Adecco Final
Adecco Long

Tom is in Cannes at the moment, and, if you follow him on Twitter, you know he finds it a bit over the top. But right now, in terms of weather, it has to beat Vermont!

In preparing, I put together a list of ten key factors that I believe characterize entrepreneurial excellence ...

Entrepreneurial Excellence TEN

1. "Insane" Passion for and commitment to the idea.
2. Can explain the idea in Simple English and Excite others about its Uniqueness in ONE MINUTE (or less).
3. Good Accountant/"Wise-man (-woman)"/50-50 Partner.
4. Devotee of the Experimental Method ("Try it. Now.")/Master of "Plan B"/Relentless/Resilient.
5. Patience in Hiring/"Great Place to Work" from the get-go.
6. "d"iversity/M-F balance.
7. Exude Decency-Character-Integrity.
8. Playfulness/Fun.
9. Sweat the details (Execution = Strategy).
10. EXCELLENCE. Period.

[For the PPT slides, you can use this link.]

Slides are here: Excellence Always: The Art of the Possible, Press Ganey, Baltimore

The event was the Seminarium Ecuador in Quito, short for San Francisco de Quito, the capital city. Be sure to look at google maps, wikipedia, and other websites to learn more about this fascinating place. It's in the same time zone as Boston, but worlds away.

If you attended the Seminarium, please give us your comments, and if you'd like the slides they are here.

As always, please let us hear from you, and you can get the PPT slides here.

To get the slides, use these linkks:
The Art of Management, Toronto, Final
The Art of Management, Toronto, Long Version

Three PPTs for downloading are here:
London, AM Session
London, PM Session
Manchester

My main thrust was "controlling what you can control" and creating an "experimentation machine"-"innovation machine" (and a "culture" that supports it) devoted to "letting 1,000 flowers bloom" as the way forward in creating and designing systems that promote 100% employee involvement, patient-patient family engagement, safety, quality, elimination of variation in outcome, and the like. I avoided my usual hectoring (the nature of the likes of quality-safety is now more or less accepted), and urged "getting on with it" ASAP.

I have rarely felt so engaged and have rarely so enjoyed myself--as to impact, the proof will be in the doing. (Glenn Steele, CEO of Geisinger, was immeasurably helpful—he joins my "hero entrepreneurs" shortlist, next to the likes of Teach For America's Wendy Kopp!)

Attached you'll find my PowerPoint presentation; it's less helpful than usual, since so much of the tone was beyond the slides.

PP is attached.

As always, we welcome your comments if you were there. And you can get three PPTs for the event here: Excellence. Always. ExpoGestão, ExpoGestão, Long Version, and a special deck titled The Innovation 24.

If you've been reading our blog lately, you know that Tom's been en route to Shanghai. For the three-day event, he gives us four presentations tailored to his audience and in keeping with topics that have occupied him recently:

• Excellence
• Innovation
• People
• Leadership

Please join us in the comments if you had the opportunity to attend the event where Tom was speaking to the Olympic Marketing Training Consultancy, whose founder once offered $620,000 for a chance to meet Warren Buffett.

[And yes! Tom sent the photo above of Shanghai, where the population will surpass 19,000,000 this year, as seen from his 38th floor hotel room window—a little different from the window view in Amsterdam!]

Tom is speaking today for Focus Conferences. His all-day event is at the Nyenrode Business University in Breukelen, Netherlands. (Then he's off to Shanghai to present a 3-day "mini-course.") We welcome you to our comments if you saw Tom speak, and if you'd like to get the slides, you can download them here: Final version and Leadership version.

And, above, one more photo from Tom. Beautiful city!

Tom's ferry voyage took him to Helsinki, where he had a presentation today. Please leave us a comment if you were there, and you can get the PPT slides here. Pictures from the trip are above and below. As you can see, it's a long way from Spring in Helsinski, also. Additional photos are at Flickr. Brrr!

Tom's tour of the Baltic states continues in Tallinn, Estonia, where he's again appearing for Baltic Management Conferences. This is a part of the world that Tom has not spent much time in before now, and I know he must be enjoying meeting new people there. If you were at the event, please let us hear from you in the comments. Or, get the PowerPoint presentation here.

[Tom re the photo, above: "Tallinn, Estonia, still not Spring—my plane approaches the city." If it helps ... it's not quite Spring in Vermont, either.]

The day finds Tom in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, speaking to the Baltic Management Conference. You can get the slides here, and we look forward to your comments if you were there.

Photo from Tom above, "not quite Spring in Vilnius."