Tom Peters’ Excellence! NOW! Discover Network/Acquirer Advisory Council

1. “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

2. “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

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

4. “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

5. Tom Peters’ Excellence! NOW! Discover Network/Acquirer Advisory Council JW Marriott Chicago/14 September 2011 (Presentation/Presentation LONG @ tompeters.com)

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

7. 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”

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

9. “‘hard’ is ‘soft.’ ‘soft’ is ‘hard.’”

10. REALLY First Things Before First Things

11. #1

12. If the regimental commander lost most of his 2nd lieutenants and 1st lieutenants and captains and majors, it would be a tragedy. If he lost his sergeants it would be a catastrophe. The Army and the Navy are fully aware that success on the battlefield is dependent to an extraordinary degree on its Sergeants and Chief Petty Officers. Does industry have the same awareness?

13. #2

14. XFX = #1* *Cross-Functional eXcellence

15. Never waste a lunch!

16. “Allied commands depend on mutual confidence and this confidence is gained, above all through thedevelopment offriendships.” —General D.D. Eisenhower, Armchair General* *“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.”

17. XFX/Typical Social Accelerators 1. EVERYONE’s [more or less] JOB #1: Make friends in other functions! (Purposefully. Consistently. Measurably.) 2. “Do lunch” with people in other functions!! Frequently!! (Minimum 10% to 25% for everyone? Measured.) 3. Ask peers in other functions for references so you can become conversant in their world. (It’s one helluva sign of ... GIVE-A-DAMN-ism.) 4. Religiously invite counterparts in other functions to your team meetings. Ask them to present “cool stuff” from “their world” to your group. (Useful. Mark of respect.) 5. PROACTIVELY SEEK EXAMPLES OF “TINY” ACTS OF “XFX” TO ACKNOWLEDGE—PRIVATELY AND PUBLICALLY. (Bosses: ONCE A DAY … make a short call or visit or send an email of “Thanks” for some sort of XFX gesture by your folks and some other function’s folks.) 6. Present counterparts in other functions awards for service to your group. Tiny awards at least weekly; and an “AnnualAll-Star Supporters [from other groups] Banquet” modeled after superstar salesperson banquets.

18. #3

19. “The doctor interrupts after …* *Source: Jerome Groopman, How Doctors Think

20. 18 …

21. 18 … seconds!

22. [An obsession with] Listening is ... the ultimate mark of Respect. Listening is ... the heart and soul of Engagement. Listening is ... the heart and soul of Kindness. Listening is ... the heart and soul of Thoughtfulness. Listening is ... the basis for true Collaboration. Listening is ... the basis for true Partnership. Listening is ... a Team Sport. Listening is ... a Developable Individual Skill.* (*Though women are far better at it than men.) Listening is ... the basis forCommunity. Listening is ... the bedrock of Joint Ventures that work. Listening is ... the bedrock of Joint Ventures thatgrow. Listening is ... the core of effective Cross-functional Communication* (*Which is in turn Attribute #1 of organizational effectiveness.) [cont.]

23. Message: Listening is a … profession!

24. #4

25. Meetings = #1 leadership opportunity

26. Meeting:Every meeting that does not stir the imagination and curiosity of attendees and increase bonding and co-operation and engagement and sense of worth and motivate rapid action and enhance enthusiasm is a permanently lost opportunity.

27. Stuff Your Grandmother Taught You That Somehow Got Lost in the [Frenetic] Shuffle

28. Press Ganey Assoc:139,380 former patients from 225 hospitals:noneof THE top 15 factors determining Patient Satisfaction referred to patient’s health outcome.Instead:directly related to StaffInteraction;directly correlated with Employee SatisfactionSource: Putting Patients First, Susan Frampton, Laura Gilpin, Patrick Charmel

29. “Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart.”—Henry Clay,American Statesman (1777-1852)"Let's not forget that small emotions are the great captains of our lives."–—Van Gogh

30. “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 Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful.

31. With a new and forthcoming policy on apologies … Toro, the lawn mower folks, reduced the average cost of settling a claim from$115,000in 1991 to$35,000in 2008 …and the company hasn’t been to trial in the last 15 years!

32. K = R = P

33. Kindness = Repeat Business = Profit.

34. People 1stPeople 2ndPeople 3rdPeople 4thPeople 5thPeople 6th

35. “You have to treat your employees like customers.”—Herb Kelleher, upon being asked his “secret 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 picketingAA’s Annual Meeting)

36. "When I hire someone, that's when I go to work for them.”—John DiJulius, What's the Secret? To Providing a World-Class Customer Experience

37. "If you want staff to give great service, give great service to staff."—Ari Weinzweig, Zingerman's

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

39. The Memories That Matter The people you developed who went on to stellar accomplishments inside or outside the company. The (no more than) two or three people you developed who went on to create stellar institutions of their own. The long shots (people with “a certain something”) you bet on who surprised themselves—and your peers. The people of all stripes who 2/5/10/20 years later say “You made a difference in my life,” “Your belief in me changed everything.” The sort of/character of people you hired in general. (And the bad apples you chucked out despite some stellar traits.) A handful of projects (a half dozen at most) you doggedly pursued that still make you smile and which fundamentally changed the way things are done inside or outside the company/industry. The supercharged camaraderie of a handful of Great Teams aiming to “change the world.”

40. 25

41. MBWAManaging By Wandering Around/HP

42. #4:WALK

43. “We have a ‘strategic plan.’ It’s called ‘doing things.’” —HK

44. READY.FIRE!AIM.H. Ross Perot (vs “Aim! Aim! Aim!”/EDS vs GM/1985)

45. “Experiment fearlessly”Source: BusinessWeek, “Type A Organization Strategies: How to Hit a Moving Target”—Tactic #1“relentless trial and error” Source: Wall Street Journal, cornerstone of effective approach to “rebalancing” company portfolios in the face of changing and uncertain global economic conditions (11.08.10)

46. 1/45

47. Lesson45: WTTMSW

48. Whoever Tries The Most Stuff Wins

49. “You miss 100% of the shots you never take.”—WayneGretzky

50. “Rose gardeners face a choice every spring. The long-term fate of a rose garden depends on this decision. If you want to have the largest and most glorious roses of the neighborhood, you will prune hard. This represents a policy of low tolerance and tight control. You force the plant to make the maximum use of its available resources, by putting them into the the rose’s ‘core business.’ Pruning hard is a dangerous policy in an unpredictable environment. Thus, if you are in a spot where you know nature may play tricks on you, you may opt for a policy of high tolerance. You will never have the biggest roses, but you have a much-enhanced chance of having roses every year. You will achieve a gradual renewal of the plant. In short, tolerant pruning achieves two ends: (1) It makes it easier to cope with unexpected environmental changes. (2) It leads to a continuous restructuring of the plant. The policy of tolerance admittedly wastes resources—the extra buds drain away nutrients from the main stem. But in an unpredictable environment, this policy of tolerance makes the rose healthier in the long run.”—Arie De Geus, The Living Company