Comments

Tom -
It's very interesting that these are the so called "new" rules. I guess we should applaud Bettsy on her ground-breaking discovery. She must be a fan of your work, because they are almost point on with your work, specifically this powerpoint - TPlessons062706SHORT.ppt. As Bob Sutton, Stanford U. Professor says in his ChangeThis manifesto 'After all, old news doesn't sell magazines!'

In my opinion Big Businesses are doomed. The bureaucracies and layers of management weigh themselves down (innovation, ‘knowing’ the consumer) and I don’t see them recovering from it either. They don’t provide what consumers (at least from my demographics viewpoint, young 20’s) are looking for nowadays. Unique experiences. Cool products. Exciting brands. Ect.

One store which comes to mind, Trader Joe's, has got it right. Talk about Excellence! They make the mundane process of grocery shopping a whole new experience. I now find myself looking forward to shopping because they offer products which are A) Healthy B) Unique C) Priced right. They’ve nailed it. From the store layouts to interactions with the customer, the whole experience is enjoyable. Have you been to one Tom?

Posted by Brandon at July 18, 2006 3:09 PM

wow! u know TP today someone complained about me for my agility, unfortunately some people dont get the idea that "Agile is best" i believe time hasnt become an enabler anymore, it's more of hinder! we'll have to race time, and win that race! notime to waste in that race! and u know time and how fast it is!

everything we can buy nowadays! except for time!

& kudos on the new list! they are mine noW! thanks dude!

Posted by shohra at July 18, 2006 3:33 PM

Welch 'walked on water' according to most people I listened to and yet suddenly he's a 'has been.' Mmmmmm ... that's fashion presumably. There is a saying in soccer over here 'form is temporary, class is permanent - where does Welch fit into that?

Posted by Trevor Gay at July 18, 2006 4:47 PM

Jack is the man, one of the better CEO ever to command. He had a no nonsense style to him that was a bit refreshing. Our boy TP is similar, no BS, just straight up all the time, like it or not it's coming at you.

Jack will turn into a Drucker one day, and everyone will think his style and topics are old and obsolete, but remember that history does repeat itself and management concepts are the same, so leverage Jack, and go TP, you rock!

Posted by jim odell at July 18, 2006 7:19 PM

I think Tom sums it up beautifully in pointing to execution and that many (but definitely not all) of the rules are not mutually exclusive. Why can't you have "A" players that are passionate? Isn't the trick deciding what "A" really means? Passionate=A, indifferent=C=get rid of them!

Posted by ann michael at July 18, 2006 11:06 PM

Jim - good point. Times change and so does the way we deal with them. Sometimes new situations demand new ways, sometimes they demand a return to old ways. Jack wasn't perfect but he was miles better than most and basically right for his time. Judging him in the light of todays environment is like changing the law to retrospectively prosecute you for doing something yesterday that was legal at the time: it's plain daft!

ann michael - isn't the trick / problem in deciding how you define "passionate"? What do you do about a 9am - 5pm person who does a superb job but just wants to switch off when work's over, avoids company functions etc? Or about someone who is very low-key but quietly determined and achieves all his/her targets as opposed to someone who is overtly enthusiastic but always falls 5% short?

Posted by MarkJF at July 19, 2006 3:32 AM

Mark JF ... you punched a hot button of mine. I am champion of Passion (capital "P"); but I've also said many, many times that passion is a way of life, not a "management style." Passion can just as well come in a quiet, determined package as in a loud noisy one. The only physical trait I'd judge is a certain fire-spark in the eyes. (And, of course, eyes never lie.) In this set of Posts is a brief PP on U.S. Grant; no screamer he--but 27 on a 10 scale when it came to relentlessness.

Posted by tom peters at July 19, 2006 8:07 AM

Thanks for the 'new' - ENERGY not time is how I feel it - energy to execute - sleep tight - live super intell-animal lifestyle.

Posted by sean at July 19, 2006 8:39 AM

I think the "new rules" claim is ridiculous. Welch said he wanted GE to function more like a corner grocery store than a giant conglomerate (agile v big dog, what?), changed his strategy from #1, #2 or fix, close, sell to create a larger market in which your business occupies no more than 10% (niche, what?), insisted that managers be evaluated numbers-wise on how they did in terms of competitors and the overall, external market (look out, not in, what?) and has repeated, ad nauseum, his hiring/promotion criteria of 4E's and a P (for passion) (hire passionate people, what?).

I like Fortune, but they slapped Welch's mug on the cover to sell more magazines, not to make any relevant point. Their statement and refutation of "Welch's Rules" makes no sense in light of the fact that Welch has been proposing the "new rules" all along.

Posted by Paul at July 19, 2006 11:15 AM

"The way he unspooled exec bathroom toilet paper in Fairfield CT became a "best practice" worthy of Immediate Global Emulation."

Tom- I think you owe me a new keyboard.

I spent part of today reading Lowenstein's Origins of the Crash. He comes out VERY critical of the way Welch ran GE. Pretty interesting read on the whole situation. Apparently Welch used SPV's extensively.

Posted by Steven Poor at July 19, 2006 7:07 PM

Should we really take the Fortune list at face value? That would mean thinking that being big doesn't matter any more or that you can't rank players and also hire passionate ones. Besides, some of those "contrasts" are almost the same. When you choose a niche to dominate, you do it, in part, because you will be number one in the niche.

Tom is right, too, that a lot of this sounds like In Search of Excellence. Read the table of contents where you'll find entries like "A Bias for Action" and "The Customer is King" and other things that Fortune's "new" rules rhyme with.

Newton said that he "stood on the shoulders of giants." That's true for CEOs of great companies. But it's also true that those same CEOs inherit a strategic situation created, in part, by their predecessors. GE is a good example.

soft tabs viagra Consider the following with one of my favorite Mark Twain quotes running on the jingle channel in your head: "History does not repeat, but it does rhyme."

In 1972, Reg Jones took over as CEO from Fred Borch. Jones took over a company with a multiple-role top management structure that was admired in the business press. Jones built on the strengths of the company he inherited. But he streamlined the complex management structure that Borch had been famous for.

By the time Jones retired, he had been named "Most Admired Executive" in America twice. The business press lauded the strategic planning office that Jones had developed. Other companies scrambled to imitate it. The business press praised it.

Under Jones, GE had wracked up 26 consecutive quarters of improved earnings. Profits had tripled. To outsiders, the company looked great. No one outside was calling for any changes.

So what did Jack Welch do when he took over in 1981? He dismantled the strategic planning office that made Jones famous. He eliminated so many jobs at GE that he earned the nickname, "Neutron Jack," because he supposedly left the buildings standing but got rid of the people.

where to buy viagra online in australia From 1981 until 2001, Welch drove a series of initiatives including "boundarylessness" and Six Sigma. In his own words, he "remade Crotonville [the GE training center] to remake GE," which he described as "a people factory." The business press lauded him as perhaps the most effective CEO ever and held up GE as a model for all to follow.

So, what's Jeff Immelt been doing since he took over the GE CEO role in 2001? He's doing to the company Welch left him, what Welch did to Jones and Jones did to Borch. Jeff Immelt is getting rid of those parts of the past that don't work, dealing with today's competitive realities, and moving forward. Does this seem like history rhyming to you?

What Fortune calls "old rules" aren't really rules at all. They're descriptions in particular language of what one CEO did in one specific set of circumstances to make his company successful. The "new rules" are some current CEOs' ideas about what needs to be done today.

The future will not belong to those who slavishly replicate the past or slavishly follow someone else's rules. The future, as always, will belong to leaders who set a course based on what's needed now and who provide the vision and support for others to help achieve it.

Forget the "rules." Think reality. Then remember the line from an old Caterpillar commercial: "There are no easy answers. There are only intelligent choices."

Posted by Wally Bock at July 20, 2006 10:28 AM

New: The Customer is King. NEWER: The Employee is King. It's trickle-down customer service. Happy employees = happy customers.

Posted by George at July 20, 2006 11:46 AM

Well said George - of course customer service always comes first but to make that work our employees at the front line must be liberated. After 35 years managing people my three Simplicity tips published elsewhere are:

*Simplicity Tip Number 1 - Staff at the front line know ALL the answers ALL the time.

*Simplicity Tip Number 2 - If managers have a job at all in 2006 it is to make it easy for front line staff to do their job with freedom.

*Simplicity Tip Number 3 - Give all the money – YES ALL THE MONEY to front line staff

Posted by Trevor Gay at July 20, 2006 7:00 PM

Jack, created a culture or bullies and mostly cowards.
GE's / Jack's magic was that it SCARED its management and employees to frantically do as told, at all personal costs. The employees have been wrung of its desire, emotionally and physically.
You can't progress if you're always looking over your shoulder, in wet panties.

Posted by Dan Feliciano at July 22, 2006 3:40 PM