Distinct … or Extinct:
Design =
Differentiator #1
Unilever/IDEO/TPC
The Design Museum/28.11.2001
All Slides Available at …
tompeters.com
Note: Lavender text in this file is a link.
I. Welcome to
the Age of
“GAK!”
<1000A.D.: paradigm shift: 1000s of years
1000: 100 years for paradigm shift
1800s: > prior 900 years
1900s: 1st 20 years > 1800s
2000: 10 years for paradigm shift
21st century:
1000X
tech change than
20th century (“the ‘Singularity,’ a merger between
humans and computers that is so rapid and profound it
represents a rupture in the fabric of human history”)
Ray Kurzweil
“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, Business 2.0 (08.00)
Forbes100 from 1917 to 1987: 39 members of the
Class of ’17 were alive in ’87; 18 are in ’87 F100; the
18 F100 “survivors” underperformed the market by
20%; just 2 (2%), GE & Kodak, outperformed the
market from 1917 to 1987.
S&P 500 from 1957 to 1997: 74 members of the
Class of ’57 were alive in ’97; 12 (2.4%) of 500
outperformed the market from 1957 to 1997.
Source: Dick Foster & Sarah Kaplan, Creative Destruction:
Why Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the
Market
“Good management was the
most powerful reason [leading
firms] failed to stay atop their
industries. Precisely because these firms
listened to their customers, invested aggressively in
technologies that would provide their customers more
and better products of the sort they wanted, and
because they carefully studied market trends and
systematically allocated investment capital to
innovations that promised the best returns, they lost
their positions of leadership.”
Clayton Christensen, The Innovator’s Dilemma
“A pattern emphasized in the case
studies in this book is the degree to
which powerful competitors not only
resist innovative threats, but actually
resist all efforts to understand them,
preferring to further their positions in
older products. This results in a surge of
productivity and performance that may
take the old technology to unheard of
heights. But in most cases this is a sign
of impending death.”
Jim Utterback, Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation
7 Rules for Leading/THRIVING in a Recession+
1. It’s ALREADY too late.
2. Show up & tell the truth—CREDIBILITY rules.
3. Kill with KINDNESS.
4. Sharp pencils are imperative—but don’t forget that
the CUSTOMER & our TALENT & RISKY
INVESTMENTS are still our long-term Bread & Butter.
5. Everything’s different, everything’s the same—it’s
the NEW ECONOMY, more than ever, stupid!
6. “Use” the trauma to mount the bold initiatives you
should have long before mounted: Flux =
OPPORTUNITY.
7. We’re in a War of Organizational Models—from retail
to the Pentagon. IDEAS MATTER MOST.
Message: Everybody’s
scrambling. Nobody’s
“got it right.”
II. The 3B
Problem:Better
But Boring!
Quality Not Enough!
“While everything may be
better, it is also
increasingly the same.”
Paul Goldberger on retail, “The Sameness of Things,”
The New York Times
“We make over three new
product announcements a
day. Can you remember
them?
Our customers
can’t!”
Carly Fiorina
“The ‘surplus society’ has a surplus of
similar companies, employing
similar people, with similar
educational backgrounds, working in
similar jobs, coming up with similar
ideas, producing similar things, with
similar prices and similar quality.”
Kjell Nordstrom and Jonas Ridderstrale,
Funky Business
Message: Find an
edge. Or else.
III. We Must
Lead: Different
or Doomed!
“If you worship at the
throne of the voice of
the customer, you’ll get
only incremental
advances.”
Joseph Morone, President, Bentley College
“These days, you can’t succeed as a
company if you’re consumer led –
because in a world so full of so much
constant change, consumers can’t
anticipate the next big thing.
Companies should be
idea-led and consumerinformed.”
Doug Atkin, partner, Merkley Newman Harty
Saviors-in-Waiting
Disgruntled Customers
Off-the-Scope Competitors
Rogue Employees
Fringe Suppliers
Wayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision: Beat the Competition by Focusing on
Fringe Competitors, Lost Customers, and Rogue Employees
CUSTOMERS: “Futuredefining customers may
account for only 2% to 3%
of your total, but they
represent a crucial
window on the future.”
Adrian Slywotzky, Mercer Consultants
COMPETITORS: “The
best swordsman in
the world doesn’t need to fear the
second best swordsman in the world;
no, the person for him to be afraid of is some
ignorant antagonist who has never had a sword
in his hand before; he doesn’t do the thing he
ought to do, and so the expert isn’t prepared
for him; he does the thing he ought not to do
and often it catches the expert out and ends
him on the spot.”
Mark Twain
Employees: “Are there
enough weird
people in the lab these
days?”
V. Chmn., pharmaceutical house, to a lab director (06.01)
Suppliers: There
is an ominous
downside to strategic supplier
relationships. An SSR supplier is not
likely to function as any more than a mirror
to your organization. Fringe suppliers that
offer innovative business practices need
not apply.”
Wayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision: Beat the Competition by
Focusing on Fringe Competitors, Lost Customers, and Rogue
Employees
WEIRD IDEAS THAT WORK: (1) Hire slow learners (of the
organizational code). (1.5) Hire people who make you
uncomfortable, even those you dislike. (2) Hire people you
(probably) don’t need. (3) Use job interviews to get ideas, not
to screen candidates. (4) Encourage people to ignore and defy
superiors and peers. (5) Find some happy people and get them
to fight. (6) Reward success and failure, punish inaction.
(7) Decide to do something that will probably fail, then convince
yourself and everyone else that success is certain. (8) Think of
some ridiculous, impractical things to do, then do them.
(9) Avoid, distract, and bore customers, critics, and anyone who
just wants to talk about money. (10) Don’t try to learn anything
from people who seem to have solved the problems you face.
(11) Forget the past, particularly your company’s success.
Bob Sutton, Weird Ideas that Work: 11½ Ideas for Promoting,
Managing and Sustaining Innovation
Message: You are paid
to lead. So … lead!
IV. Design: The
No.1 Source of
Passionate
Attachment!
(Or undying despair)
Design “is” … WHAT &
WHY I LOVE.
LOVE.
I
LOVE
my ZYLISS
Garlic Peeler!
Design “is” … WHY I
GET MAD.
MAD.
Wanted: THE
DESIGNER OF MY
RADIO SHACK
PHONE. Major
Reward!
Design is never
neutral.
DESIGN is the
principal difference
between love and
hate.
Hypothesis:
“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
meaning of design.
of a man-made creation.”
Steve Jobs
Philippe Starck
“Today the problem is not how
to produce more to sell more.
The fundamental question is
that of the product’s right to
exist. And it is the designer’s
right and duty to question the
legitimacy of the product.”
Philippe Starck
“My main task when I was
artistic director at Thompson for
four years: to make the company
virtuous. Not because there was
a desire to do evil, but because
they had simply forgotten their
purpose in life—to be of
service.”
Philippe Starck
“I invented the slogan ‘Thompson: From
Technology to Love.’ That completely
repositioned the problem. Because now
we were saying that technology wasn’t
an end in itself, but just a means—and
that the real goal was what had
always been there, the original priority,
humanity, whose ultimate criterion is love.
That connects back to the idea of the
friendly object, the good object.”
Philippe Starck
“[At Thompson] I outlawed the word ‘consumer’
in all company meetings, and insisted it be
replaced by the words ‘my friend,’ ‘my wife, ‘my
daughter,’ ‘my mother,’ or ‘myself.’ It doesn’t
sound the same at all, if you say: ‘It doesn’t
matter, it’s shit, but the consumers will make do
with it,’ or if you start over again and say, ‘It’s
shit, but it doesn’t matter, my daughter will make
do with it.’ All of a sudden, you can’t get away
with it anymore. There is an enormous task to be
done with this kind of symbolic repositioning.”
Philippe Starck
Message: Engage
your Client in an
examinationexploration of why we
care about stuff.
Or don’t.
THE BASE CASE: I am a design fanatic. Personally,
though not “artistic,” I love cool stuff. I love what I
love and I hate what I hate.
But it goes [much]
further, far beyond the personal. Design has become
a professional obsession.
I – SIMPLY – BELIEVE THAT DESIGN PER SE IS
THE PRINCIPAL REASON FOR EMOTIONAL
ATTACHMENT [or detachment] RELATIVE TO A
PRODUCT OR SERVICE OR EXPERIENCE.
Design, as I see it, is arguably the #1 determinant of
whether a product-service-experience stands out … or
doesn’t. Furthermore, it’s “one of those things” …
that damn few companies put – consistently – on the
front burner.
V. Design is a
Great Story!
“A key – perhaps the key –
to leadership is
the effective
communication
of a story.”
Howard Gardner
Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership
“Car designers need to create a
story. Every car provides an
opportunity to create an adventure.
…
“The Prowler makes you smile.
Why? Because it’s focused. It has a
plot, a reason for being, a passion.”
Freeman Thomas, co-designer VW Beetle; designer
Audi TT
Hmmmm(?): “Only” Words …
Story
Adventure
Smile
Focus
Plot
Passion
Plot
Williams Sonoma = 6 [was 10]
Crate & Barrel = 8
Sharper Image = 9+
Smith & Hawken = 8+
Garnet Hill = 9
L.L. Bean = 4 [was 9+]
Land’s End = 7+
Colonial Williamsburg = ?
Message: “What’s
the
plot?” is a compelling
exercise!
VI. Great
Design
is Respectful
“Sometimes I have
episodes of wild fury in
rental cars. It’s not road
rage. It’s more like
design rage.”
Susan Casey, www.ecompany.com
User …
STOP
BLAMING
YOURSELF!
(Don Norman/Design of Everyday Things)
Paradox [?][!]
Great Design =
WOW! +
GRACE
[usability writ large]
“My favorite word is grace –
grace,
saving grace, grace under
fire, Grace Kelly. How we live
whether it’s amazing
contributes to beauty – whether
it’s how we treat other people or
the environment.”
Celeste Cooper, designer
Rodale’s on “Grace” …
elegance … charm …
loveliness … poetry in
motion … kindliness ..
benevolence … benefaction
… compassion … beauty
Message: Usability
rules! “Grace” is a
better word than
usability.
VII. Caution!
Message: All the “cool
stuff” looks [exactly]
like all the other “cool
stuff” in this , THE
BRIGHT NEW AGE OF
DESIGN.
“Against
Smoothness”
(Harper’s Magazine 07.2000)
Message: Buy a new
CAD package. Or a set
of pencils.
VIII. Design &
Work: Down
with Dilbert!
White Collar
Revolution!
So what will be the
Basic Building
Block of the
New Org?
Answer: PSF!
[Professional Service Firm]
Department Head
to …
Managing Partner,
HR [IS, etc.] Inc.
“P.S.F.”: Summary
H.V.A. Projects (100%)
Pioneer Clients
WOW Work (see below)
Hot “Talent” (see below)
“Adventurous” “culture”
Proprietary Point of View (Methodology)
W.W.P.F. (100%)/Outside Clients (25%++)
BMW’s
Designworks/USA:
>50% from
outside work
“Reward excellent
failures. Punish
mediocre
successes.”
Phil Daniels, Sydney exec
Language
matters! Wow!
BHAG! “Takes
your breath
away!”
“Intimidate their
[users’] imaginations”
… “Where’s the
revolution?” –J Allard,
on the Xbox
“Let’s make a
dent in the
universe.”
Steve Jobs
11Sept2000: HP bids
$18,000,000,000
for
PricewaterhouseCoopers
consulting business!
New Springs = Turnkey
Collections.
Flexible sourcing.
Packaging.
Merchandising.
Promotion.
Systems & Site mgt.
“We are a ‘real estate
facilities consulting’
organization, not just an
‘interior design’ firm.”
Jean Bellas, founder, SPACE (from SMPS Marketer)
Who was the number
one employer of
architecture school
grads in the U.S. last
year?
Omnicom:
57%
(of $6B)
from marketing services
“The move toward outsourced
manufacturing represents an obvious
opportunity for contract manufacturers [such
as Flextronics: $93M to $15B, ’93-’00], but it’s also a
potential boon to product innovation. The
future of gadget-making is not about
making gadgets; it’s about imagining them.
Someone else makes the imaginary real.
‘All that money that used to go to fund
infrastructure is going into design and
innovation,’ says Flex CEO Michael Marks.”
Wired/11.2001
IX. Get Over It:
ALL YOU NEED
IS ONE!
Topic: Boss-free
Implementation of
STM /Stuff That
MATTERS!
World’s Biggest Waste …
Selling “Up”
Heart of the Matter
F2F!/K2K!/
1@T/R.F!A.*
*Freak to Freak/Kook to Kook/
One at a Time/ Ready.Fire!Aim.
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
Joe T. Jones
1942 - 2000
HE WOULDA DONE SOME
REALLY COOL STUFF
BUT …
HIS BOSS WOULDN’T LET HIM!
Characteristics of the “Also rans”*
“Minimize risk”
“Respect the chain of
command”
“Support the boss”
“Make budget”
*Fortune, article on
“Most Admired Global Corporations”
Message: Find one freak.
Find one offline project.
Quit
bitching about
powerlessness.
Forget selling “up.”
X. The All-Out
WAR FOR
TALENT!
“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
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
“Diversity defines the health and
wealth of nations in a new century.
Mighty is the mongrel. … The hybrid is hip. The
impure, the mélange, the adulterated, the
blemished, the rough, the black-and-blue, the
mix-and-match – these people are inheriting the
earth. Mixing is the new norm. Mixing trumps
isolation. It spawns creativity, nourishes the
human spirit, spurs economic growth
and empowers nations.”
G. Pascal Zachary, The Global Me: New
Cosmopolitans and the Competitive Edge
Message: Design - writ
large, as the Mother of
Passion – dramatically
affects the basic
“Great Place to Work”
value proposition.
XI. Design &
Women:
Opportunity
No.1?
?????????
Home Furnishings … 94%
Vacations … 92%
Houses … 91%
Consumer Electronics … 51%
Cars … 60% (90%)
All consumer purchases … 83%
Bank Account … 89%
Health Care … 80%
????
Riding Lawnmowers
2/3rds working women/
50+% working wives > 50%
80% checks
61% bills
53% stock (mutual fund boom)
43% > $500K
95% financial decisions/
29% single handed
$4.8T > Japan
9M/27.5M/$3.6T >
Germany
FemaleThink/ Popcorn
“Men and women don’t think the same
way, don’t communicate the same way,
don’t buy for the same reasons.”
“He simply wants the transaction to
take place. She’s interested in creating
a relationship. Every place women go,
they make connections.”
“Men seem like loose cannons. Men
always move faster through a store’s
aisles. Men spend less time looking. They
usually don’t like asking where things are.
You’ll see a man move impatiently
through a store to the section he wants,
pick something up, and then, almost
abruptly he’s ready to buy. … For a
man, ignoring the price tag is almost
a sign of virility.”
Paco Underhill, Why
We Buy* (*Buy this book!)
Read This: Barbara & Allan Pease’s
Why Men Don’t
Listen & Women
Can’t Read Maps
“It is obvious to a woman when
another woman is upset, while a man
generally has to physically witness
tears or a temper tantrum or be
slapped in the face before he even has
a clue that anything is going on. Like
most female mammals, women are
equipped with far more finely tuned
sensory skills than men.”
Barbara & Allan Pease, Why Men Don’t Listen & Women Can’t Read Maps
“Resting” State: 30%, 90%: “A
woman knows her children’s
friends, hopes, dreams, romances,
secret fears, what they are
thinking, how they are feeling. Men
are vaguely aware of some short
people also living in the house.”
Barbara & Allan Pease, Why Men Don’t Listen & Women Can’t Read Maps
“As a hunter, a man needed vision that
would allow him to zero in on targets in the
distance … whereas a woman needed eyes
to allow a wide arc of vision so that she
could monitor any predators sneaking up
on the nest. This is why modern men can
find their way effortlessly to a distant pub,
but can never find things in fridges,
cupboards or drawers.”
Barbara & Allan Pease, Why Men Don’t Listen & Women Can’t Read Maps
“Female hearing advantage
contributes significantly to what is
called ‘women’s intuition’ and is one
of the reasons why a woman can read
between the lines of what people say.
Men, however, shouldn’t despair.
They are excellent at imitating
animal sounds.”
Barbara & Allan Pease, Why Men Don’t Listen & Women Can’t Read Maps
Read This Book …
EVEolution:
The Eight Truths of
Marketing to Women
Faith Popcorn & Lys Marigold
EVEolution: Truth No. 1
Connecting Your Female
Consumers to Each
Other Connects Them to
Your Brand
“The ‘Connection Proclivity’ in
women starts early. When asked,
‘How was school today?’ a girl
usually tells her mother every
detail of what happened, while a
boy might grunt, ‘Fine.’ ”
EVEolution
“Women don’t buy
brands. They
join them.”
Faith Popcorn, EVEolution
“Today, 80 per cent of objects are
unnecessarily macho. Yet it is
plain: The intelligence of a truly
modern society must be
feminine. … Apart from a machine
pistol, I can’t think of many objects
which actually need to be
extravagantly masculine.”
Philippe Starck
STATEMENT OF PHILOSOPHY: I am a
businessperson. An analyst. A pragmatist. The
enormous social good of increased women’s
power is clear to me; but it is not my bailiwick.
My “game” is haranguing business leaders
about my fact-based conviction that women’s
increasing power – leadership skills
and purchasing power – is the strongest and
most dynamic force at work in the American
economy today. Dare I say it as a long-time Palo
Altan … THIS IS EVEN BIGGER THAN THE
INTERNET!
Tom Peters
Stupid!
Ad from Furniture /Today (04.01):
“MEET WITH THE EXPERTS!: How
Retailing’s Most Successful Stay that Way”
Presenting Experts: M =
F=
??
16;
(94% = 272)
The Furniture Industry …
doesn’t understand BRANDING
doesn’t understand FASHION
doesn’t understand WOMEN
doesn’t understand SPEED & RESPONSIVENESS &
VALUE-ADDED SERVICES
doesn’t understand EXCITING RETAIL
PRESENTATION &
“EXPERIENCE” MARKETING.
And is run by old, conservative white guys … who
don’t even understand what they don’t understand.
Prescription …
SHE is the Consumer. (PERIOD.)
SHE is the Brand. (PERIOD.)
75% women designers* (*Men CANNOT
design for women. PERIOD.)
75% women reps.
“Cool” retail spaces in high-rent districts
(à la Ethan Allen).
Match furniture with accessories … i.e.,
create an “experience.”
FOCUS ON “RELATIONSHIPS-FOR-LIFE”,
not “transactions.”
Message: Men cannot
design for women’s
needs??????
XII. Design &
the Aging:
Opportunity
No. 1A?
Subject: Marketers & Stupidity
It’s 18-44,
stupid!
Subject: Marketers & Stupidity
Or is it: 18-44 is
stupid, stupid!
2000-2010 U.S. Stats
18-44: -1%
55+: +21%
(55-64: +47%)
“ ‘Age Power’ will
st
21
rule the
century,
and we are woefully
unprepared.”
Ken Dychtwald, Age Power: How the 21st
Century Will Be Ruled by the New Old
Aging/“Elderly”
$$$$$$$$$$$$
“I’m in charge!”
50+
$7T wealth (70%)/$2T annual income
50% all discretionary spending
79% own homes/40M credit card users
41% new cars/48% luxury
$610B healthcare spending/74%
prescription drugs
5% of advertising targets
Ken Dychtwald, Age Power: How the 21st
Century Will Be Ruled by the New Old
Message: You
wannabe relevant?
This is a [VERY] Big
Deal. Listen up.
XIII. Design =
Cornerstone of
the Age of the
Brand
“WHO ARE
YOU [these days] ?”
TP to Client
Character
Design =
(which is why knock offs are so
easy to see through) (Design = WHO
ARE WE?!)
“Most companies tend to equate branding with the
company’s marketing. Design a new marketing
campaign and, voila, you’re on course. They are
wrong. The task is much bigger. It is about fulfilling our
potential … not about a new logo, no matter how
clever. WHAT IS MY MISSION IN LIFE? WHAT
DO I WANT TO CONVEY TO PEOPLE? HOW DO
I MAKE SURE THAT WHAT I HAVE TO OFFER
THE WORLD IS ACTUALLY UNIQUE? The brand
has to give of itself, the company has to give of
itself, the management has to give of itself. To
put it bluntly, it is a matter of whether – or not –
you want to be … UNIQUE … NOW.”
Jesper Kunde, A Unique Moment
“We are in the twilight of a society based on data. As
information and intelligence become the domain of
computers, society will place more value on the one
human ability that cannot be automated: emotion.
Imagination, myth, ritual - the language of emotion will affect everything from our purchasing decisions
Companies will
thrive on the basis of their stories
and myths. Companies will need to understand
to how we work with others.
that their products are less important than their
stories.”
Rolf Jensen, Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies
“Brand Promise” Exercise: (1) Who
Are WE? (poem/novella/song, then 25 words.)
(2) List three ways in which we are
UNIQUE … to our Clients. (3) Who
are THEY (competitors)? (ID, 25 words.)
(4) List 3 distinct “us”/“them”
differences. (5) Try “results” on
your teammates. (6) Try ’em on a
friendly Client. (7) Big Enchilada:
Try ’em on a skeptical Client!
1st Law Mktg Physics: OVERT BENEFIT
(Focus: 1 or 2 > 3 or 4/“One Great Thing.”
Source #1: Personal Passion)
2ND Law: REAL REASON TO BELIEVE
(Stand & Deliver!)
3RD Law: DRAMATIC
DIFFERENCE
(Execs Don’t Get It: See the next slide.)
Source: Jump Start Your Business Brain, Doug Hall
2 Questions
“How likely are you to purchase
this new product or service?” (95%
to 100% weighting by execs)
“How unique is this new product
or service?” (0% to 5%*)
*No exceptions in 20 years – Doug Hall,
Jump Start Your Business Brain
The Heart of
Branding …
“WHO ARE
WE?”
WHAT’S
OUR
STORY?
“EXACTLY
HOW ARE WE
DRAMATICALLY
DIFFERENT?”
“ WHY DOES IT
MATTER TO
THE CLIENT?”
“EXACTLY HOW DO I
PASSIONATELY
CONVEY THAT
DIFFERENCE TO THE
CLIENT ”
Message: THIS IS THE BIG
ENCHILADA. Case logic: (1) Brand
is it. (2) Brand = Emotional
reaction. (3) Design is THE KEY
to emotional reaction.
(4) Designers are “the key” to the
strategic success of the
enterprise. [If they’d only flick the
chip off their collective shoulders.]
XIV. Design &
Leadership:
Passion Rules!
“Create a Cause, not
a ‘business.’ ”
Gary Hamel, Fortune (06.00), on reinventing a company (Exemplar #1:
Charles Schwab)
“I am a dispenser of
enthusiasm.”
Ben Zander
Message: Designers –
appropriately considered –
are the script writers for
The Compelling Story called
Our Company Matters
Because …