Re-imagine!

Passion & Purpose

07.13.2004

“If there is nothing very special about

your work, no matter how hard you apply yourself, you won’t get noticed, and that

increasingly means you won’t get paid much either.”

Michael Goldhaber, Wired

“Self-reliance never comes ‘naturally’ to adults because they have been so

conditioned to think non-authentically that it feels wrenching to do otherwise. … Self Reliance is a last resort to which a person is driven in desperation only when he or

she realizes ‘that imitation is suicide, that he must take himself for better, for worse,

as his portion.’ ” —Lawrence Buell, Emerson

The Rule of Positioning

“If you can’t describe your position in eight

words or less, you don’t have a position.”

— Jay Levinson and Seth Godin, Get What You Deserve!

“Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must

must not obey the laws too well.” —R. W. Emerson

The greatest dangerfor most of us

is not that our aim istoo high

and we miss it,but that it is

too lowand we reach it.

Michelangelo

“For Marx, the path to social betterment was through collective resistance of the proletariat to the economic injustices of the capitalist system

that produced such misshapenness and fragmentation. For Emerson, the key was to jolt individuals into realizing the untapped power of

energy, knowledge and creativity of which all people, at least in principle, are capable. He too hated all systems of human oppression; but his central project, and the basis of his legacy, was to unchain individual minds.” —Lawrence Buell, Emerson

“Until there is commitment there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts

of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then

providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now!” —Johann Wolfgang

von Goethe

Joe J. Jones Joe J. Jones 1942 – 2003 1942 – 2003

HE WOULDA DONE SOME HE WOULDA DONE SOME REALLY COOL STUFF REALLY COOL STUFF

BUT …BUT … HIS BOSS WOULDN’T LET HIM! HIS BOSS WOULDN’T LET HIM!

T. J. Peters T. J. Peters 1942 – 2---1942 – 2---

HE WAS A PLAYER!HE WAS A PLAYER!

“Nobody gives you power.

You just take it.” —Roseanne

“You are the storyteller of your

own life, and you can create your own

legend or not.” —Isabel Allende

Characteristics of the “Also rans”*

“Minimize risk”“Respect the chain of

command”“Support the boss”

“Make budget”*Fortune, article on “Most Admired Global Corporations”

It is the foremost task—and responsibility—of our generation to

re-imagine our enterprises, private

and public. —from the back cover, Re-imagine!

“Management has a lot to do with answers. Leadership is a function of questions. And the

first question for a leader always is: ‘Who do we

intend to be?’ Not ‘What are we going to do?’ but ‘Who do

we intend to be?’” —Max De Pree, Herman Miller

The Work Matters!“What we do matters to us. Work may not be the most

important thing in our lives or the only thing. We may work because we must, but we still

want to love, to feel pride in, to respect ourselves for what we

do and to make a difference.” —Sara Ann Friedman, Work Matters: Women Talk About Their

Jobs and Their Lives

“When was the last time you asked, ‘What do I want to be?’ ” Sara Ann Friedman, Work Matters

“It’s no longer enough to be a ‘change agent.’ You

must be a change insurgent—provoking,

prodding, warning everyone in sight that

complacency is death.” —Bob Reich

HTSH: Engage!Commit! Engage! Try! Fail! Get up! Try again!

Fail again! Try again! But never, ever stop moving on! Progress for humanity is

engendered by those who join and savor the fray by giving one hundred percent of

themselves to their dreams! Not by those timid souls who remain glued to the sidelines, stifled by tradition, and fearful of losing face or giving

offense to the reigning authorities.

Key words: Commit! Engage! Try! Fail! Persist!

“She made us close our eyes and hear the singers she was passionate about: Roberta

Flack and Aretha Franklin. ‘Listen to the joy in their voices,’ urged Diane. ‘It’s not the words or the music. They sing with such great passion,

such heart and soul. You can feel how the singers love what they’re doing. It’s not just a job to them. If you want to excel at anything,

you must be passionate. Otherwise, why waste your time?’ ”

Source: Lucky Every Day: The Wisdom of Diane Geppi-Aikens, by Chip Silverman)

“How Would You Play Today If You Knew You Could Not Play

Tomorrow”Source: Slogan for Loyola’s lacrosse season, from coach

Diane Geppi-Aikens (Lucky Every Day: The Wisdom of Diane Geppi-Aikens, by Chip Silverman)

“If you ask me what I have come to do in this

world, I who am an artist, I will reply: I am here to live my life out

loud.” — Émile Zola

“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of

arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body—but rather a skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and

loudly proclaiming, ‘Wow, what a ride!’ ” —anon.

“In Tom’s world, it’s always better to try a swan dive and deliver a colossal belly flop than to step timidly off the board while holding your

nose.”—Fast Company /October2003

“I don’t think there’s anything worse than being

ordinary.”American Beauty

“Dream as if you’ll live

forever. Live as if you’ll die today.”

—James Dean

The Re-imagineer’s Credo … or, Pity the Poor Brown*

Technicolor Times demand …Technicolor Leaders and Boards who recruit …

Technicolor People who are sent on …Technicolor Quests to execute …

Technicolor (WOW!) Projects in partnership with …Technicolor Customers and …

Technicolor Suppliers all of whom are in pursuit of …Technicolor Goals and Aspirations fit for …

Technicolor Times.

*WSC

“ ‘It’s only business, not personal’ … IT

ALWAYS IS PERSONAL.”

!

Why Not Excellence?

Measures

–WOW!–Beauty!–Raving Fans!–Impact!

Language matters! Wow! BHAG! “Takes

your breath away!”

“Astonish me!” / S.D.

“Build something great!” / H.Y.

“Immortal!” / D.O.

“Let’s make a dent in the universe.”

Steve Jobs

Cirque du Soleil

The Experience Economy: Work Is

Theatre & Every Business a Stage, Joseph

Pine & James Gilmore

Legacy!

TP: “Your ‘signature’ is not ‘I work for Dow.’ It’s, ‘’I

accomplished [INCREDIBLY COOL PROJECT] while I

was associated with Dow.’”*

*Terms: Signature. Portfolio. Projects. Braggables.

“To Be somebody or to Do something”

BOYD: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War (Robert Coram)

“You can’t behave in a calm, rational

manner. You’ve got to be out there on the lunatic fringe.” — Jack Welch

“Reward excellent failures. Punish

mediocre successes.”

Phil Daniels, Sydney exec

Some Do, Some Don’t

I take an “heroic” (“Great man”) view

of life-history.

“intrepid, unprincipled, reckless, predatory, with

boundless ambition, civilized in externals but

a savage at heart.”

Herman Melville on JPJ: “intrepid, unprincipled,

reckless, predatory, with boundless ambition,

civilized in externals but a savage at heart.” —from Evan

Thomas, John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy

Huh?“Quiet, workmanlike, stoic leaders bring about the big

transformations.”--JC

Huh?“Humility: The Surprise Factor in Leadership … bosses with Gung-

ho Qualities and Charisma May Be Out of Fashion” —Headline/FT/

re JCollins/10.03

WellingtonNelsonDisraeliChurchill

MontgomeryThatcher

“Humble” Pastels?

T. Paine/P. Henry/A. Hamilton/T. Jefferson/B. FranklinA. Lincoln/U.S. Grant/W.T. Sherman

TR/FDR/LBJ/RR/JFKPatton/Monty/Halsey

M.L. King/C. de Gaulle/M. Gandhi/W. ChurchillPicasso/Mozart/Copernicus/Newton/Einstein/Djarassi/Watson

H. Clinton/G. Steinem/I. Gandhi/G. Meir/M. Thatcher E. Shockley/A. Grove/J. Welch/L. Gerstner/L. Ellison/B. Gates/

S. Jobs/S. McNealy/T. Turner/R. Murdoch/W. Wriston A. Carnegie/J.P. Morgan/H. Ford/S. Honda/J.D. Rockefeller/

T.A. Edison Rummy/Norm/Henry/Wolfie

Elizabeth Cady Stanton/Susan B. Anthony/Martha Cary Thomas/Carrie Chapman Catt/Alice Paul/Anna Elizabeth

Dickinson/Arabella Babb Mansfield/Margaret Sanger

“To Hell With Well Behaved … Recently a young

mother asked for advice. What, she wanted to know, was she to do with a 7-year-old who was obstreperous, outspoken, and

inconveniently willful? ‘Keep her,’ I replied. … The suffragettes refused to be polite

in demanding what they wanted or grateful for getting what they deserved.

Works for me.” —Anna Quindlen/Newsweek

“Well-behaved women rarely make history.”

Anita Borg, Institute for Women and Technology

Jim Collins vs. Michael Maccoby

“quiet, workmanlike, stoic”vs.

“larger-than-life leaders”/ “egoists, charmers, risk-takers with big

visions”: Carnegie, Rockefeller, Edison, Ford, Welch, Jobs, Gates

Johannes Kepler: Quiet … humble … stoic??*

*Joshua Gilder & Anne-Lee Gilder, Heavenly Intrigue: Johannes Kepler, Tycho Brahe, and the Murder Behind One of History’s Greatest Scientific Discoveries

“In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder,

bloodshed—and produced Michelangelo, da Vinci and the

Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce

—the cuckoo clock.”Orson Welles, as Harry Lime, in The Third Man

Re-imagine!*1.Empower one and all to vigorously seek WOW! in their work/projects. (Or else.)2. Encourage the entrepreneurial (Brand You) spirit in people of all ages; lead the parade of those aiming to “Free the Cubicle Slaves.”3. Urge education “bureaucrats” (From kindergarten to MBA schools) to emphasize the arts, creativity, entrepreneurial behavior.4. Seek out the bold, the strange, the misfits, the dreamers—and welcome their presence in our midst.5. Drag enthusiasm, passion, Technicolor and bold commitment out of the closet.6. Be a champion for: Women Roar! Women Rule!7. Underscore the importance of/stupendous opportunities associated with the “cool new markets”: women, boomers and geezers, Hispanics, greenies, wellness.8. Dramatically re-orient healthcare from after-the-fact “fixes” to before-the-fact attention to prevention-wellness.9. Nurture the “lesser” “intangibles”—such as design/experiences and innovation—as the prime basis for individual and enterprise success.10. Support Globalization as the best/only—if indeed messy—path to maximum human freedom, security and welfare.11. Fight bureaucratic rigidities, centralization and mindless gigantism to the death.12. Swear by the motto: “Reward excellent failures; punish mediocre successes.”13. Foster a “sense of grace and care” in enterprises and organization-client transactions of all flavors.*Why I get out of bed in the morning/TP/07.12.2004

All You Need to Know About “Strategy”

1. Do you have awesome Talent … everywhere? (“We are the Yankees of home improvement here in Omaha.”) Do you push that Talent to pursue audacious Quests?2. Is your Talent Pool loaded with wonderfully peculiar people who others wouldcall “problems”?3. Is your Board of Directors as cool as your product offerings … and does it have50% (or at least one-third) Women Members?4. Are Innovation and Entrepreneurship your primary aims?5. Do you routinely use hot, aspirational words-terms like “Excellence” and B.H.A.G. (Big Hairy Audacious Goal, per Jim Collins) and “Let’s make a dent in the Universe” (the Word according to Steve Jobs)?6. Do you subscribe to Jerry Garcia’s dictum: “We do not merely want to be the best of the best, we want to be the only ones who do what we do”?7. Do you embrace the new technologies with child-like enthusiasm/revolutionary zeal?8. Do you “serve” customers … or go berserk attempting to provide every customer with an “awesome experience” that automatically turns her/him into a “raving fan”?9. Are your leaders accessible? Do they wear their passion on their sleeves? Is yours a “hot place to hang out” and “learn cool stuff”?10. Does integrity ooze out of every pore of the enterprise? Is “We care” your implicit motto?11. Do you understand business mantra #1 of the ’00s: DON’T TRY TO COMPETE WITH WAL*MART ON PRICE OR CHINA ON COST? (And if you get this last idea, then see the 10 above!)

I = My calendar*

*Period

Importance of Success Factors by Various “Gurus”/Estimates by Tom Peters

Strategy Systems Passion Execution Porter 50% 20 15 15

Drucker 35% 30 15 20

Bennis 25% 20 30 25

Peters 15% 20 35 30

“In all my lectures, I have taught one

doctrine, the infinitude of the

private man.” —R. W. Emerson