Distinct or … ExtinctTom Peters Seminar2000

Sun Microsystems

San Diego10 August 2000

NOW THAT’S B-I-G!

“The period 2000-2002 will bring the single greatest change in

worldwide economic and business conditions since we came down from the trees.”

David Schneider & Grady Means, MetaCapitalism

John Roth’s Dogma [Nortel]

1. Our strategies must be tied to leading-edge customers on the attack.

2. Time cannot be sacrificed for better quality, lower cost, or even better decisions.

3. It doesn’t matter whether you develop or acquire leading technology. Our job is to provide the technology

and products our customers need.4. Success is achieved by leading change,

not waiting for it.5. We are paranoid about our leadership – willing to cannibalize our own products to maintain our edge.

Source: Abridged from The Wall Street Journal (07.25.00)

Brand Inside

Brand Org: Lean, Linked,

Electronic & Malleable

Headline: “Bank of America to Cut … 10,000 Jobs”

“Middle-level and senior managers are expected to be

the principal targets of the job cutbacks.”

Source: The New York Times (07.29.2000)

90 in 10: The Pincer 5

“Destructive” entrepreneurs

“White Collar Robots”

THE INTERNET! [E.g.: GM + Ford + DaimlerChrysler/Covisint]

Global Outsourcing [E.g.: India, Ireland]

Speed!!

Brand Inside

Brand Work: The Professional Service

Firm Model & The WOW Project

So what will be the Basic Building

Block of the New Org?

New OrleansApril 2000:

Jazz Festival + NAPM

You are the … Rock Stars

of the B2B Age!

Enter …

The WOW Project!*

*The Project50

“Reward excellent failures. Punish

mediocre successes.”

Phil Daniels, Sydney exec

Brand Inside

Brand You: Distinct …

or Extinct

DISTINCT … OR EXTINCT!

“If there is nothing very special about your work, no matter how hard you apply yourself, you won’t get noticed and that increasingly means you won’t get paid much, either.”

Michael Goldhaber, Wired

Minimum New Work Survival SkillsKit2000

MasteryRolodex Obsession

Finishing SkillsEntrepreneurial Instinct

Mistress of ImprovSense of Humor

Internse Appetite for TechnologyGroveling Before the Young

Embracing “Marketing”Passion for Renewal

Women and new-economy

management …

Women’s Stuff = New Economy Match

Improv skillsRelationship-centric

Less “rank consciousness”Self determinedTrust sensitive

IntuitiveNatural “empowerment freaks” [less

threatened by strong people]Intrinsic [motivation] > Extrinsic

P.S.1: “In a Web First, Women Are in the Majority”*

Q12000: 50.4% to 49.6%;

“Women and men use the Web differently. Women are more pressed for

time. For them, the Internet is really a productivity tool. … Men tend to spend more time on line just playing around.”

*Headline, USAToday, 08.09, p.1A; Media Metrics/Jupiter Communications

P.S.2: 9/27.5/3.6 > Germany

“Hard to believe … Different criteria”

“Every research study we’ve done indicates that women really care about the relationship with their

vendor.”

Robin Sternbergh/ IBM

Brand Inside

Brand Talent: The Great War for Talent

“When land was the scarce resource, nations battled

over it. The same is happening now for talented people.”

Stan Davis & Christopher Meyer, futureWEALTH

“The leaders of Great Groups love talent and know where to find it. They revel in the talent of others.” Warren Bennis & Patricia Ward Biederman

Dudes With ’Tude“Our business needs a massive transfusion of talent. And talent, I believe, is most likely to be found

among non-conformists, dissenters and rebels.” David Ogilvy

Talent = Brand

Brand Inside

Brand Action:Getting Started … a

Personal Perspective

Topic: Boss-free

Implementation of STM /Stuff That

MATTERS!

I. THE IDEA

“4Fs”: Find a

Fellow Freak

Faraway

Heart of the Matter

K2K!*

*Kook to Kook

Recruit [a/a = 1] Friend [in the Boondocks]

Skip [Flip off] the Hierarchy!Recruit [A]nother Friend!Do Some Cool Shit! Fast!

Surround the Bastards [with WOW WINS/ results]!

World’s Biggest Waste …

Selling “Up”

Epitaph from Hell … Epitaph from Hell …

Joe T. Jones Joe T. Jones

1942 - 20001942 - 2000

HE WOULDA DONE SOME HE WOULDA DONE SOME

REALLY COOL STUFF REALLY COOL STUFF

BUT …BUT …

HIS BOSS WOULDN’T LET HIM! HIS BOSS WOULDN’T LET HIM!

II. THE NUGGET

Do Something. Do Anything.

Get Going.Now.

Small[ish] Pioneer Playmate Now

>

Big, Sluggish, Dopey

III. THE TOOL

Prototyping Mania!

Culture of Prototyping

“Effective prototyping may be

the most valuable core competence an innovative organization can

hope to have.”

Michael Schrage

Part I: Brand InsidePart II: Brand Outside

Part III: Brand Leadership

Forces @ Work II

The Commodity Trap

“The ‘surplus society’ has a surplus of similar companies, employing similar

people, with similar educational backgrounds, coming up with similar ideas, producing similar things, with similar prices and similar quality.”

Kjell Nordstrom and Jonas Ridderstrale, Funky Business

“We make over three new product announcements a

day. Can you remember them?

Our customers can’t!”Carly Fiorina

Brand Outside

Strategy 1:

Lead the Customer!

“Our strategies must be tied to leading edge

customers on the attack. If we focus on the defensive

customers, we will also become defensive.”

John Roth, CEO, Nortel

Lucent Tanks!

Cause(s): (1) Listening to BIGGEST, SLUGGISH

customers. (2) Failing to exploit the Web internally or externally

Source: Business Week (08.07.00)

“Wealth in this new regime flows directly from innovation, not

optimization. That is, wealth is not gained by perfecting the known,

but by imperfectly seizing the unknown.”

Kevin Kelly, New Rules for the New Economy

Brand Outside

Strategy 2:Use E-Commerce to

Re-invent Everything!

WebWorld = Everything

Web as a way to run your business’ innardsWeb as connector for your entire supply-demand chain Web as “spider’s web” which re-conceives the industry

Web/B2B as ultimate wake-up call to “commodity producers”

Web as the scourge of slack, inefficiency, sloth, bureaucracy, poor customer data

Web as an Encompassing Way of LifeWeb = Everything (P.D. to after-sales)

Web forces you to focus on what you do bestWeb as entrée, at any size, to World’s Best at Everything

as next door neighbor

“Where does the Internet rank in priority?

It’s No. 1, 2, 3, and 4.” Jack Welch

Brand Outside

Strategy 3:

It’s the Experience!

“The [Starbucks] Fix” Is on …

“We have identified a ‘third place.’ And I really believe that sets us apart. The third place is

that place that’s not work or home. It’s the place our

customers come for refuge.”Nancy Orsolini, District Manager

Experience: “Rebel Lifestyle!”

“What we sell is the ability for a 43-year-old accountant to dress in black leather, ride

through small towns and have people be afraid of him.”Harley exec, quoted in Results-based

Leadership

“Car designers need to create a story. Every car provides an

opportunity to create an adventure. …“The Prowler makes you smile. Why? Because it’s focused. It has a plot, a

reason for being, a passion.”

Freeman Thomas, co-designer VW Beetle; designer Audi TT

Hmmmm(?): “Only” Words …

StoryAdventure

Smile Focus

PlotPassion

“This is the end of the pure product era. For instance, car

makers are beginning to understand that the car is a

platform for delivering services that drive the customer

experience.”Carly Fiorina, HP @ Comdex ’99

“We want to be the air traffic

controllers of electrons.”

Bob Nardelli, GE Power Systems

“Systems Integrators” Unite [And Conquer]

Cisco’s winning strategy

[USAToday 07.11]: “Become the ‘Go-to’ Systems

Provider”

RR on “Assetless” [J.B.] Sara Lee

“The most profitable businesses in the future will act as knowledge brokers, linking insights into what’s available

with insights into the customer’s individual needs

and preferences.”

Defense-Offense: Systems Integration/HVA

Delphi, DanaUnited Technologies

CorningGE

Etc. [Anybody in their right mind!]

E.g. …

GE: boxes [transformers, etc.] to “air traffic controllers of electrons”

UTC/Otis + Carrier: boxes to “integrated building systems”;

P&W, etc.: boxes to major aircraft subsystems

Hospitality World Translation:

You are responsible, in my mind,

for … THE TURNKEY TRAVEL EXPERIENCE … and I don’t discriminate among

who provides what.

Hotel in Las Vegas

MY STAY HAS BEEN LOUSY!

YOUR PROBLEM: A GROTESQUE START. To wit: 1 hour, 7 minutes in an airport cab line @ 10:30 P.M.

(1:30 A.M. EDT)

Brand Outside

BRAND POWER!

Brand It! Now, More Than Ever!

“The increasing difficulty in differentiating between products and

the speed with which competitors take

up innovations will assist in the rise and rise of the brand.”

Gillian Law and Nick Grant, Management [New Zealand]

Brand = You Must Care!

“Success means never letting the competition define you. Instead you have to define

yourself based on a point of view you care deeply about.”

Tom Chappell, Tom’s of Maine

Rules of “Radical Marketing”

Love + Respect Your Customers!Hire only Passionate Missionaries!Create a Community of Customers!

Celebrate Craziness!Be insanely True to the Brand!

Sam Hill & Glenn Rifkin, Radical Marketing (e.g., Harley, Virgin, The Dead, HBS, NBA)

Part I: Brand InsidePart II: Brand Outside

Part III: Brand Leadership

Brand Leadership

Passion Rules!

“Create a Cause, not a ‘business.’ ”

Gary Hamel, Fortune (06.00), on re-inventing a company (Exemplar #1:

Charles Schwab)

Brand Leadership:ENTHUSIASM RULES!

“I am a dispenser of enthusiasm.”/ Ben

Zander

Ann Richards’ Dogma

Show up!

Know your message!

PUT YOURSELF AT RISK EVERY DAY!