LONG/ANNOTATED
Tom Peters’
Re-Imagine
!
EXCELLENCE
2015 Distinguished Leadership and Innovation Conference
Port of Spain/13 April 2015
(Slides at tompeters.com; and our fully annotated 23-part
Master Compendium at excellencenow.com)
FIRST THING
BEFORE FIRST
THING:
CONRAD’S
COMMANDMENT
CONRAD HILTON, at a gala celebrating
his career, was called to the podium and
“What were the
most important
lessons you learned
in your long and
distinguished
career?” His answer …
asked,
“Remember
to tuck the
shower curtain
inside the
bathtub.”
They come for “location, location,
location.” They …
COME
BACK … because of the tucked-in
shower curtain.
(And [
ALL] the profit is made on the
return visits and recommendations to
others.)
“COSTCO FIGURED OUT
BIG,
SIMPLE THINGS
THE
AND
EXECUTED
WITH TOTAL
FANATICISM.”
—Charles Munger, Berkshire Hathaway
“Amateurs talk
about strategy.
Professionals talk
about logistics.”
—Omar Bradley, commander of American troops/D-Day
XCELLENCE
E
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
Action
People
Customers
Values
In Search of Excellence in …
(No kidding.)
4
words.
Excellence.2015: The Bedrock “Eleven Basics”
1.
4.
2.
3.
5.
6.
7.
A Bias for Action/Execution
People First/Training Mania
Symbiosis With the Customer
Autonomy and Entrepreneurship
Hands On, Value-Driven
Stick to the Knitting
Simple Form, Lean Staff,
Collaboration Imperative
8. Simultaneous Loose-Tight Properties
9. Design Fanaticism
10. Technology Unlimited
11. Speed Demons
6 Words:
But a
Mouthful
Hard is Soft.
Soft is Hard.
The truly “hard stuff”—which can’t be faked or
exaggerated—are the relationships with, for
instance, our customers and our own people.
“‘Hard’ is ‘soft.’
‘Soft’ is ‘hard.’”
Mantra #1 from In Search of EXCELLENCE.
“Mr. Watson, how long
does it take to achieve
excellence?”
“One
minute. …”
“One minute. You
make up your mind
to never again
consciously do
something that is
not excellent.”
EXCELLENCE is
a PERSONAL
choice … NOT
an institutional
choice!
EXCELLENCE is not a “long-term”
"aspiration.”
EXCELLENCE is the ultimate shortterm strategy. EXCELLENCE is …
THE
NEXT
5
MINUTES.*
(*Or NOT.)
EXCELLENCE is not an "aspiration."
EXCELLENCE is … THE NEXT FIVE MINUTES.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
EXCELLENCE
Or not.
is your next conversation.
is your next meeting.
is shutting up and listening—really listening.
is your next customer contact.
is saying “Thank you” for something “small.”
is the next time you shoulder responsibility and apologize.
is waaay over-reacting to a screw-up.
is the flowers you brought to work today.
is lending a hand to an “outsider” who’s fallen behind schedule.
is bothering to learn the way folks in finance (or IS or HR) think.
is waaay “over”-preparing for a 3-minute presentation.
is turning “insignificant” tasks into models of … EXCELLENCE.
Why
Not?
“Why in the
World did you
go to Siberia?”
A half-dozen years ago I went to Novosibirsk,
Siberia, to give a seminar. (Novosibirsk,
center of Soviet scientific excellence, was
now confronting the global economy—and
looking for a new direction.)
The unusual setting caused me to go back to
“first principles” in my thinking about
enterprise.
I asked myself, for starters …
“WHAT’S THE POINT?”
An emotional,
vital, innovative, joyful, creative,
entrepreneurial endeavor that elicits
maximum
Enterprise* (*at its best):
concerted human
potential in the
wholehearted pursuit of
EXCELLENCE in
service of others.**
**Employees, Customers, Suppliers, Communities, Owners, Temporary partners
Enterprise, as I note … AT ITS BEST.
(Obviously not always achieved—or, alas, even
aspired to.)
On the other hand …
if this or something very much
like it is not the aim … then
what is the point?
Think about it.
Please.
(Photo is me and my interpreter, who turned out to
have an economics PhD from the University of
Maryland, on stage in Novosibirsk.)
“It may sound radical, unconventional, and
bordering on being a crazy business idea.
However— as ridiculous as it sounds—joy is the
core belief of our workplace.
Joy
is the reason my company,
Menlo Innovations, a customer software design
and development firm in Ann Arbor, exists. It
defines what we do and how we do it. It is the
single shared belief of our entire team.”
Joy, Inc.:
How We Built a Workplace People Love
—Richard Sheridan,
SERVICE.
PERIOD.
ORGANIZATIONS
EXIST TO SERVE.
PERIOD.
LEADERS LIVE TO
SERVE. PERIOD.
PEOPLE
PEOPLE
PEOPLE
People:
1/4,096
4,096 slides in my 23-part MOAP/“Mother
Of All Presentations,” three years in the
making. ONE slide by definition had to
come first. This one, a quote from the
inimitable Richard Branson, was
#1 …
“Business has to
give people
enriching,
rewarding lives …
1/4,096: excellencenow.com
“Business has to give people enriching,
or it's
simply not
worth doing.”
rewarding lives …
—Richard Branson
“You have to
treat your
employees like
customers.”
—Herb Kelleher,
upon being asked his “secret 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 AA’s Annual Meeting)
EMPLOYEES FIRST, CUSTOMERS SECOND:
Turning Conventional Management Upside Down
Vineet Nayar/CEO/HCL Technologies
“hostmanship”/
“consideration
renovation”
“The path to a
hostmanship
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
“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
management has made customers its highest priority?’”
about a new day at work.” —Jan Gunnarsson and Olle Blohm, Hostmanship:
The Art of Making People Feel Welcome.
“ … 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?’”
Rocket Science.
NOT.
“If you want staff to
give great service,
give great service
to staff.”
—Ari Weinzweig, Zingerman’s
Source: Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great
Instead of Big, Bo Burlingham
EXCELLENT
customer experience
depends … entirely …
on EXCELLENT
employee experience!
If you want to WOW your
customers,
FIRST you
must WOW those who
WOW the customers!
“Contrary to conventional
corporate thinking,
treating retail workers
much better may make
everyone (including their
employers) much richer.”
Source: The Good Jobs Strategy, by M.I.T. professor Zeynep Ton.
1996-2014/12 companies every year/
341,567 new jobs/+172%:
Publix
Whole Foods
Wegmans
Nordstrom
Cisco Systems
Marriott
REI
Goldman Sachs
Four Seasons
SAS Institute
W.L. Gore
TDIndustries
Source: Fortune/ “The 100 Best Companies to Work For”/0315.15
Note: Fully
7/12ths
of the
best of the 100 best companies to work for in
the USA are in so-called “low wage”
components of the service industry. (So don’t
tell me, as many have, “You can only do this
sort of thing at the likes of Google.” Rubbish!)
“In a world where customers wake up
every morning asking, ‘What’s new, what’s
success
depends on a company’s
ability to unleash initiative,
imagination and passion of
employees at all levels —and this
different, what’s amazing?’
can only happen if all those folks are
connected heart and soul to their work
[their ‘calling’], their company and their
mission.” —John Mackey and Raj Sisoda, Conscious Capitalism:
Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business
Profit Through Putting People First Business Book Club
Nice Companies Finish First: Why Cutthroat Management Is Over—and
Collaboration Is In, by Peter Shankman with Karen Kelly
Uncontainable: How Passion, Commitment, and Conscious Capitalism Built a Business Where Everyone Thrives,
by Kip Tindell, CEO Container Store
Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business, by John Mackey,
CEO Whole Foods, and Raj Sisodia
Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and
Purpose, by Raj Sisodia, Jag Sheth, and David Wolfe
The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to
Lower Costs and Boost Profits, by Zynep Ton, MIT
Joy, Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love, by Richard Sheridan,
CEO Menlo Innovations
Employees First, Customers Second: Turning Conventional Management Upside
Down, by Vineet Nayar, CEO, HCL Technologies
The Customer Comes Second: Put Your People First and Watch ’Em Kick Butt,
by Hal Rosenbluth, former CEO, Rosenbluth International
It’s Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy,
by Mike Abrashoff, former commander, USS Benfold
Turn This Ship Around; How to Create Leadership at Every Level,
by L. David Marquet, former commander, SSN Sante Fe
Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big, by Bo Burlingham
Hidden Champions: Success Strategies of Unknown World Market Leaders, by Hermann Simon
Retail Superstars: Inside the 25 Best Independent Stores in America,
by George Whalin
Joy at Work: A Revolutionary Approach to Fun on the Job, by Dennis Bakke,
former CEO, AES Corporation
The Dream Manager, by Matthew Kelly
The Soft Edge: Where Great Companies Find Lasting Success, by Rich Karlgaard,
publisher, Forbes
Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, by Tony Hseif, Zappos
Camellia: A Very Different Company
Fans, Not Customers: How to Create Growth Companies in a No Growth World, by Vernon Hill
Like a Virgin: Secrets They Won’t Teach You at Business School, by Richard Branson
“YOUR
CUSTOMERS
WILL NEVER BE
ANY HAPPIER
THAN YOUR
EMPLOYEES.”
“What employees experience,
Customers will. The best marketing is
Your
customers will
never be any
happier than your
employees.”
happy, engaged employees.
—John DiJulius,
The Customer Service Revolution: Overthrow Conventional
Business, Inspire Employees, and Change the World
I’m tempted to use this one-liner as the only
slide in a presentation. It comes awfully close
to being “all that needs to be said.”
THE DREAM MANAGER
— by 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-VERSIONSOF-THEMSELVES.” “A company’s purpose is to become
the-best-version-of-itself. The question is: 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-best-version-of-himself or –herself. …
When a company forgets that it exists to serve customers, it
OUR EMPLOYEES ARE
OUR FIRST CUSTOMERS, AND OUR MOST
IMPORTANT CUSTOMERS.”
quickly goes out of business.
The
7-Step
Method
7 Steps to Sustaining Success
You take care of the people.
The people take care of the service.
The service takes care of the customer.
The customer takes care of the profit.
The profit takes care of the re-investment.
The re-investment takes care of the re-invention.
The re-invention takes care of the future.
(And at every step the only measure is EXCELLENCE.)
7 Steps to Sustaining Success: And it starts with …
You take
care of the
people.
Training =
Investment
#1
In the Army, 3-star
generals worry about
training. In most
businesses, it's a
“ho-hum” mid-level
staff function.
Is your CTO/Chief Training Officer your top paid “C-level” job (other than CEO/COO)?
If not, why not?
Are your top trainers paid as much as your top marketers and engineers?
If not, why not?
Are your training
courses so good they
make you … jump up
& down with glee?
If not, why not?
Randomly stop an employee in the hall: Can she/he meticulously describe her/his development plan for the next 12
months?
If not, why not?
Why is your world of business any different than the (competitive) world of rugby, football, opera, theater,
the military?
If “people/talent first” and hyper-intense continuous training are laughably obviously for them, why not you?
Someone at a seminar challenged me on this. Said it was
unrealistic and, by the way, what does “tingle” mean. I pointed to
my sophomore year in college. For us engineers, including civil
engineers like me, an introductory chemistry course was
required. Most of us looked forward to it as the equivalent of a
4-month long root canal. We had two well known professors,
Michell Sienko and Robert Plane. They were scholars of the first
order and simultaneously entertainers of the first order. Bottom
line: By the end of the course, probably half of us (among
hundreds) wanted to be chemistry majors. Ten years later the
same sort of lightning struck courtesy an econ prof, Keith
Lumsden, at the Stanford business school. That is, there are
great teachers and great courses—and I do not understand why
the corporate world can’t develop or recruit the Sienkos and
Planes and Lumsdens. Billions are at stake—and great “profs”
concocting great courses could do wonders to, say, recruitment
and retention and productivity. As to “tingle,” I’m looking for
something beyond “very good”; I’d accept “earthshaking” or
“mind-blowing” or, for sure …
“supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”
Is your CTO/Chief Training Officer your top paid “C-level” job (other than CEO/COO)?
If not, why not?
Are your top trainers paid as much as your top marketers and engineers?
If not, why not?
Are your training courses so good they make you giggle and tingle?
If not, why not?
Randomly stop an employee
in the hall: Can she/he
meticulously describe her/his
development plan for the
next 12 months?
If not, why not?
Why is your world of business any different than the (competitive) world of rugby, football, opera,
theater,
the military?
If “people/talent first” and hyper-intense continuous training are laughably obviously for them,
why not you?
her or
his boss should be sternly
reprimanded ASAP. (I would
And if the answer is “No” …
say “fired”—but you might accuse me of
over-the-top-ism. Heaven forbid.)
Your (boss) job is
safer if every one of your
team members is
committed to
Boss & RPD:
RPD/Radical
Personal Development.
Actively support one
and all!
“The role of the Director is to
create a space where the actors
become
more than they’ve ever
been before,
more than they’ve
dreamed of being.”
and actresses can
—Robert Altman, Oscar acceptance speech
“I start with the
premise that the
function of
leadership is to
produce more
leaders, not more
followers.”
—Ralph Nader
Leadership opportunities abound—for all of us,
all the time. (See Betsy Myers’ wonderful Take the Lead:
Motivate, Inspire, and Bring Out the Best in Yourself and Everyone
The idea per Mr. Nader is to get
everyone focused on growth and thinking and
acting like a leader. Development accelerates—
and the customer is the ultimate beneficiary of
a skilled staff that seizes the moment without
muss, fuss, or order shouting.
Around You.)
Leaders all!
(Of course!)
Gamblin’ Man
>> 5 of 10 CEOs see
training as expense rather than
investment.
Bet #2: >> 5 of 10 CEOs see
training as defense rather than
offense.
Bet #3: >> 5 of 10 CEOs see
training as “necessary evil”
rather than “strategic
opportunity.”
Bet #1:
>> 8 of 10
CEOs, in 45-min
“tour d’horizon” of
their biz, would
NOT mention
training.
Bet #4:
What is the
#1
reason to go
berserk over
training?
What is the best reason to go
bananas over training?
GREED.
(It pays off.)
(Also: Training should be an official part of
the
R&D budget and a capital expense.)
Training #1: Bottom Line
NOBODY gets off the
hook! “Training & Development
Maniac” applies as much to the
4-person
business as to the chief
leader of the
of the 44,444-person business.
“The topic is probably the oldest and biggest debate in Customer
What is more important: How well
you hire, or the training and culture you
bring your employees into? While both are
service.
very important,
75
percent is the
Customer service training and the service
culture of your company. Do you really think that
Disney has found 50,000 amazing service-minded people? There
probably aren’t 50,000 people on earth who were born to serve.
Companies like Ritz-Carlton and Disney find good people and put
them in such a strong service and training environment that
doesn’t allow for accept anything less than excellence.” —John
DiJulius, The Customer Service Revolution: Overthrow Conventional Business,
Inspire Employees, and Change the World
As John DiJulius says, this is a controversial
point. But I would tend to lean in his direction
in many if not most situations. Google? Maybe
not. But Google is 5 standard deviations away
from the norm—at least.
6/2/3*
SIX MONTHS to develop
THREE MINUTES of new material
*It takes Jerry Seinfeld
TWO
or
(documentary: Comedian)
He’s the quintessential “old pro.” No
trains and
trains and trains and
trains some more. (Most of
matter. He still …
the “training gigs” are performed in
small, out-of-the-way places.)
Practice!
Training!
Growth!
It ain’t a walk in the park—and it applies to
each and every one of us. That goes 10 X
(
100X
?) in 2015.
Basketball coach John Wooden, perhaps the best coach of
“I was never much
of a game coach, but I
was a pretty good
practice coach.”
anything, ever:
Hall of fame football coach Bill Walsh on preparation:
“The score takes care
of itself.”
Two pretty damn good trainers. The
outcome of the game per se is (more or
less) simply a byproduct of peerless
training. Does this translate to
business? What a silly* (*I wish)
question, eh?
Hiring
“It’s simple, really,
Tom. Hire for s,
and, above all,
promote for
s.”
—Starbucks regional manager,
on why so many smiles at Starbucks shops
“We look for ...
listening, caring,
smiling, saying
‘Thank you,’ being
warm.”
— Colleen Barrett, former President, Southwest Airlines
Put it (e.g., the likes of
“smiles in a way that
lights up a room”) in the
FORMAL criteria
list. DAMN IT!
AND .. could you consider plain English? Not
“engages the interviewer in a positive
fashion.”
Instead:
“SMILES A LOT.”
Observed closely: The use of
“I”
or
“We”
during a
job interview.
Source: Leonard Berry & Kent Seltman, chapter 6, “Hiring for Values,”
Management Lessons From Mayo Clinic
AND .. could you consider plain English? Not
“exhibits traits associated with good
teamwork.”
“Uses ‘We’ more
than ‘I’.”
Instead:
(FYI: Love this!)
(FYI 2: The Mayo Clinic book is … SUPERB.)
"It became necessary to develop
medicine as a cooperative
science; the clinician,
the specialist, the laboratory
workers, the nurses uniting for the
good of the patient, each assisting
in the elucidation of the problem
at hand, and each dependent upon
the other for support.”
—Dr. William Mayo,
1910
Team medicine—in the culture from the start
and oh so rare in the healthcare industry—is at
the heart of sustaining EXCELLENCE at the
Mayo Clinic.
hundreds
of times better
here
“I am
[than in my prior hospital assignment]
because of the support system. It’s
like you were working in an
organism; you are not a single cell
when you are out there practicing.’”
—quote from Dr. Nina Schwenk, in Chapter 3, “Practicing Team Medicine,” from Leonard Berry & Kent Seltman,
from Management Lessons From Mayo Clinic
Docs are rarely given to overstatement.
Regardless …
A STUNNING REMARK.
"The personnel committees on all
three campuses have become
aggressive in addressing the issue
of physicians who are not living the
Mayo value of exhibiting respectful,
collegial behavior to all team
members. Some physicians have
been suspended without pay or
terminated.” —Leonard Barry & Kent Seltman,
Management Lessons from Mayo Clinic
Teeth.
Andrew Carnegie’s Tombstone Inscription …
Here lies a man
Who knew how to enlist
In his service
Better men than himself.
Source: Peter Drucker, The Practice of Management
Such a
VERY
And oh-so-rare.
(Alas.)
big deal.
"When I hire
someone, that's
when I go to
work for
them.”
—John DiJulius, "What's the Secret
to Providing a World-class Customer Experience"
Quiet
Susan Cain’s Quiet: The Power of Introverts in
a World That Can’t Stop Talking made a
profound impact on me. We tend to favor the
“noisy ones”—and thence downplay the
power of the 50% amongst us who are “the
quiet ones.”
I.e., we blow off (or, at least, undervalue)
50%
0f the talent pool.
Talk about a “missed opportunity”!
“The next time you see a
person with a composed face
and a soft voice, remember
that inside her mind she might
be solving an equation,
composing a sonnet,
designing a hat. She might,
that is, be deploying the
power of quiet.”
—Susan Cain,
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking
2/Year =
Legacy
Your legacy is achieved and maintained
to a great extent by your promotion
decisions—about two per year on
average. In a five-year stint, that’s 10
decisions that make or break you.
DO YOU
ACT ACCORDINGLY?
(invest in the decision-making process)
(No glib answer, please.)
Promotion Decisions
“life and
death
decisions”
Source: Peter Drucker, The Practice of Management
A promotion decision is akin to an
acquisition decision. The same degree
of care therewith should be exercised.
“A man should never
be promoted to a
managerial position if his
vision focuses on people’s
weaknesses rather than
on their
strengths.”
—Peter Drucker, The Practice of Management
Me
“Being aware of yourself
and how you
affect everyone
around you is
what distinguishes a
superior leader.”
—Edie Seashore
“How can a high-level leader like _____ be
so out of touch with the truth about
himself? It’s more common than you
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
would imagine.
feedback [especially on people issues].”
—Daniel Goleman (et al.), The New Leaders
“The biggest problem I shall
ever face: the management of
Dale Carnegie.” —Dale Carnegie, diary of
"Everyone thinks
of changing the
world, but no one
thinks of changing
himself."
—Leo Tolstoy
The leadership gurus speak with one
Self-knowledge
and self-development is
leader job #1.
voice on this:
Think about it.
(Your self assessment skills likely …
STINK
. Especially if you think
they’re good.)
st
1 -Line
Bosses
(Cadre of) =
Productivity Asset
#1!
If the regimental commander lost most of his
2nd lieutenants and 1st lieutenants and captains
If he
lost his sergeants it
would be a
catastrophe. The Army and the
and majors, it would be a tragedy.
Navy are fully aware that success on the
battlefield is dependent to an extraordinary
degree on its Sergeants and Chief Petty
Officers. Does industry have the same
awareness?
“People leave
managers not
companies.”
—Dave Wheeler
Actually, a profound statement of the
utmost importance.
Is there ONE “secret” to
productivity and
employee satisfaction?
YES!
The Quality of your
FULL CADRE of …
1st-line Leaders.
No way to overstate here. Companies do
pay attention to 1st-line supervisors—but
do not/rarely consider the full cadre of 1st-
st
line leaders a … 1
-ORDER
STRATEGIC ASSET
… worthy of stupendous investment in
selection and development.
(PLEASE PONDER THIS.)
!
WOMEN RULE
“Research
suggests
that to succeed, start by
promoting women.”
[by McKinsey & Co.]
—Nicholas Kristof, “Twitter, Women, and Power,” NYTimes
“In my experience, women
make much better
executives than men.”
—Kip Tindell,
CEO, Container Store
“AS
LEADERS,
WOMEN
RULE:
New Studies find that
female managers outshine their male
counterparts in almost every measure”
TITLE/ Special Report/ BusinessWeek
“Women are rated higher in fully 12
of the 16 competencies that go into
outstanding leadership. And two
of the traits where women
outscored men to the highest
degree — taking initiative and
driving for results — have long
been thought of as particularly
male strengths.”
—Harvard Business Review
For One (BIG) Thing …
“McKinsey & Company found that the
international companies with more
women on their corporate boards far
outperformed the average company in
return on equity and other measures.
Operating profit was …
56%
higher.”
Source: Nicholas Kristof, “Twitter, Women, and Power,” NYTimes, 1024.13
Women’s Strengths Match New
Economy Imperatives: Link [rather than
rank] workers; favor interactive-collaborative
leadership style [empowerment beats topdown decision making]; sustain fruitful
collaborations; comfortable with sharing
information; see redistribution of power
as victory, not surrender; favor multidimensional feedback; value technical &
interpersonal skills, individual & group
contributions equally; readily accept
ambiguity; honor intuition as well as pure
“rationality”; inherently flexible; appreciate
cultural diversity.
Source: Judy B. Rosener, America’s Competitive Secret: Women Managers
In the “modern” organization, huffing
and puffing and shouting orders is dying.
Gaining cooperation of scattered team
members who don’t “report to” the
(formally designated) leader is the
emergent norm. Which plays to women’s
strengths.
Context:
1,000,000
China/Foxconn:
1,000,000
robots/next 3 years
Source: Race AGAINST the Machine, Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee
We typically think of China in terms of
low-cost labor. China’s labor costs are
soaring—and, like the rest of us, the
Chinese are stepping up their game.
And not pussyfooting!
“Since 1996, manufacturing employment
fallen
by an estimated 25 percent.
That’s over 30,000,000
fewer Chinese workers in that
in China itself has actually
sector, even while output soared by 70
percent. It’s not that American workers are being replaced
by Chinese workers. It’s that both American and Chinese
workers are being made more efficient [replaced] by
automation.” —Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee,
The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity
in a Time of Brilliant Technologies
I read this in disbelief.
But I do believe it.
And what testimony it is to the ubiquity
of the automation tsunami.
“Automation has become so
sophisticated that on a typical
passenger flight, a human pilot holds
the controls for a grand total of
3 minutes
…
.
[Pilots] have become, it’s not
much of an exaggeration to say,
computer operators.”
Source: Nicholas Carr, “The Great Forgetting,” The Atlantic, 11.13
Pilot as computer operator—and
emergency skills are atrophying.
“Meet Your
Next Surgeon:
Dr. Robot”
Source: Feature/Fortune/15 JAN 2013/on Intuitive Surgical’s
da Vinci
/multiple bypass heart-surgery robot
Ditto pilots.
“Las Vegas Company
Could 3D Print Your
Next Car: Customers
could pick up newly
printed car within 24
hours” —Headline, Las Vegas Sun/ 1225.14
IoT/Sensor Pills: “Proteus Digital Health is one of several
pioneers in sensor-based health technology. They make a
silicon chip the size of a grain of sand that is embedded
into a safely digested pill that is swallowed. When the chip
mixes with stomach acids, the processor is powered by the
body’s electricity and transmits data to a patch worn on
the skin. That patch, in turn, transmits data via Bluetooth
to a mobile app, which then transmits the data to a central
database where a health technician can verify if a patient
has taken her or his medications.
“This is a bigger deal than it may seem. In 2012, it was estimated
that people not taking their prescribed medications cost $258
BILLION in emergency room visits, hospitalization, and doctor
visits. An average of 130,000 Americans die each year because
they don’t follow their prescription regimens closely enough.”
(The FDA approved placebo testing in April 2012; sensor pills are
ticketed to come to market in 2015 or 2016.)
Source: Robert Scoble and Shel Israel, Age of Context: Mobile, Sensors, Data and the
Future of Privacy
IoT/The Internet of Things
IoE/The Internet of
Everything
M2M/Machine-to-Machine
Ubiquitous computing
Embedded computing
Pervasive computing
Industrial Internet
Etc.* ** ***
*“More Than 50
BILLION connected devices by 2020” —Ericsson
**Estimated 212 BILLION connected devices by 2020—IDC
***“By 2025 IoT could be applicable to $82 TRILLION of output or
approximately one half the global economy”—GE (The WAGs to end all WAGs!)
“Software is
eating the
world.”
—Marc Andreessen
“Human level
capability has not
turned out to be a
special stopping point
from an engineering
perspective. ….”
Source: Illah Reza Nourbakhsh, Professor of Robotics, Carnegie Mellon, Robot Futures
“The intellectual
talents of highly trained
professionals are no
more protected from
automation than is the
driver’s left turn.”
—Nicholas Carr, The Glass Cage: Automation and Us
Betterment/
“Ambitions of a
Robo Adviser”
“could put tens of
thousands of U.S. investment
advisors out of their jobs”
—FT/1217.14/
“The root of our problem is not
that we’re in a Great Recession
or a Great Stagnation, but rather
that we are in the early
Great
Restructuring
throes of a
.
Our technologies are racing ahead,
but our skills and organizations
are lagging behind.”
Source: Race AGAINST the Machine, Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee
This is a principal explanation as to why
the economy is coming back—but new
jobs and wage increases are lagging*
lagging lagging.
(*When it comes to wage-rate
movement, “non-existent” or even
“declining” are the correct words.)
The New Logic: Scale w/o Employment
145,000
Kodak: 1988/
employees; 2012/bankrupt
Instagram: 30,000,000 customers/
13 employees
(WhatsApp: 450,000,000 customers/
55 employees/
Valued @ $19,000,000,000)
Source: Robert Reich’s Blog/0317.15
Just pause and read/re-read this.
Form your own conclusions about
implications.
Context:
Let’s Not Get
Too Carried
Away
Life BEFORE Clay Christensen “Invented” “Disruption”: My mom (1909-2005)
lived through the advent of mass market cars, commercial radio, routine
long-distance phone calls, portable phones, cell phones, satellites,
satellite phone call transmission, movies with sound, color movies, TV,
TV dinners, microwave ovens, commercial use of aircraft, jets,
extensive electrification, the Great Depression, Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth,
Walter Johnson, Bob Feller, Barry Bonds, Derek Jeter, the West Coast
Offense, the Civil Rights Movement, an African-American Chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff/Secretary of State, Gay Pride, women win the
right to vote, Gandhi, Churchill, WWI, WWII, the Holocaust, the birth of
the U.S. Navy Seabees, relativity, the A-bomb, H-bomb, the EEC, the EU,
the Euro, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Iraq War, 9/11, the Cold
War, the disintegration of the USSR, the resurgence of China, the death
and resurrection of Germany and Japan, Oklahoma & New Mexico &
Arizona & Hawaii & Alaska become states, William Howard Taft* (*just
missed Teddy Roosevelt!), FDR, Ronald Reagan, Father Coughlin, Jim
and Tammy Bakker, mainframe computers, PCs, hyperlinks, the iPod,
DARPA-net, the Internet, air conditioning, weed whackers, Mickey
Mouse, Frank Sinatra, Elvis, the Beatles, Madonna, the Model T, the
Cadillac Escalade, Nancy Drew, the first four Harry Potter books,
antibiotics, MRIs, polio vaccine, genetic mapping, WWII rockets, space
flight, man-to-the-moon, probe on Mars, more or less permanent
space station.”**
(**But, to be sure, not long enough to see the Cubs win another World Series or to take a selfie.)
My Mom’s life was not exactly a yawner
when it came to “disruption”!
THE MORAL
IMPERATIVE:
PEOPLE
DEVELOPMENT
Your principal
moral obligation as a leader is to
develop the skillset, “soft” and
“hard,” of every one of the people
in your charge (temporary as well
as semi-permanent) to the
maximum extent of your abilities.
The bonus: This is also the
#1 mid- to long-term …
profit maximization strategy!
CORPORATE MANDATE #1 2014:
To my way of thinking,
this is by far the most
important point
considered in this
presentation.
In Good Business, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi argues
persuasively that business has become the center of
society. As such, an obligation to community is front
& center. Business as societal bedrock, per
Csikszentmihalyi, has the RESPONSIBILITY to
increase the …
“SUM OF HUMAN WELLBEING.” Business is NOT “part of the
community.” In terms of how adults collectively
IS
spend their waking hours: Business
the
community. And should act accordingly. The
(REALLY) good news: Community mindedness is a
great way (the BEST way?) to have
spirited/committed/customer-centric work force—
and, ultimately, increase (maximize?) growth and
profitability.
I love this!
(And “buy it” 100%.)
(Read it. Re-read it. Think about it.
Discuss it. Act on it.)
The Memories That Matter
The people you developed who went on to
stellar accomplishments inside or outside
the company.
The (no more than) two or three people you developed who went on to
create stellar institutions of their own.
The long shots (people with “a certain something”) you bet on who
surprised themselves—and your peers.
The people of all stripes who 2/5/10/20 years
later say “You made a difference in my life,”
“Your belief in me changed everything.”
The sort of/character of people you hired in general. (And the bad
apples you chucked out despite some stellar traits.)
A handful of projects (a half dozen at most) you doggedly pursued that
still make you smile and which fundamentally changed the way
things are done inside or outside the company/industry.
The supercharged camaraderie of a handful of Great Teams aiming to
“change the world.”
This is the sort of thing you’ll look back
on at my age—71. Not the $$$ wealth
you accumulated.
(This is the first part of a longer list I
developed for a talk to the top
management team of a $5-billion
chemical company. I.e., I was
addressing high-ranking general
managers.)
INNOVATION
/49:
WTTMSW
the
only thing I’ve learned
No kidding, this truly is …
“for sure” … in the 49 years
since I began my managerial career—as
a U.S. Navy construction battalion
ensign in Vietnam.
WHOEVER
TRIES
THE
MOST
STUFF
WINS
“Show up” and “Try it” are probably
(UNDOUBTEDLY?) the two most
durable pieces of advice that can be
imagined.
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
If I were to update the book in 2014,
there is
ZERO
doubt that
“a bias for action” would top the list—
with even more emphasis than 33 years
ago.
READY.
FIRE!
AIM.
H. Ross Perot (vs “Aim! Aim! Aim!” /EDS vs GM/1985)
H. Ross Perot sold EDS to GM in the
1980s, and went on the car giant’s
Board. A few years later he was asked
to explain the difference between the
two companies.
He said that at EDS the strategy was
“Ready. Fire. Aim.” I.e., get on with it—
now.
“Ready.
Aim. Aim. Aim. Aim. …”
At GM the “strategy” was
(Alas, well into the 1st decade of the
new century GM’s problems/unwieldy
bureaucracy remained pretty much
unchanged.)
“WE HAVE A
STRATEGIC PLAN.
IT’S CALLED ‘DOING
THINGS.’ ”
—Herb Kelleher
“DON’T ‘PLAN.’
DO STUFF.”
—David Kelley/IDEO
Screw it.
Just do it.
—book title, Richard Branson
I want to be a Photographer.
Take a ton of photos. Start a photo blog.
Organize an art show for your best work. Make stuff.
I want to be a Writer.
Write a ton of pieces. Establish a voice on social media.
Start a blog. Write guest posts for friends. Make stuff.
Talk is cheap.
Just make stuff.
—Reid Shilperoot, brand strategist, on the one piece of
advice that has helped him overcome creative blocks
“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
“DEMO
OR DIE!”
Source: This was the approach championed by Nicholas Negroponte
which vaulted his MIT Media Lab to the forefront of IT-multimedia
innovation. It was his successful alternative to the traditional
MIT-academic “publish or perish.” Negroponte’s rapid-prototyping
version was emblematic of the times and the pace and the enormity
of the opportunity. (NYTimes/0426.11)
Culture of Prototyping
“Effective prototyping may
THE MOST
VALUABLE CORE
COMPETENCE an
be
innovative organization can
hope to have.” —Michael Schrage
Strong language.
Merited.
“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
I agree 100%.
But in 9 of 10 cases a “cultural
revolution” is required to bring a “playful
environment” into being.
Big point: Such a playful culture, which
is, make no mistake, the bedrock of
innovation, in 2015 is very close to:
NOT OPTIONAL.
“EXPERIMENT
FEARLESSLY”
Tactic #1
Source: BusinessWeek, “Type A Organization Strategies: How to Hit a Moving Target”—
“RELENTLESS TRIAL
AND ERROR”
Source: Wall Street Journal, cornerstone of effective approach to “rebalancing” company
portfolios in the face of changing and uncertain global economic conditions (11.08.10)
Facebook, iPod,
etc. … ordinary
ideas/SJ as
“tinkerer” par
excellence
WTTMSW/Corollary
“FAIL. FORWARD. FAST.”
—High Tech CEO, Pennsylvania
“FAIL FASTER.
SUCCEED SOONER.”
—David Kelley/IDEO
“MOVE FAST.
BREAK THINGS.”
—Facebook
“ ‘Success,’ Honda said, ‘can
only be achieved through
repeated failure and
introspection. Success
represents one percent of
your work, which results
only from the ninety-nine
percent that is called
failure.’ ”
—Jeffrey Rothfeder, Driving Honda:
Inside the World’s Most Innovative Car Company
“REWARD
excellent failures.
PUNISH mediocre
successes.”
—Phil Daniels, Sydney exec
“In business, you REWARD people
WHEN IT
DOESN’T WORK
OUT YOU
PROMOTE THEM -
for taking RISKS.
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
“What really matters is that
companies that don’t continue to
companies
that don’t embrace
failure —they eventually get in
experiment—
a desperate position, where the
only thing they can do is make a
‘Hail Mary’ bet at the end.”
—Jeff Bezos at Business Insider “Ignition” conference, 1202.14
Re-read these last three slides: When it
comes (in 2015) to the consequences of
failures:
Reward.
Promote.
Embrace.
(Yup, those were the three key words.)
“Ideas Economy:
CAN YOUR
BUSINESS FAIL
FAST ENOUGH TO
SUCCEED?”
Source: ad for Economist Conference/0328.13/Berkeley CA (caps are Economist)
“The essence
of capitalism is
encouraging failure,
not rewarding
success.”
—Nassim Nicholas Taleb/Reason TV/0124.13
I know of no one more thoughtful on this
topic than Taleb.
WTTMSASTMSUW
WHOEVER
TRIES
THE
MOST
STUFF
AND
SCREWS
THE
MOST
STUFF
UP
WINS
!
OUCH
(Oh so true.)
“YOU MISS
100%
OF
THE SHOTS YOU
NEVER TAKE.”
—Wayne Gretzky
All you need to know in life?
Tempo/
Temperament
“If things seem under
control, you’re just not
going fast enough.”
—Mario Andretti, race driver
“I’m not comfortable unless
I’m uncomfortable.”
—Jay Chiat
“If it works, it’s obsolete.”
—Marshall McLuhan
Hustle.
NOT OPTIONAL.
WTTMSASTMSUTFW
WHOEVER
TRIES
THE
MOST
STUFF
AND
SCREWS
THE
MOST
STUFF
UP
THE
FASTEST
WINS
WTTMSASTMSUTFW
WHOEVER
TRIES
THE
MOST
STUFF
AND
SCREWS
THE
MOST
STUFF
UP
THE
FASTEST
WINS
Q.E.D.
LBTs*
*Little BIG Things
Little
BIG
Things:
Small move.
Small cost.
Enormous (potential) payoff.
There for the taking.
IF
(
… the “culture of ‘serious play’”
described previously is in place—a big “if.”)
(Message: Not every pursuit of major
innovation needs to begin with the issuance
of a $250,000 check! )
Bag sizes = New markets:
Source: PepsiCo
Frito Lay, stuck some years ago with a string
of failed (expensive) new product
introductions, goes “trivial”—adding (yawn)
some new bag sizes to its potato chip
offerings. E.g., family size, single-serve, etc.
Astonishingly, these became fullscale new
product categories—and added, literally,
>$1 billion to the top line.
Little
=
VERY BIG.
Big carts =
Source: Walmart
Walmart increases shopping cart size.
(YAWN.)
Big item—microwave ovens, etc.—sales soar
…
50%.
Las Vegas Casino/2X:
slightly
curved
“When Friedman
the right angle of an
entrance corridor to one property, he was
‘amazed at the magnitude of change in
pedestrians’ behavior’—the percentage who
one-third to
nearly two-thirds.”
entered increased from
—Natasha Dow Schull, Addiction By Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas
Ye gads!
Vegas!
(Again,
>$1B
impact.)
(1) AMENABLE TO RAPID
EXPERIMENTATION/FAILURE “FREE”
(NO BAD “PR,” NO $$)
(2) QUICK TO IMPLEMENT/QUICK TO
ROLL OUT
(3) INEXPENSIVE TO IMPLEMENT/
ROLL OUT
(4) HUGE MULTIPLIER
(5) AN “ATTITUDE”
(6) DOES NOT BY AND LARGE REQUIRE A
“POWER POSITION” FROM WHICH
TO LAUNCH EXPERIMENTS.
I could go on.
I’d love to go on.
The cases are fun.
The payoff is enormous.
But this section is really about a “habit of
serious play.” Realizing the possible BIG
BANG PAYOFF from constant
experimentation.
And per this slide, it’s quick, invisible,
inexpensive.
And perhaps, yes, with a payoff in the $B
range.
(WARNING: This, to repeat, is a cultural
issue—in fact all this “TGR stuff” is.)
We Are What
We Eat.
We Are Who We
Hang Out With.
“It is hardly possible to
overrate the value of placing human
beings in contact with persons dissimilar to themselves, and with
modes of thought and action unlike
those with which they are familiar.
Such communication has always
been, and is peculiarly in the
present age, one of the primary
sources of progress.” —John Stuart Mill
Diversity:
Innovation is a life or death
proposition—as never before.
WTTMSW/Whoever Tries The Most Stuff
Wins is my #1.
The HOF/Hang Out Factor is
B-I-G
#2.
This is one
deal.
And, alas, largely unattended to.
THAT MUST CHANGE.
And: THE PROCESS MUST
BE SYSTEMATIC.
“You will become like
the five people you
associate with the
most—this can
be either a blessing
or a curse.”
—Billy Cox
The “We are what we eat”/
“We are who we hang out with”
Axiom: At its core,
every (!!!)
relationship-partnership decision
(employee, vendor, customer, etc.,
etc.) is a strategic decision about:
“Innovate,
‘Yes’ or ‘No’ ”
Key word:
EVERY.
Measure/Manage: Portfolio “Strangeness”/“Quality”
1. Customers
2. Vendors
3. Out-sourcing Partners
4. Acquisitions
5. Purposeful “Theft”
6. Diversity/“d”iversity
7. Diversity/Crowd-sourcing
8. Diversity/Weird
9. Diversity/Curiosity
10. Benchmarks
11. Calendar
12. MBWA
13. Lunch/General
14. Lunch/Other functions
15. Location/Internal
16. Location/HQ
17. Top team
18. Board
“The Billion-man
Research Team:
Companies offering
work to online
communities are
reaping the benefits of
crowdsourcing.”
—Headline, FT
“Crowdsourcing” can more or less apply
to … EVERYTHING.
Ouch!
“The Bottleneck …
“The Bottleneck is at the …
“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 …
Top of the
Bottle”
— Gary Hamel/Harvard Business Review
Alas.
So true.
“Who’s the most
interesting person
you’ve met in the last
90 days? How do I
get in touch with
them?”
—Fred Smith
Maybe not such an easy question to
answer?
(It isn’t for me, at any rate.)
Take it seriously.
VERY seriously.
(PLEASE.)
WE ARE THE
COMPANY
WE KEEP!
MANAGE IT!
This is not intended to be “a good idea.”
It is a strategic asset—and should be
consciously …
managed.
measured and
(Start by considering the last 10 people
you went to lunch with. “Same-same” or
“stretch-stretch”?)
Diversity: Hang out with cool and thou
shalt become more cool. Hang out with
dull and thou shalt become more dull.
Diversity: Your “hang out with” “portfolio”
can/should be as carefully concocted/
managed/ measured as your strategic
plan—it IS your de facto strategic plan!
Diversity: Every relationship-partnership
decision (employee/ vendor/customer/etc.)
is a strategic decision: “Innovate, ‘Yes’ or
‘No.’”
XFX =
#1
XFX = #1*
*Cross-Functional eXcellence
A project is behind schedule by three
months? Six months? There is a mess amidst
the supply chain? Customer orders are badly
backlogged? Etc. Invariably there is
ONE
reason above all others when
such snafus occur.
(As they routinely do.)
BOTCHED
CROSS-FUNCTIONAL
CO-ORDINATION.
Namely:
NEVER
WASTE A
LUNCH!
Sounds a little lightweight if the problem is
such a big one. Surely a new org chart and a
few million more investment $$ tossed into the
ERP budget tops the list.
I’m hardly urging you not to invest. But I do
claim—in, still, 2015—that the social aspects of
XFX are largely ignored or given no more than
lip service—whereas they ought to rank at,
yes, the top of th list.
And at the top of my “social factors” list is, no
kidding …
LUNCH.
The sacred
220 “ABs”.*
*“At bats”
About 220 workday lunches per year = 220
precious, non-repeatable opportunities (“at
bats” in baseball terms) to make hay of one
sort or another.
And, to be trite, once they’re gone they’re
gone for good.
Am I being obsessive?
Yup.
It’s merited.
A lunch lost is a lunch lost.
Starting … TODAY.
% XF
lunches*
*Measure!
evaluation!
Monthly! Part of
% of lunches with people in …
FUNCTIONS.
(
BIG deal.)
OTHER
XFX: SOCIAL
ACCELERATORS …
The key “XFX” attainment tools are social—
not technological.
XFX/Typical Social Accelerators
1. EVERYONE’s (more or less) JOB #1: Make friends in other functions!
(Purposefully. Consistently. Measurably.)
2. “Do lunch” with people in other functions!! Frequently!! (Minimum
10% to 25% for everyone? Measured.)
3. Ask peers in other functions for references so you can become
conversant in their world. (It’s one helluva sign of ... GIVE-A-DAMNism.)
4. Religiously invite counterparts in other functions to your team
meetings. Ask them to present “cool stuff” from “their world” to your
group. (Useful. Mark of respect.)
PROACTIVELY SEEK EXAMPLES OF “TINY”
ACTS OF “XFX” TO ACKNOWLEDGE—
PRIVATELY AND PUBLICALLY. (Bosses: ONCE
A DAY … make a short call or visit or send an
email of “Thanks” for some sort of XFX
gesture by your folks and some other
function’s folks.)
5.
6. Present counterparts in other functions awards for service to your
group. Tiny awards at least weekly; and an “Annual All-Star
Supporters (from other groups) Banquet” modeled after superstar
salesperson banquets.
XFX/ Typical Social Accelerators
7. Routinely discuss—A SEPARATE AGENDA ITEM—good and
problematic acts of cross-functional cooperation at every
Team Meeting.
8. When someone in another function asks for assistance,
respond with … more … alacrity than you would if it were the
person in the cubicle next to yours—or even more than you
would for a key external customer. (Remember, XFX is the key
to Customer Retention which is in turn the key to “all good
things.”)
9. Do not bad mouth ... “the damned accountants,” “the bloody
HR guy.” Ever. (Bosses: Severe penalties for this—including
public tongue-lashings.)
10. Get physical! “Co-location” may well be the most powerful
“culture change lever.” Physical X-functional proximity is
almost a … guarantee … of remarkably improved cooperation—
to aid this one needs flexible workspaces that can be
mobilized for a team in a flash.
11. Establish “adhocracy” as S.O.P. To improve the new “Xfunctional Culture” (and business results), 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.”
XFX/ Typical Social Accelerators
12. Early project “management” experience. Within days, literally,
of coming aboard folks should be “running” some bit of a bit of a
bit a project, working with folks from other functions—hence, “all
this” becomes as natural as breathing.
13. Work proactively to give as large as possible numbers of
people temporary assignments in other functions—especially
Finance.
14. “Get ’em out with the customer.” Rarely does the accountant
or bench scientist call on the customer. Reverse that. Give
everyone more or less regular “customer-facing experiences.”
She or he learns quickly that the customer is not interested in
our in-house turf battles!
15. Consider creating a special role, or even position. Specialty
chemical company Buckman Labs established “knowledge
transfer facilitators,” effectively former “middle managers,” with
100% of discretionary pay based on success at spurring
integration across previously impermeable barriers.
XFX/: Typical Social Accelerators
16. Formal evaluations. Everyone, starting with the receptionist, should
have a significant XF rating component in their evaluation. (The “XFX
Performance” should be among the Top 3 items in all managers’
evaluations.)
Every functional unit should have strict and
extensive measures of “customer satisfaction”
based on evaluations from other functions of its
usefulness and effectiveness and value-added to
the enterprise as a whole.
17.
18. Demand XF experience for, especially, senior jobs. For example, the
U.S. military requires all would-be generals and admirals to have served
a full tour in a job whose only goals were cross-functional achievements.
19. “Deep dip.” Dive three levels down in the organization to fill a senior
role with some one who has been noticeably pro-active on adding value
via excellent cross-functional integration.
20. XFX is … PERSONAL … as well as about organizational effectiveness.
PXFX (Personal XFX) is arguably the #1 Accelerant to personal
success—in terms of organizational career, freelancer/Brand You, or as
entrepreneur.
21. Excellence! There is a “State of XF Excellence” per se. Talk it
up constantly. Pursue it. Aspire to nothing less.
EXPLICITLY & VISIBLY &
RELENTLESSLY MANAGE
TO XFX STANDARD!
ONE DAMN ACT OF XFX
ENHANCEMENT
EVERY DAY!
“Allied commands depend on
mutual confidence
and this confidence is
gained, above all
development
of friendships.”
through the
—General D.D. Eisenhower, Armchair General*
*“Perhaps his most outstanding ability [at West Point]
he made friends and earned the
trust of fellow cadets who came from widely
varied backgrounds; it was a quality that would pay great
was the ease with which
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
“XFX”: Friendship driven
!
Innovate
or Die:
Measure It!
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? (At least 3???)
Innovation Index: Move
every project (definition)
2 notches up on the
“WOW Scale”
…
THIS WEEK.
Innovate
or Die:
Ubiquitous!
Iron Innovation Equality Law:
The quality and
quantity and
imaginativeness
of innovation shall be
the same in all
functions —e.g., in HR and
purchasing as much as in marketing or
product development.*
VALUE-ADDED
STRATEGIES
TGRs:
8/80
Customers describing their service
experience as “superior”:
8%
Companies describing
the service experience they provide as
“superior”:
80%
—Source: Bain & Company survey of 362 companies, reported in John DiJulius,
What's the Secret to Providing a World-class Customer Experience?
STUNNING.
Conveyance: Kingfisher Air
Location: Approach to New Delhi
“May I clean
your glasses,
sir?”
On a Mumbai to Delhi flight, as we began our
approach the flight attendant came down the
aisle in business class and asked us if we
wished to have our glasses cleaned. No joke,
that’s the sort of “little” thing one remembers
…
for a lifetime
.
Conveyance: Southwest Airlines
Location: Boarding, Albany NY
“May I help
you down the
jetway.”
I think I’ve chalked up about 10,000 flight legs.
Not much new under the sun for me. But then
came the day in 2013 …
Plane (Southwest) about to board at BWI. Three
or four wheelchairs lined up at the gate. Crew
arrives. Pilot turns to the older woman in the 1st
wheelchair in the line and says, “May I help you
down the jetway?” She says yes. He does.
Big deal?
To me, … YES.
And I contend such behavior is a crystal clear
byproduct of Kelleher’s unswerving,
4-decade commitment to his people.
(The “BIG DUH”: Treat the staff well and they’ll
treat the customer well. Then sit back and count
the profit.)
“Courtesies of a small
and trivial character
are the ones which
strike deepest in the
grateful and
appreciating heart.”
—Henry Clay
7X.
7:30A-8:00P. F12A.
7:30AM = 7:15AM.
8:00PM = 8:15PM.
(2,000,000)
Source: Vernon Hill, Fans, Not Customers
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
BEGINS
(and ENDS)
It
in the …
PARKING
LOT*
*Disney
Don’t like it?
Don’t pay!
Source: Graniterock Co.
<TGW
and …
>TGR
(Things Gone
WRONG-Things Gone RIGHT)
Quality—minimizing things gone wrong—is of
the utmost importance. But fact is, most
things work pretty well these days. Hence the
emphasis associated with differentiation
switches to the other side of the equation:
TGRs/THINGS GONE RIGHT.
The trick is to focus—systematically—
on adding to the TGR population.
“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
“Experience” is, say, well beyond
“customer satisfaction.” (In fact,
of an entirely different character.)
It is about the totality of the
aesthetics and functionality of
dealing with your organization.
C
*Chief e
O*
Xperience Officer
I’m urging a “C-level” position.
(Or the equivalent thereto—evn in a 6-person
unit.)
“Experience”:
The Law of Ubiquity
The experience notion applies to the internal
function dealing with its internal customers
as much as it does with interactions with
outsiders.
TGRS.
MANAGE ’EM.
MEASURE ’EM.*
*I use “manage-measure” a lot. Translation: These are
not “soft” ideas; they are exceedingly important things
that can be managed—AND measured.
TGRs:
3 Minutes
“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 Successful.
“Centerpiece” is a mouthful.
(And Goldsmith has few if any peers as an
executive coach. Hence: Take heed.)
THERE ONCE
WAS A TIME WHEN A
Relationships
(of all varieties):
THREE-MINUTE
PHONE CALL WOULD
HAVE AVOIDED SETTING OFF THE
DOWNWARD SPIRAL THAT
RESULTED IN A COMPLETE
RUPTURE.*
*Divorce, loss of a BILLION $$$ aircraft sale, etc., etc.
I call this an …
“IRON LAW.”
THE PROBLEM IS
RARELY/NEVER THE
PROBLEM. THE
RESPONSE TO THE
PROBLEM INVARIABLY
ENDS UP BEING THE
REAL PROBLEM.
(OPPORTUNITY).
Another …
“IRON LAW.”
TGRs:
K=R=P
K=R=P
Kindness =
Repeat Business =
Profit.
K = R = P/Kindness = Repeat business = Profit
Kindness:
Kind.
Thoughtful.
Decent.
Caring.
Attentive.
Engaged.
Listens well/obsessively.
Appreciative.
Open.
Visible.
Honest.
Responsive.
On time all the time.
Apologizes with dispatch for screw-ups.
“Over”-reacts to screw-ups of any magnitude.
“Professional” in all dealings.
Optimistic.
Understands that kindness to staff breeds kindness to others/outsiders.
Applies throughout the “supply chain.”
Applies to 100% of customer’s staff.
Explicit part of values statement.
Basis for evaluation of 100% of our staff.
"Let's not forget
that small
emotions are the
great captains of
our lives."
–—Van Gogh
Social Business/
Customer
Engagement
“Customer engagement is moving
from relatively isolated market
transactions to deeply connected
and sustained social
relationships. This basic change
in how we do business will make
an impact on just about
everything we do.”
Social Business By Design: Transformative Social Media Strategies
For the Connected Company —Dion Hinchcliffe & Peter Kim
“What
used to be “word of mouth” is
now “word of mouse.” You
are either creating brand
ambassadors or brand
terrorists doing brand
assassination.”
Welcome to the Age of Social Media:
—John DiJulius, The Customer Service Revolution: Overthrow
Conventional Business, Inspire Employees, and Change the World
Not overstated.
“It
takes 20 years to
build a reputation
and five minutes to
ruin it. Also, the Internet and
Welcome to the Age of Social Media:
technology have made customers more
demanding., and they expect information,
answers, products, responses, and
resolutions sooner than ASAP.” —John DiJulius,
The Customer Service Revolution
Not overstated.
“The
customer is in
complete control of
communication.”
Welcome to the Age of Social Media:
—John DiJulius, The Customer Service Revolution: Overthrow
Conventional Business, Inspire Employees, and Change the World
Not overstated.
“I would rather engage in a
Twitter conversation with a
single customer than see our
company attempt to attract the
attention of millions in a
coveted Super Bowl
commercial.
Why? Because having people discuss your brand
directly with you, actually connecting one-to-one, is far more valuable—not to
mention far cheaper!. …
“Consumers Wnt to discuss what they like, the companies they support, and the
organizations and leaders they resent. They want a community. They want to be
heard. …
“[I]f we engage employees, customers, and prospective customers in meaningful
dialogue about their lives, challenges, interests, and concerns, we can build a
community of trust, loyalty, and—possibly over time—help them become
advocates and champions for the brand.”
—Peter Aceto, CEO,
Tangerine (from the Foreword to A World Gone Social:
How Companies Must Adapt to Survive, by Ted Coine & Mark Babbit)
This extraordinary comment comes from a
CEO in … financial services. (Tangerine is
a very successful Canadian bank.)
“Amy Howell
[social marketer extraordinaire,
ignites
epidemics. In a good way,
of course. Epidemics of
excitement. Epidemics of
business connections.
Epidemics of influence.”
founder of Howell Marketing]
—Mark Schaeffer, ROI/Return on Influence: The Revolutionary
Power of Klout, Social Scoring, and Influence Marketing
There is an entire industry of those who
know how to play this game. The bank of
experiences—good and bad—is growing
exponentially.
Social Business/
New Ball Game
ZMOT
: ZERO Moment Of Truth/Google*
“You know what a ‘moment of truth’ is. It’s when a prospective customer
decides either to take the next step in the purchase funnel, or to exit and
seek other options. … But what is a ‘zero moment of truth’? Many behaviors
can serve as a zero moment of truth, but what binds them together is that
the purchase is being researched and considered before the prospect even
enters the classic sales funnel … In its research, Google found that
84%
of shoppers said the new mental
model, ZMOT, shapes their decisions. …”
—Jay Baer, Youtility: Why Smart Marketing Is About Help, Not Hype
*See www.zeromomentoftruth.com for ZMOT in booklength format
The conventional game is over—before it
starts.
Social Business/
Re-Formatting
Enterprise
*Be nimble or be dead
*Go nano or go home [Nano corps, or fluid
self-forming groups that move from one organization to another,
will get most projects done.]
*Management is unnecessary
*Managers cost too much
*How far can you scale flat?
*Small is here to stay
*Small will be the bane of large
Source: Ted Coine & Mark Babbit, A World Gone Social: How Companies Must
Adapt to Suevive
There is more than a smidgeon of
exaggeration here. On the other hand, it is
directionally correct—and these concepts
must be “front of mind.” They are no
longer pie-in-the-sky.
The game is on!
The stakes are enormous!
Seven Characteristics of the Social Employee
1. Engaged
2. Expects Integration of the
Personal and Professional
3. Buys Into the Brand’s Story
4. Born Collaborator
5. Listens
6. Customer-Centric
7. Empowered Change Agent
Source: Cheryl Burgess & Mark Burgess,
The Social Employee
The “social business model” demands as
table stakes a degree of “empowerment”employee engagement-employee
autonomy unimagined a scant five years
ago.
Biz 2014: Get Aboard the “S-Train”
SM/Social Media.
SX/Social eXecutives.
SE/Social Employees.
SO/Social Organization.
SB/Social Business.
SB/SE
>> SM*
*“Social BUSINESS”/“Social EMPLOYEE” >> “Social Media”
“Social” is a lot more than “social media.”
GROSS
UNDERSTATEMENT.
And that is …
(BIG) Data =
(BIG) $$$
“Caesars’ Entertainment
have bet their future on
harvesting personal
data rather than
developing the fanciest
properties.”
—Adam Tanner,
What Stays in Vegas: The World of Personal Data—Lifeblood of Big
Business—and the End of Privacy as We Know it
The (absurdly fine-grained)
data about the guests/
players is worth more than
the facility.
Welcome to the New World Order.
(Re-read. Think about it.)
Persado
(vs. copywriter): emotion words, product
characteristics, “call to action,” position of text, images
Up To $250 To Spend On
All Ships In All
Destinations. 2 Days Left
(1.3%)
vs.
No kidding! You Qualify to
Experience An Incredible
Vacation With Us :-)
(4.1)
“A creative person is good but random. We’ve taken the
randomness out by building an ontology of language”
—Lawrence Whittle, head of sales
Source: Wall Street Journal/ 0825.14/ “It’s Finally Time to Take AI Seriously”
An algorithm writes a more effective ad
than a human—given the vast horde of
data on prior reactions to various words,
sentiments, etc.
“Flash forward to dystopia. You work in a chic
cubicle, sucking chicken-flavor sustenance from
a tube. You’re furiously maneuvering with a
joystick … Your boss stops by and gives you a
look. ‘We need to talk about your loyalty to this
The organization you work
for has deduced that you are
considering quitting. It predicts
your plans and intentions,
possibly before you have even
conceived them.”
company.’
—Eric Siegel, Predictive Analytics:
The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die (based on a real case, an
HP “Flight risk” PA model developed by HR, with astronomical savings potential)
Algorithmic invasion of HR is underway.
“Algorithms have already written symphonies
as moving as those composed by
Beethoven, picked through legalese with
the deftness of a senior law partner,
diagnosed patients with more accuracy than a
doctor, written news articles with the
smooth hand of a seasoned reporter, and
driven vehicles on urban highways with far
better control than a human
driver.”
Automate This: How
Algorithms Came to Rule the World
—Christopher Steiner,
DESIGN
Design Rules!
APPLE market cap
> Exxon Mobil*
*August 2011 (0410.15: $740B, 2X #2)
When Apple’s market cap shot past
Exxon Mobil’s, there was no longer any
“DESIGN
POWER.”
issue about …
Now only
idiots will ignore it—in enterprises of
any and every size and flavor.
“You know a
design is good
when you want to
lick it.”
—Steve Jobs
Source: Design: Intelligence Made Visible,
Stephen Bayley & Terence Conran
“Typically, design is a
vertical stripe in the chain
of events in a product’s
delivery. [At Apple, it’s] a long,
horizontal stripe, where
design is part of every
conversation.”
—Robert Brunner, former Apple design chief
Design at Apple intrudes into every nook
and cranny. While the average firm is not
and cannot be Apple, there is much to
learn about the value of pervasive “design
mindfulness.”
“Huge
degree of
care.”
Apple design:
—Ian Parker, New Yorker, 23 March 2015, on Jony Ives
“Steve and Jony would discuss corners
for hours and hours.”
—Laurene Powell Jobs
“Apple’s great design secret may
be avoiding insult. Their
thoughtfulness is a sign of
respect. Elegance in objects is
everybody’s right, and it
shouldn’t cost more than
ugliness. So much of our
manufacturing environment
testifies to carelessness.” —Paola
Antonelli, MOMA
“He craved products that
didn’t force adjustments of
behavior, that gave people
a feeling of gratitude that
someone else thought this
through in a way that
made your life easier.”
—Laurene Powell Jobs
I believe much of the “Apple message”
applies to firms of every flavor and size.
Painstaking “aesthetic care” involving
every aspect of the enterprise, process
if it becomes a
and product or service—
way of life—is invaluable, from the corner
store to the accountancy to the car
dealership to the usual suspects.
Ann Landers as management guru/
three criteria for products, projects, a
communication, etc.:
Good.
True.
Helpful.
Don’t flip by this slide. Ponder it. Alone and
with others. Regardless of your job or
rank.
“Design is
treated like a
religion at
BMW.” —Fortune
“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 of … the
‘Every Starbucks
store is carefully designed to
enhance the quality of everything
the customers see, touch, hear,
smell or taste,’ writes CEO Howard Schultz.”
aesthetic imperative. …
—Virginia Postrel, The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic
Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture and Consciousness
O*
C
*Chief
Design
Officer
A … Chief Design Officer … is
a clear need in any/every
sizeable organization.
And some form of CDO assignment is/can be
of abiding importance in the smallest of
firms.
Again: Regardless of industry.
DESIGN is the
principal difference
Hypothesis:
love and
hate!*
between
*Not “like” and “dislike”
Design is …
NEVER
neutral.
Design, though emphasizing
functionality as well as aesthetics, is
primarily about an …
emotional
reaction … to a product or
service.
Not “like” or “dislike.”
Rather: “Love” or “hate.”
Powerful stuff!
Hypothesis: Men
cannot
design for women’s
!!??
needs
Sooooo …..
Women BUY
(Everything)
!
“Forget CHINA,
INDIA and the
INTERNET: Economic
Growth Is Driven by
WOMEN.”
Source: Headline, Economist
Not an iota of exaggeration.
(But many a missed opportunity.)
W>
2X (C + I)*
*“Women now drive the global economy. Globally, they control about $20
trillion in consumer spending, and that figure could climb as high as
$28 trillion
in the next five years. Their
$13 trillion in total yearly earnings could reach $18 trillion in the same
period. In aggregate, women represent a growth market bigger than China and India combined—more than
twice as big in fact. Given those numbers, it would be foolish to ignore or underestimate the female consumer. And
yet many companies do just that—even ones that are confidant that they have a winning strategy when it comes to
women. Consider Dell’s …”
Source: Michael Silverstein and Kate Sayre, “The Female Economy,” HBR, 09.09
$28,000,000,000,000.
(Lots of ZEROS.)
“Since 1970, women have held two out of
three new jobs. According to the Economist,
which compiled studies from a number of
research firms, the arrival of this new
workforce has done more to encourage global
growth than increases in capital investment
and improvements in productivity. ‘Over the
last 10 years the increase in women [in the
workplace] in developed countries has made
more of a contribution to global growth than
China has,’ concludes the British weekly.”
Source: “Women Are Drivers of Global Growth,” Aude Zieseniss de Thuin,
founder and president of the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society ( FT)
“Since 1970, women have held two out of
three new jobs. According to the Economist,
which compiled studies from a number of
research firms, the arrival of this new
workforce has done more to encourage global
growth than increases in capital investment
and improvements in productivity. ‘Over the
last 10 years the increase in women [in the
workplace] in developed countries has made
more of a contribution to global growth than
China has,’ concludes the British weekly.”
Source: “Women Are Drivers of Global Growth,” Aude Zieseniss de Thuin,
founder and president of the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society ( FT)
“Women are
THE majority
market”
—Fara Warner/The Power of the Purse
Women as Decision Makers/Various sources
Home Furnishings …
Vacations …
92%
94%
(Adventure Travel … 70%/ $55B travel equipment)
91%
D.I.Y.
… 80%
Consumer Electronics … 51%
Cars … 68% (influence 90%)
Houses …
(major “home projects”)
(66% home computers)
All consumer purchases …
Bank Account …
83% *
89%
67%
Small business loans/biz starts … 70%
Health Care … 80%
Household investment decisions …
*In the USA women hold >50% managerial positions including >50% purchasing officer positions;
hence women also make the majority of commercial purchasing decisions.
Women as …
55%
Purchasing managers: 42%
Wholesale/retail buyers: 52%
Purchasing agents:
Employee health-benefit
plans:
60%
Source: Martha Barletta/TrendSight Group/0517.11
With stats like these, one can see that
women are driving the purchase of the
commercial goods,
bulk of
not just consumer goods.
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…
Sales/After-sales Process
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Kick-off – Women
Research – Women
Purchase – Men
Ownership – Women
Word-of-mouth – Women
Source: Martha Barletta, Marketing to Women: How to Increase Your Share of the World’s Largest Market
Gets a belly laugh in my speeches—and
(almost) all agree it’s true. And while it
may be amusing—the consequences, as
previously stated, run to trillions of
dollars.
(Source: Martha Barletta, The
TrendSight Group.)
The (ENORMOUS)
“Services Added”
Opportunity
“Rolls-Royce now earns
more from tasks such
as managing clients’ overall
procurement strategies and
maintaining aerospace
engines it sells than it does
from making them.”
—Economist
Read this twice or thrice.
It has happened quickly.
The implications are wide and deep.
“You are headed
for commodity
hell if you don’t
have services.”
—Lou Gerstner, on IBM’s revolution (1997)
M
IBM
IB
to
In the 1990s, with its old businesses in
retreat, IBM began a rapid & radical
transformation from hardware to
services.
“Never mind computers
and tech services. IBM’s
radical new focus is
on revamping
customers’ operations—
and running them.”
—Headline/ BW
Planetary Rainmaker-in-Chief!
“[CEO Sam] 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
$50B*
*IBM Global Services/
“Systems integrator of choice”
IBM is the poster child of this “movement.” In the
early ’90s, new CEO Lou Gerstner was ordered by the
board to break up the company. Before complying, he
made a round-the-world customer tour. He discovered
that his customers were not by and large dissatisfied
with IBM’s products—they were upset that their vast
array of IBM products had not been integrated in a
way that allowed the client to achieve promised
enterprise-wide gains in business effectiveness.
Gerstner found a small extant consulting unit—and
recast it as IBM Global Services; its goal was to use
the new tools to enable no less than total enterprise
transformation. In surprisingly short order, Global
Services became the dog that wags the tail— a
$50
billion++ unit, essentially the world’s largest
consultancy, that indeed assists re-imagining/reinventing/re-positioning their entire firm!
(As to the IBM on the slide—the “M”/machine is now
more or less secondary.)
PS
UPS
U
to
“Big Brown’s New Bag: UPS Aims to
Be the Traffic Manager for
Corporate America” —Headline/BW
“UPS wants to take over the sweet
spot in the endless loop of goods,
information and capital that all the
packages [it moves] represent.” —ecompany.com
“It’s all about solutions. We work
with customers on creating and
running better, stronger, cheaper
supply chains.” —Bob Stoffel, UPS senior exec
UPS still has 10s of thousands of trucks,
but it is also becoming a major provider
of integrated logistics services—the
S
future is UP
as master of the allimportant supply chain.
IDEO
Product Design
Product Design Training
Innovation Training
The big company examples are readily
translatable into the world of smaller
IDEO
firms.
, the peerless product
design firm based in Palo Alto, was
asked by (big/very big) clients if its
legendary approach to creativity could
be imported into their firms. The answer
was a resounding yes—and IDEO now
has a thriving business helping others
improve their creative and product
development processes.
“The business of selling is not just about matching
viable solutions to the customers that require them.
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 our position in the market is
our attention to managing change and making change
stick in our customers’ organization.”
—Jeff Thull, The Prime Solution: Close the Value Gap, Increase Margins, and Win the Complex Sale
AND THE
WINNERS
AREN’T/ARE
-1/+1/2
S&P 500
+1/-1*
*Every …
!
2 weeks
Source: Richard Foster (via Rita McGrath/HBR/12.26.13
I was flabberghasted by this. The S&P
500 defines the USA economy. The
BIGGEST of the BIG guys. And yet one
drops off the list …
WEEKS.
Wow!
EVERY 2
“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 …
Source: Paul Ormerod, Why Most Things Fail: Evolution, Extinction and Economics
“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
years for
1,000
found that
U.S. companies.
40
They
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
Big company performance is, shall we
say, problematic. (I could provide a
hundred more equally compelling
slides.)
AND THE
WINNERS
AREN’T/ARE
Roll Out the
RED Carpet!
THE RED
CARPET
STORE
(Joel Resnick/Flemington NJ)
My favorite company. Provide the red
carpet for the Oscars, etc., etc., etc.
dominate/own their
They
niche.
Cool.
VERY
cool.
*Basement Systems Inc.
(Larry Janesky/Seymour CT)
*Dry Basement Science
(100,000++ copies!)
*1990: $0; 2003: $13M;
2010:
$80,000,000
Larry Janesky turns damp moldy
basements into dry storage areas,
family rooms, etc. He is …
Mr. Basement … and
has the patents & profits to prove it.
The Magicians of Motueka (PLUS)
!
W.A. Coppins Ltd.*
(Coppins Sea Anchors/
PSA/para sea anchors)
*Textiles, 1898; thrive on
“wicked problems”
U.S. Navy STLVAST (Small To Large Vehicle At Sea
Transfer); custom fabric from W. Wiggins Ltd./Wellington
(specialty nylon, “Dyneema,” from DSM/Netherlands)
—e.g.,
Motueka, New Zealand, is a peanutsized town. (Very near where I live in the
winter.) But it sports best-in-world in the
high-value-added business of sea
anchors. Clients include the U.S. Navy
and the Norwegian government.
“wicked
problems.”
Grooves on …
(I organized a keynote speech to New Zealand’s business and
government leaders around W.A. Coppins—an exemplar of global
business “domination” in a small corner of a small country.)
Going “Social”: Location and Size Independent
“Today, despite the fact that we’re just a little swimming
pool company in Virginia, we have the most trafficked
swimming pool website in the world. Five years ago, if
you’d asked me and my business partners what we do, the
answer would have been simple, ‘We build in-ground
‘We
are the best teachers
… in the world … on the
fiberglass swimming pools.’ Now we say,
subject of fiberglass swimming pools,
and we also happen to build them.’”
—Jay Baer, Youtility: Why Smart Marketing Is About Help, Not Hype
A small swimming pool firm takes to
social media with a vengeance and
becomes a major
(world)
force in its market space.
“BE THE BEST.
IT’S THE ONLY
MARKET THAT’S
NOT CROWDED.”
From: Retail Superstars: Inside the 25 Best
Independent Stores in America, George Whalin
LOVE this sentence
—and LOVE the firms that embody it.
I
Retail Superstars:
Inside the 25 Best
Independent Stores
in America
—by George Whalin
JUNGLE JIM’S INTERNATIONAL MARKET, FAIRFIELD, OH:
“An adventure in
‘shoppertainment,’ begins in the parking lot
and goes on to
1,600
cheeses and
1,400
varieties of hot sauce—not to mention 12,000 wines priced from
$8-$8,000
4,000
a bottle; all this is brought to you by
vendors. Customers from every corner of the globe.”
BRONNER’S CHRISTMAS WONDERLAND, FRANKENMUTH, MI, POP
5,000: 98,000-square-foot “shop” features
ornaments,
50,000
6,000
Christmas
trims, and anything else you can
name pertaining to Christmas. …”
Incredible. I give this book to accountants
and lawyers and anyone I can buttonhole.
It amount to 25 acts of unparalleled
imagination—that define excellence and
differentiation. (In, often as not, out of the
way corners of the world—or, at least, the
USA.)
I LOVE THESE
FOLKS.
I repeat:
Middle-sized
NicheMicro-niche
Dominators!
I love …
"Own" a niche through EXCELLENCE
(Writ large: Germany’s MITTELSTAND)
!
Forget the giants. (More or less.) Economic
excellence is largely built more upon a
hearty base of middle-sized superstars.
Such a group, called the Mittelstand, are
the source of Germany’s astounding/
sustaining export excellence. (Until
recently, the world’s #1 exporter.)
MITTELSTAND*
*“agile creatures darting between the
legs of the multinational monsters” (Bloomberg
BusinessWeek)
Michael Raynor and Mumtaz Ahmed’: THE THREE RULES:
How Exceptional Companies Think*:
1. Better before cheaper.
2. Revenue before cost.
3. There are no other rules.
(*From a database of over 25,000 companies from hundreds of industries covering 45 years, they
uncovered 344 companies that qualified as statistically “exceptional.”)
Jeff Colvin, Fortune: “The Economy Is Scary … But Smart
Companies Can Dominate”:
They manage for value—not for EPS.
They keep developing human capital.
They get radically customer-centric.
“‘Commodity’ is a
state of mind.
ANYTHING can be
DRAMATICALLY
differentiated.”
Truth in
Numbers
Where the +201,000 new private-sector
jobs came from …
51% Small firms
41% Medium-sized*
8% Big
Source: ADP National Employment Report/March 2011
*E.g., German MITTELSTAND
The Future Is Small:
Why AIM Will Be the
World’s Best Market
Beyond the Credit
Boom —Gervais Williams,
superstar fund manager (FT/1217.14:
“Research shows that new and small
companies create almost all the new
private sector jobs and are
disproportionately innovative.”)
Entrepreneurs
and
Businesspersons
All
WHITE-COLLAR SURVIVAL STRATEGY #1:
Department as Smallish/Entrepreneurial
BUSINESS
E.g.: Training Inc., a 14person unit* in a 50-person HR
department in a $200M
business unit in a $3B
corporation—aiming for
Excellence & WOW!
*PSF/
Professional Service Firm (See my …
Professional Service Firm 50: Fifty Ways to Transform Your “Department” Into
A Professional Service Firm Whose Trademarks Are Passion and Innovation.)
The Professional Service Firm50: Fifty Ways to Transform
Your “Department” into a Professional Service Firm
Whose Trademarks Are Passion and Innovation!
Think back to the discussion of the extraordinary technology
change engulfing us—and, now, its likely impact on high-end
white collar jobs. I believe there is an escape path, a route to
not only survival, but flourishing.
I first wrote about this in my 1999 book, Professional Service
Firm 50: Fifty Ways to Transform Your “Department” Into A
Professional Service Firm Whose Trademarks Are Passion and
Innovation. The idea: CONVERT EVERY
“DEPARTMENT”/“UNIT” (and yourself) INTO A FULLFLEDGED … “PSF”/ PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
FIRM … WHOLLY DEDICATED TO EXCELLENCE
& WOW & ADDING SKYSCRAPING VALUE TO
THEIR CUSTOMERS’ (usually internal customers)
ACTIVITIES.
Hence, TRAINING, INC. (Etc. Etc.)
This is one Big Damn Deal.
human
beings are
entrepreneurs. When we
Muhammad Yunus:
“All
were in the caves we were all self-employed . .
. finding our food, feeding ourselves. That’s
where human history began . . . As civilization
came we suppressed it. We became labor
because they stamped us, ‘You are labor.’
We forgot that we are entrepreneurs.”
—Muhammad Yunus,
Nobel Laureate/The News Hour/PBS/1122.2006
An entrepreneurial flair is not limited to a
handful of Mark Zuckerbergs. As microlending guru and Nobel Laureate
Muhammad Yunus tells us, virtually all of
us who have survived the Darwinian
sorting process find that some form of
entrepreneurial behavior comes naturally.
Distinct or extinct!
“I believe that ninety
percent of whitecollar/“knowledge-work” jobs
(which are 80 percent of all
jobs) in the U.S. will be either
destroyed or altered beyond
recognition in the next 10 to
15 years.”
Repeat:
—Cover story/Time/22 May 2000/Tom Peters
Circa 2013+: Multiple Choice Examination
You will you lose your job to;
choose one …
Offshore contractor?
Advanced high-speed algorithm?
Robot?
A re-tooled value-added “Brand You”?
Source: Derived primarily from Dan Pink
Circa 2014:
Brand YOU.
Fabulous at … something.
STAND OUT.
Or … STAND DOWN.
No other options.
GROW.
Or … DIE
(professionally).
No other options.
“The ecosystem used to
funnel lots of talented
people into a few clear
winners. Now it’s
funneling lots of
talented people into
lots of experiments.”
“Bay Watched:
How San Francisco’s New Entrepreneurial Culture Is
Changing the Country,” The New Yorker, 1014.13
—Tyler Willis, business developer, to Nathan Heller in
We’re beginning to “get it.”
“The average age of a
startup founder is 40. And
high-growth startups are
nearly twice as likely to
be launched by people
over 55 as by people
20-34.”
—Vivek Wadhwa, Kauffman foundation (Time/0325.13)
Wow.
(I.e., not just a youngster’s game.)
“The growth and
success of womenowned businesses is one
of the most profound
changes taking place in
the business world
today.”
—Margaret Heffernan, How She Does It
Under-attended lynchpin of the New
Entrepreneurial Age?
!
LEADERSHIP
Not a “theory of leadership” by any means.
Just a few ideas to ponder—and, I hope in
some cases, implement.
“I’m always stopping by our
at least
a week.
stores—
25
I’m also in other
places: Home Depot, Whole Foods, Crate &
Barrel. I try to be a sponge to pick up as
much as I can.” —Howard Schultz
Source: Fortune, “Secrets of Greatness”
MBWA
Managing
By
Wandering
Around
The MBWA idea—in touch management—
was the signature of In Search of
Excellence.
3K/5M
Source: Mark McCormack
3,000 miles for
a 5-minute
face-to
-face meeting
Glib But TRUE
“Decisions
are made by
those who
show up.”
—Aaron Sorkin
“IT’S
ALWAYS
SHOWTIME.”
—
“IT’S ALWAYS
SHOWTIME.”
—David D’Alessandro, Career Warfare
“Nothing is so
contagious as
enthusiasm.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge
“I am a
dispenser of
enthusiasm.”
—Ben Zander, symphony conductor and management guru
“A man without
a smiling face
must not open
a shop.”
—Chinese Proverb
BE EXPLICIT!
HIRE FOR IT!
PROMOTE FOR IT!
You = Your
calendar*
*The calendar
NEVER
lies.
YOUR CALENDAR
KNOWS PRECISELY
WHAT YOU
REALLY CARE
ABOUT.
DO YOU????
Your priorities are revealed in your
allocation of time.
PERIOD.
“Dennis, you need a …
‘TO-DON’T ’
List !”
A good friend-entrepreneur has an idea a
minute—and damned if they’re not all good!
But to move the next step in his enterprise,
namely rolling his program out to a wide
audience in dozens of locations, focus is
required. His closest advisor, a former CEO of
a big company, told my pal (I was there) that
the key was … managing his “To-don’ts.”
Amen!
For my friend Dennis!
For me!
For you!
“If there is any
ONE
‘secret’ to
effectiveness, it is concentration.
Effective executives do first things first …
and they do
ONE thing at a
time.”
—Peter Drucker
Just say “No” to “our five strategic
priorities.”
One’ll do it.
Two’s a pipedream.
(Per Mr. Drucker—not a bad guide.)
Monday
Morning
—
Monday/Tomorrow/Courtesy NFL:
“Script” your
first 5-10
“plays.”
(I.e., carefully
launch the day/week in a purposeful
fashion.)
“Every year, for 25 years, is a
startup. For that matter, every event
is a start up. No customers.
Not
one single
satisfied
customer! I take nothing
for granted.”
—Jose Salibi Neto*
*Only person to push Peter Drucker around! Radio City Music Hall!
#1
CEO Failing?
“If I had to
pick one failing
of CEOs, it’s
that …
—Co-founder of one of the largest investment services firms in the USA/world
“If I had to pick one failing of
they
don’t read
enough.”
CEOs, it’s that …
Wow.
AND: Well worth considering.
(I.e., pause and reflect on this. PLEASE.)
(FYI: I agree.)
(The quote comes from someone who is a
VERY Big Deal. Short of Warren Buffett, but
barely. Speaker not ID’d because remark at a
private social dinner.)
(Regardless of your job, in 2014 you are either
a sterling student. Or …
TOAST.)
“In my whole life, I have known no
wise people (over a broad subject
matter area) who didn’t read all the
time — none.
Zero.
You’d be
amazed at how much Warren
[Buffett] reads — and how much I
read.” —Charlie Munger (#2, Berkshire Hathaway)
4, 8, 12
“The
4 most
important
words in any
organization are …
THE FOUR MOST IMPORTANT WORDS IN ANY ORGANIZATION
“WHAT
DO YOU
THINK?”
ARE …
Source: courtesy Dave Wheeler, posted at tompeters.com
8
MBWA
:
Change the World With EIGHT Words
What do you think?*
How can I help?**
*Dave Wheeler: “What are the four most important words in the boss’ lexicon?”
**Boss as CHRO/Chief Hurdle Removal Officer **********************************
Are you a full-fledged
“professional” when it
comes to helping?
Helping: (MUCH) easier said than done!
(I.e., a formal skill to be studied and
practiced.)
12
MBWA
:
Change the World
With TWELVE Words
What do you think?*
How can I help?**
What have you learned?***
*Dave Wheeler: “What are the four most important words in the boss’ lexicon?”
**Boss as CHRO/Chief Hurdle Removal Officer **********************************
***What (new thing) have you learned (in the last 24 hours)? ********************* *
Acknowledgement
!
Acknowledgement
I like the second title slide better than the
first.
“The deepest urge
in human nature
is the desire to be
important.”
—John Dewey
(In Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence
People (“The BIG Secret of Dealing With People”)
"Appreciative words are the
most powerful force
for good on earth.”
—George W. Crane, physician, columnist
“The two most powerful
things in existence: a
kind word and a
thoughtful gesture.”
—Ken Langone, co-founder, Home Depot
“Acknowledge” …
perhaps the most
powerful word (and
idea) in the English
language—and
manager’s tool kit!
“Employees who
don't feel significant
rarely make
significant
contributions.”
—Mark Sanborn
“People want to be part
of something larger than
themselves. They want
to be part of something
they’re really proud of, that
they’ll fight for, sacrifice
for, trust.” —Howard Schultz, Starbucks
Acknowledgement
PLUS
“It was much later that I realized Dad’s
secret. He gained respect by giving it.
He talked and listened to the fourthgrade kids in Spring Valley who shined
shoes the same way he talked and
listened to a bishop or a college
HE WAS
SERIOUSLY INTERESTED
IN WHO YOU WERE AND
WHAT YOU HAD TO SAY.”
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
“When I left the dining room after
sitting next to Gladstone, I thought he
was the cleverest man in England. But
when I sat next to Disraeli I left
feeling I was the cleverest
person.”
—Jennie Jerome (WSCs American mother)
“When you are talking to
,
you feel like he doesn’t care about
anything or or anybody else around but
you. He makes you feel like
[Bill Clinton]
the most important person in
the room.”
—Mark Hughes, screenwriter, Forbes blogger
“Leadership is about how
you make people feel—
about you, about the
project or work you’re
doing together, and
especially about
themselves.” —Betsy Myers,
Take the Lead: Motivate, Inspire, and Bring Out
the Best in Yourself and Everyone Around You
I attended a memorial service for one of
my great mentors, the generally acclaimed
#1 leadership guru (and extraordinary
humanist) Warren Bennis. About 15 of his
friends and colleagues spoke—myself
included. It was eerie: We each said the
same thing, albeit in slightly different
Warren made you feel
clever—and at the center of
his universe. This ability may be the
words.
effective leader’s most valuable attribute
when it comes to engaging the mind and
heart and soul and energy of others.
(*Repeat)
THERE ONCE
WAS A TIME WHEN A
Relationships
(of all varieties):
THREE-MINUTE
PHONE CALL WOULD
HAVE AVOIDED SETTING OFF THE
DOWNWARD SPIRAL THAT
RESULTED IN A COMPLETE
RUPTURE.*
*Divorce, loss of a BILLION $$$ aircraft sale, etc., etc.
!
Meetings ROCK
(Make that: SHOULD Rock)
Complain all
you want,
but meetings
are what you
(boss/leader) do!
Meetings are
#1
do. Therefore,
thing bosses
100% of
those meetings:
EXCELLENCE.
ENTHUSIASM.
ENGAGEMENT.
LEARNING. TEMPO.
No kidding.
Think about it.
PLEASE.
Prepare for a
meeting/every meeting
as if your professional
life and legacy
depended on it.
It does.
“The doctor
interrupts
after …*
*Source: Jerome Groopman, How Doctors Think
Harvard Med School doc Jerome Groopman
tells us that the patient is the doctor’s best
source of evidence about the patient’s
problem.
Period.
Then, citing hard-nosed research, Groopman
asks,
“On average, how long does the patient
speak before the doc interrupts …
18 …
18 …
seconds!
My larger point:
It ain’t only docs!
It’s doubtless pretty much all “experts” and
bosses!! That is …
You.
Me.
(An obsession with) Listening is ... the ultimate mark
of
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
is
is
is
is
is
is
is
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
Listening
Listening
Listening
Listening
is
is
is
is
...
...
...
...
the heart and soul of Engagement.
the heart and soul of Kindness.
the heart and soul of Thoughtfulness.
the basis for true Collaboration.
the basis for true Partnership.
a Team Sport.
a Developable Individual Skill.* (*Though women
are far better at it than men.)
the basis for Community.
the bedrock of Joint Ventures that work.
the bedrock of Joint Ventures that grow.
the core of effective Cross-functional
Communication* (*Which is in turn Attribute #1 of
organization effectiveness.)
(cont.)
Respect
.
SUSTAINABLE
COMPARATIVE STRATEGIC
ADVANTAGE … there is nothing but
When it comes to …
nothing but nothing that compares with …
EXCELLENCE IN STRATEGIC
LISTENING.
Period.
Suggested
Core Value
#1: “We are Effective
Listeners—we treat
Listening EXCELLENCE as
the Centerpiece of our
Commitment to Respect
and Engagement and
Community and Growth.”
LISTEN =
“PROFESSION” =
STUDY = PRACTICE =
EVALUATION =
ENTERPRISE VALUE
Listening can be
practiced
studied and
to the same extent and in
the same fashion as learning to play the
piano or cello.
“I always write
‘LISTEN’ on
the back of my hand
before a meeting.”
Source: Tweet viewed @tom_peters
100
Leaders:
Communications
failure …
100%*
*Your fault!
Step Up To
Creating/
Living/
Maintaining an
Effective Culture
“What matters most
to a company over time?
Strategy or culture?
WSJ/0910.13:
Dominic Barton, MD, McKinsey & Co.:
“Culture.”
“Culture precedes
positive results. It
doesn’t get tacked on
as an afterthought on
the way to the victory
stand.”
—NFL Hall of Fame Coach Bill Walsh
.
Developing and maintaining an effective
culture is a hard-nosed task, anything but
ephemeral, and is … LEADER JOB ONE.*
(*For McKinsey, McKinsey’s clients or the
San Francisco 49ers.)
“If I could have chosen not to tackle the IBM culture head-on,
I probably wouldn’t have. My bias coming in was toward
strategy, analysis and measurement. In comparison, changing
the attitude and behaviors of hundreds of thousands of people
Yet I came to see in
my time at IBM that culture
isn’t just one aspect of the
is very, very hard.
game
—IT IS THE
GAME.”
—Lou Gerstner, Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance
As Mr. Analysis, Lou Gerstner, says in no
Culture
issues must be
squarely addressed.
uncertain terms:
“The topic is probably the oldest and biggest debate in Customer
What is more important: How well
you hire, or the training and culture you
bring your employees into? While both are
service.
very important,
75
percent is the
Customer service training and the service
culture of your company. Do you really think that
Disney has found 50,000 amazing service-minded people? There
probably aren’t 50,000 people on earth who were born to serve.
Companies like Ritz-Carlton and Disney find good people and put
them in such a strong service and training environment that
doesn’t allow for accept anything less than excellence.” —John
DiJulius, The Customer Service Revolution: Overthrow Conventional Business,
Inspire Employees, and Change the World
Hard is Soft.
Soft is Hard.
Kevin Roberts’ Credo
1. Ready. Fire! Aim.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
If it ain’t broke ... Break it!
Hire crazies.
Ask dumb questions.
Pursue failure.
Lead, follow ... or get out of the way!
Spread confusion.
Ditch your office.
Read odd stuff.
10.
AVOID MODERATION!
Kevin Roberts is CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi
Worldwide—and a good friend.
“INSANELY GREAT”
STEVE JOBS
“RADICALLY THRILLING”
BMW
“ASTONISH ME”
SERGEI DIAGHLEV, TO A LEAD DANCER
“BUILD SOMETHING GREAT”
HIROSHI YAMAUCHI, NINTENDO, TO A SENIOR GAME DESIGNER
“MAKE IT IMMORTAL”
DAVID OGILVY, TO A COPYWRITER.
“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, CEO, Canon
0/800/78
“Normal” =
“0
*There are …
for
ZERO
800”
… “normal people” in the history books.
“You can’t behave in
a calm, rational
manner. You’ve got
to be out there on
the lunatic fringe.”
— Jack Welch
This 78-year-old aims to do no less than
change the world—beginning with
changing dramatically the culture of a
2,000+ year old hyper-rigid institution.
(And your change agenda?)
Appendix
The 34
BFOs*
*BFO/Blinding Flash of the Obvious
This Is the (OBVIOUS)
Stuff I Care About.
This Is the (OBVIOUS)
Stuff, the Absence of
Which Sends Me Into a …
BLIND RAGE.
Tom Peters/14 May 2014
NOTE: In 1985, I gave a 2-day seminar to YPO members in Manhattan. As
we moved to close, I asked for feedback. Early on, a chap by the name of
Manny Garcia got up to speak—Manny, who became a pal, was one of
Burger King’s top franchisees. He began, “I really didn’t hear anything
new in the two days”—you could have heard my sharp intake of breath
from the back row. He continued, “I’d add that this was probably the best
seminar I’ve attended in my many years in business.” Huh? “I’d call it a
‘BLINDING FLASH OF THE OBVIOUS.’ We KNOW all these things—but time
and again we fail to relentlessly practice them.” In retrospect, I consider
Manny’s feedback to be the best I’ve ever gotten.
There will be … GUARANTEED … nothing new in the slides in this set. We
know putting people REALLY first translates into mid- to long-term growth
and maximized profitability. SO WHY DON’T WE DO IT? We know … GREAT
TRAINING … pays for itself 100 times over—in business just much as in
sports and the arts. SO WHY DON’T WE DO IT? We know a simple “THANK
YOU” is the greatest of all motivators. SO WHY DON’T WE DO IT? And
on—and on—it goes.
Frankly, I am in a rotten mood. If I was preaching rocket science, and
people didn’t “get it,” that’d be one thing. But each point in this section
amounts to, beyond doubt, a, yes … BLINDING FLASH OF THE OBVIOUS.
Damn it! Let’s get a move on! It is indeed obvious, then … NO EXCUSES!
The 34 BFOs*
*Blinding Flash(es) of the Obvious
BFO
#1: If you (RELIGIOUSLY) help people—
EVERY SINGLE PERSON, JUNIOR OR
SENIOR, LIFER OR TEMP—grow and
reach/exceed their perceived potential, then
they in turn will bust their individual and
collective butts to create great experiences for
Clients—and the “bottom line” will get fatter and
fatter and fatter. (ANYBODY LISTENING?)
(PEOPLE FIRST = MAXIMIZED
PROFITABILITY. PERIOD.)
(ANYBODY LISTENING?) (FYI: “People
FIRST” message 10X more urgent than ever in
the high-engagement “AGE OF SOCIAL
BUSINESS.”)
ENABLING “ALL
HANDS” GROWTH/
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
BFO 2:
IS … LEADER DUTY
(And ALL good things flow there from.)
#1.
BFO 3: The “CTO”/Chief Training Officer should
(MUST! ) be on a par with the CFO/CMO.
TRAINING =
INVESTMENT #1.
(8 of 10 CEOs see training as an “expense,” not
an investment/prime asset booster.) ( “Our
training courses are so good they make
me want to giggle.” “Our trainers are on
the same pay scale as our engineers.” )
(In a 45-minute “tour d’horizon” of the
enterprise: GUARANTEE 9 of 10 CEOs* [*10 of
10?] wouldn’t once mention training.
THAT = DISGRACE.)
OUT-READ ‘EM.
AGE 17. AGE 77. 2014: READ &
BFO 4:
GROW … or wilt.
(One financial services superstar pegs CEO problem #1:
“They don’t read enough.”) STUDENTHOOOD
(OBSESSION THEREWITH) (for ALL of us) FOR LIFE!
BFO 5: Organizations one & all exist for ONE reason …
TO BE OF SERVICE. PERIOD.
(And effective leaders in turn are …
SERVANT LEADERS. PERIOD.)
BFO 6: The … HEART OF THE MATTER (productivity,
quality, service, you name it) … is the typically under-
FIRST-LINE BOSS. (Your FULL
CADRE of 1st-line bosses is arguably … ASSET
#1.)
attended …
WTTMSW
BFO 7:
. (Whoever Tries The Most Stuff
Wins.) WTTMSASTMSUTFW. (Whoever Tries The Most
Stuff And Screws The Most Stuff Up The Fastest Wins.)
Practical translation #1: Winning through the Discipline of
QUICK PROTOTYPES.
READY. FIRE. AIM.
Winners:
“RELENTLESS EXPERIMENTATION.”
“A Bias For Action”: #1 Success Requisite in 1982.
“A Bias For Action”: #1 Success Requisite in 2014.
.
BFO 8: “Fail faster. Succeed sooner.”
“FAIL. FORWARD. FAST.”
“Fail. Fail again. Fail better.”
“REWARD excellent failures. PUNISH
mediocre successes.”
Book/Farson: “Whoever Makes The Most Mistakes Wins.”
We do NOT “accept”/ “tolerate” failures.
WE CELEBRATE FAILURES.
BFO 9:
Excellence is NOT an “aspiration.”
Excellence IS the next 5 minutes.
(Or not.)
BFO 10: Enabling change Rule #1: It’s NOT NOT
NOT about “vanquishing (‘ignorant’) foes.” It’s
ALL ALL ALL about RELENTLESSLY seeking &
recruiting & nurturing …
ALLIES.
BFO 11: The Gospel of “SMALL WINS.” You
and your Allies cobble together a skein of
successful trials (“small wins”); momentum
around this portfolio of demos more important
than any high-investment Big Victory.
(ALLLIES + SMALL WINS +
MOMENTUM = UNSTOPPABLE.)
Year = 220 LUNCHES.
WASTE NOT ONE. Cross-functional
BFO 12:
SNAFUs #1 problem for most orgs. Software …
WILL NOT … fix it. ONLY … “Social Stuff” works—
e.g., makin’ pals in other functions; LUNDH =
Strategy #1.
XFX/Cross-Functional
Excellence … or die trying. Requisite:
Goal:
DAILY/RELENTLESS ATTENTION & ALL-HANDSALL-THE-TIME ENGAGEMENT.
BFO 13:
In Search of Excellence in 6 words:
“Hard is soft. Soft is Hard.”
(E.g., Numbers are the “soft stuff”—witness the crash.
Solid relationships/ integrity/trust/teamwork = True “hard
stuff.”)
Strategy is important.
Systems are important.
CULTURE is … MORE IMPORTANT.
(Serious change = Tackling the culture. PERIOD.)
(In his autobiography, even “Mr. Analysis,” Lou Gerstner,
IBM turnaround CEO, reluctantly acknowledged culture’s
unequivocal primacy in the big-change-game.)
BFO 14: We Are What We Eat =
WE ARE WHO
WE HANG OUT WITH. (“Hang out with
‘cool’ and thou shalt become more cool. Hang
out with ‘dull’ and thou shalt become more
dull.”)
RELIGIOUSLY-CONSCIOUSLY MANAGE
“HANG OUT.” EVERY “hang out decision”
(employees/customers/
vendors/consultants/lunch mates/board
STRATEGIC
INNOVATION DECISION.
composition/ locale/etc.) is a …
(Diversity [ON ANY DIMENSION YOU CAN NAME]
is an imperative in confusing times.)
(Hire for …
CURIOSITY. EXPLICITLY.)
BFO 15: Apple market cap surpasses Exxon Mobil.
Why?
D-E-S-I-G-N.
Are YOU obsessed by …
DESIGN? (In EVERY nook and cranny of EVERY tiny
or humongous enterprise—and in your own professional
affairs.) (DESIGN is an instinctive STATE OF MIND as well
as a set of practices.) (Less than EXCELLENCE in
functionality = Unacceptable.)
(Less than SUPER-COOL aesthetics = Unacceptable.)
LBT/TGR MULTIPLIER POWER.
Ceaselessly seek the LBTs/ Little BIG Things.
BFO 16:
“Small stuff” … BIG Impact: Walmart increases (mere)
shopping basket size, small appliance sales up 50%.
Reducing TGWs/Things Gone Wrong invaluable. BUT … put
at least as much effort into remorselessly accumulating
TGRs/THINGS GONE RIGHT.
(E.g. Disney’s OBSESSION with a memorable Start &
Finish courtesy … PARKING LOT EXCELLENCE.)
BFO 17:
WOMEN BUY EVERYTHING.
WOMEN ARE THE MOST EFFECTIVE LEADERS.
WOMEN ARE THE MOST SUCCESSFUL
INVESTORS.
(Does your organization … UNMISTAKABLY … reflect
these immutable truths from stem to stern?) (“This will
be the women’s century.” —Dilma Rousseff, president
of Brazil, opening address U.N. General Assembly)
BFO 18:
KEEP ADDING VALUE.
IBM To IBM: Machine dominance to Business
Services dominance. UPS to UPS: delivering
Parcels to Managing Logistics Systems.
(EVERYONE’s game: “Customer SATISFACTION”
to “Systemic customer SOLUTIONS”)
Forget B-I-G. (100% of biggies
UNDER-perform long-term.) Instead build
national wealth around …
BFO 19:
“MITTELSTAND” companies—
MIDSIZE SUPERSTAR NICHE/MICRO-NICHE DOMINATORS—in
ANY category you can name. (C.f., Germany’s Mittelstand
worldbeaters—#1 global exporter for years.) (Battle cry:
“BE THE BEST. IT’S THE ONLY MARKET
THAT’S NOT CROWDED.” WHY ELSE BOTHER?)
(FYI: ANYTHING/EVERYTHING subject to
MIND-BOGGLING ADDED-VALUE/
DIFFERENTIATION.
(BANISH the word … “commodity.”)
BFO 20: The problem is RARELY the problem. The
lackluster RESPONSE to the problem is invariably the real
problem. Answer? Slavishly adhere to these two response
LIGHTENING-FAST
RESPONSE OVERKILL. UNEQUIVOCAL
QUICK-TIME APOLOGY.
commandments:
BFO 21: What do people (MOST) desire—including thee
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
and me?
.
So: Show your appreciation … BIG TIME/ALL THE TIME.
(Track it … RELIGIOUSLY!) (“Acknowledgement” is … THE
MOST POWERFUL WORD IN THE LEADER’S VOCABULARY.)
BFO 22: The two most powerful words in the English
language are?
No contest: “THANK YOU.”
(ACT ACCORDINGLY—e.g., OBSESSIVELY.)
MBWA
BFO 23: Have you done your
/ Managing By
Wandering Around … TODAY? If not, why not? (Hint: There
are … ZERO ACCEPTABLE EXCUSES.)
BFO 24: Your CALENDAR knows your TRUE priorities.
Do YOU?
You … ARE … your calendar.
Your calendar … NEVER LIES.
(Drucker: Best bosses do ONE thing at a Time)
BFO 25: What is the individual’s/organization’s #1 enduring
strategic asset? Easy: ASSET
COLLECTIVE EXCELLENCE AT …
#1 = INDIVIDUAL AND
L-I-S-T-E-N-I-N-G. (Listening can be …
TAUGHT. Listening PER SE is a … PROFESSION. Are YOU a
“stellar professional listener”? THINK ABOUT IT. PLEASE.)
BFO 26:
LEADERSHIP is not about ABSTRACTIONS.
LEADERSHIP is about … MASTERING DISCREET SKILLS.
E.g.:
“Aggressive ‘professional’ listener.”
Meetings as leadership opportunity #1.
Creating a “civil society.”
Expert at “helping.” (Helping “professional.”)
Expert at holding productive conversations.
Fanatic about clear communications.
Fanatic about training.
Master of appreciation/acknowledgement.
Effective at apology.
Creating a culture of automatic helpfulness by all to all.
Presentation excellence.
Conscious master of body language.
Master of hiring. (Hiring “professional”)
Master of evaluating people.
Avid practitioner of MBWA/Managing By Wandering Around.
Avid student of the process of influencing others per se.
Student of decision-making/devastating impact of irrational aspects thereof.
Creating a no-nonsense execution culture.
Meticulous about employee development/100% of staff.
Student of the power of “d”iversity (all flavors of difference).
Aggressive in pursuing gender balance.
Making team-building excellence everyone’s daily priority.
Understanding value of matchless 1st-line management.
BFO 27: Aim to make EVERY internal and external
experience (PRODUCT/
SERVICE/SYSTEM/EMPLOYEE
INTERACTION/CUSTOMER INTERACTION/
COMMUNITY INTERACTION) a …
WOW!
(WOW = WOW. USE THE “W-WORD” PER SE!
E.g., Do 4 out of your Top 5 projects score
8 or above on a 10-point“WOW Scale”?
If not, get on it:
NOW.
TODAY.
WITHIN THE HOUR.
WOW-ify!
WOW Now.)
BFO 28: While on the topic of … WOW:
White collar work is by and large ticketed to fall prey to
artificial intelligence/eye-popping algorithms as well as
globalization. Stand there and take it on the chin?
NO.
My answer/1999 book/The Professional Service Firm 50:
CONVERT EVERY “DEPARTMENT”/ “UNIT” [AND
YOURSELF] INTO A FULL-FLEDGED …
“PSF”/PROFESSIONAL SERVICES FIRM …
EXCELLENCE &
WOW & ADDING SKYSCRAPING
VALUE TO THEIR/ YOUR CUSTOMERS’
WHOLLY DEDICATED TO …
[USUALLY INTERNAL CUSTOMERS] ACTIVITIES.
Why not?
There is no good reason not to proceed in this direction
within the fortnight!
BFO 29: EVERY DAY PROVIDES A DOZEN
(LITERALLY) LEADERSHIP
OPPORTUNITIES FOR EVERY ONE OF US.
(Every = EVERY. From the most junior—and even
the 3-day temp—to the Big Dudes.)
GRAB AT LEAST ONE.
Circa 2014+: You (me/all of
us) totally misunderstand overall
econ context if you choose not to
BFO 30:
RPD/Radical
Personal Development.
start today on …
BFO 31: CIVILITY WORKS. CIVILITY PAYS.
E.g.:
K = R = P.
Kindness =
Repeat business =
Profit.
(ONE MORE TIME: “Kindness” is
N-O-T “Soft.”)
BFO 32: Most of us/most organizations discount
… INTROVERTS. THAT IS A … 1ST ORDER
STRATEGIC BLUNDER. (Please read Susan
Cain’s book QUIET. It was a no-bull life-changer
for me.)
BFO 33: Listen (HARD) to my old D.C. boss, Fred
Malek:
“EXECUTION IS STRATEGY.”
(Kelleher/Southwest: “We have a ‘strategic plan.’ DOING
THINGS.”) (Welch/GE: “In real life, strategy is actually
very straightforward. Pick a general direction … AND
IMPLEMENT LIKE HELL.” ) (Charles Munger, Berkshire
Hathaway: “Costco figured out the big, simple things and
executed with total fanaticism.” ) (Execution: That
all-important …
“LAST 99 PERCENT.” )
BFO 34: The Works …
SEGEW 2014: SERVICE!-ENGAGEMENT!-GROWTH!-EXCELLENCE!-WOW!
Employees as 1st customers
Acknowledgement & Respect
Commitment to Personal Growth & Training-to-Die-For
Engagement
Work Worth Doing
Peerless 1st-line Leadership Cadre Committed to Employee Growth
MBWA Obsession
Seamless Cross-functional Excellence
360-degree “Social” Engagement Inside & Outside the Firm
Co-creation of Everything
A Moral Service Ethos
(Each other/Vendors/Customers/Customers’ Customers/Communities)
An Ethos of Helping (“On the Bus” or “Off the Bus”)
Scintillating Design—Aesthetics & Functionality—Pervades Every
Aspect of the Business (Inside & Outside)
Provision of Extraordinary Customer (& Employee) Experiences
Obsession With TGRs/Things Gone Right
Matchless Quality
“Services Added”/Extended-Integrated-Partnered Solutions
to Broad Customer Needs
Relentless Experimentation (“Bias for Action”/Instant Prototyping/
Celebration of “Excellent Failures”/Transparency/
Pursuit of “Multipliers”)
JOY! (In All We Do)
GROWTH! (In All We Do)
WOW! (In All We Do)
EXCELLENCE! (In All We Do)