Are You Weird
Enough to Win?
Tom Peters
The NAB Radio Show
New Orleans/09.06.2001
“We are entering an era of no
limits, with nothing to brake the
cascade of human intelligence
unleashed by the Information Age.
The Web essentially allows all the
brains on earth to communicate
and share insights in real time,
around the globe, all the time.”
Jeffrey Young, Cisco Unauthorized
“In 25 years, you’ll
probably be able to get the
sum total of all human
knowledge on a
personal device.”
Greg Blonder, VC [was Chief Technical Adviser for
Corporate Strategy @ AT&T] [Barron’s 11.13.2000]
<1000A.D.: paradigm shift: 1000s of years
1000: 100 years for paradigm shift
1800s: > prior 900 years
1900s: 1st 20 years > 1800s
2000: 10 years for paradigm shift
21st century: 1000X tech change than 20th
century (“the ‘Singularity,’ a merger
between humans and computers that is so
rapid and profound it represents a rupture
in the fabric of human history”)
Ray Kurzweil, talk april2001
Part I: Brand Inside
Part II: Brand Outside
Part III: Brand Leadership
Forces @ Work I
The Destruction
Imperative!
“The corporation as we know it,
which is now 120 years old, is
not likely to survive the
next 25 years. Legally and
financially, yes, but not
structurally and economically.”
Peter Drucker, Business 2.0 (08.00)
“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
“Acquisitions are about
buying market share. Our
challenge is to
create markets.
There is a big difference.”
Peter Job, CEO, Reuters
The [New] Ge Way
DYB.com
The Gales of Creative Destruction
+29M = -44M + 73M
+4M = +4M - 0M
Brand Inside
Brand Org:
Lean, Linked,
Internet-driven, Virtual
White
Collar
Revolution!
108 X 5
vs.
8X1
= 540 vs. 8 (-98.5%)
IBM’s Project eLiza!
Brand Inside
Redefining the Work
The WOW
Project
Itself:
“Reward excellent
failures. Punish
mediocre
successes.”
Phil Daniels, Sydney exec
“Learn not to
be careful.”
Photographer Diane Arbus
to her students (Careful = The sidelines,
per Harriet Rubin in The Princessa)
The greatest danger
for most of us
is not that our aim is
too high
and we miss it,
but that it is
too low
and we reach it.
Michelangelo
Characteristics of the “Also rans”*
“Minimize risk”
“Respect the chain of
command”
“Support the boss”
“Make budget”
*Fortune, article on
“Most Admired Global Corporations”
Forbes100 from 1917 to 1987: 39 members of the
Class of ’17 were alive in ’87; 18 are in ’87 F100; the
18 F100 “survivors” underperformed the market by
20%; just 2 (2%), GE & Kodak, outperformed the
market from 1917 to 1987.
S&P 500 from 1957 to 1997: 74 members of the
Class of ’57 were alive in ’97; 12 (2.4%) of 500
outperformed the market from 1957 to 1997.
Source: Dick Foster & Sarah Kaplan, Creative Destruction:
Why Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the
Market
Are all CEOs
bozos? Was Darwin a
Message*:
genius, or what? So,
Boss
Man, whadda you say
about “risk taking” now?
*And “all that” (2 of 100; 12 of 500) was in relatively placid times.
Brand Inside
Brand Talent: The
Great War for Talent
From “1, 2 or you’re out” [JW]
to …
“Best Talent in each
industry segment to build
best proprietary
intangibles” [EM]
Source: Ed Michaels, War for Talent (05.17.00)
“We believe companies can increase their
market cap 50 percent in 3 years. Steve
changed 20 of
his 40 box plant managers to put
more talented, higher paid
managers in charge. He increased
Macadam at Georgia-Pacific
profitability from $25 million to $80 million in 2
years.”
Ed Michaels, War for Talent (05.17.00)
Message: Some
people are
better than other
people. Some people
are a helluva lot
better than other
people.
“AS LEADERS, WOMEN
RULE: New Studies find
that female managers
outshine their male
counterparts in almost
every measure”
Title, Special Report, Business Week, 11.20.00
Women’s Stuff =
New Economy Match
Improv skills
Relationship-centric
Less “rank consciousness”
Self determined
Trust sensitive
Intuitive
Natural “empowerment freaks” [less
threatened by strong people]
Intrinsic [motivation] > Extrinsic
“TAKE THIS QUICK QUIZ: Who manages more things
at once? Who puts more effort into their appearance?
Who usually takes care of the details? Who finds it
easier to meet new people? Who asks more
questions in a conversation? Who is a better
listener? Who has more interest in communication
skills? Who is more inclined to get involved?
Who encourages harmony and agreement? Who
has better intuition? Who works with a longer ‘to do’
list? Who enjoys a recap to the day’s events?
Who is better at keeping in touch with others?”
Source: Selling Is a Woman’s Game: 15 Powerful
Reasons Why Women Can Outsell Men, Nicki Joy &
Susan Kane-Benson
“Boys are trained in
a way that will make
them irrelevant.”
Phil Slater
The Cracked Ones Let in the Light
“Our business needs a massive
transfusion of talent, and talent, I
believe, is most likely to be found
among non-conformists,
dissenters and rebels.”
David Ogilvy
enough
weird people in
“Are there
the lab these days?”
V. Chmn., pharmaceutical house, to a lab director (06.01)
And: Dr. Laura
Larry King
Paul Harvey
Imus
Howard Stern
Pat Robertson
Garrison Keillor
John Edwards
MantraM3
Talent = Brand
Part I: Brand Inside
Part II: Brand Outside
Part III: Brand Leadership
Forces @ Work II
The Sameness Trap
“The ‘surplus society’ has a surplus of
similar companies, employing
similar people, with similar
educational backgrounds, working in
similar jobs, coming up with similar
ideas, producing similar things, with
similar prices and similar quality.”
Kjell Nordstrom and Jonas Ridderstrale,
Funky Business
“Companies have
defined so much
‘best practice’ that
they are now more or
less identical.”
Jesper Kunde, A Unique Moment
Brand Outside
Strategy 1:
Use E-Commerce to
Re-invent Everything!
“Ebusiness is about rebuilding
the organization from the
ground up. Most companies today
are not built to exploit the Internet.
Their business processes, their
approvals, their hierarchies, the
number of people they employ … all of
that is wrong for running an
ebusiness.”
Ray Lane, Kleiner Perkins
“The concept of being always on, always
connected, is very powerful. … Companies are
going to need to reach consumers across all
the different transmission media and devices –
across wireless, on cell phones,
into cars, onto airplanes, into cabs,
into the home and TV set. … It’s
not just the message – now you’ve
got a connection, what do you do
with that?”
Marc Andreessen [Mosaic, Netscape, Loudcloud]
“The Age of the
Never Satisfied
Customer”
Regis McKenna
Brand Outside
Demographics/
Strategy 2A:
Women Rule!
$4.8T > Japan
9M/27.5M/$3.6T >
Germany
?????????
Home Furnishings … 94%
Vacations … 92%
Houses … 91%
Consumer Electronics … 51%
Cars … 60% (90%)
All consumer purchases … 83%
Bank Account … 89%
Health Care … 80%
50+%
Women …
of Web
users; 6 of 10 new users; 83%
of wired women are primary
decision makers for family
healthcare, finances,
education.
Source: Business Week; Jupiter Communications
Read This Book …
EVEolution:
The Eight Truths of
Marketing to Women
Faith Popcorn & Lys Marigold
FemaleThink/ Popcorn
“Men and women don’t think the same
way, don’t communicate the same way,
don’t buy for the same
reasons.
“He simply wants the transaction to
take place. She’s interested in creating
a relationship. Every place women go,
they make connections.”
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
What If …
“What if ExxonMobil or Shell dipped into their
credit card database to help commuting women
interview and make a choice of car pool
partners?”
“What if American Express made a concerted
effort to connect up female empty-nesters
through on-line and off-line programs, geared to
help women re-enter the workforce with today’s
skills?”
EVEolution
“Women don’t buy
They
join them.”
brands.
Faith Popcorn, EVEolution
STATEMENT OF PHILOSOPHY: I am a
businessperson. An analyst. A pragmatist. The
enormous social good of increased women’s
power is clear to me; but it is not my bailiwick.
My “game” is haranguing business leaders
about my fact-based conviction that women’s
increasing power – leadership skills
and purchasing power – is the strongest and
most dynamic force at work in the American
economy today. Dare I say it as a long-time Palo
Altan … THIS IS EVEN BIGGER THAN THE
INTERNET!
Tom Peters
27 March 2000: email to TP from
Shelley Rae Norbeck
“I make 1/3rd more money than my
husband does. I have as much financial
‘pull’ in the relationship as he does. I’d say
this is also true of most of my women
friends. Someone should wake up, smell
the coffee and kiss our asses long enough
to sell us something! We have money to
spend and nobody wants it!”
Brand Outside
Demographics/
Strategy 2B:
Welcome to
“Old World”!
“ ‘Age Power’ will
st
rule the 21 century,
and we are woefully
unprepared.”
Ken Dychtwald, Age Power: How the 21st
Century Will Be Ruled by the New Old
Subject: Marketers & Stupidity
“It’s 18-44,
stupid!”
Subject: Marketers & Stupidity
“18-44 is
stupid,
stupid!”
Or is it:
2000-2010 Stats
18-44: -1%
55+: +21%
(55-64: +47%)
[ Member Growth: 1987 – 1997
18 – 34: 26%
35 – 49: 63%
50+: 118%
Source: IHRSA]
“NOT ACTING THEIR
AGE: As Baby Boomers
Zoom into Retirement,
Will America Ever Be the
Same?”
USN&WR Cover/06.01
Aging/“Elderly”
$$$$$$$$$$$$
“I’m in charge!”
50+
$7T wealth (70%)/$2T annual income
50% all discretionary spending
79% own homes/40M credit card users
41% new cars/48% luxury
$610B healthcare spending/74%
prescription drugs
5% of advertising targets
Ken Dychtwald, Age Power: How the 21st
Century Will Be Ruled by the New Old
Brand Outside
Strategy 3:
BRAND POWER!
“WHO ARE
YOU [these days] ?”
TP to Client
Brand = You Must Care!
“Success means never
letting the competition
define you. Instead you have
to define yourself based on a
point of view you care deeply
about.”
Tom Chappell, Tom’s of Maine
“You do not merely want to
be the best of the best. You
want to be considered
the only ones who do
what you do.”
Jerry Garcia
1st Law Mktg Physics: OVERT BENEFIT
(Focus: 1 or 2 > 3 or 4/“One Great Thing.”
Source #1: Personal Passion)
2ND Law: REAL REASON TO BELIEVE
(Stand & Deliver!)
3RD Law: DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE
(Execs Don’t Get It: See the next slide.)
Source: Jump Start Your Business Brain, Doug Hall
2 Questions
“How likely are you to purchase
this new product or service?” (95%
to 100% weighting by execs)
“How unique is this new product
or service?” (0% to 5%*)
*No exceptions in 20 years – Doug Hall,
Jump Start Your Business Brain
2001 NAB Marconi Radio Awards
Jim Bohannon. Paul
Harvey. Ronn Owens.
(Mark Breen.) WGY.
KGO. WTOP.
The individual
station! / The
quality of talent! /
Point of view! /
Peculiarity!
Part I: Brand Inside
Part II: Brand Outside
Part III: Brand Leadership
Brand Leadership
Passion Rules!
“Create a
Cause, not
a ‘business.’ ”
Gary Hamel, Fortune (06.00), on re-inventing a
company (Exemplar #1: Charles Schwab)
“Let’s make a
dent in the
universe.”
Steve Jobs