Tom Peters’ Excellence. Always. Baltic Management Conference Tallinn/25 March 2009 To appreciate this presentation [and ensure that it is not a mess], you need Microsoft fonts: NOTE: “Showcard Gothic,” “Ravie,”
Download ReportTranscript Tom Peters’ Excellence. Always. Baltic Management Conference Tallinn/25 March 2009 To appreciate this presentation [and ensure that it is not a mess], you need Microsoft fonts: NOTE: “Showcard Gothic,” “Ravie,”
Tom Peters’ Excellence. Always. Baltic Management Conference Tallinn/25 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” “It suddenly occurred to me … “It suddenly occurred to me that in the space of two or three hours he never talked about cars.” —Les Wexner “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: MBWA WALK 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 Excellence. Good times and [especially] bad: Little = 7X. 7:30A-8:00P. F12A. 7:30AM = 7:15AM. 8:00PM = 8:15PM. “No” = 2* *Yes Bank 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 2,000,000 “I’m sorry” = Save MILLION$$$$$ Comeback [big, quick response] >> Perfection 5X /Acquire vs maintain *Recession goal: Higher “market share” current customers 10 “Thank you”/ years $100+ purchase/ 3-cent 2-cent National “Brand”/ lemon candy BEGINS (and ENDS) It in the … parking lot* *Disney BLOOMBERG’S FLOWER POWER FLOWER POWER *Granite Rock/Cross it off/Wash trucks *Coffee/contractor shop/Red light = -10% *Elgin Corrugated Box/Promised vs +15% *Shrink wrap/2X Delivered/ *Commerce/7 days/730A-8P/Midnight Friday/7:15AM-8:15PM/ “Yes bank”- 2 for “No”/ 2,000,000 dog biscuits/coin counter/Red button *Send out menu *Bloomberg terminal/Send flowers parking lot attendants *Griffin–Planetree/ 5 Pianos/“Kindness is free”/0-15/Cookie smells/Map/#6 *Flowers/ No cars /Street sweeper/ *Disney Mechanics’ business cards [TAC/ Drive by] *Container Store/ 2X *Circuit City/ “Geek Squad” (vs Best Buy/fire senior, hire junior) $B *Big carts/ 1.5X *Bag size/ *Granite Rock/Cross it off/Wash trucks *Coffee/contractor shop/Red light = -10% *Elgin Corrugated Box/Promised vs Delivered/+15% *Apologize/“Bedside manner”/Lawsuits *Shrink wrap/2X *Commerce/7 days/730A-8P/Midnight Friday/7:15AM-8:15PM/ “Yes bank”2 for “No”/2M dog biscuits/coin counter/Red button *Send out menu *Bloomberg terminal/Send flowers parking lot attendants *Griffin–Planetree/ 5 Pianos/“Kindness is free”/0-15/Cookie smells/Map/#6 *Flowers/ No cars /Street sweeper/ *Disney Mechanics’ business cards [TAC/ Drive by] *Container Store/ 2X *Circuit City/ “Geek Squad” (vs Best Buy/fire senior, hire junior) $B *Big carts/ 1.5X *Bag size/ <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 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 R.O.I.R. Return On Investment In Relationships “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 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 “Design is everything. Everything is design.” “We are all designers.” Inspiration: The Power of Design: A Force for Transforming Everything, Richard Farson >100 feet = 100 miles see green = recover 20% faster Round = 2X/allx 6.5 feet Away = -63% “Seconds” “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 Deduction vs. cashx Tom Peters’ Excellence. Always. Baltic Management Conference Tallinn/25 March 2009 Tom Peters’ Excellence. now. More than ever. Baltic Management Conference Tallinn/25 March 2009 “Mr. Watson, how long does it take to achieve Excellence?” minute” “When the seas are calm, all ships alike show mastery in floating.” —WSC “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 You don’t get better by being bigger. You Dick Kovacevich: #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 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 very, very hard. [Yet] I came to see in my time at IBM that culture isn’t just one it is the game.” aspect of the game— —Lou Gerstner 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 “Leaders ‘SERVE’ people. Period.” —inspired by Robert Greenleaf “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) “Managers have lost dignity over the past decade in the face of wide spread institutional breakdown of trust and self-policing in To regain society’s trust, we believe that business leaders must embrace a way of looking at their role that goes beyond their responsibility to the shareholders to include a civic and personal commitment to their duty as institutional custodians. In other business. words, it is time that management became a profession.” —Rakesh Khurana & Nitin Nohria, “It’s Time To Make Management a True Profession,” HBR/10.08 Response to “most important contribution”: “I focused this discipline on People and Power; on Values, Structure, and Constitution; and above all, on responsibilities —that is, focused the Discipline of Management on management as a truly liberal art.” 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 “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!) (Tricks of the trade: Nod your head like a deranged person) “The deepest human need is the need to be appreciated.” William James “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 “Buy in”- “Ownership”Authorial bragging rights-“Born again” One Line of Code! Champion = "Trust the development experts—all seven billion of them.” —headline, Financial Times, 0529.08, to an article by development guru William Easterly, commenting negatively on the World Bank Growth Commission’s recent report that concludes, in effect, “trust the World Bank experts” “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 #1 Resource for Troubled Times: Committed. Engaged. Growing. Respected. Trusted. Informed. People. (Customers.) (Vendors.) (Communities.) “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 *Basics. *ROIR X10 [Return On Investment in Relationships] *Execution X10 *Values X10 *Quality X10 *Empowerment (More initiative) *Transparency *Decisiveness *MBWA *Communicate X10 *Keep It Simple *Decency *Truthfulness *Energy! *On guard/Constant attitude checks *Beware: Training. R&D. Sales. (“Across the board” = Insanity) *“Small wins”/Positives *Deep recession/The best years of our professional life *Commitment to growth/All *Deep recession/Innovation’s finest hour *No cut corners *EXCELLENCE. 30 minutes/ -1% “A leader is a dealer in hope.” —Napoleon (+TP’s writing room pics) Dick ‘n dan 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 “Experiment fearlessly” Source: BW0821.06, Type A Organization Strategies/ “How to Hit a Moving Target”—Tactic #1 Culture of Prototyping “Effective prototyping may the most valuable core competence an be innovative organization can hope to have.” —Michael Schrage “Fail . Forward. Fast.” High Tech CEO, Pennsylvania “Reward excellent failures. Punish mediocre successes.” Phil Daniels, Sydney exec “You miss 100% of the shots you never take.” —Wayne Gretzky 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” “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” —Charles Darwin 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 C O* *Chief talent acquisition Officer #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 “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 Focus Groups: No! Continuing Conversations: Yes! “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 “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 “Normal” = “o for 800” All You Need to Know About “Sources of Innovation”: Angry people! [angry with the status quo] SkunkWorks/ “Skunks” (!!!) “SkunkWorks”/ “ParallelUniverse” “the solution” Source: Scott Bedbury (Others: 3M, Google, Shell, NAVFAC) We are the company we keep 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’ ” 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 “[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 “Who’s the most interesting person you’ve met in the last 90 days? How do I get in touch with them?” —Fred Smith “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 The “8Ps” of Innovation Success: Pissed off! Passion!!!! Prototypes. pow!! Pals. Protector. Politics. Persistence. [Determined to change the world] [Persist, take the heat, sell] [Fast & Furious] [Knocks their socks off] [Buddies with different skills, recruiting ability] [Run cover, champion your cause] [Political skill] [Can handle the bumps and U-turns] 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! (Way) Underutilized Lever Space! Space! Space! Space! “Forget China, India and the Internet: Economic Growth Is Driven by Women.” Source: Headline, Economist “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 Big bank CEO, summarizing to his top-management team his “Tom’s made a great point; he let us know that our customer base will be different and more diverse in the future.” notes from TP’s presentation: “With all due respect, that’s not what Tom said. Though I am an unabashed supporter of ‘diversity’ in general, what I said was Tom: ‘She is your customer—and has been for a long time and will be forever.’ And ‘she’ is notably AWOL in this [meeting] room full of senior ‘leaders.’ ” “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? 94% of loans to … women* *Microlending; “Banker to the poor”; Grameen Bank; Muhammad Yunus; 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner “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 outside-the-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, from The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, on Lorenzo Zambrano and CEMEX, the Mexican company that’s the world’s #3 cement maker “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 Where the Money is … !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! “People turning 50 more than half of today have their adult life ahead of them.” —Bill Novelli, 50+: Igniting a Revolution to Reinvent America 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 L(+21) = L(-21) Leadership(21A.D.) = Leadership(21B.C.) 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 “eighty percent of success is showing up.” —Woody Allen R.O.I.R. Return On Investment In Relationships #1 Trait … “I am a dispenser of enthusiasm.” —Ben Zander “Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm.” —Samuel Taylor Coleridge #1A … “What is your most marked characteristic?” Vanity Fair: Mike Bloomberg: “Curiosity.” #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 Walls of Yesterday vs Walls of Tomorrow “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) 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.) 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.) “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! Single greatest act of pure imagination Does your project portfolio “have a dubai”? “Insanely Great” “Radically thrilling” BMW M “M” = $0 IB : Global Services/ $60B M “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 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. 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.