Comments

Tom,

Yes, Jack Wolfskin are a German company, from Idstein in the Taunus hills. Great products, hot technology and a good reputation here.

Cheers

Adam L
Germany
experiencedesign.de

Posted by Adam Lawrence at June 25, 2007 2:47 PM

I prefer "built to serve" to "built to last." That's what Deere does. It's what other Cuisinart appliances have done for us, but what that awful coffee maker does not do. My wife especially hates it because you must look down into ours to see how much water is actually in the thing. Because she is short, she must stand on a step-stool to make coffee. Built to serve is why my mother-in-law will not give up her old Mercedes. It's why my wife won't trade in her 25 year old Electrolux vacuum. It's why I'm still using that pocket index card holder from Levenger that I bought before any of my grown children were born.

Posted by Wally Bock at June 25, 2007 3:28 PM

Tom,

What is wrong with 'rules of the game' that allow a group of people to remain at the top or near it, forever possibly. Are you anti-physical laws of nature? Do you disdain e=mc^2? There are general rules of human behavior that keep people energized, motivated etc. Because we are such poor implementors does not mean laws of success do not exist.

Endure for endurance sake, why not? Do marraiges need to be busted apart periodically despite wht it will do to the children.

Honestly, you need to write a damn book about how you figured out how "Built to Last" is a tragedy or stop making comments that prove the irrelevance of your own stance.

Steve

Posted by Steve at June 25, 2007 3:33 PM

I was born and raised on the back of a John Deere tractor on our cattle farm in Nebraska. After my Dad died in 1993, we had a farm sale. A 30 year old JD 3020 tractor, bought new for $3,500 in 1966 sold at auction that day for $8,000. AFTER being cared for but fully used for all those years.

Yes, Deere has design and durability down cold.

Posted by Joe Ely at June 25, 2007 3:41 PM

"Because we are such poor implementors does not mean laws of success do not exist."

Bingo. nothing amuses me more than, "It's just an implementation problem." Good God, that's the whole damn reason we wrote In Search of Excellence 25 years ago! McKinsey invented "perfect" strategies--it was just that our clients were too stupid to implement. It reminds me of the great ad man David Ogilvy, "If it doesn't sell it was a bad ad--regardless of the prizes it won. Implementation is the "last 99%" per me. Companies--eg GM--could last forever save for lousy implementation.

Posted by tom peters at June 25, 2007 4:38 PM

"It's just an implementation problem."

From my experience of healthcare management the managers are brilliant at writing strategies.... and then … err…. err …

Frankly the passion ends when it comes to implementation. The problem is they can’t implement. They get bogged down in totally unnecessary bureaucracy and other crap that makes them scared to do stuff that rattles cages.

I say we should concentrate more training on how to DO THINGS rather than training people to write strategies that look good on paper that no one is brave enough to carry through.

How about this from Sir Richard Branson’s wonderful book ‘Screw it Let’s Do It’

“Then there are those silly little rules that someone has invented for baffling reasons. If you set up a committee they will find something useless to do …… Most red tape is a tangled mess of utterly useless non sensical jargon…. If I want to do something worthwhile I won’t let silly rules stop me. I will find a legal way around the rules and give it a go. I tell my staff ‘If you want to do it, just do it.’

Tom – that is implementation don't you think?!

Posted by Trevor Gay at June 25, 2007 5:57 PM

"McKinsey invented"

Bongo, they invented the undoubtedly perfect textbook example of how to control robatrons if they would only listen; makes me think of Balanced Scorecards and McNamara. I would be much more interested in solutions from a cross-section of practitioners, evangelists, biologists etc than any one super duper number cruncher.

You and Collins and Hamel and others could start this dialogue much like the Constitutional Convention that came up with a pretty good government DNA we have been living off for these many years.

You want real courage, dump the profits you are allowed while the fog surrounding Industrial Management (Library of Congress Subject Heading) knowledge gives you a space to rant in and get a freaking series of televised debates going to see if you really have anything to offer. I'll send the invitations to Covey, Bennis and the rest of the oracles boasting about and then let the sparks fly (ie Emerson Electric capital allocation meetings style).

Don't you think America could use this right about now?

You owe it to yourself and the children of the world, otherwise leave me alone.

Steve

Posted by Steve at June 25, 2007 11:22 PM

Oh thank goodness Tom...I thought the little spillage out of my Krupps pot was a sign of my deteriorating coordination...the design does suck on an otherwise nice machine...

Posted by Mike Neiss at June 26, 2007 7:11 AM

It's funny how often we blame ourselves for the errors, difficulties and failures caused by bad design - whether it's a coffee pot that doesn't pour well or a "perfect" strategy that somehow can't be implemented.

If something is theoretically good but operationally bad... it's bad (as Tom said, implementation is everything). If the coffe pot was actually well designed, it would take into account things like user height, etc, etc. If the strategy was designed well, we'd be able to implement it.

Now, individual competence is vitally important, of course, and we can't blame every hiccup on a bad design... but neither should we assume the design is perfect and blame everything on user error.

Posted by Dan Ward at June 26, 2007 7:31 AM

"otherwise leave me alone"

??????????????????????? (What did I do to force your attendance at this site?)

Posted by tom peters at June 26, 2007 7:35 AM

And speaking of design, I recently wrote a little book titled "The Simplicity Cycle: A graphical exploration of complexity, goodness and time."

It takes a look at the "journey of design," (I dislike the term "design process"), and is full of pictures, simple graphs and illustrations.

I'm giving away the PDF version for free - check it out at http://simplicitycycle.googlepages.com/

Posted by Dan Ward at June 26, 2007 7:36 AM

you want to see some brilliantly simple, incredibly user friendly design...and boy do i mean easy
check out nespresso
these people really got it ALL SORTED

just bought one
you should try the coffee and then look at the milk frother...they did it again
this thing is truly inspirational!

Posted by zedman at June 26, 2007 8:07 AM

I remember a story from one of TP's early books about a John Deere salesman who wore a tie tack with the initials "SOQ NOP". It was to remind him to "Sell on Quality - Not on Price". Deere focuses on quality. International Harvester, Allis-Chalmers, etc. focused on cost.

Posted by Bruce at June 26, 2007 9:51 AM

Tom and Mike, you forgot to mention the steam burns you get from that little hole between the handle and the top when pouring a large cup from the Krupps. I'm also convinced that there is an invisible hole in the carafe where the spill comes from since I cannot figure out how the coffee gets out otherwise. It's a pain. My wife and I now pour our coffee over the kitchen sink.

Posted by Andrew Hayden at June 26, 2007 10:22 AM

???????????????????????

Really, but thanks for all the stirring up you have done over the years. I was relistening to Reimagine last Saturday and that got me fiesty enough to make the last couple of posts.

Steve

Posted by Steve at June 26, 2007 12:05 PM

I trained as a mechanical designer in Germany and am very glad I moved over to industrial engineering, even if only in the electives. The university course (mechanical engineering leading to a Diplom) was ridiculous. 3 full-fledged design projects each semester on top of 6 papers to sit for. It almost killed me. A typical design project involves requirements analysis, functional analysis, at least 3 initial concepts, feasibility analysis of concepts, the technical design which unambiguously defines all physical aspects of the product, stress and tolerance analysis, and finally the workshop drawings.

Designers, too, are not my cup of tea. Introverted and utterly anal retentive when it comes to the smallest details. Not the sort of people you show customers.

Posted by Jeremy at June 26, 2007 12:24 PM

Andrew??? I thought we were friends??? How long were you going to let me get burned before you told me??? :) peace...mike

Posted by Mike Neiss at June 26, 2007 5:15 PM

Interesting one Tom. I see it this way:
If you can last/survive, that is the ultimate form of ongoing, planned INNOVATION. If you ROCK the world for a decade, it might just be serendipity -- (I sooo wanted to use that sensibly :-))
but if you can last, it is a testament to ingenuity.

Posted by Dennis at June 26, 2007 5:37 PM

"otherwise leave me alone"

??????????????????????? (What did I do to force your attendance at this site?)

Nice, reasoned, well thought out response to Steve.

Ciaran

Posted by Ciaran McCabe at June 26, 2007 7:59 PM

Ciaran, I thought it was. It was actually not meant to be rude; I just thought it was amusing to be told by someone at a Website to "leave me alone," as if I had reached through Steve's keyboard to type tompeters.com. As to Steve's remarks per se, I loved them ... they have triggered two days worth of Posts by me. In fact, I in effect spent all day yesterday on Steve!!

Posted by tom peters at June 27, 2007 7:08 AM

Luc Gallopin sent us the great photo that accompanies this post. It's of amazing quality considering he took it with his cell phone!
See it here: http://www.tompeters.com/images/uploaded/JohnDeere.jpg

Posted by Cathy Mosca at July 10, 2007 4:01 PM