Transcript Tom Peters’ Excellence. Always. Breukelen/21 April 2009 To appreciate this presentation [and ensure that it is not a mess], you need Microsoft fonts: NOTE: “Showcard Gothic,” “Ravie,” “Chiller” and “Verdana”

Tom Peters’
Excellence.
Always.
Breukelen/21 April 2009
To appreciate
this presentation [and ensure
that it is not a mess], you need
Microsoft fonts:
NOTE:
“Showcard Gothic,”
“Ravie,” “Chiller”
and “Verdana”
Tom Peters’
Excellence.
now.
More than ever.
Breukelen/21 April 2009
Conrad Hilton, at a gala
celebrating his career,
was asked, “What was the
most important lesson
you’ve learned in you long
and distinguished career?”
His immediate answer …
“remember
to tuck the
shower curtain
inside the
bathtub”
“Execution
is
strategy.”
—Fred Malek
MBWA
Part
ONE
Little =
7X.
7:30A-8:00P.
F12A.
7:30AM = 7:15AM.
8:00PM = 8:15PM.
“No” = 2*
*Yes Bank
2,000,000
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
Don’t like it?
Don’t pay.
Source: Granite Rock Co.
BEGINS
(and ENDS)
It
in the …
parking
lot*
*Disney
Source: Container Store/increase average sale per shopper
(1) LAN Installation Co. (3%)
“Geek Squad” (30%)
(2)
(3) Best Buy contracts
(4) Best Buy purchases
(5) Best Buy’s
“brand promise”
Source: Best Buy (Circuit City: fire senior, hire junior)
Bag sizes = New markets:
Source: PepsiCo
Big carts =
Source: Wal*Mart
none!
139,380 former
patients from 225 hospitals:
Press Ganey Assoc:
none
of THE top 15 factors
determining Patient Satisfaction
referred to patient’s health outcome
P.S. directly related to Staff Interaction
P.P.S. directly correlated with Employee
Satisfaction
Source: Putting Patients First, Susan Frampton, Laura Gilpin, Patrick Charmel
“Kindness
is free.”
“There is a misconception that supportive interactions require
more staff or more time and are therefore more costly. Although
labor costs are a substantial part of any hospital budget, the
interactions themselves add nothing to the budget.
Kindness is
free.
Listening to patients or answering their
questions costs nothing. It can be argued that negative
interactions—alienating patients, being non-responsive to their
needs or limiting their sense of control—can be very costly. …
Angry, frustrated or frightened patients may be combative,
withdrawn and less cooperative—requiring far more time
than it would have taken to interact with them initially in a
positive way.” —Putting Patients First, Susan Frampton,
Laura Gilpin, Patrick Charmel
“Courtesies of a small and
trivial character are the
ones which strike
deepest in the grateful
and appreciating heart.”
—Henry Clay
“Perception
is all
there is”
Comeback
[big, quick response]
>>
Perfection
<TGW
and …
>TGR
[Things Gone WRONG-Things Gone RIGHT]
“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
$100+ purchase/
3-cent
2-cent
National “Brand”/
lemon
candy
Acquire vs maintain*:
Higher “market share”
current customers
*Recession goal:
(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.
(1) Half-day/25 ideas
(2) One week/5 experiments
(3) One month/Select best 2
(4) 60-90 days/Roll out
Little =
“Design is everything.
Everything is design.”
“We are all designers.”
Inspiration: The Power of Design: A Force for
Transforming Everything, Richard Farson
“Power
Freaks” Move
Things
Around!
>100 feet =
100 miles
Geologists +
Geophysicists +
A little bit of love =
Oil
see green =
recover
20% faster
Round
= 2X/allx
6.5
feet Away =
6.5 feet Away =
-63%
“Seconds”*
*Plate size, etc, first serving dish
“Paint it
white!”
— On Hashem Akbari’s [Lawrence Livermore labs] powerful program
to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions; using conservative
reduce 44 billion tons of CO2
assumptions, it could
emissions by cooling buildings, roads, entire cities (The Guardian, 0116.09)
Socks =
10,000
“Broken windows”: Clean
the streets, fix the
broken windows, ticket
the open-beer-can
holders, etc, etc
= Sense of order
= Crime way down
“Everything matters”
-80%
Source: Nudge, Richard Thaler and Cass
Sunstein, etching of fly in the urinal
reduces “spillage” by 80%, Schiphol Airport
Part
TWO
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…
“Forget China,
India and the
Internet: Economic
Growth Is Driven
by
Women.”
Source: Headline, Economist
“Since 1970, women
have held two
out of every
three new jobs
created.”
—FT, 10.03.2006
“Women are
the majority
market”
—Fara Warner/The Power of the Purse
“Goldman Sachs in Tokyo has
developed an index of 115
companies poised to benefit from
women’s increased purchasing
power; over the past decade the
value of shares in Goldman’s
basket has risen by 96%, against
the Tokyo stockmarket’s rise
of 13%.” —Economist, April 15
Cases! Cases! Cases!
McDonald’s
(“mom-centered” to “majority
consumer”; not via kids)
Home Depot (“Do it [everything!] Herself”)
P&G (more than “house cleaner”)
DeBeers (“right-hand rings”/$4B)
AXA Financial
Kodak (women = “emotional centers of the household”)
Nike
(> jock endorsements; new def sports; majority consumer)
Avon
Bratz (young girls want “friends,” not a blond stereotype)
Source: Fara
Warner/The Power of the Purse
“We simply had
stopped being
relevant to women.”
—Kay Napier, SVP Marketing (Fara Warner, The Power of the
Purse, “From Minority to Majority: McDonald’s Discovers the
Woman Inside the Mom”)
“Women don’t buy
They
join them.”
brands.
EVEolution
2.6 vs.
Age 3
days, baby
girls 2X eye
contact.
“People powered”:
Source: Martha Barletta, Marketing to Women
“Women speak and hear a language
of connection and intimacy, and men
speak and hear a language of status and
independence. Men communicate to
obtain information, establish their status,
and show independence. Women
communicate to create relationships,
encourage interaction, and exchange
feelings.”
—Judy Rosener, America’s Competitive Secret
“AS LEADERS,
WOMEN
RULE:
New Studies find that
female managers outshine their male
counterparts in almost every measure”
TITLE/ Special Report/ BusinessWeek
10 UNASSAILABLE REASONS WOMEN RULE
Women make [all] the financial decisions.
Women control [all] the wealth.
Women [substantially] outlive men.
Women start most of the new businesses.
Women’s work force participation rates have
soared worldwide.
Women are closing in on “same pay for same
job.”
Women are penetrating senior ranks rapidly
[even if the pace is slow for the corner
office per se].
Women’s leadership strengths are exceptionally well
aligned with new organizational effectiveness
imperatives.
Women are better salespersons than men.
Women buy [almost] everything—commercial
as well as consumer goods.
So what exactly is the point of men?
“One thing is certain: Women’s rise to power, which is
linked to the increase in wealth per capita, is happening
in all domains and at all levels of society. Women are no
longer content to provide efficient labor or to be
consumers with rising budgets and more autonomy to
spend. … This is just the beginning. The phenomenon
will only grow as girls prove to be more successful than
For a number of
observers, we have already
entered the age of
‘womenomics,’ the economy as
thought out and practiced
by a woman.” —Aude Zieseniss de Thuin, Financial
boys in the school system.
Times, 10.03.2006
“ ‘Womenomics,’ the
economy as
thought out and
practiced by a
woman.”
—Aude Zieseniss de Thuin,
Financial Times, 10.03.2006
94%
of loans to …
women*
*Microlending; “Banker to the poor”; Grameen Bank;
Muhammad Yunus; 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“People turning 50
more
than half of
today have
their adult life
ahead of them.”
—Bill Novelli,
50+: Igniting a Revolution to Reinvent America
2000-2010 Stats
18-44: -1%
55+: +21%
(55-64:
+47%)
44-65:
“New
Customer
Majority” *
*45% larger than 18-43; 60% larger by 2010
Source: Ageless Marketing, David Wolfe & Robert Snyder
“Baby-boomer
Women: The
Sweetest of
Sweet Spots for
Marketers”
—David Wolfe and Robert
Snyder, Ageless Marketing
“Fifty-four years of age has been
the highest cutoff point for any
marketing initiative I’ve ever
been involved in. Which is pretty
weird when you consider age 50
is right about when people who
have worked all their lives start
to have some money to spend.” —
Marti Barletta, PrimeTime Women
“One particularly puzzling category of youthobsession is the highly coveted target of men
18-34, and it’s always referred to as ‘highly
coveted category.’ Marketers have been
distracted by men age 18-34 because they are
getting harder to reach. So what? Who wants
to reach them? Beyond fast food and beer, they
don’t buy much of anything. … The theory is
that if you ‘get them while they’re young,
What
nonsense!”
they’re yours for life.’
—Marti Barletta, PrimeTime Women
“Marketers attempts at reaching
those over 50 have been miserably
No market’s
motivations and
needs are so
poorly understood.”
unsuccessful.
—Peter Francese, founding publisher, American Demographics
We are the Aussies & Kiwis & Americans & Canadians.
We are the Western Europeans & Japanese. We are the
fastest growing, the biggest, the wealthiest, the
boldest, the most (yes) ambitious, the most
experimental & exploratory, the most different, the
most indulgent, the most difficult & demanding, the
most service & experience obsessed, the most
vigorous, (the least vigorous,) the most health
conscious, the most female, the most profoundly
important commercial market in the history of the
we will be the
Center of your universe
for the next twenty-five
years. We have arrived!
world—and
Up,
Up,
Up,
Up
the Value-added Ladder.
EXCELLENCE.
VALUE-ADDED LADDER.
NO LESS THAN
“BUSINESS ADVANTAGE.”
“M” = $0
IB :
$55B*
M
*Also HP-EDS
And the “M” Stands for … ?
“Systems
Integrator of choice.”/BW
Gerstner’s IBM:
(“Lou, help us turn ‘all this’ into that long-promised ‘revolution.’ ” )
IBM Global Services*
Services Corp.):
$55B
(*Integrated Systems
Planetary Rainmaker-in-Chief!
“Palmisano’s strategy is
to expand tech’s borders
by pushing users—and
entire industries—toward
radically different
business models. The payoff for IBM
would be access to an ocean of revenue—Palmisano
estimates it at $500 billion a year —that technology
companies have never been able to touch.” —Fortune
“THE GIANT STALKING BIG OIL: How
Schlumberger Is
Rewriting the Rules of the Energy
Game.”: “IPM [Integrated Project
Management] strays from
[Schlumberger’s] traditional role
as a service provider and moves
deeper into areas once dominated
by the majors.”
Source: BusinessWeek cover story, January 2008
“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
(E.g., UPS Logistics manages the logistics of 4.5M Ford vehicles,
from 21 mfg. sites to 6,000 NA dealers)
Huge: Customer
Satisfaction
versus
Customer
Success
The Value-added Ladder/TRANSFORMATION
Customer Success/
Gamechanging
Solutions
Services
Goods
Raw Materials
“The business of selling is not just about matching viable
It’s
equally about managing the
change process the customer
will need to go through to
implement the solution and
achieve the value promised by
the solution. One of the key differentiators of
solutions to the customers that require them.
our position in the market is our attention to managing change
and making change stick in our customers’ organization.”*
(*E.g.: CRM failure rate/Gartner: 70%)
—Jeff Thull, The Prime Solution: Close the Value Gap,
Increase Margins, and Win the Complex Sale
The Value-added Ladder/TRANSFORMATION
Customer Success
through Implemented
Gamechanging Solutions*
Services
Goods
Raw Materials
*Subject-matter Professionals and
Organization Effectiveness Experts (Degree: MBA,
Organizational Psychology)
Era #1/Obvious Value: “Our ‘it’ works, is
delivered on time” (“Close”)
Era #2/Augmented Value: “How our ‘it’
can add value—a ‘useful it’ ” (“Solve”)
Era #3/Complex Value Networks: “How our
‘system’ can change you and deliver
‘business advantage’ ” (“CultureStrategic change”)
Source: Jeff Thull, The Prime Solution: Close the Value Gap,
Increase Margins, and Win the Complex Sale
Model PSF*
*Professional Services Firm
EXCELLENCE.
VALUE-ADDED LADDER.
SPELLBINDING
EXPERIENCE.
“SOUL THROUGH DESIGN.”
All Equal Except …
“At Sony we assume that all products
of our competitors have basically the
same technology, price, performance
and features. Design is the
only thing that
differentiates one product
from another in the
marketplace.” —Norio Ohga
“Design is treated
like a religion
at BMW.” —Fortune
“We don’t have a good language to talk
about this kind of thing. In most people’s
vocabularies, design means veneer. … But
to me, nothing could be further from the
Design is
the fundamental
soul of a man-made
creation.”
meaning of design.
—Steve Jobs
“With its carefully conceived mix of colors and textures,
Starbucks
aromas and music,
is more
indicative of our era than the iMac. It is to the Age of
Aesthetics what McDonald’s was to the Age of
Convenience or Ford was to the Age of Mass
Production—the touchstone success story, the exemplar
‘Every
Starbucks store is carefully designed
to enhance the quality of everything
the customers see, touch, hear, smell
or taste,’ writes CEO Howard Schultz.”
of … the aesthetic imperative. …
-—Virginia Postrel, The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic
Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture and Consciousness
“Business people
don’t need to
‘understand
designers better.’
Businesspeople need
to be designers.”
—Roger Martin/Dean/Rotman Management School/
University of Toronto
Hypothesis:
DESIGN is
the principal
difference
between love
and hate!
Experience: “Rebel Lifestyle!”
“What we sell is the
ability for a 43year-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
Lisbon/New Biz:
Weeks
to …
Minutes
(!!!!)
Beauty
Grace
Clarity
Simplicity
90K in U.S.A. ICUs on any
given day; 178 steps/day
in ICU.
50%
stays result
in “serious complication”
Source: Atul Gawande, “The Checklist” (New Yorker, 1210.07)
**Peter Pronovost, Johns Hopkins,
2001
**Checklist, line infections
**1/3rd at least one error when he started
**Nurses/permission to stop procedure
if doc, other not following checklist
**In 1 year, 10-day line-infection rate:
11% to …
0%
Source: Atul Gawande, “The Checklist” (New Yorker, 1210.07)
**Docs, nurses make own
checklists on whatever
process-procedure they choose
**Within weeks, average stay in
ICU down
50%
Source: Atul Gawande, “The Checklist” (New Yorker, 1210.07)
“Business people
don’t need to
‘understand
designers better.’
Businesspeople need
to be designers.”
—Roger Martin/Dean/Rotman Management School/
University of Toronto
The Value-added Ladder/ MEMORABLE CONNECTION
Spellbinding Experiences
via
“Soul” Through Design*
Customer Success/
Implemented Gamechanging Solutions
Services
Goods
Raw Materials
*
*Blending Beauty, Usability, Theatricality (Degree: MFA/
Master of Fine Arts, “D-school,” Cultural Anthropology)
Message (?????):
cannot
Men
design for women’s
needs.
Part
THREE
Try it. Try it. Try it
ry it. Try it. Screw
up. Try it. Try it. Try
t. Try it. Try it. Try
t. Try it. Screw it up
t. Try it. Try it. try
“This is so simple it sounds stupid, but it is amazing
how few oil people really understand that
you only find
oil if you drill
wells.
You may think you’re finding it
when you’re drawing maps and
studying logs, but you have to drill.”
Source: The Hunters, by John Masters, Canadian O & G wildcatter
“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
“We have a
‘strategic plan.’
It’s called doing
things.”
— Herb Kelleher
“Experiment
fearlessly”
Source: BW0821.06, Type A Organization Strategies/
“How to Hit a Moving Target”—Tactic #1
“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
Culture of Prototyping
“Effective prototyping may
the most
valuable core
competence an
be
innovative organization can
hope to have.” —Michael Schrage
Think about It!?
Innovation =
Reaction to the
Prototype
Source: Michael Schrage
“SkunkWorks”/ “ParallelUniverse”
“the
solution”
Source: Scott Bedbury (Others: 3M, Google, Shell, NAVFAC)
“Fail .
Forward.
Fast.”
High Tech CEO, Pennsylvania
“FAIL, FAIL
AGAIN. FAIL
BETTER.”
—Samuel Beckett
“Reward
excellent failures.
Punish mediocre
successes.”
Phil Daniels, Sydney exec
“In business, you reward
people for taking risks.
doesn’t work
out you promote themWhen it
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
“The secret of fast
progress is
inefficiency, fast
and furious and
numerous failures.”
—Kevin Kelly
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”
“You miss
100% of
the shots you
never take.”
—Wayne Gretzky
The Venturesome
Economy: How
Innovation Sustains
Prosperity in a More
Connected World
By Amar Bhide
Sustainable Innovation:
Systemic. Very complex. The
NECESSARY COMBINATION (very
dense network) of EVERYTHING from the
development of the Basic Science to numerous
INTERMEDIATE
Stages to Sales
Recruiting and Training and Ads. Essential: Clever and
AGGRESSIVE
CONSUMERS* (“venturesome
numerous
consumption”). Path to success or failure …
UNPREDICTABLE. FYI: The
World is NOT FLAT.
*From Transistor at Bell Labs to on-line gamers.
Source: Amar Bhide, The Venturesome Economy: How Innovation
Sustains Prosperity in a More Connected World
Sustainable Innovation: Systemic. Very complex. The COMBINATION
(very dense network) of EVERYTHING
Basic
Science*
from the
to Sales Recruiting and Training
PIONEER CONSUMERS (“venturesome
consumption”). Path to success or failure … UNPREDICTABLE.
and Ads. Essential: Clever and numerous
*Of modest value [& origin mostly
ENTIRE
INNOVATION CHAIN is in
irrelevant] unless the
place and aggressively interacting-competing.
Source: Amar Bhide, The Venturesome Economy: How
Innovation Sustains Prosperity in a More Connected World
Sustainable Innovation /“Breakthrough Ideas”:
(1) High # of Stages/Stageswithin Stages
(1) Importance of
Intermediate Stages
(3) Engaged Mega-scrum
of Users/Consumers
as Participative/Decisive
“Pull” Mechanism (eg UPS
vs. FedEx)
Source: Amar Bhide, The Venturesome Economy: How Innovation
Sustains Prosperity in a More Connected World
1913:
1960:
1980:
2000:
2007:
32%*
26%
22%
27%
26%
Source: “The Future of American Power,”
Fareed Zakaria, Foreign Affairs, vol 87, no. 3
*U.S. share of world output
De-central-iza-tion!
Enemy
#1
I.C.D.
Inherent/Inevitable/
Immutable Centralist Drift
Note 1:
Note 2: Jim Burke’s 1-word vocabulary: “No.”
“‘Decentralization’
is not a piece of
paper. It’s not me.
It’s either in your
heart, or not.”
—Brian Joffe/BIDvest
“If it feels
painful and
scary—that’s
real delegation”
—Caspian Woods, small biz owner
“Best practice” =
ZERO Standard
Deviation
“Cisco, [CEO John] Chambers
argues, is the best possible model
for how a global business can
operate: as a distributed idea
engine where leadership
emerges organically,
unfettered by a central
command.”
—”Revolution in San Jose,” Fast
(Chambers: “We now have a
whole pool of talent who can lead these
working groups—like mini CEOs and COOs.”)
(Top blog: engineering director 5 levels down)
Company, Dec-Jan 08-09
Ex-ecu-tion!
“Execution is
strategy.”
—Fred Malek
“Execution is
the job of the
business
leader.”
—Larry Bossidy & Ram
Charan/ Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
“Costco figured out
the big, simple things
and executed with
total fanaticism.”
—Charles Munger, Berkshire Hathaway
Excellence in
Execution =
Deepest “Blue
Ocean”
Ac-counta-bil-ity!
30%
MH: 80%
CF:
(no salesfolk)
(salesfolk)
6:15A.M.
DECENTRALIZATION.
EXECUTION.
ACCOUTABILITY.
6:15A.M.
Part
FOUR
I am constantly asked for
'secrets'
“strategies/
for
surviving the recession.” I try
to appear wise and informed—
and parade original,
sophisticated thoughts. But if
you want to know what’s
really going through my
head, see the list that follows.
Forty-four “Secrets”
and “clever Strategies”
For dealing with the
Recession of 2008-XXXX
44 “Secrets” and “Clever Strategies” For
Dealing with the Recession of 2008-XXXX
You come earlier.
You leave later.
You work harder.
You may well work for less; and, if so, you
adapt to the untoward circumstances with a
smile—even if it kills you inside.
You volunteer to do more.
You dig deep and always bring a good attitude
to work.
You fake it if your good attitude flags.
You literally practice your "game face" in the
mirror in the morning, and in the loo
mid-morning.
You give new meaning to the idea and intensive
practice of “visible management.”
44 “Secrets” and “Clever Strategies” For
Dealing with the Recession of 2008-XXXX
You take better than usual care of yourself and
encourage others to do the same—physical
well-being determines mental well-being and
response to stress.
You shrug off shit that flows downhill in your
direction—buy a shovel or a “pre-worn”
raincoat on eBay.
You try to forget about “the good old days”—
nostalgia is self-destructive.
You buck yourself up with the thought that
“this too shall pass”—but then remind yourself
that it might not pass any time soon, and so
you re-dedicate yourself to making the
absolute best of what you have now.
44 “Secrets” and “Clever Strategies” For
Dealing with the Recession of 2008-XXXX
You work the phones and then work the
phones some more—and stay in touch with
positively everyone.
You frequently invent breaks from routine,
including “weird” ones—“changeups” prevent
wallowing and bring a fresh perspective.
You eschew all forms of personal excess.
You simplify.
You sweat the details as never before.
You sweat the details as never before.
You sweat the details as never before.
You raise to the sky and maintain at all
costs the Standards of Excellence by which
you unfailingly evaluate your own performance.
You are maniacal when it comes to responding
to even the slightest screwup.
44 “Secrets” and “Clever Strategies” For
Dealing with the Recession of 2008-XXXX
You find ways to be around young people and
to keep young people around—they are less
likely to be members of the “sky is falling”
school.
You learn new tricks of your trade.
You remind yourself that this is not just
something to be “gotten through”—it is the
Final Exam of character.
You network like a demon.
You network inside the company—get to know
more of the folks who “do the real work.”
You network outside the company—get to
know more of the folks who “do the real
work” in vendor-customer outfits.
44 “Secrets” and “Clever Strategies” For
Dealing with the Recession of 2008-XXXX
You thank others by the truckload if good
things happen—and take the heat yourself if
bad things happen.
You behave kindly, but you don't sugarcoat or
hide the truth--humans are startlingly
resilient and rumors are the real killers.
You treat small successes as if they were
Superbowl victories—and celebrate and
commend accordingly.
You shrug off the losses (ignoring what's going
on in your tummy), and get back on the
horse and immediately try again.
You avoid negative people to the extent you
can—pollution kills.
You eventually read the gloom-sprayers the
riot act.
44 “Secrets” and “Clever Strategies” For
Dealing with the Recession of 2008-XXXX
You give new meaning to the word "thoughtful.“
You don’t put limits on the flowers budget—
“bright and colorful” works marvels.
You redouble, re-triple your efforts to "walk in
your customer's shoes." (Especially if the
shoes smell.)
You mind your manners—and accept others’
lack of manners in the face of their strains.
You are kind to all mankind.
You keep your shoes shined.
You leave the blame game at the office door.
You call out the congenital politicians in no
uncertain terms.
You become a paragon of personal accountability.
And then you pray.
Skip the map!
“Mapping your
competitive
position”
or …
The “Have
you …” 50
1. Have you in the
last 10 days …
visited a
customer?
2. Have you called a
customer … TODAY?
1. Have you in the last 10 days … visited a
customer?
2. Have you called a customer … TODAY?
3. Have you in the last 60-90 days … had a seminar in which several folks from the
customer’s operation (different levels, different functions, different divisions) interacted,
via facilitator, with various of your folks?
4. Have you thanked a front-line employee for a
small act of helpfulness … in the last three days?
5. Have you thanked a front-line employee for a small act of helpfulness … in the
last three hours?
6. Have you thanked a frontline employee for carrying around a great attitude … today?
7. Have you in the last week recognized—publicly—one of your folks for a small act of
cross-functional co-operation?
8. Have you in the last week recognized—publicly—one of “their” folks (another function)
for a small act of cross-functional co-operation?
9. Have you invited in the last month a leader of another function to your weekly team
priorities meeting?
10. Have you personally in the last week-month called-visited an internal or external
customer to sort out, inquire, or apologize for some little or big thing that went awry? (No
reason for doing so? If true—in your mind—then you’re more out of touch than I dared
imagine.)
11. Have you in the last two days had a chat with someone (a couple of levels down?) about specific deadlines
concerning a project’s next steps?
12. Have you in the last two days had a chat with someone (a couple of levels down?) about specific deadlines
concerning a project’s next steps … and what specifically you can do to remove a hurdle? (“Ninety percent of
what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get things done.”—Peter “His eminence”
Drucker.)
13. Have you celebrated in the last week a “small” (or large!) milestone reached? (I.e., are you a milestone
fanatic?)
14. Have you in the last week or month revised some estimate in the “wrong” direction and apologized for making
a lousy estimate? (Somehow you must publicly reward the telling of difficult truths.)
15. Have you installed in your tenure a very
comprehensive customer satisfaction scheme
for all internal customers? (With major consequences for hitting or missing
the mark.)
16. Have you in the last six months had a week-long, visible, very intensive visit-“tour” of external customers?
17. Have you in the last 60 days called an abrupt halt to a meeting and “ordered” everyone to get out of the office,
and “into the field” and in the next eight hours, after asking those involved, fixed (f-i-x-e-d!) a nagging “small”
problem through practical action?
18. Have you in the last week had a rather thorough discussion of a “cool design thing” someone has come
across—away from your industry or function—at a Web site, in a product or its packaging?
19. Have you in the last two weeks had an informal meeting—at least an hour long—with a frontline employee to
discuss things we do right, things we do wrong, what it would take to meet your mid- to long-term aspirations?
20. Have you had in the last 60 days had a general meeting to discuss “things we do wrong” … that we can fix in
the next fourteen days?
21. Have you had in the last year a one-day, intense offsite with each (?) of your
internal customers—followed by a big celebration of “things gone right”?
22. Have you in the last week pushed someone to do some family thing that you fear
might be overwhelmed by deadline pressure?
23. Have you learned the names of the children of everyone who reports to you? (If
not, you have six months to fix it.)
24. Have you taken in the last month an interesting-weird outsider to lunch?
25. Have you in the last month invited an interesting-weird outsider to sit in on an
important meeting?
26. Have you in the last three days discussed something interesting, beyond your
industry, that you ran across in a meeting, reading, etc?
27. Have you in the last 24 hours injected into a meeting “I ran across this
interesting idea in [strange place]”?
28. Have you in the last two weeks asked someone to report on something, anything
that constitutes an act of brilliant service rendered in a “trivial” situation—
restaurant, car wash, etc? (And then discussed the relevance to your work.)
29. Have you in the last 30 days examined in detail (hour
by hour) your calendar to evaluate the degree “time
actually spent” mirrors your “espoused priorities”?
(And repeated this exercise with everyone on team.)
30. Have you in the last two months had a presentation to the group by a “weird”
outsider?
31. Have you in the last two months had a presentation to the group by a customer,
internal customer, vendor featuring “working folks” 3 or 4 levels down in the vendor
organization?
32. Have you in the last two months had a presentation to the group of a cool,
beyond-our-industry ideas by two of your folks?
33. Have you at every meeting today (and forever more) re-directed the conversation
to the practicalities of implementation concerning some issue before the group?
34. Have you at every meeting today (and forever more) had an end-of-meeting
discussion on “action items to be dealt with in the next 4, 48 hours? (And then made
this list public—and followed up in 48 hours.) And made sure everyone has at least
one such item.)
35. Have you had a discussion in the last six months about what it would take to get
recognition in local-national poll of “best places to work”?
36. Have you in the last month approved a cool-different training course for one
of your folks?
Have you in the last month taught a front-line
training course?
37.
38. Have you in the last week discussed the idea of Excellence? (What it means, how
to get there.)
39. Have you in the last week discussed the idea of “Wow”? (What it means, how
to inject it into an ongoing “routine” project.)
40. Have you in the last 45 days assessed some major process in terms of the
details of the “experience,” as well as results, it provides to its external or internal
customers?
41. Have you in the last month had one of your folks attend a meeting you were supposed to go
to which gives them unusual exposure to senior folks?
42. Have you in the last 60 (30?) days sat with a trusted friend or “coach” to discuss your
“management style”—and its long- and short-term impact on the group?
43. Have you in the last three days considered a professional
relationship that was a little rocky and made a call to the person
involved to discuss issues and smooth the waters? (Taking the
“blame,” fully deserved or not, for letting the thing-issue fester.)
44. Have you in the last … two hours … stopped by someone’s (two-levels “down") officeworkspace for 5 minutes to ask “What do you think?” about an issue that arose at a more or
less just completed meeting? (And then stuck around for 10 or so minutes to listen—and
visibly taken notes.)
45. Have you … in the last day … looked around you to assess whether the diversity pretty
accurately maps the diversity of the market being served? (And …)
46. Have you in the last day at some meeting gone out of your way to make sure that a normally
reticent person was engaged in a conversation—and then thanked him or her, perhaps
privately, for their contribution?
47. Have you during your tenure instituted very public (visible) presentations of performance?
48. Have you in the last four months had a session specifically aimed at checking on the
“corporate culture” and the degree we are true to it—with all presentations by relatively junior
folks, including front-line folks? (And with a determined effort to keep the conversation
restricted to “real world” “small” cases—not theory.)
49. Have you in the last six months talked about the Internal Brand Promise?
50. Have you in the last year had a full-day off site to talk about individual (and group)
aspirations?
Part
FIVE
“I am often asked by would-be entrepreneurs
seeking escape from life within huge corporate
structures, ‘How do I build a small firm for
Buy
a very large one
and just wait.”
myself?’ The answer seems obvious:
—Paul Ormerod, Why Most Things Fail:
Evolution, Extinction and Economics
“Mr. Foster and his McKinsey colleagues
collected detailed performance data stretching
back
40 years for 1,000
They found that
U.S. companies.
none
of
the long-term survivors managed to
outperform the market. Worse, the
longer companies had been in the
database, the worse they did.”
—Financial Times
“Data drawn from the real world
attest to a fact that is beyond
Everything
in existence tends
to deteriorate.”
our control:
—Norberto Odebrecht, Education Through Work
#4 Japan
#2T USA
#2T China
#4 Japan
#3 USA
#2 China
#1 Germany
Reason!!!
Mittelstand
Jim Penman/
Jim’s Group
Jim’s Mowing Canada
Jim’s Mowing UK
Jim’s Antennas
Jim’s Bookkeeping
Jim’s Building Maintenance
Jim’s Carpet Cleaning
Jim’s Car Cleaning
Jim’s Computer Services
Jim’s Dog Wash
Jim’s Driving School
Jim’s Fencing
Jim’s Floors
Jim’s Painting
Jim’s Paving
Jim’s Pergolas [gazebos]
Jim’s Pool Care
Jim’s Pressure Cleaning
Jim’s Roofing
Jim’s Security Doors
Jim’s Trees
Jim’s Window Cleaning
Jim’s Windscreens
Note: Download, free, Jim Penman’s book:
What Will They Franchise Next? The Story of Jim’s Group
*Lived in same town all adult life
*First generation that’s wealthy/
no parental support
*“Don’t look like millionaires, don’t dress
like millionaires, don’t eat like
millionaires, don’t act like millionaires”
*“Many of the types of businesses [they]
are in could be classified as ‘dullnormal.’ [They] are welding contractors,
auctioneers, scrap-metal dealers, lessors of
portable toilets, dry cleaners, re-builders of
diesel engines, paving contractors …”
Source: The Millionaire Next Door, Thomas Stanley & William Danko
Part
SIX
1982
Excellence1982: The Bedrock “Eight Basics”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
A Bias for Action
Close to the Customer
Autonomy and Entrepreneurship
Productivity Through People
Hands On, Value-Driven
Stick to the Knitting
Simple Form, Lean Staff
Simultaneous Loose-Tight
Properties”
“Breakthrough” 82*
People!
Customers!
Action!
Values!
*In Search of Excellence
Hard Is Soft
Soft Is Hard
Hard Is Soft (Plans, #s)
Soft Is Hard (people,
customers, values,
relationships))
“If I could have chosen not to tackle the IBM culture head-on, I
probably wouldn’t have. My bias coming in was toward strategy,
analysis and measurement. In comparison, changing the
attitude and behaviors of hundreds of thousands of people is
[Yet] I came to see in
my time at IBM that culture
isn’t just one aspect of the
very, very hard.
game —it is the
game.”
—Lou Gerstner,
Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance
“… it is
the
game.”
-fold!
“culture of cover-up
that pervades healthcare”
“Patient Safety Event Registry” …
“looking for systemic solutions, not seeking
to fix blame on individuals except in the
Ken Kizer/VA 1997:
most egregious cases. The good news was a
thirty-fold
increase
in the number of medical
mistakes and adverse events that got reported.”
“National Center for Patient Safety Ann Arbor”
2007
Siberia
Why in the
World did you
go to Siberia?
An
emotional, vital, innovative,
joyful, creative,
entrepreneurial endeavor
that elicits maximum
Enterprise* ** (*at its best):
concerted human
potential in the
wholehearted service of
others.**
**Employees, Customers, Suppliers, Communities, Owners, Temporary partners
2007
Sydney
Organizations exist
to serve. Period.
Leaders live to
serve. Period.
… no less than
Cathedrals
in which the full and
awesome power of the
Imagination and Spirit and
native Entrepreneurial flair
of diverse individuals is
unleashed in passionate
pursuit of … Excellence.
“We are a
‘Life Success’
Company.”
Dave Liniger, founder, RE/MAX
“Managing winds up being
the management of the
allocation of resources
against tasks. Leadership
My
definition of a leader
is someone who
helps people
succeed.”
focuses on people.
—Carol Bartz, Yahoo!
The Dream Manager
—Matthew Kelly
“An organization can only become the-best-version-of-itself to
the extent that the people who drive that organization are
striving to become better-versions-of-themselves.” “A
company’s purpose is to become the-best-version-of-itself. The
What is an employee’s purpose?
Most would say, ‘to help the company
achieve its purpose’—but they would be
wrong. That is certainly part of the
employee’s role, but an employee’s
primary purpose is to become the-bestversion-of-himself or –herself. … When a
question is:
company forgets that it exists to serve customers, it quickly
Our employees are our first
customers, and our most important customers.”
goes out of business.
“The role of the Director is to create a
space where the actors and
become more
than they’ve ever been
before, more than
they’ve dreamed of
being.”
actresses can
—Robert Altman, Oscar acceptance speech
“No matter what the
situation, [the great manager’s] first
response is always to think
about the individual
concerned and how things
can be arranged to help that
individual experience
success.” —Marcus Buckingham,
The One Thing You Need to Know
“You have to
treat your
employees like
customers.”
—Herb Kelleher,
complete answer, upon being asked his “secrets to success”
Source: Joe Nocera, NYT, “Parting Words of an Airline Pioneer,” on the occasion of
Herb Kelleher’s retirement after 37 years at Southwest Airlines (SWA’s pilots union
took out a full-page ad in USA Today thanking HK for all he had done; across the
way in Dallas American Airlines’ pilots were picketing the Annual Meeting)
The Customer
Comes Second
—Hal Rosenbluth and Diane McFerrin Peters* (*no relation)
“Business has to give
people enriching,
rewarding lives,
or it's simply not
worth doing.”
—Richard Branson
“Leaders
‘SERVE’
people.
Period.”
—inspired by Robert Greenleaf
Good News 2009:
Leadership*
is a sacred
trust.
*President, classroom teacher, CEO, shop foreman
“The four most
important words in
any organization
are …
The four most important words in any organization
are …
“What do
you
think?”
Source: courtesy Dave Wheeler, posted at tompeters.com
Tomorrow: How
many times will
you “ask the
question”? [Count]
[Practice makes better]
[This is a STRATEGIC skill.]
“The doctor
interrupts
after …*
*Source: Jerome Groupman, How Doctors Think
*Listening is of the
utmost … strategic
importance!
*Listening is …
trainable !
(** “Strategic listening” will be a core course in TP’s
MBA/GTD curriculum!)
“The deepest
human need is
the need to be
appreciated.”
William James
“Thank you”:
10
years
“It was much later that I realized
Dad’s secret. He gained respect by
giving it. He talked and listened to
the fourth-grade kids in Spring Valley
who shined shoes the same way he
talked and listened to a bishop or a
He was
seriously interested in
who you were and what
you had to say.”
college president.
—Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Respect
#1 Resource for Troubled Times:
Committed.
Engaged.
Growing.
Respected.
Trusted.
Informed.
People.
“How to flush
$500,000 down
the toilet in one
easy lesson!!”
TP:
< CAPEX
> People!
#1/Wegmans
Brand =
Talent.
Our Mission
To develop and manage talent;
to apply that talent,
throughout the world,
for the benefit of clients;
to do so in partnership;
to do so with profit.
WPP
Ben
Changes His
BHAG!*
*Big Hairy Audacious Goal/Jim Collins
Profitable
“We are
thoughtful
in all we do.”
Thoughtfulness is key to customer retention.
Thoughtfulness is key to employee recruitment
and satisfaction.
Thoughtfulness is key to brand perception.
Thoughtfulness is key to your ability to look in
the mirror —and tell your kids about your job.
“Thoughtfulness is free.”
Thoughtfulness is key to speeding things up—
it reduces friction.
Thoughtfulness is key to transparency and even
cost containment—it abets rather than stifles
truth-telling.
“There is a misconception that supportive interactions require more
staff or more time and are therefore more costly. Although labor costs
are a substantial part of any hospital budget, the interactions
themselves add nothing to the budget.
Kindness is
free.
Listening to patients or answering their
questions costs nothing. It can be argued that negative interactions—
alienating patients, being non-responsive to their needs or limiting
their sense of control—can be very costly. … Angry, frustrated or
frightened patients may be combative, withdrawn and less
cooperative—requiring far more time
than it would have taken to interact with them initially in a positive
way.” —Putting Patients First, Susan Frampton,
Laura Gilpin, Patrick Charmel
#1.
Strategic.
Priority.
Period.
“Development can help great
but if
I had a dollar to
spend, I’d spend 70
cents getting the
right person in the
door.” —
people be even better—
Paul Russell, Director, Leadership &
Development, Google
the
most important
aspect of business
“In short, hiring is
and yet remains woefully
misunderstood.”
Source: Wall Street Journal, 10.29.08,
review of Who: The A Method for Hiring,
Geoff Smart and Randy Street
#1 cause of
Dis-satisfaction?
Employee retention & satisfaction:
Overwhelmingly,
based on the firstline manager!
Source: Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman, First, Break All
the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently
2/year =
legacy.
‘do’
“Leaders
people.
Period.”
—Anon.
“Diverse groups of problem solvers—groups
of people with diverse tools—consistently
outperformed groups of the best and the
brightest. If I formed two groups, one
random (and therefore diverse) and one
consisting of the best individual performers,
the first group almost always did better. …
Diversity trumped
ability.”
—Scott Page, The Difference: How
the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups,
Firms, Schools, and Societies Diversity
Rob McEwen/CEO/
Goldcorp Inc./
Red Lake
gold
Source: Wikinomics: How Mass
Collaboration Changes Everything,
Don Tapscott & Anthony Williams
“The Billion-man
Research Team:
Companies offering
work to online
communities are
reaping the benefits of
‘crowdsourcing.’”
—Headline, FT, 0110.07
“In Blackburn,
olds
four-year-
are making podcasts. In Suffolk,
the sometimes tedious and impractical ritual of
morning Assembly has been replaced in one
school by a news video compiled by pupils;
posting it on YouTube means parents can
watch as well—and they do. … Learners at all
stages and ages, from all over the world, are
downloading free tutorials while they replenish
their iPods, courtesy of iTunes U. …
Source: The Guardian, 0113.09, “Resource 2009,” a preview of BETT 2009
“Normal” =
“o for 800”
All You Need to Know About
“Sources of Innovation”:
Angry
people!
[angry with the
status quo]
“The
Bottleneck Is at
the Top of the Bottle”
“Where are you likely to find people with the least diversity of
experience, the largest investment in the past, and the greatest
reverence for industry dogma:
At the top!”
— Gary Hamel/Harvard Business Review
We are the
company
we keep
Measure “Strangeness”/Portfolio Quality
Staff
Consultants
Vendors
Out-sourcing Partners (#, Quality)
Innovation Alliance Partners
Customers
Competitors (who we “benchmark” against)
Strategic Initiatives
Product Portfolio (LineEx v. Leap)
IS/IT Projects
HQ Location
Lunch Mates
Language
Board
“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”
axiom: At its core, every (!!!)
relationship-partnership
decision (employee, vendor,
customer, etc) is a strategic
decision about:
“Innovate,
‘Yes’ or ‘No’ ”
The “We are what we eat”
“Hang out with
‘cool’ and thou shalT
become more cool.
Hang out with ‘dull’
and thou shalT
become more dull.
Period.”
Axiom II:
“[CEO A.G.] Lafley has shifted P&G’s focus
on inventing all its own products to
others’
inventions at
least half the
time.
developing
One successful
example, Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, based on a product
found in an Osaka market.” —Fortune
Axiom: Never use a vendor
who is not in the top
quartile (decile?) in
their industry on R&D
spending!*
*Inspired by Hummingbird
“How do dominant companies
lose their position? Two-
thirds of the time,
they pick the wrong
competitor to worry
about.”
—Don Listwin, CEO,
Openwave Systems/WSJ
Kodak …. Fuji
GM …. Ford
Ford …. GM
IBM …. Siemens, Fujitsu
Sears …. Kmart
Xerox …. Kodak, IBM
Benchmarking, Perils of …
“The best swordsman in the world doesn’t
need to fear the second best swordsman
in the world; no, the person for him to be
afraid of is some ignorant antagonist who
has never had a sword in his hand before;
he doesn’t do the thing he ought to do,
and so the expert isn’t prepared for him;
he does the thing he ought not to do and
often it catches the expert out and ends
him on the spot.” —Mark Twain
“Don’t
benchmark,
futuremark!”
Impetus: “The future is already here; it’s just
not evenly distributed” —William Gibson
“Freak
Fridays”
—once a month
invite somebody interesting, in any field, to have lunch
with your gang
“We are crazy. We should do
something when people say it is
If people say
something is ‘good’, it
means someone else
is already doing it.”
‘crazy.’
—Hajime Mitarai, Canon
“Who’s the most
interesting person
you’ve met in the
last 90 days? How
do I get in touch
with them?”
—Fred Smith
“What is your most
marked characteristic?”
Vanity Fair:
Mike Bloomberg:
“Curiosity.”
“You will become
like the five people
you associate with
the most—this can
be either a blessing
or a curse.”
—Billy Cox
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?
The
quality and quantity
and imaginativeness
of innovation shall
be the same in all
functions —e.g., in HR and
Iron Innovation Equality Law:
purchasing as much as in marketing or
product development.
-C
+R&D
X =XFX*
*Excellence = Cross-functional Excellence
Never
waste a
lunch!
????
% XF
lunches*
*Measure!
(Way) Underutilized Lever
Space!
Space!
Space!
Space!
The “XF-50”: 50 Ways to
Enhance Cross-Functional
Effectiveness and Deliver
Speed, “Service Excellence”
and “Value-added
Customer ‘Solutions’”*
*Entire “XF-50” List is an Appendix to the LONG version of
this presentation, posted at tompeters.com
1. It’s our organization to make work—or not. It’s not “them,” the outside
world that’s the problem. The enemy is us. Period.
2. Friction-free! Dump 90% of “middle managers”—most are advertent or
inadvertent “power freaks.” We are all—every one of us—in the Friction
Removal Business, one moment at a time, now and forevermore.
3. No “stovepipes”! “Stove-piping,” “Silo-ing” is an Automatic Firing
Offense. Period. No appeals. (Within the limits of civility, somewhat
“public” firings are not out of the question—that is, make one and all
aware why the axe fell.)
4. Everything on the Web. This helps. A lot. (“Everything” = Big word.)
5. Open access. All available to all. Transparency, beyond a level that’s
“sensible,” is a de facto imperative in a Burn-the-Silos strategy.
6. Project managers rule!! Project managers running XF (cross-functional)
projects are the Elite of the organization, and seen as such and treated as
such. (The likes of construction companies have practiced this more or
less forever.)
7. “Value-added Proposition” = Application of integrated resources. (From
the entire supply-chain.) To deliver on our emergent business raison
d’etre, and compete with the likes of our Chinese and Indian brethren, we
must co-operate with anybody and everybody “24/7.” IBM, UPS and many,
many others are selling far more than a product or service that works—
the new “it” is pure and simple a product of XF co-operation; “the product
is the co-operation” is not much of a stretch.
8. “XF work” is the direct work of leaders!
9. “Integrated solutions” = Our “Culture.” (Therefore: XF = Our culture.)
10. Partner with “best-in-class” only. Their pursuit of Excellence helps us
get beyond petty bickering. An all-star team has little time for anything
other than delivering on the (big) Client promise.
11. All functions are created equal! All functions contribute equally! All =
All.
12. All functions are “PSFs,” Professional Service Firms. “Professionalism”
is the watchword—and true Professionalism rise above turf wars. You are
your projects, your legacy is your projects—and the legacy will be skimpy
indeed unless you pass, with flying colors, the “works well with others”
exam!
13. We are all in sales! We all (a-l-l) “sell” those Integrated Client Solutions.
Good salespeople don’t blame others for screwups—the Clint doesn’t care.
Good salespeople are “quarterbacks” who make the system work-deliver.
14. We all invest in “wiring” the Client organization—we develop
comprehensive relationships in every part (function, level) of the Client’s
organization. We pay special attention to the so-called “lower levels,” short
on glamour, long on the ability to make things happen at the “coalface.”
15. We all “live the Brand”—which is Delivery of Matchless Integrated
Solutions which transform the Client’s organization. To “live the brand” is
to become a raving fan of XF co-operation.
16. We use the word “partner” until we want to barf! (Words matter! A lot!)
17. We use the word “team” until we want to barf. (Words matter! A lot!)
18. We use the word “us” until we want to barf. (Words matter! A lot!)
19. We obsessively seek Inclusion—and abhor exclusion. We want more
people from more places (internal, external—the whole “supply chain”)
aboard in order to maximize systemic benefits.
20. Buttons & Badges matter—we work relentlessly at team (XF team)
identity and solidarity. (“Corny”? Get over it.)
21. All (almost all) rewards are team rewards.
22. We keep base pay rather low—and give whopping bonuses for excellent
team delivery of “seriously cool” cross-functional Client benefits.
23. WE NEVER BLAME OTHER PARTS OF THE ORGANIZATION FOR
SCREWUPS.
24. WE TAKE THE HEAT—THE WHOLE TEAM. (For anything and
everything.) (Losing, like winning, is a team affair.)
25. “BLAMING” IS AN AUTOMATIC FIRING OFFENSE.
26. “Women rule.” Women are simply better at the XF communications
stuff—less power obsessed, less hierarchically inclined, more group-team
oriented.
27. Every member of our team is an honored contributor. “XF project
Excellence” is an “all hands” affair.
28. We are our XF Teams! XF project teams are how we get things done.
29. “Wow Projects” rule, large or small—Wow projects demand by
definition XF Excellence.
30. We routinely attempt to unearth and then reward “small gestures” of
XF co-operation.
31. We invite Functional Bigwigs to our XF project team reviews.
32. We insist on Client team participation—from all functions of the Client
organization.
33. An “Open talent market” helps make the projects “silo-free.” People
want in on the project because of the opportunity to do something
memorable—no one will tolerate delays based on traditional functional
squabbling.
34. Flat! Flat = Flattened Silos. Flat = Excellence based on XF project
outcomes, not power-hoarding within functional boundaries.
35. New “C-level”? We more or less need a “C-level” job titled Chief
Bullshit Removal Officer. That is, some kind of formal watchdog whose
role in life is to make cross-functionality work, and I.D. those who don’t
get with the program.
36. Huge (H-U-G-E) co-operation bonuses. Senior team members who
conspicuously shine in the “working together” bit are rewarded Big Time.
(A million bucks in one case I know—and a non-cooperating very senior
was sacked.)
37. Get physical!! “Co-location” is the most powerful “culture changer.
Physical X-functional proximity is almost a guarantee (yup!) of
remarkably improved co-operation—to aid this one needs flexible
workspaces that can be mobilized for a team in a flash.
38. Ad hoc. To improve the new “X-functional Culture,” little XF teams
should be formed on the spot to deal with an urgent issue—they may
live for but ten days, but it helps the XF habit, making it normal to be
“working the XF way.”
39. “Deep dip.” Dive three levels down in the organization to fill a
senior role with some one who has been pro-active on the XF
dimension.
40. Formal evaluations. Everyone, starting with the receptionist, should
have an important XF rating component in their evaluation.
41. Demand XF experience for, especially, senior jobs. The military
requires all would-be generals and admirals to have served a full tour in
a job whose only goals were cross-functional. Great idea!
42. Early project “management” experience. Within days, literally, of
coming aboard folks should be “running” some bit of a project,
working with folks from other functions—hence, “all this” becomes as
natural as breathing.
43. “Get ‘em out with the customer.” Rarely does the accountant or
bench scientist call one the customer. Reverse that. Give everyone
more or less regular “customer-facing experiences.” One learns
quickly that the customer is not interested in our in-house turf battles!
44. Put “it” on the–every agenda. XF “issues to be resolved” should be
on every agenda—morning project team review, weekly exec team
meeting, etc. A “next step” within 24 hours (4?) ought to be part of the
resolution.
45. XF “honest broker” or ombudsman. The ombudsman examines XF
“friction events” and acts as Conflict Resolution Counselor. (Perhaps a
formal conflict resolution agreement?)
46. Lock it in! XF co-operation, central to any value-added mission,
should be an explicit part of the “Vision Statement.”
47. Promotions. Every promotion, no exceptions, should put XF
Excellence in the top 5 (3?) evaluation criteria.
48. Pick partners based on their “co-operation proclivity.” Everyone must
be on board if “this thing” is going to work; hence every vendor, among
others, should be formally evaluated on their commitment to XF
transparency—e.g., can we access anyone at any level in any function of
their organization without bureaucratic barriers?
49. Fire vendors who don’t “get it”—more than “get it,” welcome “it” with
open arms.”
50. Jaw. Jaw. Jaw. Talk XF cooperation-value-added at every opportunity.
Become a relentless bore!
51. Excellence! There is a state of XF Excellence per se. Talk about it.
Pursue it. Aspire to nothing less.
L(+21) = L(-21)
Leadership(21A.D.) =
Leadership(21B.C.)
Tea
Power
Give
good
tea!
“In the same bitter winter of 1776 that Gen. George Washington led his beleaguered troops
across the Delaware River to safety, Benjamin Franklin sailed across the Atlantic to Paris to
engage in an equally crucial campaign, this one diplomatic. A lot depended on the bespectacled
and decidedly unfashionable 70-year-old as he entered the world’s fashion capitol sporting a
Franklin’s miracle was that armed
only with his canny personal charm and reputation as a
scientist and philosopher, he was able to cajole a wary
French government into lending the fledgling American
nation an enormous fortune. … The enduring image of Franklin in Paris tends
simple brown suit and a fur cap. …
to be that of a flirtatious old man, too busy visiting the city’s fashionable salons to pursue affairs
When Adams joined Franklin in
Paris in 1779, he was scandalized by the late hours and
French lifestyle his colleague had adopted, says [Stacy
Schiff, in A Great Improvisation] Adams was clueless that
it was through the dropped hints and seemingly offhand
remarks at these salons that so much of French diplomacy
was conducted. … Like the Beatles arriving in America, Franklin aroused a fervor—his
of state as rigorously as John Adams.
face appeared on prints, teacups and chamber pots. The extraordinary popularity served
Franklin’s diplomatic purposes splendidly. Not even King Louis XVI could ignore the enthuisiasm
that had won over both the nobility and the bourgeoisie. …”
Source: “In Paris, Taking the Salons By Srorm: How the Canny Ben Franklin Talked
the French into Forming a Crucial Alliance,” U.S. News & World Report, 0707.08
“Allied commands depend
on mutual confidence
[and this confidence]
is gained, above all
through the development
of friendships.”
—General D.D. Eisenhower,
Armchair General* (05.08)
*“Perhaps his most outstanding ability [at West Point]
was the ease with which he made friends and earned the
trust of fellow cadets who came from widely varied
backgrounds; it was a quality that would pay great
dividends during his future coalition command
Ike: An American Hero, Michael Korda/pp268-371:
“infectious grin and great charm”
“nice face”
“grin that was to become so
famous” “got along famously” “goodwill was
spontaneous and easily recognizable” “good impression
that Ike had made in six weeks” [newcomer junior general to
supreme commander, Torch; Marshall-ADM King-Roosevelt-Churchill-British
“least rank-conscious of generals” “Men
were happy to serve under Ike, even British admirals
and generals who might easily have raised objections.
His sincerity and lack of ceremony made it difficult,
even impossible, to refuse him, and enabled him very
rapidly to pull a team together …” “Ike was
gregarious, rarely had anything bad to say about
anyone, and, on the surface at least, was relaxed and
good natured.” “Whereas Ike’s good humor was
genuine, unaffected, and affectionate, Monty’s
[Field Marshall Montgomery] was cruel and mocking and
always carried a sting”
Chiefs of Staff]
“Mandela, a model host [in his prison hospital room]
smiled grandly, put [Justice Minister Kobie] Coetzee at
his ease, and almost immediately, to their quietly
contained surprise, prisoner and jailer found themselves
chatting amiably. … [It had mostly] to do with
body language, with the impact Mandela’s
manner had on people he met. First there was
his erect posture. Then there was the way he
shook hands. The effect was both regal and
intimidating, were it not for Mandela’s warm
gaze and his big, easy smile. … Coetzee was
surprised by Mandela’s willingness to talk in Afrikaans,
his knowledge of Afrikaans history.” Coetzee: “He was a
born leader. And he was affable. He was obviously well
liked by the hospital staff and yet he was respected even
though they knew he was a prisoner.”
Source: John Carlin, Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela
and the Game that Made a Nation. (Mandela meets surreptitiously with
justice minister after decades in prison—and turns on the charm)
“eighty percent
of success is
showing up.”
—Woody Allen
The Real World’s “Little” Rule Book
Ben/tea
Norm/tea
DDE/make friends
WFBuckley/make friends-help friends
Gust/Suck down
Charlie/poker pal-BOF
Eddie VII/dance-flatter-mingle-learn the language
Vlad/birthday party of outgroup guy’s wife
CIO/finance network
ERP installer/consult-“one line of code”
GE Energy/make friends risk assessment
GWB/check the invitation list
GHWB/T-notes
Hank/60 calls
MarkM/5K-5M
Delaware/show up
Oppy/snub Lewis Strauss
NM/smile
-$4.3T/tin ear
tp.com/Big 4-What do you think?
Women/genes
Banker/after church
Total Bloody Mess/Can they pay back the loan?
R.O.I.R.
Return On
Investment In
Relationships
“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
“What I learned from my years
as a hostage negotiator is that
we do not have to feel
powerless—and that
bonding
is the antidote to
the hostage situation.” —George
Kohlrieser, Hostage at the Table
“I regard apologizing as the
most magical, healing,
restorative gesture human
beings can make. It is the
centerpiece of my work with
executives who want to get
better.” —Marshall Goldsmith, What Got You
Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become
Even More Successfu.
THE PROBLEM IS
RARELY/NEVER THE
PROBLEM. THE
RESPONSE TO THE
PROBLEM INVARIABLY
ENDS UP BEING THE
REAL PROBLEM.*
*PERCEPTION IS ALL THERE IS!
Relationships
(of all varieties):
THERE
ONCE WAS A TIME WHEN A
THREE-MINUTE
PHONE CALL WOULD
HAVE AVOIDED SETTING OFF THE
DOWNWARD SPIRAL THAT RESULTED
IN A COMPLETE RUPTURE.
“Courtesies of a small and
trivial character are the
ones which strike
deepest in the grateful
and appreciating heart.”
—Henry Clay
Hard Is Soft
Soft Is Hard
#1 Trait …
“I am a
dispenser of
enthusiasm.”
—Ben Zander
“Nothing is so
contagious as
enthusiasm.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge
“A leader is
a dealer in
hope.”
—Napoleon
(+TP’s writing room pics)
#1 Truthteller …
You = Your
calendar*
*Calendars
never
lie
“I used to have a rule for myself that at any point in
time I wanted to have in mind — as it so happens,
also in writing, on a little card I carried around with
me — the three big things I was trying to get done.
Three.
Not two.
Not four.
Not five.
Not ten.
Three.”
— Richard Haass, The Power to Persuade
“Dennis, you need a …
‘To-don’t ’
List !”
“The one thing you need to
know about sustained
individual success: Discover
what you don’t like
doing and
stop
doing it.”
—Marcus Buckingham, The One Thing You Need to Know
“You must
be
the change you
wish to see in the
world.”
Gandhi
“To develop others,
start with yourself.”
—Marshall Goldsmith
“Being aware of
yourself and how you
affect everyone around
you is what
distinguishes a superior
leader.”
—Edie Seashore (Strategy + Business #45)
“Do one thing
every day
that scares
you.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt
Kevin Roberts’ Credo
1. Ready. Fire! Aim.
2. If it ain’t broke ... Break it!
3. Hire crazies.
4. Ask dumb questions.
5. Pursue failure.
6. Lead, follow ... or get out of the way!
7. Spread confusion.
8. Ditch your office.
9. Read odd stuff.
10.
Avoid moderation!
“Insanely
Great”
“Radically
thrilling”
BMW
Single
greatest act
of pure
imagination
The 19 Es of
Excellence
If Not Excellence, What?
If Not Excellence Now, When?
The “19 Es” of Excellence
Enthusiasm. (Be an irresistible force of nature!)
Energy. (Be fire! Light fires!)
Exuberance. (Vibrate—cause earthquakes!)
Execution. (Do it! Now! Get it done! Barriers are baloney!
Excuses are for wimps! Accountability is gospel!
Adhere to the Bill Parcells doctrine: “Blame nobody! Expect nothing! Do something!”)
Empowerment.
(Respect and appreciation! Always ask, “What do you think?”
Then: Listen! Liberate! Celebrate! 100% innovators or bust!)
Edginess. (Perpetually dancing at the frontier, and a little or a lot beyond.)
Enraged. (Determined to challenge & change the status quo!)
Engaged. (Addicted to MBWA/Managing By Wandering Around. In touch. Always.)
Electronic. (Partners with the world 60/60/24/7 via electronic community building
and entanglement of every sort. Crowdsourcing/doing power!)
Encompassing. (Relentlessly pursue diverse opinions—the more diversity the merrier! Diversity per se “works”!)
Emotion. (The alpha. The omega. The essence of leadership. The essence of sales.
Empathy.
The essence of marketing. The essence. Period. Acknowledge it.)
(Connect, connect, connect with others’ reality and aspirations! “Walk
in the other person’s shoes”—until the soles have holes!)
Experience.
(Life is theater! Make every activity-contact memorable! Standard:
“Insanely Great”/Steve Jobs; “Radically Thrilling”/BMW.)
Eliminate. (Keep it simple!)
Errorprone. (Ready! Fire! Aim!
Try a lot of stuff and make a lot of booboos and then try some more stuff
and make some more booboos—all of it at the speed of light!)
Evenhanded.
Expectations.
Eudaimonia.
Excellence.
(Straight as an arrow! Fair to a fault! Honest as Abe!)
(Michelangelo: “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.” Amen!)
(Pursue the highest of human moral purpose—the core of Aristotle’s philosophy. Be of service. Always.)
(The only standard! Never an exception! Start now! No excuses! If not Excellence, what?
If not Excellence now, when?)
Excellence.
Always.
“Excellence can be obtained if you:
... care more than others think is wise;
... risk more than others think is safe;
... dream more than others think
is practical;
... expect more than others think
is possible.”
Source: Anon. (Posted @ tompeters.com by
K.Sriram, November 27, 2006 1:17 AM)
The Heart of
Business Strategy:
48 Things That
Matter
We usually think of business strategy
as some sort of aspirational market
positioning statement. Doubtless
that’s part of it. But I believe that
the number one “strategic strength”
is excellence in execution and
systemic relationships (i.e., with
everyone we come in contact with).
Hence I offer the following 48 pieces
of advice in creating a winning
“strategy” that is inherently
sustainable.
“Thank you.” Minimum several times a day.
Measure it.
“Thank you” to everyone even peripherally
involved in some activity—especially those
“deep in the hierarchy.”
Smile. Work on it.
Apologize. Even if “they” are “mostly” to
blame.
Jump all over those who play the “blame
game.”
Hire enthusiasm.
Low enthusiasm. No hire. Any job.
Hire optimists. Everywhere. (“Positive
outlook on life,” not mindless optimism.)
Hiring: Would you like to go to lunch with
him-her. 100% of jobs.
Hire for good manners.
Do not reject “trouble makers”—that is those
who are uncomfortable with the status quo.
Expose all would-be hires to something
unexpected-weird. Observe their reaction.
Overwhelm response to even the smallest
screwups.
Become a student of all you will meet with.
Big time.
Hang out with interesting new people.
Measure it.
Lunch with folks in other functions. Measure it.
Listen. Hear. Become a serious student
of listening-hearing.
Work on everyone’s listening skills. Practice.
Become a student of information extractioninterviewing.
Become a student of presentation giving.
Formal. Short and spontaneous.
Incredible care in 1st line supervisor selection.
World’s best training for 1st line supervisors.
Construct small leadership opportunities for
junior people within days of starting on the
job.
Insane care in all promotion decisions.
Promote “people people” for all managerial
jobs. Finance-logistics-R&D as much as,
say, sales.
Hire-promote for demonstrated curiosity.
Check their past commitment to continuous
learning.
Small “d” diversity. Rich mixes for any and
all teams.
Hire women. Roughly 50% women on exec
team.
Exec team “looks like” customer population,
actual and desired.
Focus on creating products for and selling
to women.
Focus on creating products for and selling
to boomers-geezers.
Work on first and last impressions.
Walls display tomorrow’s aspirations, not
yesterday’s accomplishments.
Simplify systems. Constantly.
Insist that almost all material be covered by a
1-page summary. Absolutely no longer.
Practice decency.
Add “We are thoughtful in all we do” to
corporate values list. Number 1 force for
customer loyalty, employee satisfaction.
Make some form of employee growth (for all)
a formal part of values set. Above
customer satisfaction. Steal from RE/MAX:
“We are a life success company.”
Flowers.
Celebrate “small wins.” Often. Perhaps a
“small win of the day.”
Manage your calendar religiously: Does it
accurately reflect your espoused priorities?
Use a “calendar friend” who’s not very
friendly to help you with this.
Review your calendar: Work assiduously and
mercilessly on your “To don’ts.”—stuff
that distracts.
Bosses, especially near the top: Formally
cultivate one advisor whose role is to tell you
the truth.
Commit to Excellence.
Talk up Excellence.
Put “Excellence in all we do” in the values set.
Measure everyone on demonstrated
commitment to Excellence.