unimagined futures

Developing a work approach that is adequate to the challenges ahead
a world moving toward new and different futureS

Thriving on Chaos (by Tom Peters)

Thriving on Chaos (by Tom Peters)
- Thriving on Chaos — A world turned upside down—Figure 2
  - Marketing
    - Was/Is
      - Mass Markets
      - Mass Advertising
      - Violent battles to shift share point
      - Functional integrity of marketing pros
    - Must Become
      - Market creation
      - Niche focus
      - Innovation from being closer to markets
      - Thriving on market fragmentation
      - Ceaseless differentiation of any product (no matter how mature)
  - International
    - Was/Is
      - “Global” brands which are managed from the U.S.
      - International as an adjunct activity
      - For big firms only
    - Must Become
      - Focus on new market creation
      - Development done offshore from the start
      - Essential strategy for firms of all sizes
  - Manufacturing
    - Was/Is
      - Emphasis on volume, cost, hardware, functional integrity
    - Must Become
      - Primary marketing tool (source of quality, responsiveness, innovation)
      - Part of product design team from the start
      - Short runs
      - Flexibility
      - People supported by automation
  - Sales and Service
    - Was/Is
      - Second-class citizens
      - “Move the product” predominates
    - Must Become
      - Heroes
      - Relationship managers ( with every customer, even in retail)
      - Major source of value added
      - Prime source of new product ideas
  - Innovation
    - Was/Is
      - Drive by central R&D
      - Big projects the norm
      - Science rather than customer-driven
      - Cleverness of design more important that fits and finishers
      - Limited to new products
    - Must Become
      - Small starts in autonomous and decentralized units the key
      - Everyone’s business
      - Driven by desire to make small and customer-noticeable improvements
  - People
    - Was/Is
      - Need tight control
      - Try to specialize and diminish role
    - Must Become
      - People as prime source of value added
      - Can never train or involve too much
      - Big financial stake in the outcome
  - Structure
    - Was/Is
      - Hierarchical
      - Functional integrity maintained
    - Must Become
      - Flat
      - Functional barriers broken
      - First-line supervisors give way to self-managed teams
      - Middle managers as facilitators rather than turf guardians
  - Leadership
    - Was/Is
      - Detached
      - Analytic
      - Centralized strategy planning
      - Driven by corporate staffs
    - Must Become
      - Leader as lover of change and preacher of vision and share values
      - Strategy development radically bottom-up
      - All staff functions support the line rather than vice versa
  - Management Information Systems
    - Was/Is
      - Centralized for the sake of consistency
      - Internally aimed
    - Must Become
      - Information use and direct customer/supplier linkups as strategic weapon managed by the line
      - Decentralization of MID a must
  - Financial management and control
    - Was/Is
      - Centralized
      - Finance staff as cop
    - Must Become
      - Decentralized
      - Most finance people to the field as “business team members”
      - High spending authority down the line
- Thriving on Chaos — The prescriptions
  - Creating Total Customer Responsiveness
    - The Guiding Premise — C-1: Specialize/Create Niches/Differentiate
    - The Five Basic Value-Adding Strategies
      - C-2: Provide Top Quality, as Perceived by the Customer
      - C-3: Provide Superior Service/Emphasize the Intangibles
      - C-4: Achieve Extraordinary Responsiveness
      - C-5: Be an Internationalist
      - C-6: Create Uniqueness
    - The Four Capability Building Blocks—To execute strategies C-1 through C-6, several capability building blocks are essential.
      - C-7: Become Obsessed with Listening
      - C-8: Turn Manufacturing into a Marketing Weapon
      - C-9: Make Sales and Service Forces into Heroes
      - I-1 to 1-10: Pursue Fast-Paced Innovation
    - The Evolving Firm — C-10: Launch a Customer Revolution
  - Pursuing Fast-Paced Innovation
    - The Guiding Premise — I-1: Invest in Applications-Oriented Small Starts
    - The Four Key Strategies
      - I-2: Pursue Team Product/Service Development
      - I-3: Encourage Pilots of Everything
      - I-4: Practice “Creative Swiping”
      - I-5: Make Word-of-Mouth Marketing Systematic
    - Management Tactics to Encourage Innovation
      - I-6: Support Committed Champions
      - I-7: “Model” Innovation/Practice Purposeful Impatience
      - I-8: Support Fast Failures
      - I-9: Set Quantitative Innovation Goals
    - The New Look Firm — I-10: Create a Corporate Capacity for Innovation
  - Achieving Flexibility by Empowering People
    - The Guiding Premises
      - P-1: Involve Everyone in Everything
      - P-2: Use Self-Managing Teams
    - The Five Supports (Add Them)
      - P-3: Listen/Celebrate/Recognize
      - P-4: Spend Time Lavishly on Recruiting
      - P-5: Train and Retrain
      - P-6: Provide Incentive Pay for Everyone
      - P-7: Provide an Employment Guarantee
    - The Three Inhibitors (Take Them Away)
      - P-8: Simplify/Reduce Structure
      - P-9: Reconceive the Middle Manager’s Role
      - P-10: Eliminate Bureaucratic Rules and Humiliating Conditions
  - Learning to Love Change: A New View of Leadership at All Levels
    - The Guiding Premise — L-1: Master Paradox
    - The Three Leadership Tools for Establishing Direction
      - L-2: Develop an Inspiring Vision
      - L-3: Manage by Example
      - L-4: Practice Visible Management
    - Leading by Empowering People
      - L-5: Pay Attention! (More Listening)
      - L-6: Defer to the Front Line
      - L-7: Delegate
      - L-8: Pursue “Horizontal” Management by Bashing Bureaucracy
    - The Bottom Line: Leading as Love of Change
      - L-9: Evaluate Everyone on His or Her Love of Change
      - L-10: Create a Sense of Urgency
  - Building Systems for a World Turned Upside Down
    - The Guiding Premise — S-1: Measure What’s Important
    - Reconceiving the System Tools of Control and Empowerment
      - S-2: Revamp the Chief Control Tools
      - S-3: Decentralize Information, Authority, and Strategic Planning
    - Establishing Trust Via Systems
      - S-4: Set Conservative Goals
      - S-5: Demand Total Integration
- Thriving on Chaos — Organizational maps
  - The Inflexible, Rule-Determined, Mass Producer of the Past:
    - The corporate center/policy
    - One-way functionally narrow communication via rules and procedures
    - The praetorian guard of central corporate staffs
    - The functionally narrow cop/middle managers
    - A “thick,” opaque barrier marks the transition form the firm to the outside world of suppliers, customers, distributors, franchisees, reps, etc.
    - Formal “receptacles” for the scheduled collection of information from outsiders
  - The Flexible, Porous, Adaptive, Fleet-of-Foot Organization of the Future:
    - Every person is “paid” to:
      - be obstreperous, a disrespecter of formal boundaries,
      - hustle and
      - be fully engaged with engendering swift action and constantly improving everything.
    - The new-look corporate guidance system—a vision, philosophy, set of core values (and an out-and-about senior team)
    - Top management “wandering” across functional barriers and out to the front lines of the firm.
    - Top management “wandering” with customers
    - Middle managers routinely crossing functional barriers, “managing horizontally,” without specific top-down guidance.
    - Frontline people, trained in multiple jobs, also routinely communicating across previously impenetrable functional barriers.
    - Frontline people communicating “up.”
    - The “average” person, will routinely be out and about—that is, first-line people communicating directly with suppliers, customers, etc.
    - A thin, almost transparent, permeable “barrier” between the organization and the outside world.
    - Customers, supplier, etc., communicating (talking, hanging out, and participating) “in.”
    - Suppliers, customers, etc., crossing functional barriers to work—and help—inside the firm.

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