Re-Imagine EXCELLENCE!

Re-Imagine EXCELLENCE!
LONG/ANNOTATED Tom Peters’ Re-Imagine EXCELLENCE! 2015 Distinguished Leadership and Innovation Conference Port of Spain/13 April 2015 (Slides at tompeters.com; and our fully annotated 23-part Master Compendium at excellencenow.com) 1

FIRST THING BEFORE FIRST THING: CONRAD’S COMMANDMENT
2 2

CONRAD HILTON, at a gala celebrating his career, was called to the podium and asked, “What were the most important lessons you learned in your long and distinguished career?” His answer … 3 3 3

“Remember to tuck the shower curtain inside the bathtub.”
4

They come for “location, location, location
They come for “location, location, location.” They … COME BACK … because of the tucked-in shower curtain. (And [ALL] the profit is made on the return visits and recommendations to others.)

“COSTCO FIGURED OUT THE BIG, SIMPLE THINGS AND EXECUTED WITH TOTAL FANATICISM.” —Charles Munger, Berkshire Hathaway 6 6

“Amateurs talk about strategy. Professionals talk about logistics.”
—Omar Bradley, commander of American troops/D-Day

EXCELLENCE 8 8

3. Autonomy and Entrepreneurship 4. Productivity Through People
Excellence1982: The Bedrock “Eight Basics” 1. A Bias for Action 2. Close to the Customer 3. Autonomy and Entrepreneurship 4. Productivity Through People 5. Hands On, Value-Driven 6. Stick to the Knitting 7. Simple Form, Lean Staff 8. Simultaneous Loose-Tight Properties 10

Action People Customers
Values

In Search of Excellence in … 4 words.
(No kidding.)

1. A Bias for Action/Execution 4. People First/Training Mania
Excellence.2015: The Bedrock “Eleven Basics” 1. A Bias for Action/Execution 4. People First/Training Mania 2. Symbiosis With the Customer 3. Autonomy and Entrepreneurship 5. Hands On, Value-Driven 6. Stick to the Knitting 7. Simple Form, Lean Staff, Collaboration Imperative 8. Simultaneous Loose-Tight Properties 9. Design Fanaticism 10. Technology Unlimited 11. Speed Demons 13

6 Words: But a Mouthful 14

Hard is Soft. Soft is Hard.

The truly “hard stuff”—which can’t be faked or exaggerated—are the relationships with, for instance, our customers and our own people. “‘Hard’ is ‘soft.’ ‘Soft’ is ‘hard.’” Mantra #1 from In Search of EXCELLENCE.

“Mr. Watson, how long does it take to achieve excellence?”
18

“One minute. …” 19

“One minute. You make up your mind to never again consciously do something that is
not excellent.” 20

EXCELLENCE is a PERSONAL choice … NOT an institutional choice!

EXCELLENCE is not a “long-term” "aspiration.”
EXCELLENCE is the ultimate short-term strategy. EXCELLENCE is … THE NEXT 5 MINUTES.* (*Or NOT.) 23

EXCELLENCE is not an "aspiration."
EXCELLENCE is … THE NEXT FIVE MINUTES. EXCELLENCE is your next conversation. Or not. EXCELLENCE is your next meeting. EXCELLENCE is shutting up and listening—really listening. EXCELLENCE is your next customer contact. EXCELLENCE is saying “Thank you” for something “small.” EXCELLENCE is the next time you shoulder responsibility and apologize. EXCELLENCE is waaay over-reacting to a screw-up. EXCELLENCE is the flowers you brought to work today. EXCELLENCE is lending a hand to an “outsider” who’s fallen behind schedule. EXCELLENCE is bothering to learn the way folks in finance (or IS or HR) think. EXCELLENCE is waaay “over”-preparing for a 3-minute presentation. EXCELLENCE is turning “insignificant” tasks into models of … EXCELLENCE. 24

Why Not? 25

“Why in the World did you go to Siberia?”

A half-dozen years ago I went to Novosibirsk, Siberia, to give a seminar. (Novosibirsk, center of Soviet scientific excellence, was now confronting the global economy—and looking for a new direction.) The unusual setting caused me to go back to “first principles” in my thinking about enterprise. I asked myself, for starters … “WHAT’S THE POINT?” 27

wholehearted pursuit of EXCELLENCE in
Enterprise* (*at its best): An emotional, vital, innovative, joyful, creative, entrepreneurial endeavor that elicits maximum concerted human potential in the wholehearted pursuit of EXCELLENCE in service of others.** **Employees, Customers, Suppliers, Communities, Owners, Temporary partners

Enterprise, as I note … AT ITS BEST
Enterprise, as I note … AT ITS BEST. (Obviously not always achieved—or, alas, even aspired to.) On the other hand … if this or something very much like it is not the aim … then what is the point? Think about it. Please. (Photo is me and my interpreter, who turned out to have an economics PhD from the University of Maryland, on stage in Novosibirsk.) 29

—Richard Sheridan, Joy, Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love
“It may sound radical, unconventional, and bordering on being a crazy business idea. However— as ridiculous as it sounds—joy is the core belief of our workplace. Joy is the reason my company, Menlo Innovations, a customer software design and development firm in Ann Arbor, exists. It defines what we do and how we do it. It is the single shared belief of our entire team.” —Richard Sheridan, Joy, Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love

SERVICE. PERIOD. 31

ORGANIZATIONS EXIST TO SERVE. PERIOD.
LEADERS LIVE TO SERVE. PERIOD. 32

PEOPLE PEOPLE PEOPLE 33

People: 1/4,096 34

4,096 slides in my 23-part MOAP/“Mother Of All Presentations,” three years in the making. ONE slide by definition had to come first. This one, a quote from the inimitable Richard Branson, was #1 …

“Business has to give people enriching, rewarding lives …
36

1/4,096: excellencenow.com “Business has to give people enriching, rewarding lives … or it's simply not worth doing.” —Richard Branson 37

“You have to treat your employees like customers
“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 AA’s Annual Meeting) 38

EMPLOYEES FIRST, CUSTOMERS SECOND:
Turning Conventional Management Upside Down Vineet Nayar/CEO/HCL Technologies

“consideration renovation”
“hostmanship”/ “consideration renovation” 40 40 40

The Art of Making People Feel Welcome.
“The path to a hostmanship culture paradoxically does not go through the guest. In fact it wouldn’t be totally wrong to say that the guest has nothing to do with it. True hostmanship leaders focus on their employees. What drives exceptionalism is finding the right people and getting them to love their work and see it as a passion. ... The guest comes into the picture only when you are ready to ask, ‘Would you prefer to stay at a hotel where the staff love their work or where management has made customers its highest priority?’” “We went through the hotel and made a ... ‘consideration renovation.’ Instead of redoing bathrooms, dining rooms, and guest rooms, we gave employees new uniforms, bought flowers and fruit, and changed colors. Our focus was totally on the staff. They were the ones we wanted to make happy. We wanted them to wake up every morning excited about a new day at work.” —Jan Gunnarsson and Olle Blohm, Hostmanship: The Art of Making People Feel Welcome. 41 41 41

“ … The guest comes into the picture only when you are ready to ask, ‘Would you prefer to stay at a hotel where the staff love their work or where management has made customers its highest priority?’” 42

—Ari Weinzweig, Zingerman’s
Rocket Science. NOT. “If you want staff to give great service, give great service to staff.” —Ari Weinzweig, Zingerman’s Source: Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big, Bo Burlingham

If you want to WOW your customers, FIRST you
EXCELLENT customer experience depends … entirely … on EXCELLENT employee experience! If you want to WOW your customers, FIRST you must WOW those who WOW the customers!

Source: The Good Jobs Strategy, by M.I.T. professor Zeynep Ton.
“Contrary to conventional corporate thinking, treating retail workers much better may make everyone (including their employers) much richer.” Source: The Good Jobs Strategy, by M.I.T. professor Zeynep Ton.

/12 companies every year/ 341,567 new jobs/+172%: Publix Whole Foods Wegmans Nordstrom Cisco Systems Marriott REI Goldman Sachs Four Seasons SAS Institute W.L. Gore TDIndustries Source: Fortune/ “The 100 Best Companies to Work For”/

Note: Fully 7/12ths of the best of the 100 best companies to work for in the USA are in so-called “low wage” components of the service industry. (So don’t tell me, as many have, “You can only do this sort of thing at the likes of Google.” Rubbish!)

Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business
“In a world where customers wake up every morning asking, ‘What’s new, what’s different, what’s amazing?’ success depends on a company’s ability to unleash initiative, imagination and passion of employees at all levels —and this can only happen if all those folks are connected heart and soul to their work [their ‘calling’], their company and their mission.” —John Mackey and Raj Sisoda, Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business

Joy, Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love, by Richard Sheridan,
Profit Through Putting People First Business Book Club Nice Companies Finish First: Why Cutthroat Management Is Over—and Collaboration Is In, by Peter Shankman with Karen Kelly Uncontainable: How Passion, Commitment, and Conscious Capitalism Built a Business Where Everyone Thrives, by Kip Tindell, CEO Container Store Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business, by John Mackey, CEO Whole Foods, and Raj Sisodia Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose, by Raj Sisodia, Jag Sheth, and David Wolfe The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs and Boost Profits, by Zynep Ton, MIT Joy, Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love, by Richard Sheridan, CEO Menlo Innovations Employees First, Customers Second: Turning Conventional Management Upside Down, by Vineet Nayar, CEO, HCL Technologies The Customer Comes Second: Put Your People First and Watch ’Em Kick Butt, by Hal Rosenbluth, former CEO, Rosenbluth International It’s Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy, by Mike Abrashoff, former commander, USS Benfold Turn This Ship Around; How to Create Leadership at Every Level, by L. David Marquet, former commander, SSN Sante Fe Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big, by Bo Burlingham Hidden Champions: Success Strategies of Unknown World Market Leaders, by Hermann Simon Retail Superstars: Inside the 25 Best Independent Stores in America, by George Whalin Joy at Work: A Revolutionary Approach to Fun on the Job, by Dennis Bakke, former CEO, AES Corporation The Dream Manager, by Matthew Kelly The Soft Edge: Where Great Companies Find Lasting Success, by Rich Karlgaard, publisher, Forbes Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, by Tony Hseif, Zappos Camellia: A Very Different Company Fans, Not Customers: How to Create Growth Companies in a No Growth World, by Vernon Hill Like a Virgin: Secrets They Won’t Teach You at Business School, by Richard Branson

“YOUR CUSTOMERS WILL NEVER BE ANY HAPPIER THAN YOUR EMPLOYEES.”

“What employees experience, Customers will
“What employees experience, Customers will. The best marketing is happy, engaged employees. Your customers will never be any happier than your employees.” —John DiJulius, The Customer Service Revolution: Overthrow Conventional Business, Inspire Employees, and Change the World

I’m tempted to use this one-liner as the only slide in a presentation
I’m tempted to use this one-liner as the only slide in a presentation. It comes awfully close to being “all that needs to be said.”

THE DREAM MANAGER — by 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 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-best-version-of-himself or –herself. … When a company forgets that it exists to serve customers, it quickly goes out of business. OUR EMPLOYEES ARE OUR FIRST CUSTOMERS, AND OUR MOST IMPORTANT CUSTOMERS.” 54

The 7-Step Method 55

7 Steps to Sustaining Success
You take care of the people. The people take care of the service. The service takes care of the customer. The customer takes care of the profit. The profit takes care of the re-investment. The re-investment takes care of the re-invention. The re-invention takes care of the future. (And at every step the only measure is EXCELLENCE.)

You take care of the people.
7 Steps to Sustaining Success: And it starts with … You take care of the people.

Training = Investment #1!

In the Army, 3-star generals worry about training
In the Army, 3-star generals worry about training. In most businesses, it's a “ho-hum” mid-level staff function. 59

Is your CTO/Chief Training Officer your top paid “C-level” job (other than CEO/COO)?
If not, why not? Are your top trainers paid as much as your top marketers and engineers? Are your training courses so good they make you … jump up & down with glee? Randomly stop an employee in the hall: Can she/he meticulously describe her/his development plan for the next 12 months? Why is your world of business any different than the (competitive) world of rugby, football, opera, theater, the military? If “people/talent first” and hyper-intense continuous training are laughably obviously for them, why not you?

Someone at a seminar challenged me on this
Someone at a seminar challenged me on this. Said it was unrealistic and, by the way, what does “tingle” mean. I pointed to my sophomore year in college. For us engineers, including civil engineers like me, an introductory chemistry course was required. Most of us looked forward to it as the equivalent of a 4-month long root canal. We had two well known professors, Michell Sienko and Robert Plane. They were scholars of the first order and simultaneously entertainers of the first order. Bottom line: By the end of the course, probably half of us (among hundreds) wanted to be chemistry majors. Ten years later the same sort of lightning struck courtesy an econ prof, Keith Lumsden, at the Stanford business school. That is, there are great teachers and great courses—and I do not understand why the corporate world can’t develop or recruit the Sienkos and Planes and Lumsdens. Billions are at stake—and great “profs” concocting great courses could do wonders to, say, recruitment and retention and productivity. As to “tingle,” I’m looking for something beyond “very good”; I’d accept “earthshaking” or “mind-blowing” or, for sure … “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”

Is your CTO/Chief Training Officer your top paid “C-level” job (other than CEO/COO)?
If not, why not? Are your top trainers paid as much as your top marketers and engineers? Are your training courses so good they make you giggle and tingle? Randomly stop an employee in the hall: Can she/he meticulously describe her/his development plan for the next 12 months? Why is your world of business any different than the (competitive) world of rugby, football, opera, theater, the military? If “people/talent first” and hyper-intense continuous training are laughably obviously for them, why not you?

And if the answer is “No” … her or his boss should be sternly reprimanded ASAP. (I would say “fired”—but you might accuse me of over-the-top-ism. Heaven forbid.)

Boss & RPD: Your (boss) job is safer if every one of your team members is committed to RPD/Radical Personal Development. Actively support one and all!

more than they’ve dreamed of being.”
“The role of the Director is to create a space where the actors and actresses can become more than they’ve ever been before, more than they’ve dreamed of being.” —Robert Altman, Oscar acceptance speech 65 65

“I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” —Ralph Nader

Leadership opportunities abound—for all of us, all the time
Leadership opportunities abound—for all of us, all the time. (See Betsy Myers’ wonderful Take the Lead: Motivate, Inspire, and Bring Out the Best in Yourself and Everyone Around You.) The idea per Mr. Nader is to get everyone focused on growth and thinking and acting like a leader. Development accelerates—and the customer is the ultimate beneficiary of a skilled staff that seizes the moment without muss, fuss, or order shouting. Leaders all! (Of course!)

Gamblin’ Man Bet #1: >> 5 of 10 CEOs see training as expense rather than investment. Bet #2: >> 5 of 10 CEOs see training as defense rather than offense. Bet #3: >> 5 of 10 CEOs see training as “necessary evil” rather than “strategic opportunity.”

Bet #4: >> 8 of 10 CEOs, in 45-min “tour d’horizon” of their biz, would NOT mention training.

What is the #1 reason to go berserk over training?

What is the best reason to go bananas over training? GREED.
(It pays off.) (Also: Training should be an official part of the R&D budget and a capital expense.)

Training #1: Bottom Line of the 44,444-person business.
NOBODY gets off the hook! “Training & Development Maniac” applies as much to the leader of the 4-person business as to the chief of the 44,444-person business.

“The topic is probably the oldest and biggest debate in Customer service. What is more important: How well you hire, or the training and culture you bring your employees into? While both are very important, 75 percent is the Customer service training and the service culture of your company. Do you really think that Disney has found 50,000 amazing service-minded people? There probably aren’t 50,000 people on earth who were born to serve. Companies like Ritz-Carlton and Disney find good people and put them in such a strong service and training environment that doesn’t allow for accept anything less than excellence.” —John DiJulius, The Customer Service Revolution: Overthrow Conventional Business, Inspire Employees, and Change the World

As John DiJulius says, this is a controversial point
As John DiJulius says, this is a controversial point. But I would tend to lean in his direction in many if not most situations. Google? Maybe not. But Google is 5 standard deviations away from the norm—at least.

6/2/3* TWO or THREE MINUTES of new material
*It takes Jerry Seinfeld SIX MONTHS to develop TWO or THREE MINUTES of new material (documentary: Comedian)

He’s the quintessential “old pro. ” No matter
He’s the quintessential “old pro.” No matter. He still … trains and trains and trains and trains some more. (Most of the “training gigs” are performed in small, out-of-the-way places.)

Practice! Training! Growth! It ain’t a walk in the park—and it applies to each and every one of us. That goes 10 X (100X?) in 2015.

“The score takes care of itself.”
Basketball coach John Wooden, perhaps the best coach of anything, ever: “I was never much of a game coach, but I was a pretty good practice coach.” Hall of fame football coach Bill Walsh on preparation: “The score takes care of itself.”

Two pretty damn good trainers
Two pretty damn good trainers. The outcome of the game per se is (more or less) simply a byproduct of peerless training. Does this translate to business? What a silly* (*I wish) question, eh?

Hiring 80 80

“It’s simple, really, Tom. Hire for s, and, above all, promote for s
“It’s simple, really, Tom. Hire for s, and, above all, promote for s.” —Starbucks regional manager, on why so many smiles at Starbucks shops 81

“We look for ... listening, caring, smiling, saying ‘Thank you,’ being warm.” — Colleen Barrett, former President, Southwest Airlines 82

Put it (e.g., the likes of “smiles in a way that lights up a room”) in the FORMAL criteria list. DAMN IT! 83 83

AND. could you consider plain English
AND .. could you consider plain English? Not “engages the interviewer in a positive fashion.” Instead: “SMILES A LOT.”

job interview. Observed closely: The use of “I” or “We” during a
Source: Leonard Berry & Kent Seltman, chapter 6, “Hiring for Values,” Management Lessons From Mayo Clinic 85

AND. could you consider plain English
AND .. could you consider plain English? Not “exhibits traits associated with good teamwork.” Instead: “Uses ‘We’ more than ‘I’.” (FYI: Love this!) (FYI 2: The Mayo Clinic book is … SUPERB.)

at hand, and each dependent upon the other for support.”
"It became necessary to develop medicine as a cooperative science; the clinician, the specialist, the laboratory workers, the nurses uniting for the good of the patient, each assisting in the elucidation of the problem at hand, and each dependent upon the other for support.” —Dr. William Mayo, 1910

Team medicine—in the culture from the start and oh so rare in the healthcare industry—is at the heart of sustaining EXCELLENCE at the Mayo Clinic.

from Management Lessons From Mayo Clinic
“I am hundreds of times better here [than in my prior hospital assignment] because of the support system. It’s like you were working in an organism; you are not a single cell when you are out there practicing.’” —quote from Dr. Nina Schwenk, in Chapter 3, “Practicing Team Medicine,” from Leonard Berry & Kent Seltman, from Management Lessons From Mayo Clinic 89

Docs are rarely given to overstatement.
Regardless … A STUNNING REMARK.

Management Lessons from Mayo Clinic
"The personnel committees on all three campuses have become aggressive in addressing the issue of physicians who are not living the Mayo value of exhibiting respectful, collegial behavior to all team members. Some physicians have been suspended without pay or terminated.” —Leonard Barry & Kent Seltman, Management Lessons from Mayo Clinic

Teeth.

Andrew Carnegie’s Tombstone Inscription … Here lies a man Who knew how to enlist In his service Better men than himself. Source: Peter Drucker, The Practice of Management 93 93

Such a VERY big deal. And oh-so-rare. (Alas.)

"When I hire someone, that's when I go to work for them
"When I hire someone, that's when I go to work for them.” —John DiJulius, "What's the Secret to Providing a World-class Customer Experience" 95

Susan Cain’s Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking made a profound impact on me. We tend to favor the “noisy ones”—and thence downplay the power of the 50% amongst us who are “the quiet ones.” I.e., we blow off (or, at least, undervalue) 50% 0f the talent pool. Talk about a “missed opportunity”! 97

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking
“The next time you see a person with a composed face and a soft voice, remember that inside her mind she might be solving an equation, composing a sonnet, designing a hat. She might, that is, be deploying the power of quiet.” —Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking

2/Year = Legacy 99

DO YOU (invest in the decision-making process) ACT ACCORDINGLY?
Your legacy is achieved and maintained to a great extent by your promotion decisions—about two per year on average. In a five-year stint, that’s 10 decisions that make or break you. DO YOU (invest in the decision-making process) ACT ACCORDINGLY? (No glib answer, please.)

Promotion Decisions “life and death decisions” Source: Peter Drucker, The Practice of Management
101

A promotion decision is akin to an acquisition decision
A promotion decision is akin to an acquisition decision. The same degree of care therewith should be exercised.

“A man should never be promoted to a managerial position if his vision focuses on people’s weaknesses rather than on their strengths.” —Peter Drucker, The Practice of Management 103 103

Me 104 104

“Being aware of yourself and how you affect everyone around you is what distinguishes a superior leader.” —Edie Seashore 105

“How can a high-level leader like _____ be so out of touch with the truth about himself? It’s more common than you would imagine. In fact, the higher up the ladder a leader climbs, the less accurate his self-assessment is likely to be. The problem is an acute lack of feedback [especially on people issues].” —Daniel Goleman (et al.), The New Leaders 106

“The biggest problem I shall
ever face: the management of Dale Carnegie.” —Dale Carnegie, diary of

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself." —Leo Tolstoy
108

The leadership gurus speak with one voice on this: Self-knowledge and self-development is leader job #1. Think about it. (Your self assessment skills likely … STINK. Especially if you think they’re good.)

1st-Line Bosses (Cadre of) = Productivity Asset #1!
110 110

If the regimental commander lost most of his 2nd lieutenants and 1st lieutenants and captains and majors, it would be a tragedy. If he lost his sergeants it would be a catastrophe. The Army and the Navy are fully aware that success on the battlefield is dependent to an extraordinary degree on its Sergeants and Chief Petty Officers. Does industry have the same awareness? 111 111

“People leave managers not companies.”
—Dave Wheeler 112

Actually, a profound statement of the utmost importance.

Is there ONE “secret” to productivity and employee satisfaction?
YES! The Quality of your FULL CADRE of … 1st-line Leaders.

No way to overstate here
No way to overstate here. Companies do pay attention to 1st-line supervisors—but do not/rarely consider the full cadre of 1st-line leaders a … 1st-ORDER STRATEGIC ASSET … worthy of stupendous investment in selection and development. (PLEASE PONDER THIS.)

WOMEN RULE! 116

—Nicholas Kristof, “Twitter, Women, and Power,” NYTimes
“Research [by McKinsey & Co.] suggests that to succeed, start by promoting women.” —Nicholas Kristof, “Twitter, Women, and Power,” NYTimes “In my experience, women make much better executives than men.” —Kip Tindell, CEO, Container Store

“AS LEADERS, WOMEN RULE: New Studies find that female managers outshine their male counterparts in almost every measure” TITLE/ Special Report/ BusinessWeek 118 118

—Harvard Business Review
“Women are rated higher in fully 12 of the 16 competencies that go into outstanding leadership. And two of the traits where women outscored men to the highest degree — taking initiative and driving for results — have long been thought of as particularly male strengths.” —Harvard Business Review

For One (BIG) Thing … “McKinsey & Company found that the international companies with more women on their corporate boards far outperformed the average company in return on equity and other measures. Operating profit was … % higher.” Source: Nicholas Kristof, “Twitter, Women, and Power,” NYTimes,

Women’s Strengths Match New Economy Imperatives: Link [rather than rank] workers; favor interactive-collaborative leadership style [empowerment beats top-down decision making]; sustain fruitful collaborations; comfortable with sharing information; see redistribution of power as victory, not surrender; favor multi-dimensional feedback; value technical & interpersonal skills, individual & group contributions equally; readily accept ambiguity; honor intuition as well as pure “rationality”; inherently flexible; appreciate cultural diversity. Source: Judy B. Rosener, America’s Competitive Secret: Women Managers 121

In the “modern” organization, huffing and puffing and shouting orders is dying. Gaining cooperation of scattered team members who don’t “report to” the (formally designated) leader is the emergent norm. Which plays to women’s strengths.

Context: 1,000,000

Source: Race AGAINST the Machine, Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee
China/Foxconn: 1,000,000 robots/next 3 years Source: Race AGAINST the Machine, Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee 124

We typically think of China in terms of low-cost labor
We typically think of China in terms of low-cost labor. China’s labor costs are soaring—and, like the rest of us, the Chinese are stepping up their game. And not pussyfooting!

“Since 1996, manufacturing employment in China itself has actually fallen
by an estimated 25 percent. That’s over 30,000,000 fewer Chinese workers in that sector, even while output soared by 70 percent. It’s not that American workers are being replaced by Chinese workers. It’s that both American and Chinese workers are being made more efficient [replaced] by automation.” —Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies

I read this in disbelief.
But I do believe it. And what testimony it is to the ubiquity of the automation tsunami.

“Automation has become so sophisticated that on a typical passenger flight, a human pilot holds the controls for a grand total of …3 minutes. [Pilots] have become, it’s not much of an exaggeration to say, computer operators.” Source: Nicholas Carr, “The Great Forgetting,” The Atlantic, 11.13

Pilot as computer operator—and emergency skills are atrophying.

“Meet Your Next Surgeon: Dr. Robot”
Source: Feature/Fortune/15 JAN 2013/on Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci /multiple bypass heart-surgery robot

Ditto pilots.

“Las Vegas Company Could 3D Print Your Next Car: Customers could pick up newly printed car within 24 hours” —Headline, Las Vegas Sun/

IoT/Sensor Pills: “Proteus Digital Health is one of several pioneers in sensor-based health technology. They make a silicon chip the size of a grain of sand that is embedded into a safely digested pill that is swallowed. When the chip mixes with stomach acids, the processor is powered by the body’s electricity and transmits data to a patch worn on the skin. That patch, in turn, transmits data via Bluetooth to a mobile app, which then transmits the data to a central database where a health technician can verify if a patient has taken her or his medications. “This is a bigger deal than it may seem. In 2012, it was estimated that people not taking their prescribed medications cost $258 BILLION in emergency room visits, hospitalization, and doctor visits. An average of 130,000 Americans die each year because they don’t follow their prescription regimens closely enough.” (The FDA approved placebo testing in April 2012; sensor pills are ticketed to come to market in 2015 or 2016.) Source: Robert Scoble and Shel Israel, Age of Context: Mobile, Sensors, Data and the Future of Privacy

IoT/The Internet of Things IoE/The Internet of Everything
M2M/Machine-to-Machine Ubiquitous computing Embedded computing Pervasive computing Industrial Internet Etc.* ** *** *“More Than 50 BILLION connected devices by 2020” —Ericsson **Estimated 212 BILLION connected devices by 2020—IDC ***“By 2025 IoT could be applicable to $82 TRILLION of output or approximately one half the global economy”—GE (The WAGs to end all WAGs!)

“Software is eating the world.”
—Marc Andreessen

“Human level capability has not turned out to be a special stopping point from an engineering perspective. ….” Source: Illah Reza Nourbakhsh, Professor of Robotics, Carnegie Mellon, Robot Futures

—Nicholas Carr, The Glass Cage: Automation and Us
“The intellectual talents of highly trained professionals are no more protected from automation than is the driver’s left turn.” —Nicholas Carr, The Glass Cage: Automation and Us

“Ambitions of a Robo Adviser”
Betterment/ “Ambitions of a Robo Adviser” —FT/ / “could put tens of thousands of U.S. investment advisors out of their jobs”

“The root of our problem is not that we’re in a Great Recession
or a Great Stagnation, but rather that we are in the early throes of a Great Restructuring. Our technologies are racing ahead, but our skills and organizations are lagging behind.” Source: Race AGAINST the Machine, Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee 139

This is a principal explanation as to why the economy is coming back—but new jobs and wage increases are lagging* lagging lagging. (*When it comes to wage-rate movement, “non-existent” or even “declining” are the correct words.)

The New Logic: Scale w/o Employment Kodak: 1988/145,000 employees; 2012/bankrupt Instagram: 30,000,000 customers/ 13 employees (WhatsApp: 450,000,000 customers/ 55 employees/ $19,000,000,000) Source: Robert Reich’s Blog/

Just pause and read/re-read this.
Form your own conclusions about implications.

Let’s Not Get Too Carried Away
Context: Let’s Not Get Too Carried Away

Life BEFORE Clay Christensen “Invented” “Disruption”: My mom ( ) lived through the advent of mass market cars, commercial radio, routine long-distance phone calls, portable phones, cell phones, satellites, satellite phone call transmission, movies with sound, color movies, TV, TV dinners, microwave ovens, commercial use of aircraft, jets, extensive electrification, the Great Depression, Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson, Bob Feller, Barry Bonds, Derek Jeter, the West Coast Offense, the Civil Rights Movement, an African-American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff/Secretary of State, Gay Pride, women win the right to vote, Gandhi, Churchill, WWI, WWII, the Holocaust, the birth of the U.S. Navy Seabees, relativity, the A-bomb, H-bomb, the EEC, the EU, the Euro, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Iraq War, 9/11, the Cold War, the disintegration of the USSR, the resurgence of China, the death and resurrection of Germany and Japan, Oklahoma & New Mexico & Arizona & Hawaii & Alaska become states, William Howard Taft* (*just missed Teddy Roosevelt!), FDR, Ronald Reagan, Father Coughlin, Jim and Tammy Bakker, mainframe computers, PCs, hyperlinks, the iPod, DARPA-net, the Internet, air conditioning, weed whackers, Mickey Mouse, Frank Sinatra, Elvis, the Beatles, Madonna, the Model T, the Cadillac Escalade, Nancy Drew, the first four Harry Potter books, antibiotics, MRIs, polio vaccine, genetic mapping, WWII rockets, space flight, man-to-the-moon, probe on Mars, more or less permanent space station.”** (**But, to be sure, not long enough to see the Cubs win another World Series or to take a selfie.)

My Mom’s life was not exactly a yawner when it came to “disruption”!

THE MORAL IMPERATIVE: PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT
146

CORPORATE MANDATE #1 2014: Your principal moral obligation as a leader is to develop the skillset, “soft” and “hard,” of every one of the people in your charge (temporary as well as semi-permanent) to the maximum extent of your abilities. The bonus: This is also the #1 mid- to long-term … profit maximization strategy! 147 147

To my way of thinking, this is by far the most important point considered in this presentation.

In Good Business, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi argues persuasively that business has become the center of society. As such, an obligation to community is front & center. Business as societal bedrock, per Csikszentmihalyi, has the RESPONSIBILITY to increase the … “SUM OF HUMAN WELL-BEING.” Business is NOT “part of the community.” In terms of how adults collectively spend their waking hours: Business IS the community. And should act accordingly. The (REALLY) good news: Community mindedness is a great way (the BEST way?) to have spirited/committed/customer-centric work force—and, ultimately, increase (maximize?) growth and profitability.

I love this! (And “buy it” 100%.)
(Read it. Re-read it. Think about it. Discuss it. Act on it.)

The people you developed who went on to
The Memories That Matter The people you developed who went on to stellar accomplishments inside or outside the company. The (no more than) two or three people you developed who went on to create stellar institutions of their own. The long shots (people with “a certain something”) you bet on who surprised themselves—and your peers. The people of all stripes who 2/5/10/20 years later say “You made a difference in my life,” “Your belief in me changed everything.” The sort of/character of people you hired in general. (And the bad apples you chucked out despite some stellar traits.) A handful of projects (a half dozen at most) you doggedly pursued that still make you smile and which fundamentally changed the way things are done inside or outside the company/industry. The supercharged camaraderie of a handful of Great Teams aiming to “change the world.” 151 151

This is the sort of thing you’ll look back on at my age—71
This is the sort of thing you’ll look back on at my age—71. Not the $$$ wealth you accumulated. (This is the first part of a longer list I developed for a talk to the top management team of a $5-billion chemical company. I.e., I was addressing high-ranking general managers.)

INNOVATION 153 153

1/49: WTTMSW 154 154

No kidding, this truly is … the only thing I’ve learned “for sure” … in the 49 years since I began my managerial career—as a U.S. Navy construction battalion ensign in Vietnam.

WHOEVER TRIES THE MOST STUFF WINS 156

“Show up” and “Try it” are probably (UNDOUBTEDLY
“Show up” and “Try it” are probably (UNDOUBTEDLY?) the two most durable pieces of advice that can be imagined.

1. A Bias for Action 2. Close to the Customer 3. Autonomy and Entrepreneurship 4. Productivity Through People 5. Hands On, Value-Driven 6. Stick to the Knitting 7. Simple Form, Lean Staff 8. Simultaneous Loose-Tight Properties

If I were to update the book in 2014, there is ZERO doubt that
“a bias for action” would top the list—with even more emphasis than 33 years ago.

READY. FIRE! AIM. H. Ross Perot (vs “Aim! Aim! Aim!” /EDS vs GM/1985)
160 160

H. Ross Perot sold EDS to GM in the 1980s, and went on the car giant’s Board. A few years later he was asked to explain the difference between the two companies. He said that at EDS the strategy was “Ready. Fire. Aim.” I.e., get on with it—now. At GM the “strategy” was “Ready. Aim. Aim. Aim. Aim. …” (Alas, well into the 1st decade of the new century GM’s problems/unwieldy bureaucracy remained pretty much unchanged.)

“WE HAVE A STRATEGIC PLAN. IT’S CALLED ‘DOING THINGS
“WE HAVE A STRATEGIC PLAN. IT’S CALLED ‘DOING THINGS.’ ” —Herb Kelleher “DON’T ‘PLAN.’ DO STUFF.” —David Kelley/IDEO

—book title, Richard Branson
Screw it. Just do it. —book title, Richard Branson 163

Talk is cheap. Just make stuff.
I want to be a Photographer. Take a ton of photos. Start a photo blog. Organize an art show for your best work. Make stuff. I want to be a Writer. Write a ton of pieces. Establish a voice on social media. Start a blog. Write guest posts for friends. Make stuff. Talk is cheap. Just make stuff. —Reid Shilperoot, brand strategist, on the one piece of advice that has helped him overcome creative blocks

—Bloomberg by Bloomberg
“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 165

of the opportunity. (NYTimes/0426.11)
“DEMO OR DIE!” Source: This was the approach championed by Nicholas Negroponte which vaulted his MIT Media Lab to the forefront of IT-multimedia innovation. It was his successful alternative to the traditional MIT-academic “publish or perish.” Negroponte’s rapid-prototyping version was emblematic of the times and the pace and the enormity of the opportunity. (NYTimes/ )

Culture of Prototyping “Effective prototyping may be THE MOST VALUABLE CORE COMPETENCE an innovative organization can hope to have.” —Michael Schrage 167 167

Strong language. Merited.

“You can’t be a serious innovator unless and until you are ready, willing and able to seriously play. ‘Serious play’ is not an oxymoron; it is the essence of innovation.” —Michael Schrage, Serious Play SORRY … I LOVE THIS. “SERIOUS PLAY” … OR … FUHGEDDABOUDIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No bull: I’m 57 … and I believe that this is … THE Truth. NO SHIT. 169

I agree 100%. But in 9 of 10 cases a “cultural revolution” is required to bring a “playful environment” into being. Big point: Such a playful culture, which is, make no mistake, the bedrock of innovation, in 2015 is very close to: NOT OPTIONAL.

“EXPERIMENT FEARLESSLY” Source: BusinessWeek, “Type A Organization Strategies: How to Hit a Moving Target”—Tactic #1 “RELENTLESS TRIAL AND ERROR” Source: Wall Street Journal, cornerstone of effective approach to “rebalancing” company portfolios in the face of changing and uncertain global economic conditions ( ) 171 171

Facebook, iPod, etc. … ordinary ideas/SJ as “tinkerer” par excellence
172

WTTMSW/Corollary “FAIL. FORWARD. FAST
WTTMSW/Corollary “FAIL. FORWARD. FAST.” —High Tech CEO, Pennsylvania “FAIL FASTER. SUCCEED SOONER.” —David Kelley/IDEO “MOVE FAST. BREAK THINGS.” —Facebook

Inside the World’s Most Innovative Car Company
“ ‘Success,’ Honda said, ‘can only be achieved through repeated failure and introspection. Success represents one percent of your work, which results only from the ninety-nine percent that is called failure.’ ” —Jeffrey Rothfeder, Driving Honda: Inside the World’s Most Innovative Car Company

“REWARD excellent failures. PUNISH mediocre successes
“REWARD excellent failures. PUNISH mediocre successes.” —Phil Daniels, Sydney exec 175 175

“In business, you REWARD people for taking RISKS
“In business, you REWARD people for taking RISKS. WHEN IT DOESN’T WORK OUT YOU PROMOTE THEM -BECAUSE THEY WERE WILLING TO TRY NEW THINGS. If people tell me they skied all day and never fell down, I tell them to try a different mountain.” —Michael Bloomberg

—Jeff Bezos at Business Insider “Ignition” conference, 1202.14
“What really matters is that companies that don’t continue to experiment—companies that don’t embrace failure —they eventually get in a desperate position, where the only thing they can do is make a ‘Hail Mary’ bet at the end.” —Jeff Bezos at Business Insider “Ignition” conference,

Reward. Promote. Embrace.
Re-read these last three slides: When it comes (in 2015) to the consequences of failures: Reward. Promote. Embrace. (Yup, those were the three key words.)

“Ideas Economy: CAN YOUR BUSINESS FAIL FAST ENOUGH TO SUCCEED?”
Source: ad for Economist Conference/ /Berkeley CA (caps are Economist)

“The essence of capitalism is encouraging failure, not rewarding success.” —Nassim Nicholas Taleb/Reason TV/ 180

I know of no one more thoughtful on this topic than Taleb.

WTTMSASTMSUW 182

WHOEVER TRIES THE MOST STUFF AND SCREWS UP WINS 183

OUCH! (Oh so true.)

“YOU MISS 100% OF THE SHOTS YOU NEVER TAKE.” —Wayne Gretzky
185 185

All you need to know in life?

Tempo/ Temperament

“If things seem under control, you’re just not going fast enough.”
—Mario Andretti, race driver “I’m not comfortable unless I’m uncomfortable.” —Jay Chiat “If it works, it’s obsolete.” —Marshall McLuhan

Hustle. NOT OPTIONAL.

WTTMSASTMSUTFW 190

WHOEVER TRIES THE MOST STUFF AND SCREWS UP FASTEST WINS 191

WTTMSASTMSUTFW 192

WHOEVER TRIES THE MOST STUFF AND SCREWS UP FASTEST WINS 193

Q.E.D.

LBTs* *Little BIG Things

Little BIG Things: Small move. Small cost. Enormous (potential) payoff
Little BIG Things: Small move. Small cost. Enormous (potential) payoff. There for the taking. (IF … the “culture of ‘serious play’” described previously is in place—a big “if.”) (Message: Not every pursuit of major innovation needs to begin with the issuance of a $250,000 check! ) 196

Bag sizes = New markets:
Source: PepsiCo 197

Frito Lay, stuck some years ago with a string of failed (expensive) new product introductions, goes “trivial”—adding (yawn) some new bag sizes to its potato chip offerings. E.g., family size, single-serve, etc. Astonishingly, these became fullscale new product categories—and added, literally, >$1 billion to the top line. Little = VERY BIG. 198

Big carts = 1.5X Source: Walmart 199

Walmart increases shopping cart size. (YAWN
Walmart increases shopping cart size. (YAWN.) Big item—microwave ovens, etc.—sales soar … 50%. 200

Las Vegas Casino/2X: “When Friedman slightly curved the right angle of an entrance corridor to one property, he was ‘amazed at the magnitude of change in pedestrians’ behavior’—the percentage who entered increased from one-third to nearly two-thirds.” —Natasha Dow Schull, Addiction By Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas

Ye gads! Vegas! (Again, >$1B impact.)
202

(1) AMENABLE TO RAPID EXPERIMENTATION/FAILURE “FREE” (NO BAD “PR,” NO $$) (2) QUICK TO IMPLEMENT/QUICK TO ROLL OUT (3) INEXPENSIVE TO IMPLEMENT/ (4) HUGE MULTIPLIER (5) AN “ATTITUDE” (6) DOES NOT BY AND LARGE REQUIRE A “POWER POSITION” FROM WHICH TO LAUNCH EXPERIMENTS.

I could go on. I’d love to go on. The cases are fun
I could go on. I’d love to go on. The cases are fun. The payoff is enormous. But this section is really about a “habit of serious play.” Realizing the possible BIG BANG PAYOFF from constant experimentation. And per this slide, it’s quick, invisible, inexpensive. And perhaps, yes, with a payoff in the $B range. (WARNING: This, to repeat, is a cultural issue—in fact all this “TGR stuff” is.) 204

We Are What We Eat. We Are Who We Hang Out With.

Diversity: “It is hardly possible to overrate the value of placing human beings in contact with persons dis-similar to themselves, and with modes of thought and action unlike those with which they are familiar. Such communication has always been, and is peculiarly in the present age, one of the primary sources of progress.” —John Stuart Mill

Innovation is a life or death proposition—as never before.
WTTMSW/Whoever Tries The Most Stuff Wins is my #1. The HOF/Hang Out Factor is #2. This is one B-I-G deal. And, alas, largely unattended to. THAT MUST CHANGE. And: THE PROCESS MUST BE SYSTEMATIC.

be either a blessing or a curse.” —Billy Cox
“You will become like the five people you associate with the most—this can be either a blessing or a curse.” —Billy Cox 208

The “We are what we eat”/ “We are who we hang out with” Axiom: At its core, every (!!!) relationship-partnership decision (employee, vendor, customer, etc., etc.) is a strategic decision about: “Innovate, ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ ” 209 209

Key word: EVERY.

Measure/Manage: Portfolio “Strangeness”/“Quality”
1. Customers 2. Vendors 3. Out-sourcing Partners 4. Acquisitions 5. Purposeful “Theft” 6. Diversity/“d”iversity 7. Diversity/Crowd-sourcing Diversity/Weird Diversity/Curiosity 10. Benchmarks 11. Calendar 12. MBWA 13. Lunch/General 14. Lunch/Other functions 15. Location/Internal 16. Location/HQ 17. Top team 18. Board 211

“The Billion-man Research Team: Companies offering work to online communities are reaping the benefits of crowdsourcing.” —Headline, FT 212

“Crowdsourcing” can more or less apply to … EVERYTHING.

Ouch! “The Bottleneck … 214

“The Bottleneck is at the … “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 … Top of the Bottle” — Gary Hamel/Harvard Business Review 215

Alas. So true.

“Who’s the most interesting person you’ve met in the last 90 days
“Who’s the most interesting person you’ve met in the last 90 days? How do I get in touch with them?” —Fred Smith 217 217

Maybe not such an easy question to answer?
(It isn’t for me, at any rate.) Take it seriously. VERY seriously. (PLEASE.)

WE ARE THE COMPANY WE KEEP! MANAGE IT!
219 219

This is not intended to be “a good idea
This is not intended to be “a good idea.” It is a strategic asset—and should be consciously … measured and managed. (Start by considering the last 10 people you went to lunch with. “Same-same” or “stretch-stretch”?)

Diversity: Hang out with cool and thou shalt become more cool
Diversity: Hang out with cool and thou shalt become more cool. Hang out with dull and thou shalt become more dull. Diversity: Your “hang out with” “portfolio” can/should be as carefully concocted/ managed/ measured as your strategic plan—it IS your de facto strategic plan! Diversity: Every relationship-partnership decision (employee/ vendor/customer/etc.) is a strategic decision: “Innovate, ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’”

XFX = #1 222 222 222

*Cross-Functional eXcellence
XFX = #1* *Cross-Functional eXcellence 223 223 223

A project is behind schedule by three months. Six months
A project is behind schedule by three months? Six months? There is a mess amidst the supply chain? Customer orders are badly backlogged? Etc. Invariably there is ONE reason above all others when such snafus occur. (As they routinely do.) Namely: BOTCHED CROSS-FUNCTIONAL CO-ORDINATION. 224

NEVER WASTE A LUNCH! 225 225

Sounds a little lightweight if the problem is such a big one
Sounds a little lightweight if the problem is such a big one. Surely a new org chart and a few million more investment $$ tossed into the ERP budget tops the list. I’m hardly urging you not to invest. But I do claim—in, still, 2015—that the social aspects of XFX are largely ignored or given no more than lip service—whereas they ought to rank at, yes, the top of th list. And at the top of my “social factors” list is, no kidding … LUNCH.

The sacred 220 “ABs”.* *“At bats” 227

About 220 workday lunches per year = 220 precious, non-repeatable opportunities (“at bats” in baseball terms) to make hay of one sort or another. And, to be trite, once they’re gone they’re gone for good. Am I being obsessive? Yup. It’s merited. A lunch lost is a lunch lost. Starting … TODAY. 228

*Measure! Monthly! Part of evaluation!
% XF lunches* *Measure! Monthly! Part of evaluation! 229 229

% of lunches with people in … OTHER FUNCTIONS.
(BIG deal.)

XFX: SOCIAL ACCELERATORS …
231 231

The key “XFX” attainment tools are social—not technological.
232

XFX/Typical Social Accelerators
1. EVERYONE’s (more or less) JOB #1: Make friends in other functions! (Purposefully. Consistently. Measurably.) 2. “Do lunch” with people in other functions!! Frequently!! (Minimum 10% to 25% for everyone? Measured.) 3. Ask peers in other functions for references so you can become conversant in their world. (It’s one helluva sign of ... GIVE-A-DAMN-ism.) 4. Religiously invite counterparts in other functions to your team meetings. Ask them to present “cool stuff” from “their world” to your group. (Useful. Mark of respect.) 5. PROACTIVELY SEEK EXAMPLES OF “TINY” ACTS OF “XFX” TO ACKNOWLEDGE—PRIVATELY AND PUBLICALLY. (Bosses: ONCE A DAY … make a short call or visit or send an of “Thanks” for some sort of XFX gesture by your folks and some other function’s folks.) 6. Present counterparts in other functions awards for service to your group. Tiny awards at least weekly; and an “Annual All-Star Supporters (from other groups) Banquet” modeled after superstar salesperson banquets. 233

XFX/ Typical Social Accelerators
7. Routinely discuss—A SEPARATE AGENDA ITEM—good and problematic acts of cross-functional cooperation at every Team Meeting. 8. When someone in another function asks for assistance, respond with … more … alacrity than you would if it were the person in the cubicle next to yours—or even more than you would for a key external customer. (Remember, XFX is the key to Customer Retention which is in turn the key to “all good things.”) 9. Do not bad mouth ... “the damned accountants,” “the bloody HR guy.” Ever. (Bosses: Severe penalties for this—including public tongue-lashings.) 10. Get physical! “Co-location” may well be the most powerful “culture change lever.” Physical X-functional proximity is almost a … guarantee … of remarkably improved cooperation—to aid this one needs flexible workspaces that can be mobilized for a team in a flash. 11. Establish “adhocracy” as S.O.P. To improve the new “X-functional Culture” (and business results), little XF teams should be formed on the spot to deal with an urgent issue—they may live for but ten days, but it helps the XF habit, making it normal to be “working the XF way.” 234

XFX/ Typical Social Accelerators
12. Early project “management” experience. Within days, literally, of coming aboard folks should be “running” some bit of a bit of a bit a project, working with folks from other functions—hence, “all this” becomes as natural as breathing. 13. Work proactively to give as large as possible numbers of people temporary assignments in other functions—especially Finance. 14. “Get ’em out with the customer.” Rarely does the accountant or bench scientist call on the customer. Reverse that. Give everyone more or less regular “customer-facing experiences.” She or he learns quickly that the customer is not interested in our in-house turf battles! 15. Consider creating a special role, or even position. Specialty chemical company Buckman Labs established “knowledge transfer facilitators,” effectively former “middle managers,” with 100% of discretionary pay based on success at spurring integration across previously impermeable barriers. 235

XFX/: Typical Social Accelerators
16. Formal evaluations. Everyone, starting with the receptionist, should have a significant XF rating component in their evaluation. (The “XFX Performance” should be among the Top 3 items in all managers’ evaluations.) 17. Every functional unit should have strict and extensive measures of “customer satisfaction” based on evaluations from other functions of its usefulness and effectiveness and value-added to the enterprise as a whole. 18. Demand XF experience for, especially, senior jobs. For example, the U.S. military requires all would-be generals and admirals to have served a full tour in a job whose only goals were cross-functional achievements. 19. “Deep dip.” Dive three levels down in the organization to fill a senior role with some one who has been noticeably pro-active on adding value via excellent cross-functional integration. 20. XFX is … PERSONAL … as well as about organizational effectiveness. PXFX (Personal XFX) is arguably the #1 Accelerant to personal success—in terms of organizational career, freelancer/Brand You, or as entrepreneur. 21. Excellence! There is a “State of XF Excellence” per se. Talk it up constantly. Pursue it. Aspire to nothing less. 236

EXPLICITLY & VISIBLY & RELENTLESSLY MANAGE TO XFX STANDARD!
ONE DAMN ACT OF XFX ENHANCEMENT EVERY DAY! 237 237

“Allied commands depend on mutual confidence through the development
and this confidence is gained, above all through the development of friendships.” —General D.D. Eisenhower, Armchair General* *“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.” 238 238

“The capacity to develop close and enduring relationships is the mark of a leader. Unfortunately, many leaders of major companies believe their job is to create the strategy, organization structure and organizational processes—then they just delegate the work to be done, remaining aloof from the people doing the work.” —Bill George, Authentic Leadership 239

“XFX”: Friendship driven!
240

Innovate or Die: Measure It!
241

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? (At least 3???) 242

Innovation Index: Move every project (definition) 2 notches up on the “WOW Scale” … THIS WEEK.
243

Innovate or Die: Ubiquitous!
244

Iron Innovation Equality Law: The quality and quantity and imaginativeness of innovation shall be the same in all functions —e.g., in HR and purchasing as much as in marketing or product development.* 245 245

VALUE-ADDED STRATEGIES
246 246

TGRs: 8/80

Customers describing their service experience as “superior”: 8%
Companies describing the service experience they provide as “superior”: 80% —Source: Bain & Company survey of 362 companies, reported in John DiJulius, What's the Secret to Providing a World-class Customer Experience? 248

STUNNING. 249

Conveyance: Kingfisher Air Location: Approach to New Delhi
250 250

“May I clean your glasses, sir?”
251 251

On a Mumbai to Delhi flight, as we began our approach the flight attendant came down the aisle in business class and asked us if we wished to have our glasses cleaned. No joke, that’s the sort of “little” thing one remembers … for a lifetime. 252

Conveyance: Southwest Airlines Location: Boarding, Albany NY
253 253

“May I help you down the jetway.”
254

I think I’ve chalked up about 10,000 flight legs
I think I’ve chalked up about 10,000 flight legs. Not much new under the sun for me. But then came the day in 2013 … Plane (Southwest) about to board at BWI. Three or four wheelchairs lined up at the gate. Crew arrives. Pilot turns to the older woman in the 1st wheelchair in the line and says, “May I help you down the jetway?” She says yes. He does. Big deal? To me, … YES. And I contend such behavior is a crystal clear byproduct of Kelleher’s unswerving, 4-decade commitment to his people. (The “BIG DUH”: Treat the staff well and they’ll treat the customer well. Then sit back and count the profit.)

“Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart.” —Henry Clay 256

7X. 7:30A-8:00P. F12A. 7:30AM = 7:15AM. 8:00PM = 8:15PM
7X. 7:30A-8:00P. F12A. 7:30AM = 7:15AM. 8:00PM = 8:15PM. (2,000,000) Source: Vernon Hill, Fans, Not Customers 257

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

It BEGINS (and ENDS) in the …
259 259

PARKING LOT* *Disney 260 260

Don’t like it? Don’t pay! Source: Graniterock Co.

<TGW and … >TGR (Things Gone WRONG-Things Gone RIGHT)
262 262

Quality—minimizing things gone wrong—is of the utmost importance
Quality—minimizing things gone wrong—is of the utmost importance. But fact is, most things work pretty well these days. Hence the emphasis associated with differentiation switches to the other side of the equation: TGRs/THINGS GONE RIGHT. The trick is to focus—systematically—on adding to the TGR population. 263

“Experiences are as distinct from services as services are from goods
“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 264 264

“Experience” is, say, well beyond “customer satisfaction
“Experience” is, say, well beyond “customer satisfaction.” (In fact, of an entirely different character.) It is about the totality of the aesthetics and functionality of dealing with your organization. 265

CXO* *Chief eXperience Officer
266 266

I’m urging a “C-level” position
I’m urging a “C-level” position. (Or the equivalent thereto—evn in a 6-person unit.) 267

“Experience”: The Law of Ubiquity
268 268

The experience notion applies to the internal function dealing with its internal customers as much as it does with interactions with outsiders. 269

*I use “manage-measure” a lot. Translation: These are
TGRS. MANAGE ’EM. MEASURE ’EM.* *I use “manage-measure” a lot. Translation: These are not “soft” ideas; they are exceedingly important things that can be managed—AND measured. 270 270

TGRs: 3 Minutes

“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. 272 272

“Centerpiece” is a mouthful.
(And Goldsmith has few if any peers as an executive coach. Hence: Take heed.)

*Divorce, loss of a BILLION $$$ aircraft sale, etc., etc.
Relationships (of all varieties): THERE ONCE WAS A TIME WHEN A THREE-MINUTE PHONE CALL WOULD HAVE AVOIDED SETTING OFF THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL THAT RESULTED IN A COMPLETE RUPTURE.* *Divorce, loss of a BILLION $$$ aircraft sale, etc., etc. 274 274

I call this an … “IRON LAW.”

THE PROBLEM IS RARELY/NEVER THE PROBLEM
THE PROBLEM IS RARELY/NEVER THE PROBLEM. THE RESPONSE TO THE PROBLEM INVARIABLY ENDS UP BEING THE REAL PROBLEM. (OPPORTUNITY). 276

Another … “IRON LAW.”

TGRs: K = R = P

K = R = P 279 279

Kindness = Repeat Business = Profit.
280 280

K = R = P/Kindness = Repeat business = Profit Kindness:
Thoughtful. Decent. Caring. Attentive. Engaged. Listens well/obsessively. Appreciative. Open. Visible. Honest. Responsive. On time all the time. Apologizes with dispatch for screw-ups. “Over”-reacts to screw-ups of any magnitude. “Professional” in all dealings. Optimistic. Understands that kindness to staff breeds kindness to others/outsiders. Applies throughout the “supply chain.” Applies to 100% of customer’s staff. Explicit part of values statement. Basis for evaluation of 100% of our staff. 281 281

"Let's not forget that small emotions are the great captains of our lives." –—Van Gogh
282

Social Business/ Customer Engagement

“Customer engagement is moving from relatively isolated market transactions to deeply connected and sustained social relationships. This basic change in how we do business will make an impact on just about everything we do.” Social Business By Design: Transformative Social Media Strategies For the Connected Company —Dion Hinchcliffe & Peter Kim

Welcome to the Age of Social Media: “What used to be “word of mouth” is now “word of mouse.” You are either creating brand ambassadors or brand terrorists doing brand assassination.” —John DiJulius, The Customer Service Revolution: Overthrow Conventional Business, Inspire Employees, and Change the World

Not overstated.

The Customer Service Revolution
Welcome to the Age of Social Media: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. Also, the Internet and technology have made customers more demanding., and they expect information, answers, products, responses, and resolutions sooner than ASAP.” —John DiJulius, The Customer Service Revolution

Not overstated.

Welcome to the Age of Social Media: “The customer is in complete control of communication.”
—John DiJulius, The Customer Service Revolution: Overthrow Conventional Business, Inspire Employees, and Change the World

Not overstated.

How Companies Must Adapt to Survive, by Ted Coine & Mark Babbit)
“I would rather engage in a Twitter conversation with a single customer than see our company attempt to attract the attention of millions in a coveted Super Bowl commercial. Why? Because having people discuss your brand directly with you, actually connecting one-to-one, is far more valuable—not to mention far cheaper!. … “Consumers Wnt to discuss what they like, the companies they support, and the organizations and leaders they resent. They want a community. They want to be heard. … “[I]f we engage employees, customers, and prospective customers in meaningful dialogue about their lives, challenges, interests, and concerns, we can build a community of trust, loyalty, and—possibly over time—help them become advocates and champions for the brand.” —Peter Aceto, CEO, Tangerine (from the Foreword to A World Gone Social: How Companies Must Adapt to Survive, by Ted Coine & Mark Babbit)

This extraordinary comment comes from a CEO in … financial services
This extraordinary comment comes from a CEO in … financial services. (Tangerine is a very successful Canadian bank.)

“Amy Howell [social marketer extraordinaire, founder of Howell Marketing] ignites epidemics. In a good way, of course. Epidemics of excitement. Epidemics of business connections. Epidemics of influence.” —Mark Schaeffer, ROI/Return on Influence: The Revolutionary Power of Klout, Social Scoring, and Influence Marketing

There is an entire industry of those who know how to play this game
There is an entire industry of those who know how to play this game. The bank of experiences—good and bad—is growing exponentially.

Social Business/ New Ball Game

ZMOT: ZERO Moment Of Truth/Google*
“You know what a ‘moment of truth’ is. It’s when a prospective customer decides either to take the next step in the purchase funnel, or to exit and seek other options. … But what is a ‘zero moment of truth’? Many behaviors can serve as a zero moment of truth, but what binds them together is that the purchase is being researched and considered before the prospect even enters the classic sales funnel … In its research, Google found that 84% of shoppers said the new mental model, ZMOT, shapes their decisions. …” —Jay Baer, Youtility: Why Smart Marketing Is About Help, Not Hype *See for ZMOT in booklength format

The conventional game is over—before it starts.

Re-Formatting Enterprise
Social Business/ Re-Formatting Enterprise

*Go nano or go home [Nano corps, or fluid *Management is unnecessary
*Be nimble or be dead *Go nano or go home [Nano corps, or fluid self-forming groups that move from one organization to another, will get most projects done.] *Management is unnecessary *Managers cost too much *How far can you scale flat? *Small is here to stay *Small will be the bane of large Source: Ted Coine & Mark Babbit, A World Gone Social: How Companies Must Adapt to Suevive

There is more than a smidgeon of exaggeration here
There is more than a smidgeon of exaggeration here. On the other hand, it is directionally correct—and these concepts must be “front of mind.” They are no longer pie-in-the-sky. The game is on! The stakes are enormous!

2. Expects Integration of the Personal and Professional
Seven Characteristics of the Social Employee 1. Engaged 2. Expects Integration of the Personal and Professional 3. Buys Into the Brand’s Story 4. Born Collaborator 5. Listens 6. Customer-Centric 7. Empowered Change Agent Source: Cheryl Burgess & Mark Burgess, The Social Employee

The “social business model” demands as table stakes a degree of “empowerment”-employee engagement-employee autonomy unimagined a scant five years ago.

SE/Social Employees. SM/Social Media. SX/Social eXecutives.
Biz 2014: Get Aboard the “S-Train” SM/Social Media. SX/Social eXecutives. SE/Social Employees. SO/Social Organization. SB/Social Business.

SB/SE >> SM* *“Social BUSINESS”/“Social EMPLOYEE” >> “Social Media”
304 304

“Social” is a lot more than “social media
“Social” is a lot more than “social media.” And that is … GROSS UNDERSTATEMENT.

(BIG) Data = (BIG) $$$!

“Caesars’ Entertainment have bet their future on harvesting personal data rather than developing the fanciest properties.” —Adam Tanner, What Stays in Vegas: The World of Personal Data—Lifeblood of Big Business—and the End of Privacy as We Know it

The (absurdly fine-grained) data about the guests/ players is worth more than the facility.
Welcome to the New World Order. (Re-read. Think about it.)

Persado (vs. copywriter): emotion words, product characteristics, “call to action,” position of text, images Up To $250 To Spend On All Ships In All Destinations. 2 Days Left (1.3%) vs. No kidding! You Qualify to Experience An Incredible Vacation With Us :-) (4.1) “A creative person is good but random. We’ve taken the randomness out by building an ontology of language” —Lawrence Whittle, head of sales Source: Wall Street Journal/ / “It’s Finally Time to Take AI Seriously”

An algorithm writes a more effective ad than a human—given the vast horde of data on prior reactions to various words, sentiments, etc.

“Flash forward to dystopia
“Flash forward to dystopia. You work in a chic cubicle, sucking chicken-flavor sustenance from a tube. You’re furiously maneuvering with a joystick … Your boss stops by and gives you a look. ‘We need to talk about your loyalty to this company.’ The organization you work for has deduced that you are considering quitting. It predicts your plans and intentions, possibly before you have even conceived them.” —Eric Siegel, Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die (based on a real case, an HP “Flight risk” PA model developed by HR, with astronomical savings potential)

Algorithmic invasion of HR is underway.

“Algorithms have already written symphonies as moving as those composed by Beethoven, picked through legalese with the deftness of a senior law partner, diagnosed patients with more accuracy than a doctor, written news articles with the smooth hand of a seasoned reporter, and driven vehicles on urban highways with far better control than a human driver.” —Christopher Steiner, Automate This: How Algorithms Came to Rule the World 313

DESIGN!

Design Rules. APPLE market cap > Exxon Mobil. August 2011 (0410
Design Rules! APPLE market cap > Exxon Mobil* *August 2011 ( : $740B, 2X #2) 315 315

When Apple’s market cap shot past Exxon Mobil’s, there was no longer any issue about … “DESIGN POWER.” Now only idiots will ignore it—in enterprises of any and every size and flavor.

“You know a design is good when you want to lick it.” —Steve Jobs
Source: Design: Intelligence Made Visible, Stephen Bayley & Terence Conran 317

—Robert Brunner, former Apple design chief
“Typically, design is a vertical stripe in the chain of events in a product’s delivery. [At Apple, it’s] a long, horizontal stripe, where design is part of every conversation.” —Robert Brunner, former Apple design chief

Design at Apple intrudes into every nook and cranny
Design at Apple intrudes into every nook and cranny. While the average firm is not and cannot be Apple, there is much to learn about the value of pervasive “design mindfulness.”

Apple design: “Huge degree of care
Apple design: “Huge degree of care.” —Ian Parker, New Yorker, 23 March 2015, on Jony Ives “Steve and Jony would discuss corners for hours and hours.” —Laurene Powell Jobs

“Apple’s great design secret may be avoiding insult
“Apple’s great design secret may be avoiding insult. Their thoughtfulness is a sign of respect. Elegance in objects is everybody’s right, and it shouldn’t cost more than ugliness. So much of our manufacturing environment testifies to carelessness.” —Paola Antonelli, MOMA

“He craved products that didn’t force adjustments of behavior, that gave people a feeling of gratitude that someone else thought this through in a way that made your life easier.” —Laurene Powell Jobs

I believe much of the “Apple message” applies to firms of every flavor and size. Painstaking “aesthetic care” involving every aspect of the enterprise, process and product or service—if it becomes a way of life—is invaluable, from the corner store to the accountancy to the car dealership to the usual suspects.

True. Helpful. Good. Ann Landers as management guru/
three criteria for products, projects, a communication, etc.: Good. True. Helpful.

Don’t flip by this slide. Ponder it. Alone and with others
Don’t flip by this slide. Ponder it. Alone and with others. Regardless of your job or rank.

“Design is treated like a religion at BMW.” —Fortune
326

“With its carefully conceived mix of colors and textures, aromas and music, STARBUCKS is more indicative of our era than the iMac. It is to the Age of Aesthetics what McDonald’s was to the Age of Convenience or Ford was to the Age of Mass Production—the touchstone success story, the exemplar of … the aesthetic imperative. … ‘Every Starbucks store is carefully designed to enhance the quality of everything the customers see, touch, hear, smell or taste,’ writes CEO Howard Schultz.” —Virginia Postrel, The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture and Consciousness

CDO* *Chief Design Officer
328

A … Chief Design Officer … is a clear need in any/every sizeable organization.
And some form of CDO assignment is/can be of abiding importance in the smallest of firms. Again: Regardless of industry.

Hypothesis: DESIGN is the principal difference between love and hate
Hypothesis: DESIGN is the principal difference between love and hate!* *Not “like” and “dislike” 330

Design is … NEVER neutral.

Design, though emphasizing functionality as well as aesthetics, is primarily about an … emotional reaction … to a product or service. Not “like” or “dislike.” Rather: “Love” or “hate.” Powerful stuff!

Hypothesis: Men cannot design for women’s needs!!??

Sooooo …..

Women BUY (Everything)!
335

Source: Headline, Economist
“Forget CHINA, INDIA and the INTERNET: Economic Growth Is Driven by WOMEN.” Source: Headline, Economist 336 336

Not an iota of exaggeration.
(But many a missed opportunity.)

W > 2X (C + I)* *“Women now drive the global economy. Globally, they control about $20 trillion in consumer spending, and that figure could climb as high as $28 trillion in the next five years. Their $13 trillion in total yearly earnings could reach $18 trillion in the same period. In aggregate, women represent a growth market bigger than China and India combined—more than twice as big in fact. Given those numbers, it would be foolish to ignore or underestimate the female consumer. And yet many companies do just that—even ones that are confidant that they have a winning strategy when it comes to women. Consider Dell’s …” Source: Michael Silverstein and Kate Sayre, “The Female Economy,” HBR, 09.09 338 338

$28,000,000,000,000. (Lots of ZEROS.)

Source: “Women Are Drivers of Global Growth,” Aude Zieseniss de Thuin,
“Since 1970, women have held two out of three new jobs. According to the Economist, which compiled studies from a number of research firms, the arrival of this new workforce has done more to encourage global growth than increases in capital investment and improvements in productivity. ‘Over the last 10 years the increase in women [in the workplace] in developed countries has made more of a contribution to global growth than China has,’ concludes the British weekly.” Source: “Women Are Drivers of Global Growth,” Aude Zieseniss de Thuin, founder and president of the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society (FT) 340

Source: “Women Are Drivers of Global Growth,” Aude Zieseniss de Thuin,
“Since 1970, women have held two out of three new jobs. According to the Economist, which compiled studies from a number of research firms, the arrival of this new workforce has done more to encourage global growth than increases in capital investment and improvements in productivity. ‘Over the last 10 years the increase in women [in the workplace] in developed countries has made more of a contribution to global growth than China has,’ concludes the British weekly.” Source: “Women Are Drivers of Global Growth,” Aude Zieseniss de Thuin, founder and president of the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society (FT) 341

“Women are THE majority market” —Fara Warner/The Power of the Purse
342 342

Women as Decision Makers/Various sources Home Furnishings … 94% Vacations … 92% (Adventure Travel … 70%/ $55B travel equipment) Houses … 91% D.I.Y. (major “home projects”) … 80% Consumer Electronics … 51% (66% home computers) Cars … 68% (influence 90%) All consumer purchases … 83% * Bank Account … 89% Household investment decisions … 67% Small business loans/biz starts … 70% Health Care … 80% *In the USA women hold >50% managerial positions including >50% purchasing officer positions; hence women also make the majority of commercial purchasing decisions. 343

Source: Martha Barletta/TrendSight Group/0517.11
Women as … Purchasing agents: 55% Purchasing managers: 42% Wholesale/retail buyers: 52% Employee health-benefit plans: 60% Source: Martha Barletta/TrendSight Group/ 344

With stats like these, one can see that women are driving the purchase of the bulk of commercial goods, not just consumer goods.

“The MOST SIGNIFICANT VARIABLE in EVERY 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 346 346

The Perfect Answer Jill and Jack buy slacks in black… Pick one! 347

Sales/After-sales Process 1. Kick-off – Women 2. Research – Women
3. Purchase – Men 4. Ownership – Women 5. Word-of-mouth – Women Source: Martha Barletta, Marketing to Women: How to Increase Your Share of the World’s Largest Market 349

Gets a belly laugh in my speeches—and (almost) all agree it’s true
Gets a belly laugh in my speeches—and (almost) all agree it’s true. And while it may be amusing—the consequences, as previously stated, run to trillions of dollars. (Source: Martha Barletta, The TrendSight Group.)

The (ENORMOUS) “Services Added” Opportunity

“Rolls-Royce now earns more from tasks such as managing clients’ overall procurement strategies and maintaining aerospace engines it sells than it does from making them.” —Economist

Read this twice or thrice.
It has happened quickly. The implications are wide and deep.

“You are headed for commodity hell if you don’t have services
“You are headed for commodity hell if you don’t have services.” —Lou Gerstner, on IBM’s revolution (1997)

IBM to IBM 355

In the 1990s, with its old businesses in retreat, IBM began a rapid & radical transformation from hardware to services.

“Never mind computers and tech services
“Never mind computers and tech services. IBM’s radical new focus is on revamping customers’ operations—and running them.” —Headline/ BW

Planetary Rainmaker-in-Chief
Planetary Rainmaker-in-Chief! “[CEO Sam] Palmisano’s strategy is to expand tech’s borders by pushing users—and entire industries—toward radically different business models. The payoff for IBM would be access to an ocean of revenue—Palmisano estimates it at $500 billion a year —that technology companies have never been able to touch.” —Fortune

$50B* *IBM Global Services/ “Systems integrator of choice”
359

IBM is the poster child of this “movement
IBM is the poster child of this “movement.” In the early ’90s, new CEO Lou Gerstner was ordered by the board to break up the company. Before complying, he made a round-the-world customer tour. He discovered that his customers were not by and large dissatisfied with IBM’s products—they were upset that their vast array of IBM products had not been integrated in a way that allowed the client to achieve promised enterprise-wide gains in business effectiveness. Gerstner found a small extant consulting unit—and recast it as IBM Global Services; its goal was to use the new tools to enable no less than total enterprise transformation. In surprisingly short order, Global Services became the dog that wags the tail— a $50 billion++ unit, essentially the world’s largest consultancy, that indeed assists re-imagining/re-inventing/re-positioning their entire firm! (As to the IBM on the slide—the “M”/machine is now more or less secondary.)

UPS to UPS

“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 “It’s all about solutions. We work with customers on creating and running better, stronger, cheaper supply chains.” —Bob Stoffel, UPS senior exec

UPS still has 10s of thousands of trucks, but it is also becoming a major provider of integrated logistics services—the future is UPS as master of the all-important supply chain.

IDEO Product Design Product Design Training Innovation Training

The big company examples are readily translatable into the world of smaller firms. IDEO, the peerless product design firm based in Palo Alto, was asked by (big/very big) clients if its legendary approach to creativity could be imported into their firms. The answer was a resounding yes—and IDEO now has a thriving business helping others improve their creative and product development processes.

“The business of selling is not just about matching viable solutions to the customers that require them. It’s equally about managing the change process the customer will need to go through to implement the solution and achieve the value promised by the solution. One of the key differentiators of our position in the market is our attention to managing change and making change stick in our customers’ organization.” —Jeff Thull, The Prime Solution: Close the Value Gap, Increase Margins, and Win the Complex Sale

AND THE WINNERS AREN’T/ARE
367 367

-1/+1/2

Source: Richard Foster (via Rita McGrath/HBR/12.26.13
S&P 500 +1/-1* *Every … 2 weeks! Source: Richard Foster (via Rita McGrath/HBR/

I was flabberghasted by this. The S&P 500 defines the USA economy
I was flabberghasted by this. The S&P 500 defines the USA economy. The BIGGEST of the BIG guys. And yet one drops off the list … EVERY 2 WEEKS. Wow!

“I am often asked by would-be entrepreneurs seeking escape from life within huge corporate structures, ‘How do I build a small firm for myself?’ The answer seems obvious … Source: Paul Ormerod, Why Most Things Fail: Evolution, Extinction and Economics 371 371 371

“I am often asked by would-be entrepreneurs seeking escape from life within huge corporate structures, ‘How do I build a small firm for myself?’ The answer seems obvious: Buy a very large one and just wait.” —Paul Ormerod, Why Most Things Fail: Evolution, Extinction and Economics 372 372 372

“Mr. Foster and his McKinsey colleagues collected detailed performance data stretching back 40 years for 1,000 U.S. companies. They found that 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 373 373

“Data drawn from the real world attest to a fact that is beyond our control: EVERYTHING IN EXISTENCE TENDS TO DETERIORATE.” —Norberto Odebrecht, Education Through Work 374 374

Big company performance is, shall we say, problematic
Big company performance is, shall we say, problematic. (I could provide a hundred more equally compelling slides.)

AND THE WINNERS AREN’T/ARE
376 376

Roll Out the RED Carpet!

(Joel Resnick/Flemington NJ)
THE RED CARPET STORE (Joel Resnick/Flemington NJ) 378 378

My favorite company. Provide the red carpet for the Oscars, etc. , etc
My favorite company. Provide the red carpet for the Oscars, etc., etc., etc. They dominate/own their niche. Cool. VERY cool.

Basement Systems Inc. (Larry Janesky/Seymour CT)
*Basement Systems Inc. (Larry Janesky/Seymour CT) *Dry Basement Science (100,000++ copies!) *1990: $0; 2003: $13M; : $80,000,000

Mr. Basement … and has the patents & profits to prove it.
Larry Janesky turns damp moldy basements into dry storage areas, family rooms, etc. He is … Mr. Basement … and has the patents & profits to prove it.

W.A. Coppins Ltd.* (Coppins Sea Anchors/ PSA/para sea anchors)
The Magicians of Motueka (PLUS)! W.A. Coppins Ltd.* (Coppins Sea Anchors/ PSA/para sea anchors) *Textiles, 1898; thrive on “wicked problems” —e.g., U.S. Navy STLVAST (Small To Large Vehicle At Sea Transfer); custom fabric from W. Wiggins Ltd./Wellington (specialty nylon, “Dyneema,” from DSM/Netherlands)

Grooves on … “wicked problems.”
Motueka, New Zealand, is a peanut-sized town. (Very near where I live in the winter.) But it sports best-in-world in the high-value-added business of sea anchors. Clients include the U.S. Navy and the Norwegian government. Grooves on … “wicked problems.” (I organized a keynote speech to New Zealand’s business and government leaders around W.A. Coppins—an exemplar of global business “domination” in a small corner of a small country.)

Going “Social”: Location and Size Independent
“Today, despite the fact that we’re just a little swimming pool company in Virginia, we have the most trafficked swimming pool website in the world. Five years ago, if you’d asked me and my business partners what we do, the answer would have been simple, ‘We build in-ground fiberglass swimming pools.’ Now we say, ‘We are the best teachers … in the world … on the subject of fiberglass swimming pools, and we also happen to build them.’” —Jay Baer, Youtility: Why Smart Marketing Is About Help, Not Hype

A small swimming pool firm takes to social media with a vengeance and becomes a major (world) force in its market space.

“BE THE BEST. IT’S THE ONLY MARKET THAT’S NOT CROWDED.”
From: Retail Superstars: Inside the 25 Best Independent Stores in America, George Whalin 386 386

I LOVE this sentence —and LOVE the firms that embody it.

Retail Superstars: Inside the 25 Best Independent Stores
in America —by George Whalin

JUNGLE JIM’S INTERNATIONAL MARKET, FAIRFIELD, OH:
“An adventure in ‘shoppertainment,’ begins in the parking lot and goes on to 1,600 cheeses and 1,400 varieties of hot sauce—not to mention 12,000 wines priced from $8-$8,000 a bottle; all this is brought to you by 4,000 vendors. Customers from every corner of the globe.” BRONNER’S CHRISTMAS WONDERLAND, FRANKENMUTH, MI, POP 5,000: 98,000-square-foot “shop” features 6,000 Christmas ornaments, 50,000 trims, and anything else you can name pertaining to Christmas. …”

Incredible. I give this book to accountants and lawyers and anyone I can buttonhole. It amount to 25 acts of unparalleled imagination—that define excellence and differentiation. (In, often as not, out of the way corners of the world—or, at least, the USA.) I repeat: I LOVE THESE FOLKS.

Micro-niche Dominators!
I love … Middle-sized Niche- Micro-niche Dominators! "Own" a niche through EXCELLENCE! (Writ large: Germany’s MITTELSTAND)

Forget the giants. (More or less
Forget the giants. (More or less.) Economic excellence is largely built more upon a hearty base of middle-sized superstars. Such a group, called the Mittelstand, are the source of Germany’s astounding/ sustaining export excellence. (Until recently, the world’s #1 exporter.)

MITTELSTAND* *“agile creatures darting between the legs of the multinational monsters” (Bloomberg BusinessWeek) 393

3. There are no other rules.
Michael Raynor and Mumtaz Ahmed’: THE THREE RULES: How Exceptional Companies Think*: 1. Better before cheaper. 2. Revenue before cost. 3. There are no other rules. (*From a database of over 25,000 companies from hundreds of industries covering 45 years, they uncovered 344 companies that qualified as statistically “exceptional.”) Jeff Colvin, Fortune: “The Economy Is Scary … But Smart Companies Can Dominate”: They manage for value—not for EPS. They keep developing human capital. They get radically customer-centric.

“‘Commodity’ is a state of mind
“‘Commodity’ is a state of mind. ANYTHING can be DRAMATICALLY differentiated.”

Truth in Numbers

Where the +201,000 new private-sector jobs came from … 51% Small firms 41% Medium-sized* 8% Big Source: ADP National Employment Report/March *E.g., German MITTELSTAND

The Future Is Small: Why AIM Will Be the World’s Best Market Beyond the Credit Boom —Gervais Williams, superstar fund manager (FT/ : “Research shows that new and small companies create almost all the new private sector jobs and are disproportionately innovative.”)

and Businesspersons All
Entrepreneurs and Businesspersons All

*PSF/ Professional Service Firm (See my …
WHITE-COLLAR SURVIVAL STRATEGY #1: Department as Smallish/Entrepreneurial BUSINESS E.g.: Training Inc., a 14-person unit* in a 50-person HR department in a $200M business unit in a $3B corporation—aiming for Excellence & WOW! *PSF/ Professional Service Firm (See my … Professional Service Firm 50: Fifty Ways to Transform Your “Department” Into A Professional Service Firm Whose Trademarks Are Passion and Innovation.)

The Professional Service Firm50: Fifty Ways to Transform Your “Department” into a Professional Service Firm Whose Trademarks Are Passion and Innovation!

Think back to the discussion of the extraordinary technology change engulfing us—and, now, its likely impact on high-end white collar jobs. I believe there is an escape path, a route to not only survival, but flourishing. I first wrote about this in my 1999 book, Professional Service Firm 50: Fifty Ways to Transform Your “Department” Into A Professional Service Firm Whose Trademarks Are Passion and Innovation. The idea: CONVERT EVERY “DEPARTMENT”/“UNIT” (and yourself) INTO A FULL-FLEDGED … “PSF”/ PROFESSIONAL SERVICE FIRM … WHOLLY DEDICATED TO EXCELLENCE & WOW & ADDING SKYSCRAPING VALUE TO THEIR CUSTOMERS’ (usually internal customers) ACTIVITIES. Hence, TRAINING, INC. (Etc. Etc.) This is one Big Damn Deal.

We forgot that we are entrepreneurs.”
Muhammad Yunus: “All human beings are entrepreneurs. When we were in the caves we were all self-employed finding our food, feeding ourselves. That’s where human history began As civilization came we suppressed it. We became labor because they stamped us, ‘You are labor.’ We forgot that we are entrepreneurs.” —Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Laureate/The News Hour/PBS/ 403

An entrepreneurial flair is not limited to a handful of Mark Zuckerbergs. As micro-lending guru and Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus tells us, virtually all of us who have survived the Darwinian sorting process find that some form of entrepreneurial behavior comes naturally.

Distinct or extinct!

—Cover story/Time/22 May 2000/Tom Peters
Repeat: “I believe that ninety percent of white-collar/“knowledge-work” jobs (which are 80 percent of all jobs) in the U.S. will be either destroyed or altered beyond recognition in the next 10 to 15 years.” —Cover story/Time/22 May 2000/Tom Peters

Advanced high-speed algorithm? Robot?
Circa 2013+: Multiple Choice Examination You will you lose your job to; choose one … Offshore contractor? Advanced high-speed algorithm? Robot? A re-tooled value-added “Brand You”? Source: Derived primarily from Dan Pink

STAND OUT. GROW. Circa 2014: Brand YOU. Fabulous at … something.
Or … STAND DOWN. No other options. GROW. Or … DIE (professionally).

“The ecosystem used to funnel lots of talented
people into a few clear winners. Now it’s funneling lots of talented people into lots of experiments.” —Tyler Willis, business developer, to Nathan Heller in “Bay Watched: How San Francisco’s New Entrepreneurial Culture Is Changing the Country,” The New Yorker,

We’re beginning to “get it.”

“The average age of a startup founder is 40
“The average age of a startup founder is 40. And high-growth startups are nearly twice as likely to be launched by people over 55 as by people ” —Vivek Wadhwa, Kauffman foundation (Time/ )

Wow. (I.e., not just a youngster’s game.)

“The growth and success of women-owned businesses is one of the most profound changes taking place in the business world today.” —Margaret Heffernan, How She Does It

Under-attended lynchpin of the New Entrepreneurial Age?!

LEADERSHIP 415 415

Not a “theory of leadership” by any means
Not a “theory of leadership” by any means. Just a few ideas to ponder—and, I hope in some cases, implement.

25 417 417

“I’m always stopping by our stores— at least 25 a week
“I’m always stopping by our stores— at least 25 a week. I’m also in other places: Home Depot, Whole Foods, Crate & Barrel. I try to be a sponge to pick up as much as I can.” —Howard Schultz Source: Fortune, “Secrets of Greatness” 418

Managing By Wandering Around
420 420

The MBWA idea—in touch management—was the signature of In Search of Excellence.

3K/5M Source: Mark McCormack
422

3,000 miles for a 5-minute face-to -face meeting
423

“Decisions are made by those who show up.”
Glib But TRUE “Decisions are made by those who show up.” —Aaron Sorkin

“IT’S ALWAYS SHOWTIME.” —
425 425

“IT’S ALWAYS SHOWTIME.” —David D’Alessandro, Career Warfare

“Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm.” —Samuel Taylor Coleridge
427

“I am a dispenser of enthusiasm
“I am a dispenser of enthusiasm.” —Ben Zander, symphony conductor and management guru 428

“A man without a smiling face must not open a shop.” —Chinese Proverb
429

BE EXPLICIT! HIRE FOR IT! PROMOTE FOR IT!
430

1 431 431

You = Your calendar* *The calendar NEVER lies.
432 432

YOUR CALENDAR KNOWS PRECISELY WHAT YOU REALLY CARE ABOUT. DO YOU????
433

Your priorities are revealed in your allocation of time.
PERIOD.

“Dennis, you need a … ‘TO-DON’T ’ List !”
435

A good friend-entrepreneur has an idea a minute—and damned if they’re not all good! But to move the next step in his enterprise, namely rolling his program out to a wide audience in dozens of locations, focus is required. His closest advisor, a former CEO of a big company, told my pal (I was there) that the key was … managing his “To-don’ts.” Amen! For my friend Dennis! For me! For you! 436

ONE thing at a time.” —Peter Drucker
“If there is any ONE ‘secret’ to effectiveness, it is concentration. Effective executives do first things first … and they do ONE thing at a time.” —Peter Drucker 437 437

Just say “No” to “our five strategic priorities.”
One’ll do it. Two’s a pipedream. (Per Mr. Drucker—not a bad guide.)

Monday Morning — 439 439

Monday/Tomorrow/Courtesy NFL: “Script” your first 5-10 “plays. ” (I. e
Monday/Tomorrow/Courtesy NFL: “Script” your first 5-10 “plays.” (I.e., carefully launch the day/week in a purposeful fashion.) 440

441 441

“Every year, for 25 years, is a startup
“Every year, for 25 years, is a startup. For that matter, every event is a start up. No customers. Not one single satisfied customer! I take nothing for granted.” —Jose Salibi Neto* *Only person to push Peter Drucker around! Radio City Music Hall!

#1 CEO Failing? 443 443 443

pick one failing of CEOs, it’s
“If I had to pick one failing of CEOs, it’s that … —Co-founder of one of the largest investment services firms in the USA/world

“If I had to pick one failing of CEOs, it’s that … they don’t read enough.”

Wow. AND: Well worth considering. (I.e., pause and reflect on this. PLEASE.) (FYI: I agree.) (The quote comes from someone who is a VERY Big Deal. Short of Warren Buffett, but barely. Speaker not ID’d because remark at a private social dinner.) (Regardless of your job, in 2014 you are either a sterling student. Or … TOAST.)

“In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn’t read all the time — none. Zero. You’d be amazed at how much Warren [Buffett] reads — and how much I read.” —Charlie Munger (#2, Berkshire Hathaway)

4, 8, 12 448 448

“The 4 most important words in any organization are …
449 449

THE FOUR MOST IMPORTANT WORDS IN ANY ORGANIZATION
ARE … “WHAT DO YOU THINK?” Source: courtesy Dave Wheeler, posted at tompeters.com 450 450

MBWA 8: Change the World With EIGHT Words What do you think
MBWA 8: Change the World With EIGHT Words What do you think?* How can I help?** *Dave Wheeler: “What are the four most important words in the boss’ lexicon?” **Boss as CHRO/Chief Hurdle Removal Officer ********************************** 451

Are you a full-fledged “professional” when it
comes to helping?

Helping: (MUCH) easier said than done!
(I.e., a formal skill to be studied and practiced.)

MBWA 12: Change the World With TWELVE Words What do you think
MBWA 12: Change the World With TWELVE Words What do you think?* How can I help?** What have you learned?*** *Dave Wheeler: “What are the four most important words in the boss’ lexicon?” **Boss as CHRO/Chief Hurdle Removal Officer ********************************** ***What (new thing) have you learned (in the last 24 hours)? ********************* * 454

Acknowledgement!

I like the second title slide better than the first.

“The deepest urge in human nature is the desire to be important
“The deepest urge in human nature is the desire to be important.” —John Dewey (In Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People (“The BIG Secret of Dealing With People”) 458

"Appreciative words are the most powerful force for good on earth.”
—George W. Crane, physician, columnist “The two most powerful things in existence: a kind word and a thoughtful gesture.” —Ken Langone, co-founder, Home Depot 459

“Acknowledge” … perhaps the most powerful word (and idea) in the English language—and manager’s tool kit! 460

“Employees who don't feel significant rarely make significant contributions.” —Mark Sanborn
461

“People want to be part of something larger than themselves
“People want to be part of something larger than themselves. They want to be part of something they’re really proud of, that they’ll fight for, sacrifice for, trust.” —Howard Schultz, Starbucks 462

Acknowledgement PLUS

—Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Respect
“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 college president. HE WAS SERIOUSLY INTERESTED IN WHO YOU WERE AND WHAT YOU HAD TO SAY.” —Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Respect 464

“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.” —Dale Carnegie 465

the most important person in
“When I left the dining room after sitting next to Gladstone, I thought he was the cleverest man in England. But when I sat next to Disraeli I left feeling I was the cleverest person.” —Jennie Jerome (WSCs American mother) “When you are talking to [Bill Clinton], you feel like he doesn’t care about anything or or anybody else around but you. He makes you feel like the most important person in the room.” —Mark Hughes, screenwriter, Forbes blogger

“Leadership is about how you make people feel—about you, about the project or work you’re doing together, and especially about themselves.” —Betsy Myers, Take the Lead: Motivate, Inspire, and Bring Out the Best in Yourself and Everyone Around You

I attended a memorial service for one of my great mentors, the generally acclaimed #1 leadership guru (and extraordinary humanist) Warren Bennis. About 15 of his friends and colleagues spoke—myself included. It was eerie: We each said the same thing, albeit in slightly different words. Warren made you feel clever—and at the center of his universe. This ability may be the effective leader’s most valuable attribute when it comes to engaging the mind and heart and soul and energy of others.

3* (*Repeat) 469 469

*Divorce, loss of a BILLION $$$ aircraft sale, etc., etc.
Relationships (of all varieties): THERE ONCE WAS A TIME WHEN A THREE-MINUTE PHONE CALL WOULD HAVE AVOIDED SETTING OFF THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL THAT RESULTED IN A COMPLETE RUPTURE.* *Divorce, loss of a BILLION $$$ aircraft sale, etc., etc. 470 470

(Make that: SHOULD Rock)
Meetings ROCK! (Make that: SHOULD Rock) 471 471

are what you (boss/leader) do!
Complain all you want, but meetings are what you (boss/leader) do! 472

Meetings are #1 thing bosses do
Meetings are #1 thing bosses do. Therefore, 100% of those meetings: EXCELLENCE. ENTHUSIASM. ENGAGEMENT. LEARNING. TEMPO. WORK-OF-ART. DAMN IT. 473

No kidding. Think about it. PLEASE.

Prepare for a meeting/every meeting as if your professional life and legacy depended on it.
It does. 475

18 476 476

*Source: Jerome Groopman, How Doctors Think
“The doctor interrupts after …* *Source: Jerome Groopman, How Doctors Think 477 477

Harvard Med School doc Jerome Groopman tells us that the patient is the doctor’s best source of evidence about the patient’s problem. Period. Then, citing hard-nosed research, Groopman asks, “On average, how long does the patient speak before the doc interrupts … 478

18 … 479 479

18 … seconds! 480 480

My larger point: It ain’t only docs
My larger point: It ain’t only docs! It’s doubtless pretty much all “experts” and bosses!! That is … You. Me. 481

(An obsession with) Listening is ... the ultimate mark of Respect.
Listening is ... the heart and soul of Engagement. Listening is ... the heart and soul of Kindness. Listening is ... the heart and soul of Thoughtfulness. Listening is ... the basis for true Collaboration. Listening is ... the basis for true Partnership. Listening is ... a Team Sport. Listening is ... a Developable Individual Skill.* (*Though women are far better at it than men.) Listening is ... the basis for Community. Listening is ... the bedrock of Joint Ventures that work. Listening is ... the bedrock of Joint Ventures that grow. Listening is ... the core of effective Cross-functional Communication* (*Which is in turn Attribute #1 of organization effectiveness.) (cont.) 482 482

When it comes to … SUSTAINABLE COMPARATIVE STRATEGIC ADVANTAGE … there is nothing but nothing but nothing that compares with … EXCELLENCE IN STRATEGIC LISTENING. Period. 483

Suggested Core Value #1: “We are Effective Listeners—we treat Listening EXCELLENCE as the Centerpiece of our Commitment to Respect and Engagement and Community and Growth.” 484 484

LISTEN = “PROFESSION” = STUDY = PRACTICE = EVALUATION = ENTERPRISE VALUE
485

Listening can be studied and practiced to the same extent and in the same fashion as learning to play the piano or cello.

“I always write ‘LISTEN’ on the back of my hand before a meeting.”
Source: Tweet

100 488 488

Leaders: Communications failure …

100%* *Your fault!

Step Up To Creating/ Living/ Maintaining an Effective Culture
491 491

Dominic Barton, MD, McKinsey & Co.: “Culture.”
WSJ/ : “What matters most to a company over time? Strategy or culture? Dominic Barton, MD, McKinsey & Co.: “Culture.”

“Culture precedes positive results
“Culture precedes positive results. It doesn’t get tacked on as an afterthought on the way to the victory stand.” —NFL Hall of Fame Coach Bill Walsh .

Developing and maintaining an effective culture is a hard-nosed task, anything but ephemeral, and is … LEADER JOB ONE.* (*For McKinsey, McKinsey’s clients or the San Francisco 49ers.)

“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 aspect of the game —IT IS THE GAME.” —Lou Gerstner, Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance 495 495

As Mr. Analysis, Lou Gerstner, says in no uncertain terms: Culture issues must be squarely addressed.

“The topic is probably the oldest and biggest debate in Customer service. What is more important: How well you hire, or the training and culture you bring your employees into? While both are very important, 75 percent is the Customer service training and the service culture of your company. Do you really think that Disney has found 50,000 amazing service-minded people? There probably aren’t 50,000 people on earth who were born to serve. Companies like Ritz-Carlton and Disney find good people and put them in such a strong service and training environment that doesn’t allow for accept anything less than excellence.” —John DiJulius, The Customer Service Revolution: Overthrow Conventional Business, Inspire Employees, and Change the World

Hard is Soft. Soft is Hard.

! 499 499

Kevin Roberts’ Credo 1. Ready. Fire. Aim. 2. If it ain’t broke
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 AVOID MODERATION! 500 500

Kevin Roberts is CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide—and a good friend.

“INSANELY GREAT” STEVE JOBS “RADICALLY THRILLING” BMW “ASTONISH ME” SERGEI DIAGHLEV, TO A LEAD DANCER “BUILD SOMETHING GREAT” HIROSHI YAMAUCHI, NINTENDO, TO A SENIOR GAME DESIGNER “MAKE IT IMMORTAL” DAVID OGILVY, TO A COPYWRITER.

“We are crazy. We should do something when people say it is ‘crazy
“We are crazy. We should do something when people say it is ‘crazy.’ If people say something is ‘good’, it means someone else is already doing it.” —Hajime Mitarai, CEO, Canon

0/800/78 504 504

“Normal” = “0 for 800” *There are … ZERO … “normal people” in the history books.
505

“You can’t behave in a calm, rational manner
“You can’t behave in a calm, rational manner. You’ve got to be out there on the lunatic fringe.” — Jack Welch

This 78-year-old aims to do no less than change the world—beginning with changing dramatically the culture of a 2,000+ year old hyper-rigid institution. (And your change agenda?)

*BFO/Blinding Flash of the Obvious
Appendix The 34 BFOs* *BFO/Blinding Flash of the Obvious 509

This Is the (OBVIOUS) Stuff I Care About. Stuff, the Absence of
Which Sends Me Into a … BLIND RAGE. Tom Peters/14 May 2014

NOTE: In 1985, I gave a 2-day seminar to YPO members in Manhattan
NOTE: In 1985, I gave a 2-day seminar to YPO members in Manhattan. As we moved to close, I asked for feedback. Early on, a chap by the name of Manny Garcia got up to speak—Manny, who became a pal, was one of Burger King’s top franchisees. He began, “I really didn’t hear anything new in the two days”—you could have heard my sharp intake of breath from the back row. He continued, “I’d add that this was probably the best seminar I’ve attended in my many years in business.” Huh? “I’d call it a ‘BLINDING FLASH OF THE OBVIOUS.’ We KNOW all these things—but time and again we fail to relentlessly practice them.” In retrospect, I consider Manny’s feedback to be the best I’ve ever gotten. There will be … GUARANTEED … nothing new in the slides in this set. We know putting people REALLY first translates into mid- to long-term growth and maximized profitability. SO WHY DON’T WE DO IT? We know … GREAT TRAINING … pays for itself 100 times over—in business just much as in sports and the arts. SO WHY DON’T WE DO IT? We know a simple “THANK YOU” is the greatest of all motivators. SO WHY DON’T WE DO IT? And on—and on—it goes. Frankly, I am in a rotten mood. If I was preaching rocket science, and people didn’t “get it,” that’d be one thing. But each point in this section amounts to, beyond doubt, a, yes … BLINDING FLASH OF THE OBVIOUS. Damn it! Let’s get a move on! It is indeed obvious, then … NO EXCUSES!

*Blinding Flash(es) of the Obvious
The 34 BFOs* *Blinding Flash(es) of the Obvious

BFO #1: If you (RELIGIOUSLY) help people— EVERY SINGLE PERSON, JUNIOR OR SENIOR, LIFER OR TEMP—grow and reach/exceed their perceived potential, then they in turn will bust their individual and collective butts to create great experiences for Clients—and the “bottom line” will get fatter and fatter and fatter. (ANYBODY LISTENING?) (PEOPLE FIRST = MAXIMIZED PROFITABILITY. PERIOD.) (ANYBODY LISTENING?) (FYI: “People FIRST” message 10X more urgent than ever in the high-engagement “AGE OF SOCIAL BUSINESS.”)

HANDS” GROWTH/ PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT IS … LEADER DUTY #1.
BFO 2: ENABLING “ALL HANDS” GROWTH/ PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT IS … LEADER DUTY #1. (And ALL good things flow there from.)

TRAINING = INVESTMENT #1.
BFO 3: The “CTO”/Chief Training Officer should (MUST! ) be on a par with the CFO/CMO. TRAINING = INVESTMENT #1. (8 of 10 CEOs see training as an “expense,” not an investment/prime asset booster.) ( “Our training courses are so good they make me want to giggle.” “Our trainers are on the same pay scale as our engineers.” ) (In a 45-minute “tour d’horizon” of the enterprise: GUARANTEE 9 of 10 CEOs* [*10 of 10?] wouldn’t once mention training. THAT = DISGRACE.)

AGE 17. AGE 77. 2014: READ & GROW … or wilt.
BFO 4: OUT-READ ‘EM. AGE 17. AGE : READ & GROW … or wilt. (One financial services superstar pegs CEO problem #1: “They don’t read enough.”) STUDENTHOOOD (OBSESSION THEREWITH) (for ALL of us) FOR LIFE! BFO 5: Organizations one & all exist for ONE reason … TO BE OF SERVICE. PERIOD. (And effective leaders in turn are … SERVANT LEADERS. PERIOD.)

BFO 6: The … HEART OF THE MATTER (productivity, quality, service, you name it) … is the typically under-attended … FIRST-LINE BOSS. (Your FULL CADRE of 1st-line bosses is arguably … ASSET #1.) BFO 7: WTTMSW. (Whoever Tries The Most Stuff Wins.) WTTMSASTMSUTFW. (Whoever Tries The Most Stuff And Screws The Most Stuff Up The Fastest Wins.) Practical translation #1: Winning through the Discipline of QUICK PROTOTYPES. READY. FIRE. AIM. Winners: “RELENTLESS EXPERIMENTATION.” “A Bias For Action”: #1 Success Requisite in 1982. “A Bias For Action”: #1 Success Requisite in 2014.

“FAIL. FORWARD. FAST.” Excellence is NOT an “aspiration.”
BFO 8: “Fail faster. Succeed sooner.” “FAIL. FORWARD. FAST.” “Fail. Fail again. Fail better.” “REWARD excellent failures. PUNISH mediocre successes.” Book/Farson: “Whoever Makes The Most Mistakes Wins.” We do NOT “accept”/ “tolerate” failures. WE CELEBRATE FAILURES. BFO 9: Excellence is NOT an “aspiration.” Excellence IS the next 5 minutes. (Or not.)

BFO 10: Enabling change Rule #1: It’s NOT NOT NOT about “vanquishing (‘ignorant’) foes.” It’s ALL ALL ALL about RELENTLESSLY seeking & recruiting & nurturing … ALLIES. BFO 11: The Gospel of “SMALL WINS.” You and your Allies cobble together a skein of successful trials (“small wins”); momentum around this portfolio of demos more important than any high-investment Big Victory. (ALLLIES + SMALL WINS + MOMENTUM = UNSTOPPABLE.)

BFO 12: Year = 220 LUNCHES. WASTE NOT ONE
BFO 12: Year = 220 LUNCHES. WASTE NOT ONE. Cross-functional SNAFUs #1 problem for most orgs. Software … WILL NOT … fix it. ONLY … “Social Stuff” works—e.g., makin’ pals in other functions; LUNDH = Strategy #1. Goal: XFX/Cross-Functional Excellence … or die trying. Requisite: DAILY/RELENTLESS ATTENTION & ALL-HANDS-ALL-THE-TIME ENGAGEMENT.

CULTURE is … MORE IMPORTANT.
BFO 13: In Search of Excellence in 6 words: “Hard is soft. Soft is Hard.” (E.g., Numbers are the “soft stuff”—witness the crash. Solid relationships/ integrity/trust/teamwork = True “hard stuff.”) Strategy is important. Systems are important. CULTURE is … MORE IMPORTANT. (Serious change = Tackling the culture. PERIOD.) (In his autobiography, even “Mr. Analysis,” Lou Gerstner, IBM turnaround CEO, reluctantly acknowledged culture’s unequivocal primacy in the big-change-game.)

BFO 14: We Are What We Eat = WE ARE WHO WE HANG OUT WITH
BFO 14: We Are What We Eat = WE ARE WHO WE HANG OUT WITH. (“Hang out with ‘cool’ and thou shalt become more cool. Hang out with ‘dull’ and thou shalt become more dull.”) RELIGIOUSLY-CONSCIOUSLY MANAGE “HANG OUT.” EVERY “hang out decision” (employees/customers/ vendors/consultants/lunch mates/board composition/ locale/etc.) is a … STRATEGIC INNOVATION DECISION. (Diversity [ON ANY DIMENSION YOU CAN NAME] is an imperative in confusing times.) (Hire for … CURIOSITY. EXPLICITLY.)

BFO 15: Apple market cap surpasses Exxon Mobil.
Why? D-E-S-I-G-N. Are YOU obsessed by … DESIGN? (In EVERY nook and cranny of EVERY tiny or humongous enterprise—and in your own professional affairs.) (DESIGN is an instinctive STATE OF MIND as well as a set of practices.) (Less than EXCELLENCE in functionality = Unacceptable.) (Less than SUPER-COOL aesthetics = Unacceptable.) BFO 16: LBT/TGR MULTIPLIER POWER. Ceaselessly seek the LBTs/ Little BIG Things. “Small stuff” … BIG Impact: Walmart increases (mere) shopping basket size, small appliance sales up 50%. Reducing TGWs/Things Gone Wrong invaluable. BUT … put at least as much effort into remorselessly accumulating TGRs/THINGS GONE RIGHT. (E.g. Disney’s OBSESSION with a memorable Start & Finish courtesy … PARKING LOT EXCELLENCE.)

WOMEN ARE THE MOST EFFECTIVE LEADERS.
BFO 17: WOMEN BUY EVERYTHING. WOMEN ARE THE MOST EFFECTIVE LEADERS. WOMEN ARE THE MOST SUCCESSFUL INVESTORS. (Does your organization … UNMISTAKABLY … reflect these immutable truths from stem to stern?) (“This will be the women’s century.” —Dilma Rousseff, president of Brazil, opening address U.N. General Assembly) BFO 18: KEEP ADDING VALUE. IBM To IBM: Machine dominance to Business Services dominance. UPS to UPS: delivering Parcels to Managing Logistics Systems. (EVERYONE’s game: “Customer SATISFACTION” to “Systemic customer SOLUTIONS”)

BFO 19: Forget B-I-G. (100% of biggies UNDER-perform long-term
BFO 19: Forget B-I-G. (100% of biggies UNDER-perform long-term.) Instead build national wealth around … “MITTELSTAND” companies—MIDSIZE SUPERSTAR NICHE-/MICRO-NICHE DOMINATORS—in ANY category you can name. (C.f., Germany’s Mittelstand worldbeaters—#1 global exporter for years.) (Battle cry: “BE THE BEST. IT’S THE ONLY MARKET THAT’S NOT CROWDED.” WHY ELSE BOTHER?) (FYI: ANYTHING/EVERYTHING subject to MIND-BOGGLING ADDED-VALUE/ DIFFERENTIATION. (BANISH the word … “commodity.”)

BFO 20: The problem is RARELY the problem
BFO 20: The problem is RARELY the problem. The lackluster RESPONSE to the problem is invariably the real problem. Answer? Slavishly adhere to these two response commandments: LIGHTENING-FAST RESPONSE OVERKILL. UNEQUIVOCAL QUICK-TIME APOLOGY. BFO 21: What do people (MOST) desire—including thee and me? ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. So: Show your appreciation … BIG TIME/ALL THE TIME. (Track it … RELIGIOUSLY!) (“Acknowledgement” is … THE MOST POWERFUL WORD IN THE LEADER’S VOCABULARY.) BFO 22: The two most powerful words in the English language are? No contest: “THANK YOU.” (ACT ACCORDINGLY—e.g., OBSESSIVELY.)

BFO 23: Have you done your MBWA/ Managing By Wandering Around … TODAY
BFO 23: Have you done your MBWA/ Managing By Wandering Around … TODAY? If not, why not? (Hint: There are … ZERO ACCEPTABLE EXCUSES.) BFO 24: Your CALENDAR knows your TRUE priorities. Do YOU? You … ARE … your calendar. Your calendar … NEVER LIES. (Drucker: Best bosses do ONE thing at a Time) BFO 25: What is the individual’s/organization’s #1 enduring strategic asset? Easy: ASSET #1 = INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE EXCELLENCE AT … L-I-S-T-E-N-I-N-G. (Listening can be … TAUGHT. Listening PER SE is a … PROFESSION. Are YOU a “stellar professional listener”? THINK ABOUT IT. PLEASE.)

LEADERSHIP is about … MASTERING DISCREET SKILLS.
BFO 26: LEADERSHIP is not about ABSTRACTIONS. LEADERSHIP is about … MASTERING DISCREET SKILLS. E.g.: “Aggressive ‘professional’ listener.” Meetings as leadership opportunity #1. Creating a “civil society.” Expert at “helping.” (Helping “professional.”) Expert at holding productive conversations. Fanatic about clear communications. Fanatic about training. Master of appreciation/acknowledgement. Effective at apology. Creating a culture of automatic helpfulness by all to all. Presentation excellence. Conscious master of body language. Master of hiring. (Hiring “professional”) Master of evaluating people. Avid practitioner of MBWA/Managing By Wandering Around. Avid student of the process of influencing others per se. Student of decision-making/devastating impact of irrational aspects thereof. Creating a no-nonsense execution culture. Meticulous about employee development/100% of staff. Student of the power of “d”iversity (all flavors of difference). Aggressive in pursuing gender balance. Making team-building excellence everyone’s daily priority. Understanding value of matchless 1st-line management.

BFO 27: Aim to make EVERY internal and external experience (PRODUCT/ SERVICE/SYSTEM/EMPLOYEE INTERACTION/CUSTOMER INTERACTION/ COMMUNITY INTERACTION) a … WOW! (WOW = WOW. USE THE “W-WORD” PER SE! E.g., Do 4 out of your Top 5 projects score 8 or above on a 10-point“WOW Scale”? If not, get on it: NOW. TODAY. WITHIN THE HOUR. WOW-ify! WOW Now.)

BFO 28: While on the topic of … WOW:
White collar work is by and large ticketed to fall prey to artificial intelligence/eye-popping algorithms as well as globalization. Stand there and take it on the chin? NO. My answer/1999 book/The Professional Service Firm 50: CONVERT EVERY “DEPARTMENT”/ “UNIT” [AND YOURSELF] INTO A FULL-FLEDGED … “PSF”/PROFESSIONAL SERVICES FIRM … WHOLLY DEDICATED TO … EXCELLENCE & WOW & ADDING SKYSCRAPING VALUE TO THEIR/ YOUR CUSTOMERS’ [USUALLY INTERNAL CUSTOMERS] ACTIVITIES. Why not? There is no good reason not to proceed in this direction within the fortnight!

BFO 29: EVERY DAY PROVIDES A DOZEN (LITERALLY) LEADERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES FOR EVERY ONE OF US. (Every = EVERY. From the most junior—and even the 3-day temp—to the Big Dudes.) GRAB AT LEAST ONE. BFO 30: Circa 2014+: You (me/all of us) totally misunderstand overall econ context if you choose not to start today on … RPD/Radical Personal Development.

Kindness = Repeat business = Profit.
BFO 31: CIVILITY WORKS. CIVILITY PAYS. E.g.: K = R = P. Kindness = Repeat business = Profit. (ONE MORE TIME: “Kindness” is N-O-T “Soft.”)

“EXECUTION IS STRATEGY.”
BFO 32: Most of us/most organizations discount … INTROVERTS. THAT IS A … 1ST ORDER STRATEGIC BLUNDER. (Please read Susan Cain’s book QUIET. It was a no-bull life-changer for me.) BFO 33: Listen (HARD) to my old D.C. boss, Fred Malek: “EXECUTION IS STRATEGY.” (Kelleher/Southwest: “We have a ‘strategic plan.’ DOING THINGS.”) (Welch/GE: “In real life, strategy is actually very straightforward. Pick a general direction … AND IMPLEMENT LIKE HELL.” ) (Charles Munger, Berkshire Hathaway: “Costco figured out the big, simple things and executed with total fanaticism.” ) (Execution: That all-important … “LAST 99 PERCENT.” )

BFO 34: The Works … SEGEW 2014: SERVICE!-ENGAGEMENT!-GROWTH!-EXCELLENCE!-WOW! Employees as 1st customers Acknowledgement & Respect Commitment to Personal Growth & Training-to-Die-For Engagement Work Worth Doing Peerless 1st-line Leadership Cadre Committed to Employee Growth MBWA Obsession Seamless Cross-functional Excellence 360-degree “Social” Engagement Inside & Outside the Firm Co-creation of Everything A Moral Service Ethos (Each other/Vendors/Customers/Customers’ Customers/Communities) An Ethos of Helping (“On the Bus” or “Off the Bus”) Scintillating Design—Aesthetics & Functionality—Pervades Every Aspect of the Business (Inside & Outside) Provision of Extraordinary Customer (& Employee) Experiences Obsession With TGRs/Things Gone Right Matchless Quality “Services Added”/Extended-Integrated-Partnered Solutions to Broad Customer Needs Relentless Experimentation (“Bias for Action”/Instant Prototyping/ Celebration of “Excellent Failures”/Transparency/ Pursuit of “Multipliers”) JOY! (In All We Do) GROWTH! (In All We Do) WOW! (In All We Do) EXCELLENCE! (In All We Do)

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