Conrad
Hilton …
Conrad Hilton, at a gala
celebrating his career,
“What was the
most important lesson
you’ve learned in you
long and distinguished
career?” His immediate
was asked,
answer …
“remember
to tuck the
shower curtain
inside the
bathtub”
“Execution
is
strategy.”
—Fred Malek
“The art of war does not
require complicated
maneuvers; the simplest
are the best and common
sense is fundamental. From
which one might wonder
how it is generals make
blunders; it is because they
try to be clever.” —Napoleon
Tom Peters’
Excellence.
Always.
Mini-MASTER/5 November 2009
(PP available to download at tompeters.com)
To appreciate
this presentation [and ensure
that it is not a mess], you need
Microsoft fonts:
NOTE:
“Showcard Gothic,”
“Ravie,” “Chiller”
and “Verdana”
“Excellence …
can be obtained if you:
... care more than others think
is wise;
... risk more than others think
is safe;
... dream more than others think
is practical;
... expect more than others think
is possible.”
Source: Anon. (Posted @ tompeters.com by K.Sriram, November 27, 2006 1:17 AM)
The greatest danger
for most of us
is not that our aim is
too high
and we miss it,
but that it is
too low
and we reach it.
Michelangelo
Excellence. Always.
If not Excellence,
what?
If not Excellence now,
when?
“Strive for
Excellence.
Ignore
success.”
—Bill Young, race car
driver (courtesy Andrew Sullivan)
“If a man is called to be a street
sweeper, he should sweep streets
even as Michelangelo painted, or
Beethoven composed music, or
Shakespeare wrote poetry. He
should sweep streets so well
that all the hosts of heaven and
earth will pause to say, here lived
a great street sweeper who did his
job well.” —Martin Luther King Jr.
The failure to
pursue
EXCELLENCE is
incomprehensible
to me.
14,000
20,000
14,000
20,000
14,000/eBay
20,000/Amazon
30/Craigslist*
*Lockheed “Skunk Works,” 125 vs. 5,000(??)
There is more
than one way to
skin a cat!*
*Every project REQUIRES (if you’re smart) an outside
look by one/some Seriously Weird Cat/s—in pursuit of
a whacked-out option. To consider
“Insanely Great”
Steve Jobs
“You know a
design is good
when you want
to lick it.”
—Steve Jobs
Source: Design: Intelligence Made Visible,
Stephen Bayley & Terence Conran
“Radically
thrilling”
BMW
“Let us create such
a building that
future generations
will take us for
lunatics.”
—the church hierarchs at Seville
“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
“We are crazy. We should do
something when people say it is
If people say
something is ‘good’, it
means someone else
is already doing it.”
‘crazy.’
—Hajime Mitarai, Canon
1977
MBWA
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”
“Breakthrough” 82*
People!
Customers!
Action!
Values!
*In Search of Excellence
Hard Is Soft
Soft Is Hard
Hard Is Soft (Plans, #s)
Soft Is Hard (people,
customers, values,
relationships)
“The 7-S Model”
Strategy
Structure
Systems
Style
Skills
Staff
Super-ordinate goal
“The 7-S Model”
“Hard Ss”
(Strategy, Structure, Systems)
“Soft SS”
(Style, Skills, Staff, Super-ordinate goal)
“If I could have chosen not to tackle the IBM culture head-on, I
probably wouldn’t have. My bias coming in was toward strategy,
analysis and measurement. In comparison, changing the
attitude and behaviors of hundreds of thousands of people is
[Yet] I came to see in
my time at IBM that culture
isn’t just one aspect of the
very, very hard.
game —it is the
game.”
—Lou Gerstner,
Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance
“… it is
the
game.”
-fold!
“culture of cover-up
that pervades healthcare”
“Patient Safety Event Registry” …
“looking for systemic solutions, not seeking
to fix blame on individuals except in the
Ken Kizer/VA 1997:
most egregious cases. The good news was a
thirty-fold
increase
in the number of medical
mistakes and adverse events that got reported.”
“National Center for Patient Safety Ann Arbor”
ExIn*: 1982-2002/Forbes.com
DJIA: $10,000 yields $85,000
EI: $10,000 yields $140,050
*Excellence Index/Basket of 32 publicly traded stocks
“Get the strategy
right, the rest will
take care of itself.”
MP:
“Get the people and
execution right,
the strategy will
take care of itself.”
TP:
Internal
organizational
excellence =
Deepest “Blue
Ocean”
*Internal
organizational
excellence =
“Brand inside”
B(I) > B(O)
2007
Siberia
Why in the
World did you
go to Siberia?
An emotional,
vital, innovative, joyful, creative,
entrepreneurial endeavor that
elicits maximum
Enterprise* ** (*at its best):
concerted human potential
in the wholehearted service
of others.**
**Employees, Customers, Suppliers, Communities, Owners, Temporary
partners
2007
Sydney
Organizations exist
to serve. Period.
Leaders live to
serve. Period.
… no less than
Cathedrals
in which the full and
awesome power of the
Imagination and Spirit and
native Entrepreneurial flair
of diverse individuals is
unleashed in passionate
pursuit of … Excellence.
“We are a
‘Life Success’
Company.”
Dave Liniger, founder, RE/MAX
“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
“Managing winds up being
the management of the
allocation of resources
against tasks. Leadership
My
definition of a leader
is someone who
helps people
succeed.”
focuses on people.
—Carol Bartz, Yahoo!
“The role of the Director is to create
a space where the actors and
become more
than they’ve ever been
before, more than
they’ve dreamed of
being.”
actresses can
—Robert Altman, Oscar acceptance speech
The Dream Manager
—Matthew Kelly
“An organization can only become the-best-version-of-itself to
the extent that the people who drive that organization are
striving to become better-versions-of-themselves.” “A
company’s purpose is to become the-best-version-of-itself. The
What is an employee’s purpose?
Most would say, ‘to help the company
achieve its purpose’—but they would be
wrong. That is certainly part of the
employee’s role, but an employee’s
primary purpose is to become the-bestversion-of-himself or –herself. … When a
question is:
company forgets that it exists to serve customers, it quickly
Our employees are our first
customers, and our most important customers.”
goes out of business.
Thank you Peter Drucker/AIM
Our goal is to serve our customers brilliantly
and profitably over the long haul.
Serving our customers brilliantly and profitably
over the long haul is a product of brilliantly
serving, over the long haul, the people who
serve the customer.
Hence, our job as leaders—the alpha and the
omega and everything in between—is abetting
the sustained growth and success and
engagement and enthusiasm and commitment
to Excellence of those, one at a time, who
directly or indirectly serve the ultimate
customer.
Source: The Little BIG Things: 163 Ways to Pursue EXCELLENCE
We—leaders of every stripe—are in the “Human
Growth and Development and Success and
Aspiration to Excellence business.”
“We” [leaders] only grow when “they” [each and
every one of our colleagues] are growing.
“We” [leaders] only succeed when “they” [each
and every one of our colleagues] are succeeding.
“We” [leaders] only energetically
march toward Excellence when “they” [each and
every one of our colleagues] are energetically
marching toward Excellence.
Period.
Source: The Little BIG Things: 163 Ways to Pursue EXCELLENCE
“You have to
treat your
employees like
customers.”
—Herb Kelleher,
complete answer, upon being asked his “secrets to success”
Source: Joe Nocera, NYT, “Parting Words of an Airline Pioneer,” on the occasion of
Herb Kelleher’s retirement after 37 years at Southwest Airlines (SWA’s pilots union
took out a full-page ad in USA Today thanking HK for all he had done; across the
way in Dallas American Airlines’ pilots were picketing the Annual Meeting)
The Customer
Comes Second
—Hal Rosenbluth and Diane McFerrin Peters* (*no relation)
hostmanship
“The path to a
culture
paradoxically does not go through the guest. In fact it
wouldn’t be totally wrong to say that the guest has
nothing to do with it. True hostmanship leaders focus on
their employees. What drives exceptionalism is finding the
right people and getting them to love their work and see it
as a passion. ... The guest comes into the picture only
when you are ready to ask, ‘Would you prefer to stay at a
hotel where the staff love their work or where
management has made customers its highest priority?’”
“We went through the hotel and made a ... ‘consideration
renovation.’ Instead of redoing bathrooms, dining rooms,
and guest rooms, we gave employees new uniforms,
bought flowers and fruit, and changed colors. Our focus
was totally on the staff. They were the ones we wanted to
make happy. We wanted them to wake up every morning
excited about a new day at work.”
Source: Jan Gunnarsson and Olle Blohm, Hostmanship: The Art of Making People Feel Welcome.
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
Luiza Helena,
Magazine
Luiza*
*Wegmans
“Business has to give people enriching,
or it's
simply not
worth
doing.”
rewarding lives …
—Richard Branson
‘do’
“Leaders
people.
Period.”
—Anon.
Leadership
is a sacred
trust.*
*President, classroom teacher, CEO, shop foreman
“How to flush
$500,000 down
the toilet in one
easy lesson!!”
TP:
< CAPEX
> People!
Source: Container Store/increase average sale per shopper
2009
New Delhi
“The
ONE Question”: “In the last year [3 years, current job],
three
people
name the …
… whose growth you’ve
most contributed to. Please explain where they were at the
beginning of the year, where they are today, and where they are
heading in the next 12 months. Please explain in painstaking detail
your development strategy in each case. Please tell me your biggest
development disappointment—looking back, could you or would you
have done anything differently? Please tell me about your greatest
development triumph—and disaster—in the last five years. What
are the ‘three big things’ you’ve learned about helping people
grow along the way.”
2/year =
legacy.
#1.
Strategic.
Priority.
Period.
the
most important
aspect of
business and yet
“In short, hiring is
remains woefully
misunderstood.”
Source: Wall Street Journal, 10.29.08,
review of Who: The A Method for Hiring,
Geoff Smart and Randy Street
“Development can help great
but if
I had a dollar to
spend, I’d spend 70
cents getting the
right person in the
door.” —
people be even better—
Paul Russell, Director, Leadership &
Development, Google
“I can’t tell you how many times we
passed up hotshots for guys we
thought were better people, and
watched our guys do a lot better than
the big names, not just in the
classroom, but on the field—and,
naturally, after they graduated, too.
Again and again, the blue chips faded
out, and our little up-and-comers
clawed their way to all-conference
and All-America teams.” —Bo Schembechler
(and John Bacon), “Recruit for Character,”
Bo’s Lasting Lessons
#1
cause of
employee
Dis-satisfaction?
Employee retention & satisfaction:
Overwhelmingly
, based on the
first-line
manager!
Source: Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman, First, Break All
the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently
Capital Asset I
**Selecting and training and
mentoring one’s pool of frontline managers can be a “Core
Competence” of surpassing
strategic importance.
**Put under a microscope every
attribute of the cradle-tograve process of building the
capability of our cadre of
front-line managers.
Capital Asset II
I am sure you “spend time”
on this. My question: Is it an
OBSESSION
…
…worthy of the impact it has
on enterprise performance?
1. Hiring
2. Front-line
Supervisor
Development
3. Promoting
“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
Lawrence A. Pfaff & Assoc.
— 2 Years, 941 mgrs (672M, 269F);
360º feedback
— Women: better in 20 of 20
categories; 15 of 20 with statistical
significance, incl. decisiveness,
planning, setting stds.)
— “Men are not rated significantly
higher by any of the raters in any
of the areas measured.” (LP)
“Forget China, India
and the Internet:
Economic Growth Is
Driven by
Women.”
Source: Headline, Economist
“One thing is certain: Women’s rise to power, which is
linked to the increase in wealth per capita, is happening
in all domains and at all levels of society. Women are no
longer content to provide efficient labor or to be
consumers with rising budgets and more autonomy to
spend. … This is just the beginning. The phenomenon
will only grow as girls prove to be more successful than
For a number of
observers, we have already
entered the age of
‘womenomics,’ the economy as
thought out and practiced
by a woman.” —Aude Zieseniss de Thuin, Women’s
boys in the school system.
Forum for the Economy and Society
“You must
be
the change you
wish to see in the
world.”
Gandhi
“Nothing is so
contagious as
enthusiasm.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge
“I am a
dispenser of
enthusiasm.”
—Ben Zander
“[Ronald
Reagan] radiated an
almost
transcendent
happiness.”
Half-full Cups:
—L ou Cannon
“Mandela, a model host [in his prison hospital room] smiled grandly,
put [Justice Minister Kobie] Coetzee at his ease, and almost
immediately, to their quietly contained surprise, prisoner and jailer
[It had mostly] to
do with body language, with the impact
Mandela’s manner had on people he met.
First there was his erect posture. Then
there was the way he shook hands. The
effect was both regal and intimidating,
were it not for Mandela’s warm gaze and
his big, easy smile. … Coetzee was surprised by
found themselves chatting amiably. …
Mandela’s willingness to talk in Afrikaans, his knowledge of Afrikaans
history.” Coetzee: “He was a born leader. And he was affable. He was
obviously well liked by the hospital staff and yet he was respected even
though they knew he was a prisoner.”
Source: John Carlin, Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela
and the Game that Made a Nation. (Mandela meets surreptitiously with
justice minister after decades in prison—and turns on the charm)
“It’s always
showtime.”
—David D’Alessandro, Career Warfare
“The doctor
interrupts
after …*
*Source: Jerome Groupman, How Doctors Think
seconds
[An obsession with] Listening is ... the ultimate mark
of Respect.
Listening is ... the heart and soul of Engagement.
Listening is ... the heart and soul of Kindness.
Listening is ... the heart and soul of Thoughtfulness.
Listening is ... the basis for true Collaboration.
Listening is ... the basis for true Partnership.
Listening is ... a Team Sport.
Listening is ... a Developable Individual Skill.* (*Though women
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
is
is
is
is
...
...
...
...
are far better at it than men.)
the basis for Community.
the bedrock of Joint Ventures that work.
the bedrock of Joint Ventures that last.
the core of effective Cross-functional
Communication* (*Which is in turn Attribute #1 of
organizational effectiveness.)
[cont.]
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
is
is
is
is
is
is
is
is
is
is
is
is
is
is
is
is
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
the engine of superior EXECUTION.
the key to making the Sale.
the key to Keeping the Customer’s Business.
the engine of Network development.
the engine of Network maintenance.
the engine of Network expansion.
Social Networking’s “secret weapon.”
Learning.
the sine qua non of Renewal.
the sine qua non of Creativity.
the sine qua non of Innovation.
the core of taking Diverse opinions aboard.
Strategy.
Source #1 of “Value-added.”
Differentiator #1.
Profitable.* (*The “R.O.I.” from listening is higher than
from any other single activity.)
Listening is … the bedrock which underpins a Commitment to
EXCELLENCE
*Listening is of the
utmost … strategic
importance!
*Listening is a proper …
core value !
*Listening is … trainable
!
*Listening is a … profession
!
Listen = “Profession”
= Study = practice =
evaluation =
Enterprise value
Listen = Profession = Study = practice = evaluation =
Enterprise value: "We
listen intently to
and fully engage
all with whom
we work."
“It was much later that I realized
Dad’s secret. He gained respect by
giving it. He talked and listened to
the fourth-grade kids in Spring Valley
who shined shoes the same way he
talked and listened to a bishop or a
He was
seriously interested in
who you were and what
you had to say.”
college president.
—Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Respect
“You can make more
friends in two months by
becoming interested in
other people than you can
in two years by trying to
get other people interested
in you.” —Dale Carnegie
Questioning,
the art [and
“profession”] of.
$2.3 trillion
“The West spent …
on foreign aid over the last five decades and
still has not managed to get twelve-cent
medicines to children to prevent half of all
malaria deaths. The West spent $2.3 trillion
and still not managed to get three dollars to
each new mother to prevent five million child
But I and many other
like-minded people keep
trying, not to abandon aid to
the poor, but to make sure it
reaches them.”
deaths. …
Easterly, maligned by many, is the arch-enemy
of the
Big Plan
[his capital letters, not mine—for once]
sent from afar; and the vociferous fan of
practical activities of those he calls
“Searchers”
… who learn the
ins and outs of the culture, politics and local
conditions “on the ground” in order to use local
levers and local players, and get those 12cent medicines to community members.
Read on, “Planners” vs “Searchers” …
“In foreign aid, Planners announce good intentions but don’t motivate
Searchers find things
that work and build on them. Planners apply
global blueprints; Searchers adapt to local
conditions. Planners never hear whether the planned
recipients got what they needed; Searchers find out if
the customer is satisfied. … A Planner thinks he
anyone to carry them out;
already knows the answers; he thinks of poverty as a technical
A Searcher
admits he doesn’t know the answers in
advance; he hopes to find answers to
individual problems only by trial and
error experimentation. …” —William Easterly,
engineering problem that his answers will solve.
White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done
So Much Ill and so Little Good
Derived from the above and more, I have
extracted a series of “lessons” from the
Easterly book. These implementation lessons
are, in fact, universal:
Lesson (#1 of sooooooo many): Show up!
(On the ground, where the action—and
possible implementation—is.)
Lesson: Invest in ceaseless study of
conditions “on the ground”—social and
political and historical and systemic.
Lesson: Listen
to the “locals.”
Lesson: Hear
the “locals.”
Lesson: Talk to the “locals.”
Lesson: Listen to the “locals.”
Lesson: Hear the “locals.”
Lesson: Listen to the “locals.”
Lesson: Hear the “locals.”
Lesson: Listen to the “locals.”
Lesson: Hear the “locals.”
Lesson: Listen to the “locals.”
Lesson: Hear to the “locals.”
Lesson: Listen to the “locals.”
Lesson: Hear to the “locals.”
Lesson: Respect the “locals.”
Lesson: Empathize with the “locals.”
Have a
truly crappy
local office, and
other
un-trappings!
Lesson:
Lesson: Try to blend in, adopting local customs, showing
deference were necessary—almost everywhere;
and never interrupt the “big man” in front of his
folk, even, or especially, if you think he is 180
degrees off.
Lesson: Seek out the local leaders’ second cousins, etc,
to gain indirect access over their uncle twice
removed! (Etc & etc.)
Lesson: Have a truly crappy office, and other
un-trappings!
Lesson: Remember, you do not in fact have the answers
despite your PhD with, naturally, honors, from the
University of Chicago—where you were mentored
by not one, but two, Nobel Laureates in economics.
Lesson: Regardless of the enormity of the problem,
proceed by trial (manageable in size) and error,
error, error. (Failure motto: “Do it right the first
time!” Success motto: “Do it right the 37th time!”
And hustle through those 37 tries—see the
next slide.)
Lesson: The process of political-community
engagement must also be approached as
a trial and error learning process.
Lesson: Always alter the experiment to accommodate
local needs—the act of apparent local modification
per se is critical, as every community leader, in
order for them to accept “ownership” and
demonstrate to their constituents that they are in
charge, must feel as if they have directly and
measurably influenced the experiment. [See the next four slides.]
Lesson: Growth (the experimental and expansionemulation process) must be organic, and proceed
at a measured pace—nudged, not hurried.
Lesson: Speed kills! (To a point.) By and large, the
messiness and “inefficiency” of the local political
process must be honored.
Nothing is
“scalable”!*
Nothing is “scalable”!*
*Every replication must
exude the perception of
uniqueness—even if it
means a half-step
backwards. (“It wouldn’t
have worked if we hadn’t done
it our way.”)
Speed kills!
Lesson: Short-circuiting political
process kills!
Lesson: Premature rollout kills!
Lesson: Too much publicity-visibility
kills!
Lesson: Too much money kills!
Lesson: Too much technology kills!
Lesson:
Lesson: Outsiders, to be effective, must have genuine
appreciation of and affection for the locals with whom
and for whom they are working!
Lesson: Condescension kills most—said “locals” know
unimaginably more about life than well-intentioned
“do gooders,” young or even, alas, not so young.
Lesson: Progress … MUST … be consistent with “local
politics on the ground” in order to raise the odds
of sustainability.
Lesson: You will never-ever “fix” “everything at once”
or by the time you “finish”—in our Constitutional
Convention in 1787, George Washington only got
about 60% of what he wanted!
Lesson: Never forget the atmospherics, such as numerous
celebrations for tiny milestones reached, showering praise
on the local leader and your local cohorts, while you
assiduously stand at the back of the crowd—etc.
Lesson: The experiment has failed until the systems and political
rewards, often small, are in place, with Beta tests completed,
to up the odds of repetition.
Lesson: Most of your on-the-ground staff must consist of
respected locals—the de facto or de jure Chairman or CEO
must be a local; you must be virtually invisible.
Lesson: Spend enormous “pointless” social time with the local
political leaders—in Gulf War I, Norm Schwarzkopf spent his
evenings, nearly all of them, drinking tea until 2AM or 3AM
with the Saudi crown prince; he called it his greatest
contribution!
Lesson: Keep your “start up” plan simple and short and
filled with question marks in order to allow others
to have the last word. (I once did the final draft of a
proposal, making it as flawless as could be. I gave it to my boss,
pre Microsoft Word, and he proceeded to cut it up and tape the pieces
back together, and conspicuously cross out several paragraphs of my
obviously and labored over brilliant prose that he had agreed to. “Tom,”
he said as I recall, “we want the rest of the committee [of important, or at
least self-important folks] to feel as though they are participating and
that you and I are a naïve—not confront them with a beautiful plan that
shouts ‘Don’t you dare alter a word.’”)
Lesson: For projects involving children or health or education or
community development or sustainable small-business
growth (most projects), women are by far the most reliable
and most central and most indirectly powerful local
players in even the most chauvinist settings—their
characteristic process of “implementation by indirection”
means “life or death” to sustainable project success;
moreover, the expanding concentric circles of women’s
traditional networking processes is by far the best way to
“scale up”/expand a program. (Men should not even try
to understand what is taking place. Among other things,
this networking indirection-largely invisible process will
seemingly “take forever” by most men’s “action now,
skip steps” S.O.P.—and then, from out of the blue,
following an eternity of rambling discussions-on-top-oframbling-discussions, you will wake up one fine morning
and discover that the thing is done that everything has
fallen in place “overnight” and that ownership is nearly
universal. Concomitant imperative; most of your (as an
outsider) staff should be women, alas,most likely not
visibly “in charge.”
For projects involving children or
health or education or community
development or sustainable
small-business growth (most
women
projects),
are by
far the most reliable and most
central and most indirectly
powerful local players even in the
most chauvinist settings.
Reminders:
Show up!
(Stick around!)
Listen!
(Listen! Listen! Listen!)
Study local conditions!
Stay in the background!
(Always defer to local leaders—even bad ones.
Do your “workarounds” in private.)
Adapt to local conditions!!
(No cookie-cutters, please!!)
Experiment!
(Manageable in size.)
(Trial and error, error, error—so, hustle.)
(Celebrate the tiniest successes—no such thing as “too much.”)
Get the “boring” supporting systems-infrastructure in place!
Always: Local politics rules!
(Like it or not.)
Nudge.
(Do not force things because of your schedule.)
Women are our “customers,” premier
“partners in sustainable implementation.”
“if you don’t
listen, you don’t
sell anything.”
—Carolyn Marland
Sales >
Marketing
“Everybody
lives by selling
something.”
—Robert Louis Stevenson
four most
important
words in any
“The
organization are …
The four most important words in any organization
are …
“What do
you
think?”
Source: courtesy Dave Wheeler, posted at tompeters.com
Tomorrow: How
many times will you
“ask the WDYT
question”?
[Count!]
[Practice
makes better!] [This is a
STRATEGIC skill!]
From Enemy/Reluctant User
to Champion/Savior/Owner:
“one line
of code!” Axiom
The
“The deepest
human need is
the … need to be
appreciated.”
—William James
“Thank you” lingers on:
10
years
Tomorrow: How many
times will you mange to
blurt out, “Thank you”?
[Count ‘em!]
[Practice
makes better!* *The engineer from
Manchester.]] [This is a STRATEGIC skill!]
*appreciation is of the
utmost … strategic
importance!
*appreciation is a proper …
core value !
*appreciation is … trainable
!
*appreciation is a … profession
!
And the answer is ….
otis
#27
“I regard apologizing as the
most magical, healing,
restorative gesture human
beings can make. It is the
centerpiece of my work with
executives who want to get
better.” —Marshall Goldsmith, What Got You
Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become
Even More Successfu.
pause
“I regard apologizing as the
most magical, healing,
restorative gesture human
beings can make. It is the
centerpiece of my work with
executives who want to get
better.” —Marshall Goldsmith, What Got You
Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become
Even More Successfu.
Relationships
(of all varieties):
THERE
ONCE WAS A TIME WHEN A
THREE-MINUTE
PHONE CALL WOULD
HAVE AVOIDED SETTING OFF THE
DOWNWARD SPIRAL THAT RESULTED
IN A COMPLETE RUPTURE.
*effective “Repair”/Apology is of the
utmost … strategic
importance!
*effective repair is a proper …
core value !
*effective repair is …
trainable !
*effective repair is a …
profession !
#28
THE PROBLEM IS
RARELY/NEVER THE
PROBLEM. THE
RESPONSE TO THE
PROBLEM INVARIABLY
ENDS UP BEING THE
REAL PROBLEM.*
*PERCEPTION IS ALL THERE IS!
Potlatch.
Comeback
[big, quick response]
>>
Perfection
Acquire vs maintain*:
*Recession goal: Higher “market share” current customers
#29
none!
139,380 former
patients from 225 hospitals:
Press Ganey Assoc:
none
of THE top 15 factors
determining Patient Satisfaction
referred to patient’s health outcome
P.S. directly related to Staff Interaction
P.P.S. directly correlated with Employee
Satisfaction
Source: Putting Patients First, Susan Frampton, Laura Gilpin, Patrick Charmel
“Kindness
is free.”
“There is a misconception that supportive interactions require
more staff or more time and are therefore more costly. Although
labor costs are a substantial part of any hospital budget, the
interactions themselves add nothing to the budget.
Kindness is
free.
Listening to patients or answering their
questions costs nothing. It can be argued that negative
interactions—alienating patients, being non-responsive to their
needs or limiting their sense of control—can be very costly. …
Angry, frustrated or frightened patients may be combative,
withdrawn and less cooperative—requiring far more time
than it would have taken to interact with them initially in a
positive way.” —Putting Patients First, Susan Frampton,
Laura Gilpin, Patrick Charmel
#30
“We are
thoughtful
in all we do.”
Thoughtfulness is key to customer retention.
Thoughtfulness is key to employee recruitment
and satisfaction.
Thoughtfulness is key to brand perception.
Thoughtfulness is key to your ability to look in
the mirror —and tell your kids about your job.
“Thoughtfulness is free.”
Thoughtfulness is key to speeding things up—
it reduces friction.
Thoughtfulness is key to transparency and even
cost containment—it abets rather than stifles
truth-telling.
*Thoughtfulness is of the
utmost … strategic
importance!
*thoughtfulness is a proper …
core value !
*Thoughtfulness is … trainable
!
*Thoughtfulness is a … profession
!
“Courtesies of a small and
trivial character are the
ones which strike
deepest in the grateful
and appreciating heart.”
—Henry Clay
The Real World’s “Little” Rule Book
Ben/tea
Norm/tea
DDE/make friends
WFBuckley/make friends-help friends
Gust/Suck down
Charlie/poker pal-BOF
Eddie VII/dance-flatter-mingle-learn the language
Vlad/birthday party of outgroup guy’s wife
CIO/finance network
ERP installer/consult-“one line of code”
GE Energy/make friends risk assessment
GWB/check the invitation list
GHWB/T-notes
Hank/60 calls
MarkM/5K-5M
Delaware/show up
Oppy/snub Lewis Strauss
NM/smile
-$4.3T/tin ear
tp.com/Big 4-What do you think?
Women/genes
Banker/after church
Total Bloody Mess/Can they pay back the loan?
#31
problem #1.
Opportunity #1.
X =XFX*
*Excellence = Cross-functional Excellence
The “XF-50”: 50 Ways to
Enhance Cross-Functional
Effectiveness and Deliver
Speed, “Service Excellence”
and “Value-added Customer
‘Solutions’”*
*See APPENDIX
Never
waste a
lunch!
????
% XF
lunches*
*Measure! Monthly! Part of evaluation! [The PA’s
Club.]
“Allied commands depend
on mutual confidence
[and this confidence]
is gained, above all
through the development
of friendships.”
—General D.D. Eisenhower,
Armchair General* (05.08)
*“Perhaps his most outstanding ability [at West Point]
was the ease with which he made friends and earned the
trust of fellow cadets who came from widely varied
backgrounds; it was a quality that would pay great
dividends during his future coalition command
“Suck down for
success!” * ** *** **** ****
*“He [Gust Avarkotos] had become something of
a legend with these people who manned the
underbelly of the Agency [CIA],” from Charlie
Wilson’s War
**Getting to know “the risk guys” [GE Power]
***“Spend less time with your customer!”
C(I) > C(E)
****
*****The ATT systems sales exec
R.O.I.R.
Return On
Investment In
Relationships
(Way) Underutilized Lever
Space!
Space!
Space!
Space!
Geologists +
Geophysicists +
A little bit of love =
Oil
Lunch
> SAP/
Oracle
#32
FLOWER
FLOWER
POWER
POWER
#33
Attending to the
“Last 98%”: The New
“Management
Science,” or “Hard”
Is “Soft,” “Soft”
Is “Hard”
S = ƒ( ___ )
Success Is a
Function of …
S = ƒ(#&DR; -2L, -3L, 4L, I&E)
Success is a function of: Number and depth of relationships
2, 3, and 4 levels down inside and outside the organization
S = ƒ(SD>SU)
Sucking down is more important than sucking up—the idea is
to have the [your] entire organization working for you.
S = ƒ(#non-FF, #non-FL)
Number of friends not in my function
S = ƒ(#XFL/m)
Number of lunches with colleagues in other
functions per month
S = ƒ(#FF)
Number of friends in the finance organization
Loser:
“He’s such a
suck-up!”
Winner:
“He’s such a
suck-down.”
S =ƒ(#PK“W”P)
S = ƒ(#PK“L”P)
# of people you know in the “wrong” places
# people you know in “low” places
???????
“Success doesn’t depend on the number of
people you know; it depends on the number
of people you know in
high places!”
or
“Success doesn’t depend on the number of
people you know; it depends on the number
of people you know in
low
places!”
It helps to know people in …
high
places!”
It helps
more
to know people in …
low
places!”
Gust Avarkotos’ “boiler room” CIA pals
Walter’s “enabler” P.M. Thank You notes
Flexirent’s XSec’s Customer PA lunches
Anybody’s XSec
Anybody’s PA
All customer Purchasing Dept receptionists
Secy Chaffee’s letter writer
McKinsey report prep staff
McKinsey research staff
Admiral’s Aide
Congressional Committee staff drafter
Congressman’s appropriate LA
Anybody in Finance
#34
Skip the map
“Mapping your
competitive
position”
or …
The “Have
you …” 50
1. Have you in the
last 10 days …
visited a
customer?
2. Have you called a
customer … TODAY?
1. Have you in the last 10 days … visited a
customer?
2. Have you called a customer … TODAY?
3. Have you in the last 60-90 days … had a seminar in which several folks from the
customer’s operation (different levels, different functions, different divisions) interacted,
via facilitator, with various of your folks?
4. Have you thanked a front-line employee for a
small act of helpfulness … in the last three days?
5. Have you thanked a front-line employee for a small act of helpfulness … in the
last three hours?
6. Have you thanked a frontline employee for carrying around a great attitude … today?
7. Have you in the last week recognized—publicly—one of your folks for a small act of
cross-functional co-operation?
8. Have you in the last week recognized—publicly—one of “their” folks (another function)
for a small act of cross-functional co-operation?
9. Have you invited in the last month a leader of another function to your weekly team
priorities meeting?
10. Have you personally in the last week-month called-visited an internal or external
customer to sort out, inquire, or apologize for some little or big thing that went awry? (No
reason for doing so? If true—in your mind—then you’re more out of touch than I dared
imagine.)
11. Have you in the last two days had a chat with someone (a couple of levels down?) about specific deadlines
concerning a project’s next steps?
12. Have you in the last two days had a chat with someone (a couple of levels down?) about specific deadlines
concerning a project’s next steps … and what specifically you can do to remove a hurdle? (“Ninety percent of
what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get things done.”—Peter “His eminence”
Drucker.)
13. Have you celebrated in the last week a “small” (or large!) milestone reached? (I.e., are you a milestone
fanatic?)
14. Have you in the last week or month revised some estimate in the “wrong” direction and apologized for making
a lousy estimate? (Somehow you must publicly reward the telling of difficult truths.)
15. Have you installed in your tenure a very
comprehensive customer satisfaction scheme
for all internal customers? (With major consequences for hitting or missing
the mark.)
16. Have you in the last six months had a week-long, visible, very intensive visit-“tour” of external customers?
17. Have you in the last 60 days called an abrupt halt to a meeting and “ordered” everyone to get out of the office,
and “into the field” and in the next eight hours, after asking those involved, fixed (f-i-x-e-d!) a nagging “small”
problem through practical action?
18. Have you in the last week had a rather thorough discussion of a “cool design thing” someone has come
across—away from your industry or function—at a Web site, in a product or its packaging?
19. Have you in the last two weeks had an informal meeting—at least an hour long—with a frontline employee to
discuss things we do right, things we do wrong, what it would take to meet your mid- to long-term aspirations?
20. Have you had in the last 60 days had a general meeting to discuss “things we do wrong” … that we can fix in
the next fourteen days?
21. Have you had in the last year a one-day, intense offsite with each (?) of your
internal customers—followed by a big celebration of “things gone right”?
22. Have you in the last week pushed someone to do some family thing that you fear
might be overwhelmed by deadline pressure?
23. Have you learned the names of the children of everyone who reports to you? (If
not, you have six months to fix it.)
24. Have you taken in the last month an interesting-weird outsider to lunch?
25. Have you in the last month invited an interesting-weird outsider to sit in on an
important meeting?
26. Have you in the last three days discussed something interesting, beyond your
industry, that you ran across in a meeting, reading, etc?
27. Have you in the last 24 hours injected into a meeting “I ran across this
interesting idea in [strange place]”?
28. Have you in the last two weeks asked someone to report on something, anything
that constitutes an act of brilliant service rendered in a “trivial” situation—
restaurant, car wash, etc? (And then discussed the relevance to your work.)
29. Have you in the last 30 days examined in detail (hour
by hour) your calendar to evaluate the degree “time
actually spent” mirrors your “espoused priorities”?
(And repeated this exercise with everyone on team.)
30. Have you in the last two months had a presentation to the group by a “weird”
outsider?
31. Have you in the last two months had a presentation to the group by a customer,
internal customer, vendor featuring “working folks” 3 or 4 levels down in the vendor
organization?
32. Have you in the last two months had a presentation to the group of a cool,
beyond-our-industry ideas by two of your folks?
33. Have you at every meeting today (and forever more) re-directed the conversation
to the practicalities of implementation concerning some issue before the group?
34. Have you at every meeting today (and forever more) had an end-of-meeting
discussion on “action items to be dealt with in the next 4, 48 hours? (And then made
this list public—and followed up in 48 hours.) And made sure everyone has at least
one such item.)
35. Have you had a discussion in the last six months about what it would take to get
recognition in local-national poll of “best places to work”?
36. Have you in the last month approved a cool-different training course for one
of your folks?
Have you in the last month taught a front-line
training course?
37.
38. Have you in the last week discussed the idea of Excellence? (What it means, how
to get there.)
39. Have you in the last week discussed the idea of “Wow”? (What it means, how
to inject it into an ongoing “routine” project.)
40. Have you in the last 45 days assessed some major process in terms of the
details of the “experience,” as well as results, it provides to its external or internal
customers?
41. Have you in the last month had one of your folks attend a meeting you were supposed to go
to which gives them unusual exposure to senior folks?
42. Have you in the last 60 (30?) days sat with a trusted friend or “coach” to discuss your
“management style”—and its long- and short-term impact on the group?
43. Have you in the last three days considered a professional
relationship that was a little rocky and made a call to the person
involved to discuss issues and smooth the waters? (Taking the
“blame,” fully deserved or not, for letting the thing-issue fester.)
44. Have you in the last … two hours … stopped by someone’s (two-levels “down") officeworkspace for 5 minutes to ask “What do you think?” about an issue that arose at a more or
less just completed meeting? (And then stuck around for 10 or so minutes to listen—and
visibly taken notes.)
45. Have you … in the last day … looked around you to assess whether the diversity pretty
accurately maps the diversity of the market being served? (And …)
46. Have you in the last day at some meeting gone out of your way to make sure that a normally
reticent person was engaged in a conversation—and then thanked him or her, perhaps
privately, for their contribution?
47. Have you during your tenure instituted very public (visible) presentations of performance?
48. Have you in the last four months had a session specifically aimed at checking on the
“corporate culture” and the degree we are true to it—with all presentations by relatively junior
folks, including front-line folks? (And with a determined effort to keep the conversation
restricted to “real world” “small” cases—not theory.)
49. Have you in the last six months talked about the Internal Brand Promise?
50. Have you in the last year had a full-day off site to talk about individual (and group)
aspirations?
Little =
“Design is everything.
Everything is design.”
“We are all designers.”
Inspiration: The Power of Design: A Force for
Transforming Everything, Richard Farson
Big carts =
Source: Wal*Mart
Bag sizes = New markets:
Source: PepsiCo
Socks =
10,000
6.5
feet Away =
6.5 feet Away =
-63%
“Seconds”*
*Plate size, etc, first serving dish
“Broken windows”: Clean
the streets, fix the
broken windows, ticket
the open-beer-can
holders, etc, etc
= Sense of order
= Crime way down
“Paint it
white!”
— On Hashem Akbari’s [Lawrence Livermore labs] powerful program
to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions; using conservative
reduce 44 billion tons of CO2
assumptions, it could
emissions by cooling buildings, roads, entire cities (The Guardian, 0116.09)
Don’t like it?
Don’t pay.
Source: Granite Rock Co.
“Power
Freaks” Move
Things
Around!
>100 feet =
100 miles
Round
= 2X/allx
see green =
recover
20% faster
“Everything matters”
-80%
Source: Nudge, Richard Thaler and Cass
Sunstein, etching of fly in the urinal
reduces “spillage” by 80%, Schiphol Airport
#35M
(1) Amenable to rapid
experimentation/
failure “free” (PR, $$)
(2) Quick to implement/
Quick to Roll out
(3) Inexpensive to
implement/Roll out
(4) Huge multiplier
(5) An “Attitude”
(1) Half-day/25 ideas
(2) One week/5 experiments
(3) One month/Select best 2
(4) 60-90 days/Roll out
<TGW
and …
>TGR
[Things Gone WRONG-Things Gone RIGHT]
2-cent
candy
“May I
clean your
glasses,
sir?”
2,000,000
7X.
7:30A-8:00P.
F12A.
7:30AM = 7:15AM.
8:00PM = 8:15PM.
Griffin:
Music in the parking
lot; professional musicians in
the lobby (7/week, 3-4hrs/day) ;
5 pianos
volunteers (120-140 hrs arts &
entertainment per month).
Source: Putting Patients First, Susan Frampton, Laura Gilpin, Patrick Charmel
;
BEGINS
(and ENDS)
It
in the …
parking
lot*
*Disney
“Experiences
are as distinct
from services as
services are from
goods.”
—Joe Pine & Jim Gilmore, The
Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre & Every Business a
Stage
C
*Chief e
O*
Xperience Officer
Hire a
theater director,
as a consultant
or FTE!
First Step (?!):
“Most executives have
no idea how to add value
to a market in the
metaphysical world. But
that is what the market will cry
out for in the future. There is no
lack of ‘physical’ products to
choose between.”
Jesper Kunde, Unique Now ... or Never [on the
excellence of Nokia, Nike, Lego, Virgin et al.]
3M’s Innovation
Crisis: How Six Sigma
Almost Smothered
Its Idea Culture
Source: Title/Cover Story, BW, 0611.07 (“What’s remarkable is
how fast a culture can be torn apart,” 3M lead scientist; “In
an innovation economy, [6 Sigma] is no longer a cure all”/BW)
“What Rikyu
demanded was not
cleanliness alone,
but the beautiful
and the natural
also.”
—Kakuzo Okakura, The Book of Tea
“Rikyu was watching his son Sho-an as he
swept and watered the garden path. ‘Not clean
enough,’ said Rikyu, when Sho-an had finished
his task, and bade him try again. After a weary
hour, the son turned to Rikyu: ‘Father, there is
nothing more to be done. The steps have been
washed for the third time, the stone planters
and the trees are well sprinkled with water,
moss and lichens are shining with a fresh
verdure; not a twig, not a leaf have I left on the
ground.’ ‘Young fool,’ chided the tea-master,
‘that is not the way a garden path should be
swept.’ Saying this, Rikyu stepped into the
garden, shook a tree and scattered over the
garden gold and crimson leaves, scraps of the
brocade of autumn! What Rikyu demanded was
not cleanliness alone, but the beautiful and the
natural also.” —Kakuzo Okakura, The Book of Tea
All Equal Except …
“At Sony we assume that all products
of our competitors have basically the
same technology, price, performance
and features. Design is the
only thing that
differentiates one product
from another in the
marketplace.” —Norio Ohga
“Design is treated
like a religion
at BMW.” —Fortune
“We don’t have a good language to talk
about this kind of thing. In most people’s
vocabularies, design means veneer. … But
to me, nothing could be further from the
Design is
the fundamental
soul of a man-made
creation.”
meaning of design.
—Steve Jobs
“You know a
design is good
when you want
to lick it.”
—Steve Jobs
Source: Design: Intelligence Made Visible,
Stephen Bayley & Terence Conran
“With its carefully conceived mix of colors and textures,
Starbucks
aromas and music,
is more
indicative of our era than the iMac. It is to the Age of
Aesthetics what McDonald’s was to the Age of
Convenience or Ford was to the Age of Mass
Production—the touchstone success story, the exemplar
‘Every
Starbucks store is carefully designed
to enhance the quality of everything
the customers see, touch, hear, smell
or taste,’ writes CEO Howard Schultz.”
of … the aesthetic imperative. …
-—Virginia Postrel, The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic
Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture and Consciousness
Hypothesis:
DESIGN is
the principal
difference
between love
and hate!
All Time
No.1
(TP)
Ziplocs
THE
DESIGNER OF MY
KRUPPS/ CUISINART
COFFEE-MAKER.
Major Reward!
Wanted:
“Business people
don’t need to
‘understand
designers better.’
Businesspeople need
to be designers.”
—Roger Martin/Dean/Rotman Management School/
University of Toronto
Not optional …
O*
C
*Chief
Design
Officer
Message (?????):
cannot
Men
design for women’s
needs.
450/8
Lisbon/New Biz:
Weeks
to …
Minutes
(!!!!)
“One bank is currently
claiming to … ‘leverage its global
footprint to provide effective financial
solutions for its customers by providing
a gateway to diverse markets.’”
—Charles Handy
“I assume that it is just
saying that it is there to
‘help its customers
wherever they are’.”
—Charles Handy
90K in U.S.A. ICUs on any
given day; 178 steps/day
in ICU.
50%
stays result
in “serious complication”
Source: Atul Gawande, “The Checklist” (New Yorker, 1210.07)
**Peter Pronovost, Johns Hopkins,
2001
**Checklist, line infections
**1/3rd at least one error when he started
**Nurses/permission to stop procedure
if doc, other not following checklist
**In 1 year, 10-day line-infection rate:
11% to …
0%
Source: Atul Gawande, “The Checklist” (New Yorker, 1210.07)
**Docs, nurses make own
checklists on whatever
process-procedure they choose
**Within weeks, average stay in
ICU down
50%
Source: Atul Gawande, “The Checklist” (New Yorker, 1210.07)
Beauty.
Grace.
Clarity.
Simplicity.
First Steps: “Beauty Contest”!
1. Select one form/document:
invoice, airbill, sick leave policy,
customer returns claim form.
2. Rate the selected doc on a scale of
1 to 10 [1 = Bureaucratica
Obscuranta/Sucks; 10 = Work of
Art] on four dimensions:
Beauty. Grace.
Clarity. Simplicity.
3. Re-invent!
4. Repeat, with a new selection,
every 15 working days.
The Commerce Bank Model
“every computer at commerce bank has a
special red key on it that
says, ‘found something stupid that we are doing
that interferes with our ability to service the
customer? Tell us about it, and if we agree, we
will give you $50.’”
Source: Fans! Not customers. How Commerce Bank
Created a Super-growth Business in a No-growth
Industry, Vernon Hill & Bob Andelman
CGRO*
*CGRO/Chief Grunge Removal Officer
(CDC/Chief of De-complexification)
(CAO/Chief Anti-systems Officer)
(CBSD/Chief BS Destruction Officer)
“Not only does standardization
reduce accountability, but it
causes workers to switch to
autopilot.” “An artistic process
has to rely on external
measures of success, like
customer feedback.”
Source: “When Should a Process Be Art, Not Science?”
by Joseph Hall and Eric Johnson, HBR (03.09)
“Forget China, India
and the Internet:
Economic Growth Is
Driven by
Women.”
Source: Headline, Economist
“One thing is certain: Women’s rise to power, which is
linked to the increase in wealth per capita, is happening
in all domains and at all levels of society. Women are no
longer content to provide efficient labor or to be
consumers with rising budgets and more autonomy to
spend. … This is just the beginning. The phenomenon
will only grow as girls prove to be more successful than
For a number of
observers, we have already
entered the age of
‘womenomics,’ the economy as
thought out and practiced
by a woman.” —Aude Zieseniss de Thuin, Women’s
boys in the school system.
Forum for the Economy and Society
most significant
variable in every
“The
sales situation is the
gender
of the buyer, and
more importantly, how the
salesperson communicates
to the buyer’s gender.”
—Jeffery Tobias Halter, Selling to Men, Selling to Women
The Perfect Answer
Jill and Jack buy
slacks in black…
“Since 1970, women
have held two
out of every
three new jobs
created.”
—FT, 10.03.2006
“Women are
the majority
market”
—Fara Warner/The Power of the Purse
“Goldman Sachs in Tokyo has
developed an index of 115
companies poised to benefit from
women’s increased purchasing
power; over the past decade the
value of shares in Goldman’s
basket has risen by 96%, against
the Tokyo stockmarket’s rise
of 13%.” —Economist, April 15
Cases! Cases! Cases!
McDonald’s
(“mom-centered” to “majority
consumer”; not via kids)
Home Depot (“Do it [everything!] Herself”)
P&G (more than “house cleaner”)
DeBeers (“right-hand rings”/$4B)
AXA Financial
Kodak (women = “emotional centers of the household”)
Nike
(> jock endorsements; new def sports; majority consumer)
Avon
Bratz (young girls want “friends,” not a blond stereotype)
Source: Fara
Warner/The Power of the Purse
“We simply had
stopped being
relevant to women.”
—Kay Napier, SVP Marketing (Fara Warner, The Power of the
Purse, “From Minority to Majority: McDonald’s Discovers the
Woman Inside the Mom”)
“Women don’t buy
They
join them.”
brands.
EVEolution
2.6 vs.
Age 3
days, baby
girls 2X eye
contact.
“People powered”:
Source: Martha Barletta, Marketing to Women
“Women speak and hear a language
of connection and intimacy, and men
speak and hear a language of status and
independence. Men communicate to
obtain information, establish their status,
and show independence. Women
communicate to create relationships,
encourage interaction, and exchange
feelings.”
—Judy Rosener, America’s Competitive Secret
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“People turning 50
more
than half of
today have
their adult life
ahead of them.”
—Bill Novelli,
50+: Igniting a Revolution to Reinvent America
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
“Baby-boomer
Women: The
Sweetest of
Sweet Spots for
Marketers”
—David Wolfe and Robert
Snyder, Ageless Marketing
“Fifty-four years of age has been
the highest cutoff point for any
marketing initiative I’ve ever
been involved in. Which is pretty
weird when you consider age 50
is right about when people who
have worked all their lives start
to have some money to spend.” —
Marti Barletta, PrimeTime Women
“One particularly puzzling category of youthobsession is the highly coveted target of men
18-34, and it’s always referred to as ‘highly
coveted category.’ Marketers have been
distracted by men age 18-34 because they are
getting harder to reach. So what? Who wants
to reach them? Beyond fast food and beer, they
don’t buy much of anything. … The theory is
that if you ‘get them while they’re young,
What
nonsense!”
they’re yours for life.’
—Marti Barletta, PrimeTime Women
“Marketers attempts at reaching
those over 50 have been miserably
No market’s
motivations and
needs are so
poorly understood.”
unsuccessful.
—Peter Francese, founding publisher, American Demographics
We are the Aussies & Kiwis & Americans & Canadians.
We are the Western Europeans & Japanese. We are the
fastest growing,
the biggest, the
wealthiest, the
boldest, the most
(yes) ambitious,
the most
experimental &
exploratory, the
most different, the most indulgent, the most difficult &
demanding, the most service & experience obsessed,
the most vigorous, (the least vigorous,) the most health
conscious, the most female, the most profoundly
important commercial market in the history of the
we will be the
Center of your universe
for the next twenty-five
years. We have arrived!
world—and
Up,
Up,
Up,
Up
the Value-added Ladder.
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
Planetary Rainmaker-in-Chief!
“Palmisano’s strategy is
to expand tech’s borders
by pushing users—and
entire industries—toward
radically different
business models. The payoff for IBM
would be access to an ocean of revenue—Palmisano
estimates it at $500 billion a year —that technology
companies have never been able to touch.” —Fortune
“Big Brown’s New Bag: UPS
Traffic
Manager for
Corporate
America”
Aims to Be the
—Headline/BW/2004
MasterCard
Advisors
I. LAN Installation Co.
II. Geek Squad.
(3%)
(30%.)
III. Acquired by BestBuy.
IV. Flagship of BestBuy
Wholesale “Solutions”
Strategy Makeover.
“ ‘Architecture’ is
becoming a
commodity. Winners
will be ‘Turnkey
Facilities
Management’
providers.”
SMPS Exec
E.g. …
UTC/Otis +
Carrier: boxes to
“integrated
building
systems”
Huge: Customer
Satisfaction
versus
Customer
Success
“ ‘Results’ are
measured by the
success of all those
who have purchased
your product or
service” —Jan Gunnarsson & Olle Blohm, The
Welcoming Leader
The Value-added Ladder/ STUFF ‘N’ THINGS
Goods
Raw Materials
The Value-added Ladder/Stuff & TRANSACTIONS
Services
Goods
Raw Materials
The Value-added Ladder/ OPPORTUNITY-SEEKING
Customer Success/
Gamechanging
Solutions
Services
Goods
Raw Materials
“The business of selling is not just about matching viable
It’s
equally about managing the
change process the customer
will need to go through to
implement the solution and
achieve the value promised by
the solution. One of the key differentiators of
solutions to the customers that require them.
our position in the market is our attention to managing change
and making change stick in our customers’ organization.”*
(*E.g.: CRM failure rate/Gartner: 70%)
—Jeff Thull, The Prime Solution: Close the Value Gap,
Increase Margins, and Win the Complex Sale
The Value-added Ladder/ OPPORTUNITY-SEEKING
Implemented
Gamechanging
Solutions
Services
Goods
Raw Materials
ry it. Try it. Try it
ry it. Try it. Screw i
p. Try it. Try it. Try
Try it. Try it. Try i
ry it. Screw it up. it
ry it. Try it. try it
“We made mistakes, of course. Most of them were
omissions we didn’t think of when we initially wrote the
software. We fixed them by doing it over and over, again
and again. We do the same today. While our competitors
are still sucking their thumbs trying to make the design
perfect, we’re already on prototype version
#5.
By the time our rivals are
ready with wires and screws, we are on version
#10. It gets back to planning
versus acting: We act from day
one; others plan how to plan—
for months.” —Bloomberg by Bloomberg
“Experiment
fearlessly”
Source: BusinessWeek, Type A Organization Strategies/
“How to Hit a Moving Target”—Tactic #1
#45
Culture of Prototyping
“Effective prototyping may
the most
valuable core
competence an
be
innovative organization can
hope to have.” —Michael Schrage
Think about It!?
Innovation =
Reaction to the
Prototype
Source: Michael Schrage
#46
“SkunkWorks”/ “ParallelUniverse”
“the
solution”
Source: Scott Bedbury (Others: 3M, Google, Shell, NAVFAC)
Build a “School on top of
a school”/ContinuingExec Ed (The Parallel
Universe Strategy)
The
“Sri Lanka
Stratagem”
Forward, march:
“Never doubt that a
small group of
committed people
can change the
world. Indeed it is
the only thing that
ever has.”
—Margaret Mead
Where to look for “Playmates”:
F.F.F.F.
(Find a Fellow Freak Faraway)
Playmate!*
Playpen!
Prototype!
*Can be Client, supplier … as well as Insider
#47
“Fail .
Forward.
Fast.”
High Tech CEO, Pennsylvania
“The secret of fast
progress is
inefficiency, fast
and furious and
numerous failures.”
—Kevin Kelly
Read This!
Richard Farson & Ralph Keyes:
Whoever Makes
the Most Mistakes
Wins: The Paradox
of Innovation
“It is not enough to
‘tolerate’ failure—
you must
‘celebrate’
failure.”
—Richard Farson (Whoever Makes the
Most Mistakes Wins)
We learn from our
failures. Period.* Failure
to acknowledge failure
is a fatal disease.
Treating failure like a
disease is a fatal disease.
*Doctors, soldiers, pilots, musicians, etc.
“In business, you reward
people for taking risks.
When it doesn’t work out
you promote them-because
they were willing to try new
things. If people tell me
they skied all day and never
fell down, I tell them to try
a different mountain.”
—Michael Bloomberg (BW/0625.07)
“Reward
excellent failures.
Punish mediocre
successes.”
Phil Daniels, Sydney exec
#48
1/4,000
“You miss
100% of
the shots you
never take.”
—Wayne Gretzky
#49
“Some people look for
things that went wrong
and try to fix them. I
look for things that
went right, and try to
build off them.”
—Bob Stone (Mr ReGo)
“Somewhere in your
organization, groups of
people are already doing
things differently and better.
To create lasting change, find
these areas of positive
deviance and fan the flames.”
—Richard Pascale & Jerry Sternin,
“Your Company’s Secret Change Agents,” HBR
“In foreign aid, Planners announce good intentions but don’t motivate
Searchers find things
that work and build on them. Planners apply
global blueprints; Searchers adapt to local
conditions. Planners never hear whether the planned
recipients got what they needed; Searchers find out if
the customer is satisfied. … A Planner thinks he
anyone to carry them out;
already knows the answers; he thinks of poverty as a technical
A Searcher
admits he doesn’t know the answers in
advance; he hopes to find answers to
individual problems only by trial and
error experimentation. …” —William Easterly,
engineering problem that his answers will solve.
White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done
So Much Ill and so Little Good
Demos!
Heroes!
Stories!
“A key – perhaps
the key – to
leadership is the
effective
communication
of a story.”
—Howard Gardner,
Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership
“Storytelling
is the core
of culture.”
—Branded Nation: The Marketing of Megachurch,
College Inc., and Museumworld, James Twitchell
Best
story
wins!
We are the
company
we keep
“You will become
like the five people
you associate with
the most—this can
be either a blessing
or a curse.”
—Billy Cox
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
“[CEO A.G.] Lafley has shifted P&G’s focus on inventing
all its own products to developing
others’
inventions at
least half the
time.
One successful
example, Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, based on a product found in
an Osaka market.” —Fortune
The “We are what we eat”
axiom: At its core, every (!!!)
relationship-partnership decision
(employee, vendor, customer, etc) is
a strategic decision about:
“Innovate,
‘Yes’ or ‘No’ ”
The “We are what we eat”
“Hang out with
‘cool’ and thou shalT
become more cool.
Hang out with ‘dull’
and thou shalT
become more dull.
Period.”
Axiom II:
“Don’t
benchmark,
futuremark!”
Impetus: “The future is already here; it’s just
not evenly distributed” —William Gibson
“Who’s the most
interesting person
you’ve met in the
last 90 days? How
do I get in touch
with them?”
—Fred Smith
“Freak
Fridays”
—once a month
invite somebody interesting, in any field, to have lunch
with your gang
“Normal” =
“o for 800”
“The
Bottleneck Is at
the Top of the Bottle”
“Where are you likely to find people with the least diversity of
experience, the largest investment in the past, and the greatest
reverence for industry dogma:
At the top!”
— Gary Hamel/Harvard Business Review
“d”iversity
“Diverse groups of problem solvers—groups
of people with diverse tools—consistently
outperformed groups of the best and the
brightest. If I formed two groups, one
random (and therefore diverse) and one
consisting of the best individual performers,
the first group almost always did better. …
Diversity trumped
ability.”
—Scott Page, The Difference: How
the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups,
Firms, Schools, and Societies Diversity
Can you pass the …
“Squint
test”?
“What is your most
marked characteristic?”
Vanity Fair:
Mike Bloomberg:
“Curiosity.”
“Do one thing
every day
that scares
you.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt
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 Billion-man
Research Team:
Companies offering
work to online
communities are
reaping the benefits of
‘crowdsourcing.’”
—Headline, FT, 0110.07
Rob McEwen/CEO/
Goldcorp Inc./
Red Lake
gold
Wikinomics: How Mass
Collaboration Changes Everything,
Don Tapscott & Anthony Williams
Source:
All You Need to Know About
“Sources of Innovation”:
Angry
people!
[angry with the
status quo]
F(Anger/Passion)
>>>> f(Pushback
from Threatened
Fat-cats &
Bureau-crats)
The
quality and quantity
and imaginativeness
of innovation shall
be the same in all
functions —e.g., in HR and
Iron Innovation Equality Law:
purchasing as much as in marketing or
product development.
Innovation’s “Fourteen Imperatives”
(1) Try it. Repeat. (“1/40.”)
(“R.F.A.”/Ready.Fire. Aim.) (Non-Linear!)
Prototype it./MTTP (Mean Time To Prototype.)/(Inno. =
Reaction to Proto.)
(2) Celebrate failure.
“Whoever makes the most mistakes wins.”
“Fail. Fail again. Fail better.”
“Reward excellent failures. Punish mediocre successes.”
(3) Decentralize.
(4) Parallel Universe.
(5) “Hang Out” Axiom. (Hang “cool” = More
cool. Dull = Dull.)
(6) “d”iversity. (Every dimension.)
(7) Co-invent with outsiders./Entwined with
outsiders. (Including “Crowdsourcing.”)
Innovation’s “Fourteen Imperatives”
(8) “Strategic” Listening = Core competence.
(9) Hire and promote 100% innovators.
Innovator’s characteristic = Innovator.
Innovator’s characteristic = Angry. (Anger > Blowback.)
CEO=Innovation “bias.”
(10) XFX/Cross-functional Excellence!! (#1??)
(11) Chief Complexity & Systems Destruction
Officer.
(12) R&D Equality.
All functions equal. (VA centerpiece./All staff
VA-meisters.)
(13) Fun! Self-deprecating!
(14) Good luck! (Entropy rules.) (Major
acquisition = Dumb.)
(NB: All these things work except when they don’t.)
Innovation Index: How many
of your Top 5 Strategic
Initiatives/Key Projects score
8 or higher [out of 10] on a
“Weird”/ “Profound”/
“Wow”/“Game- changer”
Scale?
De-central-iza-tion!
The True Logic* of Decentralization:
6 divisions = 6 “tries”
6 divisions = 6 DIFFERENT leaders =
6 INDEPENDENT “tries” = Max
probability of “win”
6 divisions = 6 very DIFFERENT
leaders = 6 very INDEPENDENT
“tries” = Max probability of “far
out”/”3-sigma” “win”
*“Driver”: Law of Large #s
“Best practice” =
ZERO Standard
Deviation
“Parallel
Universe” …
China!!!!!!!
“‘Decentralization’
is not a piece of
paper. It’s not me.
It’s either in your
heart, or not.”
—Brian Joffe/BIDvest
“If if feels
painful and
scary—that’s
real delegation”
—Caspian Woods, small biz owner
“Centralization” vs.
“Decentralization” =
Everything
Institute of Public Administration, last question …
Centralization vs Decentralization = EVERYTHING
(Business, government, child-rearing)
Jefferson vs Hamilton (D.C. vs “states rights”)
Nelson, Grant: simple-clear-brief orders, then lots of leeway
Ike (and CEO Koppers): plan like hell and burn the plan (literally)
Ceaselessly talk through the values, then enormous space within
Bossidy: 2-page strategy (pre-Welch, strategy doc was budget doc)
Katrina: USCG (“history of trusting their captains”) vs US Navy
Rommel on Americans in North Africa
No autonomy, no resilience (Yunus: “We’re all entrepreneurs”)
CIO; across the hall anti-CIO (Mr Build, Mr Destroy)
Drucker: “Ninety percent …”
ICD/Inherent Centralist Drift
Gary Hamel and “sell by”
“Anthropological analysis,” McKinsey
Degree of staff diversification is also Cent. vs De-cent
issue (homogeneity grows over time)
Jim Burke: “No.” (Watson: “never do a System 360 today”)
Norberto Odebrecht and 2nd Law Thermodynamics (Foster’s data)
Sloan: Dynamic approach, never get it right
TP: dynamic approach, never get it right, lean “big time” toward
decentralization, open warfare on “necessary” systems
volcanic
struggle!
Enemy
#1
I.C.D.
Inherent/Inevitable/
Immutable Centralist Drift
Note 1:
Note 2: Jim Burke’s 1-word vocabulary: “No.”
“Ninety percent of what
we call ‘management’
consists of making it
difficult for people to
get things done.”
– Peter Drucker
Can’t Live Without ‘em,
Can’t live With ‘em
Office A, Executive Row:
C.I.O.
C.S.D.O./
Chief Systems
Destruction Officer
Office B (Across the hall):
*
(007 License)
*Chief of Anti-matter; Deputy Chief, Grunge Removal
Section; Chief, Crap Accretion Police; Chief, Office of
Bullshit Detection; K.I.S.S. Kops
Ex-ecu-tion!
“Costco figured out
the big, simple things
and executed with
total fanaticism.”
—Charles Munger, Berkshire Hathaway
“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
(1) sum of Projects =
Goal (“Vision”)
(2) sum of Milestones =
project
(3) rapid Review +
Truth-telling =
accountability
“almost inhuman
disinterestedness in
… strategy” —Josiah Bunting
on
U.S. Grant (from Ulysses S. Grant)
U. S. Grant
*No interest in grand strategy.
*Do the thing until it is done.
*Do not over complicate.
*Do the next thing.
*Pleasure in perseverance per se.
*Not ask for help or advice.
*Not complain of difficulties or ask for
more time or resources
McClellan: delay; plead for more forces
Grant: “When do I start? What I want
is to advance.”
Source: Josiah Bunting, Ulysses S. Grant
Excellence in
Execution =
Deepest “Blue
Ocean”
Ac-counta-bil-ity!
Mission impossible?
$36B/’98
minus
$675M/‘07
“Mr Zetsche, head of Chrysler
from 2000 to 2005, denied he
should take any responsibility for
the U.S. carmaker’s
troubles …”
—Financial Times /05.29.07
30%
MH: 80%
CF:
(no salesfolk)
(salesfolk)
“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.
DECENTRALIZATION.
EXECUTION.
ACCOUTABILITY.
6:15A.M.
“I am often asked by
would-be entrepreneurs
seeking escape from life
within huge corporate
structures, ‘How do I
build a small firm for
myself?’ The answer
seems obvious …
“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
“Mr. Foster and his McKinsey colleagues
collected detailed performance data stretching
back
40 years for 1,000
They found that
U.S. companies.
none
of
the long-term survivors managed to
outperform the market. Worse, the
longer companies had been in the
database, the worse they did.”
—Financial Times
“Data drawn from the real world
attest to a fact that is beyond
Everything
in existence tends
to deteriorate.”
our control:
—Norberto Odebrecht, Education Through Work
No: People.
No: Product.
No: Value to customer.
Yes: Dilution, other
control and shareowning issues.
Yes: Scale-as-power.
Yes: Market share.
Yes: People.
Yes: Product.
Yes: Value to customer.
No: Dilution, other
control and shareowning issues.
No: Scale-as-power.
No: Market share.
“It suddenly
occurred to me
that in the space
of two or three
hours …
“It suddenly occurred to me that in the space
he
never talked
about cars.”
of two or three hours …
—Les Wexner
Did one of ’em ever turn to the
other and say: “Wow, I
wonder what
unimaginable new tools,
otherwise not possible,
will be brought forth for
my daughter Alice, age
17, because
of this deal?”
#4 Japan
#3 USA
#2 China
#1 Germany
Reason!!!
Mittelstand
Productivity
(Small/All) >
Productivity (Big)
(USA-9%/F500)
st
(China/1
20 yrs.)
26 = 73 – 47
Jim Penman/
Jim’s Group
Jim’s Mowing Canada
Jim’s Mowing UK
Jim’s Antennas
Jim’s Bookkeeping
Jim’s Building Maintenance
Jim’s Carpet Cleaning
Jim’s Car Cleaning
Jim’s Computer Services
Jim’s Dog Wash
Jim’s Driving School
Jim’s Fencing
Jim’s Floors
Jim’s Painting
Jim’s Paving
Jim’s Pergolas [gazebos]
Jim’s Pool Care
Jim’s Pressure Cleaning
Jim’s Roofing
Jim’s Security Doors
Jim’s Trees
Jim’s Window Cleaning
Jim’s Windscreens
Note: Download, free, Jim Penman’s book:
What Will They Franchise Next? The Story of Jim’s Group
Jim’s Group: Jim Penman.*
1984: Jim’s Mowing. 2006: Jim’s Group.
2,600 franchisees (Australia, NZ, UK).
Cleaning. Dog washing. Handyman.
Fencing. Paving. Pool care. Etc.
“People first.” Private. Small staff. Franchisees
can leave at will. 0-1 complaint per year is
norm; cut bad ones quickly.
*Ph.D. cross-cultural anthropology; mowing on the side
Source: MT/Management Today (Australia), Jan-Feb 2006
*Basement Systems Inc.
*Larry Janesky
*Dry Basement Science
(115,000!)
*1990: $0; 2003: $13M;
2007:
$62,000,000
The Red
Carpet
Store
Joel Resnick/Flemington NJ
(referenced in Fame Junkies)
etc.
PRSX/ Paragon
Railcar
Salvage*
*Salvaged railcars into bridges, etc.
*Lived in same town all adult life
*First generation that’s wealthy/
no parental support
*“Don’t look like millionaires, don’t
dress like millionaires, don’t eat like
millionaires, don’t act like millionaires”
*“Many of the types of businesses [they] are in could be
classified as ‘dull-normal.’ [They] are welding contractors,
auctioneers, scrap-metal dealers, lessors of portable toilets,
dry cleaners, re-builders of diesel engines, paving
contractors …”
Source: The Millionaire Next Door, Thomas Stanley & William Danko
Muhammad Yunus:
“All human beings
are entrepreneurs. When we
were in the caves we were all selfemployed . . . finding our food, feeding
ourselves. That’s where human history
began . . . As civilization came we
suppressed it. We became labor
because they stamped us, ‘You are
labor.’ We forgot that we are
entrepreneurs.”
Source: Muhammad Yunus/The News Hour—PBS/1122.2006
94%
of loans to …
women*
*Microlending; “Banker to the poor”; Grameen Bank;
Muhammad Yunus; 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner
“CEMEX realized that women
are the key drivers of savings
in [Mexican] families. … They are
entrepreneurial in nature, and they actively
participate in the tanda system [neighborhood groups who
pool money and save any that’s left over]. Regardless of
whether they are homemakers or outside-the-home
workers, they are responsible for any savings in the
family. Patrimonio Hoy [Private Property Today, a CEMEX
program to aid the poor in building homes] discovered that
70% of the women who saved were saving money in
the tanda system to construct homes for their
families. The men in the society consider their job
done if they bring in their paycheck at the end of the
day.” —C.K. Prahalad, from The Fortune at the Bottom of
the Pyramid, on
Lorenzo Zambrano and CEMEX, the
Mexican company that’s the world’s #3 cement maker
“Forget China, India
and the Internet:
Economic Growth Is
Driven by
Women.”
Source: Headline, Economist
“gurugate”: The
Gurus’ fixation with
“the wrong stuff”*
*Not “they,” but “us.”
Over-rated:
Big companies!
Public companies!
“Cool” industries!
Stability (“Built to last”)!
Famous CEOs!
The “Fabulous Five”:
*SMEs!
*Private companies!
*“Dull” industries!
*Productive churn:
Built to Rock the
World!
*Laudable CEOs!
#1 Truthteller …
You = Your
calendar*
*Calendars
never
lie
“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
#68
“Dennis, you need a …
‘To-don’t ’
List !”
John Sawhill/Major Strategic
“What areas should
the Conservancy focus on
and more important—
Initiative:
what activities
should we stop
doing?”
Source: Bill Birchard, Nature’s Keepers: The Remarkable Story of How The Nature
Conservancy Became the Largest Environmental Organization in the World
Don’t >
Do*
* “Don’ting,” systematic, > WILLPOWER
#69
“You must
be
the change you
wish to see in the
world.”
Gandhi
“To change minds
effectively, leaders make
particular use of two
stories that
they tell and the lives
tools: the
that they lead.”
Changing Minds
—Howard Gardner,
#70
“The First step in a
‘dramatic’
‘organizational change
program’ is obvious—
dramatic personal
change!” —RG
“How can a high-level leader like _____ be so
out of touch with the truth about himself? It’s
more common than you would imagine. In fact,
the higher up the ladder a leader climbs, the less
accurate his self-assessment is likely to be. The
problem is an acute lack of feedback [especially
on people issues].”
—Daniel Goleman (et al.), The New Leaders
“Work
on me
first.”
—Kerry Patterson,
Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler/Crucial Conversations
“Being aware of
yourself and how you
affect everyone around
you is what
distinguishes a superior
leader.” —Edie Seashore
(Strategy + Business #45)
“To develop others,
start with yourself.”
—Marshall Goldsmith
L(+21) = L(-21)
Leadership(21A.D.) =
Leadership(21B.C.)
“eighty percent
of success is
showing up.”
—Woody Allen
Give
good
tea!
“In the same bitter winter of 1776 that Gen. George Washington led his beleaguered troops
across the Delaware River to safety, Benjamin Franklin sailed across the Atlantic to Paris to
engage in an equally crucial campaign, this one diplomatic. A lot depended on the bespectacled
and decidedly unfashionable 70-year-old as he entered the world’s fashion capitol sporting a
Franklin’s miracle was that armed
only with his canny personal charm and reputation as a
scientist and philosopher, he was able to cajole a wary
French government into lending the fledgling American
nation an enormous fortune. … The enduring image of Franklin in Paris tends
simple brown suit and a fur cap. …
to be that of a flirtatious old man, too busy visiting the city’s fashionable salons to pursue affairs
When Adams joined Franklin in
Paris in 1779, he was scandalized by the late hours and
French lifestyle his colleague had adopted, says [Stacy
Schiff, in A Great Improvisation] Adams was clueless that
it was through the dropped hints and seemingly offhand
remarks at these salons that so much of French diplomacy
was conducted. … Like the Beatles arriving in America, Franklin aroused a fervor—his
of state as rigorously as John Adams.
face appeared on prints, teacups and chamber pots. The extraordinary popularity served
Franklin’s diplomatic purposes splendidly. Not even King Louis XVI could ignore the enthuisiasm
that had won over both the nobility and the bourgeoisie. …”
Source: “In Paris, Taking the Salons By Srorm: How the Canny Ben Franklin Talked
the French into Forming a Crucial Alliance,” U.S. News & World Report, 0707.08
Make
friends!
“Allied commands depend
on mutual confidence
[and this confidence]
is gained, above all
through the development
of friendships.”
—General D.D. Eisenhower,
Armchair General* (05.08)
*“Perhaps his most outstanding ability [at West Point]
was the ease with which he made friends and earned the
trust of fellow cadets who came from widely varied
backgrounds; it was a quality that would pay great
dividends during his future coalition command
“The capacity to develop close and
enduring relationships is the mark of
a leader. Unfortunately, many leaders
of major companies believe their job
is to create the strategy, organization
structure and organizational
processes—then they just delegate
the work to be done, remaining aloof
from the people doing
the work.” —Bill George, Authentic Leadership
“Mandela, a model host [in his prison hospital room]
smiled grandly, put [Justice Minister Kobie] Coetzee at
his ease, and almost immediately, to their quietly
contained surprise, prisoner and jailer found themselves
chatting amiably. … [It had mostly] to do with
body language, with the impact Mandela’s
manner had on people he met. First there was
his erect posture. Then there was the way he
shook hands. The effect was both regal and
intimidating, were it not for Mandela’s warm
gaze and his big, easy smile. … Coetzee was
surprised by Mandela’s willingness to talk in Afrikaans,
his knowledge of Afrikaans history.” Coetzee: “He was a
born leader. And he was affable. He was obviously well
liked by the hospital staff and yet he was respected even
though they knew he was a prisoner.”
Source: John Carlin, Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela
and the Game that Made a Nation. (Mandela meets surreptitiously with
justice minister after decades in prison—and turns on the charm)
The Real World’s “Little” Rule Book
Ben/tea
Norm/tea
DDE/make friends
WFBuckley/make friends-help friends
Gust/Suck down
Charlie/poker pal-BOF
Eddie VII/dance-flatter-mingle-learn the language
Vlad/birthday party of outgroup guy’s wife
CIO/finance network
ERP installer/consult-“one line of code”
GE Energy/make friends risk assessment
GWB/check the invitation list
GHWB/T-notes
Hank/60 calls
MarkM/5K-5M
Delaware/show up
Oppy/snub Lewis Strauss
NM/smile
-$4.3T/tin ear
tp.com/Big 4-What do you think?
Women/genes
Banker/after church
Total Bloody Mess/Can they pay back the loan?
#73
Excellence. Always.
If not Excellence,
what?
If not Excellence now,
when?
“Breakthrough” 82*
People!
Customers!
Action!
Values!
*In Search of Excellence
“To me business isn’t about
wearing suits or pleasing
stockholders. It’s about
being true to yourself,
your ideas and focusing on
the essentials.” —Richard Branson
#74
Appendix
The “XF-50”: 50 Ways to
Enhance Cross-Functional
Effectiveness and Deliver
Speed, “Service Excellence”
and “Value-added Customer
‘Solutions’”
1. It’s our organization to make work—or not. It’s not “them,” the outside
world that’s the problem. The enemy is us. Period.
2. Friction-free! Dump 90% of “middle managers”—most are advertent or
inadvertent “power freaks.” We are all—every one of us—in the Friction
Removal Business, one moment at a time, now and forevermore.
3. No “stovepipes”! “Stove-piping,” “Silo-ing” is an Automatic Firing
Offense. Period. No appeals. (Within the limits of civility, somewhat
“public” firings are not out of the question—that is, make one and all
aware why the axe fell.)
4. Everything on the Web. This helps. A lot. (“Everything” = Big word.)
5. Open access. All available to all. Transparency, beyond a level that’s
“sensible,” is a de facto imperative in a Burn-the-Silos strategy.
6. Project managers rule!! Project managers running XF (cross-functional)
projects are the Elite of the organization, and seen as such and treated as
such. (The likes of construction companies have practiced this more or
less forever.)
7. “Value-added Proposition” = Application of integrated resources. (From
the entire supply-chain.) To deliver on our emergent business raison
d’etre, and compete with the likes of our Chinese and Indian brethren, we
must co-operate with anybody and everybody “24/7.” IBM, UPS and many,
many others are selling far more than a product or service that works—
the new “it” is pure and simple a product of XF co-operation; “the product
is the co-operation” is not much of a stretch.
8. “XF work” is the direct work of leaders!
9. “Integrated solutions” = Our “Culture.” (Therefore: XF = Our culture.)
10. Partner with “best-in-class” only. Their pursuit of Excellence helps us
get beyond petty bickering. An all-star team has little time for anything
other than delivering on the (big) Client promise.
11. All functions are created equal! All functions contribute equally! All =
All.
12. All functions are “PSFs,” Professional Service Firms. “Professionalism”
is the watchword—and true Professionalism rise above turf wars. You are
your projects, your legacy is your projects—and the legacy will be skimpy
indeed unless you pass, with flying colors, the “works well with others”
exam!
13. We are all in sales! We all (a-l-l) “sell” those Integrated Client Solutions.
Good salespeople don’t blame others for screwups—the Clint doesn’t care.
Good salespeople are “quarterbacks” who make the system work-deliver.
14. We all invest in “wiring” the Client organization—we develop
comprehensive relationships in every part (function, level) of the Client’s
organization. We pay special attention to the so-called “lower levels,” short
on glamour, long on the ability to make things happen at the “coalface.”
15. We all “live the Brand”—which is Delivery of Matchless Integrated
Solutions which transform the Client’s organization. To “live the brand” is
to become a raving fan of XF co-operation.
16. We use the word “partner” until we want to barf! (Words matter! A lot!)
17. We use the word “team” until we want to barf. (Words matter! A lot!)
18. We use the word “us” until we want to barf. (Words matter! A lot!)
19. We obsessively seek Inclusion—and abhor exclusion. We want more
people from more places (internal, external—the whole “supply chain”)
aboard in order to maximize systemic benefits.
20. Buttons & Badges matter—we work relentlessly at team (XF team)
identity and solidarity. (“Corny”? Get over it.)
21. All (almost all) rewards are team rewards.
22. We keep base pay rather low—and give whopping bonuses for excellent
team delivery of “seriously cool” cross-functional Client benefits.
23. WE NEVER BLAME OTHER PARTS OF THE ORGANIZATION FOR
SCREWUPS.
24. WE TAKE THE HEAT—THE WHOLE TEAM. (For anything and
everything.) (Losing, like winning, is a team affair.)
25. “BLAMING” IS AN AUTOMATIC FIRING OFFENSE.
26. “Women rule.” Women are simply better at the XF communications
stuff—less power obsessed, less hierarchically inclined, more group-team
oriented.
27. Every member of our team is an honored contributor. “XF project
Excellence” is an “all hands” affair.
28. We are our XF Teams! XF project teams are how we get things done.
29. “Wow Projects” rule, large or small—Wow projects demand by
definition XF Excellence.
30. We routinely attempt to unearth and then reward “small gestures” of
XF co-operation.
31. We invite Functional Bigwigs to our XF project team reviews.
32. We insist on Client team participation—from all functions of the Client
organization.
33. An “Open talent market” helps make the projects “silo-free.” People
want in on the project because of the opportunity to do something
memorable—no one will tolerate delays based on traditional functional
squabbling.
34. Flat! Flat = Flattened Silos. Flat = Excellence based on XF project
outcomes, not power-hoarding within functional boundaries.
35. New “C-level”? We more or less need a “C-level” job titled Chief
Bullshit Removal Officer. That is, some kind of formal watchdog whose
role in life is to make cross-functionality work, and I.D. those who don’t
get with the program.
36. Huge (H-U-G-E) co-operation bonuses. Senior team members who
conspicuously shine in the “working together” bit are rewarded Big Time.
(A million bucks in one case I know—and a non-cooperating very senior
was sacked.)
37. Get physical!! “Co-location” is the most powerful “culture changer.
Physical X-functional proximity is almost a guarantee (yup!) of
remarkably improved co-operation—to aid this one needs flexible
workspaces that can be mobilized for a team in a flash.
38. Ad hoc. To improve the new “X-functional Culture,” little XF teams
should be formed on the spot to deal with an urgent issue—they may
live for but ten days, but it helps the XF habit, making it normal to be
“working the XF way.”
39. “Deep dip.” Dive three levels down in the organization to fill a
senior role with some one who has been pro-active on the XF
dimension.
40. Formal evaluations. Everyone, starting with the receptionist, should
have an important XF rating component in their evaluation.
41. Demand XF experience for, especially, senior jobs. The military
requires all would-be generals and admirals to have served a full tour in
a job whose only goals were cross-functional. Great idea!
42. Early project “management” experience. Within days, literally, of
coming aboard folks should be “running” some bit of a project,
working with folks from other functions—hence, “all this” becomes as
natural as breathing.
43. “Get ‘em out with the customer.” Rarely does the accountant or
bench scientist call one the customer. Reverse that. Give everyone
more or less regular “customer-facing experiences.” One learns
quickly that the customer is not interested in our in-house turf battles!
44. Put “it” on the–every agenda. XF “issues to be resolved” should be
on every agenda—morning project team review, weekly exec team
meeting, etc. A “next step” within 24 hours (4?) ought to be part of the
resolution.
45. XF “honest broker” or ombudsman. The ombudsman examines XF
“friction events” and acts as Conflict Resolution Counselor. (Perhaps a
formal conflict resolution agreement?)
46. Lock it in! XF co-operation, central to any value-added mission,
should be an explicit part of the “Vision Statement.”
47. Promotions. Every promotion, no exceptions, should put XF
Excellence in the top 5 (3?) evaluation criteria.
48. Pick partners based on their “co-operation proclivity.” Everyone must
be on board if “this thing” is going to work; hence every vendor, among
others, should be formally evaluated on their commitment to XF
transparency—e.g., can we access anyone at any level in any function of
their organization without bureaucratic barriers?
49. Fire vendors who don’t “get it”—more than “get it,” welcome “it” with
open arms.”
50. Jaw. Jaw. Jaw. Talk XF cooperation-value-added at every opportunity.
Become a relentless bore!
51. Excellence! There is a state of XF Excellence per se. Talk about it.
Pursue it. Aspire to nothing less.
appendix
the Heart of
Business Strategy:
48 Things That
Matter
We usually think of business strategy
as some sort of aspirational market
positioning statement. Doubtless
that’s part of it. But I believe that
the number one “strategic strength”
is excellence in execution and
systemic relationships (i.e., with
everyone we come in contact with).
Hence I offer the following 48 pieces
of advice in creating a winning
“strategy” that is inherently
sustainable.
“Thank you.” Minimum several times a day.
Measure it.
“Thank you” to everyone even peripherally
involved in some activity—especially those
“deep in the hierarchy.”
Smile. Work on it.
Apologize. Even if “they” are “mostly” to
blame.
Jump all over those who play the “blame
game.”
Hire enthusiasm.
Low enthusiasm. No hire. Any job.
Hire optimists. Everywhere. (“Positive
outlook on life,” not mindless optimism.)
Hiring: Would you like to go to lunch with
him-her. 100% of jobs.
Hire for good manners.
Do not reject “trouble makers”—that is those
who are uncomfortable with the status quo.
Expose all would-be hires to something
unexpected-weird. Observe their reaction.
Overwhelm response to even the smallest
screwups.
Become a student of all you will meet with.
Big time.
Hang out with interesting new people.
Measure it.
Lunch with folks in other functions. Measure it.
Listen. Hear. Become a serious student
of listening-hearing.
Work on everyone’s listening skills. Practice.
Become a student of information extractioninterviewing.
Become a student of presentation giving.
Formal. Short and spontaneous.
Incredible care in 1st line supervisor selection.
World’s best training for 1st line supervisors.
Construct small leadership opportunities for
junior people within days of starting on the
job.
Insane care in all promotion decisions.
Promote “people people” for all managerial
jobs. Finance-logistics-R&D as much as,
say, sales.
Hire-promote for demonstrated curiosity.
Check their past commitment to continuous
learning.
Small “d” diversity. Rich mixes for any and
all teams.
Hire women. Roughly 50% women on exec
team.
Exec team “looks like” customer population,
actual and desired.
Focus on creating products for and selling
to women.
Focus on creating products for and selling
to boomers-geezers.
Work on first and last impressions.
Walls display tomorrow’s aspirations, not
yesterday’s accomplishments.
Simplify systems. Constantly.
Insist that almost all material be covered by a
1-page summary. Absolutely no longer.
Practice decency.
Add “We are thoughtful in all we do” to
corporate values list. Number 1 force for
customer loyalty, employee satisfaction.
Make some form of employee growth (for all)
a formal part of values set. Above
customer satisfaction. Steal from RE/MAX:
“We are a life success company.”
Flowers.
Celebrate “small wins.” Often. Perhaps a
“small win of the day.”
Manage your calendar religiously: Does it
accurately reflect your espoused priorities?
Use a “calendar friend” who’s not very
friendly to help you with this.
Review your calendar: Work assiduously and
mercilessly on your “To don’ts.”—stuff
that distracts.
Bosses, especially near the top: Formally
cultivate one advisor whose role is to tell you
the truth.
Commit to Excellence.
Talk up Excellence.
Put “Excellence in all we do” in the values set.
Measure everyone on demonstrated
commitment to Excellence.
#76
appendix
the recession 44
Forty-four “Secrets”
and “clever Strategies”
For dealing with the
Recession of 2008-XXXX
I am constantly asked for
'secrets'
“strategies/
for
surviving the recession.” I try
to appear wise and informed—
and parade original,
sophisticated thoughts. But if
you want to know what’s
really going through my
head, see the list that follows.
44 “Secrets” and “Clever Strategies” For
Dealing with the Recession of 2007+
You come earlier.
You leave later.
You work harder.
You may well work for less; and, if so, you
adapt to the untoward circumstances with a
smile—even if it kills you inside.
You volunteer to do more.
You dig deep and always bring a good attitude
to work.
You fake it if your good attitude flags.
You literally practice your "game face" in the
mirror in the morning, and in the loo
mid-morning.
You give new meaning to the idea and intensive
practice of “visible management.”
44 “Secrets” and “Clever Strategies” For
Dealing with the Recession of 2008-XXXX
You take better than usual care of yourself and
encourage others to do the same—physical
well-being determines mental well-being and
response to stress.
You shrug off shit that flows downhill in your
direction—buy a shovel or a “pre-worn”
raincoat on eBay.
You try to forget about “the good old days”—
nostalgia is self-destructive.
You buck yourself up with the thought that
“this too shall pass”—but then remind yourself
that it might not pass any time soon, and so
you re-dedicate yourself to making the
absolute best of what you have now.
44 “Secrets” and “Clever Strategies” For
Dealing with the Recession of 2008-XXXX
You work the phones and then work the
phones some more—and stay in touch with
positively everyone.
You frequently invent breaks from routine,
including “weird” ones—“changeups” prevent
wallowing and bring a fresh perspective.
You eschew all forms of personal excess.
You simplify.
You sweat the details as never before.
You sweat the details as never before.
You sweat the details as never before.
You raise to the sky and maintain at all
costs the Standards of Excellence by which
you unfailingly evaluate your own performance.
You are maniacal when it comes to responding
to even the slightest screwup.
44 “Secrets” and “Clever Strategies” For
Dealing with the Recession of 2008-XXXX
You find ways to be around young people and
to keep young people around—they are less
likely to be members of the “sky is falling”
school.
You learn new tricks of your trade.
You remind yourself that this is not just
something to be “gotten through”—it is the
Final Exam of character.
You network like a demon.
You network inside the company—get to know
more of the folks who “do the real work.”
You network outside the company—get to
know more of the folks who “do the real
work” in vendor-customer outfits.
44 “Secrets” and “Clever Strategies” For
Dealing with the Recession of 2008-XXXX
You thank others by the truckload if good
things happen—and take the heat yourself if
bad things happen.
You behave kindly, but you don't sugarcoat or
hide the truth--humans are startlingly
resilient and rumors are the real killers.
You treat small successes as if they were
Superbowl victories—and celebrate and
commend accordingly.
You shrug off the losses (ignoring what's going
on in your tummy), and get back on the
horse and immediately try again.
You avoid negative people to the extent you
can—pollution kills.
You eventually read the gloom-sprayers the
riot act.
44 “Secrets” and “Clever Strategies” For
Dealing with the Recession of 2008-XXXX
You give new meaning to the word "thoughtful.“
You don’t put limits on the flowers budget—
“bright and colorful” works marvels.
You redouble, re-triple your efforts to "walk in
your customer's shoes." (Especially if the
shoes smell.)
You mind your manners—and accept others’
lack of manners in the face of their strains.
You are kind to all mankind.
You keep your shoes shined.
You leave the blame game at the office door.
You call out the congenital politicians in no
uncertain terms.
You become a paragon of personal accountability.
And then you pray.
The end