Ole Miss!

I'm at the Windsor Court hotel in the Big Easy. (N'Orleans.) (Nawlins.) I'm an Annapolis Boy, a Chesapeake Bay Boy. But credit where credit is due: The ... WINDSOR COURT's ... CRABCAKES ... are the best I've ever eaten! Also, I was lucky enough to end up with a 17th floor room ... WHAT AN INCREDIBLE VIEW OF THE MISSISSIPPI! That Ole River does indeed keep Rollin' Along!

Prep!

I have a new ritual. During the last half hour before a speech I watch a Cirque du Soleil DVD. Today ... "DRALION." My standard (for my speech) is the "CdSstandard" (CdS = Cirque du Soleil.) BBall coach extraordinaire John Wooden said "Make each day a masterpiece." The "CdSstandard" is my version of Mr Wooden's ... Towering Challenge.

100 Ways to Succeed #64:

Adopt the Wooden/CdSstandard!

Make each day a masterpiece!

Is your "next act" (presentation, goal statement for your current project) up to the Cirque du Soleil Standard? Is today a "Masterpiece"?

Driven By "Fury"!

Writer-editor-historian-man of the world Harold Evans has problems with Aviator. He thinks the Main Man in the airline revolution was not Howard Hughes, but PanAm boss Juan Trippe, and he makes a good case:

"What drove Trippe? A fury that the future was always being hijacked by people with smaller ideas—by his first partners who did not want to expand airmail routes; by nations that protected flag carriers with subsidies; by the elitists who regarded flight, like luxury liners, as a privilege that could be enjoyed only by the few; by the cartel operators who rigged prices. The democratization he effected was as real as Henry Ford's."—Harold Evans on Juan Trippe, the PanAm boss who brought the B747 to life (WSJ/02.24.2005)

I believe, in general, that the Mother of Innovation is ... FURY. Anger at the way things are coupled with a Vision of the way things might be. Find me someone with equanimity about life's turmoil ... and I'll find you a loser! (Harsh words, I know. And hardly fair. Oh well.)

100 Ways to Succeed #65:

Anger UN-management!

Stay "furious." Turn your "fury" into your next WOW Project ... or the basis for your Super-cool Biz Plan!

Peters on Peters

My college fraternity brothers have a wonderful ritual. We have an annual newsletter that we all contribute to. (NB: As always ... ONE PERSON ... has kept it alive for 40 years, the estimable Mike Smith.) Many of my fellow 62-year-olds are in partial or total retirement. In my contribution to this year's newsletter, I vented about the "retirement bit":

"You've all doubtless heard the Churchill yarn. The old man was transiting the Atlantic by ship. An aide made a mental calculation and turned to WSC, 'Sir, I've calculated how much brandy you've drunk,' he said referring to the cavernous ballroom in which they were seated. 'It comes to about here [pointing to a spot about halfway up the wall].' WSC leaned in toward the chap, pointed to his marker on the wall, and purportedly said, 'So little time, so much to do.'

"I am a troubled 62. Why? SO LITTLE TIME, SO MUCH TO DO.

"I have no idea whether this brief missive will attract contempt or mere indifference. Just let me say that I am appalled by the idea of retirement ... or slowing down in any way, shape or form. I write from New Orleans. It's 5 a.m. I've been up for 3 hours, working on today's speech.

"I AM BLESSED. I HAVE A CHANCE [in just 4 hours] TO INFLUENCE 3,500 LIVES. I DARE NOT F*** IT UP.

"I am often tired (I'm 62, not 22), but I Love & Appreciate the Opportunities I've been granted to take part in the Universal Dialogue about the Meaning of Work & Life & National Purpose.

"PUT SIMPLY, 'RETIREMENT' TO ME MEANS BEING DRAGGED OFF A STAGE AND SLIPPED INTO A SIMPLE PINE BOX INSCRIBED WITH THESE WORDS: 'HE GAVE A SHIT.'"

100 Ways to Succeed #66:

Retirement Sucks!

Stay angry!
Change the World!

Never give up!
Never give in!

Die trying!

Steve & "Corporate Culture"

With HP's visible troubles front & center, there's much talk about "corporate culture." Steve Jobs has his own perspective, re Apple. Apple's Good Times these days, he says, are a product of the world ... FINALLY ... catching up with Steve & Apple. (I agree.)

Here's Steve:

"The great thing is that Apple's DNA hasn't changed. The place where Apple has been standing for the last two decades is exactly where computer technology and the consumer electronics markets are converging. So it's not like we're having to cross the river to go somewhere else; the other side of the river is coming to us."—Steve Jobs/
Fortune/02.21.05

"The" Answer:

One Friendly, Mid-size Pioneering Customer!

If you keep repeating something enough times, you come to realize you believe it! Got in a discussion with Tech Execs about some new technologies that users are slow to adopt. I heard myself chiding them in a familiar (to me) way:

"For heaven's sake, quit trying to sell GM or P&G! Enormous companies are invariably 'late adopters.' (I.e., useless, sluggish twits.) The far, far better idea is to scour the world in pursuit of 2 or 3 or 4 mid-size, 'cool,' pioneering customers who will 'join up' with you to ... Make Miracles Happen. Call these pioneers ... Demos. Once you have a passel of mid-size 'cool' Demos ... then and only then you can go to the Big Guys and say, 'Don't miss the Party, dimwits.'"

This I Believe! Change in "big" places is mostly a result of showing off "demos" from modest-sized "cool" places!

100 Ways to Succeed #67:

Demo Mania!

To succeed with "new stuff," you must find ... Kindred Spirits ... those who will ... Play with You (and your "cool stuff") ... which in turn provides you with ... "Demos" ... that you can Tout Far & Wide.

I call "it": THE WAY OF THE DEMO.

Go Steve II!

PepsiCo's CEO provides the ultimate "justification" for diversity in the top ranks:

"To be a leader in consumer products, it's critical to have leaders who represent the population we serve."—Steve Reinemund/PepsiCo

100 Ways to Succeed #68:

Diversity Mania!

"Do" diversity.
Get rich.

Thrilla ...

I'm a thriller nut. No one is better, even Le Carré, than ... DANIEL SILVA. Try/buy Prince of Fire. I actually ... guarantee ... you won't be disappointed.

Event Slides: RE/MAX

As he says above, Tom was in New Orleans, and from there he traveled to Orlando, FL, where he spoke to the folks from RE/MAX. Get the slides. I hope he's seeing lots of sun, because he's coming back to another dose of Winter. Big snow is predicted for tonight.

Green Cars

Last night at the Academy Awards, according to AP, all the coolest people were arriving at the Red Carpet in something Green:

Celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio, Charlize Theron, Morgan Freeman, Tim Robbins, Orlando Bloom, Robin Williams, Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz were to arrive in environmentally conscious, fuel-efficient cars and SUVs as part of "Red Carpet-Green Cars" campaign, according to the Global Green organization.

"I'm an environmentalist for life," DiCaprio said.

Scarlett Johansson described her hybrid SUV as "very sexy inside and hip."

Brand Slam

Through no fault of your own, someone drags your brand through the mud. What do you do?

Imagine how it feels to read the following headline if you were the person in charge of handling the Cub Scouts' PR coverage: Cub Scout Leader Arrested in BTK Killings and that picture ... ugh!

Event Slides: Camex

Tom is speaking to Camex in New Orleans. Get the slides here.

Wow! Projects: The Panama Canal

I've been helping my 9-year-old son research and write a report about building the Panama Canal. It was an engineering project that was so far-reaching, requiring a knowledge of managing workers, budgets, healthcare issues, politics, finance and weather, it's hard to imagine how the Americans pulled it off. The French couldn't.

[read more]

All The Podcasting News That Fits To Print

Odeo is the new company that Blogger founder Evan Williams (aka Ev and Evhead) is launching to put Podcasting up front and center stage. This is an important new development in the social media market.

Check out Dave Winer's coverage of the event on Scripting, and his link to the story in today's New York Times. Dave and Adam Curry are the pioneers of this new medium, and they are glad to see another early blogger jump right in. Ev announced his new enterprise at the TED conference today in Monterey.

ChangeThis Spreads the Word

Tom's word, in this case. When we posted pdf files of Tom's success tips here, a reader urged us to develop more viral distribution of Tom's ideas. Our first step in taking that advice was to turn to ChangeThis, a source of "thoughtful, rational, constructive arguments about important issues." They've added the first half of Tom's 100 Ways to Succeed to the manifestos at their site, where users are encouraged to email, blog, or otherwise share what's there. It's all thought-provoking, and it's all free. You can subscribe to their newsletter for a heads-up on new manifestos every two weeks (or so). Check it out.

iPod People

Andrew Sullivan's written an interesting piece about how isolated and lonely we seem to be these days. He wonders if we've turned into the iPod People, as he describes a recent stroll through New York:

There were little white wires hanging down from their ears, or tucked into pockets, purses or jackets. The eyes were a little vacant. Each was in his or her own musical world, walking to their soundtrack, stars in their own music video, almost oblivious to the world around them. These are the iPod people.

I noticed this when I went skiing this past week, especially obvious were the iPod teens on the ski lifts, staring into space like zombies, seated next to me.

Can a product change a society so fundamentally, or is this product showing us something about our society that was always there?

Question #1. Damn it!

Chatting with execs after my talk yesterday at SpeechTEK, the voice industry tradeshow. The story ... ALWAYS THE SAME! They invariably must initially justify projects on the basis of potential cost savings—in their case, such as the savings at call centers if you implement voice-based service-automation.

I am hardly opposed to saving money! But, in my view, in 9 of 10 cases it's putting the cart before the horse. You see, I'm a "Top-line Guy." My first question, instinctively, is, "HOW WILL THIS PROJECT ENHANCE THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IN A WAY THAT WILL IMPLEMENT 'DRAMATIC DIFFERENCES' FROM OUR COMPETITORS SO THAT WE CAN CAPTURE NEW CUSTOMERS, RETAIN OLD CUSTOMERS & GROW THEIR BUSINESS, BUILD OUR BRAND INTO A LOVEMARK ... AND KICK-START THE 'TOP LINE'?"

In my case, I am a "premium brand." I am top-line obsessed: How does "this" (whatever!) build brand value? I pour over my P & L, fret about costs, savagely attack costs every now and again ... but the first item I look at is ... GROSS REVENUE. If "GR" is growing at a healthy clip, a multitude of sins can be papered over. I just wish I could imbue more Lead Dogs with my TLO/Top Line Obsession!

Quote of the Day

"The economic rise of Asia's giants is the most important story of our age. It heralds the end, in the not too distant future, of as much as five centuries of domination by the Europeans and their colonial offshoots."—Martin Wolf/Financial Times/02.23.2005* (*Wolf is no merchant of doom—I've been reading him for years.)

100 Ways to Succeed #63:

Q1 = "Top Line" Considerations

You ain't gonna beat China on cost. Hence you'd better focus on Innovation-Experience-Top Line. Make this your automatic Question #1:

"HOW WILL THIS PROJECT ENHANCE THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IN A WAY THAT WILL IMPLEMENT 'DRAMATIC DIFFERENCES' FROM OUR COMPETITORS SO THAT WE CAN CAPTURE NEW CUSTOMERS, RETAIN OLD CUSTOMERS, & GROW THEIR BUSINESS, BUILD OUR BRAND INTO A LOVEMARK ... AND KICK-START THE 'TOP LINE'?"

Quote of the Day, Mark #2

"Every project we undertake starts with the same question: 'How can we do what has never been done before?'"—Stuart Hornery, Lend Lease

FYI ...

I'm getting great traction around my term ... GASP-WORTHY. As in, "Is this project Gasp-worthy?" In the last 48 hours I've used it with KFC franchisees and voice technology professionals.

Ain't It Interesting ...

The newer a nation is to Democracy, the more positive they are toward America's aggressive support of incipient (or even reluctant) democracy. (Witness Slovakia's welcome today for GWB ... people taking 8-hour train rides to be a speck in the crowd during his snowy, open-air speech.) True, it's all very complicated, but still interesting that the Old Communist States are challenging "Old Europe's" cynicism. Perhaps if you were born during WWII (I was/1942), you are not overly concerned about what Germany & France think about damn near anything.

My Guilty Pleasure

I've been reading a biography of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis and they recount a weekend visit she made to someone's country house where the hostess was annoyed at how often Jackie would disappear to READ! A girl after my own heart.

Wanted to mention I'm just done with that book and diving into Obsessive Genius, The Inner World of Marie Curie by Barbara Goldsmith. I expect Jackie and Marie had fairly different lives, but I also expect I'll find some things in common.

And big thanks to Tom for reminding us (nearly every day around here) what a great pleasure it is to read.

Harley-Davidson High Heels?

Apparently Tom and I have been reading the same issue of Business2.0. On the final page there's a feature called Hits and Misses, and one of the 'hits' is a small bit on how Harley-Davidson is actively reaching out to women in its marketing, even licensing its name to a maker of women's shoes. Women now purchase 10 percent of Harley products, "up by about a quarter since 2002."

Readin' on the Road

Our pal Dan Pink has a superb article ("The Book Stops Here") in the March Wired on Wikipedia. Wikipedia, Linux and other "self-organizing" "enterprises" are the first true breakthroughs in "organization" in hundreds of years—though as Wikipedia has grown, forms of hierarchy have necessarily arisen.

Business 2.0 (Jan-Feb) has a powerful article on the transformation (right word) of 7-ELEVEN ("7-ELEVEN Gets Sophisticated"). Among other things, 7-11 has purposefully re-purposed itself to lure the woman consumer—one of my hobby horses.

100 Ways to Succeed #61:

Experiment With/Adopt the "Self-organizing" Model

Customers do a lot of the heavy lifting at eBay, Amazon, Wikipedia, Linux. Are you fully utilizing your customers' talents? Fully engaging your customers in a joint cause? (Damn few can answer "Yes.")

Quote/s of the Day

Addressed a couple of thousand KFC franchisees yesterday. I dusted off a couple of quotes from my old friend, former Burger King CEO Barry Gibbons:

"When we did it 'right' it was still pretty ordinary." (Barry Gibbons on his "Nightmare No. 1")

"I thought, 'What a dreadful mission I have in life.' I'd love to get six-thousand restaurants up to spec, but when I do it's 'Ho-hum.' It's bugged me ever since. It's one of the great paradoxes of modern business. We all know distinction is key, and yet in the last twenty years we have created a plethora of ho-hum products and services. Just go fly in an airplane. It could be such an enlightening experience. Ho-hum. We swim in an ocean of ho-hum, and I'm going to fight it. I'm going to die fighting it."—Barry Gibbons

Here are a couple of other pithies on this topic of the limits of normalcy:

"To succeed, we must stop being so goddamn normal. In a winner takes all world, normal = nothing."—Kjell Nordström & Jonas Ridderstråle, Funky Business

"I don't think there's anything worse than being ordinary."—Mena Suvari/American Beauty

100 Ways to Succeed #62:

Suppress "Normal"!

Measure Weirdness!
Cherish Weirdness!
Hire Weirdness!
Stomp out "Normal"!

Tom Sighting

Yesterday's New York Times ran a full-page ad for the Matrix Awards luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria on 11 April. Sponsored by New York Women in Communications and hosted by the New York Times, the "Women Who Change the World"/Matrix awards lunch includes Tom as an award presenter. He is presenting the Newspapers category award to Pearson PLC's CEO Marjorie Scardino. Other recipients include Christiane Amanpour (Broadcasting) and Edie Falco (Arts & Entertainment). Tom's co-presenters include Tina Brown, Oprah Winfrey, and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton—not exactly bad company! This is a group of women I'd certainly love to meet! (The only other male on the program is presenter John Dooner, CEO of ad agency McCann Worldgroup.)

Event Slides: SpeechTEK

Tom's in his old stomping grounds for SpeechTEK West, Service Automation Expo, in San Francisco.

Our Readers Write

We love it when a post generates lots of comments ... and commenters commenting to other commenters. On Tom's most prolific days, there are often so many comments that you may be missing some of the best/most interesting/informative. So we thought we'd bring a few to your attention from time to time, starting with these excerpts from comments on Tom's 2/21 post "Beyond" iPod?" about the art of imperfection. There's more where these came from ... lots more.

A sampling of cogent remarks:

In the words of Joseph Chilton Pierce: "To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong." I say AMEN to that!—Andrew Hayden

It's not just about design ... it's about new ideas. As Tom likely knows better than most, in many corporations a new idea can hardly ever just be attempted ... it has to be ROI'd, powerpointed, teamed and thoroughly homogenized before it even gets considered for possible implementation.—jbr

But you wouldn't want your iPod assembled "creatively" would you?—Eben Carlson

An international vocabulary:

The arabic word for this is "baraka"... roughly translated to English as "grace." My ratty bookbag, impregnated with the grime of India, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, Nepal, etc. has baraka.—AJ Hoge

The Japanese have a term,"mu-shin." It is "the mind of no mind." It means doing things reflexively. For the Star Wars fan, it was expressed by Yoda when he said, "Don't think. Just do."—M.R.Maguire

Call it "wabi-sabi" or "jolie-laide" [beautiful-ugly] or whatever, a bit of tension is good.—Diego Rodriguez

Reminds me of what the Italians call "bozzetto." The first vague notions and sketches that an artist has hold truer to his/her heart than the final, overworked, over-thought piece.—Wayne Bartlett

And finally, for a smile, check out Pat's "imperfect" mp3 players at Secondhand Monkeys where the theme is "Your player should be as unique as your music."

BW Blogs

BusinessWeek has jumped into Blog-world, big time, with not one, but four, blogs. Grouped under the Heading "The Thread," they are organized by broad topics:

Marketing: Brand New Day

Venture Capital and Startups: Deal Flow

Tech Innovations and Trends: The Tech Beat

Personal Finance: Well Spent

Check 'em out. I'm sure it will be time well spent. But come back and let us know about it, okay?

Not Hunter!

Happy "REAL" President's Day—GW's BDay. My only sadness is the premature passing of Hunter Thompson. Don't tell anybody, but Hunter S Thompson & John Cleese are my real modern heroes. Co-kings of "Thumb-Your-Nose-at-the-Establishment."*** (*I guess I'm a little spooked, too, because HST was only 5 years older than I am—though he had ingested a bit more nasties than I have.) (**I feel as though I knew Hunter S Thompson—ever had such a feeling?)

Did I share this already? (And if so, what the hell.) Cervantes' Don Quixote just had its 400-hundredth anniversary; it's universally regarded as the Best Novel Ever. (I'm rereading it as we speak.) To cut to the chase, here's DQ's Epitaph, which works pretty damn well for Hunter Thompson (and which I'd love to co-opt):

Here lies the mighty gentleman
who rose to such heights of valor
that death itself did not triumph
over his life with his death.
He did not esteem the world;
he was the frightening threat
to the world, in this respect,
for it was his great good fortune
to live a madman, and die sane.

Epitaph, Don Quixote

Comments, my dears?

Strife-worn Computers!

My fav old (2 years) computer is acting up again. I have a hunch she's simply worn out from fending off viruses and other attacks, second by second. I've now switched to another primary computer—and all is Sweet for the moment. So much shit attacks these poor babies that eventually, like the human body, they just give up the ghost.

Any techies out there who want to confirm or refute this layman's assessment?

(I'm always sad to lose a good friend, even if she can do no more than think fast in 1s and 0s!)

Sideways!

Go to 800-CEO-Read for a Post on "best design book": The Art of Looking Sideways, by Alan Fletcher.

Event Slides: KFC

Tom speaks to the folks at Kentucky Fried Chicken, and you can see from a couple of the slides, he did some of his own unscientific market research.

"Beyond" iPod?

Susan gave me a fully loaded iPod. WOW! (Our musical tastes coincide.) She loves her iPod. And her various Macs. Yet her "signature" (Brand!) is far more iconoclastic; she does home furnishings, and her theme is livability & love & energy, not showy & prissy.

I love ... STEVE JOBS.
I love ... DAVID KELLEY. (IDEO.)

Yet I also—AND MORE SO—love "Wabi-Sabi." Have you read Leonard Koren's Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers? Or Robyn Griggs Lawrence's The Wabi-Sabi House? Or our Cool Friend Veronique Vienne's The Art of Imperfection? Wabi-Sabi is the Great Japanese Art of Imperfection. (That's an exact description.) I am a 100% fanatic. I most love (IN MY SECRET PHOTOGRAPHER'S LIFE) a photo of a single, discarded running shoe, caked with mud. Of a solo snow shoe in the front yard, abandoned. Of a single drop of rain on a leaf that fell months ago.

I'm frankly worried—as a Design Fanatic—about the perfection of iPods and CrossAction TBrushes; I worry that "design" is becoming sterilized or, worse, standardized-sterilized. I AM A WABI-SABI FAN. Truth be known: I was (instinctively) long before I'd heard of Wabi-Sabi. I LOVE THE PERFECTLY IMPURE ... THE FULLY HUMAN. (Not the perfect, much as I love that iPod.)

I DEARLY HOPE WE CAN LAUNCH A LONG & MERITORIOUS DISCUSSION ABOUT THIS. I—FOR ONE—LOVE THAT "ART OF IMPERFECTION" IDEA. AND YOU?

(Help me ...)

100 Ways to Succeed #60:

"Humane" DESIGN/Do the ... Wabi-Sabi

Become a Design Fanatic!
Design for Humans, not robots!
(All Great Design is ... HUMANE.)
(Another Great Word: Graceful.)
(Other great words: Pleasant ... Engaging ... Surprising ... Fun ... Joyful.)
(Not "sterile.")
(This is as true/more true for the design of Systems and Experiences than for products per se.)

What Am I Missing?

Read the Sunday New York Times. Yesterday's edition included a very expensive, very glossy THE NEW YORK TIMES STYLE MAGAZINE: WOMEN'S FASHION SPRING 2005.

Am I screwed up or not? (Only women need respond.) Starting with the absurd cover, there was not a Woman in the Whole Bloody Mag I—or my lovely spouse—could possibly identify with. Am I an idiot? Or are the people who produce this ... WRETCHED SHIT ... idiots? These "fashion" mags are about some species of human who no one I know could possibly identify with. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE? (SOMEONE, PLS EXPLAIN.) ("Normal" women are, after all, the ... BIGGEST MARKET IN THE WORLD. So why the obsession with Size 2s?) (EXPLAIN!!!!!!!!!!!)

The Ultimate Tautology!

The CEOs of Verizon and MCI, the Wall Street Journal reports, claim that their merger will heighten competition. So, too, the Big Cheese at SBC and AT&T.

Sure. Did I mention I've got a really good deal on a bridge for you? Personally, I'll vote with the WSJ's headline writer concerning the deal: "What About the Customers?" (TP comment: Who they?)

"Shameless CEO" ... the Ultimate Tautology!

There But for the Grace of God ...

A friend of Susan's recommended Richard Cohen's Blindsided: Lifting a Life Above Illness. TV producer Cohen has fought MS for decades and had bouts with colon cancer. His effort to put his head and his life together is one of the most heartening pieces of personal journalism I've ever encountered. The late Christopher Reeve called the book "brutally honest"—it's surely that, too. Cohen's battle with disease began when he was just 25.

Pot Boiler, Peerless Organizational Anthropology Primer

Brian Haig is the son of Al Haig, a West Pointer and one hell of a novelist. The President's Assassin is a no-baloney page turner (and I'm an expert here). But I call it to your attention for another reason. It is a beautiful, mischievous piece of "inside Washington" work on the bureaucratic wars that surge across the Capitol—and make us far less safe in the process. To have started the book the day we got our first meta-intelligence chief is the height of irony; Mr Negroponte will have his hands full—and the excellence of his work (or not) will determine your & your children's safety. In fact the book's anthropological excellence will resonate with anyone living in a big bureaucracy: e.g. tens of the thousands of at sea HP employees.

George Goes Bonkers!

Yankees Rotation.2005 reports. Mike Musina. Jaret Wright. Carl Pavano. Kevin Brown. Randy Johnson. I don't care if they're all AARP card holders! Holy molasses! Holy Jumpin' George!

A Day ...

We've added a feature to tompeters.com, a slide show called "A Day in the Life," title shamelessly stolen from The Beatles. But they certainly stole it from someone else, no?

Take a look—see Tom progress through a typical day—in pictures.

I wish I could come up with something clever from the lyrics to finish off with, but I'll leave that up to you in the comments.

First Day of Spring!

Today is the true First Day of Spring. The day the "batteries" (pitchers & catchers) report to camp/Spring Training for many teams.

Baseball is in the air!
Happy Spring.2005!

(Is that a Robin I see peeking his head through the new-fallen VT snow?)

100 Ways to Succeed #59:

INSANELY GREAT?

I've stuck through thick & thin with Steve Jobs ... and never lost faith. How can you lose faith with someone who incessantly aims for "Insanely Great"?

I'm writing about the ubiquity of the Professional Service Firm IDEA at the moment ... in a world where every "ordinary" job & project is at risk.

My mind is on (obsessed with):

WOW!
Insanely Great!
Excellence!
"GASPWORTHY" Outcomes!
Lovemarks!
Dreams Come True!/Dream Merchants!
Scintillating EXPERIENCES!
"Game-changer" Customer Solutions!

So here is my challenge-for-the-day. Before you knock off work ... TODAY ... make one, small move with your current project in the direction of ... INSANELY GREAT!

Okay?

(Am I "out to lunch"/"OUTTATOUCHWITHREALITY" with a challenge like this! Or is it, as I see it, a ... Survival Issue? Remember Tom's Fav Phrase: DISTINCT ... or EXTINCT!)

NHL=No Hockey League

Sad news from the wide world of sports—the hockey season is officially over. Sadder yet, it never started. While many fans had already given up visions of Stanley Cup competition, this hockey addict is disappointed and discouraged. It isn't just about a season without hockey.

The wide world of professional sports has become infected by many of the worst business practices. Greed, escalating salaries, negotiations in which both sides refuse to consider the perspective of the other, profits distributed to support a select few—these are just a few of the factors that diminish the spirit of athletes who were attracted to sports for the love of the game. The same factors throw a curve ball into competitive business where purpose and passion are often abandoned for profit and power. Stellar athletes and workers, including those in high profile professional roles, know that passion and purpose generate peak performance and desirable results, including profits, raving fans, and goals.

[read more]

Wired Women

Wired.com: "Where Are All the Women?" leads with these lines:

After Carly Fiorina was ousted from Hewlett-Packard last week, just seven female CEOs remained among Fortune 500 companies. None of them heads a Silicon Valley technology company.

While the first part of that statement only stayed true for a day, with the appointment of Brenda Barnes as the CEO of Sara Lee on February 10th, the last part is still very true. Read the article to find out why that may not be a good thing.

A Cool Friend Speaks

Our Cool Friend Steve Farber invites you to join a Microsoft© Office Live Meeting tomorrow, 17 February 2005, at 9 a.m. PST/12 p.m. EST. Steve is the president of Extreme Leadership, Inc., an organization whose aim is to change the world through development of (what else?) Extreme Leaders. Here's the registration link.

Steve's book is The Radical Leap. His vocabulary was obviously influenced by years working for Tom Peters Company.

Join him in his Web seminar!

Talk About A Political Football

Reuters reports that New York is opening up the bidding for the Jets Stadium site.

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Tuesday opened up the bidding for the West Side stadium site sought by the Jets football team and rival Madison Square Garden, which owns its own sports teams. (more here)

Got any good ideas about how to pull off a very complicated, high visibility, many players, big money project like this?

MAKE Is A Mook

According to Joi Ito's weblog, MAKE is a new mook (magazine + book). Check it out.

The Business of Books

Random House is fighting it out with rappers now. It ends up Sean "P. Diddy" Combs was supposed to write his memoir, but never managed to do it and they want their $300,000 advance back.

Combs is not the first musician who failed to meet the deadline for delivery of his life's story. Years ago, Mick Jagger received a seven-figure advance to write his memoirs. He eventually returned the money, saying he couldn't remember anything of significance.

I can't imagine that Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger, who attended The London School of Economics would have a dull memoir, but perhaps he does have a dull memory.

Chief Humanising Officer

The Economist ran this story about our friend, Robert Scoble, the well-known Microsoft blogger. They suggest this is the end of corporate PR as we know it. Do you agree?

Lou! Lou! Lou!

Could there be anything missing in the endless analysis of the Rise & Fall of C Fiorina?
I think so.

Lou.

Louis Gerstner in 1993 faced the equivalent of the "HP Way." Namely, the "IBM Way." At least as potent. (And at least, at that moment, as impotent.)

Lou beat it.
He kept it.
He tamed it.
He re-birthed it.

And while Sam Palmisano's IBM Today is not Spotless, it's worth a decent bet at the track.

So, for what it's worth, instead of excoriating CF for her less-than-Godly record at HP, let's pause and Genuflect to Brother Lou who made True Miracles ("culturally" as well as "strategically") at an equally Tough Nut called IBM.

I, for one, bow down to Lou ... 10X the CEO Jack Welch was. (Though they both "done good.")

CaliBoy!

Am in San Diego.
Headin' "home."
(Or am I?)

Arrived in LA/LAX yesterday. First arrived there (LAX) in March 1966 ... 39 years ago.
Tom ... Easterner ... Welcome to CALIFORNIA.

California.
Like Arnie-the-Governator.
In my blood.
(Forever.)

Ridin' to San Diego.
Did it 39 years ago.
Courtesy the United States Navy—many boys' intro to CA.
Ported at Port Hueneme, 80 miles N of LA.
LA for the weekends.
Maryland Boy.
ESCAPED!
WEST!
NEW ME!
Navy Me!
Free me!

39 years later.
Every freeway exit rings "genetic" bells.
Every tree & hill has resonance.
California!
In my BLOOD!
Forever!

Love VT!
(Yes, Max & Ben.)
(And Susan.)

But ...

CALIFORNIA ... in my blood.

Every ... INCH ... resonates.
Says .... TOM, WELCOME HOME!
THIS IS WHERE YOU ESCAPED TO!
THIS IS WHO YOU BECAME!

Tom.
Californian!
Escapee!
(Like so many millions before you.)
We ... WELCOME YOU ... ESCAPEE!
COME ON!
RE-IMAGINE YOURSELF!

I DID.

I love VT.
I am a Californian!
Like Arnie, I say ... THANKS!
I'LL ALWAYS BE YOURS!

Just Desserts for Centralizers!

Spoke 2 weeks ago to a feisty J&J division—DePuy Spine. J&J.2005 is more or less J&J.1980 that I researched for In Search of Excellence. But before the ink on the pages of that book was dry, HP's CEO John Young was hiring MBAs & centralizing formerly feisty HP. Dave Packard called him on it. But ghost-of-Dave couldn't hold out forever. Carly, for all her merits & demerits, was a through & through ... CENTRALIZER! She was from the git-go appalled at HP's residual divisional autonomy. And attacked it ... ever so effectively.

Axiom: In the long haul ... CENTRALIZERS LOSE!
(Trust me.)

100 Ways to Succeed #57:

MAKE "DECENTRALIZATION" YOUR MANTRA!

No!
No!
No!

"Decentralization" is not a "CEO Thing."
It's an "everybody thing."
Decentralization is an ... ATTITUDE!
A Willingness (DESIRE!) to "delegate" (give Others their head.)
Be a "genetic" "decentralizer"—age 18 or 88!

For Now!

Dell rules.
Great "business system."
I applaud.
Pathetic innovators!
Consider it a waste!
Newsweek/02.21.2005: "Dell finds it hilarious that HP and Sony fund researchers to come up with new ideas."
TP to MD: You'll not be around 20 years from now! R&D and Re-imaginings count over the long haul.
Come to think of it, nothing new in PCs (save Apple!!!!) in years & years. I don't buy that the PC world is "mature."

Legal? Yes. Moral? Hmmm.

I'm no "Bostonian." (See above re California.)
Football & Baseball have been great for Boston.
Not Biz.

Bank of America buys Fleet ... promises no job cuts in Boston area. Ha! Cuts thousands.

Gillette sells out to P&G for no apparent reason. Well, one apparent reason: The "sell out" CEO will get $173 mil for dumping his perfectly fine company for no apparent reason.

MA's one bright spot is Biotech. Yet Gov Mitt Romney, with a wife who has MS but eyes on the White House, wants to curb stem cell research.

Lets give back the BBall & FBall titles in return for a touch of good BizWisdom!

Gates!

"Gates" no longer just means Bill.
Try Christo!

Drop what you're doing!
Buy a discount ticket to Manhattan!
See Christo's Gates in Central Park!
Write it off: "Research on WOW Projects"!!

100 Ways to Succeed #58:

PUT ART IN YOUR LIFE!

I'm no artist.
Not an artistic cell in my body.
But Great Art inspires me!

Put ART in your Life!
Put ART in your Workspace!
Inspire Yourself!
Inspire Others!
A Hearty Art Budget is a (BIG DEAL) form of R&D, for the 1-person or 1,000-person outfit!
(TRUST ME.)

Next Up!

Current McKinsey Quarterly cover story: "Asia's Next Export: Innovation."
Scary story!
You didn't really think China was going to be satisfied with baseball caps & socks?

Event Slides: Metavante

San Diego, CA. Tom's in the sun again, speaking to Metavante. Get the slides here.

And a new special presentation: A Short Tour d'Horizon with Tom.

Happy Valentine's Day!

How marvelous! A day explicitly devoted to ROMANCE!
Savor it!
And, boys ... DON'T FORGET THE FLOWERS!
(Especially boys, like me, on the road!)

A Dedication!

I never (or at least rarely) "dedicate" a presentation. But I will today, and for the foreseeable future.

The slide following my title slide will read: "For Ray."

This weekend Susan & I watched on DVD the movie Ray.

To be sure, it is a marvel. But the excellence of the movie per se is not the Inspiration for the Dedication.

My point: Ray Charles is the embodiment of the Spirit of Re-imagine! Time and time and time again he chose to Invent & Go His Own Way, to spit in the face of his prior winners, his assured cash flow, his powerful advisors ... and march in the totally new musical direction his Spirit willed him to march.

Surely the movie is a marvelous story of overcoming adversity, from blindness to race to drugs to fame itself. But for me it was, above all, a ... Matchless Tribute to the Power & Glory of Gutsy, Lonely Re-imaginings!

To Ray Charles!
(Check it out!)

(NB: I'm no great movie aficionado, but Jamie Foxx as Ray surely seems Oscar-worthy to me.)

100 Ways to Succeed #56:

Launch Project "Ray File"!

Watch Ray.
(Preferably with close colleagues.)
Make a detailed chart of his Re-imaginings.
(They will stagger you!)

Re-visit your "Lovemark."
Is it Clear?
Is it (per Ray) ... You?
Does it make you "chuckle" ... it's so Cool?
Does it make you "Gasp" ... it's so Audacious?
Does it embarrass your friends? (Always a good sign.)
Is it where you wish to ... Post Your Claim to Immortality?

Start a "Ray File" ... or a "Re-imaginings File" ... or a "Lovemark File."
Scribble musings about your Lovemark/Re-imaging.
Cut out pictures.
Save Posts.

"Ray File" is a ... LIFELONG VENTURE/ADVENTURE!
(But why not start today with a simple DVD rental?)

Go Albertsons! Go Larry!

Ironically, hours before Ms F was canned from HP our pal Martha Barletta had sent me a report on companies with the highest #s of women-on-the-Board. Top honors to Albertsons, the only BigCo with over 50 percent women (6 of 11) on the Board.

Here's CEO Larry Johnston (incidentally, a GE alum) on women in top slots: "Women have insights into our customers that no man—no matter how bright, no matter how hard working—can match. That's important when 85 percent of all consumer buying decisions made in our stores are made by women." Retail analyst Burt Flickinger calls the absence of women in top slots, pre-Johnston, the company's "tragic flaw." He adds, "It was a bunch of old white guys making erroneous assumptions and erroneous conclusions about women and the multicultural consumers that make up the majority of Albertsons' customers." All this still doesn't make it a cakewalk to go toe-to-toe with Wal*Mart in groceries, but it helps!

FYI, next behind Albertsons in the U.S. is Wells Fargo @ 35.7 percent women on the Board.)

(Quotes are from the Idaho Statesman. Albertsons is HQed in Boise.)

The Red Hat Society!

Our friend Susan Sarfati, the most original thinker and executive in the world of trade associations (A BIG WORLD!), among other things gives us Executive Update. The current issue, available on line, has a marvelous cover story, "The Red Hat Society." I will tell you no more. Check it out! (I had already read the book, The Red Hat Club by Haywood Smith.)

Apple Stock Split

Apple announced a stock split today. Check it out here on Bloomberg.

Apple Computer Inc. will split its stock 2-for-1 after the shares more than tripled in the past year on surging sales of the company's iPod digital music player.

How Nimble Are You?

A guest appearance from our friend Valarie Willis. Thanks, Val!

When I read the release about Carly Fiorina leaving HP, I was struck by this phrase: "more nimble and innovative." Carly Fiorina probably had a tough time trying to get the behemoth of an organization to become nimble and innovative, but there is a lesson here for all of us. Today's world is about speed, nimbleness, and innovation. I watched some ice skating over the weekend and I was amazed at the skaters' graceful nimbleness, yet focused determination to perform with excellence. The skaters were well choreographed and were in perfect alignment.

Hmmm, how aligned is your organization? Is your organization ready to "ice skate" its way to innovation with excellence and nimbleness?

Valarie D. Willis

Carly Fiorina Leaving Hewlett-Packard

We like to use the word WOW! around here to celebrate projects that are dynamic, exciting, and innovative, but this morning with the news of Fiorina's leaving HP, I'll have to wheel out our standard WOW from the desk drawer.

What's your take on this event?

I Am Not A Shirker!

No, I've not deserted. I've been to Switzerland & Portugal & Thailand in the last 3 weeks ... and, truth be told (the whole point of Blogging, right?), I'm Bone Tired. But I'm back ... a little.

Have 1-day (I hope) stomach flu—no details forthcoming. That doesn't help.

(Also, I've been writing! 40,000 words in the last 2 weeks—now I have to Edit, Big Time!)

Hummingbird Hums!

Spoke to Hummingbird's customers in Miami yesterday. Gawd, I love ... LOVE ... the "IS/IT Revolution." Hummingbird is a leader in IECM ... duh ... Integrated Enterprise Content Management. It's not quite Siebel, or Oracle. Or SAS. Or IBM. It's just ... whatever. Software that helps us suck good shit from other software and figure stuff out. (Right?) The point is that it's where the world's heading! I wish I were 20 or so years younger. I have this Huge Desire to be a CIO. I wanna make "all this stuff" work together to do Miracles! Because Miracles ARE possible! (DAMN IT!) That's actually how I positioned the speech—I said that if these folk weren't miracle workers they were weenies. They have ... Tools to Change the World! And if they're using said tools for mere "continuous improvement," then they don't ... Get It!

Anyway, I had a ball, challenging & provoking! I'm old. I'm tired. I WILL NOT PUT UP WITH OR ACCEPT ANYTHING LESS THAN REVOLUTIONARY ASPIRATIONS! (Okay?)

Fact: I LOVE MY WORK! (I hope you do.)

Hummingbird Hums II

HBird spends 19.6% of gross on R & D. Cool!

100 Ways to Succeed #53:

It's RESEARCH, Stupid!

Never "ally" with a "vendor" not in the Top Decile of their industry on R&D spending!

Never!
Never!
Never!

Go Massachusetts!

So you think we Eastern/Mass folks are Liberal Weenies? Btw: Pats & Sox we Rule!

Signage!

Having just toasted Mass, let me now throw Brickbats. Was drivin' to town Sunday, talkin' on the phone, distracted, and made a wrong turn—even after making the same turn 200 times. It reminded me how critical ... SIGNAGE ... is. Not this case particularly, but in general.

Signs!
Manuals!

These guides ought to be ... Works of Art!

All of us in Enterprise provide directions every day. And a lot of our SIGNAGE ... sucks! It's not "glorious"!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's less than helpful! So ... I want you to fix that!

100 Ways to Succeed #54:

GET YOUR DAMN SIGNS RIGHT!

Spend like the proverbial Drunken Sailor on signage, in the most Generic Sense! MAKE YOUR MANUALS ... GLORIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gateway!

Got a new laptop. My 3rd Gateway. Very happy!

David, You Made My Day!

How great it is to be me! (No kidding.) People send me manuscripts and beg for endorsements. And I make out like a bandit, because I get to "stand beside" fabulous people—and be identified with their Great Work! Most recently, I got Hospitals in Crisis: A Digital Solution (not available yet), by David Veillette, CEO of Indiana Heart Hospital. Alas, hospitals in general kill patients by the busload; and it's mostly preventable—by relatively simple stuff. Dave is on the Front End of the Front End. And I get to write the foreword to his book. LUCKY ME!

You'll hear more about Dave as a Cool Friend when the book comes out! I'm psyched! (One wee stat: there are 4.5 computers-per-patient at IHH!)

100 Ways to Succeed #55:

GO DIGITAL! SAVE LIVES!

I've had it with hospital "execs."
GO DIGITAL BIG TIME ... DAMN IT!
(No excuses!)
NOW!

A Passion for Change

This evening my organization, Clear Path International, was an invited guest of the McKnight Foundation at a dinner party for non-governmental organizations funded by McKnight and working in Cambodia. The room was filled with so many people working in their passions, that it is hard to remember which of my conversations with which program director was more inspiring. The director of medical education at the Angkor Hospital for Children? The program director of World Education? The country director of Cambodia Family Development Services? These good (and smart as hell) people are largely westerners whose passions (and an admitted hunger for adventure) have led them to a life well beyond their borders. All of us this evening were charged up by each other's commitment to our causes.

[read more]

Event Slides: Hummingbird

Tom's in Miami, speaking to Hummingbird Limited. If you would like to see the slides, you can download them here.

Updates to Download

Tom has posted more than half of his promised 100 Tips for Success. Click here to download a pdf of Tips 26-50.

A new Word file of Tom's compiled blogs is also ready for download. Click here for the updated BigBlog, which includes six months' worth of Tom's posts from July 27, 2004, through January 31, 2005.

Both files have also been added to the list of downloads in the right-hand column.

Super Bowl

If you want to comment on Super Bowl ads, please do it here!

Show Me The Money!

Okay, sports fans, I've been googling around here trying to find out the real financials behind sports events in general and the Superbowl in particular, and frankly not getting very far. Do they actually manage to keep these things quiet?

I want to know what the players on the winning team earn, what the players on the losing team earn, what the ads cost, anything about endorsement fees and deals, where the real money is. Clue me in.

Lifesavers with Wings

It made my heart soar to read yesterday's entry at WomensWallStreet.com, "The Daily Cents." It described a program that takes innovation and strategic partnering to the skies. Based in White Plains, New York, Corporate Angel Network CorpAngelNetwork.org arranges free air travel for cancer patients, and for donors and recipients of bone marrow transplants, to help them get to treatment centers across the country.

At an office donated by Westchester County Airport, approximately 50 part-time volunteers and a handful of paid staff work with patients and families, physicians and treatment facilities to coordinate thousands of flights a year. They also work with major corporations that donate money or, even better, seats on their corporate jets. Over 500 top corporations, including a number from the Fortune 500, take part in the program.

It's good to know that there is a story of good will and generosity from America's business community, along with all the stories of greed and corruption we read so often (Enron, Tyco, WorldCom, et al.). Let your heart soar. Visit their website and consider contributing to their efforts.

Worthwhile Effort

As if all the blogging he's doing here is not enough, Tom has been posting as a guest on worthwhilemag.com. Take a look. Halley at Worthwhile saw the opportunity to add a gorgeous photo of flowers to Tom's flower blog—a variation of one he posted here on Tuesday.

We love these connections. Halley posts here, Tom posts there, and the conversation caroms between the two sites. Expand the conversation.

Badvertising: Lincoln's Lusting Priest

This may be one of the stupidest ads ever. Young & Rubicam created a Super Bowl ad for the Lincoln Mark LT Truck/SUV in which a priest finds car keys in the collection plate, goes outside the church and finds the Lincoln. Then he starts caressing the SUV while a song plays with the words, "Is it a sin, is it a crime, loving you dear like I do?" As this is happening, a man shows up with his five year old daughter, who apparently put the keys in the collection plate. The priest returns the keys, breathes heavily, then you see him putting the word "LUST" in big letters on the sign outside the church.

Lincoln has pulled the ad, but only after protest from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. I'm sure complaints from priests were on the way also. In announcing the decision to pull the ad Ford's statement said, "of course we had no intention of offending anyone—and we are frankly surprised there is a negative reaction."

They're surprised? No, they're stupid. They are stupid for two reasons: 1) It's terribly offensive, to many people. 2) This ad wouldn't sell anything.

You can see the ad at adage.com. Here's an audio link.

Oh, Mr. Trump!

Okay, I'll admit it. I Love The Apprentice. Here's the link to last night's episode.

They have the perfect set-up this season with one team of non-college grads (Street Smarts) and the other team of BAs, MBAs, JDs (Book Smarts). As we head into Superbowl weekend, which Apprentice team are you betting on?!

I always go with the team that's been hitting the pavement, working the asphalt, wearing out the shoe leather—the Street Smarts guys who know how to sell! (Taking a leaf from Tom's book on this—but I know you've all read Re-imagine! on selling, right?)

Event Slides: Bangkok

If you've been reading tompeters.com recently, you know Tom is in Bangkok, enjoying weather a lot better than that in Vermont. Get the slides from the event in Thailand: Bidvest.

New Cool Friend: Wolfe

David Wolfe, coauthor (with Robert Snyder) of Ageless Marketing is our new Cool Friend. Does this first line from the interview tempt you to read more?

The fundamental problem I'm addressing ... is the incongruity between what marketers are doing and saying and what the consumers are experiencing.

New Special Presentations

One updated: New Economy. New Biz Degrees. Tom proposes the MMM (Master of Metaphysical Management) and MGLF (Master of Great Leaps Forward) among his list of degrees to have NOW. They make MBA sound positively boring, right?

One new: Innovate or Die. Maybe a reaction to P&G&G.

Clarke on Tsunami

Check out this link from a person who lives in Sri Lanka, recounting his experience with the tsunami.

"I was also reminded of what Bernard Kouchner, former French health minister and first UN governor of Kosovo, once said: 'Where there is no camera, there is no humanitarian intervention.' Indeed, how many of the millions of men and women who donated generously for disaster relief would have done so if they had merely read about it in the newspapers?

--Arthur C. Clarke

This makes me think about video blogging which is coming on very strong and will change the face of work and life in the next ten years in a big way. The recent VloggerCon, a conference on video blogging is worth a look.

Make sure to read the entire link, especially what he says about asteroids and a fictional story he wrote that described an asteroid destroying Northern Italy on a date he picked at random, September 11, 2077.

Gone! Vanished!

In just 6 months!
Sears!
Gillette!
AT&T!

(All in the name of the Great & Only True God ... Synergy.)
(Sure.)

In the immortal words of the (then just vanquished) Maggie Thatcher: "It's a funny old world."

For those of us who live for "creative destruction," it's a lovely old world! Unless, of course, you're a bedraggled shareholder of the pursuer-of-synergy.

BUT THIS TIME IT WILL BE DIFFERENT!!!

Screw the Shareholders! Nothing New!

From Time (a part of Time Warner, formerly AOL Time Warner): "Blockbuster mergers tend to be duds for stockholders of the acquiring company [TP comment: Duh!]. In seven of the nine mergers valued at more than $50 billion, the acquirer's share price is down an average of 46% from pre-merger levels [TP comment: That's a lot!], according to FactSet Mergerstat, a research firm from Santa Monica." (As Time candidly points out, TW and AOL were the worst, wiping out 80% of shareholder value.)

BUT THIS TIME IT WILL BE DIFFERENT!

Flower Power!

On an entirely different note (getting beyond CEO idiocy—no mean feat), there are many reasons I love the Four Seasons hotels. One, not so small, is ... Flower Power! The floral displays are mind-boggling! Glorious! Imaginative! A Big Deal! (And I'm usually immune to such stuff.) In Chicago. Lisbon. And here in Bangkok. I think that even in a "big business" like Issy Sharp's (4Seasons CEO), Flower Power can truly be a Lovemark Anchor!

100 Ways to Succeed #50:

Flower Power Rules!

Law firm, hotel, IS department ... make Flower Power a ... Main Event & Incredible Distinction ... in your Pursuit of Lovemark status!

(Trust me: it's a Big Deal!)

Print Media Kudos!

I bet you didn't know that I devour Good Housekeeping/British Edition!?
Well, I do!

Plaudits!
Obviously, they "get" Women.
Far less obviously, they seriously "get" boomers! WOW! It doesn't take a microscope to figure that out!

(And in the process they produce a plethora of articles that resonate with me!)

100 Ways to Succeed #51:

Boomers Rule!

Go after Boomers!
Consciously!
Obviously!
Now!
Forget "halfway"!
Strategic!
Become a "Boomer Lovemark"!
(It's Virgin Turf—thanks to Idiot CEOs.)

Superb Writing Bowls Me Over!

On my Houston-Bangkok mega-trip, I read Graham Swift's The Light of Day. What a master! He conjured up so much emotion that I was pretty much a wreck when I got here. I'm literally not sure I can survive the book. He pegs human frailty so perfectly ...

100 Ways to Succeed #52:

Work Like a Dog at Your Writing!

I'm an Engineer.
Tops at all things mathematical.
(Comes naturally.)

Writing didn't come easy to me.
I'm still not worth a damn—but at least I'm articulate. And perhaps I've found my "voice."
Wanna know why?
Because I worked my ass off!
("Worked my ass off = Wrote a lot.)

Good writing matters!
(It can move mountains.)
(Odds are, neither you nor I will challenge Graham Swift, but we can damn well be much, much better than we are ...which matters.)

So: Work your ass off on your writing, from emails to Blog Posts to Letters to your Mum.

Marching Orders!

I was trying to figure out why I was on a plane for about 24 hours. So I wrote (mostly to myself, but also for my prospective Client) "Let Us March." All yours!

Sooooo Cool!

Sign me up for an early trip, mid-2006, on Airbus' A380—if possible, one configured for Richard Branson's Virgin! Love Bold Bets! The Airbus Maxi-gamble is as heartening as P&G&Gillette is dispiriting. (Alas, I think Boeing really blew this one.) (Or even if Boeing didn't "blow it," it's a far cry from the Boeing that "insanely" bet on the Quarto 747 a few decades ago—and thus Changed the World!)

(Emirates has ordered 45 of the Big Suckers! As I mentioned after an earlier visit, the UAE seems to be doing everything in a Big Way these days. Their "democracy score" still leaves a lot to be desired, but their "Crazy Capitalist Quotient" is Off the Charts!)

Democracy Scores

Afghanistan. The Palestinian Authority. Ukraine. Now, Iraq. Democracy is on a roll, even if there is a helluva lot of work to be done.

(This old Democrat also gives VHigh marks to President Bush for his Audacious Inaugural Address. Something grand to aspire to—even if the devil is in the details.)

Houston High

In Houston Saturday night to speak to the sales team at DePuySpine, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. Wow! Seventy percent of their burgeoning sales are from products introduced in the last three years! R&D up 50 percent in the last couple of years! Moreover, their array of products are mind-boggling game-changers in the world of wonky backs—an especially big deal with 80 million bad-back Boomers as their future market. Once again, their brashness & wholesale commitment to innovation was a welcome pick-me-up after P&G&G. (NB: Anyone but me wonder if the Pats' Gillette Stadium will be renamed Charmin Field?)

J&J has made some big acquisitions, to be sure, but it remains the antithesis of P&G. Their Cultural Commitment to Decentralization, that Bob Waterman and I loved when we put the firm in In Search of Excellence, is still very much alive & well. Bravo! (And no mean feat!)

Carol Rules!

Carol Loomis belongs on everybody's short list of best business writers; her work at Fortune is peerless. And her knife is sharp. To say that she beats the hell out of Carly & HP this week is gross understatement. Ms Loomis' analytics and depth are mind-boggling. The bottom line: "This was a big bet that didn't pay off. ... At bottom, they made a huge error in asserting that the merger of two losing computer operations, HP's and Compaq's, would produce a financially fit computer business."

HP is flummoxed by Dell on the low end, IBM on the high end—and, as Loomis says, their ain't no easy way out.

(HP walks away from PricewaterhouseCoopers; IBM buys them. HP buys Compaq; IBM sells its PC group to the Chinese. Hmmmm.)

(While HP execs are hardly going to agree with Loomis, their level of Denial was pretty breathtaking.)

(Note: I question 9 of 10 big mergers. Have for 20 years. I supported the HP merger. I should have stuck to First Principles.)

Worth Your Time on Two Scores

BusinessWeek's cover story (01.31.05), "Linux Inc.," is also a great piece of work. The industry analysis is fascinating/perceptive, but I was especially drawn to the excellent & detailed operational portrayal of how Linux works & innovates. Linux may well be a Genuinely New Life Form in the world of organizations ... replicable across many industries. (One wonderful open-source "motto": "Give a little, take a lot." And as I said, applicability is doubtless Universal. For starters, it's light years beyond the recently hip "virtual organization.")

Quote(s) of the Day

Catching up on reading as I head—long, long trip—from Houston via Frankfurt to Bangkok. Found these gems:

Warren Buffet (quoted in the HP article): "When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is usually the reputation of the business that remains in tact."

James Woolsey, former CIA director: "If you're enthusiastic about the things you're working on, people will come ask you to do interesting things." (Amen! WOW!)

Washington Women Roar!

Newsweek ("Welcome to Girls' State") reports these stats on women in government in Washington state:

Governor.
2 Senators.
4 of 9 Supreme Court Justices.
49 of 147 State Legislators.

Now that's more like it!

I Hope She Got It Wrong!

(I Fear She Didn't.)

Maureen Dowd (New York Times Op-ed) mostly annoys me. But her 30 January "Torture Chicks Gone Wild" was appalling. I urge you to read it.

(And still no higher-ups get canned.) (Quaint old "accountability," anyone?)

Scorecard ...

Scorecard from today's posts:

P&G&G: Ho hum/Ugh/Who cares (excepting the 6K who will lose their jobs).
HP: Oops!
J&J/DePuySpine: Hooray!
Linux: Hooray!
Airbus: Hooray!
Woolsey-on-Enthusiasm: Hooray!
Buffet-on-Arrogant "Turnaround" Execs: Hooray!* (*Of course I acknowledge he made a ton off P&G&G.)
Washington (state) voters: Hooray!
Lack of Washington (D.C.) accountability-in-high-places: Still waiting!

(I guess it boils down to my longterm, abiding Passion for Passion & Go-for-It Innovators, and despair at Mindless Bulking-up Exercises. Not news.)

You Were Still Asleep

I assume (most of) you were still asleep when I arrived in Frankfurt. 2:40am EST. 01.31.05. Here are the (MAGNIFICENT) headlines that awaited me, for a Euro or so. International Herald Tribune: Iraqis Stream to the Polls. A Proud City [Basra] Defies Terrorists. THE TIMES [London]: Iraq Embraces a Brave New World of Democracy. Financial Times [London]: Iraqis Defy Attacks to Go to Polls. FT/Mosul: Trickle of Voters Turns into a Stream.

Quote of the Year ...

"Each person who cast a ballot—and there were far more so than officials had expected—was engaged in an act of conspicuous bravery." [Financial Times on Mosul/01.31.2005]

Repeat ...

EACH PERSON WHO CAST A BALLOT—AND THERE WERE FAR MORE SO THAN OFFICIALS HAD EXPECTED—WAS ENGAGED IN AN ACT OF CONSPICUOUS BRAVERY.

Mars vs Venus: Women Want to Get Better!

(But Not Us!)

"On MBAs Men Are from Mars and Women from Venus: Women MBA graduates make better managers as they gain intrinsic benefits such as confidence, credibility and assertiveness, job satisfaction and interpersonal skills. This makes them more productive. Men, however are more blinkered and see their MBA only as a way to gain status and pay."—The Times (London), from research at Brunel University/01.20.2005

Comments?

Mars, Venus, Mom-power, Men Exit Stage Left!

"Now and in the future, the teams led by the most moms win. ... The new model still demands they have leadership DNA, but it also embraces a kindler, gentler, more confident version of the old model; a big heart and a strong character are now as important as being a strong person. Leaders who only have the hard skills simply aren't suited for today's business climate. Many of these types are still running companies, but the tide is turning and their days are numbered. As everyone is well aware, company populations are going to become more rather than less diverse, companies will be dealing with more rather than fewer changes, and the pace is going to quicken even further. As a result, leaders must become much more efficient at managing chaos and much more competent at dealing with the human side. Overall, they must possess the interpersonal skills and character to adapt to both new realities." —Moe Grzelakowski, "Maternal Trends in the Business World" (Mother Leads Best: 50 Women Who Are Changing the Way Organizations Define Leadership) (Ms G held very senior leadership positions at places like Dell.)

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Bangkok02.01.2005

Low: 81ºF.
High: 97ºF.

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