David Wethey: An interview by Bob Morris

After graduating in PPE from Jesus College, Oxford, David Wethey joined AC Nielsen in 1965, where he presented Marketing Research to leading marketing companies. However, the London agency world beckoned and in 1968 David joined Pritchard Wood (the birthplace of account planning). Subsequently he moved within Interpublic to Wasey Campbell-Ewald, and then McCann-Erickson, where he was appointed to various international management posts including MD in Portugal and then Malaysia.

In 1978 he returned to the UK as Deputy MD of Harrison McCann. A year later he left IPG to head Royds, then an independent UK agency with two offices (London and Manchester) in the top 20. In 1981 he set up Wethey Scott Pocock, which had grown to £18 million in billings by the time he sold the agency. In 1988 He set up Agency Assessments International, the first impartial agency search and relationship consultancy in the UK, which he has now run for 25 years.

A frequent lecturer and writer, David has most recently written Decide (Feb 2013), a book on all aspects of decision making — and how to do it better.

Here is an excerpt from my interview of him. To read the complete interview, please click here.

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Morris: Before discussing Decide, a few general questions. First, who has had the greatest influence on your personal growth? How so?

Wethey: My history teacher at school, John Todd. He told me, ‘just because somebody has written a book, it doesn’t make it true’. That was the point (and I was 16) when I realised that my opinion and views were potentially worth as much as those of the ‘experts’. Now that I write myself, I know just how wise John Todd was!

Morris: The greatest impact on your professional development? How so?

Wethey: My first boss at AC Nielsen, Jimmy Loughray, who taught me to respect data, but not to be controlled by it. He was an academic statistician turned business adviser. He gave me the courage to tell powerful clients unpalatable truths. He also showed me that there ways to do it, and not do it – and also times either to question data or question the interpretation of it.

Morris: Years ago, was there a turning point (if not an epiphany) that set you on the career course you continue to follow? Please explain.

Wethey: It was literally a car crash. I always planned to teach, and I was on my way to a final interview at a school called Shiplake College near Henley in Oxfordshire when my car skidded and hit a truck. By the time I recovered I had received the offer to compete for a graduate traineeship at Nielsen. That was my entry into the marketing world – and there I have stayed

Morris: To what extent has your formal education been invaluable to what you have accomplished in life thus far?

Wethey: Hugely. At school I studied classics (Latin and Greek, with a smattering of slightly more modern languages). This fuelled my desire to travel and communicate. I have been lucky enough to carry out projects and assignments in 40 countries. At Oxford University, I graduated in Philosophy, Politics and Economics – almost literally vocational training for a life in advertising!

Morris: What do you know now about the business world that you wish you knew when you went to work full-time for the first time? Why?

Wethey: How counterproductive most meetings are. When I came to write Decide I realised that meetings are hopeless as decision making forums, and many meetings are an almost complete waste of time. I am actively engaged today in a serious deconstruct / reconstruct on meetings

Morris: From which books have you learned the most valuable lessons about business? Please explain.

Wethey: I’ll name two: Hammer and Champy’s Re-Engineering the Corporation, and Russo and Schoemaker’s Decision Traps. I was very engaged in the 90’s on a big (and frustratingly unproductive) quest to persuade ad agencies to re-engineer. I think agency re-engineering is finally going to happen in this decade. From 2002 I embarked on a voyage of discovery in decision science, which has taken me to where I am today. I could not have found more inspiring books to get me going.

Morris: Here are several of my favorite quotations to which I ask you to respond. First, from Lao-Tzu’s Tao Te Ching:

“Learn from the people
Plan with the people
Begin with what they have
Build on what they know
Of the best leaders
When the task is accomplished
The people will remark
We have done it ourselves.”

Wethey: Very appropriate as we move in advertising from the traditional post-military command and control model to what is politely known as ‘orchestrating consumer conversations’. It is heady stuff, but still scary for marketers, admen and humble consultants who grew up in the old world

Morris: Next, from Voltaire: “Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.”

Wethey: I’m not sure Voltaire would say that today. In the eighteenth century when writing consisted largely of sitting at a desk and thinking, truth was a relative concept. It was difficult to prove it or disprove it. Now with Google, Wikipedia and a billion sources of information on the web, there’s no barrier to discovering the truth – or what passes for it

Morris: And then, from Oscar Wilde: “Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.”

Wethey: So true. But I do worry about the narcissism in Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social networking sites. Wilde was a stand-out character in a world where most people never travelled more than a few miles from their birthplace, and were only known in a tiny milieu. In 2013 in big countries like the US and UK there are literally millions of “people brands” jockeying for prominence on the freeway, mass transit or airport check-in. ‘Be yourself’ is in danger of being redundant advice

Morris: From Albert Einstein: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

Wethey: That is a very subtle point. Strictly speaking we don’t create problems so much as self-diagnose them. Of course he’s right. Solving problems requires creative and often lateral thinking

Morris: Finally, from Peter Drucker: “There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.”

Wethey: I don’t remember if Drucker is credited with inventing the procurement function! But he might have been referring to it here. Of course I am being unfair, but advertising has always been, and will remain, a risk business. Marketing procurement is in danger of treating ideas and campaigns as commodities they can classify and value. It really doesn’t work like that

Morris: In Tom Davenport’s latest book, Judgment Calls, he and co-author Brooke Manville offer “an antidote for the Great Man theory of decision making and organizational performance”: organizational judgment . That is, “the collective capacity to make good calls and wise moves when the need for them exceeds the scope of any single leader’s direct control.” What do you think?

Wethey: I’m not familiar with the authors, but I totally agree. I actually believe leadership is greatly overrated now almost everyone in an organisation has unlimited access to data, facts and figures. I’m also a big supporter of the ‘ask around’ philosophy. Sadly though the “Great Man” theory is assiduously maintained by journalists who are fascinated by the cult of personality in and about organisations. It makes much better copy to credit a CEO with success or damn him or her for failure, as opposed to recognising the unfortunate truth that a management team of clever people can effortlessly share either glory or ignominy

Morris: Here’s a brief excerpt from Paul Schoemaker’s latest book, Brilliant Mistakes: “The key question companies need to address is not ‘[begin italics] Should [end italics] we make mistakes?’ but rather ‘Which mistakes should we make in order to test our deeply held assumptions?’” Your response?

Wethey: Again – how true. Babies only learn to stand up by falling over, and we never get off that iterative learning curve. We just have to hope that our mistakes and those of our bosses and colleagues are recoverable and not fatal

Morris: In your opinion, why do so many C-level executives seem to have such a difficult time delegating work to others?

Wethey: Three main reasons:

o Fear of being seen not to be in charge
o Fear that others might not be competent enough to be delegated to
o A primitive belief that the buck stops here

Morris: The greatest leaders throughout history (with rare exception) were great storytellers. What do you make of that?

Wethey: True of entrepreneurs. Not so true, I believe, of managers. In Saras Sarasvathy’s analysis (How Great Entrepreneurs Think) she calls entrepreneurs “effectuals,” and managers “causals.” Entrepreneurs tell stories – it is one of the defining characteristics. I’m not sure her causals are natural storytellers, but it doesn’t stop them from being good leaders

Morris: Most change initiatives either fail or fall far short of original (perhaps unrealistic) expectations. More often than not, resistance is cultural in nature, the result of what James O’Toole so aptly characterizes as “the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom.”

Here’s my question: How best to avoid or overcome such resistance?

Wethey: I suppose it is worth asking whether it is universally true that change is good? Often yes. Sometimes no. Comfort is probably a bad reason for opposing a change initiative, but adhering to custom may sometimes be both admirable and a good idea. Equally it can constitute a totally unacceptable degree of conservatism. Taking resisters out of their comfort zone is often essential, because they may be putting their selfish interests ahead of the common good. But is it always justifiable to tell people they have to change, when they want to maintain a status quo on the grounds that ‘we have always done it this way’? Maybe there is a good reason for that particular custom. Ethicists would argue that many values are timeless.

Morris: In recent years, there has been criticism, sometimes severe criticism of M.B.A. programs, even those offered by the most prestigious business schools. In your opinion, in which area is there the greatest need for immediate improvement? Any suggestions?

Wethey: I really regret not having done an MBA. I would have learned a great deal, and probably would have been far more successful – particularly financially, corporately and personally. Having said that, I guess I am biased in believing that MBA courses should spend more time on decision making than they do

Morris: Looking ahead (let’s say) 3-5 years, what do you think will be the greatest challenge that CEOs will face? Any Advice?

Wethey: I don’t think we have to wait 3-5 years. The challenge is there now. It’s called conflict between duty to the shareholders and a score of other pressures within and outside the organisation. I would go so far as to say that the duties and loyalties of a CEO have to be redefined. This is a huge subject. Not a day goes by without some unfortunate CEO being arraigned by the media for a decision that apparently endangers the environment, infringes the tax laws, breaches sustainability guidelines, or offends minority groups. Politicians have had to deal with trial by media for years. But they offered themselves for election, and knew that the public would be their judges. CEOs simply applied for a job and got promoted. Now they have to get used to kangaroo courts as well as scrutiny by non-executive directors, shareholders and analysts.

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To read the complete interview, please click here.

David cordially invites you to check out the resources at these websites:

Agency Assessments International home page

David’s blog

Marketing Society blog

Amazon UK page for Decide

You can follow David on Twitter: @davidwethey

Weaving the Web: A book review by Bob Morris

Weaving the Web: the Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web
Tim Berners-Lee
HarperSanFrancisco (1999)

How and why, “if we have the individual will, we can collectively make of our world what we want.”

I read this book when it was first published (in 1999) because I was curious to learn more about the World Wide Web (Web) from its inventor. Recently, I re-read it while preparing for several interviews and was surprised to learn that, if anything, Tim Berners-Lee’s core concepts are even more relevant now than they were almost 15 years ago. Of special interest to me is this passage early in Chapter 1: “The vision I have for the Web is about anything being potentially connected with anything. It is a vision that provides us with new freedom, and allows us to grow faster than we ever could when we were fettered by the hierarchical classification systems into which we bound ourselves. It leaves the entirety of our previous ways of working as just one tool among many. It leaves our previous fears for the future as one set among many. And it brings the workings of society closer to the workings of our minds…Inventing the World Wide Web involved my growing realization that there was a power in arranging ideas in an unconstrained, weblike way. And that awareness came to me through precisely that kind of process…through the swirling together of influences, influences, and realizations from many sides.” These comments suggest precisely the process of integrative thinking that Roger Martin discusses in The Opposable Mind (2007).

I was especially interested in Berners-Lee’s concerns about the Web in 1999. For example, the challenges faced by con tract programmers to understand the human and computer systems; electronic incompatibility between and among computers and their operating systems; documentation storage systems; universal adoption of hypertext; servers of sufficient speed and flexibility; governance issues; ownership issues; ease of access to sources; adoption of the universal resource identifier (URL); adoption of simpler language, XML, to supercede SGML; national and international legal issues (e.g. intellectual property); ethical standards and business issues; creation of “social machines”; and development and dissemination of metadata. Many — but not all — of those issues have since been resolved.

Here in Dallas near the downtown area, there is a Farmer’s Market at which several merchants offer slkices of fresh fruit as samples. In that spirit, I share three excerpts from Berners-Lee’s narrative:

“In an extreme view, the world can be seen only as connections, nothing else. We think of a dictionary as the repository of meaning, but it defines words only in terms of other words. I liked the idea that that a piece of information is defined only by what it’s related to, and how it’s related, There really is little else to meaning. The structure is everything. There are billions of neurons in our brains, but what are neurons? Just cells. The brain has no knowledge until connections are made between neurons. All that we know, all that we are, comes from the way our neurons are connected.” (Page 12)

“To build understanding, we need to be able to link terms. This will be made possible by [begin italics] inference languages [end italics], which work one level above the schema languages. Inference languages allow computers to explain to each other that two terms that may seem different are in some way the same — a little like an English-French dictionary. Inference languages will allow computers to convert data from one format to another.” (Page 185)

Concluding paragraph:

“Should we then feel that we are getting smarter and smarter, more and more in control of nature, as we evolve? No really. Just better connected — connected into better shape. The experience of seeing the Web take off by the grassroots effort of thousands gives me tremendous hope that if we have the individual will, we can collectively make of our world what we want.” (Page 209)

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For those who are curious, Amazon provides this information: “Sir Timothy John “Tim” Berners-Lee, OM, KBE, FRS, FREng, FRSA (born 8 June 1955), also known as “TimBL,” is a British computer scientist, best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web. He made a proposal for an information management system in March 1989, and he implemented the first successful communication between a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) client and server via the Internet sometime around mid November. Berners-Lee is the director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which oversees the Web’s continued development. He is also the founder of the World Wide Web Foundation, and is a senior researcher and holder of the Founders Chair at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). He is a director of the Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI), and a member of the advisory board of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence.”

Does it matter where you went to school?

Here is an article written by Margaret Heffernan for CBS MoneyWatch, the CBS Interactive Business Network. To check out an abundance of valuable resources and obtain a free subscription to one or more of the website’s newsletters, please click here.

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(MoneyWatch) Every year, Amazon (AMZN) hires hundreds of MBA graduates. Where they come from, they say, doesn’t matter as much as the way they think. According to Jennifer Boden, who runs their university programs, Amazon wants entrepreneurial thinkers who are good at using data to drive decisions and get new products to market fast.

She said that where you went to school didn’t really matter and that experience counted for more. I’m not entirely sure I believe this. The target schools she mentioned — Carnegie Mellon, Wharton, Michigan — are a good deal more famous for their quantitative style than their entrepreneurial flair. And it’s hard to imagine a true entrepreneur eager to join a company rapidly becoming famous for treating its low-level employees like robots.

But she makes a good point in arguing that jobseekers can expect too much from their school’s name or even from their degree. Thinking that the institution’s reputation will stand in for your own is always a mistake. I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve known (and sometimes hired) for whom getting into a big name school was pretty much the biggest achievement of their lives. They hoped to ride on that — and many did. But their work was never interesting and their leadership didn’t inspire.

We are rapidly approaching a moment in which the number of candidates with great degrees from great schools are plentiful — even over-supplied. What makes the difference isn’t your ability to get into these places or even to emerge with a decent degree. What matters is who you are and what you’ve achieved outside of the warm embrace of an institution. The true test of a great employee isn’t their MBA or their quantitative skills but their ability to see what is needed — in the company, in the market — without being told.

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Margaret Heffernan has been CEO of five businesses in the United States and United Kingdom. A speaker and writer, her most recent book, Willful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril, was shortlisted for the Financial Times Best Business Book 2011. Visit her on http://www.mheffernan.com/. To read Margaret’s articles for CBS MoneyWatch, please click here.

To read my interview of her, please click here.

“The Top 100 Speeches” throughout United States history

If you click here you can check out “The Top 100 Speeches” at the American Rhetoric website.

Better yet, you can click on any/all of the 100 speeches and read the text.

And even better yet, you can click on any/all of them and download a pdf for your own personal media library.

Here are the “Top 10″:

1, Martin Luther King, Jr., “I Have A Dream”
2. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Inaugural Address
3. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address
4. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation
5. Barbara Charline Jordan, 1976 DNC Keynote Address
6. Richard Milhous Nixon, “Checkers”
7. Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet”
8. Ronald Wilson Reagan, Shuttle ”Challenger” Disaster Address
9. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Houston Ministerial Association Speech
10. Lyndon Baines Johnson, “We Shall Overcome”

I haven’t as yet checked out all of them but already know that most of these ten and the other 90 can also be seen on film. Thank you Google!

While on the subject of great speeches, I also high recommend William Safire’s Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History, Updated and Expanded Edition. Amazon now sells a hardbound edition for only $29.70, a 34% discount. For anyone who has a keen interest in great speeches, this would be an outstanding holiday gift. Just a thought….

The Trust Edge: A book review by Bob Morris

The Trust Edge: How Top Leaders Gain Faster Results, Deeper Relationships, and a Stronger Bottom Line 
David Horsager
Free Press (2012)

“As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Presumably all C-level executives agree with David Horsager about the importance of trust within a workplace culture (a) between and among those who labor there and (b) between the given organizations and everyone else who is directly involved with it, notably customers.  Years ago, Warren Buffett observed, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

Although all C-level executives may affirm the importance of trust, many (too many) of them spend less than 20 years earning it and less than five minutes ruining it. Lack of trust and respect for a supervisor is probably the reason most often cited by highly-valued employees who leave. It is certainly among the major factors that explain why positive and productive employee engagement in the U.S. workplace is, on average, less than 30%. Much of the material in Horsager’s book can help to increase that percentage.

Now consider this: Many of the companies that are annually ranked on lists of those that are “Best to Work for” and “Most Highly Admired” are also ranked on the lists of those that are most profitable and have the greatest cap value in their respective industries. That is no coincidence. Horsager focuses on a number of such companies that include Amazon, Apple, Harley-Davidson, IBM, IKEA, Southwest Airlines, and Charles Schwab. Their people trust their supervisors, they trust their colleagues, and they trust those for whom they are responsible. Both trust and distrust are contagious. Much of the material in Horsager’s book can help those who lead an organization to establish or strengthen a culture of trust.

These are among the dozens of passages that caught my eye:

o       The High Cost of Suspicion (Pages 21-23)
o       Barriers to Trust to Overcome (34-39)
o       The Oracle of Omaha (55)
o       [Why] Conflict is Inevitable! (63-64)
o       Tips for Effective Listening (80-81)
o       Accountability: How? (116-118)
o       Being a Mentor (139)
o       Commitment, Harley-Davidson Style (151-155)
o       Finding Common Ground: Questions Build Connect (172-174)
o       Six Ways to Motivate Contributors (189)
o       Consistency Builds Habits [Good or Bad] (229-230)
o       Extend Trust to Gain Efficiency and Effectiveness (241-242)
o       Fifteen Tips for Rebuilding an Organization’s Trust (262-263)
o       The Making of a Trusted Online Presence (299-301)
o       An Environment of Trust (310-314)

I commend Horsager on his skillful use of reader-friendly devices that include a pair of sections that conclude the first 15 chapters, “The Trust Edge” and “Ask Yourself…,”  sections that review the chapter’s key points and then pose questions that the reader is encouraged to pose…and then answer. At the conclusion of the 16th and final chapter, he suggests “Five Ways to Sharpen Your Trust Edge.” These sections can facilitate, indeed expedite frequent review of the material later.

The “pillars of trust” on which Horsager focuses are Clarity, Compassion, Character, Competency, Commitment, Connection, Contribution, and Consistency. Obviously, there are countless other words that could also serve as names but perhaps no other set of eight whose names begin with the same letter. The names are far less importance than are developing and then sustaining those strengths. Almost all of the material in this book can help individuals to achieve two separate but interdependent strategic objectives: to establish or strengthen their own pillars of trust (however named) and then help others to do so, also.

David Horsager agrees with Peter Drucker: If you don’t have a customer, you don’t have a business. He would then suggest that, if people don’t trust you or what you offer, you don’t have a customer.

My Very Fond Memory of My Favorite Bookstore Owner – (And, Where Will the Jobs Be?)

We lived in Beaumont, TX for one year.  It was the early 1970s, I was fresh out of college, getting my feet wet in the work world.  I was a youth minister, but really preparing for my preaching years.  Every week, (sometimes more than once a week), I would drive to a small bookstore. These days, we would call it an “independent bookstore.”  It was a Christian bookstore – i.e., books that dealt with faith, and church, and preaching…  The woman who owned the bookstore knew her books, and kept up with the new releases.  I mean, she knew what was in these books, what they dealt with…  I got to know this woman.  She was “middle-aged,” and smart.  I was young, hungry to learn.  She was not a “clerk,” she was a teacher.  When I resigned, and readied to leave Beaumont, she was one of the first I told.

I loved that bookstore – and her wise counsel.

I could tell other such stories.  I am a serious Nero Wolfe fan.  I have every volume of the Rex-Stout-written volumes, and re-read the entire corpus every few years.  In Snyder Plaza in University Park, there used to be a Mystery Bookstore.  The woman who owned it (at least, I assume she owned it), tried to tell me that the newer Nero Wolfe mysteries, written by Robert Goldlborough with the approval of the Rex Stout estate, were worthy of my time.  I did not warm up to them, though I appreciated her recommendations.

But now…  as much as I love the customer reviews on Amazon (our blogging colleague Bob Morris has written many, many of them), they do not quite mean as much as those conversations with that Beaumont bookstore owner meant to me.

And now, a few “fulfillment center” workers, and lines of code getting me my Kindle App versions of books, have replaced how many countless book-loving bookstore owners across the country?

Call this a snapshot of the modern economy, and one of the reasons why many jobs are disappearing, and others are “less” than they used to be.  In recent weeks, we have learned that “temp workers” are rising rapidly in the overall percentage of jobs.  Here’s the current national look, from this article:

Workers at temporary-help service agencies accounted for about one-third of U.S. job gains in June.

And, read this from Andrew Sullivan:  Temps Are Here to Stay.  It has links to more.  Here’s a key paragraph.:

In the early 1980s, employment in the “temporary help services” industry—which covers both temp workers and employees of the firms that supply them—stood in the several hundreds of thousands. Now it’s 2.5 million, a seven-fold increase in less than four decades. By 2020, the BLS foresees more than 440,000 new jobs in the sector. In the meantime, the temp craze has expanded from air-conditioned offices to warehouses and construction sites.

And, I recently posted about Farhad Manjoo’s rather alarming look at the ascendancy of Amazon and its threat on all retail.  And I am part of the reason – blame me.  It so happens that I like this development.  Over the weekend, I ordered:  numerous household items, ink for my printer, a book or two for my Kindle App, and did so while never leaving my iPad or my easy chair.  In other words, I am helping put people out of a job.  I called my take on Manjoo’s article:  Amazon’s Secret – Make it Easy; Make it Fast; Make it Insanely Convenient. And that is what Amazon has become for me – easy, fast, convenient.  (Oh, and money-saving).

But, here is the thing.  In our quest for convenience and speed, and in the successful efforts of so many companies’ innovative techniques in giving us “what we want” (Amazon is clearly #1 in this regard), the outcome is this:  it takes fewer and fewer people to provide us what we want.  (And, if you have not read, Amazon has invested in some robot company that will replace even more fulfillment center workers).

And, so…  temp workers are on the rise; automation is on the rise; retail is threatened.  And so I ask again, as I have numerous times on this blog, where will the jobs be?

Amazon’s Secret – Make it Easy; Make it Fast; Make it Insanely Convenient

I am a convert.  As I have written before, I now buy most of my books (all that are available digitally) on Amazon’s Kindle App for my iPad.  I get my protein bars though Amazon.  I get my ink for my printer from Amazon.  And a whole lot more.  And my experience on Amazon has made me a more energetic, frequent on-line shopper from other outlets (stores).  And, with my Amazon Prime purchase, I get practically everything in two days.

And it is about to get faster.

I have written before about our growing desire/demand for no hassles! (quoting Frank Luntz):  We Really Don’t Like Hassles — So, our Agenda: Create “Hassle Free”.  And after I presented Switch:  How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, a participant at our First Friday Book Synopsis said to me:  “Here’s what that book said.  You’ve got to make the change convenient – you’ve got to make everything convenient.”

Well, Amazon is about to really up the bar on the convenience competition for customers.

We first learned this from Netflix.  Their business became more convenient (more convenient than the many, many minutes it took to drive to the local Blockbuster, and browse the shelves).  Netflix took off when it became highly likely that you could get your DVD in the mail the day after you ordered it.   Convenience! – the day after!  (Blockbuster is now bankrupt, by the way).  And now, of course, on Netflix you can watch your movie or TV show immediately, streamed onto your computer or your iPad or your iPhone or your Apple TV.

Amazon Fulfillment Center

Well, today, Slate.com reminds us that Amazon has matched the Netflix convenience model on practically everything.  They are on the verge of providing same-day delivery for most of the country.  SAME-DAY DELIVERY FOR THE WIN!  This truly is the win in the Super Bowl of the convenience league.  As usual, it is the Slate writer Farhad Manjoo who makes this so understandable in his article I Want It Today:  How Amazon’s ambitious new push for same-day delivery will destroy local retail.

Mr. Manjoo describes how Amazon has quietly been making many of its deliveries, promised to Amazon Prime customers in two days, in just one day.  A convenience surprise!  Now, it is about to raise the bar even higher.  Partly prompted by the loss of their “no sales tax” advantage (we started paying Amazon our sales taxes in Texas this month), Amazon is getting ready to do provide “fulfillment” even faster.

From the article:

If Amazon can send me stuff overnight for free without a distribution center nearby, it’s not hard to guess what it can do once it has lots of warehouses within driving distance of my house. Instead of surprising me by getting something to me the next day, I suspect that, over the next few years, next-day service will become its default shipping method on most of its items. Meanwhile it will offer same-day service as a cheap upgrade. For $5 extra, you can have that laptop waiting for you when you get home from work. Wouldn’t you take that deal?
I bet you would. Physical retailers have long argued that once Amazon plays fairly on taxes, the company wouldn’t look like such a great deal to most consumers. If prices were equal, you’d always go with the “instant gratification” of shopping in the real world. The trouble with that argument is that shopping offline isn’t really “instant”—it takes time to get in the car, go to the store, find what you want, stand in line, and drive back home. Getting something shipped to your house offers gratification that’s even more instant: Order something in the morning and get it later in the day, without doing anything else. Why would you ever shop anywhere else?

So, here is the lesson for your business.  Make it easy.  Make it fast.  Make it insanely convenient.  This is the level of customer service that we will all come to expect.

Amazon will force us all to make it easier, make it faster, make it even more insanely convenient.  And if we fall too far behind, well…  we will be left behind.

Tom Butler-Bowdon: A second interview by Bob Morris

A graduate of the London School of Economics and the University of Sydney, Tom Butler-Bowdon was working as a political advisor in Australia when, at 25, he read his first personal development book, Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Captivated by that and by titles by the likes of Anthony Robbins and M Scott Peck, he came to the view that this was an underrated field of writing. At 30, he left his first career to write the bestselling 50 Self-Help Classics, the first guide to the personal development literature and winner of the Benjamin Franklin Award (2004).

This book was followed by 50 Success Classics (2004); 50 Spiritual Classics (2005); 50 Psychology Classics (2007); and 50 Prosperity Classics (2008), all published in the US and UK by Nicholas Brealey. With its commentaries on over 250 books in the self-development field, the series has been published in 21 languages and is sold in over 30 countries. Tom has been described by USA Today as “a true scholar of this type of literature.

He then published Never Too Late to Be Great: The Power of Thinking Long and is now editing and writing the introductions to volumes in a new series, Capstone Classics, published by Capstone Publishing Ltd. (A Wiley Imprint). Titles now available include Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince, Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, Lao-Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, Plato’s The Republic, Wallace Wattles’ The Science of Getting Rich, Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, and Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich.

Here is an excerpt from my second interview of him. To read the complete interview, please click here.

To read my first interview of him, please click here.

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Morris: Before discussing your recently published book, Never Too Late to Be Great, a few general questions. First, who has had the greatest influence on your personal growth? How so?

Butler-Bowdon: Apart from my parents, all the great writings in the personal development and spiritual traditions, too many to mention.

Morris: The great impact on your professional development? How so?

Butler-Bowdon: Apart from bosses and colleagues, the writings of Peter Drucker in management and Al Ries in marketing.

Morris: Years ago, was there a turning point (if not an epiphany) that set you on the career course you continue to follow? Please explain.

Butler-Bowdon: Discovering the self-development literature when I was 26.

Morris: To what extent has your formal education been invaluable to what you have accomplished in life thus far?

Butler-Bowdon: Beyond the content of what I learned at university in terms of politics, government and history, just to think more critically and carefully, and being aware of just how much has been written and studied in any given area that you can draw upon.

Morris:  Of all the books that you have read, from which have you learned what has proven to be most valuable to you after you read it?

Butler-Bowdon: Miracles to Conversations With God, to the original spiritual texts. Now I practice meditation, so Buddhism provides me with much insight and inspiration.

Morris: Of the five 50 Classics volumes, which was the most difficult to write? Why?

Butler-Bowdon: At the time 50 Spiritual Classics seemed challenging because there seemed to be so much ground to cover, but the discipline required to do it taught me that I could tackle something even more outside my comfort zone, such as 50 Philosophy Classics, which I’m writing now.

Morris: By which criteria did you select the titles? To what extent (if any) were the criteria different from one volume to the next and/or when the selections were made? Please explain.

Butler-Bowdon: Combination of the obvious famous titles in each field, with some interesting newer ones. They had to either be bestsellers or influential, or say something new. Same process for each book.

Morris: Which of the books was the most difficult to classify? Why?

Butler-Bowdon: Perhaps 50 Prosperity Classics, because “prosperity” is not an established field like Psychology or Self-Help.

Morris: What prompted the publication of the new series of classic self-development and prosperity writings that you edited and for which you wrote the Introductions?

Butler-Bowdon: An invitation to do it from the publisher (Wiley Europe). I was happy to do it because it fits in with my larger goal of a more serious or scholarly approach to personal development.

Morris: Were there are head-snapping revelations which reading these “classics”? Please explain.

Butler-Bowdon: As the Tao Te Ching suggests, there is a force or reality behind the apparent, physical universe (call it Tao, God, Mind, implicate order), and it is this which generates everything we see. By attuning ourselves to this force or reality, not what is “apparent.”

Morris:  Which of the authors of these series (i.e. Napoleon Hill, Niccolo Machiavelli, Adam Smith, Sun Tzu, and Wallace Wattles) offers the best example of someone who possesses “the power to think long”? Please explain.

Butler-Bowdon: Actually none of them is particularly interested in time; the ‘thinking long’ idea is my creation!

Morris: Frankly, I was previously unaware of Wattles when I began to read the book and thus was especially grateful for your Introduction. For others in that same situation now, why is he significant?

Butler-Bowdon: He offers the metaphysical basis for prosperity that is the basis of The Secret, but wrote about it 100 years before Rhonda Byrne.

Morris: Which additions to the series are now under consideration?

Butler-Bowdon: Have just released new Capstone editions of  Plato’s Republic and Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching.

Morris: Here’s a two-part question. Of all the authors whose works you have read, which would you most like to interview? What would you hope to learn from that person that you do not currently know?

Butler-Bowdon: I have a special liking for the works of Catherine Ponder, the prosperity and abundance writer who helped to pioneer the field.   I would be thrilled to meet her and have a long chat with her! As for an interview, I’d like to ask her many of the same questions you are asking me.

*     *     *

To read the complete interview, please click here.

To read my first interview of him, please click here.

Tom cordially invites you to check out the resources at these websites:

Homepage: Please click here.
Amazon Page: Please click here.
Huffington Post: Please click here.
Tom Butler-Bowdon’s website:  www.Butler-Bowdon.com
Tom’s book Never Too Late To Be Great: http://amzn.to/zwxce4

Help Wanted – Humans Need Not Apply

News item:
Best Buy is in a lot of trouble

News item:
The robot population is growing…fast.

—————

Put this in the “what have you read recently that makes you stop and think?” category.

Yesterday, I read the article by Farhad Manjoo, Making Best Buy Better:  The electronics chain’s only hope is to stock fewer products and sell them a whole lot better.  Here’s a key excerpt:

Best Buy is in a lot of trouble. Once the undisputed leader in technology retail—it vanquished Circuit City, CompUSA, and every mom-and-pop electronics store in the country—the company is now being killed by Amazon online and Apple offline. In March, Best Buy reported a $1.7 billion quarterly loss and announced that it would close 50 stores.  

And, don’t forget:

Amazon recently bought Kiva Systems,a company that makes robots that bring items to warehouse workers for packing, instead of the workers having to run all over the warehouse finding the items. That’s fine for now, but it’s pretty obvious that before too long, the robotic systems will become sophisticated enough that you won’t need the workers at all (or at least you’ll only need a few of them).

That paragraph comes from an article linked to on Andrew Sullivan’s blog: Our Robot Future.  I have posted before about the rise of automation (in fact, quite a few times), asking “Where will the jobs be?’” This latest news does not bring me any comfort.  Here is the key excerpt from Rise of the Machines by Paul Waldman, linked to by Sullivan:

We’re all still going to have to find ways to get people to pay us for doing stuff. Otherwise we won’t have the money to purchase the fruits of all those robots’ labors.

…the problem won’t be that the robots will kill us, but that the rise of robots will disintegrate our society, none of us will be able to make a living, and we’ll kill each other. On the other hand, wouldn’t it be nice if a robot cleaned your toilet for you?

Don’t think human looking robots.  Think software, automation…  Now, I don’t know about you, but my life is increasingly filled with such robots of one kind or another replacing work that used to be done by humans.  Just this week, I ordered multiple items from two sources. Amazon and Drugstore.com.  I talked to no one.  I clicked my mouse, and two days later the products arrived at my front door.  Oh, some humans were involved in the transactions.  A driver delivered the boxes.  Someone supposedly fetched the items from the giant fulfillment center shelves.  But I did not go into a store and interact with any humans; software facilitated the orders.

The issue is not “will there be more robots replacing more human jobs?”.  There will be.  A lot more!  (Read the Waldman article.  Or, just google it.  And the Google automated software will fetch you a mountain of articles describing our automated future).

The question is (and the chorus asking this question is growing), “Where will the jobs be?”  Oh, there will be industries adding jobs all along.  But will there be enough new jobs, in enough new industries, to provide work for all the unemployed former Best Buy, Circuit City, Amazon.com, workers?

Anyway, that is some of what I read this week.

Joel A. Garfinkle: An interview by Bob Morris

Joel A. Garfinkle is recognized as one of the top 50 executive coaches in North America. His valuable insights have been sought after by leaders in companies such as Google, Amazon, Hewlett-Packard, Gap, Starbucks, Deloitte, Cisco Systems, Oracle, Bank of America, Citibank, and Microsoft. He is the author of seven books and more than 300 articles on leadership, executive presence, getting ahead at work, career transitions, and work fulfillment. His most recent book, Getting Ahead: Three Steps to Take Your Career to the Next Level, was published by John Wiley & Sons (2011).

He is regularly featured in the national media, including ABC News, National Public Radio, New York Times, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, USA Today, Newsweek and Fast Company. Sign up to Joel’s weekly report, Fulfillment@Work Newsletter (delivered to more than 10,000 subscribers), and receive the free e-book, 41 Proven Strategies to Get Promoted Now! For more than two decades, Joel has had first-hand experience advising thousands of executives, senior managers, directors, and employees at the world’s leading companies. He draws from this experience to provide coaching programs that serve individuals and organizations throughout the world.

He is also a sought-after speaker who conducts workshops, trainings, and keynote addresses that empower corporate audiences. He has delivered more than 1000 customized presentations that provide fresh insight into common issues that employers and employees face. Learn more about his books, executive coaching services and over 300 FREE articles at www.GarfinkleExecutiveCoaching.com.

Here is an excerpt from my interview of him. Please click here to read the entire interview.

*     *     *

Morris: Before discussing Getting Ahead, a few general questions. First, who has had the greatest influence on your personal growth? How so?

Garfinkle: My wife, Jueli. We’ve been together for eleven years. In this relationship, she is has always been 100% committed to her own personal growth. As she consistently focuses on her own spiritual development and growth, it has spilled over to me and the relationship we have together.

We use the relationship as a vehicle for our own growth. We both dedicate ourselves to communication and connection at all times. We are willing to work through the difficulties that arise (and they do). We never go around them, instead we go through them.

Together, we both spend time doing spiritual work that helps us develop as human beings so we can be more truthful, honest and clear about who we are in the world and how we want to show up as authentically as possible.

I am honored and very blessed to be in relationship with Jueli. She helps me be a better person, father and husband. She knows my issues, challenges and difficulties extremely well. She uses a soft touch in reminding me when these issues show up and I’m unaware. We are both steadfast in living the examined life.

Morris: The greatest impact on your professional development? How so?

Garfinkle: I’ve thought a lot about this question. I’ve never had specific mentors who have had huge impact in my professional development. I am extremely driven in my own professional development and work hard to become the best at what I do. My business, coaching practice, speaking and writing are specific areas that I work hard to improve.

I’ve always been dedicated to growing and learning more about who I am. This has had a strong influence in my own professional development. I’m constantly looking for ways to do things at work more efficiently. As my business has continued to grow, it’s forced me to grow with it and learn new ways of doing business. I will always strive for ways to make things work as smoothly as possible so that I can have the right balance. Balance is important to me. I will always prioritize myself, my family and my connection to Jueli. Thus, part of my professional development is learning how to streamline my business as effectively as possible so I can have time for my life.

Morris: Years ago, was there a turning point (if not an epiphany) that set you on the career course you continue to follow? Please explain.

Garfinkle: The turning point in my life came in college. I found psychology an easy subject, as I’ve always was curious about people. Business, accounting, science and other subjects never were as easy for me. Psychology felt right and something “‘clicked”‘ inside of me. That’s when I became clear on what I really wanted to do. The name of the specific profession, coaching, hadn’t been invented yet, but I knew that I wanted to help healthy individuals improve the quality of their lives. The word healthy was a clear distinction. About eight years later, I was reminiscing and realized that what I had been describing in college was the profession now known as “coaching.”

I found my true essence and what I was meant to be doing after eight long years of exploring what my dream job might look like. I felt that I wasn’t in the right field, industry, job or career and was very frustrated. The job environments and the people I worked with didn’t feel right either. I was tired of trudging my way through a series of unenjoyable jobs that didn’t align with who I was as a person. I didn’t necessarily know who I was, but I knew something was wrong.

I knew that I was working for companies that didn’t respect me and treated me poorly. They didn’t allow me and my gifts to come forward and shine. At the time, I wasn’t sure exactly what my gifts were, but I definitely knew that my environment was suppressing them. I kept getting subtle and not-so-subtle hints that began to create a great deal of frustration and unhappiness

Throughout these years, I began to employ an unconventional, yet simple, method to find my true essence. I said to myself, “I want to enjoy my job. I want to enjoy my life. How can I get there? How can I find work that matches who I am?” The quest to find answers to these questions led me to my life’s work.

I stood by my decision and knew I had to find a way to follow my dreams. I was talking one day to someone about the purpose I had identified in college—to help healthy individuals better their lives. I was amazed when she told me, “That’s called coaching.” Finally there was a label for my dream profession! I joined a three-year coaching program and started my own company. That was 16 years ago.

I took the biggest leap of my life and said NO to just having a job and YES to fulfilling my dream. I left the corporate world to follow my passions and do what I really wanted. I realized that it is truly possible to create work aligns to who I truly am!

Morris: Opinions are also divided, sometimes sharply divided, about 360º feedback. What do you think?

Garfinkle: I had a client who worked at Deloitte. She was successful in her job. Throughout this period of coaching, she had a clear understanding of how she was perceived in the company. She thought others saw her as: Smart, dedicated, cares about her people, well-organized, sees the big picture, tremendous at execution, others respect her skills/abilities, she is one of the best sales people in the entire company and customer love her.

After a few months of working together, we decided to do 360 degree interviews. I interviewed two people below her, two people at the peer level and two people above her. A lot of the feedback was positive in affirming how she thought others saw her in the company. However, all six people did provide a negative perspective of her that even surprised me. They said she was a bully, harsh, blunt, hard-ass, forceful and intimidating. This was the lens they saw her as. This became their reality and truth. She was shocked by the feedback and we did a lot of work from that moment onwards to get others to view her as she saw herself.

As you can see from this example, my client at Deloitte had no idea she was being viewed this way. Her perception was drastically different then what others thought of her. This is why I like 360 degree feedback, especially if I am conducting interviews (and not an assessment) because I can dictate the direction of the interview to gain the key information. The 360 provides important information on how others view you in the company.

*     *     *

Please click here to read the entire interview.

Joel cordially invites you to check out the resources at these websites:

Getting Ahead: Three Steps to Take Your Career to the Next Level

Garfinkle Executive Coaching Website

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