(Perpetually dancing at the frontier, and a little or a lo

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. (Vibratecause
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 opinionsthe 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 persons shoesuntil the soles
have holes!) Experience. (Life is theater! Make
every activity-contact memorable! Standard
Insanely
Great/Steve Jobs Radically Thrilling/BMW.) Eli
minate. (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
booboosall 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 purposethe core of Aristotles 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
youve 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
youve learned in your long and distinguished
career? His immediate answer remember to
tuck the shower curtain inside the bathtub
21
Execution is strategy. Fred Malek fffffii
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 wholehearted service 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 shrines in which the full and
awesome power of the Imagination and Spirit and
native Entrepreneurial flair of diverse
individuals is unleashed in passionate pursuit of
Excellence.
31
The role of the Director is to create a space
where the actors and actresses can become more
than theyve ever been before, more than theyve
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 Kellehers
retirement after 37 years at Southwest Airlines
(SWAs 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
lt CAPEXgt People!
41
Our MissionTo develop and manage talentto
apply that talent,throughout the world, for the
benefit of clientsto 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 calendarCalendars never lie
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-dont List !
49
You must be the change you wish to see in the
world.Gandhi
50
Skip the map
51
Mapping your competitive position or
52
1. Have you in the last 10 days
visited a customer?2. Have you called a
customer TODAY?
53
The Have you 50
54
Pursuing Discomfort!
55
Do one thing every day that scares you.
Eleanor Roosevelt
56
Kevin Roberts Credo1. Ready.
Fire! Aim.2. If it aint broke ... Break it!3.
Hire crazies.4. Ask dumb questions.5. Pursue
failure.6. Lead, follow ... or get out of the
way!7. Spread confusion.8. Ditch your
office.9. Read odd stuff.10. Avoid moderation!
57
BIG?
58
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
large one and just wait. Paul Ormerod, Why
Most Things Fail Evolution, Extinction and
Economics
59
Data drawn from the real world attest to a fact
that is beyond our control Everything in
existence tends to deteriorate. Norberto
Odebrecht, Education Through Work
60
"...In one study, perceivers are asked to watch a
video tape of a basketball game and they are
asked to count the number of times one team takes
possession of the ball. During the film clip,
which lasts a few minutes, a person in a gorilla
suit strolls onto the center of the court, turns
and faces the audience and does a little jig. The
gorilla then slowly walks off the court. The
remarkable fact is that perceivers (including
this author) do not notice the gorilla. This is
an example of what has been called inattentional
blindness... Source http//host.uniroma3.it/pro
getti/kant/field/hurleysymp_noe.htm "A
demonstration of inattentional blindness goes
something like this. Viewers are asked to monitor
three basketball players in white T-shirts and
count the number of times they pass the ball
during a video clip. Thirty-four seconds into
this experiment, a person wearing a gorilla suit
walks through the game and even pauses to pound
his chest before moving on. Despite their
vigilance, approximately half the viewers never
see the gorilla. Even after they are told about
the gorilla and shown the video, they refuse to
believe it. Source http//www.aquaticsafetygroup
.com/perceptions.html
61
4 Japan2T USA2T China
62
4 Japan3 USA2 China1 Germany
63
Reason!!!Mittelstand
64
1/40
65
try it. Try it. Try it. Try it. Try it. Try it.
Try it. Try it. Screw it up. Try it. Try it. Try
it. Try it. Try it. Try it. Try it. Screw it up.
it. Try it. Try it. try it. Try it. Screw it up.
Try it. Try it. Try it.
66
We have a strategic plan. Its called doing
things. Herb Kelleher
67
Dick n dan
68
We made mistakes, of course. Most of them were
omissions we didnt think of when we initially
wrote the software. We fixed them by doing it
over and over, again and again. We do the same
today. While our competitors are still sucking
their thumbs trying to make the design perfect,
were already on prototype version 5. By the
time our rivals are ready with wires and screws,
we are on version 10. It gets back to planning
versus acting We act from day one others plan
how to planfor months. Bloomberg by Bloomberg
69
Experiment fearlesslySource BW0821.06, Type
A Organization Strategies/ How to Hit a Moving
TargetTactic 1
70
Fail . Forward. Fast.High Tech CEO,
Pennsylvania
71
Reward excellent failures. Punish mediocre
successes.Phil Daniels, Sydney exec
72
4/40
73
DECENTRALIZATION.EXECUTION.ACCOUTABILITY.61
5A.M.
74
Small is (can often be)BIG
75
Design is everything. Everything is
design. We are all designers. Inspiration
The Power of Design A Force for Transforming
Everything, Richard Farson
76
Behavioral Primacy!E.g. plate size location
of platters, 6.5 feet Away -63 Seconds
Source Brian Wansink, Mindless Eating (20
lbs per year 200 decisions per day)
77
Socks 10K
78
Seating arrangement Table shape Physical
arrangements (distance, co-location, grand or
not/Apple) Geologists/Geophysicists XFX/Cross-func
tional Excellence (meetings, talks, etc) The
hang out axiom (We are what we eat.) See
greenery, recover faster (map, smell of
cookies, pianos/ Planetree) Vary road crossing
times/engage
79
We Are What We Eat
80
We are the company we keep
81
Measure Strangeness/Portfolio
QualityStaffConsultantsVendorsOut-sourcing
Partners (, Quality)Innovation Alliance
PartnersCustomersCompetitors (who we
benchmark against) Strategic Initiatives
Product Portfolio (LineEx v. Leap)IS/IT
ProjectsHQ LocationLunch MatesLanguageBoard
82
The Hang Out Axiom At its core, every (!!!)
relationship-partnership decision (employee,
vendor, customer, etc) is a strategic decision
about Innovate, Yes or No
83
Diverse groups of problem solversgroups of
people with diverse toolsconsistently
outperformed groups of the best and the
brightest. If I formed two groups, one random
(and therefore diverse) and one consisting of the
best individual performers, the first group
almost always did better. Diversity trumped
ability. Scott Page, The Difference How the
Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms,
Schools, and Societies Diversity
84
CEO A.G. Lafley has shifted PGs focus on
inventing all its own products to developing
others inventions at least half the time. One
successful example Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, based
on a product found in an Osaka market. Fortune
85
Axiom Never use a vendor who is not in the top
quartile (decile?) in their industry on RD
spending!Inspired by Hummingbird
86
The Billion-man Research Team Companies
offering work to online communities are reaping
the benefits of crowdsourcing. Headline,
FT, 0110.07
87
Rob McEwen/CEO/Goldcorp Inc./Red Lake
goldSource Wikinomics How Mass Collaboration
Changes Everything, Don Tapscott Anthony
Williams
88
The Bottleneck Is at the Top of the
BottleWhere are you likely to find people
with the least diversity of experience, the
largest investment in the past, and the greatest
reverence for industry dogma At the top!
Gary Hamel/Harvard Business Review
89
Vanity Fair What is your most marked
characteristic? Mike Bloomberg Curiosity.
90
Whos the most interesting person youve met in
the last 90 days? How do I get in touch with
them? Fred Smith
91
No Anger Management, Please!
92
All You Need to Know About Sources of
Innovation Angry people! angry with the
status quo
93
The 8Ps of Innovation SuccessPissed off!
Determined to change the world Passion!!!!
Persist, take the heat, sell Prototypes. Fast
Furiouspow!! Insanely great!Pals.
Buddies with different skills, recruiting
abilityProtector. Run cover, champion your
causePolitics. Political skillPersistence.
Can handle the bumps and U-turns
94
Innovation Index How many of your Top 5
Strategic Initiatives/Key Projects score 8 or
higher out of 10 on a Weird/ Profound/
Wow/Game- changer Scale?
95
Iron Innovation Equality Law The quality and
quantity and imaginativeness of innovation shall
be the same in all functions e.g., in HR and
purchasing as much as in marketing or product
development.
96
XFX
97
X XFXExcellence Cross-functional
Excellence
98
Never waste a lunch!
99
???? XF lunches Measure!
100
The XF-50 50 Ways to Enhance Cross-Functional
Effectiveness and Deliver Speed, Service
Excellence and Value-added Customer
SolutionsEntire XF-50 List is an
Appendix to the LONG version of this
presentation, posted at tompeters.com
101
1
102
Development can help great people be even
better but if I had a dollar to spend, Id spend
70 cents getting the right person in the door.
Paul Russell, Director, Leadership
Development, Google
103
In short, hiring is the most important aspect
of business and yet remains woefully
misunderstood. Source Wall Street Journal,
10.29.08, review of Who The A Method for
Hiring, Geoff Smart and Randy Street
104
1.Strategic.Priority.Period.
105
1A
106
1 cause ofDis-satisfaction?
107
Employee retention satisfaction
Overwhelmingly, based on the first-line
manager!Source Marcus Buckingham Curt
Coffman, First, Break All the Rules What the
Worlds Greatest Managers Do Differently
108
1B
109
2/year legacy.
110
Sea Change
111
Forget China, India and the Internet Economic
Growth Is Driven by Women. Headline,
Economist, April 15, 2006, Leader, page 14
112
One thing is certain Womens rise to power,
which is linked to the increase in wealth per
capita, is happening in all domains and at all
levels of society. Women are no longer content to
provide efficient labor or to be consumers with
rising budgets and more autonomy to spend.
This is just the beginning. The phenomenon will
only grow as girls prove to be more successful
than boys in the school system. For a number of
observers, we have already entered the age of
womenomics, the economy as thought out and
practiced by a woman. Aude Zieseniss de Thuin,
Financial Times
113
Tea Power
114
Give good tea!
115
Allied commands depend on mutual confidence
and this confidence is gained, above all
through the development of friendships.
General D.D. Eisenhower, Armchair General
(05.08)Perhaps his most outstanding ability
at West Point was the ease with which he made
friends and earned the trust of fellow cadets
who came from widely varied backgrounds it was
a quality that would pay great dividends during
his future coalition command.
116
?
117
I regard apologizing as the most magical,
healing, restorative gesture human beings can
make. It is the centerpiece of my work with
executives who want to get better. Marshall
Goldsmith, What Got You Here Wont Get You There
How Successful People Become Even More Successfu.
118
Relationships (of all varieties) THERE ONCE WAS
A TIME WHEN A THREE-MINUTE PHONE CALL WOULD HAVE
AVOIDED SETTING OFF THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL THAT
RESULTED IN A COMPLETE RUPTURE.

119
THE PROBLEM IS RARELY/NEVER THE PROBLEM. THE
RESPONSE TO THE PROBLEM INVARIABLY ENDS UP BEING
THE REAL PROBLEM. PERCEPTION IS ALL THERE IS!

120
Courtesies of a small and trivial character are
the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and
appreciating heart. Henry Clay
121
eighty percent of success is showing up.
Woody Allen
122
Profitable
123
We are thoughtful in all we do.
124
Thoughtfulness is key to customer
retention. Thoughtfulness is key to employee
recruitment and satisfaction. Thoughtfulness
is key to brand perception. Thoughtfulness is key
to your ability to look in the mirrorand tell
your kids about your job. Thoughtfulness is
free. Thoughtfulness is key to speeding things
up it reduces friction. Thoughtfulness is key
to transparency and even cost containmentit
abets rather than stifles truth-telling.
125
none!
126
Press Ganey Assoc 139,380 former patients from
225 hospitalsnone of THE top 15 factors
determining Patient Satisfaction referred to
patients health outcomeP.S. directly related
to Staff InteractionP.P.S. directly correlated
with Employee Satisfaction Source Putting
Patients First, Susan Frampton, Laura Gilpin,
Patrick Charmel
127
Kindness is free.
128
TGR
129
2-cent candy
130
Commerce Bank From Service to Experience7X.
730A-800P. F12A.
131
Experiences are as distinct from services as
services are from goods. Joe Pine Jim
Gilmore, The Experience Economy Work Is Theatre
Every Business a Stage
132
ltTGWvs. gtTGRThings Gone WRONG/Things Gone
RIGHT
133
Difficult Times
134
On NELSON other admirals more frightened of
losing than anxious to win
135
-Costs RD Sales Marketing
136
Excellence. Always.
137
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. (Vibratecause
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 opinionsthe 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 persons shoesuntil the soles
have holes!) Experience. (Life is theater! Make
every activity-contact memorable! Standard
Insanely
Great/Steve Jobs Radically Thrilling/BMW.) Eli
minate. (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
booboosall 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 purposethe core of Aristotles 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?)
138
Excellence. Always. If not Excellence, what? If
not Excellence now, when?
139
The greatest dangerfor most of usis not that
our aim istoo highand we miss it,but that it
istoo lowand we reach it.Michelangelo