Google’s Shocker

1. Google’s Shocker

2. GOOGLE GETS A SURPRISE“Project Oxygen [data from founding in 1998 to 2013] shocked everyone by concluding that, among the eight most important qualities of Google’s top employees, STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics] expertise comes in dead last. The seven top characteristics of success at Google are all soft skills: being a good coach; communicating and listening well; possessing insights into others (including others’ different values and points of view); having empathy toward and being supportive of one’s colleagues; being a good critical thinker and problem solver; and being able to make connections across complex ideas. Those traits sounds more like what gets as an English or theater major than as a programmer. …“Project Aristotle [2017] further supports the importance of soft skills even in high-tech environments. Project Aristotle analyzes data on inventive and productive teams,. Google takes pride in it’s A-teams, assembled with top scientists, each with the most specialized knowledge and able to throw down one cutting-edge idea after another. Its data analysis revealed, however, that the company’s most important and productive ideas come from B-teams comprised of employees that don’t always have to be the smartest people in the room. Project Aristotle shows that that the best teams at Google exhibit a range of soft skills: equality, generosity, curiosity toward the ideas of your teammates, empathy and emotional intelligence. And topping the list: emotional safety. No bullying. …“[Tech] billionaire venture capitalist and ‘Shark Tank’ TV personality Mark Cuban looks for philosophy majors when he’s investing in sharks most likely to succeed.”Source: Valerie Strauss, “The surprising thing Google learned about its employees—and what it means for today’s students” (Washington Post, 20 December 2017)

3. Sir Duffield Upends the Establishment

4. Commerce Bank/Metro Bank:Get ’Em Away From the ATM and Into the Branches (“We want them in our stores.”):7X. 7:30A-8:00P. Fri/12A.7:30AM = 7:15AM.8:00PM = 8:15PM.Source: Source: Source: Vernon Hill, Fans! Not customers. How to Create Growth companies in a No Growth World

5. 2,0000,000 (17,000)

6. The Commerce Bank/Metro Bank Model“COST CUTTING IS A DEATH SPIRAL.OUR WHOLE STORY IS GROWING REVENUE.”“ARE YOU GOING TO COSTCUT YOUR WAY TO PROSPERITY?or …ARE YOU GOING TO SPEND YOUR WAY TO PROSPERITY?” “OVER-INVEST IN OUR PEOPLE, OVER-INVEST IN OUR FACILITIES.” Source: Source: Source: Vernon Hill, Fans! Not customers. How to Create Growth companies in a No Growth World

7. THE EXCELLENCE DIVIDEND:Meeting the Tech Tide with Work That Wows and Jobs That LastTom PetersAuckland Business School/8 March 2018(This presentation/10+ years of presentation slides at tompeters.com; also see our annotated 23-part Monster-Master at excellencenow.com)

8. X95“Remember to tuck the shower curtain inside the bathtub.”

9. Observed closely during Mayo Clinic employment interviews (for renown surgeons as well as others): The frequency of use of“I”or“We.” Source: Leonard Berry & Kent Seltman, chapter 6, “Hiring for Values,” Management Lessons From Mayo Clinic

10. People [REALLY] First

11. 1/4,096:“BUSINESS HAS TO GIVE PEOPLE ENRICHING, REWARDING LIVES … OR IT'S SIMPLY NOT WORTH DOING.” —Richard Branson “What employees experience, Customers will. The best marketing is happy, engaged employees. YOUR CUSTOMERS WILL NEVER BE ANY HAPPIER THAN YOUR EMPLOYEES.” —John DiJulius, The Customer Service Revolution IF YOU WANT STAFF TO GIVE GREAT SERVICE, GIVE GREAT SERVICE TO STAFF.”—Ari Weinzweig, Zingerman’s (Bo Burlingham, Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big)

12. “It may sound radical, unconventional, and bordering on being a crazy business idea. However— as ridiculous as it sounds—joy is the core belief of our workplace. Joy is the reason my company, Menlo Innovations, a customer software design and development firm in Ann Arbor, exists. It defines what we do and how we do it. It is the single shared belief of our entire team.” —Richard Sheridan, Joy, Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love

13. People [REALLY] First:Hiring

14. “The ultimate filter we use [in the hiring process]is that we only hire nice people.… When we finish assessing skills, we do something called ‘running the gauntlet.’ We have them interact with 15 or 20 people, and everyone of them have what I call a ‘blackball vote,’ which means they can say if we should not hire that person. I believe in culture so strongly and that one bad apple can spoil the bunch. There are enough really talented people out there who are nice, you don’t really need to put up with people who act like jerks.” —Peter Miller, CEO Optinose (pharmaceuticals)

15. “We look for ... listening, caring, smiling, saying ‘Thank you,’ being warm.” — Colleen Barrett, former President, Southwest Airlines

16. People [REALLY] First:Training/ Investment #1

17. In the Army, 3-star generals worry about training. In most businesses, it's a “ho-hum” mid-level staff function.

18. People [REALLY] First:1st-Line Bosses/Asset #1

19. If the regimental commander lost most of his 2nd lieutenants and 1st lieutenants and captains and majors, it would be a tragedy. IF HE LOST HIS SERGEANTS IT WOULD BE A CATASTROPHE.The Army and the Navy are fully aware that success on the battlefield is dependent to an extraordinary degree on its Sergeants and Chief Petty Officers. Does industry have the same awareness?

20. People [REALLY] First:Women Rule!

21. “AS LEADERS, WOMEN RULE:New Studies find that female managers outshine their male counterparts in almost every measure”TITLE/ Special Report/ BusinessWeek

22. For One [BIG] Thing … “McKinsey & Company found that the international companies with more women on their corporate boards far outperformed the average company in return on equity and other measures. Operating profit was …56%higher.” Source: Nicholas Kristof, “Twitter, Women, and Power,” NYTimes, 1024.13

23. “Women are rated higher in fully 12 of the 16 competencies that go into outstanding leadership. And two of the traits where women outscored men to the highest degree — taking initiative and driving for results — have long been thought of as particularly male strengths.” —Harvard Business Review/2014

24. Portrait of a Female Investor1. Trade less than men do2. Exhibit less overconfidence—more likely to know what they don’t know3. Shun risk more than male investors do4. Less optimistic, more realistic than their male counterparts5. Put in more time and effort researching possible investments—consider details and alternate points of view6. More immune to peer pressure—tend to make decisions the same way regardless of who’s watching7. Learn from their mistakes8. Have less testosterone than men do, making them less willing to take extreme risks, which, in turn, could lead to less extreme market cyclesSource: Warren Buffett Invests Like a Girl: And Why You Should Too, Louann Lofton, Chapter 2, “The Science Behind the Girl”

25. People [REALLY] First:The Tech Tsunami/The Moral Imperative

26. “Almost half of U.S. jobs are at high risk of computerization over the next 20years, according to Oxford academics Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael A. Osborne.”—CNBC, 9 March 2016 “The intellectual talents of highly trained professionals are no more protected from automation than is the driver’s left turn.”—Nicholas Carr, The Glass Cage: Automation and Us

27. CORPORATE MANDATE #1 2018:Your principal moral obligation as a leader is to develop the skillset, “soft” and “hard,” of every one of the people in your charge (temporary as well as semi-permanent) to the maximum extent of your abilities. The bonus: This is also the#1 mid- to long-term … profit maximization strategy!

28. “The role of the Director is to create a space where the actors and actresses canbecome more than they’ve ever been before, more than they’ve dreamed of being.” —Robert Altman, Oscar acceptance speech

29. 2,0000,000 (17,000)

30. Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast

31. “If I could have chosen not to tackle the IBM culture head-on, I probably wouldn’t have. My bias coming in was toward strategy, analysis and measurement. In comparison, changing the attitude and behaviors of hundreds of thousands of people is very, very hard.Yet I came to see in my time at IBM that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game —IT IS THE GAME.” —Lou Gerstner, Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance

32. SMEs: The Bedrock of Economic Growth, Job Creation, and Excellence

33. S&P 500 +1/-1* *Every …2weeks! Source: Richard Foster (via Rita McGrath/HBR/12.26.13

34. Jim’s Mowing Canada Jim’s Mowing UK Jim’s Antennas Jim’s Bookkeeping Jim’s Building Maintenance Jim’s Carpet Cleaning Jim’s Car Cleaning Jim’s Computer Services Jim’s Dog Wash Jim’s Driving School Jim’s Fencing Jim’s Floors Jim’s Painting Jim’s Paving Jim’s Pergolas [gazebos] Jim’s Pool Care Jim’s Pressure Cleaning Jim’s Roofing Jim’s Security Doors Jim’s Trees Jim’s Window Cleaning Jim’s Windscreens Source: Jim Penman, What Will They Franchise Next? The Story of Jim’s Group

35. JUNGLE JIM’S/“Shoppertainment”: “The props can also be a bit bizarre. Two men’s and women’s Porta Potties situated in the front area of the store look as though they belong on a construction site rather than in a food store. But they are false fronts, and once through the doors, customers find themselves in beautifully appointed restrooms. These creative facilities were recognized as … ‘AMERICA’S BEST RESTROOM’ … in the Sixth Annual competition sponsored by Cintas Corporation, a supplier of restroom cleaning and hygiene products. …” From: Retail Superstars: Inside the 25 Best Independent Stores in America, George Whalin (Jungle Jim’s International Market, Fairfield OH)

36. “BE THE BEST. IT’S THE ONLY MARKET THAT’S NOT CROWDED.” From: Retail Superstars: Inside the 25 Best Independent Stores in America, George Whalin

37. Innovation:WTTMSW+

38. WTTMSW:WhoeverTriesTheMostStuffWins.* *The only thing I’ve learned “for sure” in the last 49 years

39. “Fail. Forward. Fast.”—High Tech CEO, Pennsylvania“Fail faster. Succeed sooner.”—David Kelley/IDEO“REWARD excellent failures. PUNISH mediocre successes.”—Phil Daniels, Sydney exec“Success represents one percent of your work, which results only from the ninety-nine percent that is called failure.”—Soichiro Honda

40. WTTMSASTMSUTFW

41. WHOEVER TRIES THE MOST STUFF AND SCREWS THE MOST STUFF UP THE FASTEST WINS

42. Value Added: Design

43. Design RULES!APPLEmarket cap > Exxon Mobil**10 August 2011

44. “[Nest founder Tony Fadell] admitted, ‘Every business school in the world would flunk you if you came out with a business plan that said, “Oh, by the way, we’re going to design and fabricate our own screws at an exponentially higher cost than it would cost to buy them.”’ BUT THESE AREN’T JUST SCREWS. LIKE THE THERMOMETER ITSELF, THEY’RE BETTER SCREWS, EPIC SCREWS, SCREWS WITH, DARE I SAY IT, DEEPER MEANING. Functionally, they utilize a specific thread pattern that allows them to go into any surface, from wood to plaster to thin sheet metal. And the [custom] screwdriver feels balanced to the hand; it has the Nest logo on it and looks ‘Nest-y,’ just like everything from Apple looks ‘Apple-y.’”—Rich Karlgaard, The Soft Edge

45. Value Added: TGRs

46. Customers describing their service experience as “superior”: 8% Companies describing the service experience they provide as “superior”: 80% —Source: Bain & Company survey of 362 companies, reported in John DiJulius, What's the Secret to Providing a World-class Customer Experience?

47. <TGWand …>TGR[Things Gone WRONG-Things Gone RIGHT]

48. SMALL>> BIG“Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart.”—Henry Clay"Let's not forget that small emotions are the great captains of our lives."–—van Gogh

49. “May I clean your glasses, sir?”

50. Value Added: Two Enormous Underserved Markets