A Passion for Passion: The Motivational Speech Tom Peters/12June04

1. A Passion for Passion:The Motivational SpeechTom Peters/12June04

2. Setting the Scene

3. “Uncertainty is the only thing to be sure of.”—Anthony Muh,head of investment in Asia, Citigroup Asset Management“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.”—General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff, U. S. Army

4. 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

5. 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

6. “I’m not comfortable unless I’m uncomfortable.”—Jay Chiat

7. “If things seem under control, you’re just not going fast enough.”Mario Andretti

8. A Bias for Action

9. The Kotler Doctrine:1965-1980: R.A.F.(Ready.Aim.Fire.)1980-1995: R.F.A.(Ready.Fire!Aim.)1995-????: F.F.F.(Fire!Fire!Fire!)

10. “We have a ‘strategic’ plan. It’s called doing things.”— Herb Kelleher

11. “When assessing candidates, the first thing I looked for was energy and enthusiasm for execution. Does she talk about the thrill of getting things done, the obstacles overcome, the role her people played—or does she keep wandering back to strategy or philosophy?”—Larry Bossidy, Honeywell/AlliedSignal, in Execution

12. Fail. Forward. Fast.

13. Sam’s Secret #1!

14. “Fail faster. Succeed sooner.”David Kelley/IDEO

15. Fail. Forward. Fast.–High-tech Exec

16. “Rewardexcellentfailures. Punish mediocre successes.”Phil Daniels, Sydney exec (and, de facto, Jack)

17. Seek Out Weird!

18. Saviors-in-WaitingDisgruntled CustomersOff-the-Scope CompetitorsRogue EmployeesFringe SuppliersWayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision: Beat the Competition by Focusing on Fringe Competitors, Lost Customers, and Rogue Employees

19. 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

20. 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

21. “To grow, companies need to break out of a vicious cycle of competitive benchmarking and imitation.”—W. Chan Kim & Rene Mauborgne, “Think for Yourself —Stop Copying a Rival,” Financial Times/08.11.03

22. “The short road to ruin is to emulate the methods of your adversary.”— Winston Churchill

23. Employees: “Are thereenoughweirdpeoplein the lab these days?”V. Chmn., pharmaceutical house, to a lab director (06.01)

24. We become who we hang out with!

25. Innovation Source No. 1*: PPPs/Personally Pissed-off People“Branson started Virgin Atlantic because flying other airlines was so dreadful.” —Fortune/05.13.2002*And there is no No. 2!

26. Innovation Index: How many of your Top 5 Strategic Initiatives score 7 or higher (out of 10) on a “Weirdness/Profundity Scale”?

27. I Don’t Know!

28. “Ninety percent of what we call ‘management’ consists of making it difficult for people to get things done.” – P.D.

29. “I don’t know.”

30. Quests!

31. “Firms will not ‘manage the careers’ of their employees. They will provide opportunities to enable the employee to develop identity and adaptability and thus be in charge of his or her own career.” Tim Hall et al., “The New Protean Career Contract”

32. Organizing Genius / Warren Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman“Groups become great only when everyone in them, leaders and members alike, is free to do his or her absolute best.”“The best thing a leader can do for a Great Group is to allow its members to discover their greatness.”

33. Leaders-Teachers Do Not “Transform People”!Instead leaders-mentors-teachers (1) provide a contextwhich is marked by (2)access to a luxuriant portfolio of meaningful opportunities(projects) which (3) allow people to fully(and safely, mostly—caveat: “they” don’t engage unless they’re “mad about something”)express their innate curiosity and (4) engage in a vigorous discovery voyage(alone and in small teams, assisted by an extensive self-constructed network) by which those people (5) go to-create places they(and their mentors-teachers-leaders)had never dreamed existed—and then the leaders-mentors-teachers (6)applaud like hell, stage “photo-ops,” and ring the church bells 100 times to commemorate the bravery of their “followers’ ” explorations!

34. “I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.”—Ralph Nader

35. Brand You, Big Time!I AM AN ARMY OF ONE

36. Doing Leadership

37. “Warren, I know you want to ‘be’ president. But do you want to ‘do’ president?”

38. 33 Division Titles. 26 League Pennants. 14 World Series: Earl Weaver—0. Tom Kelly—0. Jim Leyland—0. Walter Alston—1AB. Tony LaRussa—132 games, 6 seasons. Tommy Lasorda—P, 26 games. Sparky Anderson—1 season.

39. “Leaders don’t ‘want to’ win. Leaders ‘need to’ win.”#49

40. “It is no use saying ‘We are doing our best.’ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.”—WSC

41. “ToDon’t”List

42. Best Talent Wins!

43. “14MILLION service jobs are in danger of being shipped overseas”—The Dobbs Report/USN&WR/11.03/re new UCB study

44. “WHAT ARE PEOPLE GOING TO DO WITH THEMSELVES?”—Headline/ Fortune/ 11.03 (“We should finally admit that we do not and cannot know, and regard that fact with serenity rather than anxiety.”)

45. “Over the last decade the biggest employment gains came in occupations that rely on people skills and emotional intelligence and among jobs that require imagination and creativity. … Trying to preserve existing jobs will prove futile—trade and technology will transform the economy whether we like it or not. Americans will be better off if they strive to move up the hierarchy of human talents. That’s where our future lies.”—Michael Cox, Richard Alm and Nigel Holmes/“Where the Jobs Are”/NYT/05.13.2004

46. Age of AgricultureIndustrial AgeAge of Information IntensificationAge of Creation IntensificationSource: Murikami Teruyasu, Nomura Research Institute

47. “When land was the scarce resource, nations battled over it. The same is happening now for talented people.”Stan Davis & Christopher Meyer, futureWEALTH

48. Talent!Tina Brown: “The first thing to do is to hire enough talent that a critical mass of excitement starts to grow.”Source: Business2.0/12.2002-01.2003

49. “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

50. PARC’s Bob Taylor: “Connoisseur of Talent”