The Customer

Comes Second
Tom Peters/0508.2008
 NOTE: To appreciate
this presentation [and ensure
that it is not a mess], you need
Microsoft fonts:
“Showcard Gothic,”
“Ravie,” “Chiller”
and “Verdana”
The Siberia
Axiom
 Why in the
World did you
go to Siberia?
 An
Enterprise* ** (*at its best):
emotional, vital, innovative,
joyful, creative,
entrepreneurial endeavor
that elicits maximum

concerted human
potential in the
wholehearted service of
others.**
**Employees, Customers, Suppliers, Communities, Owners, Temporary partners
The Case
for …
“Brand
Inside”
 Internal
organizational
excellence* ** =
Deepest “Blue
Ocean”
*A “Blue ocean” is by definition
very profitable … and will be
quickly copied. “sustainable
blue” (Internal
organizational excellence) is
far more difficult to copy.
 **Internal
organizational
excellence =
“Brand inside”
B(I) > B(O)
 “If I could have chosen not to tackle the IBM
culture head-on, I probably wouldn’t have. My
bias coming in was toward strategy, analysis and
measurement. In comparison, changing the
attitude and behaviors of hundreds of thousands
[Yet] I
of people is very, very hard.
came to see in my time at
IBM that culture isn’t
just one aspect of the
game—it is the game.”
—Lou Gerstner, Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance
TP Keynotes
the first
“Drucker
Tribute”*
*Sydney, September 2007, AIM/
the Australian Institute of Management
Organizations
exist to serve.
Period.
Leaders live to
serve. Period.
 Organizations Exist to Serve. Period.
Leaders Live to Serve. Period.

Passionate servant leaders, determined to create

a legacy of earthshaking transformation in their
domain (a 600SF retail space, a 4-person training department, an urban
school, a rural school, a city, a nation), create/ must necessarily

create organizations which are no less than

Cathedrals in which the full and awesome power
of the Imagination and Spirit and native
Entrepreneurial flair (We are all entrepreneurs—Muhammad
Yunus) of diverse individuals (100% creative Talent—from
checkout to lab, from Apple to Wegmans to Jane’s one-person accountancy in
is unleashed in passionate pursuit of
Invercargill NZ)

jointly perceived soaring purpose (= win a Nobel peace

prize like Yunus, or at least do something worthy of bragging about 25 years from
now to your grandkids) and personal and community and
client service Excellence.
 … no less than Cathedrals in
which the full and awesome
power of the Imagination and
Spirit and native
Entrepreneurial flair of
diverse individuals is
unleashed in passionate
pursuit of … Excellence.
Such Talent unbound pursue Quests (rapidly and
relentlessly experimenting and failing and trying
again) which surprise and surpass and
redefine the expectations of the individual
and the servant leader alike. The collective
“products” of these Quests offer the best
chance of achieving rapid organizational and
individual adaptation to fast-transforming
environments, and provide the nutrition for
continuing (and sometimes dramatic) re-
imaginings which re-draw the boundaries
of industries and communities and human
achievement and the very conception of
what is possible.
In turn, such organizations, bent upon excellence
and re-imaginings based on maximizing human
creativity and achievement, will automatically
create cadres of imaginative and inspiring and
determined servant leaders who stick around to
take the organization to another level, and then
another—or, equally or more important, leave
to spread the virus of Freedom-Creativity-
Excellence-Transforming Purpose by pathfinding
new streets, highways and alleyways which
vitalize and revitalize, through creative
destruction, Entrepreneurial Capitalism, which
is the best hope for maximizing collective human
Freedom, Happiness, Prosperity, Wellbeing—and,
one prays, some measure of Peace on earth.
 … such organizations, bent upon
excellence and re-imaginings based on
maximizing human creativity and
achievement … vitalize and
revitalize, through creative
destruction, Entrepreneurial
Capitalism, which is the best hope
for maximizing collective human
Freedom, Happiness, Prosperity,
Wellbeing—and, one prays, some
measure of Peace on earth.
Cause (worthy of commitment)

Space (room for/encouragement

for initiative)

Decency (respect, humane)

Cause (worthy of commitment)

Space (room for/encouragement

for initiative-adventures)

Decency (respect, grace,

integrity, humane)

service (worthy of our clients’ & extended

family’s continuing custom)

excellence (period)
 Cause
Space
Decency
service
excellence
servant leadership
Cause(worthy of commitment)

Space(room for/encouragement for initiative-adventures)

Decency (respect, grace, integrity, humane)

service (worthy of our clients’ & extended

family’s continuing custom)

excellence (period)

servant leadership
 The Boyd
Clarke
Philosophy
 “I have always
believed that the
purpose of the
corporation is to be a
blessing to the
employees.” * —Boyd Clarke**

*TP: An “organization” is, in fact and after all is said and done, a/the “house”
in which most of us “live” most of the time.
**The late Boyd Clarke was CEO of the Tom Peters Company at the time of his death.
Hostmanship: The
Art of Making
People Feel
Welcome
—Jan Gunnarsson and Olle Blohm
 “The path to a hostmanship culture paradoxically does not go
through the guest. In fact it wouldn’t be totally wrong to say
that the guest has nothing to do with it. True hostmanship
leaders focus on their employees. What drives them is finding
the right people and getting them to love their work and see it
The guest comes into the picture
as a passion. …
only when you are ready to ask, ‘Would you
prefer to stay at a hotel where the staff love
their work or where management has made
customers its highest priority?’”
“We went through the hotel and made a ‘consideration
renovation.’ Instead of redoing bathrooms, dining rooms and
guest rooms, we gave employees new uniforms, bought
flowers and fruit and changed colors. Our focus was totally on
They were the ones we wanted to make
the staff.
happy. We wanted them to wake up every
morning excited about a new day at work.”
Source: Jan Gunnarsson and Olle Blohm,
Hostmanship: The Art of Making People Feel Welcome
The Dream
Manager
—Matthew Kelly
 ???

% of people
with …
… Dreams
The Dream Manager —Matthew Kelly

“An organization can only become the-best-version-of-

itself to the extent that the people who drive that
organization are striving to become better-versions-of-
themselves.” “A company’s purpose is to become the-
best-version-of-itself. The question is: What is an
employee’s purpose? Most would say, ‘to help the
company achieve its purpose’—but they would be wrong.
That is certainly part of the employee’s role, but an
employee’s primary purpose is to become the-best-
version-of-himself or –herself. … When a company
forgets that it exists to serve customers, it quickly goes
Our employees are our
out of business.
first customers, and our most
important customers.”
 “How to piss away
TP:

$500,000 in one
easy lesson!!”
 My local 7-11 was a dump. The company
poured perhaps a half-million dollars into a
thoroughgoing renovation. They might as well
have pissed the $$$ down the drain. In the end,
same staff, same crappy attitude—but now it
even stood out more in a sparkling facility.
 < CAPEX
> People!
My suggestion, on bended knee: When you finish
your annual or project budget, go back and cut
the “Capex”/Capital Expenditure by 25%--and
put the $$$ directly into people programs!
(“Dream Fulfillment Budget”??)
The Re/Max
Revolution
 “We are a
‘Life Success’
Company.”
Dave Liniger, founder, RE/MAX
The travel services
revolution at
Rosenbluth
International
 The Customer Comes
Second: Put Your
People First and
Watch ’Em Kick Butt
—Hal Rosenbluth and Diane McFerrin Peters (no relation—be delighted if she was)
The One Thing
You Need to
Know
—Marcus Buckingham
 “No matter what the situation,
[the great manager’s] first response is

always to think about the

individual concerned and how
things can be arranged to help
that individual experience
success.” —Marcus Buckingham,
The One Thing You Need to Know
Bennis: Be
All That
You Can Be
 Organizing Genius / Warren Bennis
and Patricia Ward Biederman

“Groups become great only when

everyone in them, leaders and
members alike, is free to do his or
her absolute best.”
“The best thing a leader can do for a
Great Group is to allow its
members to discover their
greatness.”
 Leaders’ “Mt Everest Test”

“free to do his or her

absolute best” …
“allow its members to
discover their
greatness.”
“The leaders of Great Groups
love talent and know
where to find it. They
revel in the talent
of others.” —Warren Bennis &
Patricia Ward Biederman, Organizing Genius
 PARC’s Bob Taylor:

“Connoisseur
of Talent”
(from Warren Bennis & Patricia Ward Biederman, Organizing Genius)
WPP: Be All
That We
Can Be
 Our Mission
To develop and manage talent;
to apply that talent,
throughout the world,
for the benefit of clients;
to do so in partnership;
to do so with profit.
WPP
 Altman’s
Oscar: Be More
Than You-we
Can Imagine
“The role of the Director is to create a
space where the actors and
become more
actresses can
than they’ve ever been
before, more than
they’ve dreamed of
being.” —Robert Altman, Oscar acceptance speech
Quests!
TP: Send ’em on quests of their own design!
“People want to be part of
something larger than
themselves. They want to be
part of something they’re
really proud of, that they’ll
fight for, sacrifice for ,
trust.” —Howard Schultz, Starbucks (IBD/09.05)
 The Last Word/s:
Commitment to and
nurturing of Personal
Excellence and
aspiration precedes
customer satisfaction
The greatest danger
for most of us
is not that our aim is
too high
and we miss it,
but that it is
too low
and we reach it.
Michelangelo
“Excellence can be obtained if you:
... care more than others think
is wise;
... risk more than others think
is safe;
... dream more than others think
is practical;
... expect more than others think
is possible.”
Source: Anon. (Posted @ tompeters.com by
K.Sriram, November 27, 2006 1:17 AM)