Achieving Business Excellence: A Journey of Growth, Innovation, and Empowered Workforce

1. Tom Peters’ Re-ImagineEXCELLENCE! The National Productivity and Competitiveness Council Port Louis/16 April 2014 (slides at tompeters.com; also see excellencenow.com)

2. The 27 BFOs* *Blinding Flash(es) of the Obvious

3. Part ONE

4. W.A. Coppins Ltd.

5. The Magicians of Motueka! The MITTELSTAND Trifecta! W.A. Coppins Ltd.* (Coppins Sea Anchors/ PSA/para sea anchors) *Textiles, 1898; thrive on “wicked problems” —e.g., U.S. Navy STLVAST/Small To Large Vehicle At Sea Transfer; custom fabric from W. Wiggins Ltd./Wellington; specialty nylon, “Dyneema,” from DSM/Netherlands

6. “The greatest satisfaction for management has come not from the financial growth of Camellia itself, but rather from having participated in the vast improvement in the living and working conditions of its employees, resulting from the investment of many tens of millions of pounds into the tea gardens’ infrastructure of roads, factories, hospitals, employees’ housing and amenities. … Within the Camellia Group there is a strong aesthetic dimension, an intention that it should comprise companies and assets of the highest quality, operating from inspiring offices and manufacturing in state of the art facilities.… Above all, there is a deep concern for the welfare of each employee. This arises not only froma sense of humanity, but also fromthe conviction that the loyalty of a secure and enthusiastic employee will in the long-term prove to be an invaluable company asset.”—Camellia: A Very Different Company[$600M/$160M/$100M]

7. Going “Social”/Location and Size Independent: Rise of the … MICRO-MULTINATIONAL “Today, despite the fact that we’re just a little swimmingpool company in Virginia, we have the most trafficked swimming pool website in the world. Five years ago, if you’d asked me and my business partners what we do, the answer would have been simple, ‘We build in-ground fiberglass swimming pools’ Now we say,‘We are the best teachers … in the world … on the subject of fiberglass swimming pools, and we also happen to build them.’” —Jay Baer, Youtility: Why Smart Marketing Is About Help, Not Hype

8. Big 16 Yawn. (NOT.) PASSIONATE about the business CLEAR/DIFFERENTIATING value proposition TURNKEY SERVICE focus (even for manufacturers) ALWAYS innovating Close to the customer (CUSTOMER INTIMACY) Execution MANIACS Subs execution MANIACS COMMUNITY engagement Employee SELECTION Employee TRAINING/DEVELOPMENT Employee INVOLVEMENT/BRAND RESPONSIBILITY Exciting/Soaring VALUES/CULTURE MANAGED growth BORING businesses (mostly) Family managed (But … HYPER-PROFESSIONAL) EXCELLENCE!

9. “During her early days at Mayo Clinic, Mary Ann Morris was working in a laboratory—a job that required her to wear a white uniform and white shoes. And after a frantic morning getting her two small children to school, she arrived at work to find her supervisor staring at her shoes. The supervisor had noticed that the laces were dirty where they threaded through the islets of the shoes and asked Mary to clean them. Offended, she said she worked in a laboratory, not with patients, so why should it matter? Her supervisor replied that Morris had contact with patients in ways she didn’t recognize—going out on the street wearing her Mayo nametag, for instance, or passing by patients and their families as she walked through the halls—and that she couldn’t represent Mayo Clinic with dirty shoelaces. ‘Though I was initially offended, I realized over time, everything I do, down to my shoelaces, represents my commitment to our patients and visitors; I still use the dirty shoelace story to set the standard for the service level I aspire to for myself and my co-workers.’”—Leonard Berry & Kent Seltman, “Orchestrating the Clues of Quality,” Chapter 7 from Management Lessons From Mayo Clinic

10. Michael Raynor and Mumtaz Ahmed’: THE THREE RULES: How Exceptional Companies Think*: 1. Better before cheaper. 2. Revenue before cost. 3. There are no other rules. (*From a database of over 25,000 companies from hundreds of industries covering 45 years, they uncovered 344 companies that qualified as statistically “exceptional.”) Jeff Colvin, Fortune: “The Economy Is Scary … But Smart Companies Can Dominate”: They manage for value—not for EPS. They keep developing human capital. They get radically customer-centric.

11. Definition of a “BIG Company”?

12. Over-rated*Big companies!Public companies!“Cool” industries!Famous CEOs!Men! (more later)* “Gurugate”/“Gurus” ignore about 100% of the time

13. REALLY First Things Before First Things

14. 1/The ONE Secret!

15. 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?

16. Is there ONE “secret” to productivity and employee satisfaction? YES! The Quality of your Full Cadre of … 1st-line Leaders.

17. “People leave managers not companies.”—Dave Wheeler

18. 2/Training As Investment#1

19. Training [OBVIOUSLY!] #1: Police. Fire. Military. Opera. Symphony. Theater. Sports. BUT … in most businesses, it's “ho hum” mid-level staff function.

20. Gamblin’ Man Bet: >> 5 of 10 CEOs see training as expense rather than investment. Bet: >> 5 of 10 CEOs see training as defense rather than offense. Bet: >> 5 of 10 CEOs see training as “necessary evil” rather than “strategic opportunity.” Bet:>> 8 of 10 CEOs, in 45-min “tour d’horizon” of their business, would not mention training.

21. “G-E-N-I-U-S” Getting more and more cantankerous (short tempered!) about this:Job #1(& #2 & #3) is to abet peoples' personal growth. All other good things flow there from. My idea of a gen-u-ine "genius“ "breakthrough" idea:If you work your heart out to help people grow, they'll work their hearts out to give customers a great experience.

22. Should be able to get immediate answer upon stopping anyone and asking,“What have you learned today?”

23. “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

24. 3/Education As Priority#1

25. GRIN

26. GeneticsRoboticsInformaticsNanotechnology**Decision #1: GRIN and BEAR it? GRIN and SAVOR it?

27. RACE AGAINST THE MACHINE

28. China too/Foxconn: 1,000,000 robots in next 3 years Source: Race AGAINST the Machine, Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee

29. “Meet Your Next Surgeon: Dr. Robot” Source: Feature/Fortune/15 JAN 2013/on Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci/multiple bypass heart-surgery robot (“Almost all health care people get is going to be done by algorithms within a decade or two.”—Michael Vassar/MetaMed)

30. “The combination of new market rules and new technology was turning the stock market into, in effect,awarof robots.”—Michael Lewis, “Goldman’s Geek Tragedy,” Vanity Fair, 09.13

31. “Automation has become so sophisticated that on a typical passenger flight, a human pilot holds the controls for a grand total of … 3minutes.[Pilots] have become, it’s not much of an exaggeration to say, computer operators.” —Nicholas Carr, The Atlantic, 11.13

32. “Human level capability has not turned out to be a special stopping point from an engineering perspective. ….” Source: Illah Reza Nourbakhsh, Professor of Robotics, Carnegie Mellon, Robot Futures

33. “The root of our problem is not that we’re in a Great Recession or a Great Stagnation, but rather that we are in the early throes of a Great Restructuring. Our technologies are racing ahead, but our skills and organizations are lagging behind.” Source: Race AGAINST the Machine, Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee

34. THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST

35. The very best and the very brightest and the most energetic and enthusiastic and entrepreneurial and tech-savvy of our university graduates must—must, notshould—be lured into teaching!

36. “Every child is born an artist. The trick is to remain an artist.”—Picasso “All human beings are entrepreneurs.”—Muhammad Yunus “Human creativity is the ultimate economic resource.” —Richard Florida "Creativity can no longer be treated as an elective.”—John Maeda

37. RADICAL curricular revision imperative. (STEM/STEAM.)RADICAL digital strategy.REVOLUTIONARY new approach to teacher recruitment/development.RADICAL re-assessment of tertiary education (E.g., “MOOC-ization.”)RADICAL re-assessment business ed.RADICAL role re-assessment by corporations.(Good news: Nobody’s got it right. Kids are doing it without you—if you’ll let them.)

38. A 15-Point Human Capital Asset Development Manifesto World Strategy Forum/ The New Rules: Reframing Capitalism Tom Peters/Seoul/0615.12

39. A 15-Point Human Capital Development Manifesto 1. “Corporate social responsibility” starts at home—i.e., inside the enterprise! MAXIMIZING GDD/Gross Domestic Development of the workforce is the primary source of mid-term and beyond growth and profitability—and maximizes national productivity and wealth. (Re profitability: If you want to serve the customer with uniform Excellence, then you must FIRST effectively and faithfully serve those who serve the customer—i.e. our employees, via maximizing tools and professional development.)

40. 2. Regardless of the transient external situation, development of “human capital” is always the #1 priority. This is true in general, in particular in difficult times which demand resilience—and uniquely true in this age in which IMAGINATIVE brainwork is de facto the only plausible survival strategy for higher wage nations. (Generic “brainwork,” traditional and dominant “white-collar activities, is increasingly beingperformed by exponentially enhanced artificial intelligence.)

41. “If I had to pick one failing of CEOs …

42. “If I had to pickonefailing of CEOs, it’s that theydon’treadenough.” —Co-founder of one of the world’s largest and most successful investment services firms (November 2013)

43. 5/1 Mouth,2 Ears

44. “The doctor interrupts after …* *Source: Jerome Groopman, How Doctors Think

45. 18 …

46. 18 … seconds!

47. [An obsession with] Listening is ... the ultimate mark of Respect. Listening is ... the heart and soul of Engagement. Listening is ... the heart and soul of Kindness. Listening is ... the heart and soul of Thoughtfulness. Listening is ... the basis for true Collaboration. Listening is ... the basis for true Partnership. Listening is ... a Team Sport. Listening is ... a Developable Individual Skill.* (*Though women are far better at it than men.) Listening is ... the basis forCommunity. Listening is ... the bedrock of Joint Ventures that work. Listening is ... the bedrock of Joint Ventures thatgrow. Listening is ... the core of effective Cross-functional Communication* (*Which is in turn Attribute #1 of organization effectiveness.) [cont.]

48. *Listening is of the utmost … STRATEGIC importance!*Listening is a proper … COREVALUE! *Listening is … TRAINABLE!*Listening is a … PROFESSION!

49. Suggested addition to your statement of Core Values: “We are Effective Listeners—we treat Listening EXCELLENCE as the Centerpiece of our Commitment to Respect and Engagement and Community and Growth.”

50. 6/Conrad Hilton …