Could Thoroughly Rotten Times Be The Ultimate Opportunity For Greatness/Excellence?*

1. Could Thoroughly Rotten Times Be The Ultimate Opportunity For Greatness/Excellence?* (*Hint: The Answer May Be/Is “Yes.”) (*Hint: What’s the Alternative?) London/15.01.09

2. “When the seas are calm, all ships alike show mastership in floating.”—WSC* (*with apologies)

3. On NELSON:“[other] admirals more frightened of losing than anxious to win”

4. Tom Peters’ Excellence. Always. Results Group/Auckland/19.02.09

5. NOTE:To appreciate this presentation [and ensure that it is not a mess], you need Microsoft fonts:“Showcard Gothic,”“Ravie,”“Chiller”and“Verdana”

6. 1982

7. Excellence1982: The Bedrock “Eight Basics” 1. A Bias for Action 2. Close to the Customer 3. Autonomy and Entrepreneurship 4. Productivity Through People 5. Hands On, Value-Driven 6. Stick to the Knitting 7. Simple Form, Lean Staff 8. Simultaneous Loose-Tight Properties”

8. “Breakthrough” 82* People! Customers! Action! Values! *In Search of Excellence

9. 2007

10. Why in the World did you go to Siberia?

11. Enterprise* ** (*at its best):An emotional, vital, innovative, joyful, creative, entrepreneurial endeavor that elicits maximum concerted human potential in the wholeheartedservice of others.****Employees, Customers, Suppliers, Communities, Owners, Temporary partners

12. 2007

13. Organizations exist to serve. Period. Leaders live to serve. Period.

14. … no less than Cathedralsin which the full and awesome power of the Imagination and Spirit and native Entrepreneurial flairof diverse individualsis unleashed in passionate pursuit of … Excellence.

15. “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

16. “Leaders‘SERVE’ people. Period.”—inspired by Robert Greenleaf

17. “Business has to give people enriching, rewarding lives, or it's simply not worth doing.”—Richard Branson

18. “Too Much Cost, Not Enough Value” … “Too Much Speculation, Not Enough Investment” … “Too Much Complexity, Not Enough Simplicity” … “Too Much Counting, Not Enough Trust” … “Too Much Business Conduct, Not Enough Professional Conduct” … “Too Much Salesmanship, Not Enough Stewardship” … “Too Much Focus on Things, Not Enough Focus on Commitment” … “Too Many Twenty-first Century Values, Not Enough Eighteenth-Century Values” … “Too Much ‘Success,’ Not Enough Character” —chapter titles from John Bogle, Enough. The Measures of Money, Business, and Life (Bogle is founder of the Vanguard Mutual Fund Group)

19. “Managers have lost dignity over the past decade in the face of wide spread institutional breakdown of trust and self-policing in business. To regain society’s trust, we believe that business leaders must embrace a way of looking at their role that goes beyond their responsibility to the shareholders to include a civic and personal commitment to their duty as institutional custodians. In other words, it is time hat management became a profession.”—Rakesh Khurana & Niin Nohria, “I’s ime To Make Management a True Profession,” HBR/10.08

20. The 19 Es of Excellence

21. If Not Excellence, What? If Not Excellence Now, When? The “19 Es” of Excellence Enthusiasm.(Be an irresistible force of nature!) Energy.(Be fire! Light fires!) Exuberance.(Vibrate—cause earthquakes!) Execution.(Do it! Now! Get it done! Barriers are baloney! Excuses are for wimps! Accountability is gospel! Adhere to the Bill Parcells doctrine: “Blame nobody! Expect nothing! Do something!”) Empowerment.(Respect and appreciation! Always ask, “What do you think?” Then: Listen! Liberate! Celebrate! 100% innovators or bust!) Edginess.(Perpetually dancing at the frontier, and a little or a lot beyond.) Enraged.(Determined to challenge & change the status quo!) Engaged.(Addicted to MBWA/Managing By Wandering Around. In touch. Always.) Electronic.(Partners with the world 60/60/24/7 via electronic community building and entanglement of every sort. Crowdsourcing/doing power!) Encompassing.(Relentlessly pursue diverse opinions—the more diversity the merrier! Diversity per se “works”!) Emotion.(The alpha. The omega. The essence of leadership. The essence of sales. The essence of marketing. The essence. Period. Acknowledge it.) Empathy.(Connect, connect, connect with others’ reality and aspirations! “Walk in the other person’s shoes”—until the soles have holes!) Experience.(Life is theater! Make every activity-contact memorable! Standard: “Insanely Great”/Steve Jobs; “Radically Thrilling”/BMW.) Eliminate.(Keep it simple!) Errorprone.(Ready! Fire! Aim! Try a lot of stuff and make a lot of booboos and then try some more stuff and make some more booboos—all of it at the speed of light!) Evenhanded.(Straight as an arrow! Fair to a fault! Honest as Abe!) Expectations.(Michelangelo: “The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.” Amen!) Eudaimonia.(Pursue the highest of human moral purpose—the core of Aristotle’s philosophy. Be of service. Always.) Excellence.(The only standard! Never an exception! Start now! No excuses! If not Excellence, what? If not Excellence now, when?)

22. “Mr. Watson, how long does it take to achieve Excellence?”

23. “1minute”

24. 76

25. Commerce Bank: From “Service” to “Experience”7X. 730A-800P. F12A.

26. *Commerce/7 days/730A-8P/Midnight Friday/645A.M./2 for “No” *Larry Janesky/Jim Penman/not cool can be very cool *Granite Rock/Cross it off/Wash trucks *Elgin Corrugated Box/Promised vs Delivered *5X/Acquire vs maintain (Higher “market share” current) *Reichheld/One question *Comeback>Perfection *Apologize/“Bedside manner”/Lawsuits *“Thank you”/10 years *Make the call/3 minutes *Listen up/18

27. The Commerce Bank Model“every computer at commerce bank has a specialredkey on it that says, ‘found something stupid that we are doing that interferes with our ability to service the customer? Tell us about it, and if we agree, we will give you $50.’”Source: Fans! Not customers. How Commerce Bank Created a Super-growth Business in a No-growth Industry, Vernon Hill & Bob Andelman

28. 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

29. “Experiences are as distinct from services as services are from goods.”—Joe Pine & Jim Gilmore, The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage

30. The Commerce Bank Model“cost cutting is a death spiral.”Source: Fans! Not customers. How Commerce Bank Created a Super-growth Business in a No-growth Industry, Vernon Hill & Bob Andelman

31. The Commerce Bank Model“over-invest in our people, over-invest in our facilities.”Source: Fans! Not customers. How Commerce Bank Created a Super-growth Business in a No-growth Industry, Vernon Hill & Bob Andelman

32. WallopWal*Mart16**Or: Why it’s so ABSURDLY EASY to BEATa GIANT Company

33. “I am often asked by would-be entrepreneurs seeking escape from life within huge corporate structures, ‘How do I build a small firm for myself?’ The answer seems obvious:Buy a very large one and just wait.”—Paul Ormerod, Why Most Things Fail: Evolution, Extinction and Economics

34. The “Small Guys” Guide: Wallop Wal*Mart16 *Niche-aimed. (Never, ever “all things for all people,” a “mini-Wal*Mart.) *Never attack the monsters head on! (Instead steal niche business and lukewarm customers.) *“Dramatically Different” (La Difference ... within our community, our industry regionally, etc … is as obvious as the end of one’s nose!) (THIS IS WHERE MOST MIDGETS COME UP SHORT.) *Compete on value/experience/intimacy, not price. (You ain’t gonna beat the behemoths on cost-price in 9.99 out of 10 cases.) *Emotional bond with Clients, Vendors. (BEAT THE BIGGIES ON EMOTION/CONNECTION!!)

35. “You do not merely want to be the best of the best.You want to be considered the only ones who do what you do.”—Jerry Garcia

36. The “Small Guys” Guide: Wallop Wal*Mart16 *Hands-on, emotional leadership. (“We are a great & cool & intimate & joyful & dramatically different team working to transform our Clients lives via Consistently Incredible Experiences!”) *A community star! (“Sell” local-ness per se. Sell the hell out of it!) *An incredible experience, from the first to last moment—and then in the follow-up! (“These guys are cool! They ‘get’ me! They love me!”) *DESIGN DRIVEN! (“Design” is a premier weapon-in-pursuit-of-the sublime for small-ish enterprises, including the professional services.)

37. The “Small Guys” Guide: Wallop Wal*Mart16 *Employer of choice. (A very cool, well-paid place to work/learning and growth experience in at least the short term … marked by notably progressive policies.) (THIS IS EMINENTLY DO-ABLE!!) *Sophisticated use of information technology. (Small-“ish” is no excuse for “small aims”/execution in IS/IT!) *Web-power! (The Web can make very small very big … if the product-service is super-cool and one purposefully masters buzz/viral marketing.) *Innovative! (Must keep renewing and expanding and revising and re-imagining “the promise” to employees, the customer, the community.)

38. The “Small Guys” Guide: Wallop Wal*Mart16 *Brand-Lovemark* (*Kevin Roberts) Maniacs! (“Branding” is not just for big folks with big budgets. And modest size is actually a Big Advantage in becoming a local-regional-niche “lovemark.”) *Focus on women-as-clients. (Most don’t. How stupid.) *Excellence! (A small player … per me … has no right or reason to exist unless they are in Relentless Pursuit of Excellence. One earns the right—one damn day and client experience at a time!—to beat the Big Guys in your chosen niche!)

39. Small Giants: Companies That Choose To Be Great Instead Of Big—by Bo Burlingham

40. Small Giants/Bo Burlingham "First, I could see that, unlike most entrepreneurs, their founders and leaders had recognized the full range of choices they had about the type of company they would create.""Second, the leaders had overcome the enormous pressures on successful companies to take paths they had not chosen and did not necessarily want to follow." "Third, each company had an extraordinarily intimate relationship with the local city, town, or county in which it did business -- a relationship that went well beyond the usual concept of `giving back.'" "Fourth, they cultivated exceptionally intimate relationships with customers and suppliers, based on personal contact, one-on-one interaction, and mutual commitment to delivering on promises."

41. Small Giants/Bo Burlingham "Fifth, the companies also had what struck me as unusually intimate workplaces." "Sixth, I was impressed by the variety of corporate structures and modes of governance that these companies had come up with." "Finally, I noticed the passion that the leaders brought to what the company did. They loved the subject matter, whether it be music, safety lighting, food, special effects, constant torque hinges, beer, records storage, construction, dining, or fashion."

42. #4 Japan#2T USA#2T China

43. #4 Japan#3 USA#2 China#1 Germany

44. Reason!!!Mittelstand

45. Goldmann Produktions(11/50%/$5M/”dip and coat,” expensive pigments vs “through coloring,” fadesBekro Chemie)

46. *Commerce/7 days/730A-8P/Midnight Friday/645A.M./2 for “No”/ Red Button/Dog biscuits *Larry Janesky/Jim Penman/not cool can be very cool *Granite Rock/Cross it off/Wash trucks *Elgin Corrugated Box/Promised vs Delivered *5X/Acquire vs maintain (Higher “market share” current) *Reichheld/One question *Comeback>Perfection *Apologize/“Bedside manner”/Lawsuits *“Thank you”/10 years *Make the call/3 minutes

47. 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 Note: Download, free, Jim Penman’s book: What Will They Franchise Next? The Story of Jim’s Group

48. *Basement Systems Inc.*Larry Janesky*Dry Basement Science(115,000!)*1990: $0; 2003: $13M; 2007: $62,000,000

49. *Commerce/7 days/730A-8P/Midnight Friday/645A.M./2 for “No”/ Red Button/Dog biscuits *Larry Janesky/Jim Penman/not cool can be very cool *Granite Rock/Cross it off/Wash trucks *Elgin Corrugated Box/Promised vs Delivered *5X/Acquire vs maintain (Higher “market share” current) *Reichheld/One question *Comeback>Perfection *Apologize/“Bedside manner”/Lawsuits *“Thank you”/10 years *Make the call/3 minutes

50. “I regard apologizing as the most magical, healing, restorative gesture human beings can make. It is the centerpiece of my work with executives who want to get better.”—Marshall Goldsmith, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successfu.