All You Need to Know*

*more or less

Tom Peters/GE Infrastructure/Orlando/24January2006

Slides at …

tompeters.com

Cause

“Create a ‘cause,’ not a ‘business.’’ —Gary Hamel

“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

“We are a ‘life

Success Company”’

-founder, RE/MAX

Artist

Leader Job 1

Paint Portraits of

Excellence!

“I never, ever thought of myself as a businessman. I was interested in

creating things I would be

proud of.” —Richard Branson

People

Brand =

Talent.

“Leaders

‘do’ people.” —Anon.

Our Mission

To develop and manage talent;to apply that talent,

throughout the world, for the benefit of clients;to do so in partnership;

to do so with profit.

WPP

Decency

“It was much later that I realized Dad’s secret. He gained respect by giving it. He talked and listened to

the fourth-grade kids in Spring Valley who shined shoes the same way he talked and listened to a bishop or a

college president. He was seriously interested in who you were and what you had

to say.” —Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Respect

Grace

“Thank you”

“The two most powerful things in existence: a kind

word and a thoughtful gesture.”

—Ken Langone

Rodale’s on “Grace” …

elegance … charm … loveliness … poetry in motion … kindliness ..

benevolence … benefaction … compassion … beauty

Intangibles

“Hard is soft. Soft is hard.”*

*In Search of Excellence

Self-management

“The First step in a ‘dramatic’

‘organizational change program’ is obvious—

dramatic personal change!” —RG

You = Your

Calendar

“You must be the change you

wish to see in the world.”

Gandhi

“Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be

swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow.

To convince them, you must yourself believe.” —Winston Churchill

MBWA

“The first and greatest imperative of command

is to be present in person. Those who

impose risk must be seen to share it.”

—John Keegan, The Mask of Command

“A body can pretend to care, but they can’t pretend to be there.” — Texas Bix Bender

“You can’t lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a

horse.” —John Peers, President, Logical Machine

Corporation

Curiosity

“Why?”

Ears

“If you don’t listen, you don’t sell

anything.”

—Carolyn Marland/MD/Guardian Group

Conformity

“While everything may be

better, it is also increasingly the same.”

Paul Goldberger on retail, “The Sameness of Things,” The New York Times

“Companies have defined so much

‘best practice’ that they are now more or

less identical.”Jesper Kunde, Unique Now ... or Never

“To grow, companies need to break out of a

vicious cycle of competitive

benchmarking and imitation.” —W. Chan Kim & René

Mauborgne, “Think for Yourself —Stop Copying a Rival,” Financial Times/08.11.03

“The short road to ruin is to emulate the

methods of your adversary.” — Winston

Churchill

Action

“We have a ‘strategic’ plan. It’s

called doing things.” — Herb Kelleher

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.

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

Focus

“Dennis, you need a ‘To-don’t ’

List !”

“I used to have a rule for myself that at any point in time I wanted to have in mind — as

it so happens, also in writing, on a little card I carried around with me — the three big

things I was trying to get done.

Three. Not two.

Not four. Not five. Not ten. Three.”

— Richard Haass, The Power to Persuade

Change

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

irrelevance even less.” —General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff. U. S. Army

“We eat change for breakfast!

—Harry Quadracci, QuadGraphics

“I’m not comfortable

unless I’m uncomfortable.”

—Jay Chiat

“The most successful people

are those who are good at

‘plan B.’” —James Yorke,

mathematician, on chaos theory in The New Scientist

Relentless

“This [adolescent] incident [of getting from point A to point B] is notable not only because it underlines Grant’s fearless

horsemanship and his determination, but also it is the first known example of a very important peculiarity of his character:

Grant had an extreme, almost phobic dislike of turning back and

retracing his steps. If he set out for somewhere, he would get there somehow, whatever the

difficulties that lay in his way. This idiosyncrasy would turn out to be one the factors that made him such a formidable general. Grant would always, always press on—turning back was not an

option for him.” —Michael Korda, Ulysses Grant

Richard & Kevin

Sir Richard’s Rules:

Follow your passions.Keep it simple.

Get the best people to help you.

Re-create yourself.Play.

Kevin Roberts’ Credo

1. Ready. Fire! Aim.2. If it ain’t 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!

Passion & Enthusiasm

I am a dispenser of enthusiasm.”

—Ben Zander

“Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm.”

—Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“A man without a smiling face

must not open a shop.” —Chinese Proverb*

*Courtesy Tom Morris, The Art of Achievement

Hustle

“Most important,

he upped the energy level at Motorola.” —Fortune on Ed Zander/08.05

Sunny

Half-full Cups: “Ronald Reagan radiated

an almost transcendent

happiness.” —Lou Cannon

“A leader is a dealer in hope.”

Napoleon

Aim High

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

“Beware of the tyranny of making Small

Changes to Small Things.

Rather, make Big Changes to Big

Things.” —Roger Enrico, former Chairman, PepsiCo

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Steve Jobs

Dream

“the wildest chimera of a moonstruck

mind” —The Federalist on TJ’s

Louisiana Purchase

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious

life?” —Mary Oliver

Sell

. “Everyone lives by selling something.”

– Robert Louis Stevenson

Value-added

$798

$415/SqFt$798/SqFt

Study moreRenew moreTailor moreOffer moreListen moreMarket more

Practice moreChallenge moreSocialize more

Smile moreFollow-up more

Plan execution more

Experience

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

No Limits

“You do not merely want to be

the best of the best. You want to be

considered the only ones who do what

you do.”Jerry Garcia

!