Our Hearts & Prayers Go Out ...

Having experienced family heartbreak this week and last, I've not got a lot of personal reserve left. But we all must find the strength to deal with—and be helpful if possible—concerning the unfolding horror of New Orleans et al. As a speaker, I've spent many a fun and fulfilling day in The Big Easy. I am deeply saddened for all of those who perished and all of those tens of thousands who remain in harm's way.

On Not Letting a Single Flower Bloom

My fascination with the looming disaster known as the US auto industry has continued unabated over the summer. I've been especially intrigued by the upheaval in GM's most successful venture in recent years, the development of the Wuling Sunshine minivan for the Chinese market. Philip Murtaugh, the executive who headed up this miracle of manufacturing and marketing in partnership with the Chinese—and who stuck his neck out by championing the vehicle inside a company with a long history of punishing passionate mavericks—has finally met his predictable fate by being forced out. The details became public over the last month, shortly before GM's debt rating was downgraded to junk and the company decided to extend its "employee discounts" to cover the new 06 models, which it had pretty much declared it would never do.

Minus Murtaugh, the company may no longer be able to count on Chinese profits to help offset its slide in the US market. Those still holding shares in GM should take note. The rest of us, meanwhile, are left to serenely ponder this latest evidence of corporate boneheadedness by putting it in historical context.

[Note: Cool Friend Sally Helgesen sent us the above entry. See her website here.]

Thank You!

Thank you for your wonderful thoughts ... they are truly overwhelming. I'll say more when I get time to catch my breath. One saving grace of such times is that there is so much "stuff" to arrange and do that one's mind is quite distracted.

Evelyn Snow Peters

Tom's mom, Evelyn Snow Peters, age 95, passed away in Annapolis, Maryland, on Wednesday at 5:45 pm. Tom, her only child, was with her at the time.

Black Dogs, Loved ones, Etc.

A few of you have been surprised that I've been talking about depression, my Mom, etc. There are two reasons. First, I think Blogs should be personal & authentic. Hey, we're a Community! It's the Whole Damn point! Learning, Growing, Musing, and Caring together.

But the Bigger Reason is that for 30 years I've had but one "mission." While an avid devotee of the Profit Principle (among other things, confirmation that one is being of Service to one's Clients), the larger idea is that effective enterprise is all about people ... PEOPLE ... seeking the best in themselves as they work together to produce outcomes of value and significance for their various constituencies. In Search of Excellence message/s: It's the People, stupid! It's the Customers, stupid!

My great friend Warren Bennis said, "The best thing a leader can do for a Great Group is to allow its members to discover their greatness." My late colleague Boyd Clarke added, "I have always believed that the purpose of the corporation is to be a blessing to its employees." (Redux: It's the people, stupid!)

I recently published a book called This I Believe. There are 60 items/key beliefs. The last was but one word ... grace. I said (believe!) that enterprises, even while competing vigorously, can be Places of Grace. Energetic? You bet. Hustling? You bet. And also places of Great Character & Integrity & Caring. (How do you Care for your Clients if you don't Care for one another? Duh!)

So we'll continue to talk from time to time about "personal stuff." Business that works? It's bloody well personal!

Celebration!

As you read, my Mom passed away yesterday. Before digging into the difficult and emotional details associated, I decided this morning that there was no better or more important time for a punishing 7-mile speed walk on the C &338; O Towpath here in D.C. I was listening to Paul Simon as I sped along. The energetic presentation reminded me of the amazingly Energetic and Positive person my Mom had been. The obvious occurred as we prepare an appropriate sendoff. As many have said before this, it's a Celebration, pure and simple. A Celebration of an extraordinary 95 years of engaging others in a most profound way. Obvious? I suppose. For me, it made the sun shine as perhaps it never has before.

Time Out

Tom's 95.8 year old Mom is/has been under the weather. He's commuting almost daily between Vermont, Boston, and D.C./Annapolis. (If all goes better—well, he says, is too much to ask—he'll be on his way to Lagos & Port Harcourt, Nigeria, next Monday—as the "fall season" for business advice begins.) (Tom also declared himself pleased with his Career Education Corporation speech last week—that seldom happens—and he urges you to download the PowerPoint Deck; comments welcome.)

Barking Back at the Black Dog

For the first time in memory I've come across a "sure fire" (WRONG! NO SUCH THING!) way to deal with the Black Dog, a/k/a depression. Meds help. But my new (three months old) "miracle" "med" is body-punishing, mind-short-circuiting exercise. I've been pretty consistently speed walking/aerobic walking for 16 years. Good stuff. But about three months ago I decided, for a host of reasons, to up the ante. Speed walking is now the centerpiece of my day, and I've increased my distance from a "good for you" level of 2.5-3.5 miles per day (less on the road) to 5-7 hilly miles (a lot in "walking world"). Particularly in the heat (90+!), it beats the living hell out of me. All other things, including that Black Dog, are erased from the system! And it sticks! I love it, I'm also doing it on the road, and I plan to turn it into an addiction! (Of course it's also good for every other damn malady you can name—unless one pushes to sunstroke, which I almost did on Sunday along the C&O Canal Towpath in D.C.) I know this is not "news" for many of you, but it's a big deal for me; moreover, it suggests that Old Dogs (speaking of which) can indeed learn new tricks.

Event Slides: CEC

Chicago doesn't seem the best place to visit in the heat of summer, and a Web search tells me there's heavy rain there today. But Tom is in Chicago, speaking to the Career Education Corporation. If you'd like to get the slides, you can download them here.

Thanks to All

We're in the Top 500 (#341—take a look at the numbers for the top 3!) on feedster this month. It has to do with how many sites are linked to us RSS subscriptions, with "freshness," etc., factored in. (We like to think "fresh" refers to our style, but it probably only means "recent.")

So, thanks to everybody out there who thought we were worthy of a link an RSS feed! [I learned how they do the ranking after I accidentally hit "publish" instead of "draft." Sorry!!!]

Cool Friend: Lior Arussy

Lior Arussy is the founder and president of Strativity Group, Inc., which works with both Global 2000 companies and emerging businesses around the world. He is the author of Passionate and Profitable: Why Customer Strategies Fail and Ten Steps To Do Them Right. We asked him who should read his book, and he said, "Anybody who actually wants to make money from customers. The rest, those who have found a better way to make money without customers, are free to go and read other books."

Read the full interview here.

Springboard

In May, I posted an entry about Springboard Venture Capital Forum for women entrepreneurs in Chicago. Now, it's happening in Boston, too.

From their publicity:

On November 18th, 20-25 women entrepreneurs will take the stage at the Harvard Business School to present their businesses to over 200 of the most influential venture capital and private investors in the New England and New York areas. The Springboard Venture Capital Forum is a national program designed to increase investments in women-led firms and facilitate new deal flow to investors. ...

CWE-Springboard targets high-growth businesses in the technology and life sciences industries that seek seed, first, or later stage funding. Women entrepreneurs who apply must have a senior leadership position in the company (e.g. CEO, President, Founder, CFO, COO, VP, etc.) and hold a parity equity stake in their company relative to other members of senior management. To apply, please submit an online application at www.springboardenterprises.org. There is a $50 application fee. The application deadline is September 7, 2005.

So, if there are any women entrepreneurs reading this who fit those criteria, here's an opportunity for you. Nationwide, the participants have raised over $2B!

The Big Moo

Tom is one of the 33 coauthors of a new book to be published this fall called The Big Moo. Seth Godin, the editor, brought together an amazing group of business thinkers to talk about what it means to be remarkable, with all royalties going to charity. The launch of the book will begin a movement to remarkabalize organizations and individuals. The website devoted to the movement is still under construction, but we'll let you know when it goes live. One of the most interesting features of the book is that each author's contribution does not bear attribution. You, the reader, have to figure out (if you so desire) which author wrote which piece. We don't think you, the tompeters.com audience, will have much trouble identifying which piece is Tom's (but we'll offer this clue, just in case: the title includes the word "extreme").

Seth (one of our Cool Friends) is known for his unconventional approach to marketing. With this book, he's arranged to sell the bound galleys of the book. Read more about why he's doing that here. Buy a box of the galleys or pre-order the book here. As they say in the book, "stop trying to be perfect and start being remarkable."

We're broke!

Another great United Airlines story ...

A top priority for my parents in their retirement has been to take their grandchildren on vacations. This past Saturday, the plan was for my mom to fly from Phoenix to Denver on United, where she would meet my 13 year-old niece and fly on to New York for some fun and bonding.

When my mother arrived at the airport in Phoenix, United told her that the flight to Denver was cancelled, and she was being rerouted through Washington, D.C., scheduled to arrive at LaGuardia an hour after her grandchild. When Mom asked United to give the lone 13 year-old unaccompanied minor service for no charge—a seemingly reasonable request under the circumstances—guess what the United ticket agent said:

"We can't waive any fees since we're in bankruptcy."

Wow.

One-Stop Shopping

for Health Care Services!

When I was growing up, there was a neighborhood grocery store and everyone walked there. I remember dragging a little red wagon, and we would put the groceries in the wagon and go home. At that time a grocery store carried groceries, paper products, and cleaning supplies.

In an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, we see a new type of grocery store, one where you not only can buy food and every other item you can think of, but you can now get a health check-up as well.

These mini clinics are starting to pop up in grocery stores and other retail outlets.

What do you think? Bag of groceries, case of beer, and oh yeah, my annual physical!

Men, Women ...

and the Pursuit of Happiness

I was fascinated by the Op Ed piece in yesterday's New York Times by Simon Baron-Cohen, who researches the role of hormones in human development. In brief, Baron-Cohen believes that the production of testosterone in the womb is responsible for the penchant for "systematizing" that characterizes the male brain, while the lack of this hormone is responsible for the female brain's greater capacity for empathy. This is why male babies tend to focus their eyes on objects, while female babies tend to focus on human faces. Baron-Cohen believes this is also the reason that autism occurs primarily in boys—autism being an extreme form of systematizing. Of course he notes that this phenomenon exists in general, and is not true for every male and female.

[read more]

Re-imagine! Master Slides

Tom has been calling his master set of PowerPoint slides the "Re-imagine!500," but it grew and grew to over 1000 slides. Also, this summer he's had a chance to look at it, re-assess it, add to it, reorganize it. It's now re-issued as the "Re-imagine!Master." You can download it here. (Note: It takes a while—it's very large.) Or, you can get just the latest additions here.

Lightness of Being, Summer Variety

Just got a lovely little book, Numbers, by David Boyle and Dame Anita Roddick. Though their transparent mission is to confront us with startling #s concerning grave issues (the environment, war & peace, etc.), I was taken by some frivolous stuff, about right for a heat wave ...

Longest account payable claim between the time it was submitted to when it was agreed: 236 years. (The claim was made by the Careful Society of Lamplighters in [London in] 1765, and resubmitted by the four remaining lamplighters in 2001.) TP: Now that's what I call "stretching your payables"!

Average time gallery visitors spent in front of each painting in 1987: 10 seconds. In 1997: 3 seconds.

Average # of different kinds of soap the average Japanese woman has at home at any one time: 30.

Number of calls to the British government's Child Tax Credit helpline made by the Wallis family in April 2003 before they finally got through: 2,402. TP: Sounds more like Verizon to me!

Miles of spaghetti eaten by the average Italian every year: 82. TP: In the immortal words of ______, "Bring it on!" (And why the hell wasn't I born Italian?)

Back to straight talk ...

A Pox on (Most of) Their Houses

In the last 20+ years I'd bet I've gotten 500 "customer service" books for endorsement. Some provide incredibly sophisticated analysis. Others offer literally 100 case studies from prestigious firms. They are, obviously, good, bad, and indifferent. But I've reached the conclusion that I'll never endorse another customer service book unless it's short, illustrated, funny and the product of the "mundane" "real world"—i.e., focused on real people at the front line of ordinary businesses like the one next door.

Consider three I resurrected while reorganizing books as part of my summer tasks. Secret Service: Hidden Systems that Deliver Unforgettable Service. The author, whom I've met, is John DiJulius. He comes from Ohio and is chief of John Robert's Hair Studio & Spa. Trust me, any IBMer could learn the magic of surpassing customer service from John! Then there's (hey, what's going on here?) The Fantastic Hairdresser, by former London hairdresser Alan Austin-Smith. Again, the messages are clear and useful—and in hard practice transformative. The third is Zingerman's Guide to Giving Great Service by Zingerman's co-founder Ari Weinzweig. Zingerman's is a matchless Ann Arbor, MI, deli with the following mission statement: "We share the Zingerman's experience selling food that makes you happy, giving service that makes you smile—in passionate pursuit of our mission, showing love and caring in all our actions to enrich as many lives as we possibly can." Don't you wish your bank or phone company or car dealer would live by (or even vaguely imagine living by) such a Credo?

All this is perhaps a long-winded way, not of recommending books, but of suggesting that we "sophisticates" (including in the "professional services," Accenture flavor) could probably learn more about the consistent provision of scintillating/memorable customer experiences from a great deli or hair dresser in our town of 2,000 or 2,000,000 than from a learned treatise from the "marketing department" at Harvard or Stanford. (Notice I didn't say "customer service" or "customer experience" department—there are no such things, as far as I know, in B-schools. Heaven forbid!)

(NB: Did I tell you about the lovely chat I had with a United Airlines employee about her successful career in Operations? She and I concluded that our separate but mutual successes were as much the product of the years we spent waiting table—8 years, off and on, in my case, 4 years in hers—as the hours we spent taking courses. In fact we decided—for what little it's worth—that no one should be allowed to hold a senior management position unless he/she had been a waiter for a couple of years. What do you think?)

How to Make a Jillion Dollars

I can't name names, because one never knows who's reading this Blog. (I'll do so later.) Suffice it to say that Susan and I (mostly Susan) are renovating the kitchen this summer. Our contractor is doing a great—and on time—job. (As usual.) But now it's all coming together; or, rather, it's all falling apart. As the end draws nigh, a puzzle must be perfectly fit together—new stove, new cabinets, painting, stone counter top, floor tiles. Some of it's working—and some's a disaster. It reminds me that often as not it's not the manufacturing-product quality that goes awry, but the more "mundane" process of things arriving on time, schedules dovetailing rather perfectly, etc. As my ire grows at this logistical nightmare of repeatedly broken promises (following my signature on some pretty hefty checks), Susan attempts to assuage me with the words, "What did you expect?" Of course she's right, but, damn it, I always expect (hope for?) more. Small/smallish business people bitch about Wal*Mart, bitch about Home Depot, bitch about the Chinese. But how the hell do you beat the Chinese if you are selling a $9,000 stove but completely screw up the delivery and installation, thereby screwing up a platoon of other people, thereby costing us time (lots of) and money (lots of) occasioned by the delays?

From the ridiculous world of furniture ("Luckily it's a standard piece; we can probably get it to you in 7 weeks."—or some such) to stove installation to pool cleaning (luckily on that score I have a farm pond instead) ... the issue often as not/more often than not is "mere logistics." There's a Jillion $$$$ opportunity here—in damn near any industry you can name. Maybe the motto is, "For excellence, sweat the 'small stuff,' the 'big stuff' will take care of itself." That's my vent-of-the-day. Now back to beach reading.

I Expect ...

I expect promises to be kept.
Not "approximately."
But e-x-a-c-t-l-y.
Is that too much to ask?

(I've traveled about 5,000,000 miles since I started public gabbing. Hurricanes. Tornados. Thunder storms. Blizzards. Political disturbances. Ice storms. Flu. Food poisoning. General angst. Bad attitude. Mechanical screw-ups. Grotesque stupidity. Evil spirits. So what? I'm not allowed to show up for the speech 20 seconds late, let alone 2 days late. "Hey, I know there are 3,600 attending my Saturday keynote, but I won't be able to make it 'til Monday; hope that won't be a problem." Nope. Ain't gonna work.)

Focus Redux

Thought the comments were so good that I'd comment via a new Post.

(1) BT Hathaway: Yes it does take discipline to stay unfocused. One "trick": telling the Client exactly what you're doing. Presumably he/she wants "Wow" ... it doesn't grow on low-hanging limbs. If she/he doesn't want Wow, you should not be doing the project; on the other hand the Client not pursuing Wow might be induced to step out on the limb when he/she sees Wow. "Wow" falls into that annoying category: I'll only know it when I see it.

(2) pd: Yes! (Re mistakes.) There's a slide in my set quoting David Kelley of IDEO: "Fail faster, succeed sooner." Nice, eh?

(3) Mary Schmidt: "Not everybody is Tom Peters." Yes. No! "Everybody" (of the sort who participate in this Blog) presumably aspires to do "memorable" work. In my opinion in 99 cases of 100 to do memorable stuff requires mucking about "in the problem." One way to have one's cake and eat it too is via the STRATEGY of Rapid Prototyping. That means "action," which may soothe the Client, but not premature indelible closure.

(4) Naina Redhu: Maybe I'll back off of hating "focus." But then I choose to be disingenuous. I do like/love/thrive on focus ... immediately. But how about "100 sequential foci," each of which gets closer to "Wow"? A consulting buddy had an audacious quote he used to use with Clients. Alas, it mostly escapes me, but it went something like this (and I did clearly remember the punch line): "We have studied your problem. We are confused, in fact we are as confused as when we started—but we are confused about bigger and more interesting things." Takes nerve, eh?

(5) Noel Guinane: Your travel story reminds me of a fabulous book I read 20 years ago. Namely Blue Highways, by William Least Heat-Moon. (Is it still true: "blue highways" on a map are the offbeat roads?) Indeed WLHM's adventure was an unbidden discovery voyage—the epitome of all good (great!) project work.

(6) Michael Vanderdonk: More word games on my part. I am always "goal oriented." But my goal is ALWAYS to surprise the Client. And to "do" "surprise" one must be open/unfocused. Eh?

(7) Mark JF: Three plus hearty cheers for MBWA!! (Plus it assuages the Client, because he "sees" you biting into the issue.) (Hiding in one's office is a killer!)

(8) alex ... thank God I'm a lefty. I'm not even sure I have a left brain; well, I guess I do, because I always show up!

TP addition: Engage the Client in a Joint Discovery Process! Try to recruit Client team members/"co-discoverers" known better for their openness & curiosity than their rank.

More ...

Years ago I owned a power boat which I kept on Lake Champlain. (I gave it up when it became a mechanical nightmare, and I was spending more time fixing stuff than boating—I should have known better!) I named the boat "The Cromwell." (After Oliver.) The reason was a quote of OC's that I had come across: "No one rises so high as he who knows not whither he is going." It's more or less my philosophy of life, as well as water travel.

In The Practical Cogitator I came across the context, as here presented by medical pioneer William Osler (addressing his students): "As to the method of your work, I have a single bit of advice, which I give with the earnest conviction of its paramount influence in any success which may have attended my efforts in life—Take no thought for the morrow. Live neither in the past nor in the future, but let each day's work absorb your entire energies, and satisfy your widest ambition. ... The student who is worrying about his future, anxious over the examinations, doubting his fitness for the profession, is certain not to do so well as the man who cares for nothing but the matter in hand, and who knows not whither he is going."

If I (foolishly) bought another boat I'd name it "The Cromwell II."

Longstanding Issue Rears Its Head Again

Got a good manuscript to review. Then I looked a little closer. It says we should start out (a project, presumably) by "focusing," then get "creative." I absolutely, positively disagree. The "focusing" effort is the ultimate in the creative process!

In my 1999 Wow Projects 50 book, I devoted 22 of 50 propositions (the biggest section by far) to Framing Issues. When I start on something/anything, I resist focusing with all my heart and soul! At the beginning, regardless of what the Client (for a Speech, Consulting Engagement) asked for, I talk sweet, but ignore it in practice. I need to burrow into the situation, do my research, talk to a million people from inside and outside, etc., etc., etc. (et etcetera). Only then can I even do a First Approximation of "focus." In fact, some of my best work, especially speeches, has come when I chuck the whole thing "as planned" 20 minutes before going on stage, or even reverse course after I've started. I can't figure out the punch line until the third quarter of the game, more or less.

Begin by "focusing" on the "goal"? Not on your (my, that is) life!

Whaddayouthink?

It makes you sick?

I'm not a regular reader of People Weekly, (yes, I feel compelled to point that out before quoting the magazine) so I'm not sure if the following is a grammatical blooper or purposeful, yet subtle, satire.

A blurb-with-picture in People describes Paris Hilton's recent Mediterranean yachting vacation with friends. Apparently, they suffered 12-ft seas on the way to Sardinia. The paragraph-long story ended by saying that the group made it safely to port, but "more nauseous than before."

Now, I'm sure the nauseous waves made them feel nauseated, but is it possible for Paris Hilton to become "more nauseous than before?"

Hot Day Hot Stock

It was a very hot day here. And as for hot, if you had to name two very hot things in business these days, surely "search" and "China" would come to mind.

So when Baidu (pronounced "by-doo")—China's leading internet search engine—quadrupled in price today, as their ADSs (American Depositary Shares) were offered on the Nasdaq, I guess no one should have been surprised.

Still, is it one more bullish indicator that we're starting a new dotcom-like cycle? I keep hearing it's happening, but I'm very skeptical. I heard it from a venture capitalist two weeks ago over lunch near Harvard Square in Cambridge. I heard it last week in San Francisco. Most of us who lived through the dotcom boom and bust are rather prudent about calling it anything yet, but today had to make you wonder.

Perils of White-collar Crime, Circa 2005

Martha has to keep her leg bracelet on a little longer than planned. (Yo Marth, flouting federal cops ain't a winning strategy ... I'd have thought you'd have figured that out by now.)

Kirk Shelton (former Cendant V.Chairman) was, in addition to Hard Time, given a fine that will take an estimated 100,000 years (!) to pay off ... good thing those Koreans are mastering cloning so fast.

Yup, positive reinforcement beats negative reinforcement most of the time. However, many of today's chieftains are treated like royalty, and increasingly are outta touch with the Rank & File. Stuff like the above surely should send a message, eh?

NYT OP-ED #2 Wal-Mart

Also on today's New York Times op-ed page is a piece by Pankaj Ghemawat, a professor at Harvard, and Ken Mark, a consultant, on research they've done on the effects of Wal-Mart on society and the economy.

We've had great debate on this site about Wal-Mart before. This article says that Wal-Mart benefits the rural poor in significant ways by bringing low prices to them. They show that Wal-Mart brings 8% price decrease to rural areas, and that their stores are disproportionately located in the country's poorest zip codes. It also makes the claim, discussed here a number of months ago, that Wal-Mart's customers benefit from their lower prices more than their shareholders do.

They say that "the debate around Wal-Mart isn't really about a Marxist conflict between capital and labor. Instead it is a conflict pitting consumers and efficiency-oriented intermediaries like Wal-Mart against a combination of labor unions, traditional retailers and community groups. Particularly in retailing, American policies favor consumers and offer fewer protections to other interests than elsewhere in the world. Is such pro-consumerism a good thing?"

Comments?

NYT OP-ED #1

Tom Friedman started his op-ed piece in today's New York Times by suggesting that he'd run for office on a one-issue platform: He'd promise to make America's cell phone service as good as Ghana's.

Friedman points out that our technological infrastructure is actually falling behind the rest of the world—in addition to frustrating cell phone coverage, our broadband connectivity has fallen to 16th in the world. As he points out in his book, The World is Flat, the advantages we've grown up enjoying in the U.S. are evaporating, and these technological deficiencies will have a direct result on our wealth and productivity.

Ask he asks in the article, do we depend on private companies to provide better connectivity for us, or is it not in their interest to make access easier and more ubiquitous?

A month ago I opened my laptop in a coffee shop in a 150 year old building in Jerusalem and was immediately connected to the Internet, for free, because the center of town has been set up for wireless access. The only place that has happened to me in the U.S. is the Roanoke Airport—not exactly the center of our universe.

Giving Nike A Run For Their Money

The announcement today that Adidas will buy Reebok is certainly going to shake things up in the world of sports marketing and merchandising.

Women's New Business Factory

This weekend, I had a terrific time attending the BlogHer Conference in Santa Clara, CA, with Cathy Mosca and Phoebe Espiritu, two colleagues here at Tom Peters.

This amazing conference had 100% women speakers and 80% women attendees, all focusing on Women and Blogging. Check out these pictures.

There were so many good break-out sessions, but I wanted to mention the feeling in the room when Mary Hodder, Denise Howells, and Patricia Nakache led a session on women starting businesses and getting funding. The feeling was like one of those noisy starting gates where thoroughbreds are waiting in their slots to run the Kentucky Derby, ready to kick up their heels. Believe me, we were all chomping at the bit.

McD's Fashion

McDonald's is saying that the goal of the new uniforms they plan to develop is that crew members will wear them outside of the office. Is it possible?

Déjà  vu ...

One of Yogi Berra's more famous "Yogi-isms" is "It's déjà vu all over again." Yup, Yogi, and I hate that feeling, but it's got me on the run at the moment. Is it a sign of age (or exhaustion?) when one reads headline after headline after headline (biz headlines, to be sure), shakes one's head, and exclaims (to oneself) (or one's blogmates), "I said that an eternity ago"?

Here's the deal/s, or at least a few thereof. I've been ranting against major mergers for a decade/decades. Now such ranting is "in." Big mergers are "out" and asset disposal is "in." (HP, IBM, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Viacom, and many others are rushing to eschew elusive "synergy" and shed their "one-stop shopping" non-starter and ... duh ... "focus" (i.e., do something well). Cost cutting, six sigma, and "bottom line uber alles" are mostly "out." "Organic growth," "innovation," and "top line" emphasis are definitely ... duh ... "in." (Do you get the feeling in the last few months that GE & its CEO, Jeff Immelt, invented "innovation"? Well, GE/Edison did invent inventing ... but alas GE mostly forgot it for a few decades ... and have apparently re-discovered it—déjà vu all over again.) "Design" ("cool" beats "blah") is suddenly "in" ... duh ... as innovation's chirpy handmaiden. Hey, even GM is going there ... which means that even the last of the last are getting it.

In 1987 I went to Munich for Oktoberfest (as far as I can remember) and keynoted a "Congress" on "business and the environment" with a speech I titled "Go Green, Get Rich." Well, you guessed it, now that's ... duh ... become a "real"/"in" idea, not because of me in '87 or BP in '00, but because GE/Immelt embraced it in '05! (Motorolans must feel the same way on another dimension. They spearheaded the quality revival in America with their highly visible & effective emphasis on Six Sigma in the late '80s; six sigma's success & importance is now pretty much universally attributed to GE—Jack Welch, this time—in the mid- to late-'90s.)

Oh yeah, and now the press and Giant Cos are even swarming around the "novel" idea of going beyond market "micro-targeting" and ... duh ... marketing to ... Women & Boomers-Geezers.

So I'm off in an hour to Martha's Vineyard, not to "do the circuit" (heaven forbid) ... but to put on my invisibility cloak and hide for a couple of weeks in my little shack out next to Mr Jefferson's 1801 Cape Pogue light; to get there you depart civilization as we know it, take not one but two ferries, then deflate your tires to 13 pounds and drive 4 miles over the sand. My only neighbor is an octogenarian Nobel laureate (medicine) who performed the first kidney transplant way back when. So, confronted with "déjà vu all over again" (and again), what am I supposed to do? My publisher says "look for the next big thing." I've always thought that was pure bullshit. (Arrogant bullshit at that.) I've never "looked for" a "big thing" (or much of anything). I've never concocted a "theory of the universe" (à la Mike Porter). I've mostly let "it" "look for" me ... just waited until something/s really, truly pissed me off—the lack of attention to people and customers and excellence in the late '70s, early '80s; the lack of attention to the likes of innovation & design & marketing to women in the '90s; and so on—and then I've ranted on, mostly to defuse my own ire.

At the moment, by the way, I guess I could say I'm re-pissed off (déjà vu all over again?) about something right at the core of my personal & professional being. In a Mark Helprin* book of short stories, The Pacific, one protagonist, a former corporate chieftain, now 82, reveals to his daughter that he always hated the company he ran ... "because it wasn't human and it wasn't alive, and all the thousands of people whose lives were molded around it were like sequins on a corpse. It had no desire or regret, it didn't know the difference between right or wrong, it couldn't breathe or kiss or sweat. I wasted my precious time on it, my life, and it will never die." Yes, I'm re-pissed off. Why must "business" be thus? I do love business at its best/as I dream it can be; i.e., the self-determined, scary-but-exhilarating "brand you life." I do not understand why one would not attempt to "make each day a masterpiece" (John Wooden), engage in/rejoice in/create Wow Work-Wow Projects (yours truly); "make your life itself a creative art" (per creativity guru & old pal & reformed hyper-quantitative marketing researcher Mike Ray). I do think one can—and must, for sanity's (and, now, survival's) sake—invest in great causes. Not so much "saving the environment" as "making Your 100 Square Feet a study in Magnificence & Excellence & Beauty & Surprise & Wow & Wonder & Joy & Grace" ... as a 17-year-old busboy. (Hey, it's why I'm so hung up on Cirque du Soleil as "greatest/coolest ever"—for right now anyway.)

So off I go to untrammeled solitude and reflection out in the Atlantic somewhere (or at least in the middle of Nantucket Sound). No roads. No electricity. No phone (except very occasional 1-bar cell reception). Damn few neighbors except for gulls and osprey and oyster catchers and rabbits and deer and ticks and more ticks and poison ivy ... oh yeah, and one very bright red, 14-foot rowboat.

I'll let you know how it all turns out ...

*Remember the "*" above? I really think Mark Helprin has few if any peers as a writer. A Soldier of the Great War is one of my "Top 5" books, and The Pacific is clearly my favorite short story collection.

BlogHer

Blogging tools and other systems around blogging are called "social software," but we use these tools in isolation. At the BlogHer conference this past Saturday, we got social in a non-virtual way. Yay! I met:

A Cool Friend (not something I often do face-to-face), Sharon Whiteley, CEO of Third Age; a purple-haired blogger called Badger; her compulsive-writer friend Jo, blog name: Spanglemonkey; a mommy blogger named Mary (subtitle to her blog: sanity through online journaling); a knitter called Little Judy, whose excellent blog showcases her knitting projects among other things; Tricia, whose blog name I love: cheekyattitude.com; and Jory Des Jardins, one of the organizers of BlogHer, whom I hereby welcome to our blogroll.

For commentary on the conference, I refer you to them. Read Badger here, Jo Spanglemonkey here, here, here, and here, Mary here, Judy here, Tricia here, and Jory here.

All have two things in common: They're women, and they write damn well.

Relating to Anomalies

Reading responses to threads on various websites, I get a kick out of how attached we humans can get to our own viewpoints—which often have us in a kind of death grip when challenged! (Some respondents sound like they're having temper tantrums rather than exploring different points of view.) But a quality of leadership I admire and encourage is the willingness to reexamine one's belief in systems and mental models. To me an effective leader (or human being for that matter) is one who can deal with the cognitive dissonance that arises from confronting data that's inconsistent with cherished beliefs. This ability, so useful in a time of instability and disruption, seems underrated these days. Yet a leader's curiosity and interest with respect to ANOMALIES says a lot about the wisdom and maturity of that individual.

Thomas Kuhn, in his 1962 classic, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, speaks of anomalies as "violations of expectation" that can escalate to "crises," precipitating violence to our "paradigms." When we can't make anomalies conform to our current mindset, they can lead us to the "reconstruction of prior theory," an intrinsically revolutionary process." Hmmm. Sounds EXACTLY like what's needed in business in these crazy times. So how do you respond to data that don't fit your theories—perhaps the feedback you're getting from the market, your customers, your organization? How do you—and your company's leaders—deal with anomalies?

Badvertising: Depend

A current television ad for Depend Undergarments talks about how convenient Depends are to take with you during a busy day, and there is an image of a woman popping a package into her briefcase. Before she closes the lid, you notice that the package is really easy to see, and the word "Depend" screams out at you. The image doesn't make sense—most people don't want to share their personal maladies at the boardroom table when they open their attaché to pull out another copy of the monthly reports. Then, at this point in the commercial, the voiceover says, "And our brand new package is designed to be easy to find on store shelves." Yeah, and easy to spot every time I reach into my briefcase for another Altoid.

Adult incontinence is, of course, nothing to be ashamed of. But the second most important reason people use Depends is so nobody else knows they have this problem. (Don't you dare ask, "What's reason number 1?") This is another instance of the advertiser being so proud of their accomplishment ("We have a new package!") that they have to tell everyone, even if it's the wrong message.

I took a look at the Depend website and the new package is promoted prominently at the top of the page. The copy says, "The discreet packages are designed to help you find the product quickly." Yeah, that's discreet—the number one name in incontinence protection is written in bold letters, with a picture of adult underwear right below it. If the strategy is discreet, then go discreet. But don't assume your customers will accept a dissonant message just because you say it.