Re-Imagine! Business Success Strategies: A Musing on Leadership, Innovation, and Future Trends

1. we begin with my logo …

2. !

3. Do you think it is a coincidence that the MBA Master’s hood in the U.S.A. is insipid brown?

4. tom’s presentation officially begins: title slide follows …

5. The Incredible, Wild, Whacky, Scary, SuperCool Future … and Why We’re Not Even Remotely Prepared, and What We Can Do About It, for the Sake of of Our Careers, Work and Organizations: A Musing on Strategies, Tactics, Attitudes, Tips, and General Observations, Such as Why a CFO Should Never Be Promoted to CEO, Why All MBA Programs Should Be Closed and Shuttered, How the “2Bs” (Bentonville and Beijing) Became the Co-capitols of the Universe, Why Only Freaks Get Things Done (in Freaky Times), Why Outrageously Audacious Devotion to Game-changing Innovation Is the PSR/Primary Survival Requisite (Duh), Why Women Are So Much Better Leaders Than Men (Duh II) (and They Also Buy Everything, Though Just Try Telling That to the World’s Advertising “Geniuses”), and How UPS & GE & IBM Are Actually All About Love! (We Will Totally Cover All This and More in 8F … or 450 Minutes in “Old Language.”)

6. “About a year ago I hired a developer in India to do my job. I pay him $12,000 to do the job I get paid $67,300 for. He is happy to have the work. I am happy that I only have to work about 90 minutes per day (I still have to attend meetings myself, and I spend a few minutes every day talking code with my Indian counterpart.) The rest of my time my employer thinks I’m telecommuting. They are happy to let me telecommute because my output is higher than most of my coworkers. Now I’m considering getting a second job and doing the same thing with it. That may be pushing my luck though. The extra money would be nice, but that could push my workday over five hours.” —from posting at Slashdot (02.04.04), reported by Dan Pink

7. No Limits?“Short on Priests, U.S. Catholics Outsource Prayer to Indian Clergy”—Headline, New York Times/06.13.04 (“Special intentions,” $.90 for Indians, $5.00 for Americans)

8. If you insist, the “official” title slide …

9. Tom Peters’ Re-Imagine!Business Excellence in a Disruptive AgeeCSW.com/London/23November2004

10. Slides at …tompeters.com

11. V.A. Moment …1Y/2N: Commerce Bank2 Pizzas: JBPlastic Bulldozer: MD

12. XYZ Corp: Complete Vision & ValuesAny Service or Product of ours is yours for absolutely NOCHARGE if any employee says—or implies—to you at any point …“It’s Not My Fault.”V. Big Cheese, Founder, CEO & Dictator

13. “Simple” NMF: an Issue of … AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP, EXECUTION, ACCOUNTABILITY, PROVIDING AWESOME EXPERIENCES, A CULTURE OF SHARED RESPONSIBILITY & OUTCOMES.

14. Re-imagine! Not Your Father’s World I.

15. 26m

16. 43h

17. 35/70

18. W(460 terabytes)=2XI

19. 12.02.01

20. Re-imagine! Not Your Father’s World II.

21. Problem: “Don’t compete with China on cost or Wal*Mart on price.”Solution: VA/Innovation/ “Soft”-Brand Value

22. “A focus on cost-cutting and efficiency has helped many organizations weather the downturn, but this approach will ultimately render them obsolete.Only the constant pursuit of innovation can ensure long-term success.”—Daniel Muzyka, Dean, Sauder School of Business, Univ of British Columbia (FT/09.17.04)

23. “We’re now entering a new phase of business where the group will be a franchising and management company where brandmanagement is central.”—David Webster, Chairman, InterContinental Hotels Group“InterContinental will now have far more to do with brandownership than hotel ownership.”—James Dawson of Charles Stanley (brokerage)Source: International Herald Tribune, 09.16, on the sacking of CEO Richard North, whose entire background is in finance

24. My Story.**Complete with context, plot, resolution (though most of it may never happen; though if it doesn’t it’ll be because something even more weird came down)

25. A Coherent Story: Context-Solution-BedrockContext1: Intense Pressures(China/Tech/Competition)Context2: Painful/Pitiful Adjustment(Slow, Incremental, Mergers)Solution1: New Organization(Technology,Web+ Revolution, Virtual-“BestSourcing,”“PSF” “nugget”)Solution2: No Option: Value-added Strategy(Services- Solutions-Experiences-DreamFulfillment “Ladder”)Solution3: “Aesthetic” “VA” Capstone(Design-Brands)Solution4:New Markets (Women, ThirdAge)Bedrock1: Innovation(New Work, Speed, Weird, Revolution)Bedrock2: Talent(Best, Creative, Entrepreneurial, Schools)Bedrock3: Leadership(Passion, Bravado, Energy, Speed)

26. The General’s Story.

27. “If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.” —General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff. U. S. Army

28. Everybody’s Story.

29. “One Singaporean workercosts as much as …3 … in Malaysia 8 … in Thailand 13 … in China 18 … in India.”Source: The Straits Times/08.18.03

30. “Thaksinomics” (after Thaksin Shinawatra, PM)/ “Bangkok Fashion City”:“managed asset reflation”(add to brand value of Thai textiles by demonstrating flair and design excellence)Source: The Straits Times/03.04.2004

31. Bedrock & Biases.

32. Everything You Need to Know about “Strategy” 1. Do you have awesome Talent … everywhere? Do you push that Talent to pursue Audacious Quests? 2. Is your Talent Pool loaded with wonderfully peculiar people who others wouldcall “problems”? And what about your Extended Community of customers, vendors et al? 3. Is your Board of Directors as cool as your product offerings … and does it have50 percent (or at least one-third) Women Members? 4. Long-term, it’s a “Top-line World”: Is creating a “culture” that cherishes above all things Innovation and Entrepreneurship your primary aim? Remember: Innovation … not Imitation! 5. Are the Ultimate Rewards heaped upon those who exhibit an unswerving “Bias for Action,” to quote the co-authors of In Search of Excellence? 6. Do you routinely use hot, aspirational words-terms like “Excellence” and B.H.A.G. (Big Hairy Audacious Goal, per Jim Collins) and “Let’s make a dent in the Universe” (the Word according to Steve Jobs)? Is “Reward excellent failures, punish mediocre successes” your de facto or de jure motto? 7. Do you subscribe to Jerry Garcia’s dictum: “We do not merely want to be the best of the best, we want to be the only ones who do what we do”? 8. Do you elaborate on and enhance Jerry G’s dictum by adding, “We subscribe to ‘Best Sourcing’—and only want to associate with the ‘best of the best’.” 9. Do you embrace the new technologies with child-like enthusiasm and a revolutionary’s zeal? 10. Do you “serve” and “satisfy” customers … or “go berserk” attempting to provide every customer with an “awesome experience” that does nothing less than transform the way she or he sees the world?11. Do you understand … to your very marrow … that the two biggest under-served markets are Women and Boomers-Geezers? And that to “take advantage” of these two Monster “Trends” (FACTS OF LIFE) requires fundamental re-alignment of the enterprise? 12. Are your leaders accessible? Do they wear their passion on their sleeves? Does integrity ooze out of every pore of the enterprise? Is “We care” your implicit motto? 13. Do you understand business mantra #1 of the ’00s: DON’T TRY TO COMPETEWITH WAL*MART ON PRICE OR CHINA ON COST? (And if you get this last idea, then see the 12 above!)

33. Importance of Success Factors by Various“Gurus”/Estimates by Tom PetersStrategySystemsPassionExecutionPorter 50% 20 15 15Drucker 35% 30 15 20Bennis 25% 20 30 25Peters 15% 20 35 30

34. “In Tom’s world, it’s always better to try a swan dive and deliver a colossal belly flop than to step timidly off the board while holding your nose.” —Fast Company /October2003

35. Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win? by George Stalk & Rob Lachenauer/HBS Press“The winners in business have always played hardball.” “Unleash massive and overwhelming force.” “Exploit anomalies.” “Threaten your competitor’s profit sanctuaries.” “Entice your competitor into retreat.”Approximately 640 Index entries:Customer/s (service, retention, loyalty),4. People (employees, motivation, morale, worker/s),0. Innovation (product development, research & development, new products),0.

36. ExIn*: 1982-2002/Forbes.comEI: $10,000 yields $140,050DJIA: $10,000 yields $85,000*Basket of 32 publicly traded stocks

37. I. NEW BUSINESS. NEW CONTEXT.

38. Re-imagine Everything: All Bets Are Off.

39. JobsNew TechnologyGlobalization War, Warfighting & Security

40. “Income Confers No Immunity as Jobs Migrate”—Headline/USA Today/02.04

41. “Reuters Plans To Triple Jobs at Site In India”—Headline/ New York Times/ World Business/08October2004/10% of total workforce in Bangalore by 2006

42. GainsPeople skills & emotional intelligence (financial service sales, 78%/248K; RNs, 28%/512K; lawyers, 24%/182K)Imagination & creativity (architects, 44%/60K; designers, 43%/230K; photographers, 38%/50K)Analytic reasoning (legal assts, 66%/159K; electronic engineers, 28%/147K)Source: “Where the Jobs Are”/NYT/05.13.2004/data 1994-2004

43. LossesFormulaic intelligence (health record clerks, 63%/36K; secretaries & typists, 30%/1.3M; bookkeepers, 13%/247K)Manual dexterity (sewing machine ops, 50%/347K; lathe ops, 49%/30K; butchers, 23%/67K)Muscle power (timber cutters, 32%/25K; farm workers, 20%/182K) Source: “Where the Jobs Are”/NYT/05.13.2004/data 1994-2004

44. “Over the past 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

45. “The past few decades have belonged to a certain kind of person with a certain kind of mind—computer programmers who could crank code, lawyers who could craft contracts, MBAs who could crunch numbers. But the keys to the kingdom are changing hands. The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind—creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning makers. These people—artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers—will now reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys.”—Dan Pink, A Whole New Mind

46. Agriculture Age (farmers)Industrial Age (factory workers)Information Age (knowledge workers)Conceptual Age (creators and empathizers)Source: Dan Pink, A Whole New Mind

48. “When I was growing up, my parents used to say to me: ‘Finish your dinner—people in China are starving.’ I, by contrast, find myself wanting to say to my daughters:‘Finish your homework—people in China and India are starving for your job.’”—Thomas Friedman/06.24.2004

49. JobsTechnologyGlobalization War, Warfighting & Security

50. IS/IT