Tom Peters Seminar2000: Distinct or … Extinct
The 21st Century CFO
Deloitte & ToucheLaguna Niguel
09November2000
“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)
Forget>“Learn”
“The problem is never how to get new, innovative
thoughts into your mind,
but how to get the old ones out.”
Dee Hock
“When asked to name just one big merger that had lived up to expectations, Leon
Cooperman, former cochairman of Goldman Sachs’ Investment Policy
Committee, answered: I’m sure there are success stories
out there, but at this moment I draw a blank.”
Mark Sirower, The Synergy Trap
“Acquisitions are about buying market share.
Our challenge is to create markets. There is a big difference.”
Peter Job, CEO, Reuters
“Our ideal acquisition is a small startup that has a great technology product on the drawing board that is going to come out in six to twelve months.
We buy the engineers and the next generation product. …”
John Chambers, Cisco
Lessons from the Bees!
Since merger mania is now the rage, what lessons can the bees teach us? A simple one: Merging is not in
nature. [Nature’s] process is the exact opposite: one of growth, fragmentation and dispersal. There is no
megalomania, no merging for merging’s sake. The point is that unlike corporations, which just get bigger, bee colonies know when the time has come to split up into
smaller colonies which can grow value faster. What the bees are telling us is that the corporate
world has got it all wrong.”David Lascelles, Co-director of The Centre for the
Study of Financial Innovation [UK]
RR on “Assetless” [J.B.] Sara Lee
“The most profitable businesses in the future will act as knowledge brokers, linking insights into what’s available
with insights into the customer’s individual needs
and preferences.”
Advance Paradigm
Data on 165,000,000 prescriptions per year; docs and insurers have access to
records
Reduces med errors; saves $2.88 per scrip [prescribing errors]; docs save
$14,000 per year in review time
Rev in ’99: $2B; $477M in ’98Source: Business Week (09.00)
Cisco, Dell =
Brand-owning companies who sell Customer
Satisfaction
Source: David Schneider & Grady Means, MetaCapitalism
“P.S.F.”: Summary
H.V.A. Projects (100%)Pioneer Clients
Hot “Talent” (see below)Adventurous “culture”
Point of View (Methodology)W.W.P.F. (100%)
“When land was the scarce resource, nations battled
over it. The same is happening now for talented people.”
Stan Davis & Christopher Meyer, futureWEALTH
“We have transitioned from an asset-based strategy
to a talent-based strategy.”
Jeff Skilling, COO, Enron
From “1, 2 or 3” [JW] to … “Best talent in each
industry segment to build best proprietary intangibles” [EM]
Source: Ed Michaels, War for Talent (05.17.00)
“We believe companies can increase their market cap 50 percent in 3 years. Steve
Macadam at Georgia Pacific changed 20 of his 40 box plant managers to put
more talented, higher paid managers in charge. He increased
profitability from $25 million to $80 million in 2 years.”
Ed Michaels, War for Talent (05.17.00)
“Diversity defines the health and wealth of nations in a new century.
Mighty is the mongrel. … The hybrid is hip. The impure, the mélange, the adulterated, the
blemished, the rough, the black-and-blue, the mix-and-match – these people are inheriting
the earth. Mixing is the new norm. Mixing trumps isolation. It spawns creativity,
nourishes the human spirit, spurs economic growth
and empowers nations.”
G. Pascal Zachary, The Global Me: New Cosmopolitans and the Competitive Edge
“The Rise of the Teen Guru”
“They’re brilliant, ambitious, and almost intuitively gifted at technology. A new generation
of whiz kids are gaining unprecedented power and
authority.”Source: Cover story, Brill’s Content, 7-8/00
The Cracked Ones Let in the Light
“Our business needs a massive transfusion of talent, and talent, I believe, is most likely to be found
among non-conformists, dissenters and rebels.”
David Ogilvy
The New Economy …
Shout goodbye to “command and control”!
Shout goodbye to hierarchy!
Shout goodbye to “knowing one’s place”!
Women’s Stuff = New Economy Match
Improv skillsRelationship-centric
Less “rank consciousness”Self determinedTrust sensitive
IntuitiveNatural “empowerment freaks” [less
threatened by strong people]Intrinsic [motivation] > Extrinsic
“TAKE THIS QUICK QUIZ: Who manages more things at once? Who puts more effort into their appearance? Who usually takes care of the details? Who finds it
easier to meet new people? Who asks more questions in a conversation? Who is a better
listener? Who has more interest in communication skills? Who is more inclined to get involved?
Who encourages harmony and agreement? Who has better intuition? Who works with a longer ‘to do’ list? Who enjoys a recap to the day’s events? Who is
better at keeping in touch with others?”
Source: Selling Is a Woman’s Game: 15 Powerful Reasons Why Women Can Outsell Men, Nicki Joy &
Susan Kane-Benson
New Economy: Was-Is • Pine-paneled Office• Address: 1 Big Man Plaza• Secretary• Suit • Formal • Rank conscious• Pretense (“Failures are
for fools.”)• I love “Yes men”• Self-contained
• Seat 9B, UA233• Address: [email protected]• Typing: 60 WPM• Casual M-F• Approachable• We are a HOT Team • Screwing up is as normal
as breathing• I love Misfits!• I love partners
“The ‘surplus society’ has a surplus of
similar companies, employing
similar people, with similar educational backgrounds, working in
similar jobs, coming up with similar
ideas, producing similar things, with
similar prices and similar quality.”
Kjell Nordstrom and Jonas Ridderstrale, Funky Business
“We make over three new product announcements a
day. Can you remember them?
Our customers can’t!”Carly Fiorina
The Eight Strategies
Pursue Pioneering CustomersRe-invent via E-commerce & the Web
Scramble up the V.A. ChainEmbrace Design
Emphasize the Total ExperienceSeek Out “Opportunity #1” [& #1A]
Cede ControlBecome Brand-obsessed
“Our strategies must be tied to leading edge
customers on the attack. If we focus on the defensive
customers, we will also become defensive.”
John Roth, CEO, Nortel
Tomorrow Today: Cisco!
90% of $20B (=$50M/day)
75% mfg. outsourced; 50% of orders routed to supplier who ships direct
Gross margin: 65%; Net margin: 28%
Savings in service and support from customer self-management: $500M
Enron: $400B in annual on-line trading transactions. [50% total bus.] Much stimulated by the
Web per se.
Schwab: $25B per week in asset transactions [80% of trades]
[Transition to e.Schwab: Rev. fell, then quickly doubled]
Tomorrow Today: Cisco!
90% of $20B; save $550M
C.Sat e >> C.Sat H
Customer Engineer Chat Rooms/Collaborative
Design ($1B “free” consulting) (45,000 customer problems a week solved via
customer collaboration)
WebWorld = Everything
Web as a way to run your business’ 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
Message: eCommerce is not a technology play! It is a
relationship, partnership, organizational and
communications play, made possible by new
technologies.
Message: There is no such thing as an effective B2B or
Internet-supply chain strategy in a low-trust,
bottlenecked-communication, six-layer
organization.
“There is no use trying,” said Alice. “One can’t believe impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was
your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve
believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
Lewis Carroll
“One cannot be tentative about this. Excuses like ‘channel
conflict’ or ‘marketing and sales aren’t ready’ cannot be allowed. Delay and you risk being cut out of your own market, perhaps not by traditional competitors but by companies you
never heard of 24 months ago.”
Jack Welch [07.00/Forbes.com]
“These days, building the best server isn’t enough. That’s the
price of entry.”
Ann Livermore, Hewlett Packard
?????????
Home Furnishings … 94%Vacations … 92%
Houses … 91%Bank Account … 89%
Health Care … 80%Consumer Electronics … 51%
Cars … 50%+/80%Etc.
48% working wives > 50%80% checks
61% bills53% stock (mutual fund boom)
43% > $500K95% financial decisions/
29% single handed
Women … 50+%(!!!) of Web users; 6 of 10 new users; 83% of wired women are primary decision makers for family
healthcare, finances, education.
Source: Business Week; Jupiter Communications
“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.”
Faith Popcorn
“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
Weight Watchers International “Model”
“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.”
Faith Popcorn, EVEolution
STATEMENT OF PHILOSOPHY: I am a businessperson. An analyst. A pragmatist. The enormous social good of increased women’s
power is clear to me; but it is not my bailiwick. My “game” is haranguing business leaders
about my fact-based conviction that women’s increasing power – leadership skills
and purchasing power – is the strongest and most dynamic force at work in the American
economy today. Dare I say it as a long-time Palo Altan … THIS IS EVEN BIGGER THAN THE
INTERNET!
Tom Peters
“If we are single, they say we couldn’t catch a man. If we are
married, they say we are neglecting him. If we are divorced,
they say we couldn’t keep him. If we are widowed, they say we
killed him.”
Kathleen Brown, on the joys of female political candidacy
“Create a Cause, not a ‘business.’ ”
Gary Hamel, Fortune (06.00), on re-inventing a company (Exemplar #1:
Charles Schwab)