Tom Peters’

RevGov2001*

*Revolutionary Government/11.15.2001

WE NEED …

IDEAS!

“There will be more

confusion in the business world in the next decade than in any decade in history. And the current pace of

change will only accelerate.”Steve Case

Uncertainty: We don’t know when things will get back

to normal.

Ambiguity: We no longer know what “normal”

means.

BMcC: (1) Hierarchy vs. “Network organization.” (2)

NWO = “Doctrine as center of gravity”/source of motivation;

distributed support & decision-making;largely self-organizing; “outside the military sphere.”

“Our military structure today is essentially one

developed and designed by Napoleon.”

Admiral Bill Owens, former Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff

“In an era when terrorists use satellite

phones and encrypted email, US gatekeepers stand armed against them with pencils

and paperwork, and archaic computer systems that don’t

talk to each other.”Boston Globe (09.30.2001)

From: Weapon v. Weapon

To: Org structure v. Org structure

Ideas > Leadership

NO: “Good gov’t”

YES: EFFECTIVE Gov’t (in altered/ambiguous

times)

A Plea for “virtual

[RESPONSIVE] government”

Agile.

WALLS MUST FALL!

The W.O.G. (Work-of-

Government): Insta- Targeted

WPTs (WOW (B.H.A.G.)

Project Teams (with

clout) )

Experiments rule!

Failures rule!

Talent matters!

New Heroes/Hall of Fame

IS/IT to the Max!

Streamlined

procurement (esp. IS/IT)

Tomorrow’s Organizations:

Itinerant Potential Machines

TALENT POOL TO DIE FOR. Youthful. Insanely energetic. Value creativity. Risk taking is

routine. Failing is normal … if you’re stretching. Want to ‘make their bones” in “the

revolution.”Love the new technologies. Well rewarded. Don’t plan to be around 10 years from

now.

TALENT POOL PLUS. Seek out and work with “world’s best” as needed (it’s often needed). “We

aim to change the world, and we need gifted colleagues—who well may not be on our

payroll.”

BRASSY-BUT-GROUNDED-LEADERSHIP. Say “I don’t know”—and then unleash the TALENT.

Have a vision to be DRAMATICALLY DIFFERENT—but don’t expect the co. to be around forever. Will scrap pet projects, and change course 180

degrees—and take a big write-off in the process. NO REGRETS FROM SCREW-UPS WHOSE TIME

HAS NOT-YET-COME. GREAT REGRETS AT TIME & $$$ WASTED ON “ME TOO” PRODUCTS

AND PROJECTS.

BRASSY-BUT-GROUNDED-LEADERSHIP. (Cont.) “Visionary” leaders matched by leaders with

shrewd business sense: “HOW DO WE TURN A PROFIT ON THIS GORGEOUS IDEA?”

Appreciate “market creation” as much as or more than “market share growth.” ARE

INSANELY AWARE THAT MARKET LEADERS ARE ALWAYS IN PRECARIOUS POSITIONS,

AND THAT MARKET SHARE WILL NOT PROTECT US, IN TODAY’S VOLATILE WORLD,

FROM THE NEXT KILLER IDEA AND KILLER ENTREPRENEUR. (Gates. Ellison. Venter.

McNealy. Walton. Skilling. Case. Etc.)

ALLIANCE MANIACS. Don’t assume that “the best resides within.” WORK WITH A SHIFTING ARRAY OF STATE-OF-THE-ART PARTNERS

FROM ONE END OF THE “SUPPLY CHAIN” TO THE OTHER. Including vendors and

consultants and … especially … PIONEERING CUSTOMERS … who will “pull us into the

future.”

TECHNOLOGY-NETWORK FANATICS. Run the whole-damn-company, and relations with all

outsiders, on the Internet … at Internet speed. Reluctant to work with those who don’t share

this (radical) vision.

POTENTIAL MACHINES-ORGANISMS. Don’t know what’s coming next. But are ready to jump at opportunities, especially those that challenge-overturn our own “way of doing

things.”

P.S.: The CONSTITUTION matters! (Life, liberty & the pursuit of

happiness—and the Bill of Rights)

REPRESENTATIVE GOV’T matters. (Filter the worst of mass

sentiments—Hobbes rules)

Case: Bill Owens … Lifting the Fog

of War

“The 1990s was a decade of multiple revolutions—political, economic, technological—that

changed so thoroughly the way we live that the past no longer seems a good guide to the future (in fact the past seems precisely the wrong

guide). So it is in the world of military affairs. The RMA is our opportunity to use the new information technology to change the very nature of the military—in a way that could

reinvigorate American political, diplomatic and economic leadership in the world for decades to

come.” –Bill Owens, Lifting the Fog of War

“Our military is very good at doing things as they are supposed to be done, but it is not always good at changing the way things ought to be done. Highly

professional militaries can be very good at maintaining the institution’s traditions, mores and

cultures in the face of rapid and important change. … Equating professionalism with automatically defending the status quo can be disastrous.

This is the mindset that drives service loyalties toward narrow parochialism, and congeals organizations into brittle shells. We end up

ignoring opportunities that could actually offer higher military effectiveness.” –Bill Owens,

Lifting the Fog of War

“How dare you. If you don’t support us, our opponents will take

advantage and use this to cut the force.” –CNO staffer

[Flag officer] to Bill Owens, 6th Fleet Commander

“Mike [Boorda’s] self-avowed priority was to preserve and protect the size, budget and

structure of the U.S. Navy—his Navy—irrespective of any other consideration—

because he deeply believed that the Navy was the core of America’s military capability. My

view over the years had shifted toward the conviction that we in the Navy need to implement major changes in order to

become more joint—to work better and more closely with the other services.”

–Bill Owens, Lifting the Fog of War

“Many flaws remained—flaws not from poor performance, but from an ingrained command

hierarchy and an outmoded concept of war that had taken root during World War II and then during the cold war. Desert Storm was a joint

military operation in name rather than in fact. … The battlefield was divided among service components. …

The fiefdoms existed not only because of tradition, service rivalry and the egos of the commanders; they were also there because of technological limitations.

We did not have the communications capability to do it differently.” –Bill Owens, Lifting the Fog of War

“Once devised in Riyadh, the tasking order took hours to get to the Navy’s six aircraft carriers—because the

Navy had failed years earlier to procure the proper communications gear that would have connected the

Navy with its Air Force counterparts. … To compensate for the lack of communications capability, the Navy was forced to fly a daily cargo mission from

the Persian Gulf and Red Sea to Riyadh in order to pick up a computer printout of the air mission tasking

order, then fly back to the carriers, run photocopy machines at full tilt, and distribute the documents to the air wing squadrons that were planning the next

strike.” –Bill Owens, Lifting the Fog of War

“By combining powerful computer technology and other

modern information-based systems we could make a

revitalized, leaner military force that is designed to outsee,

outmaneuver and outfight any foe.” --Bill Owens, Lifting the Fog of War

RMA: (1) Battlespace awareness. (2) C4I.

(Command, control, communications, computers &

intelligence.) (3) Precision force use.

“[The RMA] means creating a synergy in new weapons, sensors and communications that is made

possible by the successful melding of the technological

applications with an information-age military organization.” –Bill Owens,

Lifting the Fog of War