"I hate mission statements," Tom Peters, a workplace author and business consultant, said Thursday in Lynnwood.
 Elizabeth Armstrong / The Herald Tom Peters speaks Thursday at a Snohomish County Workforce Development forum. |
More than two decades ago, Peters co-authored "In Search of Excellence," a highly popular book that promoted mission or vision statements as a way for corporations to set clear values for their employees.
Bureaucratic statements forged by corporate leaders sitting in boardrooms don't cut it today, Peters told a group of business leaders and educators at the new Lynnwood Conference Center.
"The future belongs to small concentrations of very, very bright people," he said. "A monstrous infrastructure may end up being a disadvantage."
Peters said the successful workplace of today is one in which people "innovate more effectively, rapidly and dynamically than anybody else."
He noted that so many of the country's manufacturing and administrative jobs have shifted to China, India and Russia. What's left, he said, are jobs involving financial services, people skills and emotional intelligence.
Peters, who avoided the speaker's podium and prowled through the luncheon crowd while making his points, often used quotes from other writers and speakers.
One of his favorites to explain how some companies have repositioned themselves is from an unidentified Harley-Davidson executive who said he didn't just make motorcycles. "What we sell is the ability for a 43-year-old accountant to dress up in black leather and ride through small towns and have people be afraid of him."
Companies that have transformed themselves to sell more than just products, including excitement and peace of mind, are the new successes, Peters said.
He noted that United Parcel Service "is trying to make you forget about the brown trucks and the guys in the shorts," and instead sell itself as "a traffic manager for corporate America."
He used a wildlife analogy as an example of the changing job market. In the old days, when beavers dammed up a creek and flooded an area, the landowner would hire a trapper, who then killed the animals and sold the pelts.
Today, that's shifted to a "wildlife professional services corporation," Peters said, adding, "You don't know what the process is, but you get a bill for $150."
In the future, for people concerned about the welfare of beavers, "they'll install flood control piping and charge you $1,000, then go off to vacation in the Bahamas."
For people to succeed, Peters said, they need to change their jobs from simple, repetitive tasks to actions that clearly help others succeed.
How do we judge our help?
"If you can't send bills out at the end of the month to your clients (including people in your organization) and expect to get paid, you are doing the wrong stuff," he said.
Peters, who has a new book out, "Re-imagine: Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age," also commented quickly on a number of other topics:
* Baby boomers are reaching retirement age with lots of money to spend, yet traditional advertisers are still primarily targeting the 18-to-49 age group.
* Our school system discourages creativity, but businesses desperately need creative people today.
* Design is increasingly important in business. Peters noted that Starbucks very carefully controls the sights, sounds and smells of its shops. "It is utterly absurd to me that Starbucks works," he said. "But it does."