1. Reinventing Business:Audacity and Humility Bruce Eckel Blog @ Reinventing-Business.com Slides on slideshare.net under my name Video will be on web

2. If there were two jobs:1: You get paid a lot,work is not great, orjust OK2: Paid a lot less, workenvironment iswonderful,stimulating, joyful,inspiring Which one wouldyou take? 3. This presentation Different versions onthe web, each reflectmy continuing andrapid evolution onthe subject These are my talkingpoints; images aresometimes just thereto keep youentertained 4. When I Was Young I had some jobswhich made medecide all companieswere terrible 5. So I became an independent consultant, author,speaker, put on seminars and workshops, etc 6. Eight Years on the C++ Standards Committee 7. We learned thatopen-sourcelanguages arealways a betterchoice! 8. www.AtomicScala.com Free First 25%Kindle, ePub, PDF,HTML 9. Magazines Publishedover 150articles inprintmagazines Regularblogging 10. Started to realize There was only so much I coulddo on my own I am a social creature -- I like towork with other people Co-leading seminars is relativelyeasy because it's short andfocused Co-authoring books is at thecomplete opposite end of thatspectrum My disastrous internshipprogram Discovery of open-spaces 11. What If I Need to Do SomethingBigger? 12. How Do we work togetherin better ways? 13. Management 14. Frederick Winslow Taylor For some alternative-universedefinition of "science" One of the first managementconsultants :-( "The Principles of ScientificManagement" is still on manybusiness book "best" listsDespite his charlatanismNobody wants to pull that thread... His gift: the unconscious mindsetthat "People are Lazy and Stupid"Father ofScientificManagement1856-1915 15. Mindset "If you don't have aninnate 'talent', give up"vs: Your Brain is a Muscle 16. 11,000 management books published/year Doesn't even seem to beagreement on that number Motivation: to become amanagement consultant likeFWT The only metric of success in themanagement world is whetherpeople buy it Actual value added to the field ofmanagement: Probably less than.1%I've learned how to make upnumbers just like a real managementconsultant! 17. Books you need to read Before wading intothis morass The ManagementMyth and The HaloEffect Walks you throughthe utter andcompletefabrications in themanagement world 18. "Success" in Management Not science, butstory Tell a happy storyand your book sells Let's look at thethree most popularself-help ... er ...management booksever 19. In Search of Excellence by Peters andWaterman First Mega-blockbustermanagement book First "management"book I ever read 20. For Excellence A bias for action, active decision making'getting on with it'Facilitating quick decision making & problem solvingtends to avoid bureaucratic control Close to the customerLearning from the people served by the business Autonomy and entrepreneurshipFostering innovation and nurturing 'champions' 21. For Excellence (2) Productivity through peopleTreating rank and file employees as a source ofquality Hands-on, value-drivenManagement philosophy that guides everydaypracticeManagement showing its commitment 22. For Excellence (3) Stick to the knittingStay with the business that you know Simple form, lean staffSome of the best companies have minimal HQ staff Simultaneous loose-tight propertiesAutonomy in shop-floor activities plus centralizedvalues 23. A Couple of Years Later... 1/3 of the"excellent"companies were infinancial trouble-- Business Week, "Oops! Who'sExcellent Now?" DEC no longer exists See my "FakeScience" blog post 24. Good To Great (Jim Collins): Level 5 Leadership:Leaders who are humble, but driven to do what's best forthe company First Who, Then What:Get the right people on the bus, then figure out where to goFinding the right people and trying them out in differentpositions Confront the Brutal Facts:The Stockdale paradox:Confront the brutal truth of the situationAt the same time, never give up hope 25. Good To Great (2): Hedgehog Concept:Three overlapping circles:What lights your fire ("passion")?What could you be best in the world at ("best at")?What makes you money ("driving resource")? Culture of Discipline:Rinsing the cottage cheese 26. Good To Great (3): Technology Accelerators:Using technology to accelerate growthWithin the three circles of the hedgehog concept The Flywheel:The additive effect of many small initiativesThey act on each other like compound interest 27. Built to Last (Collins): Preserving a core ideology The BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) concept Owning a cult-like culture Trying new things Refusing the idea of a "great idea" to start acompany Consistent innovation Embracing evolution 28. Halo Effect's Nine Delusions The Halo EffectIf a company is profitable, all the things it's doingmust be good Correlation-Causation fallacyThe foundation of "In Search of Excellence" andothers Single ExplanationsX might improve performance by causing Y 29. Halo Effect's Nine Delusions (2) Connecting the Winning DotsLooking only at successful companies and findingtheir common features (In Search of Excellence)Without comparing them against unsuccessfulcompanies Rigorous ResearchLots of data doesn't make the research valid Lasting SuccessAchievable if only managers will follow theirrecommended approach 30. Halo Effect's Nine Delusions (3) Absolute PerformanceMarket performance is affected by whatcompetitors do as well as what the company itselfdoesA company can do everything right and yet still fallbehind Wrong End of the StickGetting cause the wrong way roundE.g. successful companies have a Corporate SocialResponsibility policy. Should we infer that CSRcontributes to success, or that profitable companieshave money to spend on CSR? 31. Halo Effect's Nine Delusions (4) Organisational PhysicsThe idea that business performance is non-chaoticallydetermined by discoverable factors, sothat there are rules for success out there if only wecan find them(Taylor's idea that business is "science") 32. Net idea: Determinism Two-body problem in physics Three-body problem wasn't solvablein closed form, only computationally Business is a many-body problemBodies with minds of their own Determinism tells a comforting story"Rags to Riches""You're in control of your destiny"People buy that book Even "Evidence-Based Management"expects deterministic behavior 33. It's Not Deterministic Should we give up? There's still somethingthere It's probabilisticThere are tendencies,and if we look at them wecan make our ownserendipityNicholas Taleb's "BlackSwan" and "Antifragile" 34. How to be Successful in Business There's no guaranteeof success, so treateverything as anexperiment Assume mostexperiments will fail Assess the risks oneach experimentMake sure that if theexperiment fails, itwon't take down thewhole enterprise 35. How to be Successful in Business(2) Realize that even if anexperiment issuccessful,environmental (market)conditions might notfavor it Sometimes you willexperience serendipity,when an experimentsucceeds and positivemarket conditionsproduce a popularproduct 36. How to be Successful in Business(3) Thus: Look forexperiments that have avery positive upsidewith a non-disastrousdownside Do as many of theseexperiments as you canmanage Audacity and Humility Fits with Eric Ries "LeanStartup" approach,which is all about howto do experiments 37. BUT ... This doesn't haveanything to do withhappiness in business A financially successfulbusiness is a neccessarycondition, and that's asfar as most companies go(it's a greataccomplishment!) That's not sufficient toproduce a lasting, robustand innovative business 38. Profit You must make aprofit to stay inbusiness That doesn't meanprofit is the reasonto be in business 39. Customer Externally, abusiness is definedby how it serves thecustomer Making employeessuffer doesn't helpthe customer 40. New world In some businesssectors, hiringemployees is reallyhard Google, Facebook,etc. pay more andmore For everyone else, ifyou can't pay youlose 41. Maybe We need to think outside the money box 42. If there were two jobs:1: You get paid a lot,work is not great, orjust OK2: Paid a lot less, workenvironment iswonderful,stimulating, joyful,inspiring Which one wouldyou take? 43. Does #2 even exist? I've visited companiesthat try, but the resultsare fragileUsually change when thecompany "grows up" I've seen companiespitch that they're agreat place to workFree food! Scooter Races!Seems like an afterthoughtUngenuine 44. How Do we even begin tocreate #2? 45. My Manifesto A work in progress Feelings Beliefs Hypotheses Might not beevidentiallysupportable 46. Manifesto (1) Inspiration producesmuch better resultsthan compulsion People want autonomy,mastery, and purpose intheir workBook "Drive" by Dan Pink Transparency producesrobustness and agility inan organizationBeing honest is faster,better and cheaper 47. Manifesto (2) Organizations should beflatterInvert control or remove itwhen possible Prefer goals to controls Your culture IS yourorganizationAlign your culture withyour organizational values(and vice-versa?) 48. Manifesto (3) Practice consistency andenlightened self-interestWhat we say and what wedo are consistentNo trickery or lying istoleratedWe respect everyone:coworkers, customers,vendors, etcActing in the best interest ofthe organization also acts inyour own interest 49. Create This And good people willwant to work for youeven if you can't paymuch Management &associated costs willbe minimizedPeople will want tosustain and maintainthe organization 50. Not Enough Starting an organizationwith those values isn'tenough What happens when itgrows and you start gettingpeople whose valuesconflict?e.g. MBAs are trained tomaximize quarterly profitswithout regard to the impact onthe rest of the company The structure and culturemust be able to push backand maintain its values"Organizational Hierarchy of Needs" 51. Discussion