Slides* at … tompeters *Also LONG

1. Tom Peters’ X25*EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.Bloomberg Leadership Series/School of Public HealthJohns Hopkins University/02 April 2007*In Search of Excellence 1982-2007

2. Slides* at …tompeters.com*Also LONG

3. “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

4. “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”—Charles Darwin

5. Importance of Success Factors by Various“Gurus”/(Unreliable) Estimates by Tom PetersStrategySystemsPeoplePassionPorter 50%20 20 10 Drucker 25% 35 25 15 Bennis 25% 20 30 25 Peters 15% 20 3530

6. “Hard” Stuff/Analysis & planning: 25%“Soft” Stuff/people &Politics & Passion & execution: 75%

7. Disease/Branch of Medicine vs Health/Social Reform/Prevention via Community EffortResearch vs Running a Health DepartmentSpecialized Education vs Popular EducationGermans vs EnglishWickliffe Rose vs William WelchHaaavad vs JHU

8. Why in the World did you go to Siberia?

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. The Peters Principles: Enthusiasm. Emotion. Excellence. Energy. Excitement. Service. Growth. Creativity. Imagination. Vitality. Joy. Surprise. Independence. Spirit. Community. Limitless human potential. Diversity. Innovation. Design. Quality. Entrepreneurialism. Wow.

11. EXCELLENCE. INNOVATE. OR. DIE.

12. The Mess IsThe Message! Period!

13. The Mess Is the Message! Period!An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States —Charles Beard (1913)The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger—Marc LevinsonTube: The Invention of Television—David & Marshall FisherEmpires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World—Jill JonnesThe Soul of a New Machine—Tracy KidderRosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA—Brenda MaddoxThe Blitzkrieg Myth—John Mosier

14. LessonsNeed-drivenA thousand “parents”MessyEvolutionary“Trivial”Relentless ExperimentationTrial & many, many errors“Real heroes” seldom around when the battle is wonLoooong time for systemic adaptation/s(many innovations) (bill of lading, standard time)Not …“Plan-driven”The product of “Strategic Thinking/Planning”The product of “focus groups”

15. First-level Scientific SuccessThe smartest guy in the room wins”Or …

16. First-level Scientific SuccessFanaticismPersistence-Dogged TenacityPatience (long haul/decades)-Impatience (in a hurry/”do it yesterday”)PassionEnergyRelentlessness (Grant-ian) EnthusiasmDriven (nuts!) (Brutal?) CompetitivenessEntrepreneurialPragmatic (R.F!A.)Scrounge (“gets” the logistics-infrastructure bit)Master of Politics (internal-external)Tactical GeniusPursuit of (Oceanic) Excellence!High EQ/Skillful in Attracting + Keeping Talent/MagneticProlific (“ground up more pig brains”)EgocentricSense of History-DestinyFuturistic-In the MomentMono-dimensional (“Work-life balance”? Ha!)Exceptionally IntelligentExceptionally Clever (methodological shortcuts/methodological genius)Luck

17. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Women’s Rights, and movements that rock the world

18. Elizabeth Cady Stanton (more or less) (circa 0331.2007)

19. ECS:“She was defeated again and again and again, but she continued the struggle with passionate impatience.”Source: In Her Own Right: The Life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Elisabeth Griffith

20. “She had survivedher husband, outlived most of her enemies, and exhaustedher allies. Her mind remained alert, her mood optimistic, and her manner combative.”Source: “Self Sovereign 1889-1902,” In Her Own Right: The Life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Elisabeth Griffith (50 years down, 25 to go)

21. Driven by anger!! (not “focus groups”)Great “vision,” no “strategic plan”Whoops: conflicting “vision/s”Execution (& vision) (“Dreamers with deadlines”)OpportunisticInsane optimismFailure after failure; disappointment after disappointment (secret to staying power: Stay pissed off!!)Plan B rulesChanging cadresOpportunistic alliances (here today, gone tomorrow)“The enemy of my enemy is my friend”Creating events and groups to serve a momentary needWarring leaders (Freud-Jung)Petulance (human frailty amidst a Great Struggle)Agile re goal w/o sacrificing VisionGo underground for long stretchesPatience (72 years) & impatienceRelentless!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(WSC: “Success stems from the ability to go from failure without losing your enthusiasm”)

22. TRY IT.

23. 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.

24. do things.

25. “We have a ‘strategic plan.’ It’s called doing things.”— Herb Kelleher

26. drill.

27. “This is so simple it sounds stupid, but it is amazing how few oil people really understand that you only find oil if you drill wells.You may think you’re finding it when you’re drawing maps and studying logs, but you have to drill.” Source: The Hunters, by John Masters, Canadian O & G wildcatter

28. try things.

29. “We made mistakes, of course. Most of them were omissions we didn’t 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, we’re 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 toplan—for months.”—Bloomberg by Bloomberg

30. Screw. things.Up.

31. “FAIL, FAIL AGAIN. FAIL BETTER.”—Samuel Beckett

32. “Fail . Forward. Fast.”High Tech CEO, Pennsylvania

33. “Rewardexcellent failures. Punishmediocre successes.”Phil Daniels, Sydney exec

34. No try. No deal.

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

36. “Intelligent people can always come up with intelligent reasons to do nothing.”—Scott Simon

37. PlannersvsSearchers

38. “Where planners* raise high expectations but take no responsibility for meeting them, searchers prefer to work case-by-case, using trial and error to tailor solutions to individual problems, fully aware that most remedies must be homegrown.” —WSJ, 0822.06 (on malaria eradication, and hedge fund manager Lance Laifer)[*“Planners [WHO, World Bank, etc] see poverty as a technical engineering problem that their answers will solve.” —William Easterly] “All sorts of approaches need to be tried and we need feedback.” —Roger Bate

39. “Some people look for things that went wrong and try to fix them. I look for things that went right, and try to build off them.”—Bob Stone (Mr ReGo)

40. Demos! Heroes! Stories!

41. REAL Org Change:Demos & Models (“Model Installations,” “ReGo Labs”)/ Heroes(mostly extant: “burned to reinvent gov’t”)/ Stories&Storytellers (Props!)/ Chroniclers (Writers, Videographers, Pamphleteers, Etc.)/ Cheerleaders&Recognition(Pos>>Neg, Volume)/ New Language (Hot/Emotional/WOW)/ Seekers(networking mania)/ Protectors/ Support Groups/ End Runs—“Pull Strategy” (weird alliances, weird customers, weird suppliers, weird alumnae-JKC)/ Field “Real People” Focus(3 COs) (long way away)/Speed (O.O.D.A. Loops—act before the “bad guys” can react)C.f., Bob Stone, Lessons from an Uncivil Servant

42. Why Do I love Freaks? (1) Because when Anything Interesting happens … it was a freak who did it. (Period.) (2) Freaks are fun. (Freaks are also a pain.) (Freaks are never boring.) (3) We need freaks. Especially in freaky times. (Hint: These are freaky times, for you & me & the CIA & the Army & Avon.) (4) A critical mass of freaks-in-our-midstautomatically make us-who-are-not-so-freaky at least somewhat more freaky. (Which is a Good Thing in freaky times—see immediately above.) (5)Freaks are the only (ONLY) ones who succeed—as in, make it into the history books. (6) Freaks keep us from falling into ruts. (If we listen to them.) (We seldom listen to them.) (Which is why most organizations are in ruts. Make that chasms.)

43. “Normal” = “o for 800”

44. EXCELLENCE. WOMEN.RULE.PERIOD/

45. “Forget China, India and the Internet: Economic Growth Is Driven by Women.”—Headline, Economist, April 15, 2006, Leader, page 14

46. Women’s Trifecta+*Buy *Wealth*Lead+ECLIPSE OF MALES(Old/Retire; Young/Poorly educated)

47. The Perfect Answer Jill and Jack buy slacks in black…

49. “AS LEADERS, WOMEN RULE:New Studies find that female managers outshine their male counterparts in almost every measure”TITLE/ Special Report/ BusinessWeek

50. Women’s Strengths Match New Economy Imperatives:Link [rather than rank] workers; favor interactive-collaborative leadership style [empowerment beats top-down decision making]; sustain fruitful collaborations; comfortable with sharing information; see redistribution of power as victory, not surrender; favor multi-dimensional feedback; value technical & interpersonal skills, individual & group contributions equally; readily accept ambiguity; honor intuition as well as pure “rationality”; inherently flexible; appreciate cultural diversity.—Judy B. Rosener, America’s Competitive Secret: Women Managers