TheEMyth

Pages I mean to extract information from:

• the entrepreneurial model, p73-74
• turnkey operations, p94
• working on your business, not in it, p98
• 2. the model will be operated by lowest possible skill, p102
• 4. everything will be documented, p104
• 6. model will be uniform, p108
• p113
• p135

--simon

The Enrepreneurial Perspective

A story of Tom Watson, the founder of IBM

IBM is what it is today for three special reasions. The first reason is that at the very beginning, I had a very clear picture of what the company would look like when it was finally done. You might say I had a model in my mind of what it would look like when the dream -- my vision -- was in place.

The second reason was that once I had that picture, I then asked myself how a company which looked like that would have to act. I then created a picture of how IBM would act when it was finally done.

The third reason IBM has been so successful was that once I had a picture of how IBM would look when the dream was in place and how such a company would have to act, I then realized that, unless we began to act that way from the very beginning, we would never get there.

In other words, I realized that for IBM to become a great company, it would have to act like a great company long before it ever became one.

From the very outset, IBM was fashioned after the template of my vision. And each and every day we attempted to model the company after that template. At the end of each day, we asked ourselves how well we did, discovered the disparity between where we were and where we had committed ourselves to be, and, at the start of the following day, set out to make up for the difference.

Every day at IBM was a day devoted to business development, not doing business.

We didn't do business at IBM, we built one.

-- pp69-70

Comparision of the Entrepreneur to the Technician

• "How must the Business work?" -- "What work as to be done?"
• The entrepreneur sees the present-day world modelled after his vision. The technician sees the future modelled after the present-day world.

-- pp71-72

Working on your business, not in it.

1. The model will provide consistent value to your customers, employees, suppliers, and lenders, beyond what they expect
2. The model will be operated by people with the lowest possible level of skill.
   • Ordinary people can produce Extraordinary results.
   • Depending on Extraordinary people rather than Ordinary People leaves you dependent on the whims and moods of these people. If they're in the mood, the job gets done. If they're not, it doesn't.
3. The model will Stand out as a place of impeccable order
   • A business that looks orderly says to your customer that your people know what they're doing.
   • A business that looks orderly says to your people that you know what you're doing.
   • A business that looks orderly says that while the world may not work, some things can.
   • A business that looks orderly says to your customer that he can trust in the result delivered and assures your people that they can trust in their future with you.
   • A business that looks orderly says that the structure is in place.
4. All work in the model will be documented in the Operations Manual
5. The model will provide a uniformly predicable service to the customer.
6. The model will utilize a uniform colour, dress, and facilities code.

-- pp98-

last edited June 23, 2004 — ( info ) ( diff )