Tom Peters and I do somewhat the same thing but from different vantage points. We both help enterprises become more competitive. He does it primarily through observation, publishing and speaking, I do it primarily through "doing it" – by actually competing. Often I become the antidote to Tom Peters ( and the gaggle of look-a-like consultants and philosophies he inspires) in that I have been called in by clients to fix problems created by his overzealous followers.
Today, Tom published a list of the notions he values the most when selling his ideas. I call them notions because they’re not strategies, tactics, or rules but more like observations Tom has made about what drives enterprise profit. In recent years I have found myself more often than not disagreeing with his observations. My disagreement resulting from my experience of being the guy who has to deliver the results – like revenue, profit and market share. And like many entrepreneurs, I’m at the sharp end of the stick, in that if you get it wrong, you lose your house, your savings and the dough for your kids college education.
So it’s through this rather harsh but realistic filter that I find myself often saying bullshit to the latest Tom Peters’ notion. But not all of his notions get this rash judgment. Some I quite agree with. So his list today conveniently allowed me to take take stock of where I stand with Tom Peters. I’ve reprinted Tom’s list from his posting and then offer why I agree or disagree with each one of his notions.
"Hard is soft. Soft is hard." Social stuff, Emotional stuff = Good stuff. DISAGREE. Hard is hard. Soft is soft. Social stuff and emotional stuff equals drama, victims, excuses and trains running late or not at all.
Mess = Normal = Reality. Rationality = Delusional. Non-linearity = Life 101. (Design accordingly!) DISAGREE. You need a certain level of order, rationality and linearity to command organizational resources.
Failure = Normal = Good. ("Reward excellent failure. Punish mediocre
success." "Fail faster. Succeed sooner." "Fail. Forward. Fast.") AGREE. Most failures generate humility, wisdom, experience and motivation. Most successes generate arrogance.
If "they" agree with you—then you’re on the wrong path. AGREE. "They" are the gatekeepers and quite often the enablers invested in the status quo.
Do > Think. Act > Talk. Action bias!! EXPERIMENT!! R.F.A./Ready. Fire. Aim. AGREE. As Patton once said… "A good plan violently executed today is better than the perfect plan executed next week".
Decentralization = Holy writ = More independent tries. AGREE. Read Boyd’s "Organic Command and Control".
Implementation-Execution-the "Missing 98%". AGREE. Especially relevant for SME’s where execution is everything.
Strategic planning, limits thereto. Severe. AGREE. Having written several five-year plans back in the 70’s and early 80’s, I agree wholeheartedly.
Pitiful performance of Huge Companies. Need C.D.O./Chief Destruction Officer. DISAGREE. Destruction is the wrong metaphor and sends the wrong message. Read Boyd’s "Destruction and Creation".
Severe limits to scale advantage. Mega-mergers = Bad = Stupid. AGREE. Unless the acquirer understands Machiavelli or is Larry Ellison.
"Built to last." Why??? Instead: Built to change the world. AGREE. Built to change the world = Built to last.
People first! People Power! AGREE. When applied to free enterprise and capitalism, but for many of Tom’s followers this saying takes on decidedly socialistic tendencies.
Best "roster" wins! HR (should) rule! DISAGREE. Best leadership wins.
WOMEN’S WORLD!!!!!!! (MARKET. WEALTH. LEADERSHIP.) DISAGREE. In general men are better leaders and managers.
Aesthetics! Beauty! Grace! (Design primacy.) DISAGREE. Functionality trumps aesthetics. Beauty and grace is a stamping machine with 37 years of zero downtime.
EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS. DISAGREE. Good is quite often good enough.
MBWA!!!!!!! (Managing By Wandering Around.) AGREE. Nothing substitutes for your own eyes, ears and gut instincts.
Don’t over-complicate. (MBWA, Product, People, Action). AGREE. Don’t dumb issues down either.
Educate for Risk-taking, Creativity, Independence. DISAGREE. You don’t learn these traits in a classroom.
B-Schools suck. Teach all except what’s important. D-School = Cool. AGREE. Need to break the hypnotic hold of Harvard, Stanford etc.
Healthcare’s Big Three: Quality. Prevention. Wellness. AGREE. Nothing to add…
R > C. (Adding Revenue > Cutting cost.) C.R.O./Chief Revenue Officer. Sell! Sell! Sell! AGREE. Especially in SME’s where the willingness to spend a dollar to make two dollars is lacking.
Free markets work! Free trade works! Rise of India-China = Good
thing. Fight back with Excellent Performance: Add "insane" amounts of
value! Become a "Lovemark"!! DISAGREE. Free trade works only when your trading partners play by the same rules. India-China are our competitors, adversaries and potential enemies and need to be dealt with on that basis. Lovemarks? Give me a break…
Brand You. Self-reliance!! Mastery!! Liberation!! DISAGREE. Brand "team". Team players. Role players. Self-sacrifice.
Survival = PSF/Professional Service Firm "mindset." Goal #1: Enable clients to become successful beyond their dreams! AGREE. Simply becoming profitable, gaining market share or knocking off the industry leader is generally enough though.
Fun! ("Cool" is Cool.) DISAGREE. Fun? How about profitable! Cool? How about respectful? Never have quite gotten the "cool" thing – especially the folks who consider themselves "cool".
Service-obsessed!/Experience-obsessed! (Object: "Raving fans.") DISAGREE. I’ll take profitable, return customers, who value good stuff, well made.
Passion-Exuberance-Enthusiasm. "Hot" Language! WOW! Insanely great! DISAGREE. Straight talk. Moderation. Remember Skilling and Lay?
The "right thing" is the profitable thing. AGREE. Couldn’t agree more.
The final tally is that I agree with Tom more than I disagree – 16 to 13 in favor of agreement. Not all his observations are equal in importance or impact, but this little exercise was enlightening for me. I think his "passion-exuberance-enthusiasm-hot language" tendancies to describe his notions I disagree with, overshadaow those I do agree with.
Is Tom still relevant in the small and medium sized enterprise? The answer from my vantage point is "yea, I think he still is".
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A good plan violently executed right now is far better than a perfect plan executed next week.
George S. Patton US general (1885 – 1945)
Best “roster” wins! HR (should) rule! DISAGREE. Best leadership wins.
I think you contradict yourself a little, by agreeing with Tom on the low quality of business school output (MBA’s), but say leaders are more important than HR. HR’s around the world are currently hiring all those MBA graduates. All those MBA’s out there know only one thing…..how to make a company more efficient. In the current fast paced world of business and the every increasing competitiveness of products, you need lateral thinker’s not vertical thinkers. Anyone can think vertically.
I have to agree with Tom. Just got back from a PDMA conference, the underlying theme was “Innovation”. You had several directors and managers there trying to learn how to become innovative… whatever, like there is a process you can follow to become innovative. It was actually kind of funny like watching fish learn how to walk.
I bet all these product dev. people have great resumes and were hired by great leaders.
If you hire the freaks, geeks, and a few people who live on the edge you will get your innovation. Let them lead and let the vertical thinkers do all the manual/anal tasks.
The major problem with today’s big Corps is the people they hire. They want drones with resumes that have no big wins on there belts. For instance I wouldn’t hire anyone who has worked at Dell. They might look great on paper, but what have they done? The company is tanking. I would rather hire a rookie working at Apple.