Transcript World Innovation Forum* (*Modesty is everything) EVERYTHING YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW ABOUT INNOVATION IS WRONG* (*Except, of course, what the other presenters have said/will say) Tom Peters/New.

World Innovation Forum*
(*Modesty is everything)
EVERYTHING YOU
THOUGHT YOU KNEW
ABOUT INNOVATION IS
WRONG*
(*Except, of course, what the other presenters have said/will say)
Tom Peters/New York/0524.2006
World Innovation Forum
YOU ONLY FIND
OIL IF YOU
DRILL WELLS
Tom Peters/New York/0524.2006
Case: Perceived
Rommel invents Blitzkrieg.
Germans kick the tar out of
the French in two weeks.
Q.E.D.
Case: Lesson Learned
Planned innovation (P.I., not C.I.)
is possible, is cool,
is effective.
Case: Reality
Germans cross Meuse into France.
Whoops: French intelligence completely drops
the ball. (Loses track of the Germans—literally.)
Germans keep advancing; outrun supply lines;
no land-air co-ordination.
Hitler orders advance stopped.
General never gets the word.
General marches to Paris, virtually unopposed.
Germans shocked.
After the fact, Germans label it “Blitzkrieg.”
Case: Lesson Learned
Do something.
Get lucky.
Attribute luck to superior
planning.
Get medals.
TP “Lessons Learned”
Innovation = DisDis
(Disciplined Disorganization)
Luck is a very good thing.* **
(*More “lessons” later: E.g., If you hire a bunch of disciplined weirdos and
try a lot of weird stuff, the odds of getting lucky go up remarkably) (**Career
success depends on convincing others that you knew what the hell you
were doing all along. Good news: Say it long enough and loud enough and
you will believe it. Great news: Keep saying it and you, too,
can become a “guru.”)
Lessons: Containerization
Need-driven
A thousand “parents”
Messy
Evolutionary
“Trivial”
Experimentation
Trial &
ERROR
Loooong time for systemic adaptation/s
(many innovations) (bill of lading, standard time)
Not …
“Plan-driven”
The product of “Strategic Thinking/Planning”
The product of “focus groups”
Slides @
tompeters.com*
*Also: EVERYTHING.LONG
PREVIEW.
“It is not the strongest
of the species that
survives, nor the most
intelligent, but the
one most responsive
to change.”
—Charles Darwin
“The most
successful people
are those who
are good at plan B.”
—James Yorke, mathematician, chaos theory
specialist, in The New Scientist
“We are in a
brawl with no
rules.”
—Paul Allaire
S.A.V.
Sam’s
Secret
#1!
“Reward excellent
failures. Punish
mediocre
successes.”
Phil Daniels, Sydney exec
Axioms.
What “We” Know “For Sure” About Innovation
Big mergers [by & large] don’t work
Scale is over-rated
Strategic planning is the last refuge of scoundrels
Focus groups are counter-productive
“Built to last” is a chimera
Success kills
“Forgetting” is impossible
Re-imagine is a charming idea
“Orderly innovation process” is an oxymoronic phrase
(= Believed only by morons with ox-like brains)
“Tipping points” are easy to identify …
long after they will do you any good
“Facts” aren’t
All information making it to the top is filtered
to the point of danger and hilarity
“Success stories” are the illusions of egomaniacs (and “gurus”)
If you believe the “cause & effect” memoirs of CEOs
you should be institutionalized
“Herd behavior” (XYZ is “hot”) is ubiquitous … and amusing
“Top teams” are “Dittoheads”
Statistically, CEOs have little effect on performance
“Expert” prediction is rarely better than rolling the dice
“Forbes100” from 1917 to 1987:
39
members of the Class of ’17 were
alive in ’87; 18 in ’87 F100; 18 F100
“survivors” underperformed the
market by 20%; just 2 (2%), GE &
Kodak, outperformed the market
1917 to 1987.
S&P 500 from 1957 to 1997: 74 members of the Class of ’57
were alive in ’97; 12 (2.4%) of 500 outperformed the market from
1957 to 1997.
Source: Dick Foster & Sarah Kaplan, Creative Destruction:
Why Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the Market
“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
“Not a single company that qualified
as having made a sustained
transformation ignited its leap with a
big acquisition or merger. Moreover,
comparison companies—those that failed to
make a leap or, if they did, failed to sustain it—
often tried to make themselves great with a
big acquisition or merger. They failed to grasp the
simple truth that while you can buy
your way to growth, you cannot buy your way to
greatness.” —Jim Collins/Time/2004
“I don’t believe in economies of
You don’t get
better by being
bigger. You get
worse.”
scale.
—Dick Kovacevich/Wells
Fargo/Forbes/08.04 (ROA: Wells, 1.7%; Citi, 1.5%; BofA, 1.3%;
J.P. Morgan Chase, 0.9%)
Scale?
“Microsoft’s Struggle With
Scale”
—Headline, FT, 09.2005
“Troubling
Exits at Microsoft”
—Cover Story, BW, 09.2005
“Too Big to Move Fast?”
—Headline, BW, 09.2005
More than $$$$
#1 R&D
spending,
last 25 years?
GM
10,000,000,000,000*
*2,000,000,000
EXCELLENCE.
4/40.
De-central-iza-tion!
Ex-ecu-tion!
“Execution is
the job of the
business
leader.”
—Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/
Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
“Execution is a
systematic
process
of rigorously
discussing hows and whats, tenaciously
following through, and ensuring
accountability.”
—Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/ Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
“We have a
‘strategic plan.’
It’s called doing
things.”
— Herb Kelleher
“This is so simple it sounds stupid, but it is amazing
you
only find oil if you
drill wells.
how few oil people really understand that
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
Ac-counta-bil-ity!
“GE has set a standard
of candor. … There is no
puffery. … There isn’t an
ounce of denial in the
place.” —Kevin Sharer, CEO Amgen,
on the “GE mystique” (Fortune)
6:15A.M.
FLASH!
Innovation
is easy!
“The ‘surplus society’ has a surplus
of
similar companies, employing
similar people, with similar
educational backgrounds, coming up
similar ideas, producing similar
things, with similar prices and similar
with
quality.” —Kjell Nordström and Jonas Ridderstråle,
Funky Business
We become
who we hang
out with!
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
“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
“Beware of the tyranny
of making Small Changes
to Small Things. Rather,
make Big Changes to
Big Things.”
—Roger Enrico, former Chairman, PepsiCo
Line Extensions:
86 percent of new
products. 62 percent
of revenues.
39 percent of profit.
Source: Blue Ocean Strategy, Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne
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?
OPPORTUNITY.
“Women are
the majority
market”
—Fara Warner/The Power of the Purse
1. Men and women are different.
2. Very different.
3. VERY, VERY DIFFERENT.
4. Women & Men have a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y
nothing in common.
5. Women buy lotsa stuff.
6. WOMEN BUY A-L-L THE STUFF.
7. Women’s Market = Opportunity No. 1.
8. Men are (STILL) in charge.
9. MEN ARE … TOTALLY, HOPELESSLY
CLUELESS ABOUT WOMEN.
10. Women’s Market = Opportunity No. 1.
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
10. Women’s
Market =
Opportunity
No. 1.
“Forget China,
India and the
Internet: Economic
Growth Is Driven
by Women.”
—Headline, Economist,
April 15, Leader, page 14
????????
Weenie of the
year, 2006 …
????????
OPPORTUNITY.
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
“The New Customer
Majority is the only adult
market with realistic
prospects for significant
sales growth in dozens of
product lines for thousands
of companies.”
—David Wolfe & Robert Snyder,
Ageless Marketing
BEDROCK.
Brand =
Talent.
“The role of the Director
is to create a space
where the actor or
actress can become
more than they’ve ever
been before, more than
they’ve dreamed of
being.” —Robert Altman, Oscar acceptance
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
EXCELLENCE.
TRANSCENDENCE.
THRILLS.
Synonyms
Purity
Transcendence
Virtue
Elegance
Majesty
Antonyms
Mediocrity
“Why in the
world did
you go to
Siberia?”
The Peters
Principles: Enthusiasm.
Emotion. Excellence. Energy.
Excitement. Service. Growth.
Creativity. Imagination. Vitality.
Joy. Surprise. Independence.
Spirit. Community. Limitless
human potential. Diversity. Profit.
Innovation. Design. Quality.
Entrepreneurialism. Wow.
An emotional,
vital, innovative, joyful, creative,
entrepreneurial endeavor that
elicits maximum concerted
human potential in the
wholehearted service
of others.***
Business* ** (*at its best):
**Excellence. Always.
***Employees, Customers, Suppliers, Communities, Owners, Temporary partners
Radically Thrilling Language!
“Radically
Thrilling.”
—BMW Z4 (ad)
C
O*
*Chief Thrills Officer
Synonyms
Purity
Transcendence
Virtue
Elegance
Majesty
Antonyms
Mediocrity
C
O*
*Chief Transcendence Officer
C
*Chief
O*
Revenue
Officer
Inno.0524.06
Parallel universe/Exec Ed v resident MBA
End run regnant powers/JKC
Find done deals-practicing mavericks/
Stone-ReGo
Bell curves/2016 in 2006
Non-industry benchmarking
Everything = Portfolio
V.C.s all!
Hot language/Wow-Astonish me-Insanely
great-immortal-Make something great
Crazy customers/PW-Embraer
Crazy suppliers /Top decile R&D
Weird alliances
Mottos/Paul Arden (“Whatever You Think
Think the Opposite”)
Hire freaks/Enough weird people?
Weird Boards!!!
CEO track record of Innovation (nobody
starts at 45!)
System/GE-Immelt
“Strategic thrust overlay”
Calendar
Big Delta easier than Small Delta
MBWA with freaks-weirdos/JKC
MBWA/Boonies’ labs
V.C.-formal/Intel
Acquire weird
Children’s crusade
Old farts crusade
Women’s crusade
Go Global at any size
Stop listening to customers
Talent!/Unusual sources-Hire innovators-V.C.s
Eschew giant mergers
Remember: scale economies max out early
Assisted suicide! (“Built to last” = Chimerasnare-delusion)
Burn your press clippings
“Forgetting” “strategy”
Fire all strategic planners
Tempo!
Final product bears little relation to starting
notion
Design! Design! Design! (“culture,” not
program)
All innovation: Pissed-off people
Gut feel rules!
Focus groups suck
Weird focus groups okay
Be-Do philosophy
Celebrations
Culture-little as well as big Inno (“everyonean-innovator”)
Life = Wow Projects
Acknowledge messiness-pursue serendipity
(Blitzkrieg-Containers-Science-Jim
Utterback)
R.F.A.
Culture of execution
4/40: decentralization, execution,
accountability, 615AM
EVP (S.O.U.B.)/Systems-process “un-design”
Diversity for diversity’s sake
Women-Women-Women/customers (they
“are the market,” not a “segment”)-leaders
Boomers-Geezers (“all the money”)
CRO (Chief Revenue Officer) “culture”/topline obsessed
CIO (Chief INNOVATION Officer)
Laughter
Facility-space configuration
Experiments-prototypes
“Reward excellent failures. Punish mediocre
successes.”
Bizarrely high incentives (& penalties)
We are what we eat/We are who we hang out
with (E.g.: Staff-Consultants-Vendors-Out-sourcing
Partners/#, Quality-Innovation Alliance PartnersCustomers-Competitors/who we “benchmark” against
-Strategic Initiatives -Product Portfolio/LineEx v. LeapIS/IT Projects-HQ Location-Lunch Mates-LanguageBoard)
Drill
more
wells!