Peter Schutz

Leadership, The Driving Force

Extraordinary Results from Ordinary People

Most businesses today operate in a very competitive operating environment. In such circumstances, businesses are desperately striving for an edge on the competition. Such an edge will rarely consist of hiring the smartest accountant. A smart accountant is essential to a business, but it is the price of admission, without a smart accountant you cannot get into the game.

Any advantage that is the result of invention or innovation will be fleeting and fickle. An advantage such as this will result in others climbing onto your bandwagon and the playing field will soon be leveled once again.

A competitive advantage will rarely, if ever, consist of finding and hiring people who are more intelligent and innovative than those working for the competition. Such people are scarce.
There is reason to believe that the only lasting competitive advantage that any business can have consists of getting extraordinary results with ordinary people. When leadership mobilizes The Driving Force and nurtures it, a business can achieve and maintain a lasting competitive edge.

In this presentation, Mr. Schutz shares personal experiences as CEO of Porsche AG in the 1980s to achieve such a posture. The presentation is illustrated with references to Porsche racing activities in that period. The techniques presented have been applied successfully buy a number of modern management teams.

Getting Beyond a Commodity Business

“Our strength is in our diversity”

Many people agree with that, only the diversity that constitutes the strength of a business is not black-white, male-female, or any social diversity. Social diversity is an important subject, but it is not the diversity that is indispensable for a successful business. A successful business requires a diversity of perspective: short-term–long-term, material resources-human resources, etc.

A business can lose vitality and become a commodity business. To be truly successful, such a business must excel at cost control, which usually means a company needs to be rather large to spread and absorb fixed costs.

Outstanding profitability, particularly for a smaller business, depends on differentiated products and services. The elements needed for differentiation are frequently incompatible with those required in a commodity business. Recognizing and managing these differences is critical to success in a changing business environment. This presentation identifies four dimensions of diversity must be acknowledged and nurtured in order to avoid mismanagement.

Managing Risk

Business Structure for Innovation

Simple organizational structures will often our perform those that are complex. Many operating problems occur at interfaces between department. Based on these concepts, Mr. Schutz illustrates the strengths, weaknesses, and pre-requisites of various organizational concepts.

Functional structures feature centralized control and often excel in the short-term. They frequently limit attracting and holding outstanding people. Such structures are best suited to survival, start-ups, turnarounds, public offerings, and preparing a business for sale or seeking new financing.

Others are more sophisticated. They are market-focused and proactive. Such organizational business structures can attract and hold outstanding people and motivate them to achieve outstanding results in a changing and challenging business environment.

To be effective, such organizations require a basic understanding of market niches and require a culture that can manage delegation of authority. In this presentation Schutz shares experiences in building effective business structures.

Testimonials

“I picked up a number of tips from your presentation that will help to better educate my clients”
– Financial Consultant

“Home run! We could not have asked for a better kick-off to our training program”
– Fund-raising organization

“It is great to have someone who has real passion about management.”
– TEC members

“You delivered a presentation founded on the credibility of a leader who has done it.”
– Manufacturing CEO

“99% said the event was worth being away from their businesses and 97% said they left with implementable and valuable ideas.”
– Coordinator, world renowned financial consulting firm

“You have prompted us to think, evaluate what we are doing, and inspired us to initiate change in order to achieve better results.”
– Forest products Sales and Marketing V.P.

“I must say I enjoyed you the second time just as much or more than the first. The expressions on the faces of my team was an indication they too were being enlivened personally and professionally with your words and personal experiences.”
– President, Oil drilling conglomerate