Tom Peters Excellence Always Shanghai25 27 April 2009

Tom Peters’ Excellence. Always. Shanghai/25 -27 April 2009

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AGENDA Part ONE … EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS. /25. 04 Part TWO … INNOVATION IMPERATIVE, the NEXT STEP/26. 04 Part THREE … PEOPLE-PEOPLE. PERIOD. /26 -7. 04 Part FOUR … LEADERSHIP for EXCELLENCE & INNOVATION/27. 04

AGENDA Part ONE … EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS. /25. 04 Part TWO … INNOVATION IMPERATIVE, the NEXT STEP/26. 04 Part THREE … PEOPLE-PEOPLE. PERIOD. /26 -7. 04 Part FOUR … LEADERSHIP for EXCELLENCE & INNOVATION/27. 04

Part THREE

Peo-ple

Tom Peters’ Excellence. Always. People. Period. Shanghai/25 -26 April 2009

Slides at … tompeters. com

If not Excellence, What? If Not Excellence Now, When? Excellence. Always. Period.

people power: The talent 38

1. People First!

Our Mission To 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

2. Priority! First Things First!

“How to throw away $500, 000 in one easy lesson!!” TP:

< CAPEX > People!

3. The Alpha. The Omega. And everything in between.

‘do’ “Leaders people. Period. ” —Anon.

4. FUNDAMENTAL PREMISE: We Are in an Age of Talent/ Creativity/ Intellectual-capital Added.

Agriculture Age (farmers) Industrial Age (factory workers) Information Age (knowledge workers) Conceptual Age (creators and empathizers) Source: Dan Pink, A Whole New Mind

Up, Up the Value-added Ladder.

“Human creativity is the ultimate economic resource. ” —Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class

5. Diversity = creativity. Period. No Substitute. “Strategic” Issue.

enough weird people in “Are the lab these days? ” Chmn. , pharmaceutical house, to a lab director —V.

CM Prof Richard Florida on “Creative Capital”: “You cannot get a technologically innovative place … unless it’s open to weirdness, eccentricity and difference. ” Source: New York Times/06. 01. 2002

6. Talent “Excellence” in Every Part of Every Organization.

Wegmans: #1/100 “Best Companies to Work for”/2005

Groceries!

7. Talent “Excellence” Stretches Far Beyond Our Borders.

We become who we spend time with.

Measure “Strangeness”/Portfolio Quality Staff Consultants Vendors Out-sourcing Partners (#, Quality) Innovation Alliance Partners Customers Competitors (who we “benchmark” against) Strategic Initiatives Product Portfolio (Line. Ex v. Leap) IS/IT Projects HQ Location Lunch Mates Language Board

8. P. O. T. / Pursuit Of Talent = OBSESSION.

“The leaders of Great Groups love talent and know where to find it. They revel in the talent of others. ” —Warren Bennis & Patricia Ward Biederman, Organizing Genius

PARC’s Bob Taylor: “Connoisseur of Talent”

9. Talent Masters Understand Talent’s Intangibles.

A Few Lessons from the Arts Each hired and developed and evaluated in unique ways (23 contributors = 23 unique contributions = 23 pathways = 23 personalities = 23 sets of motivators) Attitude/Enthusiasm/Energy paramount Re-lent-less! “Practice is cool” (G Leonard/Mastery) Team and individual Aspire to EXCELLENCE = Obvious Ex-e-cu-tion Talent = Brand = Duh “The Project” rules Emotional language Bit players. No. B. I. W. (everything) Delta events = Delta rosters (incl leader/s)

10. HR Is “Cool. ”

Are you … “Rock Stars of the Age of Talent”?

11. HR Sits at The Head Table.

A review of Jack and Suzy Welch’s Winning claims there are but two key differentiators that set GE “culture” apart from the herd: First: Separating financial forecasting and performance measurement. Performance measurement based, as it usually is, on budgeting leads to an epidemic of gaming the system. GE’s performance measurement is divorced from budgeting—and instead reflects how you do relative to your past performance and relative to competitors’ performance; i. e. , it’s about how you actually do in the context of what happened in the real world, not as compared to a gamed-abstract plan developed last year. Second: Putting HR on a par with finance and marketing.

12. There Is an “HR Strategy”/ “HR Vision”

EVP/ IBP? * IBP What’s your company’s … *Employee Value Proposition, per Ed Michaels et al. , The War for Talent; IBP/Internal Brand Promise per TP

EVP/IBP = Remarkable challenge, rapid professional growth, respect, satisfaction, fun, stunning opportunity, exceptional reward, amazing peer group, full membership in Club Adventure, maximized future employability Source: Ed Michaels, The War for Talent; TP

13. Acquire for Talent!

Omnicom's acquisitions: “not for size per se”; “buying talent; ” “deepen a relationship with a client. ” Source: Advertising Age

14. There Is a blockbuster Recruitment Strategy.

“Busy Executives Fail To Give Recruiting Attention It Deserves” —Headline, WSJ, 1121. 05

#1. Strategic. Priority. Period.

“In short, hiring is the most important aspect of business and yet remains woefully misunderstood. ” Source: Wall Street Journal, 10. 29. 08, review of Who: The A Method for Hiring, Geoff Smart and Randy Street

“Development can help great but if I had a dollar to spend, I’d spend 70 cents getting the right person in the door. ” people be even better— —Paul Russell, Director, Leadership & Development, Google

15. There is a “secret” to Satisfied people.

#1 cause of Dis-satisfaction?

Employee retention & satisfaction: Overwhelmingly, based on the firstline manager! Source: Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman, First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently

Promotion decision is “Strategic”!* Best Training Course in the company! *Never “Fill the slot. ”

16. There Is a FORMAL Leadership Development Strategy.

GE/Crotonville! Enrico’s Assignment Wasn’t a Dead End!

17. Understand Your Legacy!

2/year = legacy.

18. There Is a FORMAL STRATEGIC HR Review Process.

“In most companies, the Talent Review Process is a farce. At GE, Jack Welch and his two top HR people visit each division for a day. They review the top 20 to 50 people by name. They talk about Talent Pool The Talent Review Process is a contact sport at GE; it has the intensity and the importance of the budget process at most companies. ”—Ed Michaels strengthening issues.

19. “People”/ Talent” Reviews Are the FIRST Reviews.

The Loudest Signal!

20. HR Strategy = BUSINESS Strategy.

Wegmans: #1/ 100 Best Companies to Work for 84%: Grocery stores “are all alike” 46%: additional spend if customers have an “emotional connection” to a grocery store rather than “are satisfied” (Gallup) “Going to Wegmans is not just shopping, it’s an event. ” —Christopher Hoyt, grocery consultant “You cannot separate their strategy as a retailer from their strategy as an employer. ” —Darrell Rigby, Bain & Co.

21. Make it a “Cause Worth Signing Up For. ”

“People want to be part of something larger than themselves. They want to be part of something they’re really proud of, that they’ll fight for, sacrifice for , trust. ” —Howard Schultz, Starbucks (IBD/09. 05)

22. Pursue the Best!

“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

23. Ensure that the Review Process Has INTEGRITY.

25 = 100* * “But what do I do that’s more important than developing people? I don’t do the damn work. They do. ”—GK

24. Training I: Train!

26. 3

25. Training II: 100% “Business People. ”

New Work Survival. Kit. 2009 1. MASTERY! (Best/Absurdly Good at Something!) 2. “Manage” to Legacy (All Work = “Memorable”/“Braggable” WOW Projects!) 3. A “USP”/UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION 4. Rolodex Obsession (From vertical/hierarchy/“suck up” loyalty to horizontal/“colleague”/“mate” loyalty) 5. ENTREPRENEURIAL INSTINCT (A sleepless … Eye for Opportunity! 6. CEO/LEADER/BUSINESSPERSON/CLOSER (CEO, Me Inc. 24/7!) 7. Master of Improv (Play a dozen parts simultaneously, from Chief Strategist to Chief Toilet Scrubber) 8. Sense of Humor (A willingness to Screw Up & Move On) 9. Comfortable with Your Skin (Bring “interesting you” to work!) 10. Intense Appetite for Technology (E. g. : How Cool-Active is your Web site? Do you Blog? ) 11. EMBRACE “MARKETING” (Your own CSO/Chief Storytelling Officer) 12. PASSION FOR RENEWAL (Your own CLO/Chief Learning Officer) 13. EXECUTION EXCELLENCE! (Show up on time! Leave last!)

26. Training III: 100% LEADERS.

“I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. ”—Ralph Nader

27. Training IV: Boss as Trainer-in-Chief.

“Workout” = 24 DPY in the Classroom

28. Training V: The REAL Bedrock of the “Talent Thing. ”

“My wife and I went to a [kindergarten] parent-teacher conference and were informed that our budding refrigerator artist, Christopher, would be receiving a grade of Unsatisfactory in art. We were shocked. How could any child— let alone our child—receive a poor grade in art at such a His teacher informed us that he had refused to color within the lines, which was a state requirement for demonstrating ‘grade-level motor skills. ’ ” —Jordan Ayan, AHA! young age?

29. RESPECT!

“What creates trust, in the end, is the leader’s manifest respect for the followers. ” — Jim O’Toole, Leading Change

30. MBWA: Visible Leadership!

MBWA

31. Promote for “people skills. ” (THE REST IS DETAILS. )

“When assessing candidates, the first thing I looked for was energy and enthusiasm for execution. Does she talk about the thrill of getting things done, the obstacles overcome, the role her people played —or does she keep wandering back to strategy or philosophy? ” —Larry Bossidy, Honeywell/Allied. Signal, in Execution

32. Honor Youth.

“Why focus on these late teens and twentysomethings? 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

33. Leader Source #1!

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

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

34. We Are All Unique.

53 = 53

One size NEVER fits all. One size fits Beware Standardized Evals: one. Period.

35. Capitalize on Strengths.

“The key difference between checkers and chess is that in checkers the pieces all move the same way, whereas in chess all the pieces move differently. … Discover what is unique about each person and capitalize on it. ” —Marcus Buckingham, The One Thing You Need to Know

“The mediocre manager believes that most things are learnable and therefore that the essence of management is to identify ach person’s weaker areas and eradicate them. The great manager believes the opposite. He believes that the most influential qualities of a person are innate and therefore that the essence of management is to deploy these innate qualities as effectively as possible and so drive performance. ” — Marcus Buckingham, The One Thing You Need to Know

36. Bosses “Win People Over. ”

“Coaching is winning players over. ” PJ:

37. GOAL: Voyages of Mutual Discovery.

“The organization would ultimately win not because it gave agents more money, but because it gave them a chance for better lives. ” —Everybody Wins, Phil Harkins & Keith Hollihan

38. Talent = Brand.

Brand = Talent.

If not Talent Excellence, What? If Not Talent Excellence Now, When? Talent. Brand. Excellence. Period.

If not Excellence, What? If Not Excellence Now, When? Excellence. Always. Period.