Once again Tiger Woods is demonstrating a level of Excellence seldom seen in sports or elsewhere.
Is his flavor of Excellence about preparation and perfection? Of course, just as is the case for Lance Armstrong—or Cirque du Soleil. But that’s but the half of it—and perhaps the less important half. The “excellence” that flows from the prep and perfection is a necessary but nowhere nearly sufficient condition for my flavor of Excellence. Mr Woods is in fact playing golf as it has not been played before. Still eighteen holes? Of course. But his variety of Mastery is unprecedented. The same, in an earlier era, could have been said of Robert Trent Jones.
I have argued, in re corporations, that Excellence is not merely stand-way-out performance but the ability—à la Wal*Mart today and IBM in the ’60s and ’70s—to Set the Agenda. Wal*Mart and old IBM re-invented the game to the point of unfamiliarity. Surpassed? IBM was and Wal*Mart surely will be. But for a decade or more they did-are “keeping other CEOs awake at night” worrying about where they will turn next.
Katie Couric redux: Please, please Ms Couric—don’t compete with those other predictable saps. Stun us with the audacity of your effort to help us understand anew and cope with the bizarre world in which we are trying to somehow make our way.