Change This Manifesto: Achieving Business Excellence
May 7th, 2008Several months ago I found a really cool website called: Change This — that has a mission to spread important ideas and change minds by giving people access to relevant, thoughtful and constructive information through the vehicle of ”Manifestos.”
I have read some truly great manifestos on the site by folks like Tome Peters, Seth Godin, Richard Florida, Guy Kawasaki and others. I was so impressed with the site that I sent in a proposal to do a manifesto of my own for them — and it was accepted! Here is a link to my manifesto called: Achieving Business Excellence. This is basically an outline of the next book I will be writing and it focuses on what I believe are the top things every business MUST focus on in order to achieve and sustain success. With everything that is going on in our economy it is probably really great timing to put this manifesto out.
Hope you enjoy it — I look forward to your questions and comments — take good care – John
PS — please send this link on to anyone you feel would benefit from reading my manifesto. I read more than 160,000 pages in order to develop the ideas I put forth in the 16 pages of this manifesto — so there are likely at least a few good ideas in there for you to steal.
PPS – also – I just posted another blog with a link to a great article on how to improve your reading skills — some great ideas in that one too! Here is the link to that blog: Improve Your Reading Skills
Email this post to a friend 
Print This Article
May 8th, 2008 at 7:05 am
I agreethat strategies need to be changed and don’t necessarily hold true in future years. However, I have had two mottos/value that have stood the test of time:
1. Be flexible – markets change, employees come in and out, etc. If you are flexible enough in order to react to the changes that occur all around us you will succeed time and time again.
2. Be committed – always give 110% in everything you do. If you lack passion it is difficult to have people follow. If you are not committed to excellence accuracy and quality are not your best friends. If you have no committment, you have not conviction.
Have a great day.
May 8th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
You mention it on page 14, point 2 of the manifesto and it needs to be top of mind when thinking about hiring talent and demanding performance. You’ve got to give people the resources they need to get the job done. Lack of appropriate resources is also what causes your best talent to walk out the door.
May 8th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Great point Valeria — it is always incumbent upon the leader to make sure that your people have everything they need to deliver the results you are asking for — that means the equipment, training, support, resources, money, staff and… time! When an employee does not perform up to standard the first thing their manager/leader should do is look in the mirror and start asking themselves some key questions: Do they have everything they need? Have I made the goal clear? Have I given them all of the information and training they need? Do they have the skills, desire, and ability to do this work? Are the rewards and punishment clear? And so on — until you are sure you have done everything you need to — and then it is time to start looking at what the employee is responsible for bringing to the work. This reminds me of one of my favorite Jack Welch quotes: “I never fired anyone who was surprised.” In other words, Jack had made it very clear that improvement was necessary — and gave full support to achieve that improvement — and then, if things did not get better, it was time for the under-performing person to be… made available to industry!
Thanks so much for your feedback Valeria — John
May 9th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
John,
great Manifesto!
You were able to summarize in 18 pages many of the same issues highlighted in two good books I read last year: Winning by Jack Welch, and Good to Great by Jim Collins. I was about to summarize them anytime soon in my blog.
Thanks John for making my task easier!
Samurai
May 9th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
It is my honor Samurai — hopefully you will pass this link along in your blog. Thank you for the comment — John
May 10th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
John,
later on I made some visuals to support my own internalizing of your words. I really like your approach and am looking forward on your book.
http://www.slideshare.net/mgrtbx/achieving-business-excellence/
Have a nice weekend – it’s raining in Tokyo
Samurai
May 10th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
This is John Spence, and I am deeply honored by the visuals you have created to support my manifesto. These are very impressive — I hope that everyone will use the link you provided to jump over and take a look at them. Extremely well done! I am so pleased you enjoyed the manifesto and found enough value in the ideas to take the time to create this. I wish you every success — John