What makes Companies Successful?

What makes companies cool and successful? Tom Peters, the original “Excellence” Guru dissects some companies and has a kind of running list.. that he has recently updated with the characteristics:

X.06/Success Factors: Whole Foods Markets (high-end, experience-design, demographic) … Starbucks (people, experience) … Wegmans (people) … Commerce Bank (nuts about customers, WOW, people, execution) … Apple (design-experience, breakthrough, “virus management,” resilience, talent, “seriously cool”) … London Drugs (design-experience, people, “solutions”) … Griffin Hospital/Planetree Alliance (customer-centric, “whole person”) … The Met School/Big Picture (engagement, self-control) … Carl Sewell (experience!) … Progressive Insurance (speed, IT) … Stanford women’s sports (demographic, Blue Ocean) … Stanford D-School (design-biz-engineering, Blue Ocean) … HSM (execution, experience) … WSB (integrity, broad view of customers, execution) … Build-A-Bear (experience) … RE/MAX (people/”create success stories”) … Donnelly’s Weather Strip Service (high end, execution-reliability, simply the best) … Jim’s Group (imagination-Blue Ocean, demographic, customer-centric) … Cirque du Soleil (talent, R&D, Imagination, resilience, design-experience, partnering) … U.S. Grant (execution, delegation, people, K.I.S.S., action-at-all-costs, win, bold ) … Horatio Nelson (execution, delegation, people, K.I.S.S., action-at-all-costs, win, bold) … Stew Leonard’s (people, experience-design, Wow) … DeMar Plumbing (experience, people, Blue Ocean)

* the ones in italics have in his words “screwed up but there is still a lot to learn from their glory days”

and what the factors in general? Here is a good list:

• High end.
• Experience.
• Design.
• Crazy for customers!
• Crazy for Patients! (“Whole person”).
• Wow!
• People first, second, third.
• Breakthrough or bust.
• “Seriously cool.”
• “Virus management.”
• Resilience.
• Tippy-top talent.
• “Solutions,” not “just” “satisfaction.”
• Engagement.
• Self-control. (Customer/Patient/Student control.)
• Blue Ocean.
• “Mundane stuff” made great.
• Great demographic.
• The best. Period.
• Effective partnering.
• K.I.S.S.
• Play to win. (Offense > Defense.)
• Bold!
• Action! Always!
• Integrity-as-strategy.

and some other commonalities:

• Focused on growth and revenue and “offense,” not defense and cost containment.
• People-talent.
• Provide mind-bending experiences. (Driven by design primacy.)
• Nuts about customers.
• Happy to use words like “Wow.”
• Pretty close to the high end of the market.