Tom Peters’
Re-Imagine!
Excellence in a
Disruptive Age
World Bank/3.25.2003
Slides at …
tompeters.com
Timetable
09:00-10:30: New Game, New Rules
10:30-10:50: Q & A
10:50-12:00: Leading in Totally
Screwed-Up Times
PART I
1. We Are in a
Brawl with No
Rules.
“The organizations we created have
become tyrants. They have taken
control, holding us fettered, creating
barriers that hinder rather than help
our businesses. The lines that we
drew on our neat organizational
diagrams have turned into walls
that no one can scale or penetrate
or even peer over.” —Frank Lekanne Deprez &
René Tissen, Zero Space: Moving Beyond Organizational Limits.
“If you don’t like
change, you’re
going to like
irrelevance even
less.” —General Eric Shinseki, Chief of
Staff, U. S. Army
Eric’s Army
Flat.
Fast.
Agile.
Adaptable.
Light … But Lethal.
Brand You/ Talent/ “I Am An ARMY Of
One.”
Info-intense.
Network-centric.
“We are in a
brawl with no
rules.”
Paul Allaire
2. The
Destruction
Imperative.
“It is generally much
easier to kill an
organization than
change it
substantially.”
Kevin Kelly, Out of Control
“Wealth in this new regime flows
directly from innovation, not
optimization. That is, wealth is not
gained by perfecting the known,
but by imperfectly seizing the
unknown.”
Kevin Kelly, New Rules for the New Economy
Forbes100 from 1917 to 1987: 39
members of the Class of ’17 were alive
in ’87; 18 in ’87 F100; 18 F100
“survivors” underperformed the market
by 20%; just 2 (2%), GE & Kodak,
outperformed the market 1917 to 1987.
S&P 500 from 1957 to 1997: 74 members of the Class of ’57 were
alive in ’97; 12 (2.4%) of 500 outperformed the market from 1957
to 1997.
Source: Dick Foster & Sarah Kaplan, Creative Destruction: Why
Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the Market
“Mr. Foster and his McKinsey
colleagues collected detailed
performance data stretching back 40
years for 1,000 U.S. companies. They
found that 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/11.28.2002
Survivors
underperform.”
“It’s just a fact:
—Dick Foster
Rate of Leaving F500
1970-1990:
Source: The Company, John Micklethwait & Adrian
Wooldridge (1974-200: One-half biggest 100 disappear)
“Far from being a
source of comfort,
bigness became a code
for inflexibility.”
—John Micklethwait
& Adrian Wooldridge, The Company
“Good management was the
most powerful reason [leading
firms] failed to stay atop their
industries. Precisely because these firms
listened to their customers, invested aggressively in
technologies that would provide their customers more
and better products of the sort they wanted, and
because they carefully studied market trends and
systematically allocated investment capital to
innovations that promised the best returns, they lost
their positions of leadership.”
Clayton Christensen, The Innovator’s Dilemma
Forget>“Learn”
“The problem is never how
to get new, innovative
thoughts into your mind,
but how to get the old
ones out.”
Dee Hock
“When asked to name just one big merger
that had lived up to expectations, Leon
Cooperman, former cochairman of
Goldman Sachs’ Investment Policy
I’m sure
there are success stories
out there, but at this
moment I draw a blank.”
Committee, answered:
Mark Sirower, The Synergy Trap
“Acquisitions are about
buying market share.
Our challenge is to
create markets. There
is a big difference.”
Peter Job, CEO, Reuters
“Active mutators in placid
times tend to die off. They
are selected against.
Reluctant mutators in
quickly changing times are
also selected against.”
Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan,
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
Lessons from the Bees!
“Since merger mania is now the rage, what lessons can
the bees teach us? A simple one: Merging is not in
nature. [Nature’s] process is the exact opposite: one of
growth, fragmentation and dispersal. There is no
megalomania, no merging for merging’s sake. The
point is that unlike corporations, which just get bigger,
bee colonies know when the time has come to split up
into smaller colonies which can grow value faster.
What the bees are telling us is that the
corporate world has got it all wrong.”
David Lascelles, Co-director of The Centre for the
Study of Financial Innovation [UK]
The [New] Ge Way
DYB.com
The Gales of Creative Destruction
+29M = -44M + 73M
+4M = +4M - 0M
“The secret of fast
progress is
inefficiency, fast and
furious and numerous
failures.”
Kevin Kelly
RM: “A lot of companies in the
Valley fail.”
RN: “Maybe not enough fail.”
RM: “What do you mean by that?”
RN: “Whenever you fail, it means
you’re trying new things.”
Source: Fast Company
“The Silicon Valley of
today is built less atop
the spires of earlier
triumphs than upon the
rubble of earlier
debacles.”—Newsweek/ Paul Saffo (03.02)
Silicon Valley Success
[Failure?] Secrets
“Pursuit of risk”: 4 of 20 in V.C.
portfolio go bust; 6 lose money;
6 do okay; 3 do well;
1 hits the jackpot
Source: The Economist
Jim & Tom.
Joined at the
hip.
Not.
Huh?
“Quiet, workmanlike, stoic
leaders bring about the big
transformations.”--JC
Pastels?
T. Paine/P. Henry/A. Hamilton/T. Jefferson/B. Franklin
A. Lincoln/U. S. Grant/W. T. Sherman
TR/FDR/LBJ/RR/JFK
M.L. King
C. de Gaulle
M. Gandhi
W. Churchill
M. Thatcher
Picasso
Mozart
Copernicus/Newton/Einstein
J. Welch/L. Gerstner/L. Ellison/B. Gates/S. Ballmer/S. Jobs/S.
McNealy
A. Carnegie/J. P. Morgan/H. Ford/J.D. Rockefeller/T. A. Edison
Built to Last v. Built to Flip
“The problem with Built to Last is that it’s a
romantic notion. Large companies are
incapable of ongoing innovation, of
ongoing flexibility.”
“Increasingly, successful businesses will
be ephemeral. They will be built to yield
something of value – and once that value
has been exhausted, they will vanish.”
Fast Company (03-00)
“The corporation as we know it,
which is now 120 years old, is
not likely to survive the
next 25 years. Legally and
financially, yes, but not
structurally and economically.”
Peter Drucker, Business 2.0 (08.00)
“The difficulties … arise from the inherent conflict
between the need to control existing operations and
the need to create the kind of environment that will
permit new ideas to flourish—and old ones to die a
timely death. … We believe that most
corporations will find it impossible to
match or outperform the market without
abandoning the assumption of continuity.
The current apocalypse—the transition from a state of
continuity to state of discontinuity—Has the same
suddenness [as the trauma that beset civilization in
1000 A.D.]”
Richard Foster & Sarah Kaplan, “Creative Destruction” (The McKinsey Quarterly)
Jane Jacobs:
Exuberant
Variety vs. the Great Blight of Dullness.
F.A. Hayek: Spontaneous
Discovery Process.
Joseph Schumpeter: the Gales of
Creative Destruction.
3. IS/ IT/
Web … “On the
Bus” or “Off the
Bus.”
2.5G, 3G, 4G
Windows
Symbian
Java
Bluetooth
Wi-Fi
PCs-PDAs-Cell“phones”
E-business vs. M-business
Etc.
Outsider’s view: (1) Billions are
being spent, even in a down
market. (2) NOBODY HAS A
CLUE AS TO WHO THE
WINNERS—AND LOSERS—
WILL BE. (3) Yet you must play.
Now. Hard. Fast.
WebWorld = Everything
Web as a way to run your business’s innards
Web as connector for your entire supply-demand chain
Web as “spider’s web” which re-conceives the industry
Web/B2B as ultimate wake-up call to
“commodity producers”
Web as the scourge of slack, inefficiency, sloth,
bureaucracy, poor customer data
Web as an Encompassing Way of Life
Web = Everything (P.D. to after-sales)
Web forces you to focus on what you do best
Web as entrée, at any size, to World’s Best at Everything
as next door neighbor
“Ebusiness is about rebuilding
the organization from the
ground up. Most companies today
are not built to exploit the Internet.
Their business processes, their
approvals, their hierarchies, the
number of people they employ … all of
that is wrong for running an
ebusiness.”
Ray Lane, Kleiner Perkins
“Don’t rebuild.
Reimagine.”
The New York Times Magazine on the future of
the WTC space in Lower Manhattan/09.08.2002
“Suppose—just suppose—that the Web is a new world
we’re just beginning to inhabit. We’re like the earlier
European settlers in the United States, living on the
edge of the forest. We don’t know what’s there and we
don’t know exactly what we need to do to find out: Do
we pack mountain climbing gear, desert wear, canoes,
or all three? Of course while the settlers may not have
known what the geography of the New World was
going to be, they at least knew that there was a
geography. The Web, on the other hand, has no
geography, no landscape. It has no distance. It has
nothing natural in it. It has few rules of behavior and
fewer lines of authority. Common sense doesn’t hold
here, and uncommon sense hasn’t yet emerged.”
David Weinberger, Small Pieces Loosely Joined
“The e-conomy is one of
re-intermediation, where new
technologies make it possible to
radically increase complexity and
efficiency with the introduction of new
marketplaces. In these markets, value
chains constantly reorganize as
the demands of the consumer and
business change.”
Thomas Koulopoulos, Delphi Group
“Hyperlinks subvert
hierarchy!”
The Cluetrain Manifesto
“The Web enables total
transparency. People with
access to relevant information are
beginning to challenge any type of
authority. The stupid, loyal and
humble customer, employee, patient
or citizen is dead.”
Kjell Nordström and Jonas Ridderstråle,
Funky Business
“Parents, doctors, stockbrokers,
even military leaders are starting to
lose the authority they once had.
There are all these roles premised on
access to privileged information. …
What we are witnessing is a
collapse of that advantage,
prestige and authority.”
Michael Lewis, next
What’s the Common Denominator?
The Dutch … the British … the
Rothschilds … Cargill … Sumitomo …
the KGB … the CIA … Mossad …
Enron … Wal*Mart … McKinsey …
FedEx … UPS … Executive secretaries
… the Corner Grocer … Women-ingeneral?
Masters of information acquisition,
manipulation, dissemination, and
utilization.
Networkmeisters.
Agile.
Temporary.
Virtual is thy name.
Motto: Applied information is power/wealth.
“Dawn Meyerreicks, CTO of the Defense Intelligence Systems Agency, made
one of the most fateful military calls of the 21st century. After 9/11 … her office
quickly leased all the available transponders covering Central Asia. The
implications should change everything about U.S. military thinking in the
years ahead.
“The U.S. Air Force had kicked off its fight against the Taliban with an
ineffective bombing campaign, and Washington was anguishing over whether
to send in a few Army divisions. Donald Rumsfeld told Gen. Tommy Franks to
give the initiative to 250 Special Forces already on the ground. They used
satellite phones, Predator surveillance drones, and GPS- and laser-based
targeting systems to make the air strikes brutally effective.
“In effect, they ‘Napsterized’ the battlefield by cutting out the middlemen
(much of the military’s command and control) and working directly with the
real players. … The data came in so fast that HQ revised operating procedures
to allow intelligence analysts and attack planners to work directly together.
Their favorite tool, incidentally, was instant messaging over a secure
network.”—Ned Desmond/“Broadband’s New Killer App”/Business 2.0/
OCT2002
4. The “PSF
Solution”:
The Professional
Service Firm Model.
108 X 5
vs.
8X1
= 540 vs. 8 (-98.5%)
E.g. …
Jeff Immelt: 75% of “admin, back
room, finance” “digitalized” in
years.
Source: BW (01.28.02)
Answer: PSF!
[Professional Service Firm]
Department Head
to …
Managing Partner,
HR [IS, etc.] Inc.
5. Toward Work
that Matters: The
WOW Project.
“Reward excellent
failures. Punish
mediocre
successes.”
Phil Daniels, Sydney exec
Characteristics of the “Also rans”*
“Minimize risk”
“Respect the chain of
command”
“Support the boss”
“Make budget”
*Fortune, article on “Most Admired Global Corporations”
6. WOW
Projects for the
“Powerless”: A
Surefire Recipe.
Topic: Boss-free
Implementation of
STM /Stuff That
MATTERS!
World’s Biggest Waste …
Selling “Up”
THE IDEA:
Model F4
Find a Fellow
Freak Faraway
F2F!/K2K!/
1@T/R.F!A.*
*Freak to Freak/ Kook to Kook/ One at a Time/ Ready.Fire!Aim.
7. Boss Work:
Demos, Heroes,
Stories … Starting a
WOW Projects
Conflagration.
“Ordering”
Systemic Change
is a Stupid Waste
of Time!
Premise:
Demos!
Heroes!
Stories!
Demo = Story
“A key – perhaps the key –
to leadership is the
effective communication
of a story.”
Howard Gardner, Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership
Culture of Prototyping
“Effective prototyping may be
the most valuable
core competence an
innovative organization can
hope to have.”
Michael Schrage
“You can’t be a serious innovator
unless and until you are ready,
willing and able to seriously play.
‘Serious play’ is not an oxymoron;
it is the essence of innovation.”
Michael Schrage,
Serious Play
He who has the
quickest O.O.D.A.
Loops* wins!
*Observe. Orient. Decide. Act. /
Col. John Boyd
“Some people look for
things that went wrong and
I look for
things that went right
and try to build on
them.”
try to fix them.
—Bob Stone/ Mr.Rego/ Lessons from an
Uncivil Servant
REAL Org Change: Demos & Models (“Model
Installations,” “ReGo Labs”)/ Heroes (mostly extant: “burned
to reinvent gov’t”)/ Stories & Storytellers (Props!)/
Chroniclers (Writers, Videographers, Pamphleteers, Etc.)/
Cheerleaders & Recognition (Pos>>Neg, Volume)/
New Language (Hot/Emotional/WOW)/ Seekers
(networking mania)/ Protectors/ Support Groups/
End Runs—“Pull Strategy” (weird alliances, weird
customers, weird suppliers, weird alumnae-JKC)/ Field
“Real People” Focus (3 COs) (long way away)/
Speed (O.O.D.A. Loops—act before the “bad guys” can react)
C.f., Bob Stone, Lessons from an Uncivil Servant
“Find something small
that you can turn
around. If you’re on a 9game losing streak, you
need to start with one
great inning.”—Rudy
“ ‘Giant’ projects contain within them
the almost certain seeds of mediocrity.
The very fact of their size causes
constant scrutiny and thence ‘political’
interference. Such ‘oversight’ drains the
passion of the champions and risks—to
the point of certainty—fatal ‘dumbing
down’ and thence loss of the very
distinction and quirkiness sought in
the first place.”
—Studio President, Hollywood
8. Boss Job One:
The Talent
Obsession.
“The leaders of Great
Groups love talent and know
where to find it. They revel in
the talent of others.”
Warren Bennis & Patricia Ward Biederman,
Organizing Genius
PARC’s Bob Taylor:
“Connoisseur
of Talent”
The Cracked Ones Let in the Light
“Our business needs a massive
transfusion of talent, and talent, I
believe, is most likely to be found
among non-conformists,
dissenters and rebels.”
David Ogilvy
“A great idea always
comes from one person’s
mind, someone who is, by
definition, local. If you place 10
people in Brussels to conceive
a European [ad/marketing]
campaign, you’ll get nothing.”
Source: Jean-Marie Dru, Disruption
“The A students work for
the B students. The C
students run the
business. The D
students dedicate the
buildings.” —Assertion to Kinko’s founder
Paul Orfalea from his Mom (Fortune/05.13.02)
“Thomas Stanley has not only found no
correlation between success in school and an
ability to accumulate wealth, he’s actually found
a negative correlation. ‘It seems that schoolrelated evaluations are poor predictors of
economic success,’ Stanley concluded. What did
predict success was a willingness to take risks.
Yet the success-failure standards of most
schools penalized risk takers. Most educational
systems reward those who play it safe. As a
result, those who do well in school find it hard to
take risks later on.”
Richard Farson & Ralph Keyes, Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins
9. THINK WEIRD:
The High Standard
Deviation
Enterprise.
“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
Saviors-in-Waiting
Disgruntled Customers
Off-the-Scope Competitors
Rogue Employees
Fringe Suppliers
Wayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision: Beat the Competition by Focusing on
Fringe Competitors, Lost Customers, and Rogue Employees
CUSTOMERS: “Futuredefining customers may
account for only 2% to 3%
of your total, but they
represent a crucial
window on the future.”
Adrian Slywotzky, Mercer Consultants
“The future has
already happened. It’s
just not evenly
distributed.”
Adrian Slywotzky
W.I.W?
20 of 26
7 of top 10*
*P&G: Declining domestic sales
in 20 of 26 categories; 7 of top 10
(The “billiondollar” problem.)
categories.
Source: Advertising Age 01.21.2002/BofA Securities
Ways to Raise a Purple Cow
Think small. One vestige of the TVindustrial complex is a need to think
mass. If it doesn’t appeal to everyone,
the thinking goes, it’s not worth it.
Think of the smallest conceivable
market—and describe a product that
overwhelms it with remarkability. Go
from there.
Source: Seth Godin, Fast Company (02.2003)
“HAVE MBAs KILLED OFF MARKETING?
Prof
Rajeev Batra says: ‘What these times call for is more creative
and breakthrough reengineering of product and service benefits,
but we don’t train people to think like that.’ The way marketing is
taught across business schools is far too analytical and datadriven. ‘We’ve taken away the emphasis on creativity and big
ideas that characterize real marketing breakthroughs.’ In India
there is an added problem: most senior marketing jobs have
been traditionally dominated by MBAs. Santosh Desai, vice
president, McCann Erickson, an MBA himself, believes in India
engineer-MBAs, armed with this Lego-like approach, tend to
reduce marketing into neat components. ‘This reductionist
thinking runs counter to the idea that great brands must have a
core, unifying idea.’ ”—Businessworld/04Nov2002/“Why Is
Marketing Not Working?”
COMPETITORS: “The
best swordsman
in the world doesn’t need to fear
the second best swordsman in the
world; no, the person for him to be afraid of is
some ignorant antagonist who has never had a
sword in his hand before; he doesn’t do the
thing he ought to do, and so the expert isn’t
prepared for him; he does the thing he ought not
to do and often it catches the expert out and
ends him on the spot.”
Mark Twain
Employees: “Are there
enough weird
people in the lab these
days?”
V. Chmn., pharmaceutical house, to a lab director (06.01)
Suppliers: “There
is an ominous
downside to strategic supplier
relationships. An SSR supplier is not
likely to function as any more than a mirror
to your organization. Fringe suppliers that
offer innovative business practices need
not apply.”
Wayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision: Beat the Competition by Focusing on
Fringe Competitors, Lost Customers, and Rogue Employees
We become
who we hang
out with!
Big Idea/s
V.C.
GM
Portfolio
Roster
WEIRD IDEAS THAT WORK: (1) Hire slow learners (of the
organizational code). (1.5) Hire people who make you
uncomfortable, even those you dislike. (2) Hire people you
(probably) don’t need. (3) Use job interviews to get ideas, not
to screen candidates. (4) Encourage people to ignore and defy
superiors and peers. (5) Find some happy people and get them
to fight. (6) Reward success and failure, punish inaction.
(7) Decide to do something that will probably fail, then convince
yourself and everyone else that success is certain. (8) Think of
some ridiculous, impractical things to do, then do them.
(9) Avoid, distract, and bore customers, critics, and anyone who
just wants to talk about money. (10) Don’t try to learn anything
from people who seem to have solved the problems you face.
(11) Forget the past, particularly your company’s success.
Bob Sutton, Weird Ideas That Work: 11½ Ideas for Promoting,
Managing, and Sustaining Innovation
Advice to Corporate Leaders: “Consider the
metaphor of the windmill: You can harness raw
power but you can’t control it. … Hire artists,
clowns, or other disrupters to come in and
challenge your corporate environment. … Hire a
corporate anthropologist to analyze how tolerant
your organization is of deviants and other
innovators. … Once the anthropologist
leaves, hire a shaman to drive out the
evil spirits of conformity. …”
Source: Ryan Matthews & Watts Wacker, Fast Company (03.02)
Successful Businesses’ Dozen Truths: TP’s 30-Year Perspective
1. Insanely Great & Quirky Talent.
2. Disrespect for Tradition.
3. Totally Passionate (to the Point of Irrationality) Belief in What
We Are Here to Do.
4. Utter Disbelief at the BS that Marks “Normal Industry Behavior.”
5. A Maniacal Bias for Execution … and Utter Contempt
for Those Who Don’t “Get It.”
6. Speed Demons.
7. Up or Out. (Meritocracy Is Thy Name. Sycophancy Is Thy Scourge.)
8. Passionate Hatred of Bureaucracy.
9. Willingness to Lead the Customer … and Take the Heat Associated
Therewith. (Mantra: Satan Invented Focus Groups to Derail True
Believers.)
10. “Reward Excellent Failures. Punish Mediocre Successes.”
11. Courage to Stand Alone on One’s Record of Accomplishment
Against All the Forces of Conventional Wisdom.
12. A Crystal Clear Understanding of the power of Great Stories.
20 Insane Ideas for the World Bank
1. “10 THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT THE WORLD BANK” … is Very Cool.
2. You couldn’t BRAND your way out of a wet paper bag.
3. Make your Mark where you can make a Difference … a Real & Immediate Difference, not a
Theoretical Difference. (In the Long Run, we’re all dead.) (A “good” plan executed right now
trumps a “great” plan executed much later.”)
4. The Field Matters … WASHINGTON IS BULLSHIT.
5. THEORY STINKS. ACTION MATTERS.
6. “BIG” projects [MOSTLY] stink.
7. “Crazy” experiments rule! (Drop the “ ”.)
8. Whoever has the fastest OODA Loops wins.
9. Energy & Passion & Commitment Move Mountains … not “importance.”
10. If the “Local Establishment” supports “it,” it is probably a Bad Idea. (After all, they got us
into this mess.)
11. RENAGADES!
12. Wildly Passionate Teams … alone … can change the world.
13. There are too many Economists at the World Bank. (CEOs who are economists < 1%.)
14. “They” don’t call “economics” the dismal science for nothing. (Think “Exuberant Variety.”
Think “Gales of Creative Destruction.”)
15. GIVE ME “DO-ERS” … NOT “THINKERS.”
16. Whoever makes the most mistakes wins. (“REWARD EXCELLENT FAILURES. PUNISH
MEDIOCRE SUCCESSES.”)
17. Herbalife & the World Bank???
18. COOL STORIES RULE.
19. Transparency KILLS Bad Guys. So … PRACTICE TRANSPARENCY.
20. A half century of honorable work has not saved the world. (So: S.A.V. GO FOR IT!)
PART II
11. The Passion
Imperative: The
50
Leadership
The Basic
Premise.
1. Leadership Is a …
Mutual
Discovery
Process.
“I don’t
know.”
Leaders-Teachers Do Not “Transform People”!
Instead leaders-mentors-teachers (1) provide a
context which is marked by (2) access to a luxuriant
portfolio of meaningful opportunities (projects) which
(3) allow people to fully (and safely, mostly—caveat: “they”
don’t engage unless they’re “mad about something”) express
their innate curiosity and (4) engage in a vigorous
discovery voyage (alone and in small teams, assisted by an
extensive self-constructed network) by which those people
(5) go to-create places they (and their mentors-teachersleaders) had never dreamed existed—and then the
leaders-mentors-teachers (6) applaud like hell, stage
“photo-ops,” and ring the church bells
100 times to commemorate the bravery of their
“followers’ ” explorations!
The
Leadership
Types.
2. Great Leaders on Snorting
Steeds Are Important – but
Great Talent
Developers (Type I
Leadership) are the Bedrock
of Organizations that Perform Over
the Long Haul.
25/8/53*
(*Damn it!)
3. But Then Again, There
Are Times When This
“Cult of Personality”
(Type II Leadership) Stuff
Actually Works!
“A leader is a
dealer in
hope.”
Napoleon
(+TP’s writing room pics)
4. Find the
“Businesspeople”!
(Type III Leadership)
I.P.M.
(Inspired Profit
Mechanic)
5. All Organizations
Need the Golden
Leadership
Triangle.
The Golden Leadership
Triangle: (1) CreatorVisionary … (2) Talent
Fanatic-Mentor-V.C. … (3)
Inspired Profit Mechanic.
6. Leadership Mantra
#1: IT
ALL
DEPENDS!
Renaissance Men
are … a snare, a
myth, a delusion!
7. The Leader Is
Rarely/Never the
Best Performer.
33 Division Titles. 26
League Pennants. 14
World Series: Earl Weaver—0.
Tom Kelly—0. Jim Leyland—0.
Walter Alston—1AB. Tony
LaRussa—132 games, 6 seasons.
Tommy Lasorda—P, 26 games.
Sparky Anderson—1 season.
The
Leadership
Dance.
8. Leaders …
SHOW UP!
P.S. …
5,000
miles for a 5
min. meeting!
Mark McCormack:
9. Leaders …
LOVE the
MESS!
“If things seem
under control,
you’re just not
going
fast enough.”
Mario Andretti
10. Leaders
The Kotler Doctrine:
1965-1980: R.A.F.
(Ready.Aim.Fire.)
1980-1995: R.F.A.
(Ready.Fire!Aim.)
1995-????: F.F.F.
(Fire!Fire!Fire!)
11. Leaders
Re
-do.
“If Microsoft is good at anything, it’s
avoiding the trap of worrying about
criticism. Microsoft fails constantly.
They’re eviscerated in public for lousy
products. Yet they persist, through
version after version, until they get
something good enough. Then they
leverage the power they’ve gained in
other markets to enforce their standard.”
Seth Godin, Zooming
“If it works,
it’s obsolete.”
—Marshall McLuhan
12. BUT … Leaders
Know When to
Wait.
Tex Schramm:
The
“too hard”
box!
13. Leaders Are …
Optimists.
“[Ronald
Reagan] radiated an
almost transcendent
happiness.”
Half-full Cups:
Lou Cannon, George (08.2000)
14. Leaders …
DELIVER!
“It is no use saying ‘We
are doing our best.’You
have got to succeed in
doing what is
necessary.” —WSC
“When assessing candidates, the first
thing I looked for was energy and
enthusiasm for execution. Does she
talk about the thrill of getting things
done, the obstacles overcome, the role
her people played—or does she keep
wandering back to strategy or
philosophy?” —Larry Bossidy,
Honeywell/AlliedSignal, in Execution
15. BUT …
Leaders Are
Realists/Leaders
Win Through
LOGISTICS!
The “Gus
Imperative”!
16. Leaders
FOCUS!
“To
Don’t ”
List
17. Leaders …
Set CLEAR
DESIGN SPECS.
Danger:
S.I.O.
(Strategic
Initiative Overload)
1@T: (1) Neutron
JackWorld/
Jack. (Banish bureaucracy.) (2) “1, 2
or out” Jack. (Lead or leave.) (3)
“Workout” Jack. (Empowerment,
GE style.) (4) 6-Sigma Jack. (5)
Internet Jack. (Throughout)
TALENT JACK!
18. Leaders …
Send V-E-R-Y
Clear Signals About
Design Specs!
Ridin’ with Roger: “What
have
you done to
DRAMATICALLY
IMPROVE quality in the
last 90 days?”
It’s
Relationships,
Stupid.
19. Leaders
Trust in
TRUST!
Credibility
If It Ain’t Broke
… Break It.
20. Leaders …
FORGET!/
Leaders …
DESTROY!
Cortez!
21. BUT … Leaders
Have to Deliver, So They
Worry About “Throwing
the Baby Out with the
Bathwater.”
“Damned If You
Do, Damned If You
Don’t, Just Plain
Damned.”
Subtitle in the chapter, “Own Up to the Great Paradox: Success
Is the Product of Deep Grooves/ Deep Grooves Destroy
Adaptivity,” Liberation Management (1992)
22. Leaders …
HONOR THE
USURPERS.
Saviors-in-Waiting
Disgruntled Customers
Upstart Competitors
Rogue Employees
Fringe Suppliers
Wayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision
23. Leaders Make
[Lotsa] Mistakes
– and MAKE NO
BONES ABOUT IT!
“Fail faster.
Succeed
sooner.”
David Kelley/IDEO
24. Leaders Make …
BIG MISTAKES!
“Reward
excellent
failures. Punish
mediocre successes.”
Phil Daniels, Sydney exec (and, de facto, Jack)
Create.
25. Leaders Pursue
DRAMATIC
DIFFERENCE!
1st Law Mktg Physics: OVERT BENEFIT (Focus: 1 or 2 > 3 or
4/“One Great Thing.”
Source #1: Personal Passion)
2ND Law: REAL REASON TO BELIEVE (Stand & Deliver!)
3RD Law: DRAMATIC
DIFFERENCE (Execs Don’t Get It:
“intent to purchase” – 100%; “unique” – 0% to
5%)
Source: Jump Start Your Business Brain, Doug Hall
26. Leaders … Make
Their Mark /
Leaders … Do Stuff
That Matters
“I never, ever thought of myself
I was
interested in creating
things I would be
proud of.” —Richard Branson
as a businessman.
Ah, kids: “What is your vision for
the future?” “What have you
accomplished since your first
book?” “Close your eyes and
imagine me immediately doing
something about what you’ve
just said. What would it be?”
“Do you feel you have an
obligation to ‘Make the world a
better place’?”
27. Leaders
LOVE the
New Technology!
square feet
28. Needed? Type IV
Leadership:
Technology
Dreamer-True
Believer
The Golden Leadership
Quadrangle: (1) CreatorVisionary … (2) Talent
Fanatic-Mentor-V.C. … (3)
Inspired Profit Mechanic. (4)
Technology Dreamer-True
Believer
Talent.
29. When It Comes to
TALENT …
Leaders Always Swing
for the Fences!
Message: Some
people are
better than other
people. Some people
are a helluva lot
better than other
people.
30. Leaders
“Manage” Their
EVP/Internal
Brand Promise.
MantraM3
Talent = Brand
31. Leaders LOVE
RAINBOWS – for
Pragmatic Reasons.
“Diversity defines the health and
wealth of nations in a new century.
Mighty is the mongrel. … The hybrid is hip. The
impure, the mélange, the adulterated, the
blemished, the rough, the black-and-blue, the
mix-and-match – these people are inheriting the
earth. Mixing is the new norm. Mixing trumps
isolation. It spawns creativity, nourishes the
human spirit, spurs economic growth
and empowers nations.”
G. Pascal Zachary, The Global Me:
New Cosmopolitans and the Competitive Edge
Passion.
32. Leaders …
Out Their
PASSION!
“Create a
‘cause,’ not a
‘business.’ ”
G.H.:
33. Leaders Know:
ENTHUSIASM
BEGETS
ENTHUSIASM!
BZ: “I am a …
Dispenser of
Enthusiasm!”
34. Leaders Are …
in a Hurry
The Urgency
Factor: LEADERS
… have a distorted
sense of time. (E.g.:
Rummy thinks he asked months ago … it was
the day before yesterday.)
35. Leaders
Focus on the
SOFT STUFF!
“Soft” Is
“Hard”
- ISOE
Message: Leadership is
all about love! [Passion,
Enthusiasms, Appetite for Life,
Engagement, Commitment, Great
Causes & Determination to Make a
Damn Difference, Shared Adventures,
Bizarre Failures, Growth, Insatiable
Appetite for Change.] [Otherwise, why bother?
Just read Dilbert. TP’s final words: CYNICISM SUCKS.]
The “Job” of
Leading.
36.
Leaders Know It’s
ALL SALES ALL
THE TIME.
If you don’t LOVE
SALES … find
another life. (Don’t pretend
TP:
you’re a “leader.”) (See TP’s
The Project50.)
37. Leaders
LOVE
“POLITICS.”
If you don’t LOVE
POLITICS … find
another life. (Don’t pretend
TP:
you’re a “leader.”)
38.
But … Leaders Also
Break a Lot of
China
If you’re not
pissing people off,
you’re not making
a difference!
39. Leaders
Give …
RESPECT!
“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 college president. He
was
seriously interested in who you
were and what you had to say.”
Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Respect
40. Leaders Say
“Thank
You.”
“The two most powerful things
a kind
word and a
thoughtful
gesture.”
in existence:
Ken Langone, CEO, Invemed Associates [from Ronna
Lichtenberg, It’s Not Business, It’s Personal]
41. Leaders
Are …
Curious.
The Three Most
Important Letters …
TP/08.2001:
42. Leadership
Is a …
Performance.
“It is necessary for the
President to be the
No. 1
actor.”
nation’s
FDR
“You can’t lead a
cavalry charge if
you think you
look funny on a
horse.” —John Peers, President, Logical
Machine Corporation
43.
Leaders …
Are
The Brand
“You must be
the change you
wish to see in the
world.”
Gandhi
44. Leaders …
GREAT
STORY!
Have a
Leaders don’t just make products
and make decisions.
Leaders make
meaning.
– John Seeley Brown
Introspection.
45. Leaders …
Enjoy Leading.
“Warren, I know you
want to ‘be’
president. But do
you want to ‘do’
president?”
46. Leaders …
KNOW
THEMSELVES.
Individuals (would-be leaders)
cannot engage in a
liberating mutual discovery
process unless they are
comfortable with their
own skin. (“Leaders” who are not
comfortable with themselves become petty
control freaks.)
47. But … Leaders
have
MENTORS.
Upon
having the Leadership
Mantle placed upon thine
head, thou shalt never
hear the unvarnished
truth again!*
The Gospel According to TP:
(*Therefore, thy needs one faithful
compatriot to lay it on with no jelly.)
48. Leaders …
Take Breaks.
The End
Game.
49. Leaders
???:
“LEADERS NEED TO
BE THE ROCK OF
GIBRALTAR ON
ROLLER BLADES”
50. Leaders Know
WHEN TO
LEAVE!
20 Insane Ideas for the World Bank
1. “10 THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT THE WORLD BANK” … is Very Cool.
2. You couldn’t BRAND your way out of a wet paper bag.
3. Make your Mark where you can make a Difference … a Real & Immediate Difference, not a
Theoretical Difference. (In the Long Run, we’re all dead.) (A “good” plan executed right now
trumps a “great” plan executed much later.”)
4. The Field Matters … WASHINGTON IS BULLSHIT.
5. THEORY STINKS. ACTION MATTERS.
6. “BIG” projects [MOSTLY] stink.
7. “Crazy” experiments rule! (Drop the “ ”.)
8. Whoever has the fastest OODA Loops wins.
9. Energy & Passion & Commitment Move Mountains … not “importance.”
10. If the “Local Establishment” supports “it,” it is probably a Bad Idea. (After all, they got us
into this mess.)
11. RENAGADES RULE.
12. Wildly Passionate Teams … alone … can change the world.
13. There are too many Economists at the World Bank. (CEOs who are economists < 1%.)
14. “They” don’t call “economics” the dismal science for nothing. (Think “Exuberant Variety.”
Think “Gales of Creative Destruction.”)
15. GIVE ME “DO-ERS” … NOT “THINKERS.”
16. Whoever makes the most mistakes wins. (“REWARD EXCELLENT FAILURES. PUNISH
MEDIOCRE SUCCESSES.”)
17. Herbalife & the World Bank???
18. COOL STORIES RULE.
19. Transparency KILLS Bad Guys. So … PRACTICE TRANSPARENCY.
20. A half century of honorable work has not saved the world. So: S.A.V. GO FOR IT!)
Successful Businesses’ Dozen Truths: TP’s 30-Year Perspective
1. Insanely Great & Quirky Talent.
2. Disrespect for Tradition.
3. Totally Passionate (to the Point of Irrationality) Belief in What
We Are Here to Do.
4. Utter Disbelief at the BS that Marks “Normal Industry Behavior.”
5. A Maniacal Bias for Execution … and Utter Contempt
for Those Who Don’t “Get It.”
6. Speed Demons.
7. Up or Out. (Meritocracy Is Thy Name. Sycophancy Is Thy Scourge.)
8. Passionate Hatred of Bureaucracy.
9. Willingness to Lead the Customer … and Take the Heat Associated
Therewith. (Mantra: Satan Invented Focus Groups to Derail True
Believers.)
10. “Reward Excellent Failures. Punish Mediocre Successes.”
11. Courage to Stand Alone on One’s Record of Accomplishment
Against All the Forces of Conventional Wisdom.
12. A Crystal Clear Understanding of Brand Power.
Thank You