Tom Peters’ Y2002: The …

Solutions Imperative

1. It’s the (OUR!) organization, stupid!2. Friction free! 3. No STOVEPIPES!4. “Stovepiping” is a F.O.—Firing Offense.5. ALL on the web! (ALL = ALL.)6. Open access!6. Project Managers rule! (E.g.: Control the purse strings and evals.)7. VALUE-ADDED RULES! (Services Rule.) (Experiences Rule.) (Brand Rules.)8. SOLUTIONS RULE! (We sell SOLUTIONS. Period. We sell PRODUCTIVITY & PROFITABILITY. Period.)9. Solutions = “Our ‘culture.’ ”10. Partner with B.I.C. (Best-In-Class). Period.

11. All functions contribute equally—IS, HR, Finance, Purchasing, Engineering, Logistics, Sales, Etc.12. Project Management can come from any function.13. WE ARE ALL IN SALES. PERIOD.14. We all invest in “wiring” the customer organization.15. WE ALL “LIVE THE BRAND.” (Brand = Solutions. That MAKE MONEY FOR OUR CUSTOMER- PARTNER.)16. We use the word “PARTNER” until we all want to barf!17. We NEVER BLAME other parts of our organization for screw-ups.18. WE AIM TO REINVENT THIS INDUSTRY!19. We hate the word-idea “COMMODITY.”

20. We believe in “High tech, High touch.”21. We are DREAMERS.22. We deliver . (PROFITS.) (CUSTOMER SUCCESS.)23. If we play the “SOLUTIONS GAME” brilliantly, no one can touch us!24. Our TEAM needs 100% I.C.s (Imaginative Contributors). This is the ULTIMATE “All Hands” affair!25. This is a hoot!

The Enemy …

“While everything may

be better, it is also increasingly the same.”

Paul Goldberger on retail, “The Sameness of Things,” The New York Times

“We make over three new product announcements a

day. Can you remember them?

Our customers can’t!”Carly Fiorina

“The ‘surplus society’ has a surplus of

similar companies, employing

similar people, with similar educational backgrounds, working in

similar jobs, coming up with similar

ideas, producing similar things, with

similar prices and similar quality.”

Kjell Nordstrom and Jonas Ridderstrale, Funky Business

“Companies have defined so much

‘best practice’ that they are now more or

less identical.”Jesper Kunde, A Unique Moment

10X/10X

Cut The [Internal] Crap …

Dell’s OptiPlex Facility

Big Job: 6 to 8 hours.(80,000 per day)

Parts Inventory: 100 square feet.

Cisco!

90% of $20B (=$50M/day)Annual savings in service

and support from customer self-management: $550M (P.S.: C.Sat e >> C.Sat h)

Secret Cisco: Community!

Customer Engineer Chat Rooms/Collaborative

Design ($1B “free” consulting) (45,000 customer problems a week solved via

customer collaboration)

The Real “News”: X1,000,000

TowTruckNet.com

Welcome to D.I.Y. Nation: “Changes in business processes will emphasize self service. Your costs as a business

go down and perceived service goes up because

customers are conducting it themselves.” Ray Lane, Oracle

WebWorld = Everything

Web as a way to run your business’s innardsWeb as connector for your entire supply-demand chain Web as “spider’s web” which re-conceives the industry

Web/B2B as ultimate wake-up call to “commodity producers”

Web as the scourge of slack, inefficiency, sloth, bureaucracy, poor customer data

Web as an Encompassing Way of LifeWeb = Everything (P.D. to after-sales)

Web forces you to focus on what you do bestWeb as entrée, at any size, to World’s Best at Everything

as next door neighbor

Message: eCommerce is not a technology play! It is a

relationship, partnership, organizational and

communications play, made possible by new

technologies.

Message: There is no such thing as an effective B2B or

Internet-supply chain strategy in a low-trust,

bottlenecked-communication, six-layer

organization.

“Ebusiness is about rebuilding the organization from the

ground up. Most companies today are not built to exploit the Internet.

Their business processes, their approvals, their hierarchies, the

number of people they employ … all of that is wrong for running an

ebusiness.”

Ray Lane, Kleiner Perkins

Jargon Bath!

Bureaucracy free …Systemically integrated …

Internet intense …Knowledge based …

Time and location free …“Instantly” responsive …

Customer centric …Mass customization enabled.

Translation …

Bureaucracy free = Flat org, no B.S.Systemically integrated = Whole supply chain

tightly wired/ friction freeInternet intense = Do it all via the Web

Knowledge based = Open accessTime and location free = Whenever, wherever

“Instantly” responsive = Speed demonsCustomer centric = Customer calls the shotsMass customization enabled = Every product

and service rapidly tailored to client requirements

“Supply Chain” 2000:

“When Joe Employee at Company X launches his browser, he’s taken to Company X’s personalized

home page. He can interact with the entire scope of Company X’s world – customers, other employees, distributors, suppliers, manufacturers, consultants. The browser – that is, the portal – resembles a My

Yahoo for Company X and hooks into every network associated with Company X. The real trick is that Joe

Employee, business partners and customers don’t have to be in the office. They can log on from a cell phone, Palm Pilot, pager or home office system.”

Red Herring (09.2000)

The Real “New Economy”

“Imagine a chess game in which, after every half dozen moves, the arrangement of the pieces on the board stays the same but the capabilities of the pieces randomly change. Knights now move like bishops, bishops like rooks … Technology does that. It rubs out boundaries that separate industries. Suddenly new competitors with new

capabilities will come at you from new directions. Lowly truckers in brown vans become geeky

logistics experts. …”

Business 2.0 (9-10.2001)

The Real “New Economy”

“Only a few times in history have interaction costs

radically changed—one was the railroads, then the telegraph

and telephone. We’re going through another one right now.”

Jeff Skilling, Enron

“CRM has, almost universally, failed

to live up to expectations.”

Butler Group (UK)

CGE&Y (Paul Cole): “Pleasant

Transaction” vs. “Systemic Opportunity.” “Better job

of what we do today” vs. “Re-think overall

enterprise strategy.”

“There’s no use trying,” said Alice. “One can’t believe impossible things.”

“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was

your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve

believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Lewis Carroll

I’net …

… allows you to dream dreams

you could never have dreamed

before!

Suppose, just suppose, that the Web is a new world we’re just beginning to inhabit. We’re like the earlier European settlers in the United States, living on the

edge of the forest. We don’t know what’s there and we don’t know exactly what we need to do to find out: Do we pack mountain climbing gear, desert wear, canoes, or all three? Of course while the settlers may not have

known what the geography of the new world was going to be, they at least knew that there was a geography. The Web, on the other hand, has no

geography, no landscape. It has no distance. It has nothing natural in it. It has few rules of behavior and fewer lines of authority. Common sense doesn’t hold

here, and uncommon sense hasn’t yet emerged.” David Weinberger, Small Pieces Loosely Joined

A Pitiful Showing …

“Our military structure today is essentially one

developed and designed by Napoleon.”

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

From: Weapon v. Weapon

To: Org structure v. Org structure

Forbes100 from 1917 to 1987: 39 members of the Class of ’17 were alive

in ’87; 18 in ’87 F100; 18 F100 “survivors” underperformed the market

by 20%; just 2 (2%), GE & Kodak, outperformed the market 1917 to 1987.

S&P 500 from 1957 to 1997: 74 members of the Class of ’57 were

alive in ’97; 12 (2.4%) of 500 outperformed the market from 1957 to 1997.

Source: Dick Foster & Sarah Kaplan, Creative Destruction: Why Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the Market

“Good management was the most powerful reason [leading firms] failed to stay atop their industries. Precisely because these firms

listened to their customers, invested aggressively in technologies that would provide their customers more

and better products of the sort they wanted, and because they carefully studied market trends and

systematically allocated investment capital to innovations that promised the best returns, they lost

their positions of leadership.”

Clayton Christensen, The Innovator’s Dilemma

“A pattern emphasized in the case studies in this book is the degree to which powerful competitors not only resist innovative threats, but actually resist all efforts to understand them, preferring to further their positions in

older products. This results in a surge of productivity and performance that may take the old technology to unheard of

heights. But in most cases this is a sign of impending death.”

Jim Utterback, Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation

Forget>“Learn”

“The problem is never how to get new, innovative

thoughts into your mind,

but how to get the old ones out.”

Dee Hock

“Chivalry is dead. The new code of conduct is an active strategy of disrupting the status quo to create an unsustainable

series of competitive advantages. This is not an age of defensive castles, moats and

armor. It is rather an age of cunning, speed and surprise. It may be hard for some to hang up the

chain mail of ‘sustainable advantage’ after so many battles. But hypercompetition, a state in which sustainable advantages are no longer

possible, is now the only level of competition.”

Rich D’Aveni, Hypercompetition: Managing the Dynamics of Strategic Maneuvering

“Acquisitions are about

buying market share. Our challenge is to create markets.

There is a big difference.” Peter Job, CEO, Reuters

7 Rules for Leading/THRIVING in a Recession+

1. It’s ALREADY too late.2. Show up & tell the truth—CREDIBILITY rules.3. Kill with KINDNESS.4. Sharp pencils are imperative—but don’t forget that the CUSTOMER & our TALENT & RISKY INVESTMENTS are still our long-term Bread & Butter.

5. Everything’s different, everything’s the same—it’s the NEW ECONOMY, more than ever, stupid!6. “Use” the trauma to mount the bold initiatives you should have long before mounted: Flux = OPPORTUNITY.7. We’re in a War of Organizational Models—from retail to the Pentagon. IDEAS MATTER MOST.

A White Collar Revolution …

108 X 5vs.

8 X 1= 540 vs. 8 (-98.5%)

The Pincer 5

1. “Destructive” entrepreneurs/ Global Competition

2. “White Collar Robots”

3. THE INTERNET! [E.g.: GM + Ford + DaimlerChrysler]

4. Global Outsourcing [E.g.: India, Mexico]

5. Speed!!

“So what does Drexel’s demise tell us about

Enron? Companies may die (or commit suicide), but ideas—if they’re any good—

survive.” James Surowiecki, The New Yorker

Every job done in W.C.W. is

also done “outside”

…for profit!

Answer: PSF![Professional Service Firm]

Department Head

to …

Managing Partner, HR [IS, etc.] Inc.

“P.S.F.”: Summary

H.V.A. Projects (100%)Pioneer Clients

WOW Work (see below)Hot “Talent” (see below)“Adventurous” “culture”

Proprietary Point of View (Methodology)W.W.P.F. (100%)/Outside Clients (25%++)

Model PSF …

(1) Translate ALL departmental activities into discrete W.W.P.F. “Products.”(2) 100% go on the Web.

(3) Non-awesome are outsourced (75%??).

(4) Remaining “Centers of Excellence” are retained & leveraged to the hilt!

Searching for New Bases for Value

Added …

09.11.2000: HP bids

$18,000,000,000for

PricewaterhouseCoopersconsulting business!

“These days, building the best server isn’t enough. That’s the

price of entry.”

Ann Livermore, Hewlett-Packard

HP … Sun … GE … IBM … UPS … UTC …

General Mills … Springs … Anheuser-Busch …

Carpet One … Delphi … Etc. … Etc.

“We want to be the air traffic

controllers of electrons.”

Bob Nardelli, GE Power Systems

“Customer Satisfaction” to “Customer Success”

“We’re getting better at [Six Sigma] every day. But we really

need to think about the customer’s profitability. Are customers’

bottom lines really benefiting from what we provide them?”

Bob Nardelli, GE Power Systems

“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/06.01 (E.g., UPS Logistics

manages the logistics of 4.5M Ford vehicles, from 21 mfg. sites to 6,000 NA dealers)

New Springs = Turnkey

Collections.Flexible sourcing.

Packaging.Merchandising.

Promotion.Systems & Site mgt.

Omnicom: 57% (of

$6B) from marketing services

Who was the number one employer of

architecture school grads in the U.S.

last year?

“VISIONS OF A BRAND-NAME OFFICE EMPIRE. Sam Zell is not a man plagued by self doubt. Mr. Zell controls public

companies that own nearly 700 office buildings in the United States. … Now Mr. Zell says he will

transform the real estate market by turning those REITs into national brands. … Mr. Zell

believes [clients] will start to view those offices as something more than a commodity chosen

chiefly by price and location.” –New York Times (12.16.2001)

Problem: Everybody is going after the same space!

“Assetless Company”

John Bryan, CEO, on selling all Sara Lee’s manufacturing

“Don’t own nothin’ if you can

help it. If you can, rent your

shoes.”F.G.

Better Red than Dead?/Better Dead than Red?

“We will see more and more outsourcing of

discovery processes.”Craig Venter

Better Red than Dead?/Better Dead than Red?

“If we completely outsourced all of our genetic

analysis, we’d be held hostage by outside people.”

Brian Spear, Director of Pharmacogenomics, Abbott Labs

Pfizer: 1,000 projects with academics and biotechs. Novartis:

30% of R&D is via collaborations.

“The move toward outsourced manufacturing represents an obvious

opportunity for contract manufacturers [such

as Flextronics: $93M to $15B, ’93-’00], but it’s also a potential boon to product innovation. The

future of gadget-making is not about making gadgets; it’s about imagining them.

Someone else makes the imaginary real. ‘All that money that used to go to fund infrastructure is going into design and

innovation,’ says Flex CEO Michael Marks.”Wired/11.2001

Markets to networks. Hierarchies to networks. Sellers and buyers to suppliers and users.

Ownership to access. (Age of Access.) Marginalization of physical property. Weightless

economy. Protean generation. Outsourcing of everything. Franchising of everything. (Business format franchising.) (Leasing DNA.) Everything is a service/platform for services delivery. (Give away

the goods, charge for the services. VALUE = THE RELATIONSHIP. “Share of market” to “Share of

customer.”) Every business is show business.

Source: Jeremy Rifkin, The Age of Access

“It” Adds Up to an “Experience” …

“Experiences are as distinct from services as services are from

goods.”Joseph Pine & James Gilmore, The Experience Economy:

Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage

“The [Starbucks] Fix” Is on …

“We have identified a ‘third place.’ And I really believe that sets us apart. The third place is

that place that’s not work or home. It’s the place our

customers come for refuge.”Nancy Orsolini, District Manager

Experience: “Rebel Lifestyle!”

“What we sell is the ability for a 43-year-old accountant to dress in black leather, ride

through small towns and have people be afraid of him.”

Harley exec, quoted in Results-Based Leadership

The “Experience Ladder”

Experiences Services

Goods Raw Materials

1940: Cake from flour, sugar (raw materials economy): $1.00

1955: Cake from Cake mix (goods economy): $2.00

1970: Bakery-made cake (service economy): $10.00

1990: Party @ Chuck E. Cheese (experience economy) $100.00

Message:

“Experience” is the

“Last 80%”

P.S.: “Experience” applies to all work!

1940: Cake from flour, sugar (raw materials economy): $1.00

1955: Cake from Cake mix (goods economy): $2.00

1970: Bakery-made cake (service

economy): $10.001990: Party @ Chuck E. Cheese

(experience economy) $100.00

Bob Lutz: (1) “I see us as being in the art business. Art,

entertainment and mobile sculpture, which, coincidentally,

also happens to provide transportation.” (2) Focus groups

can be misleading. (“What did you like about that movie

you just saw? Was there enough violence? Was the car chase long

enough?”) (3) Design must be Priority No. 1.

Source: NYT 10.19.01

Renaissance Man/Woman Emerges …

New World of Work

< 1 in 10 F500#1: Manpower Inc.

Freelancers/I.C.: 16M-25MTemps: 3M (incl. CEOs & lawyers)

Microbusinesses: 12M-27MTotal: 31M-55M

Source: Daniel Pink, Free Agent Nation

“The fundamental unit of the new economy is not the corporation, but the individual. Tasks aren’t assigned and controlled through a stable chain of command but are carried out autonomously by

independent contractors - e-lancers - who join together in fluid and temporary networks to sell goods and services. When the job is done, the network dissolves and its members become independent again, circulating through the economy, seeking the next assignment.”

Thomas Malone and Robert Laubacher

“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

Minimum New Work SurvivalSkillsKit2001

MasteryRolodex Obsession (vert. to horiz. “loyalty”)

Entrepreneurial InstinctCEO/Leader/Businessperson/Closer

Mistress of ImprovSense of Humor

Intense Appetite for TechnologyGroveling Before the Young

Embracing “Marketing”Passion for Renewal

Brand You, Big Time!

I AM AN ARMY OF

ONE

Message: Distinct … or Extinct.

Work That Matters [WOW

Flavor] …

“Reward excellent failures. Punish

mediocre successes.”

Phil Daniels, Sydney exec

Language matters! Wow! BHAG! “Takes

your breath away!”

“Intimidate their [users] imaginations”

… “Where’s the revolution?” –J Allard,

on the Xbox

Your Current Project?

1. Another day’s work/Pays the rent.4. Of value.7. Pretty Damn Cool/Definitely subversive.10. WE AIM TO CHANGE THE WORLD. (Insane!/Insanely Great!/WOW!)

“Learn not to be

careful.”

Photographer Diane Arbus, to her students

He who has the quickest O.O.D.A.

Loops* wins!*Observe. Orient. Decide. Act. /

Col. John Boyd

BOTTOM LINE

The Enemy!

Joe J. Jones Joe J. Jones 1942 – 2001 1942 – 2001

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!

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

Characteristics of the “Also rans”*

“Minimize risk”“Respect the chain of

command”“Support the boss”

“Make budget”

*Fortune, article on “Most Admired Global Corporations”

Sales2001

The Sales25: Great Salespeople …

1. Know the product. (Find cool mentors, and use them.)

2. Know the company.3. Know the customer. (Including the customer’s consultants.) (And especially the “corporate culture.”)4. Love internal politics at home and abroad.5. Religiously respect competitors. (No badmouthing, no matter how provoked.)6. Wire the customer’s org. (Relationships at all levels & functions.)7. Wire the home team’s org. and vendors’ orgs. (INVEST Big Time time in relationships at all levels & functions.) (Take junior people in all functions to client meetings.)

Great Salespeople …

8. Never overpromise. (Even if it costs you your job.) 9. Sell only by solving problems-creating profitable opportunities. (“Our product solves these problems, creates these unimagined INCREDIBLE opportunities, and will make you a ton of money—here’s exactly how.”) (IS THIS A “PRODUCT SALE” OR A WOW-ORIGINAL SOLUTION YOU’LL BE DINING OFF 5 YEARS FROM NOW? THAT WILL BE WRITTEN UP IN THE TRADE PRESS?)10. Will involve anybody—including mortal enemies—if it enhances the scope of the problem we can solve and increases the scope of the opportunity we can encompass.11. Know the Brand Story cold; live the Brand Story. (If not, leave.)

Great Salespeople …

8. Never overpromise. (Even if it costs you your job.) 9. Sell only by solving problems-creating profitable opportunities. (“Our product solves these problems, creates these unimagined INCREDIBLE opportunities, and will make you a ton of money—here’s exactly how.”) (IS THIS A “PRODUCT SALE” OR A WOW-ORIGINAL SOLUTION YOU’LL BE DINING OFF 5 YEARS FROM NOW? THAT WILL BE WRITTEN UP IN THE TRADE PRESS?)10. Will involve anybody—including mortal enemies—if it enhances the scope of the problem we can solve and increases the scope of the opportunity we can encompass.11. Know the Brand Story cold; live the Brand Story. (If not, leave.)

Great Salespeople …

12. Think “Turnkey.” (It’s always your problem!)

13. Act as “orchestra conductor”: You are responsible for making the whole-damn-network respond. (PERIOD.)

14. Help the customer get to know the vendor’s organization & build up their Rolodex.15. Walk away from bad business. (Even if it gets you fired.)

16. Understand the idea of a “good loss.” (A bold effort that’s sometimes better than a lousy win.)17. Think those who regularly say “It’s all a price issue” suffer from rampant immaturity & shrunken imagination.18. Will not give away the store to get a foot in the door. 19. Are wary & respectful of upstarts—the real enemy.20. Seek several “cool customers”—who’ll drag you into Tomorrowland.

Great Salespeople …

21. Use the word “partnership” obsessively, even though it is way overused. (“Partnership” includes folks at all levels throughout the supply chain.)22. Send thank you notes by the truckload. (NOT E-NOTES.) (Most are for “little things.”) (50% of those notes are sent to those in our company!) Remember birthdays. Use the word “we.” 23. When you look across the table at the customer, think religiously to yourself: “HOW CAN I MAKE THIS DUDE RICH & FAMOUS & GET HIM-HER PROMOTED?” 24. Great salespeople can affirmatively respond to the query in an HP banner ad: HAVE YOU CHANGED CIVILIZATION TODAY?25. Keep your bloody PowerPoint slides simple!

The V.A./Solutions Imperative = The Talent

Imperative …

“When land was the scarce resource, nations battled

over it. The same is happening now for talented people.”

Stan Davis & Christopher Meyer, futureWEALTH

“The leaders of Great Groups love talent and know where to find it. They revel in

the talent of others.”Warren Bennis & Patricia Ward Biederman,

Organizing Genius

Model 25/8/53: Sports Franchise GM

From “1, 2 or you’re out” [JW] to …

“Best Talent in each industry segment to build

best proprietary intangibles” [EM]

Source: Ed Michaels, War for Talent (05.17.00)

Message: Some people are better than other

people. Some people are a helluva lot better than other

people.

“Diversity defines the health and wealth of nations in a new century.

Mighty is the mongrel. … The hybrid is hip. The impure, the mélange, the adulterated, the

blemished, the rough, the black-and-blue, the mix-and-match – these people are inheriting

the earth. Mixing is the new norm. Mixing trumps isolation. It spawns creativity,

nourishes the human spirit, spurs economic growth

and empowers nations.”

G. Pascal Zachary, The Global Me: New Cosmopolitans and the Competitive Edge

“AS LEADERS, WOMEN RULE: New Studies find that female managers

outshine their male counterparts in almost

every measure”Title, Special Report, Business Week, 11.20.00

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

The Cracked Ones Let in the Light

“Our business needs a massive transfusion of talent, and talent, I believe, is most likely to be found

among non-conformists, dissenters and rebels.”

David Ogilvy

“Are there enough weird people in

the lab these days?”V. Chmn., pharmaceutical house, to a lab director (06.01)

V.A. = “Freakiness” …

Saviors-in-Waiting

Disgruntled CustomersOff-the-Scope Competitors

Rogue EmployeesFringe Suppliers

Wayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision: Beat the Competition by Focusing on Fringe Competitors, Lost Customers, and Rogue Employees

CUSTOMERS: “Future-defining customers may

account for only 2% to 3% of your total, but they represent a crucial

window on the future.”Adrian Slywotzky, Mercer Consultants

COMPETITORS: “The best swordsman in the world doesn’t need to fear

the second best swordsman in the world; no, the person for him to be afraid of is some ignorant antagonist who has never had a

sword in his hand before; he doesn’t do the thing he ought to do, and so the expert isn’t

prepared for him; he does the thing he ought not to do and often it catches the expert out and

ends him on the spot.”

Mark Twain

Employees: “Are there enough weird

people in the lab these days?”

V. Chmn., pharmaceutical house, to a lab director (06.01)

Suppliers: There is an ominous downside to strategic supplier

relationships. An SSR supplier is not likely to function as any more than a mirror to your organization. Fringe suppliers that offer innovative business practices need

not apply.”

Wayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision: Beat the Competition by Focusing on Fringe Competitors, Lost Customers, and Rogue Employees

WEIRD IDEAS THAT WORK: (1) Hire slow learners (of the organizational code). (1.5) Hire people who make you

uncomfortable, even those you dislike. (2) Hire people you (probably) don’t need. (3) Use job interviews to get ideas, not

to screen candidates. (4) Encourage people to ignore and defy superiors and peers. (5) Find some happy people and get them to fight. (6) Reward success and failure, punish inaction.

(7) Decide to do something that will probably fail, then convince yourself and everyone else that success is certain. (8) Think of

some ridiculous, impractical things to do, then do them. (9) Avoid, distract, and bore customers, critics, and anyone who just wants to talk about money. (10) Don’t try to learn anything from people who seem to have solved the problems you face.

(11) Forget the past, particularly your company’s success.

Bob Sutton, Weird Ideas that Work: 11½ Ideas for Promoting, Managing and Sustaining Innovation

The GM/VC “model” of

leadership.

The Top Creators of Shareholder Value

Accept depressed earnings for several quarters to support hot productExpense rather than capitalize new venture costs

Bonuses without caps

Source: Fortune (09.17.201)

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. 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.”

V.A./Solutions

Imperative = The Brand!

“Brand Promise” Exercise: (1) Who Are WE? (poem/novella/song, then 25

words.) (2) List three ways in which we are UNIQUE … to our Clients.

(3) Who are THEY (competitors)? (ID, 25 words.)

(4) List 3 distinct “us”/“them” differences. (5) Try “results” on your teammates. (6) Try ’em on a friendly Client. (7) Try ’em on a

skeptical Client!

1st Law Mktg Physics: OVERT BENEFIT (Focus: 1 or 2 > 3 or 4/“One Great Thing.” Source #1: Personal Passion)

2ND Law: REAL REASON TO BELIEVE (Stand & Deliver!)

3RD Law: DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE (Execs Don’t Get It:

See the next slide.)

Source: Jump Start Your Business Brain, Doug Hall

2 Questions:

“How likely are you to purchase this new product or service?” (95% to 100% weighting by execs)

“How unique is this new product or service?” (0% to 5%*)

*No exceptions in 20 years – Doug Hall, Jump Start Your Business Brain

The Heart of Branding …

“WHO ARE WE?”

WHAT’S OUR

STORY?

DO THE HOUSEKEEPERS & CLERKS “BUY

IT”? [ARE YOU V-E-R-Y SURE?]

“EXACTLY HOW ARE WE

DRAMATICALLY DIFFERENT?”

“ WHY DOES IT MATTER TO

THE CLIENT?”

“EXACTLY HOW DO I PASSIONATELY CONVEY THAT

DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE TO THE

CLIENT ”

The …

Solutions Imperative (Redux) …

1. It’s the (OUR!) organization, stupid!2. Friction free! 3. No STOVEPIPES!4. “Stovepiping” is a F.O.—Firing Offense.5. ALL on the web! (ALL = ALL.)6. Open access!6. Project Managers rule! (E.g.: Control the purse strings and evals.)7. VALUE-ADDED RULES! (Services Rule.) (Experiences Rule.) (Brand Rules.)8. SOLUTIONS RULE! (We sell SOLUTIONS. Period. We sell PRODUCTIVITY & PROFITABILITY. Period.)9. Solutions = “Our ‘culture.’ ”10. Partner with B.I.C. (Best-In-Class). Period.

11. All functions contribute equally—IS, HR, Finance, Purchasing, Engineering, Logistics, Sales, Etc.12. Project Management can come from any function.13. WE ARE ALL IN SALES. PERIOD.14. We all invest in “wiring” the customer organization.15. WE ALL “LIVE THE BRAND.” (Brand = Solutions. That MAKE MONEY FOR OUR CUSTOMER- PARTNER.)16. We use the word “PARTNER” until we all want to barf!17. We NEVER BLAME other parts of our organization for screw-ups.18. WE AIM TO REINVENT THIS INDUSTRY!19. We hate the word-idea “COMMODITY.”

20. We believe in “High tech, High touch.”21. We are DREAMERS.22. We deliver . (PROFITS.) (CUSTOMER SUCCESS.)23. If we play the “SOLUTIONS GAME” brilliantly, no one can touch us!24. Our TEAM needs 100% I.C.s (Imaginative Contributors). This is the ULTIMATE “All Hands” affair!25. This is a hoot!