EXCELLENCE.%20ALWAYS.%20%20Tom%20Peters/XAlways/22April2006

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EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.Tom Peters/XAlways/22April
2006
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Organizations are not machines. That has been
the central message of all my books. They are
living communities of individuals. To describe
them we need to use the language of communities
and the language of individuals. That means a mix
of words we use in politics and in ordinary
everyday life. The essential task of leadership
(a word from political theory, unlike the word
manager) is to combine the aspirations and
needs of individuals with the purposes of the
larger community to which they all belong.
Charles Handy
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P.P.E.E.R.E.
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People.Product.Execution.Enthusiasm.Relentless
.Excellence.
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EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
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Slides at tompeters.com
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EXCELLENCE. 1982.
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Excellence1982 The Bedrock Eight Basics 1. A
Bias for Action 2. Close to the Customer 3.
Autonomy and Entrepreneurship 4. Productivity
Through People 5. Hands On, Value-Driven 6. Stick
to the Knitting 7. Simple Form, Lean Staff 8.
Simultaneous Loose-Tight Properties
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What is In Search of Excellence all
aboutPeople. Emotion. Engagement.
Exuberance. Action-Execution. Empowerment.
Independence. Initiative. Imagination. Great
Stories. Incredible Adventures. Trust. Caring.
Fun. Joy. Customer-centrism. Profit. Growth.
Brand You. Dramatic Differences.
Experiences that Make You Gasp. Excellence.
Always.
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ExIn 1982-2002/Forbes.comDJIA 10,000 yields
85,500 EI 10,000 yields 140,050
Excellence Index /Basket of 32 publicly
traded stocks
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EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
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SynonymsPurityTranscendenceVirtueEleganceMaj
estyAntonymsMediocrity
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The Peters Principles Enthusiasm. Emotion.
Excellence. Energy. Excitement. Service. Growth.
Creativity. Imagination. Vitality. Joy.
Surprise. Independence. Spirit. Community.
Limitless human potential. Diversity. Profit.
Innovation. Design. Quality. Entrepreneurialism.
Wow.
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Business (at its best) An emotional, vital,
innovative, joyful, creative, entrepreneurial
endeavor that elicits maximum concerted human
potential in the wholehearted service of
others.Excellence. Always.Employees,
Customers, Suppliers, Communities, Owners,
Temporary partners
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Business The Ultimate Creative Endeavor.
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Business The Ultimate Personal
Development-Growth Experience.
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Business The Ultimate Transcendent Service
Opportunity.
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EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
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Great Companies SET THE AGENDA. (Period.)
disturb the sleep of
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AGENDA SETTERS Set the Table/ Pioneers/
Questors/ AdventurersUS Steel Ford Toyota
Sears GM ITT The Gap Limited WalMart
Tesco PG 3M Intel IBM Apple Nokia
Cisco Dell MCI Sun Microsoft Google
Enron Schwab GE Laker Southwest People
Express Ogilvy Virgin eBay Amazon Sony
Amgen BMW CNN Nike
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But what if former head of strategic planning
at Royal Dutch Shell Arie De Geus is wrong in
suggesting, in The Living Company, that firms
should aspire to live forever? Greatness is
fleeting and, for corporations, it will become
ever more fleeting. The ultimate aim of a
business organization, an artist, an athlete or a
stockbroker may be to explode in a dramatic
frenzy of value creation during a short space of
time, rather than to live forever. Kjell
Nordström and Jonas Ridderstråle, Funky Business
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Donnellys Weatherstrip Service Weymouth MA
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EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
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First-level Scientific SuccessBeyond Brains
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First-level Scientific SuccessThe smartest guy
in the room winsOr
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First-level Scientific SuccessFanaticismPersist
ence-Dogged TenacityPatience (long
haul/decades)-Impatience (in a hurry/do it
yesterday)PassionEnergyRelentlessness
(Grant-ian) EnthusiasmDriven (nuts!) (Brutal?)
CompetitivenessEntrepreneurialPragmatic
(R.F!A.)Scrounge (gets the logistics-infrastruc
ture bit)Master of Politics (internal-external)T
actical GeniusPursuit of (Oceanic)
Excellence!High EQ/Skillful in Attracting
Keeping Talent/MagneticProlific (ground up more
pig brains)EgocentricSense of
History-DestinyFuturistic-In the
MomentMono-dimensional (Work-life balance?
Ha!)Exceptionally IntelligentExceptionally
Clever (methodological shortcuts/methodological
genius)Luck
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First-level Scientific Success/Short
FormScientific Success (Nobel-level) Genius
Execution Master of Soft Skills Enthusiasm
Magnetism Destiny (sense of) Energy
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Biz Bonanza Success DDMMSTERL/ "D-squared,
M-squared, STERL DramaticDifference
Business Acumen/Money Good Marketing
Instinct/Ice-to-Eskimos Sales Skills Stellar
Talent Aim for Excellence Resilience/Tenacity/
Adaptability Luck (The Necessary Nine What
Every Small Biz Requires to Excel.) (Big, too.)
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EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
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SummaryWallopWalMart16Or Why its so
absurdly easy to beat a GIANT Company
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The Small Guys Guide Wallop
WalMart16 Niche-aimed. (Never, ever all
things for all people, a mini-WalMart.) Never
attack the monsters head on! (Instead steal niche
business and lukewarm customers.) Dramatically
Different (La Difference ... within our
community, our industry regionally, etc is as
obvious as the end of ones nose!) (THIS IS WHERE
MOST MIDGETS COME UP SHORT.) Compete on
value/experience/intimacy, not price. (You aint
gonna beat the behemoths on cost-price in 9.99
out of 10 cases.) Emotional bond with Clients,
Vendors. (BEAT THE BIGGIES ON EMOTION/CONNECTION!!
)
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798
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415/SqFt/WalMart798/SqFt/Whole Foods
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7X. 730A-800P. F12A.93-03/10 yr annual
return CB 29 WM 17 HD 16. Mkt Cap 48
p.a.
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EXCELLENCE? ALWAYS?
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Franchise Lost! TP How many of you 600
really crave a new Chevy?NYC/IIR/061205
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This is not a mature category.
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This is an undistinguished category.
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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
Nordström and Jonas Ridderstråle, Funky Business
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The Small Guys Guide Wallop
WalMart16 Niche-aimed. (Never, ever all
things for all people, a mini-WalMart.) Never
attack the monsters head on! (Instead steal niche
business and lukewarm customers.) Dramatically
Different (La Difference ... within our
community, our industry regionally, etc is as
obvious as the end of ones nose!) (THIS IS WHERE
MOST MIDGETS COME UP SHORT.) Compete on
value/experience/intimacy, not price. (You aint
gonna beat the behemoths on cost-price in 9.99
out of 10 cases.) Emotional bond with Clients,
Vendors. (BEAT THE BIGGIES ON EMOTION/CONNECTION!!
)
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This is an essay about what it takes to create
and sell something remarkable. It is a plea for
originality, passion, guts and daring. You cant
be remarkable by following someone else whos
remarkable. One way to figure out a theory is to
look at whats working in the real world and
determine what the successes have in common. But
what could the Four Seasons and Motel 6 possibly
have in common? Or Neiman-Marcus and WalMart? Or
Nokia (bringing out new hardware every 30 days or
so) and Nintendo (marketing the same Game Boy 14
years in a row)? Its like trying to drive
looking in the rearview mirror. The thing that
all these companies have in common is that they
have nothing in common. They are outliers.
Theyre on the fringes. Superfast or superslow.
Very exclusive or very cheap. Extremely big or
extremely small. The reason its so hard to
follow the leader is this The leader is the
leader precisely because he did something
remarkable. And that remarkable thing is now
takenso its no longer remarkable when you
decide to do it. Seth Godin, Fast
Company/02.2003
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The Small Guys Guide Wallop WalMart16
Hands-on, emotional leadership. (We are a
great cool intimate joyful dramatically
different team working to transform our Clients
lives via Consistently Incredible
Experiences!) A community star! (Sell
local-ness per se. Sell the hell out of it!) An
incredible experience, from the first to last
momentand then in the follow-up! (These guys
are cool! They get me! They love me!) DESIGN
DRIVEN! (Design is a premier weapon-in-pursuit-o
f-the sublime for small-ish enterprises,
including the professional services.)
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The Small Guys Guide Wallop WalMart16
Employer of choice. (A very cool, well-paid
place to work/learning and growth experience in
at least the short term marked by notably
progressive policies.) (THIS IS EMINENTLY
DO-ABLE!!) Sophisticated use of information
technology. (Small-ish is no excuse for small
aims/execution in IS/IT!) Web-power! (The Web
can make very small very big if the
product-service is super-cool and one
purposefully masters buzz/viral
marketing.) Innovative! (Must keep renewing and
expanding and revising and re-imagining the
promise to employees, the customer, the
community.)
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The Small Guys Guide Wallop WalMart16
Brand-Lovemark (Kevin Roberts) Maniacs!
(Branding is not just for big folks with big
budgets. And modest size is actually a Big
Advantage in becoming a local-regional-niche
lovemark.) Focus on women-as-clients. (Most
dont. How stupid.) Excellence! (A small player
per me has no right or reason to exist unless
they are in Relentless Pursuit of Excellence. One
earns the rightone damn day and client
experience at a time!to beat the Big Guys in
your chosen niche!)
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EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
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Donnellys Weatherstrip Service Weymouth MA
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?
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25
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Cirque du Soleil!
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And the Winner is 1.
Audacity of Vision2. Innovation/RD/Design3.
Talent Acquisition Development4. Resultant
Experience5. Strategic Alliances6.
Operations7. Financial Management8.
Overall/Sustaining Excellence9. Wow!10.
Lovemark!
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Tattoo Brand What of users would tattoo the
brand name on their body?
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Top 10 Tattoo BrandsHarley . 18.9Disney
.... 14.8Coke . 7.7Google .... 6.6Pepsi ....
6.1Rolex . 5.6Nike . 4.6Adidas .
3.1Absolut . 2.6Nintendo . 1.5BRANDsense
Build Powerful Brands through Touch, Taste,
Smell, Sight, and Sound, Martin Lindstrom
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EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
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55B
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And the M Stands for ?Gerstners IBM
Systems Integrator of choice./BW (Lou, help
us turn all this into that long-promised
revolution. ) IBM Global Services
(Integrated Systems Services Corp.) 55B
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By making the Global Delivery Model both
legitimate and mainstream, we have brought the
battle to our territory. That is, after all, the
purpose of strategy. We have become the leaders,
and incumbents IBM, Accenture are followers,
forever playing catch-up. However, creating a
new business innovation is not enough for rules
to be changed. The innovation must impact
clients, competitors, investors, and society. We
have seen all this in spades. Clients have
embraced the model and are demanding it in even
greater measure. The acuteness of their
circumstance, coupled with the capability and
value of our solution, has made the choice not a
choice. Competitors have been dragged kicking and
screaming to replicate what we do. They face
trauma and disruption, but the game has changed
forever. Investors have grasped that this is not
a passing fancy, but a potential restructuring of
the way the world operates and how value will be
created in the future. Narayana Murthy,
chairmans letter, Infosys Annual Report
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Big Browns New Bag UPS Aims to Be the Traffic
Manager for Corporate America Headline/BW/2004
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SCS/Supply Chain Solutions 750 locations
2.5B fastest growing division 19 acquisitions,
including a bankSource Fast Company
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And MasterCard Advisors
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Huge Customer Satisfaction versus Customer
Success
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EXCELLENCE? ALWAYS?
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Disintermediation is overrated. Those who
fear disintermediation should in fact be afraid
of irrelevancedisintermediation is just another
way of saying that youve become irrelevant to
your customers. John Battelle/Point/Advertisin
g Age/07.05
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ChicagoHRMAC
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support function / cost center /
bureaucratic dragor
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Are you Rock Stars of the Age of Talent
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DD21M
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A review of Jack and Suzy Welchs Winning claims
there are but two key differentiators that set GE
culture apart from the herd First Separating
financial forecasting and performance
measurement. Performance measurement based, as it
usually is, on budgeting leads to an epidemic of
gaming the system. GEs performance measurement
is divorced from budgetingand instead reflects
how you do relative to your past performance and
relative to competitors performance ie its
about how you actually do in the context of what
happened in the real world, not as compared to a
gamed-abstract plan developed last year.
Second Putting HR on a par with finance and
marketing.
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EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
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support function / cost center /
bureaucratic dragor
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AnswerPSF
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Core MechanismGame-changing Solutions PSF
(Professional Service Firm model/The
Organizing Principle) Brand You(Distinct or
Extinct/The Talent) Wow! Projects
(Different vs Better/The Work)
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EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
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The PSF35 Thirty-Five Professional Service
Firm Marks of Excellence
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The PSF35 The Work The Legacy1.
CRYSTAL CLEAR POINT OF VIEW (E very
Practice Group If you cant explain your
position in eight words or less, you dont
have a positionSeth Godin)2. DRAMATIC
DIFFERENCE (We are the only ones who do what
we doJerry Garcia)3. Stretch Is Routine
(Never bite off less than you can
chewanon.)4. Eye-Appetite for Game-changer
Projects (Excellence at Assembling Best
TeamFast) 5. Playful Clients (Adventurous
folks who unfailingly Aim to Change the
World)6. Small Uneconomic Clients with Big
Aims 7. Life Is Too Short to Work with Jerks
(Fire lousy clients)8. OBSESSED WITH LEGACY
(Practice Group and Individual Dent the
UniverseSteve Jobs)9. Fire-on-the-spot Anyone
Who Says, Law/Architecture/Consulting/
I-banking/ Accounting/PR/Etc. has become a
commodity 10. Consistent with 9 above DO
NOT SHY AWAY FROM THE WORD (IDEA)
RADICAL
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?????Do good (excellent?!) workMake a lot of
money
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Point of View!
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PSF BY WP DD E UVA
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PSF (Professional Service Firm) BY (Brand You)
WP (WOW Projects) DD (Dramatic Difference)
E (Excellence) UVA (Unassailable
Value-Added)
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EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
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(No Transcript)
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AnswerPSF
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EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
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Trapper lt20 per beaver pelt.Source WSJ
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WDCP 150 to remove problem beaver
750-1,000 for flood-control piping so that
beavers can stay. Wildlife Damage-control
Professional Source WSJ
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AnswerPSF
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EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
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Fleet ManagerRolling Stock Cost Minimization
Officervs/orChief of Fleet Lifetime Value
Maximization Strategic Supply-chain
Executive Customer Experience Director (via
drivers)
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Big Browns New Bag UPS Aims to Be the Traffic
Manager for Corporate America Headline/BW/2004
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Purchasing Officer Thrust 1 Cost (at All
Costs) Minimization Professional? Or/to Full
Partner-Leader in Lifetime Value-added
Maximization?(Lopez Arguably Villain 1 in
GM tragedy/Anon VSE-Spain)
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HCare CIO Technology Executive (workin in a
hospital) Or/to Full-scale, Accountable (life
or death) Member-Partner of XYZ Hospitals
Senior Healing-Services Team (who happens to be a
techie)
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AnswerPSF
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EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
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Lead It New C-Levels
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CXOChief eXperience Officer
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CFOChief Festivals Officer
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CCOChief Conversations Officer
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CSOChief Seduction Officer
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CL OChief Lovemark Officer
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CDMChief Dream Merchant
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CPIChief Portal Impresario
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CWOChief WOW Officer
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CSTOChief Storytelling Officer
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CROChief Revenue Officer
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EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
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Flower Power!
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EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
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Better By Design A National StrategyNZ
Design Excellence
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EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
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Management has a lot to do with answers.
Leadership is a function of questions. And the
first question for a leader always is Who do we
intend to be? Not What are we going to do? but
Who do we intend to be? Max De Pree,
Herman Miller
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In 1933, Thomas J. Watson Sr. gave a speech at
the Worlds Fair, World Peace through World
Trade. We stood for something, right? Sam
Palmisano
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Ah, kids What is your vision for the future?
What have you accomplished since your first
book? Close your eyes and imagine me
immediately doing something about what youve
just said. What would it be? Do you feel you
have an obligation to Make the world a better
place?
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EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
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Charles Handy on the Alchemists Passion was
what drove these people, passion for their
product, passion for their cause. If you care
enough, you will find out what you need to know.
Or you will experiment and not worry if the
experiment goes wrong. Passion as the secret to
learning is an odd secret to propose, but I
believe that it works at all levels and at all
ages. Sadly, passion is not a word often heard
in the elephant organizations, nor in schools,
where it can seem disruptive.
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Kevin Roberts Credo1.
Ready. Fire! Aim.2. If it aint broke ... Break
it!3. Hire crazies.4. Ask dumb questions.5.
Pursue failure.6. Lead, follow ... or get out of
the way!7. Spread confusion.8. Ditch your
office.9. Read odd stuff.10. Avoid moderation!
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EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
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Organizing Genius / Warren Bennis and Patricia
Ward BiedermanGroups become great only when
everyone in them, leaders and members alike, is
free to do his or her absolute best.The best
thing a leader can do for a Great Group is to
allow its members to discover their greatness.
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Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!free to do his or her
absolute best allow its members to discover
their greatness.
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We are a Life Success CompanyDave Liniger,
founder, RE/MAX
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EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
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Core MechanismGame-changing Solutions PSF
(Professional Service Firm model/The
Organizing Principle) Brand You(Distinct or
Extinct/The Talent) Wow! Projects
(Different vs Better/The Work)
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You are the storyteller of your own life, and
you can create your own legend or not. Isabel
Allende
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Nobody can prevent you from choosing to be
exceptional. Mark Sanborn, The Fred Factor
To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most
people exist, that is all. Oscar
Wilde Make your life itself a creative work
of art. Mike Ray, The Highest Goal
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This is the true joy of Life, the being used for
a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one
the being a force of Nature instead of a
feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and
grievances complaining that the world will not
devote itself to making you happy. GB Shaw/Man
and Superman
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Will you actually remember it as worthwhile 10
years from now? S.H.
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Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one
wild and precious life? Mary Oliver
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A position is not an accomplishment. TP
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One who does less than he can is a thief.
Gandhi
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EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
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The First step in a dramatic organizational
change program is obviousdramatic personal
change! RG
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You must be the change you wish to see in the
world.Gandhi
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To change minds effectively, leaders make
particular use of two tools the stories that
they tell and the lives that they lead.
Howard Gardner, Changing Minds
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MBWAHS/25
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25
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You Your calendarCalendars NEVER lie!!
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EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
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4/40Tom Peters/Novosibirsk/14 April 2006
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De-cent-ral-iz-a-tion!
138
Ex-e-cu-tion!
139
Ac-count-a-bil-ity!
140
615A.M.
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De-cent-ral-iz-a-tion!
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Decentralization is not a piece of paper. Its
not me. Its either in your heart, or not.
Brian Joffe/BIDvest
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No Need for Economies of Scale Illinois Tool
Revs Up Innovation by Keeping Its 655 Units
Separate and Focused Source Headline, BW,
1031.05 (commodity producer RD 1 Top 100
patent recipient66th in 04) (12B rev in 04
CEO David Speer focus, lean, customer intimacy,
entrepreneurial, employee participation)
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HOW THE COAST GUARD GETS IT RIGHT Headline,
Time, 10.31.2005AutonomyFlexibilityPerhaps
the most important distinction of the Coast
Guard is that it trusts itself
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Ex-e-cu-tion!
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Ninety percent of what we call management
consists of making it difficult for people to get
things done. Peter Drucker
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TP/BW on BigCo Sin 1 too much talk, too little
do
148
Execution is the job of the business leader.
Larry Bossidy Ram Charan/ Execution The
Discipline of Getting Things Done
149
Execution is a systematic process of
rigorously discussing hows and whats,
tenaciously following through, and ensuring
accountability. Larry Bossidy Ram Charan/
Execution The Discipline of Getting Things Done
150
We have a strategic plan. Its called doing
things. Herb Kelleher
151
This is so simple it sounds stupid, but it is
amazing how few oil people really understand that
you only find oil if you drill wells. You may
think youre finding it when youre drawing maps
and studying logs, but you have to drill.
Source The Hunters, by John Masters, Canadian
O G wildcatter
152
While many people big oil finds with big
companies, over the years about 80 percent of the
oil found in the United States has been brought
in by wildcatters such as Mr Findley, says Larry
Nation, spokesman for the American Association of
Petroleum Geologists. WSJ, Wildcat Producer
Sparks Oil Boom in Montana, 0405.2006
153
A man approached JP Morgan, held up an envelope,
and said, Sir, in my hand I hold a guaranteed
formula for success, which I will gladly sell you
for 25,000.Sir, JP Morgan replied, I do
not know what is in the envelope, however if you
show me, and I like it, I give you my word as a
gentleman that I will pay you what you ask.The
man agreed to the terms, and handed over the
envelope.JP Morgan opened it, and extracted a
single sheet of paper. He gave it one look, a
mere glance, then handed the piece of paper back
to the gent.And paid him the agreed-upon
25,000
154
1. Every morning, write a list of
the things that need to be done that day.
2. Do them. Source Hugh
MacLeod/tompeters.com/NPR
155
Ex-e-cu-tion!
156
I saw that leaders placed too much emphasis on
what some call high-level strategy, on
intellectualizing and philosophizing, and not
enough on implementation. People would agree on
a project or initiativeand then nothing would
come of it. Larry Bossidy Ram
Charan/Execution The Discipline of Getting
Things Done
157
The person who is a little less conceptual but
is absolutely determined to succeed will usually
find the right people and get them together to
achieve objectives. Im not knocking education or
looking for dumb people. But if you have to
choose between someone with a staggering IQ and
an elite education whos gliding along, and
someone with a lower IQ but who is absolutely
determined to succeed, youll always do better
with the second person. Larry
Bossidy/Execution The Discipline of Getting
Things Done
158
You only find oil if you drill wells.
Source The Hunters, by John Masters, Canadian
O G wildcatter
159
Ac-count-a-bil-ity!
160
Realism is the heart of execution. Larry
Bossidy Ram Charan/Execution The Discipline
of Getting Things Done
161
robust dialogue Larry Bossidy Ram Charan/
Execution The Discipline of Getting Things Done
162
GE has set a standard of candor. There is no
puffery. There isnt an ounce of denial in the
place. Kevin Sharer, CEO Amgen, on the GE
mystique (Fortune)
163
615A.M.
164
EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
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Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
166
EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
167
Insanely Great Language! Insanely
Great. Steve Jobs
168
Radically Thrilling Language! Radically
Thrilling. BMW Z4 (ad)
169
Astonish me! /S.D.Build something great!
/H.Y.Make it immortal! /D.O.
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Gaspworthy!
171
EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
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The greatest dangerfor most of usis not that
our aim istoo highand we miss it,but that it
istoo lowand we reach it.Michelangelo
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Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. Steve Jobs
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EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
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Its always showtime. David DAlessandro,
Career Warfare
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EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
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EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
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EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
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EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
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XCELLENC ALWAYS.