Transcript The Black Swan 44: Tactical Rules for Survival (and success) in Looney times* (*plus “the basics”) Tom Peters/03 October 2008

The Black Swan 44:
Tactical Rules
for Survival
(and success)
in Looney times*
(*plus “the basics”)
Tom Peters/03 October 2008
To appreciate
this presentation [and ensure
that it is not a mess], you need
Microsoft fonts:
NOTE:
“Showcard Gothic,”
“Ravie,” “Chiller”
and “Verdana”
The
Black
Swan 44
The Black
Swan has
landed!
Career =
1 or 2
black swans
“I [will] not accept the
explanation of a recession
negatively effecting the
[new] business. There are
still people traveling. We just
have to get them to stay in
our hotel.”
—Horst Schulze, former president of Ritz
Carlton, on his new luxury hotel chain, Capella, from Prestige (06.08)
Black Swan Tactical Rules
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
K.I.S.S.
Hammer on the basics.
Focus on us, not the competition.
Puzzle-solving: How to turn this
into an opportunity.
MBWA/X.
MBWA/I.
MBWA/Vendors.
Waaaaay over-communicate!!!!!!
(With everyone—start with your
banker.)
MBWA
Black Swan Tactical Rules
9. All work is team work.
10. Transparency.
11. Work the phones.
12. Perception of fairness.
13. Share the pain.
14. Decency!!!!!!!
15. Grace!!
16. “Thank you.”
17. Control your impatience—
no temper tantrums.
18. Constant attitude checks—you.
Work the
phones!
"’Overcommunication never hurts.
If it is something significant, I
would just pick up the phone and
call Ben [Bernanke]. . . . One of the
things I do is I create an
atmosphere where I am so direct
and so open and collaborative with
people I trust that it brings out the
same in them.”
—Hank Paulson
Black Swan Tactical Rules
19. Dress for success.
20. Avoid burnout/you, the team,
the entire organization.
21. Re-emphasize the company
values-philosophy. (Now,
more than ever.)
22. Quality!!!!!! (Now, more than ever.)
23. No corner cutting. (Now, more
than ever.)
24. Constant reviews/War room.
25. Celebration of small wins.
Black Swan Tactical Rules
26. People First/HR is King.
27. Help people with personal
financial management.
28. Be generous to those who are
let go—e.g. healthcare benefits.
29. Don’t over-analyze.
30. Don’t under-analyze.
31. Cuts all at once—if possible.
32. Cuts explained in great detail.
33. Quantitative calendar
management—focus on “to don’ts.”
100 Ways to Succeed #139: Work the Damn Phones! Treble Your MBWA!*
One of my favorite quotes, from Carolyn Lamb , goes like this: “A year from now you may wish you
had started today.”
Yes, today many of us wish we had “wildly” “over”invested in those employee-vendor-clientcommunity relationships when the market was heading North and there was a little slack in the
system. Well, perhaps we didn’t, but, and I’m not “doing a Tony Robbins” here, it really is never
too late. That is:
Work the damn phones.
Keep working the damn phones.
Show up.
Keep showing up.
Call clients and suppliers, ask them how things are going, and how you can help. This is not about
sales (directly), but about “showing up”—taking time from your busy affairs to offer assistance of
any sort. (E.g., offer up your network: “Well, Dave [one of your key suppliers], I know Ed Simpson,
over there at [one of Dave’s problem clients]; his daughter and mine are co-captains of the [name
of school] soccer team; I can give him a call for you if you’d like.” Etc.)
This is even more important with our employees.** “Over”inform—the rumors are invariably worse
than reality. “Over”do your MBWA—managing by wandering around. Keep your enthusiasm up if it
kills you—not in a dopey grin, “all is well” way, but by exhibiting energy and masking any internal
doom & gloom expressions that may in fact be just beneath the surface. [**I use the formal word
“employees” here, a word I ordinarily dislike. But the point is that you do have a formal hierarchal
relationship with those on your payroll, and thence a formal as well as an abiding moral obligation
concerning their and their families’ well-being.]
*A series of ideas from tompeters.com
Black Swan Tactical Rules
34. Increase customer-service
training.
35. In general, minimize training cuts.
36. Be(very)ware R&D cuts; R&D
quick pay SWAT teams.
37. Beware such things as sales
travel cuts, ad cuts.
38. “Across the board” = Dumb.
39. Is this a time to over-invest if
cash is at hand? (E.g., distressed
innovative start-ups?)
Black Swan Tactical Rules
40. Stealth work on the likes of
XF communication.
41. This could last a long time—
LT prep is necessary now.
42. Prepare/Be prepared for more
Black Swans.
43.
Excellence. (Now,
more than ever.)
(44. Remember all this in
peacetime—Chuck Knight’s
legacy.)
this is
your life.
Think
this is
your life.
Think
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
Tom Peters’
EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.
The Basics.
03 October 2008
L(+21) = L(-21)
Leadership(21A.D.) =
Leadership(21B.C.)
Sunday “Drive By”: The CEO of a very successful mid-sized bank, in
the Mid-west, attended a seminar of mine in Northern California in
the mid-80s—but I remember the following as if it were yesterday.
I’ve forgotten the specific context, but I recall him saying to me,
“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 sniff.”
pretty much word for word,
Thank you Ben &
Norm, Ike , Gust,
David, Mark,
Muhammad,
Nelson, Ben II and
Delaware …
L(+21) = L(-21)
Leadership(21A.D.) =
Leadership(21B.C.)
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.”
George Crile (Charlie Wilson’s War) on Gust
“He had
become something of a
legend with these
people who manned the
underbelly of the
Agency [CIA].”
Avrakotos’ strategy:
General David Petraeus’ “White lines along the road”:
“Secure and serve the population.
Live among the people.
Promote reconciliation.
Move mounted, work dismounted;
situational awareness can only be
achieved by operating face-to-face,
not separated by ballistic glass.
Walk.*”
—David Petraeus, Men’s Journal (06.08)
* “I love that last one for its simplicity.” —DP
3K/5M
5,000 miles for
a 5-minute
face-to
-face meeting
—Mark McCormack, super-agent
MBWA, Grameen Style!
“Conventional banks ask their clients to come
to their office. It’s a terrifying place for the poor
and illiterate. … The entire Grameen Bank
system runs on the principle that people
should not come to the bank, the bank
should go to the people. … If any staff
member is seen in the office, it should be taken
as a violation of the rules of the Grameen Bank.
… It is essential that [those setting up a new
village Branch] have no office and no place to
stay. The reason is to make us as different as
possible from government officials.”
Source: Muhammad Yunus, Banker to the Poor
“I am a
dispenser of
enthusiasm.”
—Ben Zander
“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/put Jim on 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/3M, I’m sorry
tp.com/Big 4-What do you think?
Women/genes
Banker/after church
Total Bloody Mess/Can they pay back the loan?
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))
Thank
you ,
Herb and
Robert …
“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 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
Thank
you ,
Siberia and
A.I.M. …
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
… 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.
Thank
you , 7-11…
“How to flush
$500,000 down
the toilet in one
easy lesson!!”
TP:
< CAPEX
> People!
“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
‘do’
“Leaders
people.
Period.”
—Anon.
“The leaders of Great Groups
love talent and know
where to find it. They
revel in the talent
of others.”
—Warren Bennis &
Patricia Ward Biederman, Organizing Genius
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
#1/100
“Best Companies to
Work for”/2005
Wegmans
The Dream Manager
—Matthew Kelly
“An organization can only become the-best-version-ofitself to the extent that the people who drive that
organization are striving to become better-versions-ofthemselves.” “A company’s purpose is to become thebest-version-of-itself. The question is: 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 company
forgets that it exists to serve customers, it quickly goes
Our employees are our
first customers, and our most
important customers.”
out of business.
#1 cause of
Dis-satisfaction?
2/year =
legacy.
Thank
you , Clyde,
Michael and
Sally …
“One of the defining
characteristics [of the
change] is that it will be less
driven by countries or
corporations and more driven
by real people. It will unleash
unprecedented creativity, advancement of
knowledge, and economic development. But
at the same time, it will tend to undermine
safety net systems and penalize the
unskilled.” —Clyde Prestowitz, Three Billion New Capitalists
“If there is nothing
very special about
your work, no matter
how hard you apply yourself
you won’t get noticed, and
that increasingly means you
won’t get paid much either.”
—Michael Goldhaber, Wired
BRAND YOU.
NO OPTION.
Distinct
…
… or
Extinct
New Work SurvivalKit.2008
1. MASTERY! (Best/Absurdly Good at Something!)
2. “Manage” to Legacy (All Work = “Memorable”/“Braggable” WOW Projects!)
3. A “USP”/UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION 4. Rolodex Obsession
(From vertical/hierarchy/“suck up” loyalty to
horizontal/“colleague”/“mate” loyalty)
5. ENTREPRENEURIAL INSTINCT (A sleepless … Eye for Opportunity!
6.CEO/LEADER/BUSINESSPERSON/CLOSER (CEO, Me Inc. 24/7!)
7. Master of Improv (Play a dozen parts simultaneously, from
Chief Strategist to Chief Toilet Scrubber)
8. Sense of Humor (A willingness to Screw Up & Move On)
9. Comfortable with Your Skin (Bring “interesting you” to work!)
10. Intense Appetite for Technology (E.g.: How Cool-Active is your
Web site? Do you Blog?)
11. EMBRACE “MARKETING” (Your own CSO/Chief Storytelling Officer)
12. PASSION FOR RENEWAL (Your own CLO/Chief Learning Officer)
13. EXECUTION EXCELLENCE! (Show up on time! Leave last!)
“The only thing you
have power over is to
get good at what you
do. That’s all there
is; there ain’t no
more!”
—Sally Field
Thank
you ,
Conrad and
Fred …
Conrad Hilton, at a gala
celebrating his life,
was asked, “What was the
most important lesson
you’ve learned in you long
and distinguished career?”
His immediate answer …
Conrad Hilton, at a gala celebrating his life,
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
Thank
you ,
Rich …
“Mapping your
competitive
position”*
or …
*Rich D’Aveni/HBR
The “Have
you …” 50*
*See Appendix One
While waiting last week [early December 2007] in the Albany
airport to board a Southwest Airlines flight to Reagan, I
happened across the latest Harvard Business Review, on the
cover of which was a yellow sticker. The sticker had on it the
words “Mapping your competitive position.” It referred to a
feature article by my friend Rich D’Aveni. His work is uniformly
good—and I have said as much publicly on several occasions
dating back 15 years. I’m sure this article is good, too—though
I didn’t read it. In fact it triggered a furious negative “Tom
reaction” as my wife calls it. Of course I believe you should
But instead of
obsessing on competitive position and other
abstractions, as the B-schools and
consultants would always have us do, I
instead wondered about some “practical
stuff” which I believe is more important to
the short- and long-term health of the
enterprise, tiny or enormous.
worry about your “competitive position.”
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.)
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
X =XFX*
*Excellence = Cross-functional Excellence
GSK/CEDD
Conoco/geologists-geophysicists
Flag requirement/joint staff
Stanford/X-disc #1
Dartmouth-Hitchcock/microsystems
3M Austin/physical
Never
waste a
lunch!
????
% XF
lunches*
*Measure!
Thank
you ,
Richard ,
Dennis and
Marcus …
“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 = Your
calendar*
*Calendars
never lie
Thank
you
Dr. Groopman …
In How Doctors Think, Harvard Med doc Jerome
Groopman tells us that the best way to get a fix on what
ails a patient is to get the patient talking openly about
his-her problem.
Great.
But the research shows that docs, on average, leap to a
conclusion and interrupt their patients after … 18
seconds.
(Docs are hardly alone. This is a disease present in
almost all specialists and professionals. “Listening” for
a professional invariably means … talking.)
Thank
you ,
Dave …
“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)
Relationships
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.
(of all varieties)
:
THE PROBLEM IS
RARELY/NEVER THE
PROBLEM. THE
RESPONSE TO THE
PROBLEM INVARIABLY
ENDS UP BEING THE
REAL PROBLEM.* **
*Watergate, M Stewart, BR
**And: PERCEPTION IS ALL THERE IS!
Success …
Consult everyone
on everything
“Thank you” note
carpet bombing
Source: Roger Rosenblatt, Rules for Aging
“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!
People are
always ready to
tell their story!
TP:
See also: “The story leaner’s edge” (Steve Farber)
“The dream manager” (Matthew Kelly)
Thank
you ,
Walter …
???????
“Success doesn’t depend on the number of
people you know; it depends on the number
of people you know in
high places!”
or
“Success doesn’t depend on the number of
people you know; it depends on the number
of people you know in
low
places!”
Loser:
“He’s such a
suck-up!”
Winner:
“He’s such a
suck-down.”
C(I) > C(E)
Thank
you,
Henry …
“Courtesies of a small and
trivial character are the
ones which strike
deepest in the grateful
and appreciating heart.”
—Henry Clay
Kindness
is free
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
PS directly related to Staff Interaction
PS directly correlated with Employee
Satisfaction
Source: Putting Patients First, Susan Frampton, Laura Gilpin, Patrick Charmel
“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
Thank
you to the
3H Club …
Howard
Hilton
Herb
Conrad Hilton, at a gala celebrating his life,
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”
“You have to
treat your
employees like
customers.”
—Herb Kelleher,
upon being asked his “secret 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)
3H: Howard, Hilton, Herb
**Stay in touch!
**Sweat the
details!
**It’s the people,
stupid!
Thank
you Larry
and Jim …
Basement
Systems
Inc.
*Basement Systems Inc.
*Larry Janesky
*Dry Basement Science
(115,000!)
*1990: $0; 2003: $13M;
2007:
$62,000,000
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
Jim’s Group: Jim Penman.*
1984: Jim’s Mowing. 2006: Jim’s Group.
2,600 franchisees (Australia, NZ, UK).
Cleaning. Dog washing. Handyman.
Fencing. Paving. Pool care. Etc.
“People first.” Private. Small staff. Franchisees
can leave at will. 0-1 complaint per year is
norm; cut bad ones quickly.
*Ph.D. cross-cultural anthropology; mowing on the side
Source: MT/Management Today (Australia), Jan-Feb 2006
*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
Thank
you,
Heather …
“Forget China,
India and the
Internet: Economic
Growth Is Driven
by
Women.”
—Headline,
Economist, April 15, 2006, Leader, page 14
“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?
Thank
you,
John …
“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 have a
‘strategic plan.’
It’s called doing
things.”
— Herb Kelleher
“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
Culture of Prototyping
“Effective prototyping may
the most
valuable core
competence an
be
innovative organization can
hope to have.” —Michael Schrage
“Reward
excellent failures.
Punish mediocre
successes.”
Phil Daniels, Sydney exec
“FAIL, FAIL
AGAIN. FAIL
BETTER.”
—Samuel Beckett
“The secret of fast
progress is
inefficiency, fast
and furious and
numerous failures.”
—Kevin Kelly
Thank you,
Eleanor, Kevin,
Jay and Bill …
“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!
“I’m not comfortable
unless I’m
uncomfortable.”
—Jay Chiat
"Life is not a journey to the
grave with the intention of
arriving safely in one pretty
and well preserved piece, but
to skid across the line
broadside, thoroughly used
up, worn out, leaking oil,
shouting ‘GERONIMO!’ ”
—Bill McKenna, professional motorcycle racer
(Cycle magazine 02.1982)
Good luck …