LONG
Tom Peters’
Excellence.
Always.
Developing a Culture of Excellence
The Second Annual Leadership Lecture
Abu Dhabi/10 March 2009
To appreciate
this presentation [and ensure
that it is not a mess], you need
Microsoft fonts:
NOTE:
“Showcard Gothic,”
“Ravie,” “Chiller”
and “Verdana”
Enough …
“Too Much Cost, Not Enough Value” … “Too
Much Speculation, Not Enough Investment” …
“Too Much Complexity, Not Enough Simplicity”
… “Too Much Counting, Not Enough Trust” …
“Too Much Business Conduct, Not Enough
Professional Conduct” … “Too Much
Salesmanship, Not Enough Stewardship” …
“Too Much Focus on Things, Not Enough Focus
on Commitment” … “Too Many Twenty-first
Century Values, Not Enough EighteenthCentury Values” … “Too Much ‘Success,’ Not
Enough Character”
—chapter titles from John Bogle,
Enough. The Measures of Money, Business, and Life (Bogle is
founder of the Vanguard Mutual Fund Group)
The 19 Es of
Excellence
If Not Excellence, What?
If Not Excellence Now, When?
The “19 Es” of Excellence
Enthusiasm. (Be an irresistible force of nature!)
Energy. (Be fire! Light fires!)
Exuberance. (Vibrate—cause earthquakes!)
Execution. (Do it! Now! Get it done! Barriers are baloney!
Excuses are for wimps! Accountability is gospel!
Adhere to the Bill Parcells doctrine: “Blame nobody! Expect nothing! Do something!”)
Empowerment.
(Respect and appreciation! Always ask, “What do you think?”
Then: Listen! Liberate! Celebrate! 100% innovators or bust!)
Edginess. (Perpetually dancing at the frontier, and a little or a lot beyond.)
Enraged. (Determined to challenge & change the status quo!)
Engaged. (Addicted to MBWA/Managing By Wandering Around. In touch. Always.)
Electronic. (Partners with the world 60/60/24/7 via electronic community building
and entanglement of every sort. Crowdsourcing/doing power!)
Encompassing. (Relentlessly pursue diverse opinions—the more diversity the merrier! Diversity per se “works”!)
Emotion. (The alpha. The omega. The essence of leadership. The essence of sales.
Empathy.
The essence of marketing. The essence. Period. Acknowledge it.)
(Connect, connect, connect with others’ reality and aspirations! “Walk
in the other person’s shoes”—until the soles have holes!)
Experience.
(Life is theater! Make every activity-contact memorable! Standard:
“Insanely Great”/Steve Jobs; “Radically Thrilling”/BMW.)
Eliminate. (Keep it simple!)
Errorprone. (Ready! Fire! Aim!
Try a lot of stuff and make a lot of booboos and then try some more stuff
and make some more booboos—all of it at the speed of light!)
Evenhanded.
Expectations.
Eudaimonia.
Excellence.
(Straight as an arrow! Fair to a fault! Honest as Abe!)
(Michelangelo: “The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it,
but that it is too low and we reach it.” Amen!)
(Pursue the highest of human moral purpose—the core of Aristotle’s philosophy. Be of service. Always.)
(The only standard! Never an exception! Start now! No excuses! If not Excellence, what?
If not Excellence now, when?)
“You do not merely want to
be the best of the best. You
want to be
considered the
only ones who do
what you do.”
—Jerry Garcia
1982
Excellence1982: The Bedrock “Eight Basics”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
A Bias for Action
Close to the Customer
Autonomy and Entrepreneurship
Productivity Through People
Hands On, Value-Driven
Stick to the Knitting
Simple Form, Lean Staff
Simultaneous Loose-Tight
Properties”
“Breakthrough” 82*
People!
Customers!
Action!
Values!
*In Search of Excellence
Hard Is Soft
Soft Is Hard
Hard Is Soft (Plans, #s)
Soft Is Hard (people,
customers, values,
relationships))
“I am a
dispenser of
enthusiasm.”
—Ben Zander
Insanely
great”
“Radically
thrilling”
BMW
MBWA
“It suddenly
occurred to me …
“It suddenly
occurred to me that
in the space of two
or three hours he
never talked about
cars.” —Les Wexner
Conrad Hilton, at a gala
celebrating his life,
was asked, “What was the
most important lesson
you’ve learned in your long
and distinguished career?”
His immediate answer …
Conrad Hilton, at a gala celebrating his life,
was asked, “What was the most important lesson you’ve learned
in your long and distinguished career?”
His immediate answer:
“remember
to tuck the
shower curtain
inside the
bathtub”
“Execution
is strategy.”
—Fred Malek fffffii
Internal
organizational
excellence =
Deepest “Blue
Ocean”
L(+21) = L(-21)
Leadership(21A.D.) =
Leadership(21B.C.)
2007
Siberia
Why in the
World did you
go to Siberia?
An
emotional, vital, innovative,
joyful, creative,
entrepreneurial endeavor
that elicits maximum
Enterprise* ** (*at its best):
concerted human
potential in the
wholehearted service of
others.**
**Employees, Customers, Suppliers, Communities, Owners, Temporary partners
2007
Sydney
Organizations exist
to serve. Period.
Leaders live to
serve. Period.
… no less than
shrines in
which the full and awesome
power of the Imagination and
Spirit and native
Entrepreneurial flair of
diverse individuals is
unleashed in passionate
pursuit of … Excellence.
“The role of the Director is to create a
space where the actors and
become more
than they’ve ever been
before, more than
they’ve dreamed of
being.”
actresses can
—Robert Altman, Oscar acceptance speech
“We are a
‘Life Success’
Company.”
Dave Liniger, founder, RE/MAX
“You have to
treat your
employees like
customers.”
—Herb Kelleher,
complete answer, upon being asked his “secrets to success”
Source: Joe Nocera, NYT, “Parting Words of an Airline Pioneer,” on the occasion of
Herb Kelleher’s retirement after 37 years at Southwest Airlines (SWA’s pilots union
took out a full-page ad in USA Today thanking HK for all he had done; across the
way in Dallas American Airlines’ pilots were picketing the Annual Meeting)
“The four most important
words in any
organization
‘What do
you think?’ ”
are …
Source: courtesy Dave Wheeler, posted at
tompeters.com, source of original unknown (0609.08)
“The deepest
human need is
the need to be
appreciated.”
William James
“Leaders
‘SERVE’
people.
Period.”
—inspired by Robert Greenleaf
Ben
Changes His
BHAG!*
*Big Hairy Audacious Goal/Collins
“How to flush
$500,000 down
the toilet in one
easy lesson!!”
TP:
< CAPEX
> People!
Our Mission
To develop and manage talent;
to apply that talent,
throughout the world,
for the benefit of clients;
to do so in partnership;
to do so with profit.
WPP
Brand =
Talent.
100 Best Companies to work for/2008
#28/PCL Construction
Enterprises
#37/TD Industries
“Business has to give
people enriching,
rewarding lives,
or it's simply not
worth doing.” —Richard Branson
#1 Truthteller …
You = Your
calendar*
*Calendars
never lie
“I used to have a rule for myself that at any point in
time I wanted to have in mind — as it so happens,
also in writing, on a little card I carried around with
me — the three big things I was trying to get done.
Three.
Not two.
Not four.
Not five.
Not ten.
Three.”
— Richard Haass, The Power to Persuade
“Dennis, you need a …
‘To-don’t ’
List !”
“You must
be
the change you
wish to see in the
world.”
Gandhi
Skip the map
“Mapping your
competitive
position”
or …
1. Have you in the
last 10 days …
visited a
customer?
2. Have you called a
customer … TODAY?
The “Have
you …” 50
Pursuing
Discomfort!
“Do one thing
every day
that scares
you.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt
Kevin Roberts’ Credo
1. Ready. Fire! Aim.
2. If it ain’t broke ... Break it!
3. Hire crazies.
4. Ask dumb questions.
5. Pursue failure.
6. Lead, follow ... or get out of the way!
7. Spread confusion.
8. Ditch your office.
9. Read odd stuff.
10.
Avoid moderation!
“I am often asked by would-be entrepreneurs
seeking escape from life within huge corporate
structures, ‘How do I build a small firm for
Buy
a very large one
and just wait.”
myself?’ The answer seems obvious:
—Paul Ormerod, Why Most Things Fail:
Evolution, Extinction and Economics
“Data drawn from the real world
attest to a fact that is beyond
Everything
in existence tends
to deteriorate.”
our control:
—Norberto Odebrecht, Education Through Work
"...In one study, perceivers are asked to watch a video tape of a
basketball game and they are asked to count the number of times one
team takes possession of the ball. During the film clip, which lasts a
few minutes, a person in a gorilla suit strolls onto the center of the
court, turns and faces the audience and does a little jig. The
gorilla then slowly walks off the court. The remarkable fact is that
perceivers (including this author) do not notice the gorilla. This is an
example of what has been called inattentional blindness...”
Source: http://host.uniroma3.it/progetti/kant/field/hurleysymp_noe.htm
"A demonstration of inattentional blindness goes something like this.
Viewers are asked to monitor three basketball players in white T-shirts
and count the number of times they pass the ball during a video clip.
Thirty-four seconds into this experiment, a person wearing a gorilla
suit walks through the game and even pauses to pound his chest
before moving on. Despite their vigilance, approximately
half
the viewers never see the gorilla. Even after they are told about the
gorilla and shown the video, they refuse to believe it.“
Source: http://www.aquaticsafetygroup.com/perceptions.html
#4 Japan
#2T USA
#2T China
#4 Japan
#3 USA
#2 China
#1 Germany
Reason!!!
Mittelstand
Try it. Try it. Try it
ry it. Try it. Screw
up. Try it. Try it. Try
t. Try it. Try it. Try
t. Try it. Screw it up
t. Try it. Try it. try
“We have a
‘strategic plan.’
It’s called doing
things.”
— Herb Kelleher
Dick ‘n
dan
“We made mistakes, of course. Most of them were
omissions we didn’t think of when we initially wrote the
software. We fixed them by doing it over and over, again
and again. We do the same today. While our competitors
are still sucking their thumbs trying to make the design
perfect, we’re already on prototype version
#5.
By the time our rivals are
ready with wires and screws, we are on version
#10. It gets back to planning
versus acting: We act from day
one; others plan how to plan—
for months.” —Bloomberg by Bloomberg
“Experiment
fearlessly”
Source: BW0821.06, Type A Organization Strategies/
“How to Hit a Moving Target”—Tactic #1
“Fail .
Forward.
Fast.”
High Tech CEO, Pennsylvania
“Reward
excellent failures.
Punish mediocre
successes.”
Phil Daniels, Sydney exec
DECENTRALIZATION.
EXECUTION.
ACCOUTABILITY.
6:15A.M.
Small
is (can often be)
“Design is everything.
Everything is design.”
“We are all designers.”
Inspiration: The Power of Design: A Force for
Transforming Everything, Richard Farson
Behavioral Primacy!
E.g.: plate size;
location of platters,
6.5 feet Away =
-63% “Seconds”
Source: Brian Wansink, Mindless Eating
(20 lbs per year; 200 decisions per day)
Socks = 10K
Seating arrangement
Table shape
Physical arrangements (distance,
co-location, grand or not/Apple)
Geologists/Geophysicists
XFX/Cross-functional Excellence
(meetings, talks, etc)
“The hang out axiom” (“We are
what we eat.”)
See greenery, recover faster (map,
smell of cookies, pianos/
Planetree)
Vary road crossing times/engage
We Are
What We
Eat
We are the
company
we keep
Measure “Strangeness”/Portfolio Quality
Staff
Consultants
Vendors
Out-sourcing Partners (#, Quality)
Innovation Alliance Partners
Customers
Competitors (who we “benchmark” against)
Strategic Initiatives
Product Portfolio (LineEx v. Leap)
IS/IT Projects
HQ Location
Lunch Mates
Language
Board
The “Hang Out Axiom”: At
its core, every (!!!)
relationship-partnership
decision (employee,
vendor, customer, etc)
is a strategic decision
about:
“Innovate,
‘Yes’ or ‘No’ ”
“Diverse groups of problem solvers—groups
of people with diverse tools—consistently
outperformed groups of the best and the
brightest. If I formed two groups, one
random (and therefore diverse) and one
consisting of the best individual performers,
the first group almost always did better. …
Diversity trumped
ability.”
—Scott Page, The Difference: How
the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups,
Firms, Schools, and Societies Diversity
“[CEO A.G.] Lafley has shifted P&G’s
focus on inventing all its own products
others’
inventions at
least half the
time. One successful
to developing
example Mr. Clean Magic Eraser,
based on a product found in an
Osaka market.”
—Fortune
Axiom: Never use a vendor
who is not in the top
quartile (decile?) in
their industry on R&D
spending!*
*Inspired by Hummingbird
“The Billion-man
Research Team:
Companies offering
work to online
communities are
reaping the benefits of
‘crowdsourcing.’”
—Headline, FT, 0110.07
Rob McEwen/CEO/
Goldcorp Inc./
Red Lake
gold
Source: Wikinomics: How Mass
Collaboration Changes Everything,
Don Tapscott & Anthony Williams
“The
Bottleneck Is at
the Top of the Bottle”
“Where are you likely to find people with the least diversity of
experience, the largest investment in the past, and the greatest
reverence for industry dogma:
At the top!”
— Gary Hamel/Harvard Business Review
“What is your most
marked characteristic?”
Vanity Fair:
Mike Bloomberg:
“Curiosity.”
“Who’s the most
interesting person
you’ve met in the
last 90 days? How
do I get in touch
with them?”
—Fred Smith
No “Anger
Management,”
Please!
All You Need to Know About
“Sources of Innovation”:
Angry
people!
[angry with the
status quo]
The “8Ps” of Innovation Success:
Pissed off!
Passion!!!!
Prototypes.
pow!!
Pals.
Protector.
Politics.
Persistence.
[Determined to change the world]
[Persist, take the heat, sell]
[Fast & Furious]
[Insanely great!]
[Buddies with different skills, recruiting ability]
[Run cover, champion your cause]
[Political skill]
[Can handle the bumps and U-turns]
Innovation Index: How many
of your Top 5 Strategic
Initiatives/Key Projects score
8 or higher [out of 10] on a
“Weird”/ “Profound”/
“Wow”/“Game- changer”
Scale?
The
quality and quantity
and imaginativeness
of innovation shall
be the same in all
functions —e.g., in HR and
Iron Innovation Equality Law:
purchasing as much as in marketing or
product development.
X =XFX*
*Excellence = Cross-functional Excellence
Never
waste a
lunch!
????
% XF
lunches*
*Measure!
The “XF-50”: 50 Ways to
Enhance Cross-Functional
Effectiveness and Deliver
Speed, “Service Excellence”
and “Value-added
Customer ‘Solutions’”*
*Entire “XF-50” List is an Appendix to the LONG version of
this presentation, posted at tompeters.com
“Development can help great
but if
I had a dollar to
spend, I’d spend 70
cents getting the
right person in the
door.” —
people be even better—
Paul Russell, Director, Leadership &
Development, Google
the
most important
aspect of business
“In short, hiring is
and yet remains woefully
misunderstood.”
Source: Wall Street Journal, 10.29.08,
review of Who: The A Method for Hiring,
Geoff Smart and Randy Street
#1.
Strategic.
Priority.
Period.
#1 cause of
Dis-satisfaction?
Employee retention & satisfaction:
Overwhelmingly,
based on the firstline manager!
Source: Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman, First, Break All
the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently
2/year =
legacy.
Sea Change
“Forget China,
India and the
Internet: Economic
Growth Is Driven
by
Women.”
—Headline, Economist, April 15, 2006, Leader, page 14
“One thing is certain: Women’s rise to power, which is
linked to the increase in wealth per capita, is happening
in all domains and at all levels of society. Women are no
longer content to provide efficient labor or to be
consumers with rising budgets and more autonomy to
spend. … This is just the beginning. The phenomenon
will only grow as girls prove to be more successful than
For a number of
observers, we have already
entered the age of
‘womenomics,’ the economy as
thought out and practiced
by a woman.”
boys in the school system.
—Aude Zieseniss de Thuin, Financial Times
Tea
Power
Give
good
tea!
“Allied commands depend
on mutual confidence
[and this confidence]
is gained, above all
through the development
of friendships.”
—General D.D. Eisenhower,
Armchair General * (05.08)
*“Perhaps his most outstanding ability [at West Point] was
the ease with which he made friends and earned the trust
of fellow cadets who came from widely varied backgrounds;
it was a quality that would pay great dividends during his
future coalition command.”
“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
Successfu.
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.
THE PROBLEM IS
RARELY/NEVER THE
PROBLEM. THE
RESPONSE TO THE
PROBLEM INVARIABLY
ENDS UP BEING THE
REAL PROBLEM.*
*PERCEPTION IS ALL THERE IS!
“Courtesies of a small and
trivial character are the
ones which strike
deepest in the grateful
and appreciating heart.”
—Henry Clay
“eighty percent
of success is
showing up.”
—Woody Allen
Profitable
“We are
thoughtful
in all we do.”
Thoughtfulness is key to customer retention.
Thoughtfulness is key to employee recruitment
and satisfaction.
Thoughtfulness is key to brand perception.
Thoughtfulness is key to your ability to look in
the mirror—and tell your kids about your job.
“Thoughtfulness is free.”
Thoughtfulness is key to speeding things up—
it reduces friction.
Thoughtfulness is key to transparency and even
cost containment—it abets rather than stifles
truth-telling.
none!
139,380 former
patients from 225 hospitals:
Press Ganey Assoc:
none
of THE top 15 factors
determining Patient Satisfaction
referred to patient’s health outcome
P.S. directly related to Staff Interaction
P.P.S. directly correlated with Employee
Satisfaction
Source: Putting Patients First, Susan Frampton, Laura Gilpin, Patrick Charmel
“Kindness
is free.”
2-cent
candy
Commerce Bank: From “Service” to “Experience”
7X. 730A800P. F12A.
“Experiences
are as distinct
from services as
services are from
goods.”
—Joe Pine & Jim Gilmore, The
Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre & Every Business a
Stage
<TGW
vs.
>TGR
[Things Gone WRONG/Things Gone RIGHT]
Difficult
Times …
“[other]
admirals more
frightened of
losing than
anxious to win”
On NELSON:
-Costs
+R&D
+Sales
+Marketing
Excellence.
Always.
If Not Excellence, What?
If Not Excellence Now, When?
The “19 Es” of Excellence
Enthusiasm. (Be an irresistible force of nature!)
Energy. (Be fire! Light fires!)
Exuberance. (Vibrate—cause earthquakes!)
Execution. (Do it! Now! Get it done! Barriers are baloney!
Excuses are for wimps! Accountability is gospel!
Adhere to the Bill Parcells doctrine: “Blame nobody! Expect nothing! Do something!”)
Empowerment.
(Respect and appreciation! Always ask, “What do you think?”
Then: Listen! Liberate! Celebrate! 100% innovators or bust!)
Edginess. (Perpetually dancing at the frontier, and a little or a lot beyond.)
Enraged. (Determined to challenge & change the status quo!)
Engaged. (Addicted to MBWA/Managing By Wandering Around. In touch. Always.)
Electronic. (Partners with the world 60/60/24/7 via electronic community building
and entanglement of every sort. Crowdsourcing/doing power!)
Encompassing. (Relentlessly pursue diverse opinions—the more diversity the merrier! Diversity per se “works”!)
Emotion. (The alpha. The omega. The essence of leadership. The essence of sales.
Empathy.
The essence of marketing. The essence. Period. Acknowledge it.)
(Connect, connect, connect with others’ reality and aspirations! “Walk
in the other person’s shoes”—until the soles have holes!)
Experience.
(Life is theater! Make every activity-contact memorable! Standard:
“Insanely Great”/Steve Jobs; “Radically Thrilling”/BMW.)
Eliminate. (Keep it simple!)
Errorprone. (Ready! Fire! Aim!
Try a lot of stuff and make a lot of booboos and then try some more stuff
and make some more booboos—all of it at the speed of light!)
Evenhanded.
Expectations.
Eudaimonia.
Excellence.
(Straight as an arrow! Fair to a fault! Honest as Abe!)
(Michelangelo: “The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it,
but that it is too low and we reach it.” Amen!)
(Pursue the highest of human moral purpose—the core of Aristotle’s philosophy. Be of service. Always.)
(The only standard! Never an exception! Start now! No excuses! If not Excellence, what?
If not Excellence now, when?)
Excellence.
Always.
If not Excellence,
what?
If not Excellence
now, when?
The greatest danger
for most of us
is not that our aim is
too high
and we miss it,
but that it is
too low
and we reach it.
Michelangelo