EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS. Tom Peters/XAlways/22 April 2006

Organizations are not machines. That has been the central message of all my books. They are living communities of individuals. To describe them we need to use the language of communities and the language of individuals. That means a mix of words we use in politics and in ordinary everyday life. The essential task of leadership (a word from political theory, unlike the word manager) is to combine the aspirations and needs of individuals with the purposes of the larger community to which they all belong. Charles Handy

P.P.E.E.R.E.

People. Product. Execution. Enthusiasm. Relentless. Excellence.

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.

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

What is In Search of Excellence all about: People. Emotion. Engagement. Exuberance. Action-Execution. Empowerment. Independence. Initiative. Imagination. Great Stories. Incredible Adventures. Trust. Caring. Fun. Joy. Customer-centrism. Profit. Growth. Brand You. Dramatic Differences. Experiences that Make You Gasp. Excellence. Always.

ExIn*: /Forbes.com DJIA: $10,000 yields $85,000 EI: $10,000 yields $140,050 *Excellence Index/Basket of 32 publicly traded stocks

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.

Synonyms Purity Transcendence Virtue Elegance Majesty Antonyms Mediocrity

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

Business* ** (*at its best) : An emotional, vital, innovative, joyful, creative, entrepreneurial endeavor that elicits maximum concerted human potential in the wholehearted service of others. *** ** Excellence. Always. ***Employees, Customers, Suppliers, Communities, Owners, Temporary partners

Business: The Ultimate Creative Endeavor.

Business: The Ultimate Personal Development- Growth Experience.

Business: The Ultimate Transcendent Service Opportunity.

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.

Great Companies … SET THE AGENDA.* (Period.) * disturb the sleep of …

AGENDA SETTERS: Set the Table/ Pioneers/ Questors/ Adventurers US Steel … Ford … Toyota … Sears … GM … ITT … The Gap … Limited … Wal*Mart … Tesco … P&G … 3M … Intel … IBM … Apple … Nokia … Cisco … Dell … MCI … Sun … Microsoft … Google … Enron … Schwab … GE … Laker … Southwest … People Express … Ogilvy … Virgin … eBay … Amazon … Sony … Amgen … BMW … CNN … Nike

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 Nordström and Jonas Ridderstråle, Funky Business

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.

First-level Scientific Success: Beyond Brains Tom Peters/14April2006

First-level Scientific Success The smartest guy in the room wins Or …

First-level Scientific Success Fanaticism Persistence-Dogged Tenacity Patience (long haul/decades) -Impatience (in a hurry/do it yesterday) Passion Energy Relentlessness (Grant-ian) Enthusiasm Driven (nuts!) (Brutal?) Competitiveness Entrepreneurial Pragmatic (R.F!A.) Scrounge (gets the logistics-infrastructure bit) Master of Politics (internal-external) Tactical Genius Pursuit of (Oceanic) Excellence! High EQ/Skillful in Attracting + Keeping Talent/Magnetic Prolific (ground up more pig brains) Egocentric Sense of History-Destiny Futuristic-In the Moment Mono-dimensional (Work-life balance? Ha!) Exceptionally Intelligent Exceptionally Clever (methodological shortcuts/methodological genius) Luck

First-level Scientific Success/Short Form Scientific Success (Nobel-level) = Genius + Execution + Master of Soft Skills + Enthusiasm + Magnetism + Destiny (sense of) + Energy

Biz Bonanza Success = DDMMSTERL/ "D-squared, M-squared, STERL = DramaticDifference + Business Acumen/Money + Good Marketing Instinct/Ice-to-Eskimos Sales Skills + Stellar Talent + Aim for Excellence + Resilience/Tenacity/Adaptability + Luck (The Necessary Nine: What Every Small Biz Requires to Excel.) (Big, too.)

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS. Tom Peters/KillerCombo/14 April 2006

Summary: WallopWal*Mart16* *Or: Why its so absurdly easy to beat a GIANT Company

$798

$415/SqFt/Wal*Mart $798/SqFt/Whole Foods

7X. 730A- 800P. F12A.* *93-03/10 yr annual return: CB: 29%; WM: 17%; HD: 16%. Mkt Cap: 48% p.a.

The Small Guys Guide: Wallop Wal*Mart16 * Niche-aimed. (Never, ever all things for all people, a mini- Wal*Mart.) * Never attack the monsters head on! (Instead steal niche business and lukewarm customers.) *Dramatically Different (La Difference... within our community, our industry regionally, etc … is as obvious as the end of ones nose!) (THIS IS WHERE MOST MIDGETS COME UP SHORT.) * Compete on value/experience/intimacy, not price. (You aint gonna beat the behemoths on cost-price in 9.99 out of 10 cases.) * Emotional bond with Clients, Vendors. (BEAT THE BIGGIES ON EMOTION/CONNECTION!!)

EXCELLENCE? ALWAYS?

Franchise Lost! TP: How many of you [600] really crave a new Chevy? NYC/IIR/061205

This is not amature category.

This is an undistinguished category.

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 s imilar quality. Kjell Nordström and Jonas Ridderstråle, Funky Business

The Small Guys Guide: Wallop Wal*Mart16 * Niche-aimed. (Never, ever all things for all people, a mini- Wal*Mart.) * Never attack the monsters head on! (Instead steal niche business and lukewarm customers.) *Dramatically Different (La Difference... within our community, our industry regionally, etc … is as obvious as the end of ones nose!) (THIS IS WHERE MOST MIDGETS COME UP SHORT.) * Compete on value/experience/intimacy, not price. (You aint gonna beat the behemoths on cost-price in 9.99 out of 10 cases.) * Emotional bond with Clients, Vendors. (BEAT THE BIGGIES ON EMOTION/CONNECTION!!)

This is an essay about what it takes to create and sell something remarkable. It is a plea for originality, passion, guts and daring. You cant be remarkable by following someone else whos remarkable. One way to figure out a theory is to look at whats working in the real world and determine what the successes have in common. But what could the Four Seasons and Motel 6 possibly have in common? Or Neiman-Marcus and Wal*Mart? Or Nokia (bringing out new hardware every 30 days or so) and Nintendo (marketing the same Game Boy 14 years in a row)? Its like trying to drive looking in the rearview mirror. The thing that all these companies have in common is that they have nothing in common. They are outliers. Theyre on the fringes. Superfast or superslow. Very exclusive or very cheap. Extremely big or extremely small. The reason its so hard to follow the leader is this: The leader is the leader precisely because he did something remarkable. And that remarkable thing is now takenso its no longer remarkable when you decide to do it. Seth Godin, Fast Company/

The Small Guys Guide: Wallop Wal*Mart16 * Hands-on, emotional leadership. (We are a great & cool & intimate & joyful & dramatically different team working to transform our Clients lives via Consistently Incredible Experiences!) * A community star! (Sell local-ness per se. Sell the hell out of it!) * An incredible experience, from the first to last momentand then in the follow- up! (These guys are cool! They get me! They love me!) * DESIGN DRIVEN! (Design is a premier weapon-in-pursuit-of-the sublime for small-ish enterprises, including the professional services.)

The Small Guys Guide: Wallop Wal*Mart16 * Employer of choice. (A very cool, well-paid place to work/learning and growth experience in at least the short term … marked by notably progressive policies.) (THIS IS EMINENTLY DO-ABLE!!) * Sophisticated use of information technology. (Small-ish is no excuse for small aims/execution in IS/IT!) * Web-power! (The Web can make very small very big … if the product-service is super-cool and one purposefully masters buzz/viral marketing.) * Innovative! (Must keep renewing and expanding and revising and re-imagining the promise to employees, the customer, the community.)

The Small Guys Guide: Wallop Wal*Mart16 * Brand-Lovemark* (*Kevin Roberts) Maniacs ! (Branding is not just for big folks with big budgets. And modest size is actually a Big Advantage in becoming a local-regional-niche lovemark.) * Focus on women-as-clients. (Most dont. How stupid.) *Excellence! (A small player … per me … has no right or reason to exist unless they are in Relentless Pursuit of Excellence. One earns the right one damn day and client experience at a time!to beat the Big Guys in your chosen niche!)

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.

Donnellys Weatherstrip Service Weymouth MA

25

Cirque du Soleil !

And the Winner is … 1. Audacity of Vision 2. Innovation/R&D/Design 3. Talent Acquisition & Development 4. Resultant Experience 5. Strategic Alliances 6. Operations 7. Financial Management 8. Overall/Sustaining Excellence 9. Wow! 10. Lovemark!

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.

$55B

And the M Stands for … ? Gerstners IBM: Systems Integrator of choice./BW (Lou, help us turn all this into that long-promised revolution. ) IBM Global Services* (*Integrated Systems Services Corp.): $55B

By making the Global Delivery Model both legitimate and mainstream, we have brought the battle to our territory. That is, after all, the purpose of strategy. We have become the leaders, and incumbents [IBM, Accenture] are followers, forever playing catch-up. … However, creating a new business innovation is not enough for rules to be changed. The innovation must impact clients, competitors, investors, and society. We have seen all this in spades. Clients have embraced the model and are demanding it in even greater measure. The acuteness of their circumstance, coupled with the capability and value of our solution, has made the choice not a choice. Competitors have been dragged kicking and screaming to replicate what we do. They face trauma and disruption, but the game has changed forever. Investors have grasped that this is not a passing fancy, but a potential restructuring of the way the world operates and how value will be created in the future. Narayana Murthy, chairmans letter, Infosys Annual Report

EXCELLENCE? ALWAYS?

Disintermediation is overrated. Those who fear disintermediation should in fact be afraid of irrelevancedisintermediation is just another way of saying that … youve become irrelevant to your customers. John Battelle/Point/Advertising Age/07.05

Chicago: HRMAC

support function / cost center / bureaucratic drag or …

Are you … Rock Stars of the Age of Talent

DD$21M

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.

Answer: PSF

Game-changing Solutions: Core Mechanism PSF (Professional Service Firm model) + Wow Projects (Different vs Better) + Brand You (Distinct or Extinct)

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.

ThePSF35 : Thirty-Five Professional Service Firm Marks of Excellence

The PSF35: The Work & The Legacy 1. CRYSTAL CLEAR POINT OF VIEW (Every Practice Group: If you cant explain your position in eight words or less, you dont have a positionSeth Godin) 2. DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE (We are the only ones who do what we doJerry Garcia) 3. Stretch Is Routine (Never bite off less than you can chewanon.) 4. Eye-Appetite for Game-changer Projects (Excellence at Assembling Best TeamFast) 5. Playful Clients (Adventurous folks who unfailingly Aim to Change the World) 6. Small Uneconomic Clients with Big Aims 7. Life Is Too Short to Work with Jerks (Fire lousy clients) 8. OBSESSED WITH LEGACY (Practice Group and Individual: Dent the UniverseSteve Jobs) 9. Fire-on-the-spot Anyone Who Says, Law/Architecture/Consulting/ I-banking/ Accounting/PR/Etc. has become a commodity 10. Consistent with #9 above … DO NOT SHY AWAY FROM THE WORD (IDEA) RADICAL

????? Do good (excellent?!) work Make a lot of money

Point of View!

PSF + BY + WP + DD + E = UVA

PSF (Professional Service Firm) + BY (Brand You) + WP (WOW Projects) + DD (Dramatic Difference) + E (Excellence) = UVA (Unassailable Value-Added)

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.

Answer: PSF

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.

Trapper: <$20 per beaver pelt. Source: WSJ

WDCP*: $150 to remove problem beaver; $750- $1,000 for flood-control piping … so that beavers can stay. * Wildlife Damage-control Professional Source: WSJ

Answer: PSF

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.

Fleet Manager Rolling Stock Cost Minimization Officer vs/or Chief of Fleet Lifetime Value Maximization Strategic Supply-chain Executive Customer Experience Director (via drivers)

Purchasing Officer Thrust #1: Cost (at All Costs*) Minimization Professional ? Or/to: Full Partner- Leader in Lifetime Value-added Maximization ? (*Lopez: Arguably Villain #1 in GM tragedy/AnonVSE-Spain)

HCare CIO: Technology Executive (workin in a hospital) Or/to: Full-scale, Accountable (life or death) Member-Partner of XYZ Hospitals Senior Healing-Services Team (who happens to be a techie)

Answer: PSF

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.

Lead It: New C-Levels

C X O* *Chief e X perience Officer

C F O* *Chief Festivals Officer

C C O* *Chief Conversations Officer

C S O* *Chief Seduction Officer

C L O* *Chief Lovemar k Officer

C DM* *Chief Dream Merchant

C PI* *Chief Portal Impresario

C W O* *Chief WOW Officer

C ST O* *Chief Storytelling Officer

C R O* *Chief Revenue Officer

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.

Flower Power!

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.

Better By Design: A National Strategy NZ = Design Excellence

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS. Tom Peters/KillerCombo/14 April 2006

Management has a lot to do with answers. Leadership is a function of questions. And the first question for a leader always is:Who do we intend to be? Not What are we going to do? but Who do we intend to be? Max De Pree, Herman Miller

In 1933, Thomas J. Watson Sr. gave a speech at the Worlds Fair, World Peace through World Trade. We stood for something, right? Sam Palmisano

Ah, kids: What is your vision for the future? What have you accomplished since your first book? Close your eyes and imagine me immediately doing something about what youve just said. What would it be? Do you feel you have an obligation to Make the world a better place?

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS. Tom Peters/KillerCombo/14 April 2006

Charles Handy on the Alchemists: Passion was what drove these people, passion for their product, passion for their cause. If you care enough, you will find out what you need to know. Or you will experiment and not worry if the experiment goes wrong. Passion as the secret to learning is an odd secret to propose, but I believe that it works at all levels and at all ages. Sadly, passion is not a word often heard in the elephant organizations, nor in schools, where it can seem disruptive.

Kevin Roberts Credo 1. 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!

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS. Tom Peters/KillerCombo/14 April 2006

Organizing Genius / Warren Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman Groups become great only when everyone in them, leaders and members alike, is free to do his or her absolute best. The best thing a leader can do for a Great Group is to allow its members to discover their greatness.

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! free to do his or her absolute best … allow its members to discover their greatness.

We are a Life Success Company Dave Liniger, founder, RE/MAX

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS. Tom Peters/KillerCombo/14 April 2006

Nobody can prevent you from choosing to be exceptional. Mark Sanborn, The Fred Factor To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all. –Oscar Wilde Make your life itself a creative work of art. Mike Ray, The Highest Goal

This is the true joy of Life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one … the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. GB Shaw/ Man and Superman

You are the storyteller of your own life, and you can create your own legend or not. Isabel Allende

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS. Tom Peters/KillerCombo/14 April 2006

The First step in a dramatic organizational change program is obviousdramatic personal change! RG

Will you actually remember it as worthwhile 10 years from now? S.H.

A position is not an accomplishment. TP

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? Mary Oliver

One who does less than he can is a thief. Gandhi

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS. Tom Peters/KillerCombo/14 April 2006

4/40 Tom Peters/Novosibirsk/14 April 2006

De-cent- ral-iz- a-tion!

Ex-e- cu-tion!

Ac-count- a-bil-ity!

6:15A.M.

Ex-e- cu-tion!

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS. Tom Peters/KillerCombo/14 April 2006

Ex-e- cu-tion!

We have a strategic plan. Its called doing things. Herb Kelleher

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 youre finding it when youre drawing maps and studying logs, but you have to drill. Source: The Hunters, by John Masters, Canadian O & G wildcatter

A man approached JP Morgan, held up an envelope, and said, Sir, in my hand I hold a guaranteed formula for success, which I will gladly sell you for $25,000. Sir, JP Morgan replied, I do not know what is in the envelope, however if you show me, and I like it, I give you my word as a gentleman that I will pay you what you ask. The man agreed to the terms, and handed over the envelope. JP Morgan opened it, and extracted a single sheet of paper. He gave it one look, a mere glance, then handed the piece of paper back to the gent. And paid him the agreed-upon $25,000 …

1. Every morning, write a list of the things that need to be done that day. 2. Do them. Source: Hugh MacLeod/tompeters.com/NPR

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS. Tom Peters/KillerCombo/14 April 2006

You only find oil if you drill wells. Source: The Hunters, by John Masters, Canadian O & G wildcatter

While many people big oil finds with big companies, over the years about 80 percent of the oil found in the United States has been brought in by wildcatters such as Mr Findley, says Larry Nation, spokesman for the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.WSJ, Wildcat Producer Sparks Oil Boom in Montana,

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS. Tom Peters/KillerCombo/14 April 2006

Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm. Samuel Taylor Coleridge

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS. Tom Peters/KillerCombo/14 April 2006

Insanely Great Language! Insanely Great. Steve Jobs

Radically Thrilling Language! Radically Thrilling. BMW Z4 (ad)

Astonish me! /S.D. Build something great! /H.Y. Immortal! /D.O.

Gaspworthy!

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS. Tom Peters/KillerCombo/14 April 2006

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. Michelangelo

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. Steve Jobs

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.

Its always showtime. David DAlessandro, Career Warfare

EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.

XCELLENC ALWAYS.