Transcript Tom Peters’ Excellence. Always. Management Forum Bogota/16 March 2009 To appreciate this presentation [and ensure that it is not a mess], you need Microsoft fonts: NOTE: “Showcard Gothic,” “Ravie,” “Chiller” and.

Tom Peters’
Excellence.
Always.
Management Forum
Bogota/16 March 2009
To appreciate
this presentation [and ensure
that it is not a mess], you need
Microsoft fonts:
NOTE:
“Showcard Gothic,”
“Ravie,” “Chiller”
and “Verdana”
Slides at …
tompeters.com
Conrad Hilton, at a gala
celebrating his career,
was asked, “What was the
most important lesson
you’ve learned in your long
and distinguished career?”
His immediate answer …
“remember
to tuck the
shower curtain
inside the
bathtub”
“Execution
is strategy.”
—Fred Malek
MBWA
“Tom let
me tell you the definition of a
good lending officer. After
church on Sunday, on the way
home with his family, he takes
a little detour to drive by the
factory he just lent money to.
Doesn’t go in or any such
thing, just drives by and takes
a look.”
Message from a banker, circa 1988:
“Too Much Cost, Not Enough Value” … “Too
Much Speculation, Not Enough Investment” …
“Too Much Complexity, Not Enough Simplicity”
… “Too Much Counting, Not Enough Trust” …
“Too Much Business Conduct, Not Enough
Professional Conduct” … “Too Much
Salesmanship, Not Enough Stewardship” …
“Too Much Focus on Things, Not Enough Focus
on Commitment” … “Too Many Twenty-first
Century Values, Not Enough EighteenthCentury Values” … “Too Much ‘Success,’ Not
Enough Character”
—chapter titles from John Bogle,
Enough. The Measures of Money, Business, and Life (Bogle is
founder of the Vanguard Mutual Fund Group)
Good News 2009:
Leadership*
is a sacred
trust.
*President, classroom teacher, CEO, shop foreman
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
(Plans, #s)
Soft Is Hard
(people, customers, values,
relationships)
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.
“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
The Dream Manager
—Matthew Kelly
“An organization can only become the-bestversion-of-itself to the extent that the people
who drive that organization are striving to
become better-versions-of-themselves.”
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 thebest-version-of-himself or –herself. … Our
employees are our first customers, and our
most important customers.”
The question is:
“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)
“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
focuses on people. My
definition of a leader is
someone who helps people
succeed.” —Carol Bartz, Yahoo!
“The four most important
words in any
organization
‘What do
you think?’ ”
are …
Source: courtesy Dave Wheeler, posted at
tompeters.com, source of original unknown (0609.08)
“Buy in”“Ownership”Authorial bragging
rights-“Born again”
Champion = One
Line of Code!
“The deepest
human need is
the need to be
appreciated.”
William James
“Leaders
‘SERVE’
people.
Period.”
—inspired by Robert Greenleaf
“Business has to give
people enriching,
rewarding lives,
or it's simply not
worth doing.” —Richard Branson
Ben
Changes His
BHAG!*
*Big Hairy Audacious Goal/Collins
“How to flush
$500,000 down
the toilet in one
easy lesson!!”
TP:
< CAPEX
> People!
Wegmans
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
Brand =
Talent.
Some like
it hot!
“Insanely
Great”
“Radically
thrilling”
BMW
Single
greatest act
of pure
imagination
Pursuing
Discomfort!
“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!
“You miss
100% of
the shots you
never take.”
—Wayne Gretzky
#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 !”
“You must
be
the change you
wish to see in the
world.”
Gandhi
“I am a
dispenser of
enthusiasm.” *
—Ben Zander
*Especially in tough times!
“To develop others,
start with yourself.”
—Marshall Goldsmith
Halt.
Do. It.
Now.
Skip the map
“Mapping your
competitive
position”
or …
1. Have you in the
last 10 days …
visited a
customer?
2. Have you called a
customer … TODAY?
The “Have
you …” 50
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.)
“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
“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’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
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
“We have a
‘strategic plan.’
It’s called doing
things.”
— Herb Kelleher
“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
“Fail .
Forward.
Fast.”
High Tech CEO, Pennsylvania
“Reward
excellent failures.
Punish mediocre
successes.”
Phil Daniels, Sydney exec
We Are
What We
Eat
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
Axiom: Never use a vendor
who is not in the top
quartile (decile?) in
their industry on R&D
spending!*
*Inspired by Hummingbird
“[CEO A.G.] Lafley has shifted P&G’s
focus on inventing all its own products
others’
inventions at
least half the
time. One successful
to developing
example Mr. Clean Magic Eraser,
based on a product found in an
Osaka market.”
—Fortune
The “Hang Out Axiom”: At
its core, every (!!!)
relationship-partnership
decision (employee,
vendor, customer, etc)
is a strategic decision
about:
“Innovate,
‘Yes’ or ‘No’ ”
“Normal” =
“o for 800”
All You Need to Know About
“Sources of Innovation”:
Angry
people!
[angry with the
status quo]
“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
“The Billion-man
Research Team:
Companies offering
work to online
communities are
reaping the benefits of
‘crowdsourcing.’”
—Headline, FT, 0110.07
Rob McEwen/CEO/
Goldcorp Inc./
Red Lake
gold
Source: Wikinomics: How Mass
Collaboration Changes Everything,
Don Tapscott & Anthony Williams
“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
Measure it!
Innovation Index: How many
of your Top 5 Strategic
Initiatives/Key Projects score
8 or higher [out of 10] on a
“Weird”/ “Profound”/
“Wow”/“Game- changer”
Scale?
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.
-Costs
+R&D
-Costs
+R&D
+Sales
+Marketing
+Quality
+Thoughtfulness
+Excellence
X =XFX*
*Excellence = Cross-functional Excellence
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
Never
waste a
lunch!
????
% XF
lunches*
*Measure!
Greater
than …
“Forget China,
India and the
Internet: Economic
Growth Is Driven
by
Women.”
—Headline,
Economist, April 15, 2006, Leader, page 14
“Women are
the majority
market”
—Fara Warner/The Power of the Purse
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…
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
“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
“AS LEADERS,
WOMEN
RULE:
New Studies find that
female managers outshine their male
counterparts in almost every measure”
TITLE/ Special Report/ BusinessWeek
“CEMEX realized that
women are the key drivers
of savings in [Mexican]
families. … They are entrepreneurial in nature,
and they actively participate in the tanda system
[neighborhood groups who pool money and save any that’s left over].
Regardless of whether they are homemakers or outsidethe-home workers, they are responsible for any savings in
the family. Patrimonio Hoy [Private Property Today, a CEMEX
program to aid the poor in building homes] discovered that 70% of
the women who saved were saving money in the tanda
system to construct homes for their families. The men in
the society consider their job done if they bring in their
paycheck at the end of the day.” —C.K. Prahalad, The Fortune at
the Bottom of the Pyramid, on Lorenzo Zambrano and CEMEX, the Mexican
company that’s the world’s #3 cement maker
“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.
Strategic.
Priority.
Period.
#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.
Tea
Power
Give
good
tea!
“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.”
Three
Minutes!
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.
“I regard apologizing as the
most magical, healing,
restorative gesture human
beings can make. It is the
centerpiece of my work with
executives who want to get
better.” —Marshall Goldsmith, What Got You
Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become
Even More Successful
“Courtesies of a small and
trivial character are the
ones which strike
deepest in the grateful
and appreciating heart.”
—Henry Clay
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.
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.”
2-cent
candy
Commerce Bank: From “Service” to “Experience”
7X. 730A800P. F12A.
“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
<TGW
vs.
>TGR
[Things Gone WRONG/Things Gone RIGHT]
Hypothesis:
DESIGN is
the principal
difference
between love
and hate!*
*Not “like” and “dislike”
Small
is (can often be)
“Design is everything.
Everything is design.”
“We are all designers.”
Inspiration: The Power of Design: A Force for
Transforming Everything, Richard Farson
Behavioral Primacy!
E.g.: plate size;
location of platters,
6.5 feet Away =
-63% “Seconds”
Source: Brian Wansink, Mindless Eating
Socks = 10K
“Paint it
white!”
— On Hashem Akbari’s [Lawrence Livermore labs] powerful program
to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions; using conservative
assumptions, it could reduce
44 billion tons of
CO2 emissions by cooling buildings, roads, entire cities
(The Guardian, 0116.09)
Seating arrangement
Table shape
Physical arrangements (distance,
co-location, grand or not/Apple)
Geologists/Geophysicists
XFX/Cross-functional Excellence
(meetings, talks, etc)
“The hang out axiom” (“We are
what we eat.”)
See greenery, recover faster (map,
smell of cookies, pianos/
Planetree)
Vary road crossing times/engage
Stew/Wrapped and loose fish/2X
Stew/No exit aisles
Wal*Mart/Oversized carts
Coins with likenesses
Post Office architecture
Pat visits the Local president
Thom Mayer and the crossed arms
“Management” of body language
(2/3rds of communication)
Difficult
Times …
“[other]
admirals more
frightened of
losing than
anxious to win”
On NELSON:
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
Excellence.
Always.
“Mr. Watson,
how long does it
take to achieve
Excellence?”
minute”
The Real
Deal
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
screw-ups.
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.