39. Hire-promote for demonstrated curiosity.
Curiosity is a remarkably important individual trait. But more encompassing is the idea of making “curiosity” part of the organization’s “culture.” For example, in your general approach to hiring, you can go a long way toward evaluating curiosity by observing the candidate’s style of answering questions (wide ranging, or narrow), and the eclectic nature (or not) of one’s demonstrated background. One exceedingly successful business owner in professional services insists, when hiring, that the candidate have at least one substantial deep interest beyond the “required” skill set—particularly, interestingly, for his engineers, most of whom are involved in overseas community development activities.
40. Womenomics 101
Women everywhere buy over 80 percent of consumer goods. And in the likes of the United States, women also purchase about 50 percent of commercial goods and services (women fill over 50 percent of U.S. managerial slots). More broadly, Aude Zieseniss de Thuin, founder of the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society, refers to the arrival of “Womenomics … the economy as thought out and practiced by women.” One obvious (should be obvious!) consequence is that women’s representation on the Exec Team and Board should roughly mirror their purchasing power. Fact is, men are woefully ignorant about women’s marketplace needs in terms of product development, marketing, and distribution—that is, pretty much everything. Bizarrely, this largest of all market opportunities is still grossly under-attended all around the world.
NOT-SO-SECRET FORMULA
W = 2(C + I)
Commit that equation to memory. Interpretation: The size of the “women’s market” is twice the size of the Chinese market and the Indian market combined. (Actually, more than twice.) (And it is growing growing growing.)
Most companies don’t get it—including, amazingly, according to Michael Silverstein and Kate Sayre (Harvard Business Review, September 2009), most of the companies who think they “get it.”
How do you explain the lack of effort directed to this … Monstrous and Matchless … very Un-secret … Worldwide … opportunity?
Don’t know.
Or: Stupidity?
Look! Here! Women!
World’s largest market opportunity!
All yours!
41. Passing the “Squint Test.”
“To be a leader in consumer products,” says former PepsiCo CEO Steve Reinemund, “it’s critical to have leaders who represent the population we serve.” Pepsi does. How about you? My test: When you squint at the pictures on the page in an annual report featuring the Executive Team and/or Board, do the gender, skin tone, age distribution, and nationalities roughly match the demographics of the market being served? If you fail the “squint test,” the obvious question is: What is your six-month, one-year, and two-year program, including immediate “next steps,” for addressing the issue?
42. The next 25 years’ big-humongous (and lightly regarded) marketplace story.
Focus for the next quarter century: creating products and services for and selling and distributing to the absurdly large, ridiculously wealthy, and growing-at-hyperspeed post-50-years-of-age market. (“Boomers,” born between 1946 and 1964, and “geezers,” the boomer+ horde.) We talk ceaselessly about using “revolutionary Web-based tools” to turn the world into “market segments of one.” Fine, but do not ignore the two, by far, largest markets (not “segments,” but “markets”)—both of which are pathetically misunderstood and woefully underserved. One: women. Two: boomers and geezers. (And “2A,” combining the best of the above: Boomer-Geezer Women.) The rise and rise (and rise) of boomers and geezers is simply the single most significant “demographic trend” in history. Yet marketing and product-service development remains squarely focused on the young-youngish—“the all-important 18–44 demographic” in particular. The lost opportunities are staggering. The boomer-geezer tsunami is absolutely-positively-unequivocally the “marketing megatrend” of the next 25 years!
43. Try it! Try it! Try it!
As the basis for In Search of Excellence, Bob Waterman and I looked at management practices at 40-odd top-performing companies. Out of this work came what we called “The Eight Basics.” No. 1 was “A bias for action.” More generally I claim that I’ve only learned one thing “for sure” in the last four and a half decades: “He/she who tries the most stuff wins.” I mean it—not a dollop of hyperbole. Hence, there is nothing more important to business success than a “‘try it’ culture.” Alas, inculcation thereof is a devilishly difficult task. A “try it” mentality is like breathing at 3M or Google or Alibaba, and anathema at GM—even though the latter has been trying to change things on this dimension for over 25 years.
44. Screw it up! Screw it up! Screw it up!
If “try it” is enterprise Success Factor #1, then “screw it up” is Success Corollary #1. To try lots of stuff, fast, is to screw lots of stuff up, fast. And the “cultural” “trick” is learning to love those rapid failures—to reward them and celebrate them.
45. Simplify systems. Constantly.
Internet or no Internet, Web 2.0 or no Web 2.0, computing in the cloud or using the abacus, all organizations over time choke on the growing complexity of their systems. Systems: Can’t live without them. Systems: Can’t live with them. My advice: Literally, not figuratively, create a “War Department”—an “official” arm of the organization dedicated to making war on our own systems! We must work as hard at de-organizing as we do at organizing. (And reward the effective “de-organizers” accordingly!)
46. Simplify. One page. Max. Everything.
Become a fanatic about 10-word summaries. One-page plans and policies. Etc. The art of boiling things down is an art of the utmost importance. Strategic plan? Sure—but no more than one page long. (You can have 10,000 pages of appendices—but the “it” should go on for no more than a page.) (Maybe all major corporate docs should follow the Twitter rule—140 characters max.)
47. Simplify.
Period. (Soooooooooo important—overcomplexity and gunk in general bring about 1 out of 1 giant companies to their knees—think second law of thermodynamics, think entropy. But never stop trying to reverse the tide—or at least to hold the forces of evil/complexity at bay.)
48. The calendar never lies!
Your glorious world-changing priorities must somehow be kept in line with the “real world” in which you live. Time is your only true resource. (I know it’s been said before and before that—so what? It always needs repeating.) And the way you divvy time up—visible to one and all—is the only true statement of what really matters to you. Distractions are life. But you must somehow to some extent override that tawdry “reality.” Hence: Manage your calendar religiously and rigorously. Nothing but nothing is of greater “strategic” importance.
49. You need a “calendar buddy.”
Aligning your time with your priorities—in the face of a zillion distractions—is hard work and calls for a straight-shooting accompanist who will call you out when your espoused priorities and time allocation become dangerously misaligned. (Hint: That’s most of the time.) This is a daily “strategic” task—weekly and monthly assessments are fine, but the Single Day—TODAY—is the metric that matters! (TRUST ME! PLEASE! YOU NEED “OUTSIDE” HELP! “WILLPOWER” IS NOT ENOUGH!)
BE A “CALENDAR GUY (GAL)”
Axiom I: You = Your calendar.
Axiom II: Calendars never lie.
Axiom III:” Don’t do” decisions = Most important decisions.
Axiom IV: Time control is not a solo task.
50. We all need a “truth teller.”
It’s true of the president and the general—but also of the 26-year-old supervisor. Bosses never hear the “unvarnished truth.” Therefore, we need a special pal who will tell it like it is. And does tell it like it is. This is true X100 after the second or third promotion!
51. EXCELLENCE in all we do.
In my not-unbiased view, the va
lue of relentlessly pursuing EXCELLENCE per se is literally infinite. My Mantra: EXCELLENCE is a mind-set of unmatched power.
Once asked how long it took to “become excellent,” legendary IBM CEO Tom Watson apparently answered …
“One minute.”
(This was decades before The One-Minute Manager.) In that one minute, you promise yourself that you will never again do something that is other than Excellent—it’s the Excellence version of Alcoholics Anonymous. And like AA, the “answer” is that it takes but an instant to quit (the good news), but, then, “one day at a time”—forever.
On the one hand, there are “systemic approaches” to embedding various forms of “Excellence” in an organization. So-called Six Sigma quality programs are an example. Yet at the end of the day, this “Excellence thing” is no more and no less than personal. One person, one decision, one minute: Never again anything other than Excellent. Excellence, the unvarnished pursuit thereof in good times and, especially, trying times, is the true and immutable … Heart of Strategy.
OUR CREDO/A WORK IN PROGRESS
Johnson & Johnson’s Credo has stood the test of time, been of pragmatic value (e.g., during the Tylenol crisis), and has proven to be worth its weight in something far more valuable than gold. Consistent with the views encompassed in the Heart of Strategy, I tried my hand at a credo—too wordy, to be sure, but perhaps suggestive.
We are thoughtful in all we do.
We are excellent listeners—to each other and to all members of our extended family (vendors, customers, communities, etc.).
We will make the four words “What do you think?” an automatic instinct in all of our internal and external dealings; moreover, “What do you think?” will precede the explication of our own view in 99 out of 100 instances.
We are dedicated to and measure our success to a significant degree by our unwavering commitment to the extreme personal growth of every one of our employees.
We will only be “delighted” with our managers if their employees are universally surprised by the level of their personal and professional growth.
We will be clear that we view leadership at every level as a sacred trust—and that leaders are indeed the servants of their employees just as the effective classroom teacher is servant to the lives and growth of her or his students.
We believe in the “inverted organization chart”—with the “leaders” at the “bottom” of a reverse pyramid.
We will construct leaders’ incentive schemes so that measurable progress in human development is weighed as highly as marketplace success.
We will be a leader in research and development in every aspect of our business—and we will work primarily with vendors who are also fanatical about research and development; and work to attract a set of core customers willing to play at the edge of things and become our codevelopers.
We will aim to make our customer engagements adventures beyond the comfort zone, or adventures in growth, to use a less intimidating phrase—we will aim to add value in novel ways that surprise and stretch our customers and ourselves.
We will use the three words “Try it! Now!” almost as often as “What do you think?” We revere the experimental method, and believe success is mostly correlated with the number of things one tries.
We wholeheartedly acknowledge the value of analysis, but in the end swear by “Actions speak louder than words.”
We “encourage” and “celebrate” failures; that is, we acknowledge that a near-religious devotion to “Try it! Now!” necessarily invites the failures that are part and parcel of trying new things.
We will in fact look askance at those whose records include few or no failures—such a spotless record suggests an unwillingness to brave the unknown.
We will, to summarize the last few items, all view ourselves as explorers-adventurers, proceeding toward individual and collective growth by actively engaging at the edge of things; we unstintingly believe that our customers will reap enormous value from our commitment to our constant, restless exploration.
We will encourage and insist upon constant and vociferous disagreement, but we are absolutely intolerant of disagreement in the form of personal attacks.
We will cut “overhead” to zero—instead every “department” shall aim to be best-in-class in its arena, and hence a full-scale participant in our concerted effort to add value in all we do.
We will exude and “model” integrity, individually and collectively.
We will exemplify the word “transparency” in all of our internal and external dealings—and bend over backwards to give new meaning and breadth to the term “information sharing.”
We will individually and collectively accept blame for our mistakes, or even our rather minor contribution to others’ mistakes—and apologize accordingly and with dispatch.
We will bring to bear overwhelming and instant and collective force to redress any customer problem, real or imagined.
We will under no circumstances bad-mouth a competitor.
We will aim to turn every customer contact into a memorable experience, remembering that all of life is indeed a stage.
We honor the word “design” in all we do, in every nook and every cranny of our organization; every system, every Web page, every customer invoice, every employee restroom is part of our purposefully designed “signature,” and we intend to stand out and exude exceptionalism in one way or another.
We understand that difficult decisions must be made, but we will bend over backwards to implement such decisions with kindness and grace—the dignity of the individual will always be uppermost in our minds.
We will not intrude into our employees’ lives, but we are committed to aggressively helping employees achieve a healthy lifestyle.
We will master the art of appreciation and be profuse in our use of the words “thank you” to honor assistance of even the most minor sort.
We will acknowledge through celebration even small successes—and always cast a wide net in our “thank-yous” to include bit players, especially from other functions.
We aim for others to always be surprised by our “vibrancy” and “vitality”—we view enthusiasm as the key to success in anything, and take particular care in leader selection to ensure that every one of our leaders is a “remarkable” “carrier” of enthusiasm through thick and, especially, thin.
We will drop whatever we are doing and rush to the aid of those involved in tight-deadline activities—even if those involved caused some of their own problems.
We will be meticulous in our planning, but also understand that nothing ever unfolds as planned—hence we will be known for our ability to muster resources in an instant, without fuss and from everywhere, to deal with the unexpected; participating in these ad hoc response activities will not be seen as a distraction from our “real work,” but as a significant part of our “real work” and an opportunity to contribute to others and build our own skills in ways we might not have imagined.
We fully acknowledge that other units-departments-functions have other points of view than ours, but we will bend over backwards and perform handsprings to develop social connections with those in other functions so that dealings over warring perspectives are dealings among friends.
We acknowledge that agreed-upon deadlines are holy writ, and will attempt to balance requisite urgency and requisite realism in all of our commitments.
We will fight tooth and nail to minimize the ravages of hypercomplexity that “necessarily” come with growth and the mere passage of time.
We will declare total war on our own systems to ensure that they do not strangle us.
We gladly acknowledge that anyone in the organization has the duty as well as the right to challenge anyone else when he or she believes they have a valid and useful perspective to offer—this is particularly true regarding any issue that has to do with safety, quality, or meeting agreed-upon deadlines; such challenges may be firm but not rude.
We will
be civil in all our dealings with one another.
We will bend over backwards to bring truly (not superficially) diverse views of every stripe imaginable to bear on plans and decisions of all sorts.
We will pursue “diversity” in part so that the composition of our workforce and leadership from top to bottom is a “pretty good” reflection of the demographics of the markets we serve or aim to serve.
We will use new technology tools to extend the definition of “our family” to every corner of the globe—we will welcome ideas and participation in our affairs from anyone and everyone.
We will aim for gender balance in all we do and from tippy top to bottom—for reasons commercial more than reasons moral.
We will never, in any way, compromise on the quality of our products or services—regardless of difficulties in our marketplace and economy.
We wholeheartedly acknowledge that in the short term (as well, obviously, as the long term) we must be profitable and exhibit stellar financial performance that is consistent with the audacious efforts to serve our people and our clients as described above.
We aim to be seen by others as “conservative” in our financial practices.
We shall talk about EXCELLENCE constantly.
We shall unfailingly aim for EXCELLENCE in all we do.
We shall use EXCELLENCE as the principal benchmark in the assessment of ourselves and our work and our community.
The Little Big Things Page 35