LONG Tom Peters’ Re-Imagine EXCELLENCE ! e-town Festival Edmonton Economic Development

1. LONG Tom Peters’ Re-ImagineEXCELLENCE! e-town Festival Edmonton Economic Development Edmonton/12 September 2014 (For more see tompeters.com and our fully annotated 23-part Master Compendium [Mother of All Presentations] at excellencenow.com)

2. BE THE BEST. IT’S THE ONLY MARKET THAT’S NOT CROWDED.

3. -1/+1

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

5. “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 …Source: Paul Ormerod, Why Most Things Fail: Evolution, Extinction and Economics

6. “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 largeone and just wait.”—Paul Ormerod, Why Most Things Fail: Evolution, Extinction and Economics

7. “Mr. Foster and his McKinsey colleagues collected detailed performance data stretching back 40 years for 1,000 U.S. companies.They found thatNONEofthe long-term survivors managed to outperform the market. Worse, the longer companies had been in the database, the worse they did.”—Financial Times

8. THE RED CARPET STORE (Joel Resnick/Flemington NJ)

9. 1,600cheeses 1,400varieties of hot sauce 12,000wines priced from $8 to $8,000 a bottle 6,000Christmas ornaments 50,000trims PASSION

10. RETAIL SUPERSTARS: INSIDE THE 25 BEST INDEPENDENT STORES IN AMERICA—George Whalin JUNGLE JIM’S INTERNATIONAL MARKET, FAIRFIELD, OH: “An adventure in ‘shoppertainment,’ begins in the parking lot and goes on to 1,600 cheeses and, yes, 1,400 varieties of hot sauce—not to mention 12,000 wines priced from $8-$8,000 a bottle; all this is brought to you by 4,000 vendors. Customers come from every corner of the globe.” BRONNER’S CHRISTMAS WONDERLAND, FRANKENMUTH, MI, POP 5,000:98,000-square-foot “shop” features 6,000 Christmas ornaments, 50,000trims, and anything else you can name pertaining to Christmas.

11. Retail Superstars: Inside the 25 Best Independent Stores in America—by George Whalin

12. Jim’s Mowing 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 Etc.* *1982/3,200+ franchises/$300M+/“world’s largest home services franchise business”/ Mooroolbark, Victoria Sources: Jim Penman, What Will They Franchise Next? The Story of Jim’s Group; Management Today; Business Review Weekly; etc.

13. The Magicians of Motueka (PLUS)! 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)

14. Going “Social”: Location and Size Independent “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

15. Small (Entrepreneurial) BUSINESS: Training Inc. , a 14-person unit* in a 50-person HR department in a $200M business unit in a $3B corporation—aiming for Excellence & WOW! *PSF/ Professional Service Firm (See my … Professional Service Firm 50: Fifty Ways to Transform Your “Department” Into A Professional Service Firm Whose Trademarks Are Passion and Innovation.)

16. “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

17. “INSANELY GREAT”STEVE JOBS“RADICALLY THRILLING” BMW

18. I love …Middle-sized Niche- Micro-niche Dominators! "Own" a niche through EXCELLENCE! (Writ large: Germany’s MITTELSTAND)

19. Hilton’s Law …

20. CONRADHILTON, at a gala celebrating his career, was called to the podium and asked,“What were the most important lessons you learned in your long and distinguished career?”His answer …

21. “Remember to tuck the shower curtain inside the bathtub.”

22. “EXECUTION ISSTRATEGY.”—Fred Malek

23. “COSTCO FIGURED OUT THE BIG,SIMPLE THINGS AND EXECUTEDWITH TOTAL FANATICISM.”—Charles Munger, Berkshire Hathaway

24. Excellence!

26. 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

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

28. “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

29. WSJ/0910.13: “What matters most to a company over time? Strategy or culture? Dominic Barton, MD, McKinsey & Co.:“Culture.”

30. ORGANIZATIONS EXIST TO SERVE. PERIOD. LEADERS LIVE TO SERVE. PERIOD.

31. “Why in the World did you go to Siberia?”

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

33. LEADERSHIP

34. 25/50/5/4/1

35. “I’m always stopping by our stores— at least 25a week. I’m also in other places: Home Depot, Whole Foods, Crate & Barrel. I try to be a sponge to pick up as much as I can.”—Howard SchultzSource: Fortune, “Secrets of Greatness”

36. MBWA

37. ManagingBy WanderingAround

38. 50Source: Dov Frohman

39. “Most managers spend a great deal of time thinking about what they plan to do, but relatively little time thinking about what they plan not to do. As a result, they become so caught up … in fighting the fires of the moment that they cannot really attend to the long-term threats and risks facing the organization. So the first soft skill of leadership the hard way is to cultivate the perspective of Marcus Aurelius: avoid busyness, free up your time, stay focused on what really matters.Let me put it bluntly: every leader should routinely keep a substantial portion of his or her time—I would say as much as50percent—unscheduled.… Only when you have substantial ‘slop’ in your schedule—unscheduled time—will you have the space to reflect on what you are doing, learn from experience, and recover from your inevitable mistakes. Leaders without such free time end up tackling issues only when there is an immediate or visible problem. Managers’ typical response to my argument about free time is, ‘That’s all well and good, but there are things I have to do.’Yet we waste so much time in unproductive activity—it takes an enormous effort on the part of the leader to keep free time for the truly important things.” —Dov Frohman (& Robert Howard), Leadership The Hard Way: Why Leadership Can’t Be Taught— And How You Can Learn It Anyway (Chapter 5, “The Soft Skills Of Hard Leadership”)

40. EXCELLENCE is not a “long-term” "aspiration.” EXCELLENCE is the ultimate short-term strategy. EXCELLENCE is … THE NEXT5MINUTES.* (*Or NOT.)

41. EXCELLENCE is not an "aspiration." EXCELLENCE is … THE NEXT FIVE MINUTES. EXCELLENCE is your next conversation. Or not. EXCELLENCE is your next meeting. Or not. EXCELLENCE is shutting up and listening—really listening. Or not. EXCELLENCE is your next customer contact. Or not. EXCELLENCE is saying “Thank you” for something “small.” Or not. EXCELLENCE is the next time you shoulder responsibility and apologize. Or not. EXCELLENCE is waaay over-reacting to a screw-up. Or not. EXCELLENCE is the flowers you brought to work today. Or not. EXCELLENCE is lending a hand to an “outsider” who’s fallen behind schedule. Or not. EXCELLENCE is bothering to learn the way folks in finance (or IS or HR) think. Or not. EXCELLENCE is waaay “over”-preparing for a 3-minute presentation. Or not. EXCELLENCE is turning “insignificant” tasks into models of … EXCELLENCE. Or not.

42. “The 4most important words in any organization are …

43. THE FOUR MOST IMPORTANT WORDS IN ANY ORGANIZATION ARE …“WHAT DO YOU THINK?” Source: courtesy Dave Wheeler, posted at tompeters.com

44. “Employees who don't feel significant rarely make significant contributions.”—Mark Sanborn

45. “If there is any ONE‘secret’ to effectiveness, it is concentration. Effective executives do first things first … and they do ONEthing at a time.”—Peter Drucker

46. You = Your calendar**The calendar NEVERlies.

47. Meetings are #1 thing bosses do. Therefore, 100% of those meetings:EXCELLENCE. ENTHUSIASM. ENGAGEMENT. LEARNING. TEMPO. WORK-OF-ART.DAMNIT.

48. #1CEOFailing?

49. “If I had to pick one failing of CEOs, it’s that … —Co-founder of one of the largest investment services firms in the USA/world

50. “If I had to pick one failing of CEOs, it’s that …they don’t read enough.”