yo, jim … or, the case for technicolor ! tom peters/12.15.03
TRANSCRIPT
Yo, Jim … or,
The Case for
Technicolor!Tom Peters/12.15.03
Jim & Tom. Joined at the
hip. Not.
I. Good to GreatII. Built to LastIII. Quiet, Humble Leaders
I. Good to GreatII. Built to LastIII. Quiet, Humble Leaders
Good to Great: Fannie Mae … Kroger … Walgreens … Philip
Morris … Pitney Bowes … Abbott … Kimberly-Clark … Wells Fargo
Great Companies … SET THE AGENDA.
(Period.)
AGENDA SETTERS: “Set the Table”/ Pioneers/ Questors/ Adventurers
US Steel … Ford … Macy’s … Sears … Litton Industries … ITT … The Gap … Limited … Wal*Mart … P&G … 3M …
Intel … IBM … Apple … Nokia … Cisco … Dell … MCI … Sun … Oracle …
Microsoft … Enron … Schwab … GE … Southwest … Laker … People Express … Ogilvy … Chiat/Day … Virgin … eBay … Amazon … Sony … BMW … CNN …
I. Good to GreatII. Built to LastIII. Quiet, Humble Leaders
“We are in a
brawl with no rules.”
Paul Allaire
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
“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
Built to Last v. Built to Flip
“The problem with Built to Last is that it’s a romantic notion. Large companies are
incapable of ongoing innovation, of ongoing flexibility.”
“Increasingly, successful businesses will be ephemeral. They will be built to yield
something of value – and once that value has been exhausted, they will vanish.”
Fast Company
Warren Bennis & Patricia Ward Biederman/
Organizing Genius: Great Groups Don’t
Last Very Long!
W.A. Mozart W.A. Mozart 1756 – 17911756 – 1791
HE CHANGED THE WORLDHE CHANGED THE WORLD
AND AND
ENRICHED HUMANITY ENRICHED HUMANITY
Jane Jacobs: Exuberant Variety vs. the Great Blight of Dullness.
F.A. Hayek: Spontaneous Discovery Process. Joseph Schumpeter: the Gales of Creative Destruction.
I. Good to GreatII. Built to LastIII. Quiet, Humble Leaders
Huh?
“Quiet, workmanlike, stoic leaders bring about the big
transformations.”--JC
Pastels?
T. Paine/P. Henry/A. Hamilton/T. Jefferson/B. FranklinA. Lincoln/U. S. Grant/W. T. Sherman
TR/FDR/LBJ/RR/JFKM.L. King
C. de GaulleM. Gandhi
W. ChurchillM. Thatcher
PicassoMozart
Copernicus/Newton/EinsteinJ. Welch/L. Gerstner/L. Ellison/B. Gates/
S. Ballmer/S. Jobs/S. McNealyA. Carnegie/J. P. Morgan/H. Ford/J.D. Rockefeller/T. A. Edison
Huh?
“Humility: The Surprise Factor in Leadership … bosses with Gung-
ho Qualities and Charisma May Be Out of Fashion” —Headline/FT/
re JCollins/10.03 (TP: scribble: “Nelson, Wellington, Montgomery, Disraeli, Churchill, Thatcher”)
WellingtonNelsonDisraeli
ChurchillMontgomery
Thatcher
“rough … sarcastic …
bullying”
“a vainglorious self-promoter spoiling for
a fight” —Arthur Koestler on Galileo
Herman Melville on JPJ: “intrepid, unprincipled,
reckless, predatory, with boundless ambition,
civilized in externals but a savage at heart.” —from Evan
Thomas, John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy
Audie Murphy was the most decorated soldier in WW2.
He won every medal we had to offer, plus 5 presented by Belgium and France. There was one common medal he
never won …
… the Good Conduct medal.
Jim Collins vs. Michael Maccoby
“quiet, workmanlike, stoic”vs.
“larger-than-life leaders”/ “egoists, charmers, risk-takers with big
visions”: Carnegie, Rockefeller, Edison, Ford, Welch, Jobs, Gates
“In Tom’s world it’s always better to try a
swan dive and deliver a
colossal belly flop than to step timidly off the
board while holding your nose.” —Fast Company /October2003
The Re-imagineer’s Credo … or, Pity the Poor Brown*
Technicolor Times demand …Technicolor Leaders and Boards who recruit …
Technicolor People who are sent on …Technicolor Quests to execute …
Technicolor (WOW!) Projects in partnership with …Technicolor Customers and …
Technicolor Suppliers all of whom are in pursuit of …Technicolor Goals and Aspirations fit for …
Technicolor Times.
*WSC
“In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder,
bloodshed—and produced Michelangelo, da Vinci and the
Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce
—the cuckoo clock.”
Orson Welles, as Harry Lime, in “The Third Man”