aspire to live
forever? Greatness is fleeting and, for corporations, it
The ultimate
aim of a business organization, an
artist, an athlete or a stockbroker
may be to explode in a dramatic
frenzy of value creation during a
short space of time, rather than to
live forever.”
will become ever more fleeting.
—Kjell Nordström and Jonas Ridderstråle, Funky Business
Action
“Ninety percent of
what we call
‘management’ consists
of making it difficult for
people to get things
done.”
– Peter Drucker
“Execution is
the job of the
business
leader.”
—Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/
Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
“Execution is a
systematic
process
of rigorously
discussing hows and whats, tenaciously
following through, and ensuring
accountability.”
—Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/ Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
“The person who is a little less conceptual but is
absolutely determined to succeed will usually find the
right people and get them together to achieve
objectives. I’m not knocking education or looking for
But if you have to choose
between someone with a staggering IQ
and an elite education who’s gliding
along, and someone with a lower IQ but
who is absolutely determined to
succeed, you’ll always do better with
the second person.” —Larry Bossidy/
dumb people.
Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
“Realism is
the heart of
execution.”
—Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/Execution:
The Discipline of Getting Things Done
“GE has set a standard
of candor. … There is no
puffery. … There isn’t an
ounce of denial in the
place.” —Kevin Sharer, CEO Amgen,
on the “GE mystique” (Fortune)
“We have a
‘strategic’
plan. It’s called
doing things.”
— Herb Kelleher
“This is so simple it sounds stupid, but it is amazing
you
only find oil if you
drill wells.
how few oil people really understand that
You may think you’re
finding it when you’re drawing maps and
studying logs, but you have to drill.”
Source: The Hunters, by John Masters, Canadian O & G wildcatter
“You only find
oil if you
drill wells.”
Source: The Hunters, by John Masters, Canadian O & G wildcatter
“Never forget
implementation
boys. In our work it’s
what I call the
‘missing 98
percent’ of the client
puzzle.”
—Al McDonald
Try It
Try It
Try It
“Fail faster.
Succeed
sooner.”
—David Kelley/IDEO
Sam’s
Secret
#1!
De-central-iza-tion!
Ex-ecu-tion!
Ac-counta-bil-ity!
6:15A.M.
Focus
“Dennis, you
need a ‘Todon’t ’ List !”
“I used to have a rule for myself that at
any point in time I wanted to have in
mind — as it so happens, also in
writing, on a little card I carried
around with me — the three big things
I was trying to get done.
Three.
Not two.
Not four. Not five. Not ten. Three.”
— Richard Haass, The Power to Persuade
“We will not, I
repeat not, pretend
to be ‘all things to
all people.’”
—CEO, Investec (03.06)
K.I.S.S.
“One bank is currently
claiming to ‘leverage its
global footprint to provide
effective financial solutions
for its customers by providing
a gateway to diverse
markets.’ I assume that it is
just saying that it is there to
help its customers wherever
they are.” —Charles Handy
450/8
Danger:
S.I.O.
(Strategic Initiative Overload)
“I wanted GE to operate with
the speed, informality, and open
communication of a corner
store. Corner stores often have
strategy right. With their limited
resources, they have to rely on
laser-like focus on doing one
thing very well.” —Jack Welch/Fortune/04.05
Change
“If you don’t like
change, you’re
going to like
irrelevance even
less.”
—General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff. U. S. Army
“We eat
change for
breakfast!
—Harry Quadracci, QuadGraphics
“I’m not
comfortable
unless I’m
uncomfortable.”
—Jay
Chiat
“The most
successful people
are those who
are good at
‘plan B.’”
—James Yorke,
mathematician, on chaos theory in The New Scientist
Change
We become
who we hang
out with!
Measure “Strangeness”/Portfolio Quality
Staff
Consultants
Vendors
Out-sourcing Partners (#, Quality)
Innovation Alliance Partners
Customers
Competitors (who we “benchmark” against)
Strategic Initiatives
Product Portfolio (LineEx v. Leap)
IS/IT Projects
HQ Location
Lunch Mates
Language
Board
“Don’t
benchmark,
futuremark!”
Impetus: “The future is already here; it’s just
not evenly distributed” —William Gibson
“[Immelt] is now identifying
technologies with which GE
systematically
set out to build
entirely new
industries”
will …
—Strategy+Business, Fall 2005
Forget
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
Big
Change
No Wiggle Room!
“Incrementalism
is innovation’s
worst enemy.”
Nicholas Negroponte
“Beware of the tyranny of
making Small Changes to
Small Things. Rather, make
Big Changes to
Big Things.”
—Roger Enrico,
former Chairman, PepsiCo
Five MYTHS About Changing Behavior
*Crisis is a powerful impetus for change
*Change is motivated by fear
*The facts will set us free
*Small, gradual changes
are always easier to
make and sustain
*We can’t change because our brains become
“hardwired” early in life
Source: Fast Company/05.2005
“Wealth in this new regime
flows directly from
innovation, not optimization.
That is, wealth is not gained
by perfecting the known, but
by imperfectly seizing the
unknown.”
—Kevin Kelly, New Rules for the New Economy
“Reward excellent
failures. Punish
mediocre
successes.”
Phil Daniels, Sydney exec
Big
Bigger
Biggest
??????
“I don’t believe in economies of
You don’t get
better by being
bigger. You get
worse.”
scale.
—Dick Kovacevich/Wells
Fargo/Forbes/08.04 (ROA: Wells, 1.7%; Citi, 1.5%; BofA, 1.3%;
J.P. Morgan Chase, 0.9%)
“I am often asked by would-be entrepreneurs
seeking escape from life within huge corporate
structures, ‘How do I build a small firm for
Buy
a very large one
and just wait.”
myself?’ The answer seems obvious:
—Paul Ormerod, Why Most Things Fail:
Evolution, Extinction and Economics
“Forbes100” from 1917 to 1987: 39
members of the Class of ’17 were
alive in ’87; 18 in ’87 F100; 18 F100
“survivors” underperformed the
market by 20%; just 2 (2%), GE &
Kodak, outperformed the market
1917 to 1987.
S&P 500 from 1957 to 1997: 74 members of the Class of ’57
were alive in ’97; 12 (2.4%) of 500 outperformed the market from
1957 to 1997.
Source: Dick Foster & Sarah Kaplan, Creative Destruction:
Why Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the Market
Exit, Stage Right …
CEO “departure” rate, 1995-2004:
+300%
Source: Booz Allen Hamilton (per USA Today/06.13.05)
New Economy?!
Genentech09,
Amgen09
> Merck09
(70K-3/394B-5)
Relentless
“This [adolescent] incident [of getting from point A to point B] is
notable not only because it underlines Grant’s fearless
horsemanship and his determination, but also it is the first known
example of a very important peculiarity of his character:
Grant had an extreme,
almost phobic dislike of
turning back and retracing
his steps. If he set out for somewhere, he would get
there somehow, whatever the difficulties that lay in his way. This
idiosyncrasy would turn out to be one the factors that made him
such a formidable general. Grant would always, always press on—
turning back was not an option for him.” —Michael Korda, Ulysses Grant
“It is no use saying
‘We are doing our
best.’ You have got
to succeed in doing
what is necessary.”
—WSC
Agressive
“[Other]
admirals more
frightened of
losing than
anxious to win”
Nelson’s secret:
Speed
“We don’t sell
insurance anymore.
We sell
speed.”
Peter Lewis, Progressive
Tempo
He who has the
quickest O.O.D.A.
Loops* wins!
*Observe. Orient. Decide. Act. / Col. John Boyd
Richard &
Kevin
Sir Richard’s Rules:
Follow your passions.
Keep it simple.
Get the best people to help you.
Re-create yourself.
Play.
Kevin Roberts’ Credo
1. Ready. Fire! Aim.
2. If it ain’t broke ... Break it!
3. Hire crazies.
4. Ask dumb questions.
5. Pursue failure.
6. Lead, follow ... or get out of the way!
7. Spread confusion.
8. Ditch your office.
9. Read odd stuff.
10. Avoid moderation!
Passion &
Enthusiasm
I am a
dispenser of
enthusiasm.”
—Ben Zander
“Nothing is so
contagious as
enthusiasm.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge
“A man without
a smiling face
must not open a
shop.”
—Chinese Proverb*
*Courtesy Tom Morris, The Art of Achievement
Hustle
“Most important,
upped the
energy level at
he
Motorola.”
—Fortune on Ed Zander/08.05
Sunny
“Ronald
Reagan radiated an
almost transcendent
happiness.”
Half-full Cups:
—Lou Cannon
“A leader is
a dealer in
hope.”
—Napoleon
Aim High
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
Get “better”
vs
Get “different”
“You do not merely want to be
You
want to be considered
the only ones who do
what
you do.”
the best of the best.
—Jerry Garcia
Stay Hungry.
Stay Foolish.
Steve Jobs
Dream
“the wildest
chimera of a
moonstruck
mind”
—The Federalist on Jefferson’s
Louisiana Purchase
“Tell me, what
is it you plan to
do with your
one wild and
precious life?”
—Mary Oliver
Create
“A focus on cost-cutting and efficiency
has helped many organizations weather
the downturn, but this approach will
Only
the constant pursuit of
innovation can ensure
long-term success.”
ultimately render them obsolete.
—Daniel Muzyka, Dean, Sauder School of Business,
Univ of British Columbia (FT/09.17.04)
“Acquisitions are about
buying market share. Our
challenge is to create
markets. There is a big
difference.”
—Peter Job, CEO, Reuters
Revenue
Top Line, Anyone?
Point (Advertising Age), to Phil Kotler: “Who should
the CMO
[Chief Marketing Officer] report
Kotler: “Maybe a
to?”
Chief Revenue
Officer—the cost side has been
squeezed, now companies have to focus
on top-line growth—or maybe a
Customer Officer.
Chief
(TP: Or maybe both!)
C
*Chief
O*
Revenue
Officer
Women Buy
Women Lead
“Women are
the majority
market”
—Fara Warner/The Power of the Purse
1. Men and women are different.
2. Very different.
3. VERY, VERY DIFFERENT.
4. Women & Men have a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y
nothing in common.
5. Women buy lotsa stuff.
6. WOMEN BUY A-L-L THE STUFF.
7. Women’s Market = Opportunity No. 1.
8. Men are (STILL) in charge.
9. MEN ARE … TOTALLY, HOPELESSLY
CLUELESS ABOUT WOMEN.
10. Women’s Market = Opportunity No. 1.
10. Women’s
Market =
Opportunity
No. 1.
“AS
LEADERS,
WOMEN
RULE:
New Studies find that
female managers outshine their male
counterparts in almost every measure”
Title, Special Report/BusinessWeek
“To be a leader in
consumer products,
it’s critical to have
leaders who represent
the population we
serve.”
—Steve Reinemund/PepsiCo
Boomers Buy
Geezers Buy
2000-2010 Stats
18-44: -1%
55+: +21%
(55-64: +47%)
44-65: “New
Customer
Majority” *
*45% larger than 18-43; 60% larger by 2010
Source: Ageless Marketing, David Wolfe & Robert Snyder
Sell
Sell
Selll
.
“Everyone
lives by
selling
something.”
– Robert Louis Stevenson
Valueadded
And the “M” Stands for … ?
“Systems
Integrator of
choice.”
Gerstner’s IBM:
IBM Global Services:
$55B
And …
MasterCard
Advisors
Valueadded
“ ‘Disintermediation’ is overrated. Those who fear
disintermediation should in fact be afraid of
irrelevance—disintermediation is just another way
you’ve
become
irrelevant to your
customers.”
of saying that …
—John Battelle/Point/Advertising Age/07.05
Answer: Professional Service Firm/PSF!
Department Head
to …
Managing Partner,
IS [HR, R&D, etc.] Inc.
Answer:
Best is not
good
enough!
“Game-changing Solutions”:
Core Mechanism
PSF
(Professional Service Firm “model”)
+
Wow Projects
(“Different” vs “Better”)
+
Brand You
(“Distinct” or “Extinct”)
PSF!
Donnelly’s
Weatherstrip
Service
Weymouth MA
Valueadded
$415/SqFt
$798/SqFt
Experience
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
Q: “Why did you buy Jordan’s
Furniture?”
A: “Jordan’s is spectacular.
It’s all
showmanship.
Source: Warren Buffet interview/Boston Sunday Globe
One company’s answer:
C
*Chief e
O*
Xperience Officer
“We don’t have a good language to talk
about this kind of thing. In most people’s
vocabularies, design means veneer. … But
to me, nothing could be further from the
Design is
the fundamental
soul of a man-made creation.”
meaning of design.
Steve Jobs
Love
Kevin Roberts:
Lovemarks!
Top 10 “Tattoo Brands”*
Harley .… 18.9%
Disney .... 14.8
Coke …. 7.7
Google .... 6.6
Pepsi .... 6.1
Rolex …. 5.6
Nike …. 4.6
Adidas …. 3.1
Absolut …. 2.6
Nintendo …. 1.5
*BRANDsense: Build Powerful Brands through Touch,
Taste, Smell, Sight, and Sound, Martin Lindstrom
No Limits
“You can’t behave in
a calm, rational
manner. You’ve got
to be out there on
the lunatic fringe.”
— Jack Welch
Leadership23
Tom Peters/Novosibirsk/14April2006
Leadership23
1. Enthusiasm. Energy. Exuberance.
2. Action. Execution.
3. Tempo. Metabolism.
4. Relentless.
5. Master of Plan B.
6. Accountability.
7. Meritocracy.
8. Leaders “do” people. Mentor. (“Success
creation business.”)
9. Women. Diversity.
10. Integrity. Credibility. Humanity. Grace.
11. Realism.
12. Cause. Adventures. Quests.
Leadership23
13. Legacy.
14. Best story wins.
15. On the edge. (“Wildest fantasy of a
dreamy mind.”)
16. “Reward excellent failures. Punish
mediocre successes.”
17. Different > Better. (“Only ones who do
what we do.”)
18. MBWA. Customer MBWA.
19. Laughs.
20. Repot. Curiosity. Why?
21. You = Calendar. “To Don’t.” Two.
22. Excellence. Always.
23. Nelsonian! (“Other admirals more afraid
of losing than anxious to win.”)
Kevin Roberts’ Credo
1. Ready. Fire! Aim.
2. If it ain’t broke ... Break it!
3. Hire crazies.
4. Ask dumb questions.
5. Pursue failure.
6. Lead, follow ... or get out of the way!
7. Spread confusion.
8. Ditch your office.
9. Read odd stuff.
10. Avoid moderation!
Sir Richard’s Rules:
Follow your passions.
Keep it simple.
Get the best people to help you.
Re-create yourself.
Play.
Source: Fortune on Branson
Leadership23L*
*Long Version
Leadership23
1. Enthusiasm. Energy. Exuberance.
2. Action. Execution.
3. Tempo. Metabolism.
4. Relentless.
5. Master of Plan B.
6. Accountability.
7. Meritocracy.
8. Leaders “do” people. Mentor. (“Success creation business.”)
9. Women. Diversity.
10. Integrity. Credibility. Humanity. Grace.
11. Realism.
12. Cause. Adventures. Quests.
13. Legacy.
14. Best story wins.
15. On the edge. (“Wildest chimera of a moonstruck mind.”)
16. “Reward excellent failures. Punish mediocre successes.”
17. Different > Better. (“Only ones who do what we do.”)
18. MBWA. Customer MBWA.
19. Laughs.
20. Repot. Curiosity. Why?
21. You = Calendar. “To Don’t.” Two.
22. Excellence. Always.
23. Nelsonian! (“Other admirals more afraid of losing
than anxious to win.”)
Kevin Roberts’ Credo
1. Ready. Fire! Aim.
2. If it ain’t broke ... Break it!
3. Hire crazies.
4. Ask dumb questions.
5. Pursue failure.
6. Lead, follow ... or get out of the way!
7. Spread confusion.
8. Ditch your office.
9. Read odd stuff.
10. Avoid moderation!
Sir Richard’s Rules:
Follow your passions.
Keep it simple.
Get the best people to help you.
Re-create yourself.
Play.
Source: Fortune on Branson
“People want to be part of
something larger than
themselves. They want to be
part of something they’re
really proud of, that they’ll
fight for, sacrifice for , trust.”
—Howard Schultz, Starbucks (IBD/09.05)
“Management has a lot to do with
answers. Leadership is a function of
questions. And the first question for a
‘Who do
we intend to be?’
leader always is:
Not ‘What are we going to do?’ but
‘Who do we intend to be?’”
—Max De Pree, Herman Miller
Ah, kids: “What is your vision for
the future?” “What have you
accomplished since your first book?”
“Close your eyes and imagine me
immediately doing something about
what you’ve just said. What would it
be?” “Do you feel you have an
obligation to ‘Make the world a better
place’?”
From
sweaters to …
Les Wexner:
people!
“It was much later that I realized Dad’s secret. He
gained respect by giving it. He talked and listened to
the fourth-grade kids in Spring Valley who shined
shoes the same way he talked and listened to a bishop
He was
seriously interested
in who you were
and what you had
to say.”
or a college president.
—Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Respect
“Ninety percent of what
we call ‘management’
consists of making it
difficult for people to get
things done.”
– Peter Drucker
Organizing Genius / Warren Bennis
and Patricia Ward Biederman
“Groups become great only when
everyone in them, leaders and
members alike, is free to do his or
her absolute best.”
“The best thing a leader can do for a
Great Group is to allow its
members to discover their
greatness.”
“The role of the Director
is to create a space
where the actor or
actress can become
more than they’ve ever
been before, more than
they’ve dreamed of
being.” —Robert Altman, Oscar acceptance
“We are a
‘life Success
Company”’
Dave Liniger, RE/MAX
You = Your
calendar*
*Calendars NEVER lie!!
“Reward excellent
failures. Punish
mediocre successes.”
Phil Daniels, Sydney exec
“We have a
‘strategic’ plan.
It’s called ‘doing
things.’ ”
— Herb Kelleher
“You only find oil
if you drill wells.”
—John Masters
“Realism is
the heart of
execution.”
—Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/Execution:
The Discipline of Getting Things Done
“Nothing is so
contagious as
enthusiasm.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge
“A man without a
smiling face must not
open a shop.”
—Chinese Proverb*
*Courtesy Tom Morris, The Art of Achievement
“Never apologize
for showing feeling.
When you so, you
apologize for
the truth.”
—Disraeli
Stay Hungry.
Stay Foolish.
Steve Jobs
People
Power!
People Power:
“Brand You”
Days
People Power:
The
Talent50
People Power:
“Brand You”
Days
“One of the defining
characteristics [of the change] is
that it will be less driven by
countries or corporations and
more driven by real people. It will
unleash unprecedented creativity,
advancement of knowledge, and economic
development. But at the same time, it will
tend to undermine safety net systems and
penalize the unskilled.” —Clyde Prestowitz, Three Billion
New Capitalists
“If there is nothing very
special about your
work, no matter how hard you
apply yourself you won’t get
noticed, and that increasingly
means you won’t get paid much
either.” —Michael Goldhaber, Wired
“You are the
storyteller of your
own life, and you can
create your own
legend or not.”
—Isabel Allende
“Imagine you are sitting next to a
stranger at dinner and you have
to describe your job in one
sentence
that they can
understand. If you fail this test,
you are either a nuclear physicist
or your job shouldn’t exist.”
—Lucy Kellaway/personal relevance test/FT/0206.06
Personal “Brand Equity” Evaluation
– I am known for [2 to 3 things]; next year at this
time I’ll also be known for [1 more thing].
– My current Project is challenging me …
– New things I’ve learned in the last 90 days
include …
– My public “recognition program”
consists of …
– Additions to my Rolodex in the last 90 days
include …
– My resume is discernibly different
from last year’s at this time …
R.D.A.
Rate: 15%?, 25%?
Therefore: Formal “Investment
Strategy”/
R.I.P.*
*Renewal Investment Plan
“Knowledge becomes obsolete
incredibly fast. The continuing
professional education of
adults is the No. 1 industry in
the next 30 years … mostly
on line.”
—Peter Drucker
Distinct … or
… Extinct
New Work SurvivalKit.2006
1. Mastery! (Best/Absurdly Good at Something!)
2. “Manage” to Legacy (All Work = “Memorable”/“Braggable” WOW Projects!)
3. A “USP”/Unique Selling Proposition (R.POV8: Remarkable Point of
View … captured in 8 or less words)
4. Rolodex Obsession (From vertical/hierarchy/“suck up” loyalty to
horizontal/“colleague”/“mate” loyalty)
5. Entrepreneurial Instinct (A sleepless … Eye for Opportunity! E.g.: Small
Opp for Independent Action beats faceless part of Monster Project)
6. CEO/Leader/Businessperson/Closer (CEO, Me Inc. Period! 24/7!)
7. Master of Improv (Play a dozen parts simultaneously, from
Chief Strategist to Chief Toilet Scrubber)
8. Sense of Humor (A willingness to Screw Up & Move On)
9. Comfortable with Your Skin (Bring “interesting you” to work!)
10. Intense Appetite for Technology (E.g.: How Cool-Active is your
Web site? Do you Blog?)
11. Embrace “Marketing” (Your own CSO/Chief Storytelling Officer)
12. Passion for Renewal (Your own CLO/Chief Learning Officer)
13. Execution Excellence! (Show up on time! Leave last!)
Joe J. Jones
1942 – 2006
HE WOULDA DONE SOME
REALLY COOL STUFF
BUT …
HIS BOSS WOULDN’T
HIM!
LET
T. J. Peters
1942 – 2---
HE WAS A PLAYER!
“It’s always
showtime.”
—David D’Alessandro, Career Warfare
Getting to WOW
Through Mastery of …
The Sales25.
Getting Things Done:
Power &
The
Implementation34.
Presentation
Excellence: The
PresX56
The Interviewing
Excellence:
The IntX31
People Power:
The
Talent50
1. People
First!
“The Creative Age
is a wide-open
game.”
—Richard Florida,
The Rise of the Creative Class
Whoops: Jack
didn’t have a
vision!*
*GE = “Talent Machine” (Ed Michaels)
“When land was the scarce
resource, nations battled
over it. The same is
happening now for
talented people.”
Stan Davis & Christopher Meyer, futureWEALTH
2. Soft Is
Hard.
Message: Leading
“Talent” is all about
Love: Passion, Enthusiasms,
Appetite for Life, Engagement,
Commitment, Great Causes &
Determination to Make a Damn
Difference, Shared Adventures,
Bizarre Failures, Growth,
Insatiable Appetite for Change.
3. FUNDAMENTAL
PREMISE: We Are in an Age
of Talent/Creativity/
Intellectual-capital Added.
“Human creativity
is the ultimate
economic
resource.”
—Richard Florida,
The Rise of the Creative Class
Agriculture Age (farmers)
Industrial Age (factory workers)
Information Age (knowledge
workers)
Conceptual Age (creators and
empathizers)
Source: Dan Pink, A Whole New Mind
4. Talent
“Excellence” in
Every Part of
Every Organization.
Wegman’s:
#1/100
“Best Companies to
Work for”/2005
5. P.O.T./
Pursuit Of
Talent =
OBSESSION.
“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
Les Wexner: From
sweaters to …
people!
6. Talent Masters
Understand
Talent’s
Intangibles.
Q:
A:
“If it were your $50K [life’s
savings] and my $50K, what
sort of Waiters would we
look for?”
“Enthusiasts!”
Visibly energetic /Passionate/Enthusiastic … about everything.
Engaging/Inspires others. (Inspires the interviewer!)
Loves messes & pressure.
Impatient/ Action fanatic.
A finisher.
Exhibits: Fat “WOW Project” Portfolio. (Loves to talk about her work.)
Smart.
Curious/ Eclectic interests/ A little (or more) weird.
Well-developed sense of humor/ Fun to be around.
******
No. 1 re bosses: Exceptional talent selection & development
record. (Former co-workers: “Did you visibly grow while
working with X?” /“How has the department/team grown
on a ‘world-class’ scale during X’s tenure?”)
7. HR Is
“Cool.”
Chicago:
HRMAC
“support function” /
“cost center” /
“bureaucratic drag”
or …
Are you …
“Rock Stars
of the
Age of Talent”?
“HR doesn’t tend to hire
a lot of independent
thinkers or people who
stand up as moral
compasses.” —Garold Markle,
Shell Offshore HR Exec (FC/08.05)
8. HR Sits at
The Head
Table.
DD$21M
A review of Jack and Suzy Welch’s Winning claims there are but
two key differentiators that set GE “culture” apart from the herd:
First: Separating financial forecasting and performance
measurement. Performance measurement based, as it usually is, on
budgeting leads to an epidemic of gaming the system. GE’s performance
measurement is divorced from budgeting—and instead reflects how you do
relative to your past performance and relative to competitors’ performance; ie it’s
about how you actually do in the context of what happened in the real world, not
as compared to a gamed-abstract plan developed last year.
Second: Putting HR on
a par with finance
and marketing.
9. Re-name
“HR.”
Talent
Department
People Department
Center for Talent Excellence
Seriously Cool People Who
Recruit & Develop
Seriously Cool People
Etc.
10. There Is an
“HR Strategy”/
“HR Vision”
“Omnicom very simply is
about talent. It’s about the
acquisition of talent,
providing the atmosphere
so talent is attracted
to it.” —John Wren
Our Mission
To develop and manage talent;
to apply that talent,
throughout the world,
for the benefit of clients;
to do so in partnership;
to do so with profit.
WPP
EVP/
IBP?*
What’s your company’s …
*Employee Value Proposition, per Ed Michaels et al., The War for Talent;
IBP/Internal Brand Promise per TP
EVP/IBP = Remarkable
challenges, rapid professional
growth, wholesale respect,
deep satisfaction, fun,
stunning opportunities,
exceptional rewards, amazing
peer group, full membership in
Club Adventure, maximized
future employability
11. Acquire
for Talent!
Omnicom's acquisitions: “not for
“buying
talent;” “deepen a
size per se”;
relationship with a client.”
Source: Advertising Age
12. There Is a
FORMAL
Recruitment
Strategy.
“Busy Executives
Fail To Give
Recruiting
Attention It
Deserves”
—Headline, WSJ, 1121.05
Cirque du
Soleil!
Cirque du Soleil: Talent
(12 full-time scouts,
database of 20,000). R&D
(40%
Controls (shows are profit centers;
partners like Disney offset costs; $100M on $500M). Scarcity
builds buzz/brand (1 new show per year. “People tell me
of profits; 2X avg corp).
we’re leaving money on the table by not duplicating our shows. They’re
right.” —Daniel Lamarre, president).
Source: “The Phantasmagoria Factory”/Business 2.0/1-2.2004
13. There Is a FORMAL
Leadership Development
Strategy.
DD: 0 to 60mph
in a flash
(months)
Five MYTHS About Changing Behavior
*Crisis is a powerful impetus for change
*Change is motivated by fear
*The facts will set us free
*Small, gradual changes
are always easier to
make and sustain
*We can’t change because our brains become
“hardwired” early in life
Source: Fast Company/05.2005
14. There is a
“World Class”
Leadership
Development
CENTER.
Crotonville!
15. There Is a
FORMAL
STRATEGIC HR
Review Process.
“In most companies, the Talent Review Process is a
farce. At GE, Jack Welch and his two top HR people visit
each division for a day. They review the top 20 to 50
people by name. They talk about Talent Pool
The Talent Review
Process is a contact sport at
GE; it has the intensity and the
importance of the budget
process at most companies.”
strengthening issues.
—Ed Michaels
16. “People”/
Talent” Reviews
Are the FIRST
Reviews.
17.
HR Strategy =
BUSINESS
Strategy.
#1/100
Wegman’s:
Best Companies to Work for
84%: Grocery stores “are all alike”
46%: additional spend if customers have an “emotional connection” to
a grocery store rather than “are satisfied” (Gallup)
“Going to Wegman’s is not just shopping, it’s an event.”
—Christopher
Hoyt, grocery consultant
“You cannot separate
their strategy as a retailer
from their strategy as an
employer.”
—Darrell Rigby, Bain & Co.
Cirque du
Soleil!
18. Make it a
“Cause Worth
Signing Up For.”
“People want to be part of
something larger than
themselves. They want to be
part of something they’re
really proud of, that they’ll
fight for, sacrifice for , trust.”
—Howard Schultz, Starbucks (IBD/09.05)
19. Unleash
“Their” Full
Potential!
“Firms will not ‘manage the careers’
of their employees. They will
provide opportunities to
enable the employee to
develop identity and
adaptability and thus be in
charge of his or her own
career.”
—Tim Hall et al., “The New Protean Career Contract”
A “Life
Success
Company”
RE/MAX:
Source: Everybody Wins, Phil Harkins & Keith Hollihan
“No matter what the situation,
[the great manager’s] first response is
always to think about the
individual concerned and how
things can be arranged to help
that individual experience
success.” —Marcus Buckingham,
The One Thing You Need to Know
20. Set Sky
High
Standards.
Did We Say “Talent Matters”?
“The top software developers are more
productive than average software
developers not by a factor of 10X or 100X,
or even 1,000X, but
10,000X.”
—Nathan Myhrvold, former Chief Scientist, Microsoft
21. Enlist
Everyone in
Challenge
Century21.
Distinct
Extinct
…
or …
New Work SurvivalKit.2006
1. Mastery! (Best/Absurdly Good at Something!)
2. “Manage” to Legacy (All Work = “Memorable”/“Braggable” WOW Projects!)
3. A “USP”/Unique Selling Proposition (R.POV8: Remarkable Point of
View … captured in 8 or less words)
4. Rolodex Obsession (From vertical/hierarchy/“suck up” loyalty to
horizontal/“colleague”/“mate” loyalty)
5. Entrepreneurial Instinct (A sleepless … Eye for Opportunity! E.g.: Small
Opp for Independent Action beats faceless part of Monster Project)
6. CEO/Leader/Businessperson/Closer (CEO, Me Inc. Period! 24/7!)
7. Master of Improv (Play a dozen parts simultaneously, from
Chief Strategist to Chief Toilet Scrubber)
8. Sense of Humor (A willingness to Screw Up & Move On)
9. Comfortable with Your Skin (Bring “interesting you” to work!)
10. Intense Appetite for Technology (E.g.: How Cool-Active is your
Web site? Do you Blog?)
11. Embrace “Marketing” (Your own CSO/Chief Storytelling Officer)
12. Passion for Renewal (Your own CLO/Chief Learning Officer)
13. Execution Excellence! (Show up on time! Leave last!)
22. Pursue
the Best!
“best person in
the world”
—Arthur Blank
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
23. Up or
Out.
“We believe companies can increase their market cap 50
percent in 3 years. Steve Macadam at Georgia-Pacific
changed 20 of his 40 box
plant managers to put more
talented, higher paid
managers in charge. He increased
profitability from
$25 million to $80 million in 2
years.” —Ed Michaels, War for Talent
24. Ensure that
the Review
Process Has
INTEGRITY.
25 =
100*
* “But what do I do that’s more important than developing
people? I don’t do the damn work. They do.”—GS
25. Pay Up!
“Top performing companies
are two to four times more
likely than the rest to pay
what it takes
prevent losing top
performers.”
to
—Ed Michaels,
War for Talent
Costco
*$17/hour (42% above
Sam’s); very good health
plan; low t/o, low shrinkage
*Low margins (“When I started, Sears, Roebuck
was th Costco of the country, but they allowed
someone to come in under them”—Jim Sinegal)
Source: “How Costco Became the Anti-Wal*Mart/NYT/07.17.05
26. Training I:
Train! Train!
Train!
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?
“Knowledge becomes
obsolete incredibly fast. The
continuing professional
education of adults is the
No. 1 industry in the next 30
years … mostly on line.”
Peter Drucker, Business 2.0
27. Training II:
100% “Business
People.”
28. Training III:
100%
LEADERS.
“I start with the premise
that the function of
leadership is to produce
more leaders, not more
followers.”
—Ralph Nader
29. Training IV:
Boss as Trainerin-Chief.
“Workout” = 24
DPY in the
Classroom
30. Training V:
The REAL
Bedrock of the
“Talent Thing.”
“My wife and I went to a [kindergarten] parent-teacher
conference and were informed that our budding refrigerator
artist, Christopher, would be receiving a grade of
Unsatisfactory in art. We were shocked. How could any
child—let alone our child—receive a poor grade in art at such
His teacher informed
us that he had refused to color
within the lines, which was a
state requirement for
demonstrating ‘grade-level
motor skills.’ ” —Jordan Ayan, AHA!
a young age?
“Thomas Stanley has not
only found no correlation between
success in school and an ability to
accumulate wealth, he’s actually
found a negative correlation. ‘It seems
Ye gads:
that school-related evaluations are poor predictors of economic
success,’ Stanley concluded. What did predict success was a
willingness to take risks. Yet the success-failure standards of most
schools penalized risk takers. Most educational systems reward
those who play it safe. As a result, those who do well in school find it
hard to take risks later on.”
Richard Farson & Ralph Keyes, Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins
15 “Leading” Biz Schools
0
Design/Core:
Design/Elective: 1
0
Creativity/Core:
Creativity/Elective: 4
0
Innovation/Core:
Innovation/Elective: 6
Source: DMI/Summer 2002/Research by Thomas Lockwood
31. Wide-open
Communication:
NO BARRIERS.
“The organizations we created have
become tyrants. They have taken
control, holding us fettered, creating
barriers that hinder rather than help
our businesses. The lines that we
drew on our neat organizational
diagrams have turned into walls
that no one can scale or penetrate
or even peer over.” —Frank Lekanne Deprez & René
Tissen, Zero Space: Moving Beyond Organizational Limits
32. Respect!
“What creates trust,
in the end, is the
leader’s manifest
respect for the
followers.”
— Jim O’Toole, Leading
Change
“It was much later that I realized Dad’s secret. He
gained respect by giving it. He talked and listened
to the fourth-grade kids in Spring Valley who shined
shoes the same way he talked and listened to a
He was
seriously interested in
who you were and what
you had to say.”
bishop or a college president.
—Sara Lawrence-
Lightfoot, Respect
“Empowerment” =
Trust
Source: Barry Gibbons
33. Embrace
the Whole
Individual.
34. Build
Places of
“Grace.”
Rodale’s on “Grace” …
elegance … charm …
loveliness … poetry in
motion … kindliness ...
benevolence …
benefaction …
compassion … beauty
35. MBWA*:
Visible
Leadership!
*Managing By Wandering Around
“The first and greatest
imperative of command
is to be present in
person. Those who
impose risk must be
seen to share it.”
—John Keegan,
The Mask of Command
36. Thank
You!
“The deepest human need
need to be
appreciated.”
is the
—William James
37. Promote for
“people skills.”
(THE REST IS
DETAILS.)
“When assessing candidates, the first
thing I looked for was energy and
enthusiasm for execution. Does she
talk about the thrill of getting
things done, the obstacles
overcome, the role her people
played —or does she keep wandering
back to strategy or philosophy?”
Bossidy, Honeywell/AlliedSignal, in Execution
—Larry
38. Honor
Youth.
“Why focus on these late teens and twentysomethings? Because they are the
first young who are both in a
position to change the world, and
are actually doing so. … For the first
time in history, children are more comfortable,
knowledgeable and literate than their parents
about an innovation central to society. … The
Internet has triggered the first industrial
revolution in history to be led by the young.”
The Economist
39. Provide Early
Leadership
Assignments.
The
WOW!
Project
40. Create a
FORMAL
System of
Mentoring.
W. L. Gore
Quad/Graphics
41. Diversity!
“To be a leader in
consumer products,
it’s critical to have
leaders who represent
the population we
serve.”
—Steve Reinemund/PepsiCo
“We want our associate
population to mirror our
customer population at
every level, from the
executive suite all the way to
the retail floor.”
—Larry Johnston, CEO,
Albertsons
42. WOMEN
RULE.
“AS LEADERS,
WOMEN RULE: New
Studies find that female
managers outshine their
male counterparts in
almost every measure”
Title, Special Report/BusinessWeek
“On average, women and men
possess a number of different innate
skills. And current trends suggest
that many sectors of the twentyfirst-century economic
community are going to need the
natural talents of women.”
Helen Fisher, The First Sex: The Natural Talents of Women
and How They Are Changing the World
Women’s Strengths Match New Economy
Imperatives: Link [rather than rank] workers;
favor interactive-collaborative leadership style
[empowerment beats top-down decision
making]; sustain fruitful collaborations;
comfortable with sharing information; see
redistribution of power as victory, not
surrender; favor multi-dimensional feedback;
value technical & interpersonal skills,
individual & group contributions equally;
readily accept ambiguity; honor intuition as
well as pure “rationality”; inherently flexible;
appreciate cultural diversity. —Judy B. Rosener,
America’s Competitive Secret
“TAKE THIS QUICK QUIZ: Who manages more things
at once? Who puts more effort into their
appearance? Who usually takes care of the
details? Who finds it easier to meet new people?
Who asks more questions in a conversation? Who
is a better listener? Who has more interest in
communication skills? Who is more inclined to get
involved?
Who encourages harmony and
agreement? Who has better intuition? Who
works with a longer ‘to do’ list? Who enjoys a
recap to the day’s events?
Who is better at
keeping in touch with others?”
Source: Selling Is a Woman’s Game: 15 Powerful Reasons Why
Women Can Outsell Men, Nicki Joy & Susan Kane-Benson
Hazel Blears, England’s first female police minister
(per The Times, 7 March): “Blears believes the new
[neighborhood policing, “broken windows”] approach
requires skills other than the police’s traditional ‘control
and command’ style, and she clearly thinks women
officers are right for the task. ‘Many of the women in the
service are very good at getting other people to join the
police in fighting crime. The police need new skills
around influence. When we talk about neighborhood
policing and antisocial behavior you have to be able to
draw in other people to help you resolve these
problems.’ Blears leaves an impression in everything
she says that her belief is that women officers may be
much better at this than their male colleagues, but,
of course, she is much too politic to say so.”
U.S.
M.Mgt.
41%
T.Mgt.
4%
Peak Partic. Age 45
% Coll. Stud.
52%
G.B. E.U. Ja.
29% 18% 6%
3%
2%
<1%
22
27
19
50% 48% 26%
Source: Judy Rosener, America’s Competitive Secret
????????
The Core Argument
1. We are in a War for Talent.
2. The war will intensify.
3. Women are under-represented in our
leadership ranks.
4. Women and men are different.
5. Women’s strengths match the New Economy’s
leadership needs—to a striking degree.
6. Women are also the principal purchasers
of goods and services—retail and commercial.
7. Ergo, women are a large part of “the answer”
to the War for Talent issue/opportunity.
43. Hire
(& Protect!)
Weird!
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
“Are there
enough weird
people in the lab
these days?”
—V. Chmn., pharmaceutical
house, to a lab director
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
Why Do I love Freaks?
(1) Because when Anything Interesting happens … it was a freak
who did it. (Period.)
(2) Freaks are fun. (Freaks are also a pain.) (Freaks are never boring.)
(3) We need freaks. Especially in freaky times. (Hint: These are freaky
times, for you & me & the CIA & the Army & Avon.)
(4) A critical mass of freaks-in-our-midst automatically make us-whoare-not-so-freaky at least somewhat more freaky. (Which is a Good
Thing in freaky times—see immediately above.)
(5) Freaks are the only (ONLY) ones who succeed—as in, make it into
the history books.
(6) Freaks keep us from falling into ruts. (If we listen to them.) (We
seldom listen to them.) (Which is why most of us—and our
organizations—are in ruts. Make that chasms.)
44. We Are All
Unique.
One
size NEVER fits
all. One size fits
Beware Standardized Evals:
one.
Period.
53 Players =
53 Projects =
53 different
success measures.
45. Capitalize
on Strengths.
“The key difference between
checkers and chess is that in
checkers the pieces all move
the same way, whereas in chess
all the pieces move differently.
… Discover what is unique
about each person and
capitalize on it.” —Marcus Buckingham,
The One Thing You Need to Know
“The mediocre manager believes that most
things are learnable and therefore that the
essence of management is to identify ach
person’s weaker areas and eradicate them.
The great manager believes the opposite.
He believes that the most influential
qualities of a person are innate and
therefore that the essence of management
is to deploy these innate qualities as
effectively as possible and so drive
performance.” —Marcus Buckingham, The One Thing
You Need to Know
46. Bosses
“Win People
Over.”
“Coaching
is winning
players over.”
PJ:
47. GOAL:
Voyages of
Mutual
Discovery.
“I don’t
know.”
Quests!
Organizing Genius / Warren Bennis
and Patricia Ward Biederman
“Groups become great only when
everyone in them, leaders and
members alike, is free to do his or
her absolute best.”
“The best thing a leader can do for a
Great Group is to allow its
members to discover their
greatness.”
Leadership’s Mt Everest!
“free to do his or her
absolute best” …
“allow its members to
discover their
greatness.”
48. Foster
Independence.
“You must realize that how you invest your human
capital matters as much as how you invest your
financial capital. Its rate of return determines your
future options. Take
a job for what it
teaches you, not for what it pays.
Instead of a potential employer asking,
‘Where do you see yourself in 5 years?’
you’ll ask, ‘If I invest my mental assets
with you for 5 years, how much will they
appreciate? How much will my portfolio
of career options grow?’ ”
Source: Stan Davis & Christopher Meyer, futureWEALTH
49. Enthusiasm!
“It’s simple, really,
Tom. Hire for s,
and, above all,
promote for s.”
—Starbucks follower/WS analyst
50. Talent
= Brand.
The Top 5 “Revelations”
Better talent wins.
Talent management is my job as leader.
Talented leaders are looking for the
moon and stars.
Over-deliver on people’s dreams – they
are volunteers.
Pump talent in at all levels, from all
conceivable sources, all the time.
Source: Ed Michaels et al., The War for Talent
The Talent50
1. People first!
2. Soft is Hard.
3. FUNDAMENTAL PREMISE: We are in an Age
of Talent/ Creativity/ Intellectual-capital
Added.
4. Talent “excellence” in every part of the
organization.
5. P.O.T./Pursuit Of Talent = Obsession.
6. HR sits at
7. HR is “cool.”
The Head Table.
Brand =
Talent.
“I have always
believed that the
purpose of the
corporation is to be a
blessing to the
employees.”
—Boyd Clarke
Message: Leading
“Talent” is all about
Love: Passion, Enthusiasms,
Appetite for Life, Engagement,
Commitment, Great Causes &
Determination to Make a Damn
Difference, Shared Adventures,
Bizarre Failures, Growth,
Insatiable Appetite for Change.
Re-imagine
Leadership.2006:
The Passion
Imperative.
Lead It …
Loud!
“The Bottleneck is at
the Top of the Bottle”
“Where are you likely to find people with the least diversity of
experience, the largest investment in the past, and the greatest
reverence for industry dogma?
At the top!”
— Gary Hamel/“Strategy or Revolution”/Harvard Business Review
Create a
Cause!
“Create a
‘cause,’ not a
‘business.’ ”
G.H.:
“People want to be part of
something larger than
themselves. They want to be
part of something they’re
really proud of, that they’ll
fight for, sacrifice for , trust.”
—Howard Schultz, Starbucks (IBD/09.05)
Think
Legacy!
“Management has a lot to do with
answers. Leadership is a function of
questions. And the first question for a
‘Who do
we intend to be?’
leader always is:
Not ‘What are we going to do?’ but
‘Who do we intend to be?’”
—Max De Pree, Herman Miller
“In 1933, Thomas J. Watson Sr. gave a
speech at the World’s
Fair, ‘World Peace through
We stood
for something,
right?”
World Trade.’
—Sam Palmisano
CEO Assignment2002 (Bermuda):
“Please leap forward to 2007, 2012, or
2022, and write a business history of
What will have been
said about your company
during your tenure?”
Bermuda.
Ah, kids: “What is your vision for
the future?” “What have you
accomplished since your first book?”
“Close your eyes and imagine me
immediately doing something about
what you’ve just said. What would it
be?” “Do you feel you have an
obligation to ‘Make the world a better
place’?”
Find ’em!
Jack
didn’t have a
“vision”!
“The” Secret:
From
sweaters to …
Les Wexner:
people!
Respect ’em!
Amen!
“What creates trust, in
the end, is the leader’s
manifest respect for
the followers.”
— Jim O’Toole, Leading Change
“Don’t
belittle!”
—OD Consultant
“It was much later that I realized Dad’s secret. He
gained respect by giving it. He talked and listened to
the fourth-grade kids in Spring Valley who shined
shoes the same way he talked and listened to a bishop
He was
seriously interested
in who you were
and what you had
to say.”
or a college president.
—Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Respect
“We behaved as if we were
guests in their house. We
treated them not as a
defeated people, but as allies.
Our success became their
success.”
—“How One Soldier Brought Democracy to
Iraq: The Mayor of Ar Rutbah” (MAJ James Gavrilis/USA Special Forces)
Make It a
Grand
Adventure!
“Ninety percent of what
we call ‘management’
consists of making it
difficult for people to get
things done.”
– Peter Drucker
Quests!
“I don’t
know.”
Organizing Genius / Warren Bennis
and Patricia Ward Biederman
“Groups become great only when
everyone in them, leaders and
members alike, is free to do his or
her absolute best.”
“The best thing a leader can do for a
Great Group is to allow its
members to discover their
greatness.”
Leadership’s Mt Everest
“free to do his or her
absolute best” …
“allow its members to
discover their
greatness.”
“The role of the Director
is to create a space
where the actor or
actress can become
more than they’ve ever
been before, more than
they’ve dreamed of
being.” —Robert Altman, Oscar acceptance
“We are a
‘life Success
Company”’
founder, RE/MAX
“ If your actions inspire
others to dream more,
learn more, do more and
become more, you are a
leader." —John Quincy Adams
“Never doubt that a small
group of committed
people can change the
world. Indeed it is
the only thing that ever
has.”
—Margaret Mead
“In the end, management
doesn’t change culture.
Management invites the
workforce itself to
change the culture.”
—Lou Gerstner
“In the end, management
doesn’t change culture.
Management invites the
workforce itself to
change the culture.”
—Lou Gerstner
Trumpet an
Exhilarating
Story!
“Leaders don’t just make
products and make decisions.
Leaders make
meaning.”
– John Seely Brown
Best Story Wins!
“A key – perhaps the key – to
leadership is
the effective
communication
of a story.”
—Howard Gardner/Leading Minds:
An Anatomy of Leadership
Language Power!
“… the language we
speak determines how
we react to the world
around us …”
—Diane Ackerman/
An Alchemy of Mind
Wow!
Live Your
Story!
MBWA*
*HS/25+
“I’m always stopping by our
at least 25
a week. I’m also in other
stores—
places: Home Depot, Whole Foods,
Crate & Barrel. … I try to be
a sponge to pick up as much
as I can. …” —Howard Schultz
Source: Fortune, “Secrets of Greatness,” 0320.2006
“To change minds effectively,
leaders make particular use
of two tools: the stories that
they tell and the lives that
they lead.” —Howard Gardner, Changing Minds
“It is necessary for the
President to be the
nation’s …
No. 1 actor.”
FDR
“You must
be
the change you wish
to see in the world.”
Gandhi
“The first and greatest
imperative of command is
to be present in person.
Those who impose risk
must be seen to share it.”
—John Keegan, The Mask of Command
You = Your
calendar*
*Calendars NEVER lie!!
“Works 100% of the
time!” (Heads for the front-line
folks, asks them for input—and is
comfortable with them*)
*Didn’t hurt that he spoke Spanish
Source: CEO, security services company, Spain
Try It!
Sam’s Secret
#1!
“Fail faster.
Succeed
sooner.”
David Kelley/IDEO
“Reward excellent
failures. Punish
mediocre successes.”
Phil Daniels, Sydney exec
Insist on
Speed!
“We don’t sell insurance
We sell
speed.”
anymore.
Peter Lewis, Progressive
“Strategy meetings held
once or twice a year” to
“Strategy meetings
needed several times
a week”
Source: New York Times on Meg Whitman/eBay
“If things seem
under control,
you’re just not going
fast
enough.” —Mario Andretti
Demand
Action!
“We have a
‘strategic’ plan. It’s
called ‘doing
things.’”
— Herb Kelleher
“The most successful
people are those who
are good at
plan B.”
—James Yorke, mathematician,
on chaos theory in The New Scientist
The Kotler Doctrine:
1965-1980: R.A.F.
(Ready.Aim.Fire.)
1980-1995: R.F.A.
(Ready.Fire!Aim.)
1995-????: F.F.F.
(Fire!Fire!Fire!)
A man approached JP Morgan, held up an envelope, and said,
“Sir, in my hand I hold a guaranteed formula for success, which
I will gladly sell you for $25,000.”
“Sir,” JP Morgan replied, “I do not know what is in the
envelope, however if you show me, and I like it, I
give you my word as a gentleman that I will pay you what you
ask.”
The man agreed to the terms, and handed over the envelope.
JP Morgan opened it, and extracted a single sheet of paper. He
gave it one look, a mere glance, then handed the piece of paper
back to the gent.
And paid him the
agreed-upon $25,000.
1. Every morning, write
a list of the things
that need to be done
that day.
2.
Do them.
Source: Hugh MacLeod/tompeters.com/NPR
Relentless!*
*Churchill, Grant, Patton, Welch, Bossidy, Nardelli (GE execs),
UPS, FedEx, Microsoft/Gates-Ballmer, Eisner, Weill, eBay, NixonKissinger, Gerstner, Rice, Jordan, Armstrong
“This [adolescent] incident [of getting from point A to point B] is
notable not only because it underlines Grant’s fearless
horsemanship and his determination, but also it is the first known
example of a very important peculiarity of his character:
Grant had an extreme, almost
phobic dislike of turning back
and retracing his steps. If he set out for
somewhere, he would get there somehow, whatever the difficulties
that lay in his way. This idiosyncrasy would turn out to be one the
factors that made him such a formidable general. Grant would
always, always press on—turning back was not an option for him.”
—Michael Korda, Ulysses Grant
1 of 2,400
6:15A.M.
Cut the
Crap!
“Realism is
the heart of
execution.”
—Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/Execution:
The Discipline of Getting Things Done
“robust
dialogue”
—Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/ Execution:
The Discipline of Getting Things Done
“GE has set a standard
of candor. … There is no
puffery. … There isn’t an
ounce of denial in the
place.” —Kevin Sharer, CEO Amgen,
on the “GE mystique” (Fortune)
Eat
Change!
“We eat
change for
breakfast!
—Harry Quadracci, QuadGraphics
Put Women
in Charge!
“AS
LEADERS,
WOMEN
RULE:
New Studies find that
female managers outshine their male
counterparts in almost every measure”
Title, Special Report/BusinessWeek
Women’s Strengths Match New
Economy Imperatives: Link [rather than rank]
workers; favor interactive-collaborative leadership
style [empowerment beats top-down decision
making]; sustain fruitful collaborations; comfortable
with sharing information; see redistribution of power
as victory, not surrender; favor multi-dimensional
feedback; value technical & interpersonal skills,
individual & group contributions equally; readily
accept ambiguity; honor intuition as well as
pure “rationality”; inherently flexible; appreciate
cultural diversity. —Judy B. Rosener,
America’s Competitive Secret: Women Managers
Dispense
Enthusiasm!
BZ: “I am a …
Dispenser of
Enthusiasm!”
“Nothing is so
contagious as
enthusiasm.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge
“Most important,
upped the
energy level at
he
Motorola.”
—Fortune on Ed Zander/08.05
“A man without a
smiling face must not
open a shop.”
—Chinese Proverb*
*Courtesy Tom Morris, The Art of Achievement
“If
you’re enthusiastic about
the things you’re working
on, people will come ask
you to do interesting
things.”
James Woolsey, former CIA director:
“Before you can inspire with
emotion, you must be
swamped with it yourself.
Before you can move their
tears, your own must flow. To
convince them, you must
yourself believe.” —Winston Churchill
Excellence.
Always.
And the Winner is …
1. Audacity of Vision
2. Innovation/R&D/Design
3. Talent Acquisition & Development
4. Resultant “Experience”
5. Strategic Alliances
6. Operations
7. Financial Management
8. Overall/Sustaining Excellence
9. “Wow!”
10. Lovemark!
Cirque
du Soleil!
ExIn*: 1982-2002/Forbes.com
DJIA: $10,000 yields $85,500
EI: $10,000 yields $140,050
*Excellence Index/Basket of 32 publicly traded stocks
Excellence =
*Tom Watson sr/1 minute
Leader Job No.1
Paint
Portraits of
Excellence!
Engaged.
In
Search of
Excellence
What is
all about?
What is In Search of Excellence all about:
People.
Emotion.
Engagement.
Empowerment.
Caring.
“Tell me, what is
it you plan to do
with your one
wild and
precious life?”
—Mary Oliver
Radiate
Passion!
Charles Handy on the “Alchemists”:
“Passion was what drove
these people, passion for
their product, passion for
their cause. If you care enough, you will find out
what you need to know. Or you will experiment and not worry if the
experiment goes wrong.
Passion
as the secret to
learning is an odd secret to propose, but I believe that it works at
all levels and at all ages. Sadly,
passion
is not a
word often heard in the elephant organizations, nor in
schools, where it can seem disruptive.”
“Never apologize
for showing feeling.
When you so, you
apologize for
the truth.”
—Disraeli
Stay Hungry.
Stay Foolish.
Steve Jobs
“The eloquent man is he
who is no beautiful
speaker, but who is
inwardly and
desperately drunk with a
certain belief.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
Keep It
Simple!
Sir Richard’s Rules:
Follow your passions.
Keep it simple.
Get the best people to help you.
Re-create yourself.
Play.
Source: Fortune on Branson
JW’s “4Es”
Energy
Enthusiasm
Edge*
Execution
*Speed, RFA, Competitive
Avoid …
Moderation!
Kevin Roberts’ Credo
1. Ready. Fire! Aim.
2. If it ain’t broke ... Break it!
3. Hire crazies.
4. Ask dumb questions.
5. Pursue failure.
6. Lead, follow ... or get out of the way!
7. Spread confusion.
8. Ditch your office.
9. Read odd stuff.
10. Avoid moderation!
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
Free the
Lunatic
Within!
“You can’t behave in a
calm, rational manner.
You’ve got to be out
there on the lunatic
fringe.”
— Jack Welch
“I don’t know
if it’s ‘possible.’
I do know it’s
‘necessary.’”
TP/Chile:
No Less Than
Excellence.
Ever.
Gaspworthy!
Remember
Lord Nelson!
“[Other]
admirals more
frightened of
losing than anxious
to win”
Nelson’s secret:
“the wildest
chimera of a
moonstruck
mind”
—The Federalist on TJ’s Louisiana Purchase
The
Irreducible209
A frustrated participant at a seminar for investment
bankers in Mauritius listened impatiently to my
explanation of differences of opinion among me, Mike
Porter, Gary Hamel, Jim Collins, etc. Finally, he’d had
enough. “What,
if anything,” he
asked, “do you believe ‘for
sure’?” I mumbled something, but his query
started rumbling around in my mind. Three days later,
wandering on a Sunday in London, the idea of “the
irreducibles” occurred to
me—and I started jotting down notes on stuff I do
indeed believe “for sure.” Before I knew it, a few days
later, the list had grown to 209 items. Hence “The
Irreducible209” that follows.
Tom Peters
1.
2.
3.
4.
Hare 1, Tortoise 0. (Hare-y times.)
Tempo. (O.O.D.A.)
MBWA.
Appreciation. (“Motivator” #1.)
(Can’t be faked. Good.)
5. Decency.
6. Hurry.
7. Time out.
8. One matters.
9. Big change. Short time. (Alt not work.)
10. Excellence. Always.
11. Passion. Energy. Hustle. Enthusiasm.
Exuberance. (Move mountains. No alt.)
12. You must care.
13. Emotion.
14. Hard is soft. (Soft is hard.)
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
Men. Women. Different. Contend. Connect.
Women. Buy. All. (RU listening?)
Quality. (“Mind-blowing.” Beyond 6-Sigma.)
Re-invent. Re-pot. (Required.)
Jaywalk.
Big change. Small # of people. (Always.)
Experiment. Now.
Failure. Normal.
Most failures, most success.
(Fail. Forward. Fast.)
24. “Reward excellent failures. Punish
mediocre successes.”
25. Women leaders. (Altered times.)
26. Extremism. (Good business. Bad politics.)
27. Innovation source. Only. Extreme irritation.
28. Smile.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
You must care.
Mentor. (Highest ROI.)
Best “roster” wins.
Wow. (Okay in biz.)
We all have customers. (Biz. Personal.)
All contacts = Experiences.
Cirque du Soleil. (Peerless.)
Leaders create space for growth.
Quests. (Only.)
High aspirations, “high” results.
(Self-fulfilling prophecy.)
39. Attitude 1, Skills 0. (Mostly.)
(Attitude 1, Skill 0.3?)
40. Sometimes: Skill 1, Attitude 0.1.
41. Must “love,” not “like.”
42. Wegman’s.” (No excuses. “Mere” groceries.)
43. Less than your best. Cheating.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
54.
55.
Brand You. (No alt.)
Self-sufficiency. (Biggest LT turn-on.)
In the moment.
The moment wins.
Tomorrow = Never.
Action 1, Plan 0.1.
“Execution” can be a “system.”
Realism.
Own up. Move on.
Accountability.
Work hard > Work smart. (Mostly.)
Feedback. Necessary. Fast. (R.F.A. in
“RFA times.”)
56. Customers. Listen. Lead. (Paradox.)
57. “On stage.” Always. (GW, FDR, RG =
Supreme actors.)
58.
59.
60.
61.
62.
63.
64.
65.
66.
Master statistical analysis.
Excellence = Set the table.
Legacy. (Will it have mattered?)
“Great.” (Why not?)
Radicals rule. (Think … Olympics.)
!!! = Good.
Red 1, Brown 0. (Red times.)
Talk. Listen. (“Big 2.” Master.)
Politics. (Normal-inevitable state
of affairs. Master.)
67. Student. Forever.
68. “Why?” (Question #1.)
69. Don’t belittle.
70. Respect.
71. All we have: this moment.
(“Moments matter most”?)
72. Now. (Procrastination. Death.)
73.
74.
75.
76.
Exercise.
Paint. (Leader. Portraits of Excellence.)
Best story wins.
“You must be the change you wish
to see in the world.”
77. Two “big ones.” Max. (Priorities.)
78. No “I” in Team. (“I” in Win.)
79. “I” in Win. (No “I” in Team.)
80. Different 1, Better 0. (Better = 0.1)
81. Imitation = Mistake. (Learn, from who?)
82. Choose/battle the “right” competitor.
83. Schools. Creativity. Entrepreneurship.
(Not.)
84. MBAs. Creativity. Entrepreneurship.
Leadership. (Not.)
85. Design. Under-rated. Wildly.
(Still.) (Everything.)
86.
87.
88.
89.
You = Calendar. (Calendar. Never. Lies.)
Laugh.
Handshake. (Quantity. Quality.)
Don’t fold your hands in front of your
chest. Ever. (Never.)
90. Grace. (“Works” in biz.)
91. Weird. Wins. (Weird times.)
92. Crazy times. Crazy orgs.
93. Internet. All.
94. Women. Boomers-Geezers. Market. All.
95. Passion.
(Repeat. So what?)
96. Energy.
(Repeat. So what?)
97. Hustle.
(Repeat. So what?)
98. Enthusiasm. (Repeat. So what?)
99. Exuberance. (Repeat. So what?)
100. Smile.
(Repeat. So what?)
101. Care.
(Repeat. So what?)
102. Simplicity. Redundancy. Resilience. Bloodymindedness. Visible optimism. (Success.)
103. Act. (Repeat. So what?)
104. Appreciate. (Repeat. So what?)
105. Fun. (Biz. Why not?)
106. Joy. (Biz. Why not?)
107. Sales = Life.
108. Marketing = Life.
109. Long-term. “Top line.”
110. Great company = Creates the most
individual success stories. (RE/MAX)
111. Talent first, performance byproduct.
112. Sustained Wow* 1, “Shareholder
value,” 0.2 (*Product, People.)
113. Commitment, by invitation only.
114. Creativity, by invitation only.
115. HR = #1. (Ought to.)
116. Face-to-face. (5K miles, 5 minutes.)
117. Negotiation. Make all winners.
(Save face.)
118. Grace makes enemies friends.
119. Network.
120. Invest in relationships. (Think ROIR.
Return On Investment in Relationships.)
118. Relationship investment. Forethought.
Calendar item. Intensity.
119. Innovation. Easy. (Hang out
with weird.)
120. Weird = Win. (Weird times.)
121. “The bottleneck is at the top
of the bottle.”
122. Good Board = Weird Board.
(At least, surprising.)
123. No contention, no progress.
124. “Crucial conversations.” “Crucial
confrontations.” (Study. Learn. Do.)
125. Honest feedback.
126. Gaspworthy. Yes.
127. “Insanely great.”
128. “Astonish me.”
129. “Make it immortal.”
130. “Will you remember it in 20 years?”
131. No small opportunities. (Reframe.)
132. One playmate, one playpen = Enough.
133. End run. Sensible.
134. Allies are there for the finding.
135. Find successes. Build on successes.
(Pos > Neg. Encourage > Fix.)
136. Somebody’s doing it today. Find ‘em.
137. Someone is living 2016 in 2006.
(Find ‘em. Study ‘em.)
138. Don’t “benchmark,” “futuremark.”
(2016. Happening. Somewhere.)
139. “PMA.” It works.
140. There are no experts. (You are the expert.)
141. Life is short.
142. “Sustained success.” Fat chance.
Make today matter. (“Sustained.” Ha.)
143. Collaborate. (Networked world.)
144. Go solo. (Individual. Unit of
Intellectual Capital.)
145. There are no “perfect” plans. (Do. Wins.)
146. Plans motivate. (Right or wrong.
Sense of purpose.)
147. Never rest.
148. Get some sleep.
149. Winning = Embracing paradox.
150. Ambiguity = Opportunity.
151. Resilience.
152. Relentless-ness.
153. None. Above. Comeuppance.
(GM. Sears. U.S. Steel. DEC.)
154. Be yourself. Period.
155. Never work with jerks. Including
customers. (Life. Too short.)
156. Under-promise, over-deliver.
157. Talent. (Powerful word.)
158. “Customer = Anyone whose actions
affect your results.”
159. Competition stinks. (Seek the soft
spots where you can dominate.)
160. K.I.S.S./Keep It Simple, Stupid.
161. Beauty. (Good biz word.)
162. “See the beauty in a hamburger bun.”
(Go. Ray.)
163.
164.
165.
166.
Own up. Quick. ( Denial. Cancer.)
Celebrate. Often.
78 people = 78 approaches. (Each. Unique.)
Weed. Ceaselessly. (Prune. Stupid.
Rules. Non-stop.)
167. Get out of the way. (You = The problem.)
168. Smile. Sunny. Optimism. (If it kills you.)
169. Flowers. (Cheery workplace.)
170. Enjoy. (Or get the hell.)
171. Be intolerant of “sour.” (1 = Major pollution)
172. No “quick trigger” on promotion.
(Too important.)
173. Evaluation = Lots of study-time.
174. Evaluation = “Life or death” to evaluee.
175. “360” evaluation. No fad.
176. Exit when you’re done. (Done.
Sooner than you think.)
177. Today. Now. My Project. Am. Is. I. Period.
178. “Beautiful” systems. (Good biz phrase.
Not oxymoron.)
179. Build on strengths > Fix weaknesses.
180. “To don’t” = “To do.” (“To don’t” >
“To do” ?)
181. Leaders “Do” People. (Period.)
182. Leaders enjoy leading.
183. Serious leadership training = Serious.
184. Priorities. Obvious. (Or else.)
185. 5 “Priorities” = 0 Priorities.
(3 “Priorities” = 0 Priorities?)
186. People. First. Last. Always.
187. It. Is. Always. The. People.
188. Handshake. (Quantity. Quality.)
189. Don’t fold your hands in front of
your chest. Ever. (Never.)
190. Simplicity. Redundancy. Resilience.
Bloody-mindedness. Visible
optimism. (Success.) (Repeat.)
191. Employee Entrance = Guest
Entrance.
192. Put the customer SECOND.
(Thanks, Hal.)
193. Flowers. (Or did I say that before?
No matter if I did.)
194. Big Mergers don’t work. Small
acquisitions can/do work—if you
don’t screw with their energy.
195. Instinctively “head for the front
line.” (In all contexts.)
196. Success = DDMMPR/"D-squared,
M-squared, PR” = DramDiff +
Money-Financial Acumen + Good
“Marketing” Instincts + Stellar People
+ Resilience (The “fab five”: What.
Every. Small. Biz. Needs.) (Big too.)
197. Core Mechanism (“Game-changing
Solutions”): PSF (Professional Service
Firm “model”) + Wow! Projects
(“Different” vs “Better”) + Brand You
(“Distinct” or “Extinct”)
198. 2011/2016 has already happened.
Find it.
199. Kids “know” kids. Oldies “know” oldies.
Women “know” women. (Staff
accordingly.)
200. Everybody is my customer.
201. Cosset “vendors.”
202. I want to run a Housekeeping department.
(And you?)
203. The military doesn’t follow the “military
model.” (Initiative = Excellence.)
204. No such thing as “going to absurd lengths”
to serve the Customer. (HSM & Lefties.)
205. Forget the “customer.” All = “Clients.”
206. It takes decades to get over “sleights.”
(So don’t sleight.)
207. Don’t “dumb down.” Ever.
NO LESS THAN
EXCELLENCE.
EVER.
209. EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
208.
Tom’s
60TIBs*
*TIB = This I Believe
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
1. TECHNICOLOR
RULES! (Passion Moves
Mountains!)
2. Audacity
Matters!
3. Revolution
Now!
4. Question
Authority! (& Hire
Disrespectful
People.)
5. Disorganization
Wins! (LOVE THE
MESS!)
6. Think 3M: Markets Matter
Most. ONLY EXTREME
COMPETITION STAVES OFF
STALENESS. (You can take the
boy out of Silicon Valley, but
you can’t take Silicon Valley
out of the boy!)
7. Three Hearty Cheers
for Weirdos. (Bill Gates,
Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison,
Scott McNealy, Craig
Venter et al.)
8. Message 2006:
Technology Change (Infosciences, Biosciences) Is
in Its Infancy! (WE AIN’T
SEE NOTHIN’ YET!)
9. Everything Is Up For
Grabs! Volatility Is Thy
Name! (Forever & Ever.
Amen.) RE-INVENT …
OR DIE!
10. Big Stinks.
(Mostly.) (VERY
Mostly.)
11. “Permanence” Is a
Snare & a Delusion.
(Forget “Built to Last.”
It’s Yesterday’s
Idea.) (Try “Built for
Impact.”)
12. “Kaizen”
(Continuous
Improvement) Is VDS/
Very … Dangerous
… Stuff.
13. DESTRUCTION
RULES!
14. Forget It!
(“Learning” = Easy.
“Forgetting” = Nigh
on Impossible.)
15. Innovation Is Easy: Hang
Out with Freaks.
(Employees, Board
Members, Customers,
Suppliers, Alliance
Partners, Consultants.)
16. Boring Begets
Boring. (Cool
Begets Cool.)
17. Think “Portfolio.”
(We’re All V.C.s.)
18. Perception Is All There
Is. (“Insiders” … ALWAYS …
overestimate the Radicalism
of What They’re Up To.)
19. Action … ALWAYS … Takes
Precedence. Think:
R.F!A./Ready. Fire! Aim.
(REWARD SUCCESS. REWARD
FAILURE. PUNISH …
INACTION.)
20. He Who Makes &
Tests the Quickest &
Coolest Prototypes
Reigns!
21. Haste Makes
Waste.
(SO GO WASTE!)
22. Screwups are … the …
Mark of Excellence. (“Do It
Right the First Time” Is
a Very Stupi Idea.)
23. Play Hard! Play
Now! (Cherish Play!)
24. TALENT TIME!
(He/She Who Has
the Best “Roster”
Rules!)
25. Re-do Education. Totally.
(FOSTER CREATIVITY … NOT
UNIFORMITY.) (THE
NOISIEST CLASSROOM
WINS.)
26. Diversity’s
Hour Is Now!
SHE
27.
…
Is the Best
Leader!
28. MARKETING MANTRA:
Embrace the “BIG THREE”
Demographics. (1) SHE … is the
Customer. (For everything.) (2)
Rapidly Aging Boomers Have …
ALL THE MONEY. (3) Green
Matters. (TRILLIONS OF $$$$$ Are
at Stake.) (NOBODY … Gets It.)
(Mere “Programs” Will Not Suffice.)
29. Re-boot Healthcare.
(UNDERSTATEMENT.)
30. WHAT ARE WE
SELLING? “Experiences” &
“Solutions” > “Quality” &
“Satisfaction.” (The
Traditional Value-added
Equation Is Being Set
on Its Ear.)
31. DESIGN = New
Seat of the Soul.
32. Branding Is for …
EVERYONE. He Who Has the
… BEST STORY … Takes
Home the Marbles.
33. DRAMATIC
DIFFERENCE =
Only Difference.
34. WORDS/Language
Matters … a Lot. (E.g.:
Three Hearty Cheers
for “Wow”!)
35. WHAT MATTERS
IS STUFF THAT
MATTERS. (Query #1:
“Are You Proud
of It?”)
36. eALL. (IS/IT:
Half-way = No Way.)
37. DREAM … Big!
DREAM … Enormous!
DREAM … Gargantuan!
(These Are XXX Times.)
38. THINK MIKE!
(Michelangelo: “The greatest
danger for most of us is not
that our aim is too high and
we miss it, but that it is too
low and we reach it.”)
39. There Is Only …
ONE BIG ISSUE:
(Crappy) Crossfunctional
Communication.
40. Stop Doing Dumb Stuff.
(SYSTEMATIZE THE
PROCESS OF “UNDUMBING.”)
41. Beautiful
Systems Are …
BEAUTIFUL.
42. The … WHITECOLLAR
REVOLUTION
… Will Devour
Everything in Its Path.
43. Take Charge of
Your Destiny!
BrandYou Moment!
DISTINCT … OR
EXTINCT!
44. “Powerlessness”
Is a State of Mind!
Think: King. Gandhi.
DeGaulle.
45. Pursue
Adventure … in
Every Task.
46. EXCELLENCE …
Is a State of Mind.
(Excellence Takes a
Minute.) (No Bull.)
47. SHOW UP! (If
You Care, You’re
There.)
48. YOUR CALENDAR
KNOWS ALL.
(You = Calendar.)
(Mind Your “TO
DON’T” List.)
49. LIFE IS SALES.
(The Rest Is
Details.)
50. Boss Mantra #1:
“I DON’T KNOW.” (“I
Don’t Know” =
Permission to
Explore.)
51. Management Role 1:
GET OUT OF THE WAY.
(Clear the Way.) (“Manager”
= Hurdle Removal
Professional.)
52. Epitaph from Hell:
“He Woulda Done Some
Truly Cool Stuff …
But His Boss Wouldn’t
Let Him.”
53. Change Takes
However Long You
Think It Takes.
(Eschew …
“Incrementalism.”)
54. Respect! (Rule 1:
Don’t Belittle!)
55. “Thank You”
Trumps All!
56. Integrity Matters!
Integrity = Credibility.
(Dennis K. Is a Jerk.)
57. SOFT IS
HARD. HARD IS
SOFT. (Numbers Are
Soft. People Are Not.)
58. Try Sunny!
(Sunny Begets
Sunny.
Gloomy Begets
Gloomy.)
59. DISPENSE
ENTHUSIASM
!
60. FUN …Is Not a 4Letter Word. So, too …
JOY. (And GRACE.)
The End.
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.