Tom Peters Seminar2001

THINK “WEIRD”: The High Standard

Deviation EnterpriseVersion 02.06.01

BASIC PREMISE: Nothing worries me more in 2001 than RENEWAL. Personal. Organizational. Hence this presentation. To renew is to “GO WEIRD.” That’s what I’ve come to believe. It’s almost this

simple: Have lunch with the SAME PEOPLE you “always have lunch with” …

and you won’t grow an iota. This annotated presentation is basically an expansion of the powerful [it turns out]

“LUNCH WEIRD” idea!

Renewal = The Weird 10 = The “High S.D.” Enterprise/IndividualPioneer [Weird] Acquisitions

Pioneer [Weird] Customers & Alliance Partners [Measure the Customer-Partner Portfolios’ S.D./Weirdness Index]

Divide & Conquer/“Sell-by” [Lessons from the Bees, Sir Richard, Gary H.]

Pioneer Assignments/Pioneer Projects/Pioneer Partners [F2F: Freak-to-Freak/ 4F: Find a Fellow Freak Faraway]

Hire Weird [Diversity]/Train Weird/Promote Weird/Pay Gobs & Promote Fast & Cherish “Six Sigma” Talent/Appoint a Weird Board

Weed Un-weird [“One Sigma” “Talent,” etc.]

Hang out with Weird [Univ. of Weird]/Lunch with Weird/Read & Surf Weird/Vacate Weird

R.A.F. to R.F.A. to F.F.F. [O.O.D.A. Loops/Prototyping Mania]

Sense of Humor [Rhapsodize Over Thine Cool Failures!]

Re-enforce a “Culture of Disrespect”/PassionatePiracy

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

Enron’s secret: the Memoryless Enterprise

Saviors-in-Waiting

Disgruntled CustomersFringe CompetitorsRogue Employees

Edge SuppliersWayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision: Beat the

Competition by Focusing on Fringe Competitors, Lost Customers, and Rogue

Employees

“Enormous sums of money are invested to reduce cycle time, improve quality,

reengineer … Much of this money is simply wasted. The waste is due to companies’

inability to develop wide-angle vision and tap into the … power of the edge.”

Wayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision: Beat the Competition by Focusing on Fringe

Competitors, Lost Customers, and Rogue Employees

“Corporate consciousness is predictably centered around the

mainstream. The best customers, biggest competitors, and model

employees are almost invariably the focus of attention.”

Wayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision: Beat the Competition by Focusing on Fringe Competitors,

Lost Customers, and Rogue Employees

Fighter Pilots … Snipers … Secret Service Agents:

“Splatter Vision” [don’t become too focused]

Wayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision: Beat the Competition by Focusing on Fringe Competitors,

Lost Customers, and Rogue Employees

Benchmarking, Perils of …“The best swordsman in the world doesn’t need to fear the second best swordsman in the world; no, the person for him to be afraid of is some ignorant antagonist who has never had a sword in his hand before;

he doesn’t do the thing he ought to do, and so the expert isn’t prepared for him; he does the thing he ought not to do and often it catches the expert out and ends

him on the spot.” Mark Twain

1. Pioneer [Weird] Acquisitions

“When asked to name just one big merger that had lived up to expectations, Leon

Cooperman, former cochairman of Goldman Sachs’ Investment Policy Committee, answered: I’m sure

there are success stories out there, but at this

moment I draw a blank.”Mark Sirower, The Synergy Trap

“Acquisitions are about buying market share. Our challenge is to create markets. There is a big difference.”

Peter Job, CEO, Reuters

“Our ideal acquisition is a small startup that has a great technology product on the drawing board that is going to come out in six to twelve months. We buy the engineers and the next generation product. …”

John Chambers, Cisco

2. Pioneer [Weird] Customers & Alliance Partners [MEASURE the

Customer-Partner Portfolio’s S.D./Weirdness Index]

“If you worship at the throne of the voice of the customer, you’ll get only

incremental advances.”Joseph Morone, President,

Bentley College

“The ‘surplus society’ has a surplus of similar companies, employing similar people, with similar

educational backgrounds, coming up with similar ideas, producing

similar things, with similar prices and similar quality.”

Kjell Nordstrom and Jonas Ridderstrale, Funky Business

“These days, you can’t succeed as a company if you’re consumer led –

because in a world so full of so much constant change, consumers can’t

anticipate the next big thing. Companies should be idea-

led and consumer-informed.”

Doug Atkin, partner, Merkley Newman Harty

“Our strategies must be tied to leading edge

customers on the attack. If we focus on the defensive

customers, we will also become defensive.”John Roth, CEO, Nortel

“There is an ominous downside to strategic supplier relationships. An

SSR supplier is not likely to function as any more than a mirror to your organization. Fringe suppliers that offer innovative business practices

need not apply.”

Wayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision: Beat the Competition by Focusing on Fringe

Competitors, Lost Customers, and Rogue Employees

“Companies have defined so much ‘best practice’

that they are now more or less identical.”

Jesper Kunde, A Unique Moment

Elliott Masie, on desirable e-Learning vendors: “I want a ‘sandbox partner,’ someone

who will openly say, ‘This is not the last word; we

don’t know exactly where we’re going.’ ”

Funky Business: “To succeed we must stop being so goddamn

normal. In a winner-takes-all world,

normal = nothing.”

“We make over three new product announcements a

day. Can you remember them?

Our customers can’t!”Carly Fiorina

“Future-defining customers may account

for only 2% to 3% of your total, but they represent a crucial window on the

future.”Adrian Slywotzky, Mercer Consultants

“The future has already happened. It’s

just not evenly distributed.”Adrian Slywotzky

3. Divide & Conquer/ “Sell By” [Lessons from the

Bees/ Sir Richard/ Gary H.]

Lessons from the Bees!“Since merger mania is now the rage, what lessons can

the bees teach us? A simple one: Merging is not in nature. [Nature’s] process is the exact opposite: one of

growth, fragmentation and dispersal. There is no megalomania, no merging for merging’s sake. The point

is that unlike corporations, which just get bigger, bee colonies know when the time has come to split up into smaller colonies which can grow value faster. What

the bees are telling us is that the corporate world has got it all wrong.”

David Lascelles, Co-director of The Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation [UK]

The Gales of Creative Destruction

+29M = -44M + 73M

+4M = +4M - 0M

“The Futility of Size …

“[Regarding this issue] the new process of virtualization fully asserts itself. Virtualization is the recognition

that territorial size does not solve economic problems. … Economic

access must become the substitute for increasing domain.”

Richard Rosecrance, The Rise of the Virtual State

“The Word(s)” on Vitality: Gary Hamel

“Sell By” [jettison old crap]

Spin Out [support entrepreneurs]

Spin In [buy young firms]

The Cortez Strategy!

“The secret of fast progress is

inefficiency, fast and furious and numerous

failures.”Kevin Kelly

RM: “A lot of companies in the Valley fail.”

RN: “Maybe not enough fail.”RM: “What do you mean by that?”RN: “Whenever you fail, it means

you’re trying new things.”

Source: Fast Company

Jane Jacobs: Exuberant Variety vs. the Great Blight of

Dullness. F.A. Hayek: Spontaneous

Discovery. Joseph

Schumpeter: the Gales of Creative Destruction.

Built to Last v. Built to Flip“The problem with Built to Last is that it’s a

romantic notion. Large companies are incapable of ongoing innovation, of

ongoing flexibility.”“Increasingly, successful businesses will be ephemeral. They will be built to yield

something of value – and once that value has been exhausted, they will vanish.”

Fast Company (03-00)

“But what if [former head of strategic planning at Royal Dutch Shell] Arie de Geus is wrong in suggesting, in The Living Company, that firms

should aspire to live forever? Greatness is fleeting and, for corporations, it will become

ever more fleeting. The ultimate aim of a business organization, an artist, an athlete or a stockbroker may be to explode in a dramatic

frenzy of value creation during a short space of time, rather than to live forever.”

Kjell Nordstrom and Jonas Ridderstrale, Funky Business

4. Pioneer Assignments/ Pioneer Projects/ Pioneer Partners [F2F: Freak-2-Freak/ 4F: Find a Fellow Freak Faraway]

Topic: Boss-free

Implementation of STM /Stuff That

MATTERS!Version 07.20.00

“This is all I ‘know’ in the

world!”Tom Peters

THE IDEA

“4Fs”: Find a

Fellow Freak

Faraway

World’s Biggest Waste …

Selling “Up”

Recruit [a/a = 1] Friend [in the Boondocks]

Skip [Flip off] the Hierarchy!Recruit [A]nother Friend!Do Some Cool Shit! Fast!

Surround the Bastards [with WOW WINS/ results]!

Heart of the Matter

K2K!**Kook to Kook

[Or: F2F/Freak to Freak]

And for the 6-Person Group??

Send one “Cool Dude/Dudette” out to Find Something Cool, work

with a Cool Customer, etc. [The “Micro-Skunkworks Strategy”]

THE NUGGET

Do Something. Do Anything.

Get Going.Now.

Opportunity ALWAYS Knocks

VFCJ* “Strategy”

*Volunteer For Crappy Jobs

Is It …

“The Oh-Shit-I-Wish-It-Were-Over Memorial Day picnic”

or

“The First Annual Seriously Kewl Celebration of Our

Incredible Staff”

Is It …Wrestle the damn Safety Manual into line

with the ridiculous new OSHA Regs?

Or …

A stealth opportunity to address the War for Talent via … a thoroughgoing review

of how safety and environmental issues contribute to making this a

Great Place to Work?

Is It …Fix these bloody customer problems that

have cropped up with the new 2783B?Or …

A chance to work with a hotshot, young division GM on …

using the Internet/Internet Speed to revisit the entire process of how we get customer input – before and during the fact – into the

heart of the Product Design Process?

Reframers’ Rules:

Rule 1: Never accept an assignment as given! (Please.)

Rule 2: You’re never so powerful as when you are “powerless”!

Rule 3: Every “small” project contains the entire

enterprise DNA!

THE SOFT STUFF Show Up!Connect!

Message: It’s Community

Organizing, stupid!

See: Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals

Are You a …

Viral Enthusiast?

Message2000“The point is the

passion!”Charles Handy

The greatest dangerfor most of us

is not that our aim istoo high

and we miss it,but that it is

too lowand we reach it.

Michelangelo

Epitaph from Hell … Epitaph from Hell …

Thomas J. Peters Thomas J. Peters

1942 - 20011942 - 2001

HE WOULDA DONE SOME HE WOULDA DONE SOME

REALLY COOL STUFF REALLY COOL STUFF

BUT …BUT …

HIS BOSS WOULDN’T LET HIM! HIS BOSS WOULDN’T LET HIM!

Characteristics of the “Also Rans”“Minimize Risk”

“Support the Boss”“Respect the Chain of Command”

“Make Budget”

Source: Fortune on “Most Admired Global Corporations” [10.26.98]

Ann Richards’ Dogma

Show up! Know your story!

Put yourself at risk every day!

2010 “Demographics”:

By 2010, full-time workers will be in the

minoritySource: MIT study (28August2000)

“The fundamental unit of the new economy is not the corporation, but the individual. Tasks aren’t assigned and controlled through a stable chain of command but are carried out autonomously by

independent contractors - e-lancers - who join together in fluid and temporary networks to sell goods and services. When the job is done, the network dissolves and its members become independent again, circulating through the economy, seeking the next assignment.”

Thomas Malone and Robert Laubacher

“If there is nothing very special about your work, no matter how hard you apply

yourself, you won’t get noticed, and that

increasingly means you won’t get paid much either.”

Michael Goldhaber, Wired

“You are the storyteller of your own life, and you

can create your own legend or not.”

Isabel Allende

5. Hire Weird [Diversity]/ Train Weird/ Promote

Weird/ Pay Gobs & Promote Fast & Cherish

“Six Sigma” Talent/ Appoint a Weird Board

“When land was the productive asset, nations

battled over it. The same is happening now for talented people.”

Stan Davis & Christopher Meyer, futureWEALTH

From “1, 2 or 3” [JW] to … “Best talent in each

industry segment to build best proprietary intangibles” [EM]

Source: Ed Michaels, War for Talent (05.17.00)

Home Depot: 7 new growth initiatives ($20B to $100B in 5-7 years)

Arthur Blank: BEST PERSON IN THE WORLD TO HEAD EACH

INITIATIVEE.g.: COO of IKEA to head

international expansionEd Michaels, War for Talent (05.17.00)

So-so plant manager, $1M per year. Pay: $110,000 plus $60,000. Top plant manager,

$3-4M per year. Pay: $135,000 plus $90,000. Net:

$2-3M for $50K.Source: Ed Michaels et al., The War for

Talent, re Georgia Pacific

“Top performing companies are two to four times more likely than the rest to pay what it

takes to prevent losing top performers.”

Ed Michaels, War for Talent (05.17.00)

“We value engineers like professional athletes. We value great people at 10 times an average person

in their function.”Jerry Yang, Yahoo

“The Rise of the Teen Guru”“They’re brilliant, ambitious,

and almost intuitively gifted at technology. A new generation

of whiz kids are gaining unprecedented power and

authority.”Source: Cover story, Brill’s Content, 7-8/00

“Why focus on these late teens and twenty-somethings? Because they are the first

young who are both in a position to change the world, and are actually doing so. … For the first time in history, children are more comfortable, knowledgeable and literate than their parents about an innovation central to society. … The Internet has

triggered the first industrial revolution in history to be led by the young.”

The Economist [12/00]

“Where do good new ideas come from? That’s simple! From

differences. Creativity comes from unlikely juxtapositions.

The best way to maximize differences is to mix ages, cultures and

disciplines.”Nicholas Negroponte

“Diversity defines the health and wealth of nations in a new century.

Mighty is the mongrel. … The hybrid is hip. The impure, the mélange, the adulterated, the

blemished, the rough, the black-and-blue, the mix-and-match – these people are inheriting

the earth. Mixing is the new norm. Mixing trumps isolation. It spawns creativity,

nourishes the human spirit, spurs economic growth

and empowers nations.”G. Pascal Zachary, The Global Me: New

Cosmopolitans and the Competitive Edge

“AS LEADERS, WOMEN RULE: New Studies find that female managers

outshine their male counterparts in almost

every measure”Title, Special Report, Business Week, 11.20.00

“On average, women and men possess a number of different innate skills. And current trends suggest that many sectors of the twenty-

first-century economic community are going to need the natural

talents of women.”Helen Fisher, The First Sex: The Natural Talents of

Women and How They Are Changing the World

The Cracked Ones Let in the Light“Our business needs a massive

transfusion of talent, and talent, I believe, is most likely to be found

among non-conformists, dissenters and rebels.”

David Ogilvy

Axiom: Never hire anyone without an aberration in their

background!

The NAESP …

Attributes of Those Who “Made” the 10th Grade History Book

– Committed!– Determined to make a difference!– Focused!– Passionate! – Irrational about their life’s project!– Ahead of their time / Paradigm busters!– Impatient! / Action Obsessed

Attributes of Those Who “Made” the 10th Grade History Book

–Made lots of people mad!–Flouted the chain of command!–Creative / Quirky / Peculiar! / Rebels! /

Irreverent!–Masters of improv / Thrive on chaos

/ Exploit chaos!

Attributes of Those Who “Made” the 10th Grade History Book

–Forgiveness > Permission–Bone honest!–Flawed as the dickens!– “In touch” with their followers’

aspirations –Damn good at what they do!

“Whoever is the most impertinent

has the best chance.”

W.A. Mozart

6. Weed Un-weird [“One-sigma” “Talent,” etc.]

“We believe companies can increase their market cap 50 percent in 3 years. Steve

Macadam at Georgia Pacific changed 20 of his 40 box plant managers to put

more talented, higher paid managers in charge. He increased

profitability from $25 million to $80 million in 2 years.”

Ed Michaels, War for Talent (05.17.00)

7. Hang Out with Weird [University of Weird]/ Lunch

with Weird/ Read & Surf Weird/ Vacate Weird

See pp157-162, The Brand You50

A 50List within a 50List: The Renewal50

8. R.A.F. to R.F.A. to F.F.F. [O.O.D.A. Loops/

Prototyping Mania]

“Strategy meetings held once or twice a year” to “Strategy meetings needed several

times a week”

Source: New York Times on Meg Whitman/eBay

Culture of Prototyping

“Effective prototyping may be the most valuable

core competence an innovative organization can

hope to have.”Michael Schrage

“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

Think about It!?

Innovation = Reaction to the Prototype

Michael Schrage

He who has the quickest O.O.D.A.

Loops* wins!*Observe. Orient. Decide. Act. /

Col. John Boyd

Secret:

Creating the …Rhythm of Prototyping

9. Sense of Humor [Rhapsodize Over Thine Cool

Failures!]

“Success is the ability to go from failure to

failure without losing your enthusiasm.”

Winston Churchill (as quoted by John Peterman)

Fail. Forward.

Fast.

High-tech exec, PA

10. Re-enforce a “Culture of Disrespect”/

Passionate Piracy

“You must be the change you wish

to see in the world.”

Gandhi

“I’d rather regret the things I have done than the things I have not.”

Lucille Ball

“Learn not to be careful” - Photographer Diane Arbus

to her students

“Follow Your Fear” – Poet Rainer Maria Rilke

(Careful = The sidelines, per Harriet Rubin in The Princessa)

“If you ask me what I have come to do in this world, I

who am an artist, I will reply, I am here to live my

life out loud.”Emile Zola

Have you changed civilization today?

Source: HP banner ad

Insouciance and Innovation as Brand Position

Virgin/BransonCisco Systems

Nokia3M

Apple(MCI)(HP)

(Snapple)

Renewal = The Weird 10 = The “High S.D.” Enterprise/IndividualPioneer [Weird] Acquisitions

Pioneer [Weird] Customers & Alliance Partners [Measure the Customer-Partner Portfolios’ S.D./Weirdness Index]

Divide & Conquer/“Sell-by” [Lessons from the Bees, Sir Richard, Gary H.]

Pioneer Assignments/Pioneer Projects/Pioneer Partners [F2F: Freak-to-Freak/ 4F: Find a Fellow Freak Faraway]

Hire Weird [Diversity]/Train Weird/Promote Weird/Pay Gobs & Promote Fast & Cherish “Six Sigma” Talent/Appoint a Weird Board

Weed Un-weird [“One Sigma” “Talent,” etc.]

Hang out with Weird [Univ. of Weird]/Lunch with Weird/Read & Surf Weird/Vacate Weird

R.A.F. to R.F.A. to F.F.F. [O.O.D.A. Loops/Prototyping Mania]

Sense of Humor [Rhapsodize Over Thine Cool Failures!]

Re-enforce a “Culture of Disrespect”/PassionatePiracy

Button-down Org H.S.D.E. . • Acquire for market share• Suck up to biggest customers• Pursue “strategic vendors”• Bigger is better• Accept assignments as given• Hire 4.0s from “top schools”• Promote when they’ve “paid their

dues”• Appoint a “prestigious” board

• Hang out with my pals• R.A.F.• Be “professional” at all

times/Honor thine elders

• Acquire for innovation• Partner with cool customers• Seek out pioneering vendors• Break it up … to refresh• Reframe all tasks to innovate• Hire “intriguing,” wherever• Promote tomorrow if the work

product is weird and WOW• Appoint an interesting,

headstrong board• Take a freak to lunch today• F.F.F.• Stay loose, stay cool/The hell

with thine elders