Tom Peters’ Individual Challenge 2015: ENTREPRENEURIAL EXCELLENCE !

1. Tom Peters’ Individual Challenge 2015: ENTREPRENEURIAL EXCELLENCE! The Guardian Life Insurance Company Boston/05 November 2015 (10+ years of presentation slides at tompeters.com; also see our annotated 23-part Master Compendium at excellencenow.com)

2. CONRADHILTON, at a gala celebrating his career, was called to the podium and asked,“What were the most important lessons you learned in your long and distinguished career?”His answer …

3. “Remember to tuck the shower curtain inside the bathtub.”

4. Tom Peters’ Individual Challenge 2015: ENTREPRENEURIAL EXCELLENCE! The Guardian Life Insurance Company Boston/05 November 2015 (10+ years of presentation slides at tompeters.com; also see our annotated 23-part Master Compendium at excellencenow.com)

5. “Human level capability has not turned out to be a special stopping point from an engineering perspective.” —Illah Reza Nourbakhsh, Robot Futures/2013 “SOFTWARE IS EATING THE WORLD.” —Marc Andreessen/2014 “The computers are in control. We just live in their world.”—Danny Hillis, Thinking Machines/2011 “THE INTELLECTUAL TALENTS OF HIGHLY TRAINED PROFESSIONALS ARE NO MORE PROTECTED FROM AUTOMATION THAN IS THE DRIVER’S LEFT TURN.”—Nicholas Carr, The Glass Cage: Automation and Us

6. A PEERLESS ENTREPRENEURIAL/ GROWTH ADVENTURE PERFECTLY SUITED FOR THE TIMES. 10X BETTER THAN A GOOGLE JOB. (YOUR JOB #1: MENTOR, NOT “BIZ BOSS”)

7. PEOPLESTUFF

8. PEOPLE BEFORE STRATEGY

9. “PEOPLE BEFORE STRATEGY” —Lead article, Harvard Business Review. July-August 2015, by Ram Charan, Dominic Barton, and Dennis Carey

10. “Business has to give people enriching, rewarding lives …

11. 1/4,096: excellencenow.com “Business has to give people enriching, rewarding lives … or it's simply not worth doing.” —Richard Branson

12. “We are a ‘LifeSuccess’ Company.”Dave Liniger, founder, RE/MAX

13. “The organization would ultimately win not because it gave agents more money, but because it gave them a chance for better lives.”—Phil Harkins & Keith Hollihan, Everybody Wins (the story of RE/MAX)

14. “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)

15. Rocket Science. NOT. “If you want staff to give great service, give great service to staff.” —Ari Weinzweig, Zingerman’s Source: Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big, Bo Burlingham

16. 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

17. Profit Through Putting People First Business Book Club Nice Companies Finish First: Why Cutthroat Management Is Over—and Collaboration Is In, by Peter Shankman with Karen Kelly Uncontainable: How Passion, Commitment, and Conscious Capitalism Built a Business Where Everyone Thrives, by Kip Tindell, CEO Container Store Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business, by John Mackey, CEO Whole Foods, and Raj Sisodia Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose, by Raj Sisodia, Jag Sheth, and David Wolfe The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs and Boost Profits, by Zeynep Ton, MIT Joy, Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love, by Richard Sheridan, CEO Menlo Innovations Employees First, Customers Second: Turning Conventional Management Upside Down, by Vineet Nayar, CEO, HCL Technologies Patients Come Second: Leading Change By Changing the Way You Lead by Paul Spiegelman & Britt Berrett The Customer Comes Second: Put Your People First and Watch ’Em Kick Butt, by Hal Rosenbluth, former CEO, Rosenbluth International It’s Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy, by Mike Abrashoff, former commander, USS Benfold Turn This Ship Around; How to Create Leadership at Every Level, by L. David Marquet, former commander, SSN Santa Fe Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big, by Bo Burlingham Hidden Champions: Success Strategies of Unknown World Market Leaders, by Hermann Simon Retail Superstars: Inside the 25 Best Independent Stores in America, by George Whalin Joy at Work: A Revolutionary Approach to Fun on the Job, by Dennis Bakke, former CEO, AES Corporation The Dream Manager, by Matthew Kelly The Soft Edge: Where Great Companies Find Lasting Success, by Rich Karlgaard, publisher, Forbes Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, by Tony Hsieh, Zappos Camellia: A Very Different Company Fans, Not Customers: How to Create Growth Companies in a No Growth World, by Vernon Hill Like a Virgin: Secrets They Won’t Teach You at Business School, by Richard Branson

18. THE MORAL IMPERATIVE:PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT

19. CORPORATE MANDATE #1 2015:Your principal moral obligation as a leader is to develop the skillset, “soft” and “hard,” of every one of the people in your charge (temporary as well as semi-permanent) to the maximum extent of your abilities. The bonus: This is also the#1 mid- to long-term … profit maximization strategy!

20. The Memories That Matter

21. 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.”

22. James J. Jones 1940 – 2015 Net Worth$21,543,672.48

23. 4.6 Training = Investment#1!

24. 2X

25. In the Army, 3-star generals worry about training. In most businesses, it's a “ho-hum” mid-level staff function.

26. What is the #1 reason to go berserk over training?

27. What is the best reason to go bananas over training?GREED. (It pays off.) (Also: Training should be an official part of the R&D budget and a capital expense.)

28. Brand You.No Option.

29. The Brand You50: Fifty Ways to Transform Yourself from an “Employee” into a Brand That Shouts Distinction, Commitment, and Passion!

30. Muhammad Yunus: “ALL HUMAN BEINGS ARE ENTREPRENEURS. When we were in the caves we were all self-employed . . . finding our food, feeding ourselves. That’s where human history began . . . As civilization came we suppressed it. We became labor because they stamped us, ‘You are labor.’ We forgot that we are entrepreneurs.”

31. "The illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn."—Alvin Toffler

32. VALUE ADDED STRATEGIES

33. TGRs & the “8/80” Fiasco:Towards “EXPERIENCES” That Rock!(& Are Remembered)

34. Customers describing their service experience as “superior”: 8% Companies describing the service experience they provide as “superior”: 80% —Source: Bain & Company survey of 362 companies, reported in John DiJulius, What's the Secret to Providing a World-class Customer Experience?

35. Conveyance: Kingfisher Air Location: Approach to New Delhi

36. “May I clean your glasses, sir?”

37. “Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart.”—Henry Clay

38. <TGWand …>TGR(Things Gone WRONG-Things Gone RIGHT)

39. Get ’Em Away From the ATM and Into the Branches:7X. 7:30A-8:00P. Fri/12A.7:30AM = 7:15AM.8:00PM = 8:15PM.(+2,000,000 dog biscuits)Source: Vernon Hill, Fans, Not Customers (the story of Commerce Bank, the folks who revolutionized East Coast retail banking)

40. NOT “Consultant-ese”“Experiencesare as distinct from services as services are from goods.”—Joe Pine & Jim Gilmore, The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage

41. “At our core, we’re a coffee company, but the opportunity we have to extend the brand is beyond coffee.IT’S ENTERTAINMENT.”—Howard Schultz“When Pete Rozelle ran the NFL, it was a football business and a good one.NOW IT’S TRULY AN ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS.”—Paul Much, Investment AdvisorFrom George Whalin’s Retail Superstars: Jungle Jim’s International Market, Fairfield, OH, AN ADVENTURE IN“SHOPPERTAINMENT.”Boston Globe: “Why did you [Berkshire Hathaway] buyJordan’s Furniture?”Warren Buffett: “Jordan’s is spectacular.IT’S ALL SHOWMANSHIP.”

42. TGRs LBTs***************************LittleBIG Things

43. TGRs (on steroids):L(Very)BTs

44. Big carts = 1.5X Source: Walmart

45. Las Vegas Casino/2X:“When Friedmanslightly curvedthe right angle of an entrance corridor to one property, he was ‘amazed at the magnitude of change in pedestrian behavior’—the percentage who entered increased fromone-thirdto nearlytwo-thirds.” —Natasha Dow Schull, Addiction By Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas

46. 3 Minutes

47. THE PROBLEM IS RARELY/NEVER THE PROBLEM. THERESPONSETO THE PROBLEM INVARIABLY ENDS UP BEING THE REAL PROBLEM. (OPPORTUNITY).

48. Relationships (of all varieties):THERE ONCE WAS A TIME WHEN A THREE-MINUTEPHONECALL WOULD HAVE AVOIDED SETTING OFF THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL THAT RESULTED IN A COMPLETE RUPTURE.* *Divorce, loss of a BILLION $$$ aircraft sale, etc., etc.

49. 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 last15 years!

50. TGRs: 18