Brand Inside Tom Peters v02.23.2002

1. Brand InsideTom Petersv02.23.2002

2. 1. An “Action Culture.”

3. Forget>“Learn”“The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get the old ones out.”Dee Hock

4. “Good management was the most powerful reason [leading firms] failed to stay atop their industries. Precisely because these firms listened to their customers, invested aggressively in technologies that would provide their customers more and better products of the sort they wanted, and because they carefully studied market trends and systematically allocated investment capital to innovations that promised the best returns, they lost their positions of leadership.”Clayton Christensen, The Innovator’s Dilemma

5. “Active mutators in placid times tend to die off. They are selected against. Reluctant mutators in quickly changing times are also selected against.”Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan,Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors

6. “Acquisitions are about buying market share. Our challenge is to create markets. There is a big difference.” Peter Job, CEO, Reuters

7. “Chivalry is dead. The new code of conduct is an active strategy of disrupting the status quo to create an unsustainable series of competitive advantages. This is not an age of defensive castles, moats and armor. It is rather an age of cunning, speed and surprise. It may be hard for some to hang up the chain mail of ‘sustainable advantage’ after so many battles. But hypercompetition, a state in which sustainable advantages are no longer possible, is now the only level of competition.”Rich D’Aveni, Hypercompetition: Managing the Dynamics of Strategic Maneuvering

8. Leaders “dump the ones who brung ’em”—Nokia, HP, 3M, PerkinElmer, Corning, etc.

9. Cortez!

10. The [New] Ge WayDYB.com

11. If you’re not pissing people off, you’re not making a difference!

12. Wendell Phillips, abolitionist: “Republics exist only on the tenure of being constantly agitated. There is no republican road to safety but in constant distrust.”Source: Louis Menand, The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America

13. Axiom (Hypothesis): We have been screwed by Benchmarking … Best Practice … C.I/Kaizen.Axiom (Hypothesis): We need Masters of Discontinuity/ Masters of Ambiguity … in discontinuous/ambiguous times.

14. “Leaders don’t ‘want to’ win. Leaders ‘need to’ win.”#49

15. WILLPOWER RULES! (12.12.2001)“In the end the war is not about statistics, deadlines, short attention spans of 24 hour news cycles. It’s about will, the projection of will, the clear, unambiguous determination of the president of the United States and the American people to see this through.—DR. Given our lack of knowledge, LT investments made on the basis of “animal spirits—a spontaneous urge to action rather than inaction, not as the outcome of a weighted average of quantitative benefits multiplied by quantitative probabilities.”—JMK. Texas’ “top ten percenters” GPAs > than those with SATs 200-300 points higher.

16. Hackneyed but none the less true:LEADERS SEE CUPS AS “HALF FULL.”

17. BZ: “I am a …Dispenser of Enthusiasm!”

18. “A leader is a dealer in hope.”Napoleon (+TP’s writing room pics)

19. The Kotler Doctrine:1965-1980: R.A.F.(Ready.Aim.Fire.)1980-1995: R.F.A.(Ready.Fire!Aim.)1995-????: F.F.F.(Fire!Fire!Fire!)

20. Think about It!?Innovation = Reaction to the PrototypeMichael Schrage

21. “Sony Electronics has a well-earned reputation for persistence. The company’s first entry into a new field often isn’t very good. But, as it has shown in laptops, Sony will keep trying until it gets it right.”Business Week (5/01)

22. “If Microsoft is good at anything, it’s avoiding the trap of worrying about criticism. Microsoft fails constantly. They’re eviscerated in public for lousy products. Yet they persist, through version after version, until they get something good enough. Then they leverage the power they’ve gained in other markets to enforce their standard.”Seth Godin, Zooming

23. He who has the quickest O.O.D.A. Loops* wins!*Observe. Orient. Decide. Act. / Col. John Boyd

24. “You can’t be a serious innovator unless and until you are ready, willing and able to seriously play. ‘Serious play’ is not an oxymoron; it is the essence of innovation.”Michael Schrage, Serious Play

25. The “Gus Imperative”!

26. Duct Tape Rules!“Andrew Higgins, who built landing craft in WWII, refused to hire graduates of engineering schools. He believed that they only teach you what you can’t do in engineering school. He started off with 20 employees, and by the middle of the war had 30,000 working for him. He turned out 20,000 landing craft. D.D. Eisenhower told me, ‘Andrew Higgins won the war for us. He did it without engineers.’ ”Stephen Ambrose/Fast Company

27. P.S. …Mark McCormack: 5,000 miles for a 5 min. meeting!

28. Scaled De-Compression, Rule Of …5 days “on the ground” = 5 weeks (MONTHS?) in absentia

29. Danger: S.I.O. (Strategic Initiative Overload)

30. JackWorld/1@T: (1) Neutron Jack.(Banish bureaucracy.) (2) “1, 2 or out” Jack.(Lead or leave.) (3) “Workout” Jack.(Empowerment, GE style.) (4) 6-Sigma Jack. (5) Internet Jack. (Throughout) TALENT JACK!

31. Ridin’ with Roger: “What have you done to DRAMATICALLYIMPROVE quality in the last 90 days?”

32. 2. Work that Matters: WOW Projects/ BHAGs.

33. “Let’s make a dent in the universe.”Steve Jobs

34. “Intimidate their [users] imaginations”… “Where’s the revolution?”–J Allard, on the Xbox

35. Languagematters!Wow! BHAG! “Takes your breath away!”

36. 1st Law Mktg Physics: OVERTBENEFIT(Focus: 1 or 2 > 3 or 4/“One Great Thing.” Source #1: Personal Passion)2ND Law: REALREASONTOBELIEVE(Stand & Deliver!)3RD Law: DRAMATICDIFFERENCE(Execs Don’t Get It: “intent to purchase”—100%; “unique”—0% to 5%)Source: Jump Start Your Business Brain, Doug Hall

37. Joe J. Jones 1942 – 2001 HE WOULDA DONE SOME REALLY COOL STUFF BUT … HIS BOSS WOULDN’T LET HIM!

38. The greatest dangerfor most of usis not that our aim istoo highand we miss it,but that it istoo lowand we reach it.Michelangelo

39. If you are not prepared to be fired over your beliefs … you are working on the wrong project - TP

40. Charles Handy on the “alchemists”: “Passion was what drove these people, passion for their product or their cause.If you care enough, you will find out what you need to know. Or you will experiment and not worry if the experiment goes wrong. Passion as the secret to learning is an odd secret to propose, but I believe that it works at all levels and at all ages. Sadly, passion is not a word often heard in the elephant organizations, nor in schools, where it can seem disruptive.”

41. Characteristics of the “Also rans”*“Minimize risk”“Respect the chain of command”“Support the boss”“Make budget”*Fortune, article on “Most Admired Global Corporations”

42. Goal: Drive out fear. (Deming et al.)Solution: Passion(alone?)drives out fear.Source: Equinox Manifesto (12.01)

43. 3. Demo Mania.

44. Demos! Heroes!Stories!

45. L.B.I.W.D.(Leading By Inducing Weird Demos)

46. MBSA!**Managing By Story-ing Around/David Armstrong

47. “A key—perhaps the key—to leadership isthe effective communication of a story.”Howard GardnerLeading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership

48. “Early in my career in the law I learned that …he who has the best story wins.”JQ Adams/A Hopkins to T Joadson/M Freeman

49. G.M.…V.C.…W.P.…M.B.S.A.

50. Each VP a V.C.: Portfolio of high-risk investments in people & ideas from all across the company.