An inspiring tale: Turning Performance

What inspires people to do their best? Once inspired, what tools do they need to succeed? Those were among the questions being asked at imX (interactive manufacturing experience), held in Las Vegas Sept. 12 to 14. It was a billed as an industry summit, with attendees invited by companies exhibiting at the show, and there were well-attended educational sessions on new manufacturing tools and methods held right on the show floor. (Having on-floor seminars was a good idea, but I can’t resist pointing out that CTE and our sister magazine, MICROmanufacturing, had the same idea at IMTS 2010, organizing a series of technical presentations at our booth.)

One of the imX keynote speakers, author Peter Schutz, who operates Harris & Schutz Inc., addressed the management side of the education/inspiration equation. His “solution” to getting ordinary people to produce extraordinary results requires managers to do just two things: make good plans and implement them. Schutz explained how his plan for Porsche AG developed in part from a simple idea: not entering any more road races without the intent to win. Schutz was CEO of Porsche from 1980 to 1988, and helped restore the company to profitability and growth.

By the time Schutz arrived, Porsche had fallen from road racing leadership and was satisfied with just being a participant. Schutz saw this as unacceptable. Shortly after taking over as CEO, he told a group of Porsche employees: “We will never again enter a race without the intention of winning.” That declaration electrified the company’s employees, many of whom went on to suggest and implement major changes in the company’s racecars and to personally re-recruit star drivers who had fallen away from the Porsche team. Porsche began winning road races again, helping to reestablish the Porsche brand and ignite sales growth throughout the world.

Who are the right people to bring into the organization? “You have to put together a team that has diversity,” Schutz said. “I’m not talking necessarily about racial, ethnic or gender diversity. Rather, you need some who live in the past, some in the present and some in the future. You need some people who think about money and others about customers and still others about science. You need a diversity of attitude. Let them fight it out, hear it all, and nourish that process.”