Tom Peters’

Re-Imagine!Business Excellence in

a Disruptive AgeThe European Conference on Customer

Management/London/13.05.2003

Slides at …

tompeters.com

1.All Bets Are Off.

“Uncertainty is the only thing to be sure of.” —Anthony Muh,

head of investment in Asia, Citigroup Asset management (FT/03.27.2003)

“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like

irrelevance even less.” —General Eric Shinseki, Chief

of Staff, U. S. Army

2. The Destruction Imperative.

Forbes100 from 1917 to 1987: 39 members of the Class of ’17 were alive

in ’87; 18 in ’87 F100; 18 F100 “survivors” underperformed the market

by 20%; just 2 (2%), GE & Kodak, outperformed the market 1917 to 1987.

S&P 500 from 1957 to 1997: 74 members of the Class of ’57 were

alive in ’97; 12 (2.4%) of 500 outperformed the market from 1957 to 1997.

Source: Dick Foster & Sarah Kaplan, Creative Destruction: Why Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the Market

“Good management was the most powerful reason [leading firms] failed to stay atop their industries. Precisely because these firms

listened to their customers, invested aggressively in technologies that would provide their customers more

and better products of the sort they wanted, and because they carefully studied market trends and

systematically allocated investment capital to innovations that promised the best returns, they lost

their positions of leadership.”

Clayton Christensen, The Innovator’s Dilemma

“The corporation as we know it, which is now 120 years old, is

not likely to survive the next 25 years. Legally and

financially, yes, but not structurally and economically.”

Peter Drucker, Business 2.0 (08.00)

“The difficulties … arise from the inherent conflict between the need to control existing operations and the need to create the kind of environment that will permit new ideas to flourish—and old ones to die a

timely death. … We believe that most corporations will find it impossible to

match or outperform the market without abandoning the assumption of continuity. … The current apocalypse—the transition from a state of continuity to state of discontinuity—Has the same suddenness [as the trauma that beset civilization in

1000 A.D.]”

Richard Foster & Sarah Kaplan, “Creative Destruction” (The McKinsey Quarterly)

No Wiggle Room!

“Incrementalism is innovation’s worst enemy.”

Nicholas Negroponte

Just Say No …

“I don’t intend to be known as the ‘King of

the Tinkerers.’ ”CEO, large financial services company

(New York, 5-99)

3. IS/ IT/ Web … “On the Bus” or “Off the

Bus.”

“The organizations we created have become tyrants. They have taken

control, holding us fettered, creating barriers that hinder rather than help our businesses. The lines that we drew on our neat organizational diagrams have turned into walls

that no one can scale or penetrate or even peer over.” —Frank Lekanne Deprez &

René Tissen, Zero Space: Moving Beyond Organizational Limits.

“Dawn Meyerreicks, CTO of the Defense Intelligence Systems Agency, made one of the most fateful military calls of the 21st century. After 9/11 … her office

quickly leased all the available transponders covering Central Asia. The implications should change everything about U.S. military thinking in the

years ahead.

“The U.S. Air Force had kicked off its fight against the Taliban with an ineffective bombing campaign, and Washington was anguishing over whether to send in a few Army divisions. Donald Rumsfeld told Gen. Tommy Franks to

give the initiative to 250 Special Forces already on the ground. They used satellite phones, Predator surveillance drones, and GPS- and laser-based

targeting systems to make the air strikes brutally effective.

“In effect, they ‘Napsterized’ the battlefield by cutting out the middlemen (much of the military’s command and control) and working directly with the

real players. … The data came in so fast that HQ revised operating procedures to allow intelligence analysts and attack planners to work directly

together. Their favorite tool, incidentally, was instant messaging over a secure network.”—Ned Desmond/“Broadband’s New Killer App”/Business

2.0/ OCT2002

“The mechanical speed of combat vehicles has not

increased since Rommel’s day, so the difference is all in the

operational speed, faster communications and faster

decisions.” —Edward Luttwak, on the unprecedented pace of the move toward

Bagdad

“If early soldiers idealized Napoleon or Patton, network-centric warriors

admire Wal*Mart, where point-of-sale-scanners share information on a near real-time basis with suppliers and also produce data that is mined to help leaders develop new strategic or tactical plans. Wal*Mart is an example of translating information into

competitive advantage.”—Tom Stewart, Business 2.0

“Our entire facility is digital. No paper, no film, no medical records. Nothing. And it’s all integrated—from

the lab to X-ray to records to physician order entry. Patients don’t have to wait for anything. The information from the physician’s office is in

registration and vice versa. The referring physician is immediately sent an email telling him his patient has

shown up. … It’s wireless in-house. We have 800 notebook computers that are wireless. Physicians can walk around with a computer that’s pre-programmed. If the physician wants, we’ll go out and wire their house

so they can sit on the couch and connect to the network. They can review a chart from 100 miles away.

—David Veillette, CEO. Indiana Heart Hospital (Healthleaders/12.2002)

100 square feet

“A Big Electronics Show Is All About

Connections” —headline, New York Times/ 01.13.2003/

Consumer Electronics Show > COMDEX

2.5G, 3G, 4GWindowsSymbian

JavaBluetooth

Wi-FiPCs-PDAs-Cell“phones”

E-business vs. M-businessEtc.

Outsider’s view: (1) Billions are being spent, even in a down

market. (2) NOBODY HAS A CLUE AS TO WHO THE

WINNERS—AND LOSERS—WILL BE. (3) Yet you must play.

Now. Hard. Fast.

Impact No. 1/ Logistics &

Distribution: Wal*Mart … Dell … Amazon.com …

Autobytel.com … FedEx … UPS … Ryder … Cisco … Etc. … Etc.

… Ad Infinitum.

Autobytel: $400.

Wal*Mart: 13%.Source: BW(05.13.2002)

WebWorld = Everything

Web as a way to run your business’s 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

“Ebusiness is about rebuilding the organization from the

ground up. Most companies today are not built to exploit the Internet.

Their business processes, their approvals, their hierarchies, the

number of people they employ … all of that is wrong for running an

ebusiness.”

Ray Lane, Kleiner Perkins

Read It Closely: “We don’t sell

insurance anymore. We sell speed.”

Peter Lewis, Progressive

Case: CRM

Anne Busquet/ American Express

Not: “Age of the Internet”

Is: “Age of Customer Control”

Amen!

“The Age of the

Never Satisfied Customer”

Regis McKenna

“The Web enables total transparency. People with

access to relevant information are beginning to challenge any type of

authority. The stupid, loyal and humble customer, employee, patient

or citizen is dead.”

Kjell Nordström and Jonas Ridderstråle, Funky Business

“Parents, doctors, stockbrokers, even military leaders are starting to

lose the authority they once had. There are all these roles premised on access to privileged information. …

What we are witnessing is a collapse of that advantage,

prestige and authority.”Michael Lewis, next

“CRM has, almost universally, failed

to live up to expectations.”

Butler Group (UK)

No! No! No! FT: “The aim [of CRM] is to make customers feel as they did in the pre-

electronic age when service was more personal.”

CGE&Y (Paul Cole): “Pleasant

Transaction” vs. “Systemic Opportunity.” “Better job

of what we do today” vs. “Re-think overall

enterprise strategy.”

Here We Go Again: Except It’s Real This Time!

Bank online: 24.3M (10.2002); 2X Y2000.

Wells Fargo: 1/3rd; 3.3M; 50% lower

attrition rate; 50% higher growth in balances than off-line; more likely to cross-purchase; “happier and stay

with the bank much longer.”

Source: The Wall Street Journal/10.21.2002

4. The “PSF Solution”:

The Professional Service Firm Model.

Sarah: “ Daddy, what do you do?”

Daddy: “I’m a ‘cost center.’ ”

Every job done in W.C.W. is

also done “outside”

…for profit!

Answer: PSF![Professional Service Firm]

Department Head

to …

Managing Partner, HR [IS, etc.] Inc.

5. The Heart of the Value

Added Revolution: PSFs Unbound/ The

“Solutions Imperative.”

Base Case: The Sameness 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 Nordström and Jonas Ridderstråle, Funky Business

“Companies have defined so much ‘best practice’

that they are now more or less identical.”

Jesper Kunde, A Unique Moment

The Big Day!

09.11.2000: HP bids

$18,000,000,000for

PricewaterhouseCoopersconsulting business!

“These days, building the best server isn’t enough. That’s the

price of entry.”Ann Livermore, Hewlett-Packard

Gerstner’s IBM: Systems Integrator of

choice. Global Services:

$35B. Pledge/’99: Business Partner Charter. 72 strategic partners,

aim for 200. Drop many in-house

programs/products.

“We want to be the air traffic

controllers of electrons.”

Bob Nardelli, GE Power Systems

“Customer Satisfaction” to “Customer Success”

“We’re getting better at [Six Sigma] every day. But we really

need to think about the customer’s profitability. Are customers’

bottom lines really benefiting from what we provide them?”

Bob Nardelli, GE Power Systems

Keep In Mind: Customer

Satisfaction versus

Customer

Success

“UPS wants to take over the sweet spot in the endless loop

of goods, information and capital that all the packages

[it moves] represent.”ecompany.com/06.01 (E.g., UPS Logistics

manages the logistics of 4.5M Ford vehicles, from 21 mfg. sites to 6,000 NA dealers)

Omnicom: 57% (of

$6B) from marketing services

6. A World of Scintillating/

Awesome/ WOW “Experiences.”

“Experiences are as distinct from services as services are from

goods.”Joseph Pine & James Gilmore, The Experience Economy:

Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage

“Club Med is more than just a ‘resort’; it’s a means of rediscovering oneself, of inventing an

entirely new ‘me.’ ”

Source: Jean-Marie Dru, Disruption

“Guinness as a brand is all about community.

It’s about bringing people together and sharing

stories.”—Ralph Ardill, Imagination, in re Guinness Storehouse

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

Bob Lutz: “I see us as being in the art business. Art,

entertainment and mobile sculpture, which,

coincidentally, also happens to provide transportation.”

Source: NYT 10.19.01

Ford: “Vehicle brand owner” (“design, engineer, and

market, but not actually make”)

Source: The Company, John Micklethwait & Adrian Woolridge

Experience …

Cirque du Soleil

DO YOU MEASURE UP?*

*If not, why not?

“Most executives have no idea how to add value to a market in the metaphysical

world. But that is what the market will cry out for in the future. There is no lack of ‘physical’ products to

choose between.”

Jesper Kunde, A Unique Moment [on the excellence of Nokia, Nike, Lego, Virgin et al.]

Extraction & Goods: Male dominance

Services & Experiences: Female

dominance

7. “It” all adds up

to … THE BRAND.

The Heart of Branding …

“WHO ARE WE?”

“WHAT’S OUR

STORY?”

“We are in the twilight of a society based on data. As information and intelligence become the domain of computers, society will place more value on the one human ability that cannot be automated: emotion.

Imagination, myth, ritual - the language of emotion - will affect everything from our purchasing decisions

to how we work with others. Companies will thrive on the basis of their stories and myths. Companies will need to understand

that their products are less important than their stories.”

Rolf Jensen, Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies

“Apple opposes, IBM solves, Nike exhorts,

Virgin enlightens, Sony dreams, Benetton

protests. … Brands are not nouns but verbs.”

Source: Jean-Marie Dru, Disruption

“EXACTLY HOW ARE WE

DRAMATICALLY DIFFERENT?”

1st Law Mktg Physics: OVERT BENEFIT (Focus: 1 or 2 > 3 or 4/“One Great Thing.” Source #1: Personal Passion)

2ND Law: REAL REASON TO BELIEVE (Stand & Deliver!)

3RD Law: DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE

Source: Jump Start Your Business Brain, Doug Hall

“A great company is defined by the

fact that it is not compared

to its peers.”Phil Purcell, Morgan Stanley

“WHY DOES IT MATTER TO

THE CLIENT?”

“EXACTLY HOW DO I PASSIONATELY CONVEY THAT

DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE TO THE

CLIENT ?”

Message: REAL Branding is personal. REAL Branding is integrity. REAL

Branding is consistency & freshness. REAL Branding is the answer to WHO

ARE WE? WHY ARE WE HERE? REAL Branding is why I/you/we [all] get out of bed in the morning. REAL Branding can’t be faked. REAL Branding is a systemic, 24/7, all departments,

all hands affair.

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)

8. Trends I:

Women Roar.

?????????

Home Furnishings … 94%Vacations … 92% (Adventure Travel … 70%/ $55B travel

equipment)

Houses … 91%D.I.Y. (“home projects”) … 80%

Consumer Electronics … 51% Cars … 60% (90%)

All consumer purchases … 83% Bank Account … 89%

Health Care … 80%

91% women: ADVERTISERS DON’T

UNDERSTAND US. (58% “ANNOYED.”)

Source: Greenfield Online for Arnold’s Women’s Insight Team (Martha Barletta, Marketing to Women)

Carol Gilligan/ In a Different Voice

Men: Get away from authority, familyWomen: Connect

Men: Self-orientedWomen: Other-oriented

Men: RightsWomen: Responsibilities

FemaleThink/ Popcorn

“Men and women don’t think the same way, don’t communicate the same

way, don’t buy for the same reasons.”

“He simply wants the transaction to take place. She’s interested in

creating a relationship. Every place women go, they make

connections.”

“Men seem like loose cannons. Men always move faster through a store’s

aisles. Men spend less time looking. They usually don’t like asking where things are.

You’ll see a man move impatiently through a store to the section he wants,

pick something up, and then, almost abruptly he’s ready to buy. For a

man, ignoring the price tag is almost a sign of virility.”

Paco Underhill, Why We Buy* (*Buy this book!)

Read This: Barbara & Allan Pease’s

Why Men Don’t Listen & Women Can’t Read Maps

“It is obvious to a woman when another woman is upset, while a man generally has to physically witness

tears or a temper tantrum or be slapped in the face before he even has a clue that anything is going on. Like most female mammals, women are equipped with far more finely tuned

sensory skills than men.” Barbara & Allan Pease, Why Men Don’t Listen & Women Can’t Read Maps

“Resting” State: 30%, 90%: “A woman knows her children’s

friends, hopes, dreams, romances, secret fears, what they are

thinking, how they are feeling. Men are vaguely aware of some short people also living in the house.”

Barbara & Allan Pease, Why Men Don’t Listen & Women Can’t Read Maps

“As a hunter, a man needed vision that would allow him to zero in on targets in the distance … whereas a woman needed eyes

to allow a wide arc of vision so that she could monitor any predators sneaking up on the nest. This is why modern men can find their way effortlessly to a distant pub,

but can never find things in fridges, cupboards or drawers.”

Barbara & Allan Pease, Why Men Don’t Listen & Women Can’t Read Maps

“Female hearing advantage contributes significantly to what is

called ‘women’s intuition’ and is one of the reasons why a woman can read between the lines of what people say. Men, however, shouldn’t despair.

They are excellent at imitating animal sounds.”

Barbara & Allan Pease, Why Men Don’t Listen & Women Can’t Read Maps

Editorial/Men: Tables, rankings.*

Editorial/Women: Narratives that cohere.*

*Redwood (UK)

Initiate Purchase

Men: Study “facts & features.”

Women: Ask lots of people for input.

Source: Martha Barletta, Marketing to Women

Read This Book …

EVEolution: The Eight Truths of Marketing to Women

Faith Popcorn & Lys Marigold

EVEolution: Truth No. 1

Connecting Your Female Consumers to Each

Other Connects Them to Your Brand

“The ‘Connection Proclivity’ in women starts early. When asked,

‘How was school today?’ a girl usually tells her mother every

detail of what happened, while a boy might grunt, ‘Fine.’ ”

EVEolution

What If …

“What if ExxonMobil or Shell dipped into their credit card database to help commuting women

interview and make a choice of car pool partners?”

“What if American Express made a concerted effort to connect up female empty-nesters

through on-line and off-line programs, geared to help women re-enter the workforce with today’s

skills?”

EVEolution

“Women don’t buy

brands. They join them.”

EVEolution

Not!“Year of the

Woman”

Enterprise Reinvention!

RecruitingHiring/Rewarding/Promoting

Structure Processes

MeasurementStrategyCulture Vision

Leadership

THE BRAND ITSELF!

“Honey, are you sure you have

the kind of money it takes to

be looking at a car like this?”

Ad from Furniture /Today (04.01):“MEET WITH THE EXPERTS!: How

Retailing’s Most Successful Stay that Way”

Presenting Experts: M = 16;

F = ?? (94% = 272)

0

“Customer is King”: 4,440

“Customer is Queen”: 29

Source: Steve Farber/Google search/04.2002

Notes to the CEO

--Women are not a “niche”; so get this out of the “Specialty Markets” group.--The competition is starting to catch on. (E.g.: Nike, Nokia, Wachovia, Ford, Harley-Davidson, Jiffy Lube, Charles Schwab, Citigroup, Aetna.)

--If you “dip your toes in the water,” what makes you think you’ll get splashy results?--Bust through the walls of the corporate silos.--Once you get her, don’t let her slip away.--Women ARE the long run!

Source: Martha Barletta, Marketing to Women

1. Men and women are different.2. Very different.3. VERY, VERY DIFFERENT.4. Women & Men have a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y nothing in common.5. Women buy lotsa stuff.6. WOMEN BUY A-L-L THE STUFF.7. Women’s Market = Opportunity No. 1.8. Men are (STILL) in charge.9. MEN ARE … TOTALLY, HOPELESSLY CLUELESS ABOUT WOMEN.10. Women’s Market = Opportunity No. 1.

9. Trends II: Boomer

Bonanza/ Godzilla Geezer.

Subject: Marketers & Stupidity

“It’s 18-44, stupid!”

Subject: Marketers & Stupidity

Or is it: “18-44 is stupid,

stupid!”

2000-2010 Stats

18-44: -1%

55+: +21%(55-64: +47%)

Aging/“Elderly”

$$$$$$$$$$$$“I’m in charge!”

“NOT ACTING THEIR AGE: As Baby Boomers

Zoom into Retirement, Will America Ever Be the

Same?”USN&WR Cover/06.01

50+

$7T wealth (70%)/$2T annual income50% all discretionary spending

79% own homes/40M credit card users41% new cars/48% luxury cars

$610B healthcare spending/74% prescription drugs

5% of advertising targets

Ken Dychtwald, Age Power: How the 21st Century Will Be Ruled by the New Old

“Marketers attempts at reaching those over 50 have

been miserably unsuccessful. No market’s motivations and needs are so poorly understood.”—Peter

Francese, founding publisher, American Demographics

“ ‘Age Power’ will rule the 21st century, and we are woefully

unprepared.”Ken Dychtwald, Age Power: How the 21st

Century Will Be Ruled by the New Old

10. The Passion

Imperative: Leading in Totally Screwed

Up Times

The Kotler Doctrine:

1965-1980: R.A.F.(Ready.Aim.Fire.)

1980-1995: R.F.A.(Ready.Fire!Aim.)

1995-????: F.F.F.(Fire!Fire!Fire!)

“I’m not comfortable unless

I’m uncomfortable.”—Jay Chiat

“If things seem under control, you’re just not

going fast enough.”

Mario Andretti

“To Don’t ” List

Danger: S.I.O. (Strategic

Initiative Overload)

“I never, ever thought of myself

as a businessman. I was interested in creating

things I would be proud of.” —Richard Branson

G.H.: “Create a ‘cause,’ not a ‘business.’ ”

The greatest dangerfor most of us

is not that our aim istoo high

and we miss it,but that it is

too lowand we reach it.

Michelangelo