Good Friday 1978.
October 1982.
January 1, 2007.

I had to look it up! British management writer Stuart Crainer wrote, in 1999, The 75 Greatest Management Decisions Ever Made. E.g., in the "Marketing Magic" chapter there is the tale of Richard Sears' decision in 1891 to put all his products into a catalog. (Sixty-five percent of Americans still lived in the sticks—and the catalog grew from 32 pages in 1891 to 532 in 1895.) But "Great Decision #45" was the one I was looking for: "In April 1978 McKinsey's John Larson decided to ask colleague Tom Peters to step in at the last minute to make a presentation on some research he'd done. The presentation led to In Search of Excellence."

Apparently (per Crainer) the presentation, to Dart Corporation (Dart Drugs, Tupperware, etc.) in L.A., was made on Good Friday 1978. I do remember that I had less than 24 hours to get my act together; Larson, who ran McK's S.F. Office and was no particular fan, suffered a computer crash that destroyed the mother lode of data he'd intended to present—so he decided to hold onto the meeting, but offer me up as a questionable sub for his all-star data jocks. I remember rather clearly that I hadn't a clue as to what to call my hastily assembled "findings." Somehow the word "Excellence," all by its lonesome (no date, no nothing), ended up on the cover. I wasn't moved by it, and frankly the presentation was no award winner—but I recall a surprisingly intense discussion bubbled up around the meaning of the word "excellence" in business. I guess that was a tip-off—though only much later did I realize it; in general, just putting "the word" on a screen (via transparencies in those ancient PPP/Pre-PowerPoint days) triggered a robust exchange.

To make a long story painlessly short, 4.5 years later Harper & Row shoved In Search of Excellence onto bookstore shelves—mid-October 1982. And the rest is ... whatever.

Advanced math suggests that when the clock strikes midnight 2 days from now, we'll be entering ISOE+25, the quarter-century anniversary year of the book's arrival.

I'm psyched! That I'm still around. (I was 23 days short of my 40th birthday on Search's pub date.) That I still get semi-annual royalty checks from Search. (Not that many books are on the active duty shelves 25 years post initial appearance—the non-virtual shelves, not just the Amazon-Long Tail virtual "shelves.") And that, as I see it, the message—the power of Excellence per se, the word, the idea, the images—is as potent, if not more so, in 2007 as it was in 1982.

I'm psyched because I plan to join with colleagues from here, there and everywhere—starting now with our Blog Community—to celebrate & re-commit to the Idea of Excellence in our lives and in our organizations.

Excellence25. The Search continues ...

[Cake acquisition & photo by Erik Hansen; bakery name to come.]
[Addendum 01.02.07: The bakery is Party Favors on Beacon Street in Brookline, MA. Our thanks to them! And Happy New Year, everybody.—CM]

Tom's Notable Books 2006

"Notable Books 2006" invariably means books published in 2006. Well, the hell with that. Probably 60% or more of my "turn on" books in a given year come from previous years or are galleys for the coming year—I just happen to catch them (more accurately, they catch me) in that year. Hence Notable Books that I have first read in 2006 (furthermore, in no particular order):

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams, 2007—available now (must read #1, 2007—period)

The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger, Marc Levinson, 2006 (messy innovation)

Touched with Fire: Manic Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament, Kay Redfield Jamison, 1993 (creatives are often freaky—and always necessary)

The Lovemarks Effect: Winning in the Consumer Revolution, Kevin Roberts, 2006 (think "passion-added revolution"—from the master)

Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, Brian Wansink, 2006 (health, plus the power of managed behavior change)

Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins: The Paradox of Innovation, Richard Farson and Ralph Keyes, 2002 (wonderful—still an "oddball idea" for some reason)

The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise, and Progress, Virginia Postrel, 1999, (messy road to progress)

FOOLED BY RANDOMNESS: THE HIDDEN ROLE OF CHANCE IN LIFE AND IN THE MARKETS, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, 2005 (this will be on the list every year—chance and life; don't "read it," ingest it)

The Richness of Life: The Essential Stephen Jay Gould, collected by Steven Rose, 2006 (good for the mind, good for the soul, thinking about life as it really works—SJG always enriches me directly and indirectly)

Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships, Daniel Goleman, 2006 (Goleman is back, EQ et al. is all by many measures)

Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan, 2002 (EXECUTION!!!—THE "BIBLE")

PrimeTime Women: How to Win the Hearts, Minds, and Business of Boomer Big Spenders, Marti Barletta, 2007—available (Duh! When will "they "get it"??)

50+: Igniting a Revolution to Reinvent America, Bill Novelli, 2006 (best yet on the all-powerful, wildly expanding Boomer-Geezer tsunami)

Grant, Jean Edward Smith, 2001 (U.S. Grant made my year—"a bias for action," Mr Execution)

Grant, John Mosier, 2006

Personal Memoirs: Ulysses S. Grant, U.S. Grant (they still read this at West Point)

Free Your Breath, Free Your Life, Dennis Lewis, 2004 (another perennial)

14 April 2006/ Novosibirsk/Siberia

"It came in a flash." "It arrived from the recesses of my mind." I hate language like that!

But it's more or less true.

I was in—yes—Siberia. For an all-day seminar. It was, simply, odd to be there. Orlando is not odd. Istanbul is not odd. Riyadh is not odd. Novosibirsk is odd. (Odd = Totally new experience.)

As I said recently, I didn't want to do "one more speech"—actually, I never do, but this time was different. And, as I sat in my hotel room, "excellence seeped into my consciousness" (well, it did) for the first time in years.

And there on my cover slide appeared:

EXCELLENCE.
ALWAYS.

And the ground shifted perceptibly. Every speech since (about 50 this year), though unique in its own fashion, has been titled: EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.

It's been a blast. It is a very cool word:

Synonyms:

Purity.
Transcendence.
Virtue.
Elegance.
Majesty.

Antonyms:

Mediocrity.

And the imagery it conjures up: Old Ben Franklin in Paris. Nelson at Trafalgar. Newton being bonked by the apple. (Okay, that one's not true; neither is the cherry tree decapitation—but the images work anyway.) The Grand Canyon. Grey Meadow Farm/Tinmouth/VT. Hillary at the top of Mount Everest. (No, not Ms Clinton.) Callas in full voice. Churchill at the radio mike. An Apple II, circa 1981. An iPod, circa 2006.

And as Waterman and I said almost 25 years ago: In enterprise! In a career!

Excellence.
What a word.
What an Aspiration.

Welcome back. And thanks, my friends in Novosibirsk.

Department of Amplifications

#1. Re Generals. Many interpretations of my recent Post about the talent and pay of Generals have appeared in Comments. Hooray! Let me speak a bit more clearly about my implicit message that was perhaps too implicit:

I think 4-star generals have a much tougher job than the average CEO, in fact harder than most any CEO's job. They deal daily with the politics of the White House and 535 Members of Congress; and other services and defense contractors; and the other headstrong generals in their command—etc, etc, etc. (None of these people—from Private to President do what she or he is told upon being ordered to do so. CEOs' ability to give orders and expect them to be obeyed is, in my experience, higher than that of the average general.) (And Congress treats generals like fans do football coaches—every Congressperson is a military expert, in his or her own mind, who knows the 4-star general's business better than the general.)

On a daily basis, 4-star generals must oversee issues of readiness that affect the lives or deaths of thousands or tens of thousands of soldiers—not to mention the safety and very future of the United States of America. (Sorry, it ain't the same when P&G boss A.G. Lafley is considering whether or not to approve a color change—heaven forbid—in the Tide box.) Four-star generals also may have to make quick decisions that could lead to the life or death of thousands of soldiers; and in response to an act of WMD terrorism, perhaps hundreds of thousands of civilians.

Despite these incredible challenges, we get, in my experience, with amazing consistency, enormously talented and thoughtful people holding these top military jobs. That is to say that the "supply" of exceptionally talented people in these positions of incredible power and significance is not dependent on the amount they are paid. In private CEO land, we are led to believe that only bozos would be leading companies if we were unwilling to fork over immense sums of money; I think that's mostly ego as one boss compares his pay packet to his 499 Fortune 500 peers'. I likewise take delight in the relatively low ratio of top boss to corporal pay in the military—seems to work for them.

I am a vociferous champion of the Laws of Market Forces. And no particular enemy of high CEO pay. On the other hand, I think it is a lot less related to "supply and demand for extraordinary talent" than these corporate chieftains would admit. (Please feel free to discount all this—remember I am Commander in Chief of the cadre of thinkers who believe that "luck is the last 99%" in the making of great leaders—or management gurus; and ego and luck are the "99.9% factor" in the eclipse of said "great men"—usually men, of course.)

#2. Turkeys. My emphasis was on the word per se—and the implied valuation of one's fellows. Of course there are people who are misfits from the start who evaded the selection process. And of course there are those who cannot grow with the job. Etc. Etc. And etc. But I object—passionately—to the labeling of any one other than the likes of terrorists or serial murderers as "turkeys." I don't mean to play the "religion card"—I'm not very formally religious—but I am Jeffersonian in my belief that "all men are created equal" (while fully acknowledging the "slave oversight" and the "women oversight"). Thence, calling a total misfit of an employee a "turkey" is offensive and inexcusable to me—and revelatory of the speaker.

A Consummated Love Story

Okay. Okay. It's old hat. Antediluvian even. But at the end of 2006 I once again salute Google. Above I wrote "all men are created equal." I felt confident in my wording, but only 99.4% confident. (And understood the dire consequences of screwing up.) So, of course, I went to Google. And there before my eyes appeared, sans reindeer: "Results 1 - 10 of about 802,000 for 'all men are created equal.'" As usual I "hung around" for about 15 minutes chasing various strands—after I'd gotten my confirmation.

I do love that. Thanks, Googlers one and all.

Lucky Fella!

The air travel wearies. The hotel room same-same deadens the soul. The "nights away" add up and up. But ...

Call it self-indulgent if you must. But as a small gift to myself I just went through my entire 226-slide deck of photos at Flickr.

What a lucky fella!

Siberia.
Mauritius.
Dubai.
Oman.
Rome at Easter.
Istanbul.
Sweden.
London.
Paris.
Bucharest/Romania.
Amsterdam.
Barcelona.
Madrid & Madrid & Madrid.
Seoul.
Kuala Lumpur.
Bangkok.
Gabarone/Botswana.
J'burg.
Brazil.
Mexico.
Adelaide.
Etc.
Etc.

And L.A. and Mackinac Island and Maine and Atlanta and Wichita and ...
And Orlando & Orlando & Las Vegas & Las Vegas ...

Packed into 12 months, 33 of 65 events outside the U.S., a lifetime's worth of experiences and new friends and opportunities to spread the word about startling new ways to work and serve and shape a "career" worth savoring.

Yup, one lucky fella!

Wow!

I gave Susan a MacBook Pro15 for Christmas—and was pretty damned proud of myself. (I plan to RTM—return to Mac—in 2007.) But she left me in tears, as she turned back the clock to about 180 B.M. (180 years Before Mac.) Yep, I wept when I unwrapped a mint condition 1818 edition of The Federalist—see photo above. (The 1818 was an original—that is, the original original plus current-to-1818 addenda from James Madison et a few.)

The period from the end of the Revolutionary War through about 1815 or so is my hobby. The end of the war was the beginning of an intense and at times acrimonious effort to define human governance in a totally original way.

I love the period as a very amateur historian; but I also love it because this struggle for appropriate organizational models has been my professional preoccupation for over 30 years.

(Obviously this has ramifications for Iraq. The Battle of Baghdad was over in a flash; the effort to achieve stable and equitable governance thus began—and it's been the tough nut to crack. In fact, obviously, the nut has not been cracked—and may not/probably will not be cracked.)

Thanks, Mr Ford!

In 1973–1974 I worked in the Nixon White House on drug abuse treatment and drug interdiction policy. I left on August 1, 1974, Mr Nixon about a week later. (We both went to California.) I hate to say something like this, it's so pretentious, but in a way only those of us who were there at the implosion may know how it felt from the inside. All of which is to say that the administration of the oath of office to Gerald Ford was a very momentous occasion. The Republic was wobbly. Ford doubtless had his faults, but he restored calm in almost a flash with his demeanor. (Anyone remember the picture of him in the White House kitchen toasting his own toast?) Hence, I will miss him. I met him only once, when we were both speaking in San Jose. Our conversation lasted but a couple of minutes, but his graciousness and lack of pretense shone through. Ford was tough when he needed to be tough, to be sure—it goes with the turf. But it is his decency that I shall fondly remember.

Home for the Holidays: The Sweetest Two Words

Laundry owner: "When do you need this?"

Tom: "No rush."

Less S.A.D.

"It" is happening! Again! For us Northern Hemisphere denizens coiled in our various corners ... the Sun fell to its knees, gasped, twitched, and began to Arise at 0022AM GMT 22 December (Universal Time), 722PM EST 21 December, 422PM PST 21 December. One micrometer at a burst ... Darkness is being Vanquished. Congratulations S.A.D.ies for having survived another one! Susan and I tipped a glass and listened to the Beatles melodiously declare that "here comes the sun" and "things are getting better all the time"!

Photo above: Sunrise in Vermont, as the days grow longer.

Relative Worth

Are 4-star generals lousier & less talented leaders than corporate CEOs? Are qualified 4-star generals "less scarce" than qualified CEOs (the economists' way of looking at the pay-for-talent issue)?

The ratio of average CEO pay to average worker pay in BigCos in the U.S.A. is about 250:1. The ratio of 4-star generals' pay to the average soldier's pay in the U.S. military is about 6:1. For a 1-star general that drops to about 4:1.

Your S.A.T. task today is to explain the above in 25 words or less ...

Bah Humbug, Circa 2007

Quote: "If you've got 16 employees, at least two are turkeys."

Source:

Gandhi?
Welch?
Mandela?
Benedict XVI?

(Quote source: Selling Power magazine, Special Edition 2007)

Welcome Aboard!

Tom Peters (me) and Alan Webber, co-founder of Fast Company, congratulate Time and welcome Time's "Person of the Year" ... "You." As co-inventors of the "Brand You" notion, over a decade ago, we are delighted to see the world catching up and, more important, waking up!

The "Brand You life" is damned hard work ... and so, so, so satisfying compared to "your father's world" as, likely, a Dilbertian "cubicle slave." Talk about liberating! As Time says, it's all about self-control. Nothing cooler! And nothing more daunting, because, of course, self-control only works, on the Web or off, age 19 or 69, with its disciplined mate, self-responsibility, at its side.

(To be sure, Time's "You,"circa 2006, is a bit less restrictive than our "Brand You." While we were celebrating, as does Time, the newfound possibilities of self-control/self-management ... we were also erecting defenses for your or my "career" against the incursion of microprocessors and lower-wage offshore substitutes. Nonetheless, "You" or "Brand You" ... we, too, salute you and your year and your potential.)

[Tom's photo above: Amsterdam canal. See more at Flickr.]

A [More or Less] Christmas [and Management] Thought

Came across this quote from one of those wise old Greeks, Philo of Alexandria: "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle." It reminds—none too gently—that we seldom know as much as we might imagine about the person across the table—or a spouse or child, for that matter.

In my experience, Philo, our Greek guide, got it exactly and frighteningly right. Hidden from sight is an ailing parent, a life-long battle with excess weight, abiding shyness, or whatever/s. This "great battle" colors our mate's or employee's every action.

I am not counseling "going easy" as a boss, or some such. I am counseling understanding (compassion) and listening. 100% of the time. As leaders in particular, we have a sacred trust—as well as a job to get done. The great coaches, such as Duke's Coach K, understand that. And any Army leader, sergeant or general officer, understands. So, too, must you and I. Compassion and thoughtfulness are always merited—and Christmas is a particularly good time to think on this subject near the center of humanness at work or at home.

[Picture by Tom above: The many colors of flowers in an Amsterdam flower market.]

100 Ways to Succeed #79:

Kindness. Always.

Take the time! Listen! Increase your self-awareness of the "great, unseen battles" that most of your mates are fighting. Show consideration and humanity ... and, per Philo, "kindness."

Your reward will be a better-functioning and more productive team—and points as a thoughtful human being who, in appropriate circumstances, can call herself-himself a true leader.

Qualms

I am a Card-carrying Capitalist in Good Standing. I believe passionately in open markets and intense competition and free trade as spurs to economic growth and prosperity and peace—despite the headlines that await us each time we travel the Web or read the paper. But as I read the British and American papers while on my year-end trip to Bahrain and the UK and Amsterdam, I am twitching a bit over the amazing bonuses in the City and on Wall Street that were just handed to, mostly, traders. While I do believe in the "market for human capital," there is, I instinctively feel, something off-kilter about so many pocketing $5 million or $10 million or $100 million+. And to be perfectly honest, the Wall Street Journal (Monday, December 18) article on "The Global Atlas of New Money" at times turned my stomach—e.g., the opulent celebrations of incredible wealth. Hats off, to be sure, to Mr Gates and Mr Buffett for their astounding commitment to philanthropy, but that is not enough.

Speaking as that fervent capitalist, as we confront stagnant wages for the masses in developed countries and, of course, gut-wrenching poverty that is the lot of literally billions this Christmas, is something not askew?

Remedies?
I haven't a clue.
And you?

Arthur MacArthur and the Modern Day "Policy Wonks"

Forget the assignment of blame for the Iraq fiasco. That's not the point of this Post. Instead it is my virulent reaction to a particular part of Vanity Fair's (January 2007) well-reported "Neo Culpa." While the purpose was to pick on the neo-cons who philosophically beat the War Drums in 2002 and 2003, and even 2004 and 2005, that's not what set me off.

Arthur MacArthur Junior, father to Douglas MacArthur, famously told his son, as Holy Writ on the battlefield, "Never give an order that can't be obeyed." (My military bosses—the good ones, anyway—taught me the same.) My 1973-4 White House boss (and today private equity superstar) Fred Malek likewise said "Operations is policy." (Fred, perhaps not incidentally, was a West Point graduate.) That is, the idea and its execution are inexorably tied—Siamese twins, even.

Richard Perle, a principal intellectual cheerleader of the 2003 incursion into Iraq, echoed many of his fellow travelers when he told Vanity Fair, "I'm getting damned tired of being described as an architect of the war. I was in favor of bringing down Saddam. Nobody said 'Go and design the campaign to do that.' I had no responsibility for that."

Wrong.
Wrong.
A thousand times Wrong.

Or, rather: Bullshit!

Consider the likes of Jim Baker today, or George Marshall or Thomas Jefferson in times long past. The "policy advisor" must—first and foremost—consider the odds of successfully implementing the suggested policy and the consequences of not doing so or doing so halfway. I can readily wish for some desired end (and I believe Perle's end was indeed desirable), but I may not under any circumstances absolve myself from shoddy execution. As platoon commander, Arthur MacArthur's son or "policy wonk," predicting the shape and expected efficacy of execution is my responsibility as much as the concoction of a brilliant strategy.

Period.

Event: Focus Conference, Amsterdam

This is it, the last event of the year. Today, Tom is speaking at the Focus Conference in Amsterdam. Soon he'll be back in Vermont for the holidays, and before long we'll be starting another year at tompeters.com. I hope you'll all join us in 2007.

If you would like to download the slides for the event, you may do so here:
XAlways, Focus Conference, Amsterdam
XAlways Mid-length, Amsterdam
XAlways Long Version, Amsterdam

Cool Friend: John Maeda

When Tom got a copy of John Maeda's book, this is what he wrote:

I planned to skim-sample John Maeda's book, then decide to endorse it—or not. I quickly found myself mesmerized—and thence the only issue was deciding what were the strongest words I could muster in support of The Laws of Simplicity. The book is important; and Maeda has made an absurdly complex subject—simplicity—approachable and usable.

Bravo! I hope the people who design the products I'll acquire in the next 10 years take this book to heart.

Maeda is an artist as well as an author, and the founder of the Simplicity Consortium at the MIT Media Lab. You can read his Cool Friends interview here, or visit his websites, www.maedastudio.com and lawsofsimplicity.com.

100 Ways to Succeed #78:

Speak Not Ill of Thine Competitors

Does this require more explanation than the Golden Rule ("Do unto others ..."): Badmouthing competitors diminishes you. Period.

"Win" with better product.
"Win" with better relationships.
"Win" when your industry is prospering and has a good reputation. (Think consultants, ad agencies, lawyers, for example.)

Build up your competitors!
Build up your entire industry!

(And if a competitor is missing deadlines, etc., instead of piling on, say, "Yes, I do hear they're going through a rough patch; but they're a good company and a good competitor and I'm sure they'll sort things out." Or some such.)

Decency rules!
Decency rules! (And, paradoxically, the more "dog eat dog" the competitive situation, the more the "decency advantage" matters.

Consider this Comment to my recent Post on supporting one's competitors from Nathan Schock:

"This is especially important for those of us who work in professional services located outside major metropolitan areas. As our entire industry improves in our city, the large companies are less likely to look outside our city for those services.

"Our advertising agency believes that anything that makes the industry better in our city, improves our position. That's why we devote so much time and energy to professional organizations like AIGA, PRSA, and the AAF."

Amen.

Most (and Least) Valuable Players 2006

Over the next couple of weeks I will give my Best-Worst awards for 2006. But I want to get a jump on the process. Gawd do I hate oligopolists-monopolists formed by mergers among barely competent already too big companies.

I am in Frankfurt at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday, December 10, as I write. I will not share the details of the (latest) indignity, but simply give my first "Dirty Dog of the Year" award to the astonishingly incompetent overpriced foul ball non-responsive idiot-jerks at ... Verizon.

I wish them no ill, but I do hope that every Verizon exec's "world phone" fails to work over and over and over at critical junctures in far away nations after painful (very) efforts have been made over and over and over to head off or rectify the problem/s.

What boneheads!

Event: Bahrain

Far afield once more, Tom is speaking to the 13th Annual World Islamic Banking Conference in the Kingdom of Bahrain, an island nation in the Persian Gulf, the smallest Arab country. If you would like to get the PPTs, you can download them here:
XAlways, World Islamic Banking Conference, Bahrain
XAlways Long, World Islamic Banking Conference, Bahrain

[Photo above: Your $3 a gallon gas at work: Construction in Bahrain. See more at Flickr.]

Love Thine "Enemy"! It's Good Business!

Oddly enough, I've run into two situations in the last 24 hours where someone wanted to restrict the activities of a competitor relative to seminars I was giving or products I was developing. It's a position that I adamantly oppose on both moral and commercial grounds.

At the top of my business priority list, I want my overall market to grow by leaps and bounds. My market share will go down (It was about 100% after In Search of Excellence, when I was more or less the only public "management guru"), but my revenue will soar—the "bigger pie" axiom.

In short, I want my competitors to thrive. And I welcome their presence at my events. I go so far (see our "Cool Friends" interviews, for example) as to enhance their careers!

Does all this suggest an altruistic streak? Perhaps, but I actually think mostly not. I think that when one badmouths one's competitors or tries to limit their activities, the "word gets around." And one develops a reputation as prickly and egocentric—and, well, as a selfish jerk.

More important, my only effective long term defense (think Apple) is to do better and different work—and earn and retain the custom of those who would engage me.

In the original glory days of IBM, one of the legendary Thomas Watson's Golden Rules was "Thou shalt never badmouth a competitor." In fact, to violate this rule was a no-debate firing offense. As IBM struggled in the eighties, the rule slipped into disuse, and the company's reputation suffered as a result. Back to my basic premise, IBM's real problem was the loss of product distinction.

I come down hard on Mr Watson's side. It is my goal—selfishly, actually—to be a highly regarded member of my professional community. Speaking crudely, I think that is an incredibly strong and sustainable competitive advantage. And, yes, I bloody well do want to win more than my fair share of business.

Your opinion?

[Photo above: Winter. Vermont. The real thing. Temperature 7AM, 2 degrees F.]

Tom, Dalai Lama

Soulmates! Tom and the Dalai Lama. It never would have occurred to me, but Omar Khan says exactly that in this article in Conference Board Review, where he describes the pair as "examples of people who travel all over the world being triumphantly themselves." Triumphantly themselves. Who could want to be anything more?

You're Not Alone

"In many ways, an office job is like a prison sentence." That's Michael Malice, the co-creator of overheardintheoffice.com. He's quoted in an interview with Kevin Ohannessian of Fast Company. Malice's site collects stories from the cubicle mazes of the world, in an effort to make the "prison sentence" a bit more bearable. Just when you think you're experiencing the most preposterous behavior in your own work environment, a visit to overheardintheoffice.com will lead you to new reaches of the absurd:

"A VP says to an IT guy, 'Have you installed Google on my computer yet?' And the IT guy responds, 'Just yesterday.'"

Event: John Laing Homes

John Laing Homes is the event of the day in Costa Mesa, CA. If you'd like to download the PPTs, you can get them here:
XAlways, John Laing Homes
XAlways, John Laing Homes, Long Version

[Tom's note re his photo: "Having been back in New England for several years, I'm once again 'one of those people' who says 'This is winter?' The picture above is December 4-in-Beverly Hills." Below, see Christmas in Beverly Hills.]

Only in L.A.

First page, first item in the L.A. Times "Homes" section yesterday-Sunday:

"MAJOR PRICE REDUCTION! EXCEPTIONAL VALUE $43,000,000"

In the immortal words of Dave Barry, "I'm not making this up."

(The photo above is "Christmas on Rodeo Drive.")

Only in L.A.

And Johannesburg and São Paulo.

X06: More Later

Getting ready for tomorrow's seminar with John Laing Homes in Costa Mesa. These folks clearly set the standard for Excellence in home-building—though at the moment they have their hands full with the implosion of the housing market. Thinking about them got me thinking about Excellence in general, and a list I put together in 2004 of "companies-organizations I love." (And even a couple of people fitting that same description.) I pruned a few and added a few, and you'll see the result, "X.06," below. My "excellence criteria": "I know it when I see it." (Take it or leave it. Your choice.) (A couple of entries are in parentheses ( ); they screwed up—but there is still much to learn from their glory days.) (A few are "obvious," such as Starbucks & Apple—can't be helped; most, however, are other than the "usual suspects," which is part of the point of the exercise.) The first paragraph below is the list. The second is the list with dominant excellence attributes in parentheses. And paragraph three is an extracted set of success factors.

X.06/List: Whole Foods Market ... Starbucks ... Wegmans ... Commerce Bank ... Apple ... London Drugs ... Griffin Hospital/Planetree Alliance ... The Met School/Big Picture ... Carl Sewell ... Progressive Insurance ... Stanford women's sports ... Stanford D-School ... HSM ... Washington Speakers Bureau ... Build-A-Bear ... RE/MAX ... Donnelly's Weather Strip Service ... Jim's Group ... Cirque du Soleil ... U.S. Grant ... Horatio Nelson ... (Stew Leonard's) ... (DeMar Plumbing)

X.06/Success Factors: Whole Foods Markets (high-end, experience-design, demographic) ... Starbucks (people, experience) ... Wegmans (people) ... Commerce Bank (nuts about customers, WOW, people, execution) ... Apple (design-experience, breakthrough, "virus management," resilience, talent, "seriously cool") ... London Drugs (design-experience, people, "solutions") ... Griffin Hospital/Planetree Alliance (customer-centric, "whole person") ... The Met School/Big Picture (engagement, self-control) ... Carl Sewell (experience!) ... Progressive Insurance (speed, IT) ... Stanford women's sports (demographic, Blue Ocean) ... Stanford D-School (design-biz-engineering, Blue Ocean) ... HSM (execution, experience) ... WSB (integrity, broad view of customers, execution) ... Build-A-Bear (experience) ... RE/MAX (people/"create success stories") ... Donnelly's Weather Strip Service (high end, execution-reliability, simply the best) ... Jim's Group (imagination-Blue Ocean, demographic, customer-centric) ... Cirque du Soleil (talent, R&D, Imagination, resilience, design-experience, partnering) ... (U.S. Grant/execution, delegation, people, K.I.S.S., action-at-all-costs, win, bold ) ... (Horatio Nelson/execution, delegation, people, K.I.S.S., action-at-all-costs, win, bold) ... (Stew Leonard's/people, experience-design, Wow) ... (DeMar Plumbing/experience, people, Blue Ocean)

High end.
Experience.
Design.
Crazy for customers!
Crazy for Patients! ("Whole person").
Wow!
People first, second, third.
Breakthrough or bust.
"Seriously cool."
"Virus management."
Resilience.
Tippy-top talent.
"Solutions," not "just" "satisfaction."
Engagement.
Self-control. (Customer/Patient/Student control.)
Blue Ocean.
"Mundane stuff" made great.
Great demographic.
The best. Period.
Effective partnering.
K.I.S.S.
Play to win. (Offense > Defense.)
Bold!
Action! Always!
Integrity-as-strategy.

You could call this "success factors," "contributors to excellence" list a "laundry list" too general to be helpful. I agree to some extent. On the other hand, I think there is a commonality or three worthy of mention:

Focused on growth and revenue and "offense," not defense and cost containment.
People-talent.
Provide mind-bending experiences. (Driven by design primacy.)
Nuts about customers.
Happy to use words like "Wow."
Pretty close to the high end of the market.
(Ability to make silk purses filled with gold out of sows' ears: Wegmans-Whole Foods-Stew Leonard's and groceries; Jim's Group and dog-walking; Donnelly and weatherstrip installation; DeMar and plumbing.)

As to the "more later" in the title of the Post, 2007 is the 25th anniversary of In Search of Excellence—and my mind is very much pre-occupied with Excellence these days. ("Excellence": One Very Cool Word! Whoopee!)

Gotta Read It

Okay, it's last year's book. But I just found it in Logan airport at the start of my current Madrid-Paris-L.A. trip.

Wow!
Fantastic!
Amazing!

The book: The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade, by Pietra Rivoli. The complex issues of trade, globalization, market-power, and market imperfections are brilliantly told via the life of a single T-shirt. Made in China? Obviously! Sorta. How about "Teksa"? The T-shirt "maker," Chinese, patiently explained to the author that this saga starts in Teksa. That is, West Texas, where the cotton is grown. And why is Texas-the U.S.A. still tops in the global cotton market? Um, our markets are not quite as open as we'd like to make the rest of the world believe. There is no "big political message" here. As a professional economist, the author began the story with a very "open markets" bias. It's not that she lost that bias, but that the can of worms (T-shirt) she opened turned out to be, well, full of worms. Nothing is as it seems; think of this as a product of the John LeCarré School of Economics. Though published in 2005, this is my 2006 "book of the year." No issue.

Gotta Read It II

Speaking of world trade and competitiveness, and if you are not depressed enough by the news and images from Baghdad, try the December 2006 issue of Bloomberg Markets. (I command you to do so. Whoops, I am powerless.) The cover story, a variant on the life of a T-shirt is: "The Secret World of Modern Slavery: Steel used to build cars and appliances in the U.S. starts with forced labor in Brazil." The piece will turn your stomach—and, remember, Bloomberg Markets is not exactly home to left wing extremism.

When you get back from gagging in the bathroom, or if you survive shooting yourself, dive into a Bloomberg companion piece, "How Test Companies Fail Your Kids: The $2.8 billion industry hires $10-an-hour graders for exams that control U.S. schools." I'm far too old to lightly use a word like "unbelievable." But this stuff is ... unbelievable. Try "layed off" janitors who majored in "Phylosophy/Humanity" grading essays that determine our kids' life success and our teachers' employment prospects. This article would be hilarious were it not of such surpassing importance. Again, I underscore that this comes from Bloomberg, not the PR arm of our national teachers union.

Obvious, But Kudos Anyway

The cover story in the current issue of Fortune (12.18) discusses the growth strategies of GE and P&G, typically seen as too big for organic growth spurts. In a box titled "What's New at GE and P&G," the following caught my attention: "P&G does more than half its business outside the U.S., so [CEO A.G.] Lafley has recast his top executive group to be 50% non-American." No "MacArthur genius award" here, but a Nobel for Common Sense may be in order. (Next thing you know, we'll hear that the top P&G group is dominated by ... Women, who buy bloody all of A.G.'s stuff. Physical fitness tip: Don't hold your breath awaiting this occurrence.)

Gotta Read It III

Cover story in the current (12.11) issue of BusinessWeek: "No Schedules. No Meetings. (No Joke.): Inside Best Buy's radical reshaping of the workplace." The title should be motivation enough.

The Aflac Duck Is a Black Swan

In a recent workshop of mine we were discussing the waning effectiveness of advertising. A participant asked, "Doesn't the success of the Aflac duck prove that advertising works?" I responded that of course some advertising works, but for every Aflac duck or GEICO gecko there are a million (billion?) ad campaigns that don't work. The success of one does not imply the success of any others.

Then I realized that the Aflac duck is actually a Black Swan.

[read more]

Event Slides: Rompetrol

Tom's in Paris speaking to Rompetrol, a Romanian oil company that is the 7th largest in France (according to Wikipedia). It was founded as Romania's state petroleum company in 1974, and privatized in 1993. Tom tells us that "today it is energetically pursuing both an upstream and downstream growth strategy."

If you would like to get the PPTs from the event, you can download them here:
XAlways Rompetrol
XAlways Rompetrol, Long Version

[Note from Tom on the photo above: "It doesn't get much better than strolling in Paris at Christmas. I've never seen the likes of the lights and decorations at the Galeries Lafayette, right behind the Opera; it goes on for blocks—and makes, dare I say it, Harrod's look puny by comparison." See more of his fantastic Christmas photos from Paris at Flickr.]

My Bank Pays Me to Wait

My bank has a policy that if you spend more than 5 minutes in a teller line, they give you 5 dollars. Imagine my excitement when, on one of my rare visits to a local branch, I happened to notice the policy (posted on the wall, in fine print) while I was ... well ... waiting in line.

When I finally reached a teller, 7 minutes later, my eager request for the 5 bucks was greeted by confusion then disdain by the teller. (Perhaps no one had ever stooped so low as to actually ask for the five bills before!) I cheerfully told him that now that I knew of the policy—and of the long waits in the bank—I'd be dropping by regularly to pick up my 5 dollars. (He didn't think that was nearly as funny as I did.) Of course I eventually did the complex calculation to determine that taking 20 minutes out of my day to earn a probable 5 dollars might not make great business sense. (But, then again, there is something to be said for doing things just for entertainment value.) It's ironic that the first "positive customer experience" I've had at this bank was at their expense. (I'd switch banks, but the local competition appears to be dreadfully similar.) So ... how's your bank treating you these days? Got any customer experiences to share—horror stories or uplifting testimonials?