Too Tired

8 speeches in 6 countries in 13 days. I'm tired. Very tired. Arrived at Logan from La Jolla and touched the gate with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th. Terminal TV monitor droning CNN. A United employee (probably committing an Ashcroft hanging offense) let 2 or 3 of us into a staff room to watch the Last Pitch.

Do check out the slides from the last few days ... there are some new Rants concerning HR and Healthcare.

In my driveway in VT at 04:23EDT.

Be back in BlogWorld soon ...

Event Slides: CHIMEX

Tom has just finished a run of seven events in ten days. His last stop was CHIMEX, in La Jolla, CA. You can get the slides here.

Another Storm In Florida

Earlier this week, Tom mentioned that being in California means not getting to see the presidential campaign ads. Sitting in Ohio, I would have thought that was because both sides are spending ALL their money right here. Then I saw this fascinating page at cnn.com that shows a week-by-week, state-by-state account of who's advertising where. The folks in Florida are being hit with a hurricane of advertising ... a total of nearly 10,000 ads last week alone, compared to a paltry 7,500 in Ohio (and none at all in California). Kerry and various Democratic interest groups ran 6,700 ads in Florida last week, compared to 3,150 by Bush and GOP groups. That's at least a gale-force blast of hot air!

Perhaps if either side had done a better job of establishing a positive brand identity, they could have run fewer, more effective ads. You can watch the ads at the CNN site, so if you're feeling ignored by the candidates, take a look at how they're courting those of us in the swing states. (And then go to factcheck.org to see who's "stretching the truth" the farthest.)

Check Out the Slides

I am in Phoenix speaking to HR.com ... a Very Cool Group. (With a VVery CCool Website.) I put together a collection of 10 PowerPoints, which we are posting today. Check out the Event Slides. Also, the Long Version for today—I think it's a pretty good & encompassing piece of work in the HR World.

I Left My Heart ...

Sunday Noon: On to LA for a Monday speech, but not before thoroughly absorbing the Sunday SF Chronicle. Chron Magazine cover story: "The Women in Charge: San Francisco Leads the Nation with Female Appointees." From the article: "San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom [a successful entrepreneur, still in his 30s] says he doesn't try to create history, it just happens when he does what he thinks is right. ... San Francisco, or more correctly, the mayor, has put women in charge of six major public safety departments in the city. There are more women in charge of agencies that deal with life-and-death emergencies here than in any other major metropolitan city in the nation. Terrorism on the waterfront? A woman runs the port. Anthrax in the mail? The medical examiner is a woman. Earthquake-caused fires? The Hetch Hetchy water system fails? Riots in the streets? Women, women, women in charge." Women in SF "life-and-death" agencies are: Fire Chief. Police Chief. Medical Examiner. Port Director. Head of the Office of Emergency Services and Homeland Security, General Manager of the Public Utilities Commission. By contrast, the Chronicle reports: "Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Seattle, New York, and Los Angeles, to name a few, have no women heading up high-profile public safety jobs."

Nice!

NB: Newsom reported that at first fellow mayors were incredulous, and claimed they couldn't do such things in their cities; a few months later the same mayors were annoyed that Newsom's moves were putting pressure on them to do the same! (TP: Go Mayor Gavin!)

Creatives Unite!

Truth be told, I don't often read the Harvard Business Review. The price is obscene, and I often find the typical article ... ponderous. On the other hand, I've long been dragging a book by Carnegie Mellon prof Richard Florida, unread, all over the world, and the current HBR had an article by him in its October issue. So, at loose ends in the SF airport, I picked up and paid for the rag and read. Indeed, the article was ponderous, but the gist was thought-provoking. So I'll either titillate you to dig further with what follows, or at least save you both the price of the book and the price of an issue of the HBR. Hence, from "America's Looming Creativity Crisis," by Richard Florida:

"The Dawn of the Creative Age": "There's a whole new class of workers in the U.S. that's 38-million strong: the creative class. At its core are the scientists, engineers, architects, designers, educators, artists, musicians and entertainers whose economic function is to create new ideas, new technology, or new content. Also included are the creative professions of business and finance, law, healthcare and related fields, in which knowledge workers engage in complex problem solving that involves a great deal of independent judgment. Today the creative sector of the U.S. economy, broadly defined, employs more than 30% of the workforce (more than all of manufacturing) and accounts for more than half of all wage and salary income (some $2 trillion)—almost as much as the manufacturing and service sectors together. Indeed, the United States has now entered what I call the Creative Age.

"The global talent pool and the high-end, high margin creative industries that used to be the sole province of the U.S., and a critical source of its prosperity, have begun to disperse around the globe. A host of countries—Ireland, Finland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, among them—are investing in higher education, cultivating creative people, and churning out stellar products, from Nokia phones to the Lord of the Rings movies. Many of these countries have learned from past U.S. success and are shoring up efforts to attract foreign talent—including Americans. ... The United States may well be the Goliath of the twentieth century global economy, but it will take just half a dozen twenty-first-century Davids to begin to wear it down. To stay innovative, America must continue to attract the world's sharpest minds. And to do that, it needs to invest in the further development of its creative sector. Because wherever creativity goes—and, by extension, wherever talent goes—innovation and economic growth are sure to follow."

What do you think?

Next Tuesday Is the Real Labor Day

I don't care who you are for: THIS ELECTION IS IMPORTANT. Please consider working the phones or the pavement this weekend; and, especially, gettin' it on next Tuesday. In a close election, "Get out the vote," for example, is critically important. (And it's a helluva lot of fun! I've done it since I tagged along with my Mom, getting' out the vote for Adlai Stevenson in 1952.)

(NB: This is the first time I remember several of my "fully mature," professional working friends taking multi-week, or multi-month, sabbaticals to work on the election. Cool!)

Three (Not Entirely New) Special Presentations

I want to call your attention to three Special Presentations/PPs. The first is called ... "New Economy. New Biz Degrees." My bile seems to be running particularly thick these days concerning MBAs—the degree seems increasingly out of touch with modern business needs as I see them. So I have decided, tongue slightly in cheek, to propose some substitutes for the MBA—the PP presentation is meant to be entertaining, while also deadly serious. For example my "new-substitute degrees" include: the (real) MFA ... Master of Fine Arts. (My estimable friend Dan Pink writes of the post-industrial, "right-brain economy": "The MFA is the new MBA.") Then comes the MMM1: Master of Metaphysical Management, an idea stolen from Danish marketing guru Jesper Kunde, who says that in an economy dominated by ephemeral products we are in need of metaphysicians more than "administrators"—e.g., Starbucks' Howard Schultz and Virgin's Richard Branson. I offer another "MMM" "degree" ... the MMM2, or Master of Metabolic Management; I see the top boss job as speeding up the metabolism of sluggish enterprises in the face of madcap competition ... think Dell or Wal*Mart or eBay or Progressive or China or India. And there's also an MGLF, or Master of Great Leaps Forward, inspired by my passion for Innovation-that-Stuns and a favorite quote by my old pal and former PepsiCo CEO, Roger Enrico: "Beware the tyranny of making small changes to small things. Instead make big changes to big things." There's more (for instance, a capstone DE, or Doctor of Enthusiasm), but I assume you get the drift. Mostly I conclude that I'm appalled about the "A" in MBA; surely the primary enterprise LEADERSHIP role, circa 2004, is more than "administration"?

Also: As I patrolled Europe last week, I worked like hell on my Summary Re-imagine Presentation. The "Master" is now about 1,600 slides LONG; but REI200 ("Re-imagine 200") is, um, 200-slides long—and I'm quite pleased with it. Last, but definitely not least, is "ShortTakes27." It is a PP compendium of 27 brief, and not-so-brief, Think Pieces that range from Design to newfound Exemplars of Excellence—I believe the set works pretty well together.

Read!
Enjoy!
Cringe!
Steal!
Share!
Comment!

Kooky and Kewl and ...

Back from "Old" (delightful!) Europe. Land in San Francisco. Remember in a flash why I love ... LOVE ... the City by the Bay. New York may be statistically more diverse, but SF feels so wonderfully diverse! In Borders near Union Square, for example, there is every color and costume known to humankind!

Plus, of course, the Bay Area is tops in just about all the "hard stuff" too ... Universities, infotech, biotech, start-ups, venture capital. (And Apple & Google & LucasFilm & Oracle & Genentech. And ...) Do you think it's mere coincidence that Kewl & Diverse and Economic & Intellectual Excellence go hand-tightly-in-glove?

Concerning the above, here's my quote of the day from Carnegie Mellon prof and econ-growth guru Richard Florida: "You can't get a technologically innovative place unless it's open to weirdness, eccentricity and difference." Presumably this is why, even in the Age of the Internet & Virtual Everything, that so much of the Best-Redefining Stuff still comes from SF, New York City, Chicago, Boston, Miami, LA, London, et al.

I am ... NOT ... a Clothes Horse ...

It's just that I lost a ton (almost literally) of weight ... and my clothes don't look "loose," they look silly. So, following Adventure Milano, I detoured on the way to LA. And came to SF for the primary purpose of buying new suits at Nordstrom on Market Street. What a (continuing) tribute to Insanely Great Customer Service ... eh? Going to a city not on one's brutal itinerary to stop-'n-shop.

Bottom Line: The service was, well... Nordstrom. Period. I.e.: Insanely Great. Still.

(Speaking of "service" ... all the major airlines are up against the wall, cutting staff, allowing service to do a dead drop. On this trip, alas, I found British Air and Lufthansa to be as uninspiring-inattentive-screwed up as, say ... pick your worst.)

Election Day Cometh ...

Of course there's no doubt about the vote in SF or California. (Damn, both sides are so sure of the outcome in CA that we don't get to see ... ANY ... of those intellectually stimulating Campaign Ads!)

For those (few?) not totally polarized by ... The Choice ... here's a superb comment from the always superb Andrew Sullivan Website: "Bush is a dynamic leader, but he lacks what a president most needs: guardrails. Kerry has guardrails, but where is the road? A dispiriting choice."

(NB: I often think Sullivan is single-handedly getting me through this election sane. Spirited. Smart. Surprising. Those three S-words capture—for me—andrewsullivan.com.)

(NB: I'm also enjoying my Daily Dose, via push email I subscribed to, of washingtonpost.com. I personally don't think the Post has the liberal bias it used to—and it is clearly the nation's best "local rag" for political news.)

Speaking of California Republicans (we were, weren't we?), the provocative and tough-to-categorize Governator has just executed yet another very bold, front-edge environmental initiative, this time aimed at preserving the world's Oceans.

100 Ways to Succeed #20:

Work, Work, Work ... to Connect!

Always Make It Personal!

I gave 5 speeches last week, in 5 different countries-cultures. Watching (one can—must—learn to watch intently as one speaks!) audiences respond, I've re-learned a few lessons. None more important than ... CONNECT ... MAKE IT PERSONAL.

For one thing, I'm a nut about reading local papers, or chatting up anyone I can grab to get a flavor of what's afoot, or just hitting the pavement. So in Sweden, for example, I began by talking about my trip the day before to the giant local department store, NK, and shopping a long list foisted on me by my wife, who did 4 years of professional training in Sweden—in fact I described being on my cell phone to her, as she directed me around the store by memory from 3,000 miles away. (It didn't hurt that I called NK "the world's best department store"—which I think it is. Appreciating someone else's turf nabs mega-points! Duh!) (On the other hand, I've screwed up on this. I once offhandedly criticized a Tampa hotel I was staying in to a Tampa audience. My remarks were not perceived as generic "customer service lessons"—as I had intended; but as a frontal assault-insult aimed at Tampa, Florida, and each-and-every audience member!) In Germany, I played shamelessly to my German blood and my "Germanic" engineering background—and teased incessantly about the need for them, and me, to overcome some share of what we'd heretofore thought of as strengths (e.g., rigid adherence to the "one best way"). In Italy, as I reported in an earlier Post, I showed up in a gorgeous Italian shirt and tie, purchased the afternoon before, joked about the price—and then tied the whole thing to my spiel on design and new approaches to value-added.

Bottom line: A speaker is always ... even in a 10-minute interchange ... attempting first-and-foremost to form a common heritage with the audience. Any speaker worth her or his salt wants to move an audience to act. That is only accomplished, in my experience, when "they" are converted into "we." WE ... are confronted with this challenge or that. WE ... must get beyond the places we are ... JOINTLY ... stuck in today. WE ... are frail and battered ... but ... WE ... must act with dispatch. And so on.

For George Bush or John Kerry or me-in-Frankfurt ... it's all about ... Making Common Cause! The argument may be airtight, the data unassailable, but if it's not ... UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL AND "SOLD" AS A JOINT CHALLENGE ... AND OBVIOUSLY FROM THE HEART ... then it is perceived, especially in another culture, as an ... Assault By a Thoughtless Stranger!

BTW: To state the obvious, the tougher the sell (and mine are pretty tough ... as in "forget everything you thought you knew and that made you successful") ... the Tighter the Human Bond must be!

BTW: This is hard, conscious work!

And, on a related subject ...

100 Ways to Succeed #21:

It's ... SHOWTIME! ALL THE TIME!

Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore gave us the Great Gift ... the book The Experience Economy: Work Is Theater & Every Business a Stage. OH HOW I LOVE THAT TITLE! As well as the Fundamental Hypothesis: "EXPERIENCES ARE AS DISTINCT FROM SERVICES AS SERVICES ARE FROM GOODS."

Or, in TP lingo: IT'S ALWAYS SHOWTIME!

"Showtime" =

Every speech!
Every PowerPoint presentation!
Every individual slide!

Every Client phone call!
EVERY INTERCHANGE WITH A "FOURTH-LEVEL" CLIENT "ADMIN ASSISTANT" ... who may make a negative (or positive!) comment to her boss's boss (who signs my check!) about an off-the-cuff comment I hastily made.
Every employee interaction ... especially when I'm stressed and/or grouchy.

Every Post at tompeters.com!
Every 7(!)-second eye contact with someone who asks me to sign a book!

And so on.
And on.

Am I hopelessly uptight about all this?
Sure. (Why do you think I revise the font-choice on a single slide 15 minutes before an A/V check?)

But no, too; "it" (being on) has become a way of life, as natural as breathing. (My beloved wife says it takes me 2 or 3 days, after I've been on the road, to quit "preaching to 4,000 people.")

Is this "no way to live"?
Hell, no!
I love it!
I love what I do. (Remember ... Love-a-holic!)
I am ... Desperate to ... Make a Difference!

I hope you are too.

SHOW TIME ... ALL THE TIME ... is Very Cool!

NB: "Experiences" are as distinct from "services" as services are from "goods"!

It's Good to Be Home

Europe was fun and productive and provocative. But I was glad to see the U.S. Customs-Immigration guy at SFO: It's good to be home ...

Event Slides: CPCU

Tom at CPCU Society in Los Angeles. Get the slides here.

To Who It May Concern

Watching CNN Europe from Germany this weekend, I noticed the anchor, obviously a native English speaker, saying, "... as Americans are now deciding who gets their vote, or, should I say 'whom' gets their vote."

Her fellow anchor was confused, and said, "Thank you, for helping us use 'whom' properly."

I wonder whom told them they got it wrong.

I Hate Spam, Redux

Love your neighbor. Respect your fellow man. Yes, I generally feel that way. But, let me tell you about a few people I don't like.

I don't like Joseph Vickers, who wrote me "Re: Account # 4339Q." I don't like Lindsey Dwyer, who wrote me about "Xanax-Valium-Cialis Deals Here." And Dr. Felicia Quintero, MD, who also spammed me about medications, should (if she actually existed) have her medical license revoked. And I hope that Rae Hutchinson, who wants to sell me a Rolex watch, has a major server crash today and can't send 1 million emails tomorrow.

Ahhhhh!!! Milano!!!

My first slide today in Milan reads:

Repatriation!
25 Meters: $1000.
500 Meters: Amex rejected.

I am not a "clothes horse." In fact I am routinely considered a slob. The only part of my wardrobe I obsess on is sweatpants, sweatshirts, hiking boots, and baseball caps. (And I do "obsess" on those Essential Items.) Nonetheless, I went a little berserk in the Fashion Capital of Europe. Europe? Why not "The World"?

By "repatriation" (on the slide) I mean that the Italians, whose balance-of-trade will take a little hit when they finish paying for today's speakers—Giuliani, Welch, Porter, and me, got at least some of it back in the shops. I was down $1,000 by the time I got across the narrow street from my hotel. $1,000 ... all on ties! Another couple of hundred yards, and couple of stops, and my American Express card was being rejected for serial-purchases. (The one that took me over the top was, at least, for Susan!)

Broke but happy, I needed to work on my Soul. Eureka! Piazza Duomo and Il Duomo! What word/s do I use? "Breathtaking" does not do the central Milan Cathedral justice! It sneaks into view from the narrow streets, and one is drawn to it like a Magnet for the Spirit.

135 glorious spires suck the Heavens down to earth! Construction began in 1386 ... just a little before the Pilgrims popped over to Red Sox Nation! While never "finished," the main construction was done in 1774. Yup, 388 years! (And speaking of Red Sox Nation ... that's even longer than the Big Dig construction project in Boston is taking!)

I spent 90 minutes walking slowly around the church—and could easily have spent hours more. Each door is a magnificent masterpiece, for one thing. The interior, even with a raft of tourists (like me), is ... again ... Magnificent!

Alas, the only less-than-satisfactory part of this story is my Canyon Ranch diet, which keeps me from the Full Glory of Italian food.

A day in Milano! What a lucky kid am I!

(Fall is here! Off to my Morning Jog/Speed Walk on the streets ... pitch dark at 7:05 a.m.)

(Hint: What follows could be Suck-up City. I don't think it is. My Mega-conference in Milan today—3,000 delegates—is produced by HSM. The Sao Paulo-based Management Services Conglomerate, founded by my tireless pal Jose Salibi Neto, is simply the best management event producer in the world—and has been for 2 decades. They Wowed the likes of me and Peter Drucker and Alvin Toffler in Brazil years and years ago—and were the subject of a glowing one-to-one marketing case study long before there even was "one-to-one marketing"! HSM then expanded through the Latin world—Argentina, Mexico City, Madrid, etc. This past Spring they took the Great Leap ... and Made It in Manhattan, with a crowd of almost 5,000 management delegates to hear Da Mayor, Jack Welch, Tommy Franks, Bill Clinton, et al. Now I'm part of their next round of expansion: Frankfurt and Milan. As usual: Marketing brilliant! Execution awe-inspiring! How about: the Cirque du Soleil of Management Experiences? I think such outrageous praise is warranted, even if I am prejudiced. Incidentally, next up are Chicago and L.A.)

Rethink Pink! YESSSSSSSS!

Michele Miller reports, in a Comment that I told her I was going to move to the Main Screen, that the premier Rethink Pink! marketing-to-women conference in London last week was a smashing success! Not only did the 226 delegates gush, but the success has triggered hard plans to bring the event to New York, Chicago, and S.F. next spring.

Hooray!

To sample some of the conference highlights, go to Michele's blog, www.wonderbranding.com.

TP Comment: (1) It's damn well time something like this went down! (2) WHY DID IT TAKE SO LONG TO TAKE OFF?

Event Slides: World Biz Forum

World Business Forum. Tom joined other business leaders for days of discussion in European cities. Get the slides: Frankfurt and Milan.

Whoo-hoo!!!

The Red Sox are going to the World Series!! I could go on and on—commenting on talent, leadership, great teams, excellence. But I just want to indulge in a bit of pure, exultant joy! It is a great year to be from Boston. Go, Red Sox! Go, Patriots!

I'll leave the commenting to all of you. Talent, anybody? Leadership? And don't leave out astounding grace in a tough situation (Joe Torre).

Addendum 28 October 2004: They Won!!!
Headline from the Boston Globe Victory Edition: Yes!!!
Headline on Boston.com: Pigs can fly, hell is frozen ...

Red Sox fans, please put your thoughts into the comments.

New Special PPTs

For those who want shorter versions of Tom's master slides or Leadership presentation, he has created condensed, easier-to-take-in-all-at-once PowerPoint decks. Download now: "The Re-imagine! 200" or "Leadership—The Short Version".

Also updated: "New Slides Master" and Most Recent "New Slides".

5-in-5

Call it Blurrrrrrrr: 5 countries in 5 days. Saturday-Wednesday: Ireland ... Sweden ... Denmark ... Germany ... Italy. And now for some good shopping. I've got the day off in Milano, and my hotel is but yards from La Scala and the heart of this incredible city. Incidentally, I spoke back-to-back in Frankfurt with Rudy Giuliani—and had the chance to meet Da Mayor for the first time. I'm an insta-fan! He is easy to talk to—not always the case with those who reside on Mt. Olympus—and as funny as he is smart. Lucky me! (Double lucky me: I had a better night than RG did. At about 5 a.m. Milan-time, my Red Sox finished off his Yanks, capping the Most Incredible Comeback Ever. Alas, we enter the World Series with Schilling hurting and Martinez in, uh, "questionable form." By the by: Hooray for the I'net & High-speed Connections thereto; I listened to The Game via Boston radio over the Web.)

Wipe That Smile Off Your Face!

I had a crappy day recently. We all have losing streaks (just ask Joe Torre—couldn't resist that). And I was on one. A host of "little things" (collectively a Big Thing) went consecutively wrong around a couple of my events. I was in a pissy mood. And determined to stay in a pissy mood, if for no reason other than to demonstrate how good and utterly convincing I can be at pissy moods. None of which portended anything positive for the Danish audience I was about to address. Hey, I exist to foment revolution among my seminar goers—but today I didn't care if my mood rubbed off on them.

Time for my A/V check. The Danish lad who worked with me was literally whistling. (Screw that!) He chatted me up about the gorgeous Fall weather (okay, I admit, it was gorgeous); he chatted me up about his girlfriend; he veritably bubbled. (And screw that.) And he kept bubbling. ("All this" took but about 15 minutes.)

Damn him! Despite myself, I began to brighten. The audience began to appear. Looking fit and vigorous ... and anticipating in turn a vigorous show from me.

Unbidden, my Danish pal, doubtless reading my mood, fetched me a cup of tea. And I learned more about his girlfriend. Whoops, I was beginning to border on downright cheerful.

I had a great seminar. And it was all due to that S.O.B. A/V guy. Truth is, it's almost impossible not to be infected by a cheerful soul!

There's one heck of a message here for project managers and HR types involved in hiring! (And for me.)

Enthusiasm is infectious!
(You knew that.)
(Me too.)
(But a reminder is still worthwhile.)
The Speed of Infection is ... AMAZING!
(Think "15-minute Turnaround.)

So:

Enthuse!
(If it kills you.)
Motivate!
(You will ... I promise.)
Period!

100 Ways to Succeed #19:

Zen & the Art of Spoon-banging Change.

"Some people look for things that went wrong and try to fix them. I look for things that went right and try to build on them."—Bob Stone, Mr. ReGo

Bob Stone was Al Gore's point man for reinventing government—hence the Mr. ReGo moniker. He got an amazing amount done in a short space of time. And in the process he rewrote the book on "corporate" change. (And he kindly wrote a book to explain what he'd done: Polite Revolutionary: Lessons from an Uncivil Servant.)

Bob, as I see it, was a Zen master, a Sumo wrestler—a Master of Indirection. (Ha! Maybe that would be an apt substitute for the ever-questionable MBA!?) He full well knew that he could not force change on the Federal bureaucracy; even the President rarely succeeds by frontal assault. And as a Pentagon refugee, he knew the silliness of producing ever-to-be-unread, always-to-be-ignored encyclopedic "White Papers" and fat manuals.

So he turned to the art of storytelling—and resurrected the always faithful "accentuate the positive." Hence the Gospel According to Stone: "I look for things that went right and try to build on them."

He knew there were astonishingly effective, renegade Civil Servants (Uncivil Servants?) dotting the landscape. The trick was to ferret them out, certify (via Mr. Gore) their heretofore shunned approaches, applaud them in public, cast their results in Monuments of Documentary Film ... and shame scores of others into following the lead of their obstreperous peers.

There's much more to the tale—see Bob's book, or my précis of it in Chapter 17 of Re-imagine! ("Boss Work: Heroes, Demos, Stories"). The point here: I urge you to become ...

An organizational Zen master.
A sumo wrestler.
A Master of Indirection.
An "accentuator of the positive."

Jill Ker Conway played the same game with matchless skill. Ms. Conway, though appointed as the first woman president of Smith College, found herself not only surrounded by skeptical tenured (mostly male!) profs, but also without budget to implement the very programs she needed to make her reign different from that of the feckless old boys who had preceded her. Enter Zen. She nosed around the campus (like Stone) and discovered a robust Change Underground. She met with them, encouraged them—and urged them to begin the process proclaiming their views publicly. As to the absent money, she concocted the Mother of All End Runs. JKC became The Tireless Traveler. The hell with standard budgetary sources of bucks. There was a Change Overground of Smith Alumnae who were beside themselves with glee at the belated appointment of this first female prexy. She met and met and met some more—and cajoled and cajoled and cajoled. And soon had enough "external," off-balance-sheet funding to Pilot (Demos again!) several programs that eventually became the hallmarks of her wildly successful term of office.

All hail the Sumo wrestler from Northampton, MA!

Message: Powerlessness is (mostly) a state of mind!
Message: With a dab of Zen here and a shudder of Sumo there ... Mountains Can Be Moved!
Message: We can all become Uncivil Servants!

Start today!

China ... AGAIN!

Your weekly dose of China "stats that amaze," courtesy the International Herald Tribune/10.20.2004:

"China is developing into the new, dominant economy in the world, into the master of globalization."—Konrad Seitz, German scholar & diplomat

"We (the West) have enormously underestimated what is happening in China and in all of Asia."—Jurgen Hambrecht, Chairman, BASF (the world's largest chemical company, based in Germany)

2003: China attracts $53 billion in inward investment, seizing the #1 ranking from the U.S.A. (The $53B also exceeds all of the EU.)

(2003: As an aside to the China Story, but not the encompassing Globalization Story-playing-near-you, the IHT article notes that the white-hot global battle for efficient homes for investment $$$$ caused Britain and Germany to fall out of the Inward Investment Top 5 ranking, supplanted by ... Mexico and Poland.)

China's industry strategy: (1) Acquire technology via licensing and joint ventures. (2) Apply that technology to numerous Chinese competing companies, starting a cost-competitive struggle in China's domestic market that wipes out poor performers in a flash. (3) Using the Star Chinese Survivors of violent domestic warfare, begin to compete globally with the original foreign companies from whom you licensed or with whom you engaged in JVs. Interesting, eh?

Are we paying attention yet? Should you write in Pat Buchanan on NOV2, and pray for a good dose of protectionism?

Are You Game?

Book recommendation: Got Game: How the Game Generation Is Reshaping Business Forever, by John Beck & Mitchell Wade. The basic premise is that Gamers are learning some fabulous tactics and attitudes that will serve them exceedingly well in the biz career wars that lie ahead. Here are some highlights from the review I read in today's Financial Times:

"Growing up is simply different for gamers. They have replaced whatever traditional experiences they might have had as supporting players [to conventional, passive media] with a dramatic increase in experiencing the hero role; they've also had more experience with repeated failure that builds toward success."—the authors

"Perhaps surprisingly [the authors] found no evidence of short attention spans. Far from it. Avid gamers have the ability to spend hours, days, or even weeks in single-minded pursuit of an objective. Nor did they find violent tendencies. They argue that behind the hyperviolent veneer, most video games are actually sophisticated simulations that reward perseverance and learning-by-doing. The result is a generation that can seem like 'arrogant slackers' at first but are in fact highly motivated—if given the opportunity to develop and play a starring role in their own projects."—FT

"Old Europe" Indeed!

If "Old Europe" is so Retro ... e.g., lacking in Yankee Decisiveness ... then why do they work so (relatively) little, live so (relatively) long ... and do just fine in the League Competitiveness Rankings (e.g., Finland #1)?

Consider just the life expectancy bit: USA: Men 74, Women 80. Germany: M75, W81. Finland: M74, W82. UK: M76, W81. France: M75, W83. Switzerland: M76, W82. Italy: M76, W82. Norway: M76, W82. Spain: M76, W83. Sweden: M78, W83.

Try This!

One of the most precarious relationships in the business world is that between an ad agency and its clients. For this reason, agencies are notoriously cautious with these relationships.

Midt Marketing, a very progressive agency in Herning, Denmark, tried something unconventional yesterday. They gathered together representatives from three client companies, along with their respective agency account managers, for an all day Brand Harmony workshop with me. I was confident it would work well, but something special and unexpected happened.

I had assumed the client companies would work on exercises separately and in parallel, but from the very start, as we noticed common issues that each was facing, there was an energetic and electric interaction between the clients. They shared ideas and offered each other insights, giving us a new, surprising dimension to the experience. They continually remarked how interesting it was to have the chance to learn from each others' situations.

If you either work in an ad agency or are a client of one, I encourage you to try something like this. Sure, it's got risks. An agency's biggest fears: Clients learn about special treatment—or big mistakes—with other clients. Would your organization be afraid of it?

What About Your Needs?

One of our readers has asked that we convert Tom's first 20 Ways to Succeed into a summary PowerPoint. We here at tompeters.com had been thinking about ways to save the blog material and make it available in other formats. One thought was to create a Word document each month that included the most popular blogs of that month based on the number of comments it garnered. Then post the Word document as a downloadable file. Would anyone be interested in that?

Second question: Should we create a downloadable Word document version of the Ways to Succeed? Please let us know in the comments box below.

Just FYI ...

Tom Peters does write most of the posts at this blog. But not all of them. TomPeters.com is a bit of a community blog and there are other people posting here. I write this because I saw that one of our readers had addressed Tom in his comments when he was responding to a post by Steve Yastrow, a friend of ours. So you may want to pay attention to the little byline at the end of each post. Thanks.

Collective Wisdom

I'm not a huge baseball fan, but if you live in Boston you can't help but get caught up in Red Sox fever, particularly as the home town team has now tied the series with the New York Yankees. What I found most interesting watching Tuesday night's game, however, was the umpires coming together to reach decisions on two disputed calls. I'd never seen collective wisdom on the baseball diamond before. My sense of umpires is that they've considered themselves kingdoms of one, and they make a call and stick with it, even when they're blocked from seeing the action in question. But since they were closest to the action, it was their call to make. Closest isn't always best. Last night when questions arose all the umps came together and reversed the calls made by the single ump closest to the action. And according to the TV replays, they made the right calls. As a group. Quite exciting.

Observations from Denmark

Tom was just in Copenhagen (see his slides below—awesome!) and I'm still in Denmark a few hundred kilometers away in the city of Herning.

A couple of observations after a fascinating evening speaking to the Herning Erhvervsråd (see the slides), an organization of local and regional businesses:

1. I really appreciate that other people know my language. I get to be here doing what I love to do because other people have worked hard to be fluent in English as a second language. We native English speakers get off real easy.

2. "Brute Force Branding" is out, everywhere on the planet. No matter where I go, I find the same universal truths confirmed: Customers are more scrutinizing and less tolerant than ever before, they look well beyond the promises companies make, and the only way to create compelling, motivating brand impressions is to have all interactions with customers blend to tell a powerful, sensible story. That's what Brand Harmony is all about—and it makes sense for companies of all sizes, in all industries, in all places. I spend most of my working days challenging people to look at marketing differently, and the reactions, comments and questions I got tonight in Denmark are the same ones I get in San Diego, Milwaukee or Prague. (Tongue in cheek stock recommendation—if you own shares of a mega ad agency, think about selling them!)

100 Ways to Succeed #18:

"Lunch Management"

We're all in sales! That's one of my recurrent themes. Or, to make it more personal: IF YOU CARE, YOU'RE IN SALES. That is, if your project Matters to you, if you have a Burning Urge to get it done ... then the Only Route is the ... Sales Route.

Which brings me to #18. I'm not begging you to become workaholics. (Whoops, maybe I inadvertently am. Since my work is my love, I'm a "Love-a-holic"—not a "workaholic"—when I spend another hour blogging. Right?) At any rate, Loveaholics-Workaholics-SalesFanatics ... DON'T WASTE A LUNCH! (Or, at least not many.)

Work is Love.
Work-Love implemented is Sales.
Sales is Relationships.
Relationships is ... LUNCH.
Clear enough, eh?

Consider each lunch an "at bat." (Hey, it's playoff time.) Four workweeks at five days each (I'm going lite on you) adds up to 20 "at bats" each month.

20 opportunities to ... have lunch with your pals.
20 opportunities to start New Relationships.
20 opportunities to nurture Old Relationships.
20 opportunities to patch up Frayed Relationships
20 opportunities to "Take a Freak to Lunch"—and learn something new.
20 opportunities to test an idea with a potential Recruit-Alliance Partner.
20 opportunities to ... MAKE A SALE.

No, I'm hardly urging you to ignore your pals. And if you "used" all 20 monthly "opportunities" to the utmost I'd think you were over the top. (Or determined to become the next Donald Trump. Or President in 2016.) I do urge you to consider Lunches as a Precious Resource. Each lunch gone is gone for good ... or some such.

20 per month. 240 per year. To a Major Leaguer, each At Bat is Precious. To a Loveaholic ... committed to her-his project ... each lunch is equally Precious.

Agree?

Event Slides: Sweden

Get the slides for Tom's events with Informationskollegiet in Stockholm, 18 Oct. 2004, and Copenhagen, 19 Oct. 2004.

Certainty and Leadership

Ok ... I hope this doesn't turn into a political or religious commentary. Let's focus, if possible, on the business implications of what I'm writing.

In yesterday's New York Times Magazine, Ron Suskind writes a brilliant article called "Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W. Bush." It shows how GWB's unflagging certainty about all of his opinions has shut down debate and discourse in his inner circle—and even beyond his inner circle. There is a story of a meeting with a group of Senators where the president got Switzerland and Sweden mixed up and argued that Sweden is "the neutral one" without an Army. He refused to be corrected, and everyone shut up. In addition to this article, Suskind wrote "The Price of Loyalty" about what happened to Paul O'Neill when he began to question W.

What are the implications for leaders who don't question their beliefs, and consider challenges from their advisers as disloyalty? (My best boss ever had a credo for his direct reports, telling us not to be yes-men: "Don't let me f--- up!")

Sanely Civilized Country

Tom and I are both (coincidentally) criss-crossing Northern Europe at the same time. Tom wondered in an earlier post if he'd get the same warm treatment in Denmark he got in Sweden—I arrived in Denmark today and it took me less than 10 minutes in the country to be reminded that this is one of the most friendly, most "civilized" places on the planet. (I didn't suffer any GWB guilt by association.)

And, it's a great business community. Looking forward to 3 days of speeches and seminars with audiences hungry for new ways to look at marketing.

Talk Amongst Yourself

You may have seen me before—I'm the guy in the airport departure lounge using a hands-free headset with my cell phone, but holding the phone to the side of my face anyway. Why? So I won't look like a weirdo talking to myself.

Ah—but I think I can stop worrying about how this looks, if observed practice is a sign of social acceptance. In my first half hour in the Frankfurt, Germany, airport this morning I saw people walking through the terminal talking to themselves in at least 3 languages, with their inconspicuous headset cords and cell phones hidden in pockets and the folds of jackets.

Do you feel funny talking to yourself like this in public?

Come Again

I read a piece in one of London's Saturday papers about an American horrified by the outing of America-hatred she experienced in that great city. People on buses verbally abusing her when they discovered she was a Yank. And worse. (And the ragging was frequent, she reported.)

I am afraid she may be delusional.

I read the hot-off-the-press polls that say GWB is overwhelmingly disliked by all Europeans except, as I recall, the Poles and the Russians. The same polls record that Americans, on the other hand, are well liked—pretty much as before. That's surely my experience. In London and Dublin earlier this week—and in Stockholm right now.

Just returned to my hotel room here after four hours shopping, strolling, and taking in a couple of museums. Dressed in my Sunday finest—hooded sweatshirt (Hanalei Bay Surf Co/Kaua'i) and sweatpants, plus trusty Merrells. You'd figure that exceptionally pacifist Sweden would be high on the list of those who might lump us Americans along with our President-policy. Not in my wanders. People, as usual, invariably went way out of their way to be helpful, courteous, cheerful—and on a miserably cold, raw, rainy day that could dim even a Swede's spirits.

In fact I think maybe people are too nice to us—if they truly think our policies are pernicious. Our roots are rather violent. (So are Sweden's, actually, but about a jillion years ago when Bengt-the-Bloody, or some such Viking, ruled.) And we did vote for Mr. Bush (well almost as many as voted for Al). We are "earth's only superpower"—at the moment. (Maybe not for so many moments more—see my stream of China riffs.) And "they"/Very Bad Guys are, if gunning for anyone, gunning for us. And we in turn have resorted to bellicosity at a level that may or may not be justified. We gulp an unfair share of the world's energy, produce a rash of internal violence, and are now engaged in a nasty war—and looking at GWB's continuing poll strength with "Security Moms," we are not entirely opposed to where we are/have been/might go.

So if you hate what my country does, go ahead, it seems fair that you take it out a little on me—and that you don't need to be so nice.

Maybe that'll happen later this week in Denmark or Germany or Italy.

007: License to Go Nuts!

Thought I'd heard every Welchism (as in JW/GE) known to humankind. But I tripped across the following yesterday, and though it happened 20 years ago, it's as fresh and timely as ever. When Jack declared Total War on his own bureaucracy in the early eighties, he instructed his troops as follows regarding actions in their house (their org processes): "Fight it! Hate it! Kick it! Break it!"

Not only do I agree with the sentiment—I especially take a shine to the clarity-crudeness of the lingo. So many chiefs encase their words in so many conditionals that it's hard to figure in the end what they/we are fighting for. There's no mistaking the intent here—or the expected ferocity of action.

Go Jack!

Ferocity Amidst the Ivy

Speaking of competitiveness, Saturday's FTmagazine (Financial Times) served up a cover story titled "Oxford Blues: How U.S. Academia Left Britain's Elite Universities in Its Wake."

America's answer, in short, is fiery, out-in-the-open, no-holds-barred competitiveness. Competing for Alumni bucks. Competing for Profs. Competing for Students. Competing for Grants. Competing for Recognition. Competing for the right to use the word Excellence per se. The competitive ferocity is most clearly exemplified, the FT reports, by Harvard's relatively new president, Larry Summers. (Academic superstar, former Clinton Treasury Secretary, energetic and aggressive in ways that give new meaning to the words.)

The results of the drive evinced by Summers and his determined peers—competitors, from Cambridge (Massachusetts/MIT) to Palo Alto (Stanford)—can partly be measured by the fact that the U.S. bags three-quarters of all Nobel Prizes, and is home to 700 of the world's 1,200 top academics, as measured by scientific citations. Also, a research study conducted last year by Shanghai University (they're watching!) concluded that the four "best universities" in the world are American: Harvard (#1), Berkeley, Cal Tech, Stanford. The UK's Cambridge bagged the 5th slot. The new chief at Cambridge acknowledges the Americans'/our competitiveness, which she contrasted to the British cast of mind. "Americans," she said, "are not embarrassed by ambition."

Which could lead me to segue back to my first comment—our generic unabashed, "energetic" approach to life wins Nobels in medicine, and probably explains more than a little about gun violence, Hummer-love and warrior tendencies as well.

Traveling Heavy

I recently acknowledged to the New York Times that I "travel heavy." At the moment I'm on the road for 3+ weeks—a rare occurrence. And I'm weighed down. (Necessarily so, as I see it.) I will spare you the whole list, but I laid out EVERYTHING this morning in Stockholm, and organized it. Even I was occasionally surprised ...

Computers: 1 Dell, 1 Gateway. (Yesterday a flight attendant spilled sparkling water on the Gateway—named EDDA; we name my 5 computers so we'll know who's healthy and who's not. Edda was fried—and not available for about 15 hours. Way to go, Tom: I resisted using a hairdryer on Edda!)

Techie accoutrements: 2 DSL cables (long, short); 2 phone cables (3, actually—I dunno); 2 sets of overseas plug adaptors for each country I'll visit (I CANNOT TELL A LIE: I found 6 British adaptors); 2 12-foot extension cords (I like to work in any corner of a room, even the bathroom); 2 backup batteries per computer; one airplane-car adaptor-transformer; 3 cell phones (2 U.S., primary and backup; 1 international); 1 Blackberry (charger cords for all the above); one toolkit; miscellaneous batteries; 1 Bose headset; 6 memory sticks

3 flashlights (one above normal; you know ...) (ENOUGH BATTERIES TO POWER A SMALL ARMY)

4 watches (It's not me, honestly—they just accumulate)

2 alarm clocks (1 on home time, 1 set for the road)

1 pair chopsticks (Forget it: I LIKE TO EAT WITH CHOPSTICKS IN GENERAL—and it slows my eating down)

1 stapler (Critical!)

1 pack blank 5 X 7 cards, in case I have to give an impromptu speech

11 file folders (1 for each of 8 events, 3 for work-related material)

Kit with Tabasco, mustard, balsamic vinegar (spicing food slows the metabolism—plus I like spice, especially Tabasco)

1 big Leatherman, 1 small Swiss Army knife (and 1-pair v. sharp scissors)

26 ball pens (EPIDEMIC!)

15 (about) spare Ziplocs, incl. the all-important 2-gallon size!

Mucho dietary supplement pills (plus a few prescribed meds, and emergency meds such as antibiotics (may end up God knows end-of-nowhere) (NO FLU SHOTS)

11 "trip" books (4 non-fiction, 7 fiction—none of my own!); 6 DVDs, 3 music CDs (my meditation tapes); 5 standard take-along books (2 meditation, 1 World Atlas, 2 OAG flight guides) (Also, whoops, maps to 3 cities I'm not visiting—and 1 that I am)

Miscl currency (India, Russia, Australia, Euros, British Pounds, Thai, Canadian, Japanese Yen—you never know!)

3 tubes of toothpaste, 3 brushes

7 ties (depends on the mood—it's my only color, in contrast to DARK Blue & GRAY suits); 6 dress shirts (and ... YEGADS ... 41 little plastic thingeys for the shirt collars—must have watered that pot too vigorously); 2 sweat shirts; 1 sweatpants and one sweat shorts; 2 pairs winter gloves (DAMN WELL NEEDED ONE OF 'EM IN STOCKHOLM TODAY); 5 pair sweatsocks (1 pair dress socks—avoid me after Wednesday); one kneebrace (left, and thanks for asking); 1 fleece; 5 baseball hats (Red Sox, SF Giants, Canyon Ranch, Rosie-the-riveter, Poole's Fish on Martha's Vineyard—4 is below average)
1 silver Ganeesh, for good luck.

A signed picture of Roy Rogers (JUST KIDDING)

3 balls-in-a-bag (NOT KIDDING) (1 baseball, unsigned; 1 Australian cricket ball; 1 wooden ball used by the Tarahumara Indians of Northern Mexico—again, thanks for asking)

And some other stuff ... but that gives you a flavor, I trust.

And you?

(HINT: MY CONCLUSION AFTER READING THIS ... ABSURD!)

Thank You, Grand Hotel!

The Grand Hotel in Stockholm is, well, grand! It also satisfies seven of my eight "gotta haves" (in order): (1) insanely clean; (2) DSL/high speed access w/o interruption;
(3) 1-hour suit pressing, 24-hours-per-day; (4) windows that open WIDE; (5) no-smoking rooms; (6) 24-hour room service; (7) heart-of-the-city (in this case, minutes from the World's Best Department Store—NK); It misses on #8, Very Hard Mattress. (My Swedish friends inform me that Swedes like soft mattresses—no problem, I just moved the soft mattress to the floor and converted it into a futon.)

Just to spark a discussion, I, "Customer Service Fanatic," must add that I don't much care about staff attitude—if all my Big Eight are on line.

American Congregators?

Flew back from Dublin, Ireland, this past Thursday, on AerLingus. Shortly after takeoff an attendant got on the microphone and made this announcement: "Would the American passengers please not congregate near the galley at the back of the plane. That's a work area for the flight attendants."

Which prompted me to look at my seatmate, an Irish woman, quizzically. Why just the Americans, I wondered. She also thought it odd that the Americans had been singled out. Do we Americans have that reputation in the airline world: Congregators. Could be a good name for an international football team: The American Congregators.

I suppose this habit is related to that tendency of everyone to end up in your kitchen when you invite them to your house for a party. Even in the air, we're still looking for that hearth. Or is it that we're just hunting for extra peanuts?

26 ..... BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

I have a new presentation prop.
An egg timer.

My goal is to "push" urgency." Recall a couple of weeks ago I blogged a China stat. 60,000 new foreign-owned factories opened between 2000 and 2003. Do the math, and that's one every ... 26 MINUTES!

So now I carry an egg timer (assuming the TSA doesn't confiscate it one of these days) ... and set it for 26 minutes as I begin my presentations. Then, as it Beeps (I found one with a truly obnoxious sound), I announce, "Another foreign-owned factory in China coming on line."

Then I reset the timer.
It has, shall I say, a ... Riveting Effect.

Journal Power

In Dublin. (GLORIOUS Dublin!) Off to Stockholm tomorrow ... then a speech in Frankfurt on Wednesday. As always, looking for Openers.

Splat.
Wall Street Journal Europe hits my door this morning.

Page 1, Headline: "GM Europe to Slash Costs in Blow to German Workers: Loss-Ridden Auto Maker, Facing Asian Onslaught, to Cut Up to 12,000 jobs."

That ought to do it.

Nothing Is Sacrosanct

Same Journal front page: "In China's Countryside, Farmers Are Cultivating Agribusiness Explosion as Subsidies Cut U.S. Dominance."

I repeat: China is the story!

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

100 Ways to Succeed #17:

Work on Your Story!

He/she who has the best story wins!

In life!
In business!
The White House!

Consider the following:

"A key—perhaps the key—to leadership is the effective communication of a story."—Howard Gardner, Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership

"Leaders don't just make products and make decisions. Leaders make meaning."—John Seely Brown, Xerox PARC

"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

"The essence of American presidential leadership, and the secret of presidential success, is storytelling."—Evan Cornog, The Power and the Story: How the Crafted Presidential Narrative Has Determined Political Success from George Washington to George W. Bush

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

"We are in the twilight of a society based on data. As information and intelligence become the domain of computers, society will place more value on the one human ability that cannot be automated: emotion. Imagination, myth, ritual—the language of emotion—will affect everything from our purchasing decisions to how we work with others. Companies will thrive on the basis of their stories and myths. Companies will need to understand that their products are less important than their stories."—Rolf Jensen, Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies

"The last few decades have belonged to a certain kind of person with a certain kind of mind—computer programmers who could crank code, lawyers who could craft contracts, MBAs who could crunch numbers. But the keys to the kingdom are changing hands. The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind—creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning makers. These people—artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers—will now reap society's richest rewards and share its greatest joys."—Dan Pink, A Whole New Mind

"In Denmark, eggs from free-range hens have conquered over 50 percent of the market. Consumers do not want hens to live their lives in small, confining cages. They are willing to pay 15 percent to 20 percent more for the story about animal ethics. This is classic Dream Society logic. Both kind of eggs are similar in quality, but consumers prefer eggs with the better story. After we debated the issue and stockpiled 50 other examples, the conclusion became evident: Stories and tales speak directly to the heart rather than the brain. After a century where society was marked by science and rationalism, the stories and values are returning to the scene." —Rolf Jensen/The Dream Society: How the Coming Shift from Information to Imagination Will Transform Your Business

(FYI: We have just posted a new "Special Presentation": "The Power Is the Story.")

I have concluded that "the brand" is encompassed by "the story." There is a slide in the new Special Presentation that simply reads: Story > Brand.

Storytelling is a refined art. Maybe it comes naturally to your or my 79-year-old Grandpa, but it didn't/doesn't to me! I WORK LIKE HELL AT IT!

Do you ever make "presentations"?
I bet the answer is, "Yes."

Well ... STOP.
NO MORE PRESENTATIONS.
EVER AGAIN.

I stopped years ago.
I NEVER GIVE PRESENTATIONS.

I DO ... for pay, no less than ... TELL STORIES.

As I prepare I am conscious ... 100 PERCENT OF THE TIME ... of the evolving story, of the plot, the narrative that unfolds.

For example: Regardless of the intensity of the urging, I never submit my presentations ahead of time. That's because I rework them—keep refining the plot, the flow, the rhythm—until moments before I go on stage. I suspect that in the last few hours before a speech, I go through my "script" well over 100 times.

Your task—TODAY—is a short story.
Your current project is ... a story.
Your career is ... a story.

HE/SHE WHO HAS THE BEST STORY WINS!
SO ... WORK ON YOUR STORY!
MASTER THE ART OF STORYTELLING/STORYDOING/STORY PRESENTING!

(More to come.)

Quantifying Negativity

According to a report by the University of Wisconsin's Advertising Project only 27% of presidential campaign ads shown on television by both the Bush and Kerry campaigns were positive.

No, you weren't just imagining it.

Just the Facts

"Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts." This quote from Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan heads the home page of FactCheck.org, an invaluable site for those who question what they see and hear in political ads and speeches. If you're not sure who misled, exaggerated or just plain lied in last night's debate, read the Fact Check report. It seems that both candidates are at least a little guilty (are you shocked?!?!), but this site will help you judge for yourself whose rhetoric is closer to the truth.

Event Slides: IMI

Tom spoke to the Irish Management Institute on 14 October 2004. See the slides here.

Speaking of Under-Representation...

Here's some supporting evidence for the 85 Broads mission. The October issue of Fortune includes "The 50 Most Powerful Women in Business" with eBay President and CEO Meg Whitman in the #1 spot. Hewlett-Packard's Carly Fiorina takes the #2 position after leading the list every year since it began in 1998.

Reviewing the complete list (subscription required), I noted eight companies with two women each on the list. I take this as a good sign that not all of these powerful women are anomalies within their organizations. However, I also took a look at the August 2004 list of "The 25 Most Powerful People in Business" and found that only two women (Fiorina and Whitman) made that list. (A third woman appears on the list, but as part of Fidelity's inseparable father/daughter team, so I'm not sure how to count her.)

Clearly, we still have a long way to go. I look forward to the day when there's no need for a list that seems to say, "She's really smart, for a girl."

85 Broads and Tom Say: Mark Your Calendar!

85 Broads is a women's networking group started in 1999, with HQ at 85 Broad St./Wall Street. They are sponsoring a Buycott, urging their members (and friends thereof, via word-of-mouth) to Not Shop on October 19. The idea is to demo Women's AWESOME Purchasing Power and PATHETIC Under-representation in Boardrooms & Exec Suites! So sad that one needs to do this sort of thing in 2004 ... to call attention to the Obvious! But need it we do, and One Old Guy (me) urges one and all (M & F) to zip the checkbook, stow the credit cards ... on 10.19 ... and support 85 Broads & All Women!

Lou Dobbs Confounded! Excellence Continued!

On one hand, there's much more to life than the P & L. On the other, a hearty P & L is a nice reminder that you're doing some stuff right in your Clients' Eyes! Remember my ... Big Gush(es) ... over Infosys?

Just in!
2nd Quarter results!
Revenue: +52%.
Profit: +49%.

Revealing title of the Wall Street Journal's announcement article: "Infosys 2nd-Period Rose Amid Demand for Outsourcing."

Caveat Emptor

"Top 10": Tom's "I hate ..." list. Corporate Mission/Value Statements that are insipid ... and which no one believes ... and which, therefore, convict leadership of being either Hopelessly Stupid or Hopelessly Out-of-Touch.

Consider:

At **** we take pride in our commitment to:

*Quality service and best value for our clients
*Individual opportunity and respect for each other
*Integrity and excellence in our work
*Distinction and the competitive in our work

No worse-different than a hundred others like it, eh? Sure. But **** happens to be CACI, who happen to be one of the private contractors at Abu Ghraib.

(Source: Gobbledygook: How Clichés, Sludge and Management-speak are Strangling Our Public Language, by Don Watson. A great read.)

Please fill in the blanks: "I Love My Company Vision & Values Statement Because ...

100 Ways to Succeed #16:

Have you sought customer feedback ... ONE CUSTOMER ... today?

Never.
Ever.
Get Out Of Touch.
With Customers.

Easy to lose touch.
G.W. Bush.
Me.
You.
BigCo.
WeeCo.

Must not happen.

Stop.
Now.

Call a Customer.
Out of the Blue.
Ask (use these words): "How Things Goin'?"
Listen.
LISTEN.

Take notes.
Meticulous.
(Record in Special Notebook.)

Follow-up.
FAST.

Repeat.
48-hours hence.

Hint: This applies to 100% of us. Not just "bosses."
We.
All.
Have.
Customers.

Hey, tompeters.com Clients (Ye, the Beloved!) ...
How's It Goin'?

Brand Harmony Quiz

Not as racy as a Cosmo survey, but ...

How well does your organization create Brand Harmony?

Take my quiz to see how you rate.

Quote of the Day

"There is little evidence of the correlation of [personality] test scores with school performance, managerial effectiveness, team building or career counseling."—New York Times review (10.10.04) of The Cult of Personality: How Personality Tests Are Leading Us to Miseducate Our Children, Mismanage Our Companies, and Misunderstand Ourselves, by Annie Murphy Paul.

Ah! Another of my deep-seated biases confirmed!

Getting Everything Right Except What's Important

What kind of weirdo would shell out $25 to buy a book he knew he was going to detest? Uh, me. Got it yesterday evening, at Logan, while waiting for my flight to Dublin.

Harvard Business School Press.
Glowing back-cover endorsement from GE CEO Jeff Immelt (whom I greatly admire).

The book?

Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?
By BCG Big Cheese George Stalk. (I endorsed a book of his in bygone days.) And former BCGer Rob Lachenauer.

Here's my deal. I've spent too much time with folks like Sydney Harman, CEO of Harman International (see his book Mind Your Own Business: A Maverick's Guide to Business, Leadership and Life); Max De Pree, former Herman Miller chairman (see his Leadership Is an Art); and Bill George, former Medronics CEO (Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value). Put simply: While I acknowledge that the "real world" is no lark, I refuse to get roped into biz thinking that's all about Ruthless Warfare.

Strategies offered in Hardball ("The winners in business have always played hardball") include: "Unleash massive and overwhelming force." "Exploit anomalies." "Threaten your competitor's profit sanctuaries." "Entice your competitor into retreat."

I've no doubt that such stratagems are part of life in biz and on the battlefield and elsewhere. And I am personally not averse to bulldozing my way towards what I want with any clever approach I can dream up. (Like being about the only mgt "guru" to be addicted to Blogging.)

But ...

My simple/fervent (Naive?) belief—about me & my career & business in general & warfare for that matter—is that the Three Pillars of Excellent Enterprise are: (1) Extraordinary People. (2) Extraordinary/Innovative Products. (3) Extraordinary Customer Experiences (the consistent provision thereof). These three pillars, in turn, are anchored to a Base of (4) Rock-solid Infrastructure. That's it.

(Further: Get the Big Four above right ... and damn near any strategy will work. Get the Big Four wrong ... and no strategy, no matter how clever, will do you a helluva lot of good.)

With the above in mind, I performed a little "research" on Hardball. I thumbed my way to the Index. By my very rough calculation, there are 620 Index citations. Here is my Scorecard: "People" ... 0. (Actually, I checked "people" "workers," "morale," "motivation," and "employees": Each came up ... 0/ZERO.) "Customer/s" ("service," "retention," and "loyalty") ... 4/FOUR. "Innovation" ("product development," "research & development," and "new products") ... 0/ZERO.* (*As far as I can tell, the term with the largest number of entries—18—is "mergers and acquisitions.")

Having performed my experiment while passing the time in an airport/Logan bookshop, I just had to spring for $25 and buy the book! So I could Blog it, sure. But mostly so I could make certain that if I had the last copy, the evidence of such a waste of paper would not disappear.

Somebody's nuts.
George Stalk.
Or me.

Up, Up, and Away

On the road the next three weeks. Dublin and Stockholm this week. Copenhagen, Frankfurt, and Milan next week. LA, Phoenix, and La Jolla the week after that. Will try to keep up with my Blogging, doubtless at a reduced pace. (I have eight formal speeches, and innumerable side shows.)

Trip talisman. Stowed abutting my passport are the three books I carry that keep me sane amidst an insane schedule: Be Free Where You Are, Thich Nhat Hanh; Free Your Breath, Free Your Life, Dennis Lewis; Calm Technique: Meditation Without Magic or Mysticism, Paul Wilson.

Two New (Short) Special PowerPoint Presentations

A reporter asked me what made for Sustaining Entrepreneurship in a company as it grows. I said, "Beats me," then offered 17 ideas. You'll find posted today my "SE17: Origins of Sustainable Entrepreneurship" (just 4 slides). Feedback welcomed!! (Make that "begged for.")

Will be talking about Design more than I normally do at a couple of upcoming events. Reread this weekend Virginia Postrel's masterful 2003 contribution: The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness. Hence, you'll find a 8-slide presentation consisting of excellent Virginia-isms [download the PPT here]; VirginiaP is also the subject of a Cool Friends interview posted on 13 February of this year. Message: DESIGN IS INEVITABLE! DESIGN IS THE DIFFERENCE! DESIGN RULES! (Dan Pink's forthcoming A Whole New Mind: "The MFA is the new MBA." Yes!)

100 Ways to Succeed #14:

Read (AND ACT ON) These Three Books ...

I think 99 out of 100 self-help books offer prescriptions that are too good to be true—or require commitments that are implausible. But as to the 1 in 100, or 1,000: I think the following three (ALL METICULOUSLY RESEARCHED) self-help/how-to books are worth 100X their weight in gold—and are as good as Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People and Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich.

Namely ...

GETTING TO YES ... Roger Fisher, William Ury, Bruce Patton.
LEARNED OPTIMISM ... Martin Seligman.
CRUCIAL CONFRONTATIONS ... Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler.

I avoid such books like the plague. HOWEVER: I HAVE BENEFITED ENORMOUSLY (personally & professionally) FROM EACH OF THESE THREE. They "fill a compelling need" ... AND ARE DO-ABLE!

NB: Each of these authors/co-authors has produced a consistent body of work—c.f., Seligman's Authentic Happiness—that is worth the price of admission; I've simply chosen my fav of each lot.

"Success or Failure"? Try Instead "Optimism or Failure"!

Consider this from Martin Seligman's Learned Optimism: "I believe the traditional wisdom is incomplete. A composer can have all the talent of a Mozart and a passionate desire to succeed, but if he believes he cannot compose music, he will come to nothing. He will not try hard enough. He will give up too soon when the elusive right melody takes too long to materialize. Success requires persistence, the ability to not give up in the face of failure. I believe that ... OPTIMISTIC EXPLANATORY STYLE ... is the key to persistence.

"The explanatory-style theory of success says that in order to choose people for success in a challenging job, you need to select for three characteristics: (1) Aptitude. (2) Motivation. (3) Optimism. All three determine success."

(Seligman's extensive work with Met Life salespeople, among others, proved out the above—in spades.)

(FYI: Pessimist: Good things ... "I'm worthless, but got lucky on this one." Bad things ... "I'm a bozo who deserved my sorry fate."

Optimist: Good things ... "I deserved that; I'm the cat's meow." Bad things ... "I'm the cat's meow, but the cat had an unlucky day; tomorrow will be better for sure."

Seligman's research results demonstrate that the gap between P's and O's really is Grand Canyon.)

100 Ways to Succeed #15:

YOU MUST BE ABLE TO ANSWER THIS QUESTION!

And the question is: WHAT'S THE DREAM?

Plan.
Vision.
Brand statement.
Animating idea.
Beliefs.

All 5 of these notions are important. (Very important.) But none compare with: WHAT'S THE DREAM?

Great Performances are the result of a DREAM. (And, to be sure, a helluva lot of hard work and good luck and ... and ...)

But "it" begins with and is sustained by a ... DREAM.

A DREAM is "required" for an Awesome Business Process Re-definition project. For a training course. For a Great Night ($300 in tips) ... Waiting Tables.

I will go so far as to say that any dream-free project/performance will be less than memorable. "Efficient"? Quite possibly. "Useful"? Quite possibly. "Entertaining"? Quite possibly. But ... RATTLES THE EARTH? Not without the ... DREAM.

Can DREAMS be ... "worked on"?
Absolutely!

I give about 75 speeches a year. Each begins and ends with ... THE DREAM. I start by imagining myself in the conference room-auditorium a month hence, facing 60 or 6,000 people. I AM (I truly am!!) DESPERATE TO MAKE A MARK, LEAVE A MEMORABLE, STARTLING, UPLIFTING CALL-TO-ARMS BEHIND. I cogitate and meditate on ... THE DREAM. An image eventually begins to appear (based on a boatload of research and an eon of enforced intuitive reflection). As the image sharpens (THE DREAM), I work like the devil over the next several days or weeks on the details (95% of my effort). When I'm "finished," I ask myself if the PowerPoint I've prepared as my skeleton ... Measures Up To The Dream? (And then I adjust and adjust and adjust ... and sometimes start over ... if The Dream has become blurred by too many "clever distractions.") Finally, it's a few minutes to show time. As I meditate back stage, I am working internally on only one thing: AM I CLEAR ON THE ... DREAM? IS THE DREAM CLEAR? And it begins. NOW I MUST CONNECT!!! I must ... CONVEY THE DREAM ... one person at a time!!! ... even in that audience of 6,000. (Message: Dreams are "sold" retail, not wholesale. ONE-AT-A-TIME. UP-CLOSE-AND-PERSONAL. Aside: That includes Blogging?!)

So ... imagine your current project.
WHAT'S THE DREAM?

DreamStuff (More)

You are a Project Manager.
You have a Dream for your project.
How will you know you've sold it to your TeamMates? (That TeamMates have become DreamMates?)

You'll know when your TeamMates/DreamMates say:

"Makes me proud to be part of this DreamTeam!"
"Works for me personally!"
"Worthy of my Emotional Commitment!"
"Cool!"
"Wow!"
"Who'd have thought we could ..."
"Makes me Giggle!"
"Can't wait to tell my best pal/spouse/significant other/the guy sitting next to me on the subway!"
"Can't wait to recruit my friend Jenny!"

Do you pass this test?

Built to ... Deterioriate

Jim Collins and Jerry Porras gave us Built to Last about a decade ago. I'm not so sure. ("Not so sure"? Try: "Flat out disagree"!) I have a new ally. Consider this from yesterday's Boston Globe: "Economic Life: Investment Strategies Must Shift with Realities," by featured columnist Charles Stein: "When it comes to investing, I am old school. Buy a good stock, stick it in the drawer and when you check back years later the stock should be worth more. There's only one problem. When I checked the drawer recently it was full of clunkers, including Lucent, down 94 percent from its 1999 high. Maybe once upon a time buy and hold was a viable strategy. Today, it no longer makes sense."

Stein continues with these "clunker" examples: Fannie Mae (incidentally, featured in Collins' subsequent solo Good to Great). Coke. ("Clunker," make that "Stinker.") Merck. (The mightiest fall—stock down 63 percent since 2000.) Uh ... Microsoft. ("Microsoft's stock price is no higher today than it was in 1998.") Clear Channel—down 32 percent this year; New York Times (owner of the Boston Globe)—down 17 percent in 2004.

"It is not clear there is such a thing as a 'Blue Chip,'" Shawn Kravetz, president of Boston-based hedge fund Esplanade Capital, told Stein. "Kravetz's point is a serious one," Stein continues. "Greatness is not permanent. ... This process of creative destruction isn't new. But with the world moving ever faster, and with competition on steroids, the quaint notion of buying and holding is hopelessly out of step."

The Sum of All Fears

cheap viagra from india

Now I know the peril of cell-phoning from one's car. And I've lived to tell the tale. Barely. The problem is not that we're pretty competent at using the cell phone—it's that once-every-10-years moment-of-truth. Was driving from VT to Boston yesterday afternoon. Approaching the city, near Concord. (As in Lexington and ...) Calling Susan, to coordinate my arrival.

Then ...

About 500 (?) yards in front of me, out of the blue (and the sky was blue), a guy simply spins out of control, does 2 or 3 360s. He ended up hanging from an embankment. I ended up undamaged (car or body) on the other side of the 4-lane road.

That is, nothing happened.

But the plain fact is that I did my evasion bit a fraction of a second, or a second or even 2 seconds, later than I would have had I not been phoning.

I escaped.
This time.

Lesson here?

(And don't give me the "hands-free" equipment retort! I WAS DISTRACTED. PERIOD. AND I AM ALMOST NOT WRITING THIS AS A RESULT.)

Quote of the Day (Lifetime)

"My life is my message."—Gandhi

Source

Found the Gandhi quote in Peter Rühe's magnificent photo-essay book, Gandhi. (I would ordinarily have included the source in the comment above, but the quote is so powerful that I felt it needed to stand alone.) (You know me and Design!)

My Choices

Thoughts spinning out from the Gandhi quote. I was born in 1942. Of those with whom I have shared air to breath, four stand out above the rest: Gandhi. Churchill. King. Mandela. We are all products of our times, and yet I believe each of these giants altered the course of history through sheer force of personality. Each was a ... Dreamer-Visionary. Each was ... True to Himself. Each was an ... Inspiring Story Teller. Each had ... Incredible Personal Magnetism. Each was ... Stunningly Inclusive. Each had ... Herculean Stamina. Each was ... Persistent Beyond Measure. Each surmounted ... Numerous, Catastrophic Failures. Each was a ... Masterful Politician. Each was a ... Stellar Actor.

Review: The Ten "Traits of Excellence":

Dreamer-Visionary.
True to Himself.
Story Teller.
Magnetism.
Inclusive.
Stamina.
Persistence.
Thrive Past Failure.
Politician Extraordinaire.
Actor.

What do you think of my list? Of people? Traits? Do you think these ten traits come at birth? Or, assuming they are more or less on the mark, can they be taught-learned-practiced?

100 Ways to Succeed #13:

Make This Day Matter.

If ... "My life is my message" ...
Then ... what will you/I do today to clarify and amplify your/my message?

Choose wisely. (WHAT IS YOUR MESSAGE?)
Review (and report ... to yourself) at the end of the day.

Repeat.
Daily.
Forever.

Consider Seth

As you ponder your "message," consider the immortal words of Seth Godin: "If you can't describe your position in eight words or less, you don't have a position."

Amen!

What I Learned

Lesson Tuesday Night: I would not like to be a lawyer squaring off against John Edwards! I don't care who you think won or lost, Edwards gave a tutorial for all of us who live by presenting arguments in public. Among (many) other things: Mastery of data & details. And the ability to call forth what is needed on the spot. Use of details without obscuring the main message. Plain language (without talking down). Clarity of presentation. Body language. Respect masking appropriate certainty and aggression. Crystal clear understanding of the real audience (not Cheney or the moderator). Ability to go to the edge, and no further. A chessmaster's understanding of the unfolding of the entire game.

A Public Declaration of Intent

You heard it here first. In the last few years, I've actively championed a number of causes that excite me, and that I think are important to the world at large. Among them: Design. Marketing to Women. Marketing to Boomers-Geezers. Women in leadership roles. Making the work matter: Wow Projects; Brand You; turning "staffs"/"cost centers" into value-adding Professional Service Firms. Increasing corporate "metabolic rates" to master crazy times. And now the time has come for another Big Initiative ...

Namely: Wellness.

The idea refers directly to the "corporate side" of health care, our biggest industry by far: that is, re-imagining health care ... TOTALLY ... so as to shift perspective from chemical/surgical after-the-fact fixes for errant body parts ... to Prevention-Healing-Wellness-Wholeness-Creativity. I learned two days ago, while addressing those responsible for the nation's Eldercare, just how noisy and obnoxious—and I hope persuasive—I could be on this topic. I PLAN TO GIVE NO QUARTER TO HEALTH CARE TRADITIONALISTS!* (*I'd love to do the same for Schools ... but, alas, I feel the system is largely intractable. The Boomer Tsunami will definitely push "healthcare world"—whether its denizens like it or not.)

Wellness, as I plan to define it, also directly engages the individual—in both a "Brand You World" and a business environment that demands unprecedented attention to creativity-innovation. The individual becomes more than a human machine/"interchangeable part"; the "whole person" must be "present & accounted for" in order to add value in these fascinating-exciting-threatening times. In such personal/revised "quests," TW/Total Wellness (physical and emotional and spiritual) is paramount as never before—a Survival Strategy, even.

Also, there is an essential-intriguing "geezer" angle here: i.e., making these wildly numerous, increasingly healthy (mechanically) Elders exciting, growing, creative contributors—not just carcasses to be "dealt with" until time to depart.

So that's where I fancy I'll head! Comments welcome! (PLEASE!)

100 Ways to Succeed #12:

Micromanage First & Last Impressions!

First & Last impressions are your and my personal-career keys, and the keys to a company's customer service report card. We both get that, of course. But: I don't know about you, but I need ... Constant Reminding. For example, my wife rags on me semi-constantly for not looking people directly in the eye when I'm introduced. At first, I thought she was nuts, especially as I get paid sometimes to attend post-speech "G & G" (Grip & Grin) sessions with execs or top salespeople or key customers. But she's right, I belatedly had to admit—I think it's my soul-deep shyness. (No baloney; a lot of people who sparkle at a podium are withdrawn in more intimate settings—and vice versa.) Upshot: I'm working on it—and work it is; but worth it.

Back to the overall issue. Fox News' CEO and uber-spin doctor Roger Ailes claims I/you/we have ... 7 SECONDS ... to make a first impression. And he gives us this advice: First: "Amp up your attitude." Some people radiate energy, some don't. But the don'ts at least can square their shoulders, and pump themselves up a bit. ("Energy" is not to be confused with aggressiveness. Energy is, in my opinion—I don't know about Roger—mostly seen in the eyes.) Second rule per Ailes: "Give your message a mission." That is, if you've got something you want to get from the interaction ... STAY ON MESSAGE. President Bush gets some low scores on oral presentation—but one and all agree he is the all-time master of staying precisely on message. Ailes #3: "Recognize 'face value.'" A "poker face" works well in poker—but is a disaster in more normal human interaction, including in professional settings. Call it "animation" or "engagement" (my terms, not Ailes'); but it is different than raw energy; it's something about being in the moment. And again, the idea is not to do jumping jacks—animation to me is mostly the intensity of concentration. (My wife—this time I think it's a positive—claims my intensity of listening-concentration scares her half to death if it's aimed her way. I wouldn't know.) The "bottom line" here is more important than the specific points: PAY MINDFUL ATTENTION TO HOW YOU ENGAGE!! IT'S AS IMPORTANT AS "CONTENT"—LIKE IT OR NOT. (Idea: Imagine that Karl Rove and Karen Hughes were looking over your left and right shoulders respectively, as you approach an interaction. Think about what they'd be whispering in your ear right before ... contact.)

Organizationally, the notion is essentially the same. Recall yesterday's Blog that included kudos to Griffin Hospital. Griffin says the first impression begins with ... Driving Directions! Prospective patients are already in a tizzy; lousy directions will only fuel their angst—and reinforce the idea that they are not in charge of their circumstances. Winners like Griffin obsess on driving directions, signage, music choice for the lobby, etc., etc. Of course Disney, no surprise, is the quintessential player here. My simple advice: BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS ARE OVERWHELMINGLY IMPORTANT—AND SURELY COUNT AS "STRATEGIC SUBSTANCE" IN ANY INTERCHANGE. Think through "B & Es" very carefully. Invest Time & Money & Training in "B & Es." Hey: How about a new "C-level" job? Chief of Beginnings and Endings? Chief Start 'n Stop?

What Was Mr. Reagan Thinking?

Maybe my headline above takes the words out of President Bush's mouth these days. President Reagan was a successful champion of States' Rights. And now those nasty little buggers, the States, are grasping the nettle from Washington on some near-and-dear Boss Bush issues.

Ah-nold "When it comes to the Environment, I'm no girlie-boy" Schwarzenegger, CA's Republican Gov, is going through bushels of pens signing one after another piece of far-reaching environmental-conservation legislation. Moreover, as CA goes, so goes the nation (eventually).

CA, MA (and some 38 other States) also are not willing to let the future front-edge of tomorrow's economy (and attendant high-pay jobs) slip out of their grasps. Hence, a raft-full (make that ocean liner-full) of initiatives providing local funding for stem-cell research. In CA's case, voters will likely slam-dunk an Initiative directing $3 BILLION of State moolah to such research.

Hey, I always was a Reagan fan!

NB: Re the Environment & Conservation Writ Large, I join others in recommending Amory Lovins' Winning the Oil Endgame: American Innovation for Profits, Jobs, and Security. Most terrorism starts in the Middle East. Won't end soon. May kill millions of us. We're running out of oil. The Middle East isn't. As is, dependence will ... ACCELERATE. We must ... MUST ... SOMEHOW ...make the decisions necessary to lessen ... dramatically .. our oil-dependence. Such logic doesn't require, say, a high-school diploma. And: It can be done, nattering of negative nabobs such as Exxon-Mobil Honcho Lee Raymond notwithstanding. For starters: Buy BP! Beyond Petroleum! (Even if BP's commitment is only 50% genuine ... it's still a Grand Slam Winner.)

[Note: The book is only available online from the Rocky Mountain Institute. Check out the RMI website while you're at it.—CM]

Andrew Says ...

Political days: Blogger Andrew Sullivan urges us to visit ... www.mysterypollster.com and www.instapundit.com. I did. Good calls if you're a bit obsessed with this election, as I am.

Kindness Is Free

Our healthcare system—our biggest and most important industry, particularly as we rapidly age—needs a complete makeover. Funding? Sure, but that's not my gig. I'm Tommy Two-note. (1) Hospitals: Adopt rudimentary quality practices ... AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE 195,000 AMERICANS A YEAR YOU KILL, MANY THROUGH GROSS NEGLIGENCE. (2) Docs (and other co-conspirators): Shift focus—dramatically—from dosing, cutting and fixing-after-the-fact to Prevention, Wellness and Healing.

Some get it. Case in point: The supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Planetree Alliance. Started in San Francisco in 1981, Planetree (named for the Sycamore under which Hippocrates practiced) is now overseen by Griffin Health Services Corporation of Derby, CT. (Not so incidentally, Griffin Hospital is routinely named one of "The 100 Best Companies to Work For.")

In short, the Planetree approach focuses on healing, not just curing. The goal is a fully informed patient and family participating in every aspect of the diagnosis, treatment, healing, and subsequent wellness process. What can I say in less than 10,000 words? Do I start with the open nurses' stations, where patients are encouraged to hang out? The open case notes file, in which patients (and their families!) are encouraged (Big Word: ENCOURAGED) to add their own comments and commentary to that of the docs and other caregivers? TOTALLY UNRESTRICTED VISITING HOURS? A "no separation" policy concerning patients and family ... in the ER? (!!!) Pet visitation programs? A kitchen for patients, and the cheery aroma of baking cookies? Massage for patients ... and staff? ("Take care of the caregivers!" Duh!)

Two pieces of good news. First, our friends at Planetree wrote a book in 2003. (I just got around to reading it last week, as I prepared for a speech to the American Health Care Association—the trade association for eldercare, assisted-living et al.) Title: Putting Patients First: Designing and Practicing Patient-Centered Care, by Planetree Exec Director Susan Frampton, Planetree Alliance director Laura Gilpin, and Griffin Health Services CEO Patrick Charmel. Second, you can get a preview via three Special PowerPoint Presentations I've just posted: "Planetree," "Leading for Excellence"/AHCA/10.04.04, and "X04: Excellence Found." (Or, go directly to the Planetree Web site: www.planetree.org.)

Let me conclude this lengthy—and important—blog with a recitation of the Nine Planetree Practices:

1. The Importance of Human Interaction
2. Informing and Empowering Diverse Populations: Consumer Health Libraries and Patient Education
3. Healing Partner Partnerships: The Importance of Including Friends and Family
4. Nutrition: The Nurturing Aspects of Food
5. Spirituality: Inner Resources for Healing
6. Human Touch: The Essentials of Communicating Caring Through Massage
7. Healing Arts: Nutrition for the Soul
8. Integrating Complementary and Alternative Practices into Conventional Care
9. Healing Environments: Architecture and Design Conducive to Health

And, oh yes, the title of this Blog, from Practice #1, "Kindness is free": "There is a misconception that supportive interactions require more staff or more time and are therefore more costly. Although labor costs are a substantial part of any hospital budget, the interactions themselves add nothing to the budget. Kindness is free. Listening to patients or answering their questions costs nothing. It could be argued that negative interactions—alienating patients, being unresponsive to their needs, or limiting their sense of control—can be very costly in lost patient revenues and perhaps litigation. Angry, frustrated, or frightened patients may be combative, withdrawn, and less cooperative, requiring far more time than it would have taken to interact with them initially in a positive way."

I am delighted to say that Tom's "Introduction to Planetree" was well received by my wonderful newfound friends at the AHCA convention. There is hope, Virginia. (I hope.)

A Nobel for Their Trouble?

How could I forget a book I wrote the Foreword for? Moreover, a foreword that suggested the authors ought to bag a Nobel for their work? Well, it had slipped my mind until I saw and purchased the finished product this morning, at 5:30 a.m., at Miami International Airport. And the prize goes to: Crucial Confrontations: Tools for Resolving Broken Promises, Violated Expectations, and Bad Behavior, by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler.

Here's the back-cover description: "Behind the problems that routinely plague families, teams, and organizations are individuals who either can't or won't deal with failed promises. Others have broken rules, missed deadlines, or just plain behaved badly. If anybody steps up to the issue, he or she often does a lousy job [ARE THEY TALKING ABOUT ME? HOW DID THEY KNOW?] and creates a whole new set of problems."

As I said in my endorsement-Foreword, the "crucial confrontation" is arguably the fundamental atomic particle of relationships. The careful examination of just this one thing is powerful beyond measure. The book combines originality and importance, is tied to proven psychological and social-psychological research, and has compelling case material as well. No wonder I concluded, "Hey, if you read only one 'management' book this decade ... I'd insist that it be Crucial Confrontations."

100 Ways to Succeed #11:

MBWA Lives & Rules & Is Ubiquitous!

A commentary in this week's Newsweek ["Your Gut Only Gets You So Far," 11 October 2004] by Jonathan Alter begins, "No wonder President Bush lost round one in Miami: He got rusty living in the bubble."

Mr. Bush's bubble is indeed air-tight. But, reader-bosses, you'd be surprised (just as the President was apparently surprised), I'd vouch, at how little air gets into your bubble, too!

Which takes me back to 1982. My In Search of Excellence co-author Bob Waterman and I were about to go on the Today show. We were practicing in Bob's Manhattan hotel room. And we got into a tussle. Turns out we both most loved the same thing in the book—and both wanted to utter the words on national TV. Having no dueling pistols at hand (even though we were right across the river from where VP Burr had killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel), we flipped a coin. Bob won ... and I'm still frustrated 22 years later!

The bragging rights at stake? MBWA. Remember? Managing By Wandering Around. (Courtesy a much smaller, more intimate Hewlett-Packard.)

Well ...

Welcome to 2004. MBWA would have helped Pres Bush ... and it will help you. And the absence thereof will ... DOOM ... you.

The nice thing about MBWA is: "What you see is what you get." The ... BIG IDEA ... is ... uh ... to ... WANDER AROUND. I.e., stay intimately in touch. I could go on for countless words (I have gone on in the past), but I'll keep it simple here:

GET THE HELL OUT OF THE CUBE!
DESERT THE TERMINAL! ("Terminals are terminal"? Not all bad.)
CHAT UP ANYBODY WHOSE PATH YOU CROSS ... ESPECIALLY IF THEY ARE NOT AMONG YOUR NORMAL CHATEES.
GO STROLLING IN PARTS OF THE ORG WHERE YOU NORMALLY DON'T STROLL.
SLOW DOWN. STOP. CHAT. ("Stop. Look. Listen."—a shrink's advice to me, courtesy railroad crossing lingo.)

NB: Email ... DOES NOT COUNT ... as "chat." "Wander" = WANDER. One foot in front of the other.

Okay?

Extended Idea: Wander Writ Large. Put "wandering" on your permanent agenda! Consider: I was recently giving a speech to retailers. I had studied my butt off. Read a ton. Hung onto the Web for dear life. Phoned a dozen experts. My data was analyzed. My speech was locked into PPFinal status. I was in my hotel room in Chicago, at 3 p.m. On a lark, I decided to take a stroll. I'm not ordinarily much of a shopper, but this day I strolled the streets and "wandered" into shops, apparently aimlessly, for a little over two hours. Got back to my room. Unlocked my PPFinal. And started all over again. (Outcome: Speech was a roaring success.) I actually can't tell you "precisely" what I gleaned on that 2-hour excursion-wander. I can tell you it "changed everything." That is, I got "in the zone" re retailing; I physically inhabited my Client-of-tomorrow's world ... and it infused almost every sentence of what I subsequently presented.

Message: I am a zealot. I SWEAR BY MBWA. In any and all circumstances. Wanna join me? One last tip-idea: "Aimless" "wandering" takes discipline! And one truly last digression: Mr. Bush also serves as a reminder to "Mind your body language," especially "when no one is looking." Those "little" cutaways may have cost the Commander-in-Chief and World's-Most-Powerful-Human dearly.

How Could It Have Slipped My Mind?

If you attend one and only one professional conference this year, make it The North American Conference on Customer Management, 7-9 November in Orlando. (Not a self-serving plea; I'm not speaking, though I have in the past.) The Speaker line-up is to die for—deep and long. Even the optional activities are great—such as an evening with Cirque du Soleil.

This Blog was born when I received a brochure for the event. And, actually, I haven't really gotten to the point of the Blog. Namely, the brochure's 60-point type pull quote, from participant Jack Welch, he of GE fame. To wit: "HIERARCHY IS AN ORGANIZATION WITH ITS FACE TOWARDS THE CEO AND ITS ASS TOWARDS THE CUSTOMER."

Who'd want to miss the likes of that?
More info: www.eCSW.com.

262!

Excellence! An 84-year-old record goes by the boards! 84 = A lot! 262 = A lot! 262 regular-season base hits! Ichiro Suzuki! Wow!

Event Slides

Tom spoke to the American Health Care Association in Miami, 4 October 2004. You can download the slides from the event, or a longer Web-only version.

Travelin' Man

All-day seminar Friday in London. Arrived Vermont Saturday at 7 p.m. Left VT Sunday at 10 a.m. for Miami. Arrive Miami 7 p.m. Workin' on today's speech since then. Will catch up soon ...

100 Ways to Succeed #9:

"Old" Rules!

Young is Cool.
Old is Rich.
Think about it.

I'll speak later today to the AHCA/American Health Care Association ... the trade association that represents assisted-care centers, nursing homes, etc. Problems? Sure. Lousy rep? Alas, yes. Opportunity? YOU BET!

I'm not one to provide "market tips." But I'll break the rule here. The "Boomer-Geezer Market" is more ignored than the women's market. Period.

80 million Boomers. The first turn 60 in 2 years. Tons of money. (Make that: Tons & Tons.) Not aging gracefully. Up for experiences. (Up for damn near anything, for that matter.) Long time left, given today's life expectancies in developed countries. Add in Geezers ... and ... Ka-ching!!

And ... underserved. Astonishingly so. Why? "Old" is definitely not cool in America. Never has been. (Even among the old.)

Hence ... OPPORTUNITY is not "knocking." It's pounding on your door. Products. Services. Experiences. Mass markets. Niche markets. International markets Japan and Western Europe are getting older even faster than we are).

As I said: Think about it.

100 Ways to Succeed #10:

Get up earlier than the next guy.

Flying to Boston from London on Saturday morning. 7 hours. Professional woman sitting in front of me. I duly swear, she did not look up for 7 hours. She produced more on her laptop than I do in ... a week ... a month.

I'm not touting workaholism here.
I am stating the obvious.

She or he who works the hardest has one hell of an advantage.
She or he who is best prepared has one hell of an advantage.
She or he who is always "overprepared" has one hell of an advantage.
He or she who does the most research has one hell of an advantage.

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't have wanted to challenge "the women in the row in front" in whatever presentation venue she was approaching.

Cell Phone Companies Become Airlines

Does dealing with your cellphone company remind you more of staying in a fine hotel or doing business with an airline?

Here's an article from The Brand Cafe archives that talks about the way cellphone providers have missed the chance to get customers to love them.

Go Visit Andrew ...

Best debate analysis: Andrew Sullivan. Sullivan is a Bush supporter—but painfully balanced (and perceptive).

Quote of the Day

This comes courtesy philosopher-business speaker Tom Morris, from his book The Art of Achievement:

"A man without a smiling face must not open a shop."—Chinese proverb.

Wow! How many thousands of entrepreneurs could have been spared the agony of failure if only they'd heeded this advice.

"Smile and the whole world ..."

It's true, you know.

Quote of the Day ... Runner-up

From Fast Company/10.04 ("Balance Is Bunk," by Keith Hammonds):

The global economy is antibalance. For as much as Accenture and Google say they value an environment that allows workers balance, they're increasingly competing against companies that don't. You're competing against workers with a lot more to gain than you, who will work harder for less money to get the job done. This is the dark side of the "happy workaholic." Someday, all of us will have to become workaholics, happy or not, just to get by.

Time for a coffee break?

(More) China: Teeing Off in London Today

The first slide I use today in London will be cryptic:

168/18,500/51,000/600/200/60,000

That's it.

You've read all the bits in prior blogs, but I think there's something powerful .... INEVITABLE ... of getting it all down in a single line of numeric type.

168 ... number of miles of Expressways in China in '89.
18,500 ... number of miles of Expressways in China today.
51,000 ... number of miles of Expressways in China in 2008.* (*Our Interstate system tallies 46,500 miles.)

600 ... number of foreign corporate R & D labs in China.* (*E.g. Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing, 200-professionals strong.)
200 ... number of new foreign-owned corporate R & D labs to be constructed in China in the next 12 months.

60,000 ... number of foreign-owned factories built in China between 2000 and 2003.

Yup! Something's definitely up!

As Usual (guys) ... All Wrong About Women

Next month London will host the first "Rethink Pink Conference." Organizer Rebekka Bay told the Independent (09.29) that "advertisers' interpretation of 21st-century woman is a major turn-off to the very people they are trying to attract." Specifically, advertisers offer "the Perfect Mum" ... "the Alpha Female" ... the "Fashionista" ... the "Beauty Bunny" ... the "Great Granny."

Want to know how to get it right? Turn to the same day's Financial Times: "Unilever brand Dove's use of six generously proportioned 'real women' to promote its skin-firming preparations must qualify as one of the most talked-about marketing decisions taken this summer. It was also one of the most successful: Since the campaign broke, sales of the firming lotion have gone up 700 percent in the UK, 300 percent in Germany and 220 percent in the Netherlands." Note: The "real women," one pictured in the FT, are rather hearty.

Getting the "women's marketing thing" right, my plea for years, is no trivial exercise.

Cool Little (?) Ideas

Another early (cryptic) slide will read: 1Y/2N
2 Pizzas
Plastic bulldozer

I love stuff like this:

1Y/2N. I'm told that one trick employed by the service-obsessed Commerce Bank of New Jersey is that an employee can say "Yes" to a customer (within some high-tolerance limits) on her or his own. But to say "No" to any customer request, no matter how weird, requires two people (e.g., you and your boss) to turn the request down. That is, the "culture" has a designed-in "Bias toward 'Yes.'"

2 Pizzas. Amazon's Jeff Bezos declares that no employee team can have more people than can be fed by two pizzas. (This courtesy Vanity Fair/10.04.)

Plastic Bulldozer. Michael Dell, we also learn from VF, keeps a plastic bulldozer on his desk to remind him not to run roughshod over new ideas.

Event Slides: tpc!UK

Tom speaks at a London event staged by tpc!UK. See the slides here.