Developing a Culture of Excellence - Tom Peters' Leadership Lecture

1. LONG Tom Peters’ Excellence. Always. Developing a Culture of Excellence The Second Annual Leadership Lecture Abu Dhabi/10 March 2009

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

3. Enough …

4. “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)

5. The 19 Es ofExcellence

6. 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?)

7. “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

8. 1982

9. 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”

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

11. Hard Is SoftSoft Is Hard

12. Hard Is Soft (Plans, #s)Soft Is Hard (people, customers, values, relationships))

13. “I am a dispenser of enthusiasm.”—Ben Zander

14. “Insanely great”

15. “Radically thrilling”BMW

16. MBWA

17. “It suddenly occurred to me …

18. “It suddenly occurred to me that in the space of two or three hours he never talked about cars.” —Les Wexner

19. Conrad Hilton, at a gala celebrating his life, was asked, “What was the most important lesson you’ve learned in your long and distinguished career?” His immediate answer …

20. Conrad Hilton, at a gala celebrating his life, was asked, “What was the most important lesson you’ve learned in your long and distinguished career?” His immediate answer: “remember to tuck the shower curtain inside the bathtub”

21. “Execution is strategy.”—Fred Malekfffffii

22. Internal organizational excellence = Deepest “Blue Ocean”

23. L(+21) = L(-21)

24. Leadership(21A.D.) = Leadership(21B.C.)

25. 2007Siberia

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

27. 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

28. 2007Sydney

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

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

31. “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

32. “We are a ‘Life Success’ Company.”Dave Liniger, founder, RE/MAX

33. “You have to treat your employees like customers.”—Herb Kelleher, complete answer, upon being asked his “secrets to success” Source: Joe Nocera, NYT, “Parting Words of an Airline Pioneer,” on the occasion of Herb Kelleher’s retirement after 37 years at Southwest Airlines (SWA’s pilots union took out a full-page ad in USA Today thanking HK for all he had done; across the way in Dallas American Airlines’ pilots were picketing the Annual Meeting)

34. “The four most important words in any organization are …‘What do you think?’ ” Source: courtesy Dave Wheeler, posted at tompeters.com, source of original unknown (0609.08)

35. 18”

36. “The deepest human need is the need to be appreciated.”William James

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

38. Ben Changes His BHAG!* *Big Hairy Audacious Goal/Collins

39. TP: “How to flush $500,000 down the toilet in one easy lesson!!”

40. < CAPEX> People!

41. Our MissionTo develop and manage talent;to apply that talent,throughout the world, for the benefit of clients;to do so in partnership; to do so with profit.WPP

42. Brand = Talent.

43. 100 Best Companies to work for/2008 #28/PCL Construction Enterprises #37/TD Industries

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

45. #1 Truthteller …

46. You = Your calendar**Calendars neverlie

47. “I used to have a rule for myself that at any point in time I wanted to have in mind — as it so happens, also in writing, on a little card I carried around with me — the three big things I was trying to get done. Three.Not two. Not four. Not five.Not ten.Three.”— Richard Haass, The Power to Persuade

48. “Dennis, you need a … ‘To-don’t ’ List !”

49. “You must bethe change you wish to see in the world.”Gandhi

50. Skip the map