Talk with Tom
Get the dispatches from the new world of work
Organizational Excellence
On April 30th, Tom spoke from a studio in Watertown, MA for the Skillsoft Leadership Development Channel that was broadcast out to about 10,000 people. At the end of the hour-long talk, Tom was asked to record some short videos on various topics. And then Tom added a couple of his own. The folks at Skillsoft have been kind enough to let us use these videos at tompeters.com. The first one is called Organizational Excellence (length is just under 3 minutes) in which Tom says that "fundamentally the brand is the talent." And that the best way to serve your external customer is to be sure to serve your internal customers, your employees, first. By happenstance, this topic coincides with the slide set Tom published today called "The Customer Comes Second."
This is the first of eight videos ranging from "Organizational Excellence" to "Yes, You are in Sales!" We'll be posting these sporadically over the next week or two, whenever we think you may need a jolt of inspiration. Hope you enjoy them.
Tom Peters on Organizational Excellence from Tom Peters on Vimeo.
[If you'd like a PDF transcript of this video, you can download it here: Organizational Excellence]
ARCHIVES
Before blogging became all the rage, Tom was posting book reviews and Observations (essentially early blog posts) to this site. You can find the archives below.
What Tom's Reading Archives
OBSERVATIONS ARCHIVES
right now
What we're talking about
on the front page.
Comments
Love It!
Love Brand Inside Vs Brand Outside.
And...Love the video format.
there's something very powerful about a video like that. Simple. Short. Effective. Not over-engineered. One man talking to camera with a powerful message. Short & Snappy. High On Impact.
Look forward to seeing more of those ....
Thanks Tom.
Posted by Ian Sanders at May 8, 2008 12:57 PM
Tom Peters,
After I read Rosenbluth on your recommendation, I began to say it something like this:
"Company leaders get their people to put the customer first when those leaders put their people first."
and similarly
"If you want your people to put your customers first, you have to put your people first."
Maybe that's how Rosenbluth said it. How many years has it been since you recommended him?
John
Posted by Shakespeare's Fool at May 8, 2008 3:07 PM
Simple, logical, rational wisdom Tom – thank you and Amen!
Value frontline workers and EVERYTHING else falls into place.
*NO reserved car parking spaces for managers.
*NO dining rooms for executives.
*Only publish in the annual report that ‘we value our staff’ when those words are written by a front line worker.
This stuff is so simple and costs not one penny (cent).
Posted by Trevor Gay at May 8, 2008 5:23 PM
TOM
Great presentation AND great passion! Good to see you looking so fit and well - moving big rocks and lots of bush walking eh?
BUT I totally disagree with YOU! The customer/user comes first, second, and third today! Apple has excelled because it puts its users first - except for a short time when Mr Pepsi Cola (yuk John Sculley) ran the show. Apple users are its most valuable assets.. Dell Computer is just now learning that the 'real talent' today is the customer/user... Cleveland Clinic knows it is true - users/patients come first - in health care services... Why is this so? Digital networked business is all about 'inclusion' of customers (YOU and ME) not their exclusion or their differentiation... Running "inside and outside brands" is absolutely counter productive today! Customers/users drive the amazing success of Google, Wal-Mart, Amazon, eBay, Skype, etc.
Microsoft does PUT its customers second and it does PUT its internal talent first (and pamper them) - with the likes of Ray Ozzie et al you can well understand why they might feel inclined to do that - they are running YOUR 'inside and outside brand"... BUT it is failing - it is what brought YOU and ME such bombs as VISTA.... Such poor products are not the future!
Have YOU junked YOUR Vista software yet TOM? I have I now use Ubuntu and will until I feel competent enough to upgrade to Mandriva (ie both Linux open source platforms)..
Richard
Posted by Richard Lipscombe at May 8, 2008 6:13 PM
Good points. It’s inside customers plus outside customers plus (the sometimes long) value chain. No full integration, no tango. By reversed engineering, the client is the functional monarch. Once you have identified the range of profiles within your customers and from your industry, then you pick the most talented people to go for the uncanny service to get the boss delighted.
Keeping your customers delighted by your talented team of splendid employees, it’s true you’re instilling more and more into your branding and uniqueness.
Yes, some firms do place clientele second. See, though, everything is first and in a hurry with an unprecedented quality. None wishes to be perfect. But many wish –even those coming from the most disadvantageous countries—the latest Rolls Royce.
The stakeholders, the board of directors, the chair-person an so forth are also demanding clients to delight.
Posted by Andres Agostini (Andy) at May 8, 2008 9:56 PM
I remember 20 years ago being the laughing stock at College when I said this. I didn't, of course, know in any depth what I was really saying, it just made sense.
Having had the privilege of working in such an environment when I had a proper job, I know how well this works. When it doesn't, a lot of it is to do with an unhealthy array of egos all clambering for attention, promotion, bonus or whatever else they can get their hands on that makes them feel extrinsically better. Egos at board level, egos at customer level, egos at supplier level and worst of all egos amongst employees.
It makes sense that if you have the right employee environment, culture etc etc that simple, genuine care and service of the customer will fall out of that.
Without being idealistic about this, as people we over complicate things, surely if our people are happy and thereby our customers, our board of directors/stakeholders are naturally delighted?
I agree with Trevor's comment "simple, logical, rational wisdom."
Posted by Ann Holman at May 8, 2008 11:51 PM
If a customer is the person who uses the product or service my job produces, my most critical customer are the members of my team...the internal producer not the external consumer. One might quibble over the order but the concept of taking care of the people who take care of the customers is one many a company has followed to great success. Google and E-bay are consistently on Fortune's list of the Top 100 Companies to Work For...awarded on the basis of surveying their workforce so perhaps their success could also be linked to this customers are second notion. Is there a better of example of a company who maximized this strategy to dominate their industry better than Southwest Airlines? When a company continuously increases the capacity of the internal producer customer to excel...they will!
Posted by Dave Wheeler at May 9, 2008 12:33 AM
The only purpose of company is to provide Atmic vision for employee - Advaita.
The only purpose of society is to provide the same.
There is no other.
Matter comes from illusive Mind.
http://davidzinger.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/zen-rock.jpg
Posted by Ina Matijevic at May 9, 2008 12:38 AM
F.......r
.o....m
...th
.e....b
e.......g
.i.....n
...in
.g....t
i........l
.l.....t
...he
.e....n
d,......W
.e....a
...re
.O....n
e ......!
Posted by Ina Matijevic at May 9, 2008 1:43 AM
Thank you Ann – I love everything about your comment – particularly this line;
‘I didn't, of course, know in any depth what I was really saying, it just made sense.’
That is a perfect summary of my whole mantra about simplicity. I will use your quote widely if that is ok with you – with credit to you of course Ann. I am feeling in an unusually reflective mood on this fabulous early Friday morning. Every day I wake up I thank God for how much I love my work. Your comment has fired up my passion to continue to promote my view that there is far too much pointless unintelligible crap spoken in management and business and far too little emphasis on simplicity. I know many will disagree with me – that’s fine … But that’s how I feel.The word ‘crap’ is allowed in my living room – I hope it is allowed in TP living room. Yours refectively .......
Posted by Trevor Gay at May 9, 2008 2:59 AM
No problems Trevor...bit of a key area of research and intrigue for me; the areas of simplicity, trust and being genuine!
Should be simple shouldn't it????
Posted by Ann Holman at May 9, 2008 10:14 AM
Ina...I like your design and words.
Posted by Judith Ellis at May 9, 2008 11:21 AM
I once had a manager who did not care about his employees - he expressly said that he did not care about what was going on in their lives or anything personal about them. He DID care about the product being delivered (mostly timeline, but hey, that's important too). He also did care about the bottom line.
Unfortunately, however, he failed to see that this expressed lack of feeling for his employees demoralized them and made them feel unimportant. Most of his employees left, and the company fell into the dirt. How did the customers fare in all this? Poorly, of course. How can they be served if the best (and most portable) employees leave because of poor morale and bad management?
In sales also, the genuine enthusiasm and excitement from the employee infects the customer - not only do they buy, but they buy again and again. How many times were you turned off by a lackluster employee that was not excited or invested in the product/company?
Posted by Martin Koning-Bastiaan at May 9, 2008 1:57 PM
Good luck with your research Ann - let me know how it goes! - Yes it should be simple :-)
BTW your quote is now prominent in the side bar on my Simplicity Blog http://www.simplicityitk.blogspot.com/
Thanks again
Posted by Trevor Gay at May 9, 2008 6:23 PM