The Trump Blog

What your organization needs to compete in today's marketplace

I've been thinking about Organizations lately. THINKING ABOUT THEM A LOT. I don't think that the new winners will be marked by a set strategy. I think that they will be marked . . . ABOVE ALL . . . by the Ability to Respond.

To whatever.

Whenever.

So I've developed a new name/concept, which I think applies as much to the CIA and the Department of Homeland Security as it does to the Corporation. I call the new form of organization Itinerant Potential Machines. What that means is that they have a fabulous roster. (Like the New York City Ballet.) And they are ready to react to . . . WHATEVER . . . on the PROVERBIAL DIME.

We (they!) don't know what's coming next. But they know that it will be . . .

Big & Scary & Unpredictable.

So they are . . . Ready To Be Ready.

What are the attributes of this IPM (Itinerant Potential Machine)?

It goes something like this . . .

The Seven Cardinal Attributes of Organizations/Adaptive Organisms/Itinerant Potential Machines:

• TALENT POOL TO DIE FOR - Youthful. Insanely energetic. Value creativity. Risk-taking routine. Failing is normal . . . if you are Stretching. Love New Technologies! Well rewarded! Don't plan to be around 10 years from now.
• TALENT POOL PLUS - Seek out and work with (ONLY!) the World's Best as needed. (It's routinely needed.)
• BRASSY-BUT-GROUNDED LEADERSHIP - Leaders who say, I don't know and then . . . Unleash Their TALENT! Have a vision to be . . . DRAMATICALLY DIFFERENT . . . but don't expect the company to necessarily be around forever.
• BRASSY-BUT-GROUNDED LEADERSHIP II - Visionary leaders matched by leaders with a . . . Shrewd Business (Results) Sense: HOW DO WE TURN A PROFIT ON THIS GORGEOUS IDEA? Appreciate Market Creation as much (MORE THAN!) market share growth. ARE INSANELY AWARE THAT MARKET LEADERS ARE ALWAYS IN PRECARIOUS POSITIONS.
• ALLIANCE MANIACS - Don't assume that the best resides within. WORK WITH THE SHIFTING ARRAY OF STATE-OF-THE-ART PARTNERS FROM ONE-END-OF-THE-SUPPLY CHAIN-TO THE OTHER. Those outsiders (OUR LIFE BLOOD!) include vendors and consultants and . . . especially . . . PIONEERING CUSTOMERS . . . who will drag us into the future.
• TECHNOLOGY-NETWORK FANATICS Run the Whole-Damn-Company, and relations with all outsiders, on the . . . Internet . . . at Internet Speed. Reluctant to work with those who don't share this (RADICAL) (TECHNOLOGY) vision.
• POTENTIAL MACHINES-ORGANISMS Have no idea what's coming next! But are . . . Ready, raring to Jump at Opportunities . . . especially those that Challenge - or Overturn our current way of doing things.

It's organizations that don't have a clue! And since we don't have a clue, we know that our only Defense-Offense is . . . TALENT TO DIE FOR . . .

People who get off on . . . THE CHALLENGE. People who are . . . Genetically Ready To Go. At the drop of a dime. (OR A PENNY.) This is, truly a potential machine that we're putting together.

Tom Peters, called "business's best friend and worst nightmare" by BusinessWeek, is one of the preememinent business gurus of our time. This blog post is adapted with permission from hisProject 05, available online.

My Candidates to Replace the MBA

In his post on this blog on June 22, 2006, business guru Tom Peters predicted the end of the MBA. Today he takes his predictions one level higher by suggesting some new degrees that should replace it.

I'm going to scrap the MBA. In an age of creativity-design-innovaiton, who wants to be a "Master" of "Administration"? Master of "Paper Pushing"? Computers do that.

Here are my substitutes:

MFA (Master of Fine Arts) - As my friend Dan Pink writes, "The MFA is the new MBA." (Hooray, Dan! I wish I'd gotten there first with that one!)

MMM/MM (Master of Metabolic Management/Master of Madness) - The big idea here is that the "metabolism" of enterprise - raw, pure hustle! - must be increased dramatically. The shorter form, MM, stands for . . . Master of Madness. Former Xerox CEO Paul Allaire famously said, "We are in a brawl with no rules." (Amen! Obvious!) And I say, [if ital] we are in a ""brawl with no rules," then there is only one plausible strategy: S.A.V. Or: Screw Around Vigorously.

MnML/WP (Master of non-Masculine Leadership/Women Rule) - We recognize that a new world is emerging, yet we continue to ignore half (slightly more than half, in truth) of our store of Great Talent. Namely: Women. I'll take my case that women's skills may be the perfect match for the New Economy's Leadership Requirements.

MGLF (Master of Great Leaps Forward) - If you can't beat the Chinese on cost, if you can't beat Wal*Mart on prices, then what's the option? Only one! INNOVATION! And ain't it a shame that the MBA Deans don't teach innovation . . . anywhere . . . as a . . . Core Course. Well, I'm gonna! It's that MGLR. We're going to attempt to induce people to play the Great Leap Forward Game! (Or die trying! O, more realistically, we'll all be killed - PROFESSIONALLY - if we don't.)

DE! (Doctor of Enthusiasm!) - Yes, in my little scheme of things, we're going to advance beyond the "Master's" level. Three cheers for enthusiasm! I'll take it over any other trait! So why not recognize it with the ultimate degree . . . A Doctorate?

Tom Peters, called "business's best friend and worst nightmare" by BusinessWeek, is one of the preememinent business gurus of our time. Used with permission.

Creativity, design and innovation are today's real success tools

I am fundamentally, at some level, offended by the notion of "Master of Administration." I guess I shouldn't be offended. It was probably a damn good idea 40 or 50 years ago. I remember reading the story of the "Whiz Kids," who helped win World War II, and then turned around Ford. Robert S. McNamara, Ford President, then Defense Secretary, was the Whiz-iest of the kids. What he discovered was that the U.S. Army Air Force didn't know how many planes they had. And so he counted the planes. And it helped. A lot. And then he went to Ford. And he pretty much found out that they didn't have any idea how many cars they'd made. And so he counted up the cars. AND THINGS GOT BETTER. So there was a time when doing those "basics" . . . countin' the planes, countin' the cars . . . made . . . no doubt . . . ALL THE DIFFERENCE.

But after 60 or 70 years of the MBA . . . we count the cars and the planes pretty damn well. And besides, the microprocessor is counting them a lot faster than the graduates of Harvard & Stanford & Wharton. The stuff that used to be "special" has become routine. And the stuff that's necessary (as I see it) . . . The Big Three . . . creativity - design - innovation . . . have been blithely ignored by the business schools!

Clayton Christensen, a Harvard Business School professor (I guess they get two things right - Enriquez and Christensen), wrote a well-received book called The Innovator's Dilemma. He chided business for its conservatism. (He might as well have chided Harvard!) "Good management," he began, "was the most powerful reason [leading firms] failed to stay atop their industries. Precisely because these firms listened to their [biggest & most conservative] customers, invested aggressively in technologies that would provide their customers more and better products of the sort they wanted, and because they carefully studied market trends and systematically allocated investment capital to innovations that promised the best returns, they lost their positions of leadership."

That's a helluva condemnation! And I buy it.

Blog editor's note: Tom Peters, called "business's best friend and worst nightmare" by BusinessWeek, is one of the preememinent business gurus of our time. Used with permission. For more information, visit www.tompeters.com.

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