Tom Peters’
Re-imagine!
Business Excellence in a
Disruptive Age
eCustomerServiceWorld/Orlando/03November 2003
Slides at …
tompeters.com
“Uncertainty is the only thing
to be sure of.” –Anthony Muh,
head of investment in Asia, Citigroup Asset Management
“If you don’t like change,
you’re going to like irrelevance
even less.” —General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff,
U. S. Army
Re-imagine!
Business Excellence in a
Disruptive Age
1. It is the foremost task —and
responsibility— of our generation to
re-imagine our enterprises and
institutions, public and private.
It is the foremost task—
and responsibility—
of our generation to
re-imagine our
enterprises, private
and public. —from the cover,
Re-imagine
Re-imagine!
2. War-making, commerce, politics, and the
essential nature of human interchange have
come unglued. We are in a … Brawl with No
Rules. We have to make it up as we go along.
“We are in a
brawl with no
rules.”
Paul Allaire
S.A.V.
Re-imagine!
3. Incrementalism is .. Out.
Destruction is … In. Built to last
is … Out. Built to flip is … In.
Forbes100 from 1917 to 1987: 39
members of the Class of ’17 were alive
in ’87; 18 in ’87 F100; 18 F100
“survivors” underperformed the market
by 20%; just 2 (2%), GE & Kodak,
outperformed the market 1917 to 1987.
S&P 500 from 1957 to 1997: 74 members of the Class of ’57 were
alive in ’97; 12 (2.4%) of 500 outperformed the market from 1957
to 1997.
Source: Dick Foster & Sarah Kaplan, Creative Destruction: Why
Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the Market
“Good management was the
most powerful reason [leading
firms] failed to stay atop their
industries. Precisely because these firms
listened to their customers, invested aggressively in
technologies that would provide their customers more
and better products of the sort they wanted, and
because they carefully studied market trends and
systematically allocated investment capital to
innovations that promised the best returns, they lost
their positions of leadership.”
Clayton Christensen, The Innovator’s Dilemma
Forget>“Learn”
“The problem is never how
to get new, innovative
thoughts into your mind,
but how to get the old
ones out.”
Dee Hock
“The difficulties … arise from the inherent conflict
between the need to control existing operations and
the need to create the kind of environment that will
permit new ideas to flourish—and old ones to die a
timely death. … We believe that most
corporations will find it impossible to
match or outperform the market without
abandoning the assumption of continuity.
… The current apocalypse—the transition from a state
of continuity to state of discontinuity—Has the same
suddenness [as the trauma that beset civilization in
1000 A.D.]”
Richard Foster & Sarah Kaplan, “Creative Destruction” (The McKinsey Quarterly)
The Three Levels of Innovation
Transformational
Substantial
Incremental
Source: Dick Foster, Business 2.0 (05.01) Note:
Each level requires totally different processes!
No Wiggle Room!
“Incrementalism
is innovation’s
worst enemy.”
Nicholas Negroponte
Just Say No …
“I don’t intend to be
known as the ‘King of
the Tinkerers.’ ”
CEO, large financial services company
Re-imagine!
4. There is no higher priority than the Total
Transformation of all business practice to
eBusiness practice—encompassing every
element of the enterprise and every member
of its family of alliances and partners. The
Internet changes everything. Now.
“The corporation as we know it,
which is now 120 years old, is
not likely to survive the
next 25 years. Legally and
financially, yes, but not
structurally and economically.”
Peter Drucker, Business 2.0
“The organizations we created have
become tyrants. They have taken
control, holding us fettered, creating
barriers that hinder rather than help
our businesses. The lines that we
drew on our neat organizational
diagrams have turned into walls
that no one can scale or penetrate
or even peer over.” —Frank Lekanne Deprez &
René Tissen, Zero Space: Moving Beyond Organizational Limits.
“Dawn Meyerreicks, CTO of the Defense Information Systems Agency, made
one of the most fateful military calls of the 21st century. After 9/11 … her office
quickly leased all the available transponders covering Central Asia. The
implications should change everything about U.S. military thinking in the
years ahead.
“The U.S. Air Force had kicked off its fight against the Taliban with an
ineffective bombing campaign, and Washington was anguishing over whether
to send in a few Army divisions. Donald Rumsfeld told Gen. Tommy Franks to
give the initiative to 250 Special Forces already on the ground. They used
satellite phones, Predator surveillance drones, and GPS- and laser-based
targeting systems to make the air strikes brutally effective.
“In effect, they ‘Napsterized’ the battlefield by cutting out the middlemen
(much of the military’s command and control) and working directly with the
real players. … The data came in so fast that HQ revised operating procedures
to allow intelligence analysts and attack planners to work directly together.
Their favorite tool, incidentally, was instant messaging over a secure
network.”—Ned Desmond/“Broadband’s New Killer App”/Business 2.0/
OCT2002
OODA Loop/Boyd Cycle
“Unraveling the competition”/ Quick
Transients/ Quick Tempo (NOT JUST
SPEED!)/ Agility/ “So quick it is
disconcerting” (adversary over-reacts or
under-reacts)/ “Winners used tactics that
caused the enemy to unravel before the
fight” (NEVER HEAD TO HEAD)
BOYD: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed
the Art of War (Robert Coram)
Re-imagine!
5. Ninety percent of white-collar
jobs (90 percent of all jobs) as we
know them will be disemboweled in
the next 15 years.
Done. Gone. Kaput.
E.g. …
Jeff Immelt: 75% of “admin, back
room, finance” “digitalized” in
years.
Source: BW (01.28.02)
Re-imagine!
6. “Winners” (survivors!) will become de
facto bosses of Me Inc.
Free the Cubicle Slaves! Self-reliance
replaces corporate cosseting.
Hooray!
“If there is nothing
very special about
your work, no matter how
hard you apply yourself, you
won’t get noticed, and that
increasingly means you won’t
get paid much either.”
Michael Goldhaber, Wired
“Self-reliance never comes ‘naturally’ to
adults because they have been so
conditioned to think non-authentically that
it feels wrenching to do otherwise. … Self
Reliance is a last resort to which a person
is driven in desperation only when he or
she realizes ‘that imitation is suicide, that
he must take himself for better, for worse,
as his portion.’ ” —Lawrence Buell, Emerson
Re-imagine!
7. We must learn to add value through creativity
… by inventing … Extraordinary Experiences
… which provide scintillating “solutions” to
customers’ oft unexpressed desires and
dreams. Out: Tangibles. In: Intangibles.
“The ‘surplus society’ has a surplus of
similar companies, employing
similar people, with similar
educational backgrounds, coming up
with similar ideas, producing
similar things, with similar prices
and similar quality.”
Kjell Nordström and Jonas Ridderstråle, Funky Business
Systems
Integrator of
choice. Global Services:
Gerstner’s IBM:
$40B.
Pledge/’99: Business Partner
Charter. 72 strategic partners, aim for 200. Drop
many in-house programs/products.
(BW/12.01).
IBM/Q3/10.15.03/Rev: +5%
Services/Consulting: +11%
Software: +5%
Hardware: -5%
PCs: -2%
Technology/Chips: -33%
WHAT CAN BROWN DO FOR YOU?
Experience: “Rebel Lifestyle!”
“What we sell is the ability for
a 43-year-old accountant to
dress in black leather, ride
through small towns and have
people be afraid of him.”
Harley exec, quoted in Results-Based Leadership
Moving Companies
WSJ/08.2003: “In Texas, They’ll fill your
empty fridge with brie and wine. An outfit
in New York promises quick high-speed
Internet hookup. And when Allied Van
Lines finishes unloading your couch,
they’ll have a feng shui expert figure
out the right spot. …”
And the Winners Are …
Televisions –12%
Cable TV service +5%
Toys -10%
Child care +5%
Photo equipment -7%
Photographer’s fees +3%
Sports Equipment -2%
Admission to sporting event +3%
New car -2%
Car repair +3%
Dishes & flatware -1%
Eating out +2%
Gardening supplies -0.1%
Gardening services +2%
Source: WSJ/05.16.03
FEES! FEES! FEES!
—Cover Story, BW/09.29.03
It’s All About EXPERIENCES: “Trapper” to
“Wildlife Damage-control Professional”
Trapper: <$20 per beaver pelt.
WDCP: $150/“problem beaver”;
$750-$1,000 for flood-control
piping … so that beavers
can stay.
Source: WSJ/05.21.2002
Keep In Mind/Nardelli
Customer
Satisfaction
versus
Customer
Success
“Customer Satisfaction” to
“Customer Success”
“We’re getting better at [Six
Sigma] every day. But we really
need to think about the customer’s
profitability. Are customers’
bottom lines really benefiting from
what we provide them?”
Bob Nardelli, GE Power Systems
“Experiences are as
distinct from services
as services are from
goods.”
Joseph Pine & James Gilmore, The Experience Economy:
Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage
DREAM: “A dream is a complete
moment in the life of a client.
Important experiences that tempt
the client to commit substantial
resources. The essence of the
desires of the consumer. The
opportunity to help clients become
what they want to be.” —Gian Luigi
Longinotti-Buitoni
The marketing of Dreams (Dreamketing)
Dreamketing: Touching the clients’
dreams.
Dreamketing: The art of telling stories and
entertaining.
Dreamketing: Promote the dream, not the
product.
Dreamketing: Build the brand around the
main dream.
Dreamketing: Build the “buzz,” the
“hype,” the “cult.”
Source: Gian Luigi Longinotti-Buitoni
Trading Up:
The New American
Luxury
Also see:
(Michael Silverstein & Neil Fiske)
The “Experience Ladder”
Experiences
Services
Goods
Raw Materials
(Revised) Experience Ladder
Dreams Come True
Awesome Experiences
Solutions
Services
Goods
Raw Materials
“… a powerful and
madly exuberant
work” —LA Times on Frank Gehry’s
Walt Disney Concert Hall (10.03)
Re-imagine!
8. Design Rules … in an Age of
Experiences/ Dream Fulfillment.
Design Transforms even the
[Biggest] Corporations!
TARGET … “the champion of
America’s new design democracy”
(Time) “Marketer of the Year 2000”
(Advertising Age)
Westin’s …
Heavenly
Bed
“We don’t have a good language to talk
about this kind of thing. In most people’s
vocabularies, design means veneer. … But
to me, nothing could be further from the
Design is
the fundamental soul
meaning of design.
of a man-made creation.”
Steve Jobs
Re-imagine!
9. Brand Value = All Value = Obeisance to
Metaphysical Management.
“WHO ARE
WE?”
“WHAT’S
OUR
STORY?”
“We are in the twilight of a society based on data. As
information and intelligence become the domain of
computers, society will place more value on the one
human ability that cannot be automated: emotion.
Imagination, myth, ritual - the language of emotion will affect everything from our purchasing decisions
Companies will
thrive on the basis of their stories
and myths. Companies will need to understand
to how we work with others.
that their products are less important than
their stories.”
Rolf Jensen, Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies
“Most executives have no
idea how to add value to a
market in the metaphysical
world. But that is what the market
will cry out for in the future. There
is no lack of ‘physical’ products to
choose between.”
Jesper Kunde, Unique now ... or never [on the
excellence of Nokia, Nike, Lego, Virgin et al.]
Re-imagine!
10. WOMEN ROAR. Women buy
(ALL) the stuff. Re-imagine the
brand itself—and all business
practices—around women-aspurchasers.
?????????
Home Furnishings … 94%
Vacations … 92% (Adventure Travel … 70%/ $55B travel
equipment)
Houses … 91%
D.I.Y. (“home projects”) … 80%
Consumer Electronics … 51%
Cars … 60% (90%)
All consumer purchases … 83%
Bank Account … 89%
Health Care … 80%
$5+T > Japan
10M/28M/$3.6T
> Germany
91% women:
ADVERTISERS DON’T
UNDERSTAND US.
(58% “ANNOYED.”)
Source: Greenfield Online for Arnold’s Women’s Insight Team
(Martha Barletta, Marketing to Women)
Read This Book …
EVEolution:
The Eight Truths of
Marketing to Women
Faith Popcorn & Lys Marigold
“Men and women don’t think the same
way, don’t communicate the same way,
don’t buy for the same reasons.”
“He simply wants the transaction
to take place. She’s interested in
creating a relationship. Every place
women go, they make
connections.”
EVEolution: Truth No. 1
Connecting Your Female
Consumers to Each
Other Connects Them to
Your Brand
“The ‘Connection Proclivity’ in
women starts early. When asked,
‘How was school today?’ a girl
usually tells her mother every
detail of what happened, while a
boy might grunt, ‘Fine.’ ”
EVEolution
“Women don’t buy
They
join them.”
brands.
EVEolution
2.6
vs.
Editorial/Men: Tables, rankings.*
Editorial/Women: Narratives that
cohere.*
*Redwood (UK)
1. Men and women are different.
2. Very different.
3. VERY, VERY DIFFERENT.
4. Women & Men have a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y
nothing in common.
5. Women buy lotsa stuff.
6. WOMEN BUY A-L-L THE STUFF.
7. Women’s Market = Opportunity No. 1.
8. Men are (STILL) in charge.
9. MEN ARE … TOTALLY, HOPELESSLY
CLUELESS ABOUT WOMEN.
10. Women’s Market = Opportunity No. 1.
10A. Duh.
Re-imagine!
11. Boomers & Geezers have (ALL) the
money. Pay attention!
“ ‘Age Power’ will
st
21
rule the
century,
and we are woefully
unprepared.”
Ken Dychtwald, Age Power: How the 21st
Century Will Be Ruled by the New Old
2000-2010 Stats
18-44: -1%
55+: +21%
(55-64: +47%)
Aging/“Elderly”
$$$$$$$$$$$$
“I’m in charge!”
50+
$7T wealth (70%)/$2T annual income
50% all discretionary spending
79% own homes/40M credit card users
41% new cars/48% luxury cars
$610B healthcare spending/
74% prescription drugs
5% of advertising targets
Ken Dychtwald, Age Power: How the 21st
Century Will Be Ruled by the New Old
“Marketers attempts at
reaching those over 50 have
been miserably
unsuccessful. No market’s
motivations and needs are
so poorly understood.”—Peter
Francese, founding publisher, American Demographics
Re-imagine!
12. Creative Enterprises demand … Awesome
(& Creative) Talent. Everywhere.
Age of Agriculture
Industrial Age
Age of Information Intensification
Age of Creation Intensification
Source: Murikami Teruyasu, Nomura Research Institute
“When land was the scarce
resource, nations battled
over it. The same is
happening now for
talented people.”
Stan Davis & Christopher Meyer, futureWEALTH
Message: Some
people are
better than other
people. Some people
are a helluva lot
better than other
people.
Model
25/8/53
Sports Franchise GM*
*48 = $500M
Brand =
Talent.
Re-imagine!
13. WOMEN RULE. Women are …
Tomorrow’s Leaders. (Period.)
“AS LEADERS, WOMEN
RULE: New Studies find
that female managers
outshine their male
counterparts in almost
every measure”
Title, Special Report, BusinessWeek, 11.20.00
Lawrence A. Pfaff & Assoc.
— 2 Years, 941 mgrs (672M, 269F); 360º
feedback
— Women: 20 of 20; 15 of 20 with statistical
significance, incl. decisiveness, planning,
setting stds.)
— “Men are not rated significantly higher by
any of the raters in any of the areas
measured.” (LP)
Women’s Strengths Match New Economy
Imperatives: Link [rather than rank] workers;
favor interactive-collaborative leadership style
[empowerment beats top-down decision making];
sustain fruitful collaborations; comfortable with
sharing information; see redistribution of power
as victory, not surrender; favor multi-dimensional
feedback; value technical & interpersonal skills,
individual & group contributions equally; readily
accept ambiguity; honor intuition as well as pure
“rationality”; inherently flexible; appreciate
cultural diversity.
Source: Judy B. Rosener, America’s Competitive Secret: Women Managers
Psssst! Wanna
see my “porn”
collection?
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
14 to 168*
*Leadership Positions/D&T/1992-2002/WIAR
“Are men
obsolete?” —Headline,
USN&WR/06.03.03
Re-imagine!
14. “Talent Development” rests upon Total
Re-imagining of our insipid schools.
Those who “color outside the box” and
“can’t sit still” are the New Heroes.
“My wife and I went to a [kindergarten] parent-teacher
conference and were informed that our budding
refrigerator artist, Christopher, would be receiving a
grade of Unsatisfactory in art. We were shocked. How
could any child—let alone our child—receive a poor
His teacher
informed us that he had refused to
color within the lines, which was a
state requirement for
demonstrating ‘grade-level motor
skills.’ ”
grade in art at such a young age?
Jordan Ayan, AHA!
Re-imagine!
15. Weird Wins … in Weird Times.
(Innovation = Easy. Hang Out with
Weird = Get Weird.) (Q.E.D.)
Saviors-in-Waiting
Disgruntled Customers
Off-the-Scope Competitors
Rogue Employees
Fringe Suppliers
Wayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision: Beat the Competition by Focusing on
Fringe Competitors, Lost Customers, and Rogue Employees
“To grow, companies need
to break out of a vicious
cycle of competitive
benchmarking, imitation and
pursuit.” —W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne, “Think
for Yourself —Stop Copying a Rival,” Financial Times/08.11.03
“Aiming to beat the competition has
the opposite effect to the one
intended. It keeps companies focused
on the competition. When asked to
build competitive advantage,
managers typically rate themselves
against competitors, assess what they
do and try to do it better.” —W. Chan Kim &
Renee Mauborgne, “Think for Yourself—Stop copying a
Rival”/FT/08.11.03
“The Bottleneck is at the
Top of the Bottle”
“Where are you likely to find people
with the least diversity of experience,
the largest investment in the past, and
the greatest reverence for industry
dogma? At the top!” — Gary Hamel, “Strategy or
Revolution”/
Harvard Business Review
Huh?
“Quiet, workmanlike, stoic
leaders bring about the big
transformations.”—JC
Pastels?
T. Paine/P. Henry/A. Hamilton/T. Jefferson/B. Franklin
A. Lincoln/U. S. Grant/W. T. Sherman
TR/FDR/LBJ/RR/JFK
M.L. King
C. de Gaulle
M. Gandhi
W. Churchill
M. Thatcher
Picasso
Mozart
Copernicus/Newton/Einstein
J. Welch/L. Gerstner/L. Ellison/B. Gates/S. Ballmer/S. Jobs/
S. McNealy
A. Carnegie/J. P. Morgan/H. Ford/J.D. Rockefeller/T. A. Edison
“I’m looking
for insane
commitment.”
—Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit
Audie Murphy was the most
decorated soldier in WW2.
He won every medal we had
to offer, plus 5 presented by
Belgium and France. There
was one common medal he
never won …
… the Good
Conduct
medal.
Re-imagine!
16. Leading = Re-imagining = Unleashing
Passion in One & All. Winners … Pursue
Quests to Places as Yet Unimagined.
Leaders applaud their “followers’ ” Quirky
Bravery … and egg them on to ever more
wild & woolly experiments.
“I don’t
know.”
The Kotler Doctrine:
1965-1980: R.A.F.
(Ready.Aim.Fire.)
1980-1995: R.F.A.
(Ready.Fire!Aim.)
1995-????: F.F.F.
(Fire!Fire!Fire!)
“If things seem
under control,
you’re just not
going
fast enough.”
Mario Andretti
“If it works,
it’s obsolete.”
—Marshall McLuhan
“Fail faster.
Succeed
sooner.”
David Kelley/IDEO
“Reward
excellent failures.
Punish mediocre
successes.”
Phil Daniels, Sydney exec
“Management has a lot to do
with answers. Leadership is a
function of questions. And the
first question for a leader
always is: ‘Who do we intend
to be?’ Not ‘What are we going
to do?’ but ‘Who do we intend to
be?’” —Max DePree, Herman Miller
“Create a
‘cause,’ not a
‘business.’ ”
G.H.:
Ah, kids: “What is your vision for
the future?” “What have you
accomplished since your first
book?” “Close your eyes and
imagine me immediately doing
something about what you’ve
just said. What would it be?”
“Do you feel you have an
obligation to ‘Make the world a
better place’?”
BZ: “I am a …
Dispenser of
Enthusiasm!”
“In Tom’s world it’s always
better to try a swan dive and
deliver a colossal belly flop
than to step timidly off the
board while holding your
nose.” —Fast Company /October2003
T. J. Peters
1942 – 2---
HE WAS A PLAYER!