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Tom Peters Times! August 2006 | | | Tom's Necessity for Boldness Five Bold Objectives
In an Office Solutions article, Tom rants: I am an avowed incrementalist. Try, test, and experiment are among my favorite words. I still fervently believe that a pragmatic, incrementalist approach to progress is sound. But I also believe the visions to which we aspire must be grand ones. Not so much because inspiring visions are superb motivators, which they are, but because we must markedly pick up the pace of change in our businesses. If we don't, we face the prospect of a permanently reduced standard of living.
Bold Objective No. 1: Speed of innovation
Whether retailer, banker, or science-based company, reduce your product development cycle time--this year--by 50 percent. If we are to master the new competitive environment, shortening the product development cycle is imperative in every industry.
Bold Objective No. 2: Premium products
Through service, quality, and enhanced innovation, shift your product or service portfolio to differentiated, higher price, and higher value-added plateaus immediately. The specialty steel, specialty retail, specialty chemical, and specialty forest product companies outperform the diversified and generalist members of their industries by 50 percent or more.
Bold Objective No. 3: People and organization
Reduce the number of layers of management at any operating activity to two. Pare corporate staff by 80 percent; eliminate all first-line supervision jobs; get 100 percent of the people on the payroll into a profit-sharing program.
Bold Objective No. 4: Paperwork reduction
Reduce the paperwork and procedures in every operation by half.
Bold Objective No. 5: Time and attention
This year, devote fully half of your time to the single strategic priority that is most vital for you to achieve lasting distinction in your markets. Visit the customers--visit the stores!
Any of these five goals is imposing, especially for an old or large firm. Yet, I strongly believe these or like objectives are essential to the survival of most firms, whether they are high- or low-tech, service or manufacturing.
Originally published in Office Solutions, Volume 20, Issue 5, pp. 44-45
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 | | Slides, Slides, Slides  Tom's Been Busy
You can download all of Tom's recent slide presentations. As always, we invite you to use them, share them, spread them around. Click here for special presentations such as "Guerilla Advantage" and "Ulysses S. Grant."
And then there's the big daddy of them all, Tom's Master Slides for his 2006 seminar. "XAlways, The New Order" includes 1,061 slides. Really.
What's it about? Here's Tom's explanation of the origin of the first section:
A frustrated participant at a seminar for investment bankers in Mauritius listened impatiently to my explanation of differences of opinion among me, Mike Porter, Gary Hamel, Jim Collins, etc. Finally, he'd had enough. "What, if anything," he asked, "do you believe 'for sure'?" I mumbled something, but his query started rumbling around in my mind. Three days later, wandering on a Sunday in London, the idea of "the irreducibles" occurred to me--and I started jotting down notes on stuff I do indeed believe "for sure." Before I knew it, a few days later, the list had grown to 209 items. Hence "The Irreducible209" that follows.
In addition to "The Irreducible209," this new master set also contains "Sales122" and "60TIBs." While many of the slides are duplicates from the "Re-imagine" master set, Tom's been getting great responses to the new material he's added. He calls this new base presentation "the resurrection of Excellence as raison d'etre." Hence the title "X [short for Excellence] Always."
Check it out. It's free, of course. |
| | Wow! Project Red Cross Community Response Teams
Every Friday, the Mali Red Cross team from Kouremale, a group of 15, hold a meeting to train in first aid and practice what they have learned. Beginning in February of 2006, training small groups of individuals (10-35 people) became a priority in the region along the border of Mali and Ivory Coast, as it had become a haven for waves of refugees. Community members were culled to participate in the training, which included first aid and disaster response.
Groups like the one in Kouremale were not only given first aid basics, but also made aware of the importance of being prepared, and of acting together as a team. Playing different roles, and understanding the importance of each one, has helped these small groups operate more efficiently in a place where efficiency is of utmost importance. After all, if one has few resources (material, time, personnel) to begin with, squandering them is not an option.
Creating these Community Response Teams was in and of itself a Wow! Project. At the core of the effort was a focus on having the right team of people focus on the roles that they play best, and playing them to the best of their ability. This is true of every Wow! Project. To really make the work sizzle, the right people must be performing an aspect of the work that they feel most comfortable with. Meanwhile, they must allow the other members of the team to make up for what they might be neglecting while focused on their strong point. The compilation of a team needs to account for every aspect of the project, requiring members that have different skills that complement each other. Who hasn't heard of "too many chiefs, not enough Indians"? That applies to teams that have an imbalance in the way of leaders/motivators, but not enough thinkers/teamworkers/implementors/finishers.
As a team management tool, the Belbin Assessment helps identify each team member's preferred role. One person may be great at coming up with innovative solutions to problems, but might not be so keen on keeping an eye on the details of the finished product. Someone else on the team might spot those small errors, but not really be up to the task of motivating others to work together. Putting together a team of individuals with strengths that balance weaknesses ensures the maximum efficiency possible on any project, not just relief efforts in Mali.
For more information on the Belbin Assessment and how it can be used to custom build the most effective teams possible, please visit tompeterscompany.com or contact Nick Adams at Tom Peters! Company, 617-242-5522, nickadams@tompeters.com.
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| | Cool Friends  A New Interview with Seth Godin
Seth Godin is one of the charter members of our Cool Friends cabal. Since we interviewed him nearly six years ago, he has published All Marketers Are Liars, Purple Cow, The Big Red Fez and several more books, including the newly-released Small Is the New Big.
He's also become the "original squid" at Squidoo and one of the most world's most widely-read business bloggers. Click here to read the interview.
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