[Music]
big confession I am a lawyer and I
mention that because the fact that I was
a lawyer is what motivated me many years
ago when I lived in Peru to go and visit
the prison in San Juan de Lurigancho
this is a place that most people try
hard not to go visit but it was
important for me to go and see it
because I wanted to understand
administration of justice in the system
other than my own and I learned about
administration of justice in Peru but I
can’t remember really anything about DIF
about defense or prosecutors or
sentencing or evidence what I learned
what I experienced it something more
primordial about be sick failings in the
rule of law because of poor incentives
so the first thing that happened when I
walked in was presented both my thumbs
and I’m not joking but I hope that they
were they actually said this is to
identify your body if need be
and with that welcomed I walked into the
next room along with a prison policeman
who patted me down and very
disapprovingly pulled out my wallet and
let me know that you know it is actually
prohibited to bring foreign money into
the prison but no worries I am just
going to guard it right here for you
until you get out so as a lawyer of
course I stood up for what was right and
explained enough now I just said yes sir
and my only concern is I’m worried that
other people might think that and he’s
said yeah yeah I get it and taking 20
off of the off of the cash he puts it in
my pocket and says but this way they’d
understand right that gave me enough to
get home and I said yes sir and walked
thus into a prison that many of you have
visited this prison of failings in basic
rule of law so the good thing is that
now I actually get to help solve these
problems
and I want to just give you a sense
about the way I visualize it because you
know in the prison that day what was
happening was both of us were there not
doing the job that we came there to do
that reminds me of something that you
business school students probably know
about clay Christensen’s theory of jobs
to be done basic idea is that
individuals don’t actually tend to act
based upon the psychographic and
demographic segments that they’re in but
rather based upon a set of jobs that
they need to get done and so as a result
companies in the marketing context
should segment their products there are
services based on jobs to be done rather
than on psychographics and demographics
well as an advocate and we’re all
advocates at some point or another
that’s quite related to me so I want to
show you what my job looks like at
Walmart where I work in global
government affairs when it’s a good day
what you get is you get a virtuous
circle around this loop of jobs to be
done that interlock and that build
upward towards increased shared value
for all of society so in in our business
a retailer one of the big jobs to be
done is our customers need somebody to
save them time through a one-stop shop
so as a result historically that is
meant at Walmart builds a lot of stores
that’s getting our customers job to be
done done but the problem is you can’t
actually get that customer’s job to be
done done unless you deal with the
government’s job to be done because you
need permits in order to build and
that’s hard in Latin America so on a
good day when it works what it looks
like is a flow the whole way around
because you get a customer’s job to be
done it’s and you identify for the
government how by advancing that
customer’s job to be done that citizens
job to be done you’re actually aligned
with the government’s socio-economic
development agenda
you’re advancing everyone’s interests
together so the problem is as all of you
know that in many countries among many
individuals across all sectors
government officials individuals and the
private and civil civil society sectors
if you turn this one its side on bad
days it looks like a spiral down in
which slowly the citizens and customers
jobs to be done drop out and you end up
with a vicious cycle into collusion
that’s in the old world that has to end
and so the question is in my job how do
we make sure it always works how do we
always get the virtuous circle of jobs
to be done and the answer is right there
it’s like a good painting it’s the white
space in the middle you can’t just look
at the blue look at the white space
what’s missing in there because it turns
out the whole concept of jobs to be done
by clay Kristensen presupposes that
people don’t act in some narrow way
within their segments or within their
sector just because they’re a government
official or a private citizen in the
civil society or or a business so as a
result there’s actually a space that
meets in the middle what is that point
what is that point exactly that point is
actually that point well is it is it a
point of cooperation do what we need
what is what we need sort of a national
consensus everyone sort of getting
together across the sector’s and
recognizing that actually instead of it
being a bunch of sectors that work their
way around what works their way around
is a set of jobs to be done illegitimate
and legitimate for and in each of those
cases every sector has sure a division
of labor but also a common shared
responsibility everyone is in everyone’s
business and needs to be in order for it
to work well I don’t think that that
point in the middle is just cooperation
I think that’s too easy of an answer
because after all isn’t coal
this problem we’re trying to solve a
form of cooperation that can’t be the
answer in fact in the business context
some types of cooperation are illegal
under antitrust law so what is that
circle at that point in the middle
exactly well I want to give an example
of what of where I saw what I think it
is I went to the North American
Governors Association in Colorado
Springs a few years ago a bunch of
Mexican governors American governors a
Canadian premier every panel worked
exactly the same panel presentation one
Mexican governor responds Canadian
premier US governor done on to the next
panel except for our panel because our
panel talked about permitting and as
soon as one of the companies it was a
small it was a MSME be may in sonora
mexico who talked about permitting the
word the word permitting instantly
resolved in all the mexican governors
grabbing their placards and putting them
on their side thirteen respondents why
well it’s because of what happened in
that little point in the middle because
as it turns out though permitting is my
job is is a gut is a business’s job it’s
also a government’s job it turns out
it’s actually a cross-sectoral job that
gets at a broader job to be done and the
World Bank in particular is one of the
leaders and having created what I think
is actually there in the middle it’s a
type of cooperation but it’s more
specifically a type of coopertition the
idea that Barry nalebuff introduced
where they’re cooperative cooperation
and competition our intention with you
with our intention with each other but
yet more specific it’s a specific type
of coopertition its cooperation across
all sectors in order to do what create
competition because it’s competition
mechanisms market-based mechanisms that
keep everybody honest it gives them
incentives to actually advance the
common job to be done that we had
identified at the beginning it’s what
keeps the circle going around so
as a result of this that Walmart is now
working to it too you know the World
Bank did this work
they’ve identified permitting it’s one
of the key things now every Mexican
governor competes to show that they’re
the best at permitting now Walmart is
working with the IDB
and a bunch of other businesses the
Guatemalan government across all sectors
to create a certification because we
don’t just want government’s to compete
we want every individual student who
wants to work in the privates in the
private sector or public sector public
officials politicians all to have
something they can compete for a
certification and permitting best
practices so that’s what I think is in
the middle um I’m here at Inc I business
school so a bunch of you who are
students here recognize that this
flowchart happens to look a lot like the
school’s logo that’s not my mistake that
is the founding of an Chi Business
School it’s not a bunch of business
people standing around hoping to have
business be about business and hope that
government and civil society just let
you do your thing no this was founded
that that this school was founded right
at that point right in the middle where
the jobs to be done in Central America
were so great and honestly politicians
and a bunch of other sectors Harvard
Business School and so forth were
worried that there wasn’t enough of a
mechanism to get business competing for
a role in those jobs to be done and so
they founded in KY with its management
skill set and unleashed a competition
and now all of you are part of that rush
to try to solve jobs to be done in yours
in this space a few years after the
founding humankind 1963 in 1967 my dad
John layman after studying Spanish here
in Costa Rica moved to la ceiba Honduras
during his lunch breaks at his from his
job at a hospital he would go out into
the park and practice Spanish with a
little local shoeshine boy named Juan
Seto one day while in the morgue
under a burlap bag
on a concrete slab he found the body of
Juancito dead for malnutrition that is a
job to be done that cuts across sectors
and there are sectoral solutions to it
what did my dad do well my dad moved
from a hospital job he was a farm boy
from Lancaster Pennsylvania so he knew
about protein so he went out and got all
the families together that raised
chickens here and there and started
teaching them best practices with
regards to chickens put them together
into a cooperative so it turns out that
of course that cooperatives unleashes
competitive forces people start seeing
one family making money and all of a
sudden there are a whole lot more
chicken producers so the poultry
industry grows a lot in La Ceiba and as
it does so the price drops frozen
chicken in La Ceiba in 1967 cost $1 a
pound
by the time this project had fully
matured it was down to 20 cents per
pound and families like Quan C tous
family saw their malnutrition rates
dropped substantially so but that’s not
where the competition ends because Edgar
nice men wrote a book they included a
case study about it and through the
grapevine
a man named edy Bullock who was in Ghana
halfway around the world scouting out
philanthropic opportunities for his
family heard about my dad’s project and
two weeks later knocked on my dad’s door
with a $40,000 check for the rest of the
money half that he hadn’t been able to
raise for phase two because there was a
competition out there to solve the job
to be done and Ed Bullock wanted to
compete to be part of it that $40,000
check was actually the first project of
Ed’s nonprofit technoServe which fifty
years later is now one of the largest
and most expert development agencies in
DC setting us high standard for what
best practices mean in the development
space on which others compete but that’s
not it
now Honduras is of all Latin American
countries
the one country that has the highest US
Department of Agriculture standards for
export of poultry products into the US
market export promotion being one of
president air non-diseased most
important and high-level policy
priorities so was my 22 year old father
a businessman a civil society member
policy maker yes he was at that point
that point where he could actually build
a bridge across sectors in one
particular way creating mechanisms
defining the terms on which people would
compete to be part of something that was
a big job to be done
Oh end where I started in Peru Thornton
Wilder wrote a book fiction but as I say
sometimes fiction is the greatest truth
on Friday noon July the 20th 1714 the
finest bridge in all Peru broke and
precipitated travelers into the Gulf
below horses and coaches and chairs had
had to go down hundreds of feet below
and pass over the narrow torrent on
rafts but no one not even the Viceroy
had descended with baggage rather than
cross by the famous bridge of San Luis
Rey the moment a Peruvian heard of the
accident he signed himself they had the
hallucination of seeing themselves
falling into that Gulf everyone was
deeply impressed but only one person did
anything about it and that was brother
juniper there are a lot of Rapids out
there and if you’re gonna pick a space
in which to build that bridge that
cross-sectoral bridge that creates
competition mechanisms that keep
everyone honest so that you get that
virtuous cycle of jobs to be done pick a
spot on the river where it’s hard to
Ford there are a lot
malnutrition and Honduras in 1967
permitting and public contracting that
give rise because of poor systems to
corruption in Brazil and Mexico and
every other country in the in the
hemisphere lots of other priorities like
that that require cross-sectoral effort
and whether you are in business in
government in civil society it’s at that
point it doesn’t matter exactly where
you are it just comes down to only one
person did anything about it and that
was brother juniper so if you want
meaning in your job regardless of your
sector then that’s you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
big confession I am a lawyer and I
mention that because the fact that I was
a lawyer is what motivated me many years
ago when I lived in Peru to go and visit
the prison in San Juan de Lurigancho
this is a place that most people try
hard not to go visit but it was
important for me to go and see it
because I wanted to understand
administration of justice in the system
other than my own and I learned about
administration of justice in Peru but I
can’t remember really anything about DIF
about defense or prosecutors or
sentencing or evidence what I learned
what I experienced it something more
primordial about be sick failings in the
rule of law because of poor incentives
so the first thing that happened when I
walked in was presented both my thumbs
and I’m not joking but I hope that they
were they actually said this is to
identify your body if need be
and with that welcomed I walked into the
next room along with a prison policeman
who patted me down and very
disapprovingly pulled out my wallet and
let me know that you know it is actually
prohibited to bring foreign money into
the prison but no worries I am just
going to guard it right here for you
until you get out so as a lawyer of
course I stood up for what was right and
explained enough now I just said yes sir
and my only concern is I’m worried that
other people might think that and he’s
said yeah yeah I get it and taking 20
off of the off of the cash he puts it in
my pocket and says but this way they’d
understand right that gave me enough to
get home and I said yes sir and walked
thus into a prison that many of you have
visited this prison of failings in basic
rule of law so the good thing is that
now I actually get to help solve these
problems
and I want to just give you a sense
about the way I visualize it because you
know in the prison that day what was
happening was both of us were there not
doing the job that we came there to do
that reminds me of something that you
business school students probably know
about clay Christensen’s theory of jobs
to be done basic idea is that
individuals don’t actually tend to act
based upon the psychographic and
demographic segments that they’re in but
rather based upon a set of jobs that
they need to get done and so as a result
companies in the marketing context
should segment their products there are
services based on jobs to be done rather
than on psychographics and demographics
well as an advocate and we’re all
advocates at some point or another
that’s quite related to me so I want to
show you what my job looks like at
Walmart where I work in global
government affairs when it’s a good day
what you get is you get a virtuous
circle around this loop of jobs to be
done that interlock and that build
upward towards increased shared value
for all of society so in in our business
a retailer one of the big jobs to be
done is our customers need somebody to
save them time through a one-stop shop
so as a result historically that is
meant at Walmart builds a lot of stores
that’s getting our customers job to be
done done but the problem is you can’t
actually get that customer’s job to be
done done unless you deal with the
government’s job to be done because you
need permits in order to build and
that’s hard in Latin America so on a
good day when it works what it looks
like is a flow the whole way around
because you get a customer’s job to be
done it’s and you identify for the
government how by advancing that
customer’s job to be done that citizens
job to be done you’re actually aligned
with the government’s socio-economic
development agenda
you’re advancing everyone’s interests
together so the problem is as all of you
know that in many countries among many
individuals across all sectors
government officials individuals and the
private and civil civil society sectors
if you turn this one its side on bad
days it looks like a spiral down in
which slowly the citizens and customers
jobs to be done drop out and you end up
with a vicious cycle into collusion
that’s in the old world that has to end
and so the question is in my job how do
we make sure it always works how do we
always get the virtuous circle of jobs
to be done and the answer is right there
it’s like a good painting it’s the white
space in the middle you can’t just look
at the blue look at the white space
what’s missing in there because it turns
out the whole concept of jobs to be done
by clay Kristensen presupposes that
people don’t act in some narrow way
within their segments or within their
sector just because they’re a government
official or a private citizen in the
civil society or or a business so as a
result there’s actually a space that
meets in the middle what is that point
what is that point exactly that point is
actually that point well is it is it a
point of cooperation do what we need
what is what we need sort of a national
consensus everyone sort of getting
together across the sector’s and
recognizing that actually instead of it
being a bunch of sectors that work their
way around what works their way around
is a set of jobs to be done illegitimate
and legitimate for and in each of those
cases every sector has sure a division
of labor but also a common shared
responsibility everyone is in everyone’s
business and needs to be in order for it
to work well I don’t think that that
point in the middle is just cooperation
I think that’s too easy of an answer
because after all isn’t coal
this problem we’re trying to solve a
form of cooperation that can’t be the
answer in fact in the business context
some types of cooperation are illegal
under antitrust law so what is that
circle at that point in the middle
exactly well I want to give an example
of what of where I saw what I think it
is I went to the North American
Governors Association in Colorado
Springs a few years ago a bunch of
Mexican governors American governors a
Canadian premier every panel worked
exactly the same panel presentation one
Mexican governor responds Canadian
premier US governor done on to the next
panel except for our panel because our
panel talked about permitting and as
soon as one of the companies it was a
small it was a MSME be may in sonora
mexico who talked about permitting the
word the word permitting instantly
resolved in all the mexican governors
grabbing their placards and putting them
on their side thirteen respondents why
well it’s because of what happened in
that little point in the middle because
as it turns out though permitting is my
job is is a gut is a business’s job it’s
also a government’s job it turns out
it’s actually a cross-sectoral job that
gets at a broader job to be done and the
World Bank in particular is one of the
leaders and having created what I think
is actually there in the middle it’s a
type of cooperation but it’s more
specifically a type of coopertition the
idea that Barry nalebuff introduced
where they’re cooperative cooperation
and competition our intention with you
with our intention with each other but
yet more specific it’s a specific type
of coopertition its cooperation across
all sectors in order to do what create
competition because it’s competition
mechanisms market-based mechanisms that
keep everybody honest it gives them
incentives to actually advance the
common job to be done that we had
identified at the beginning it’s what
keeps the circle going around so
as a result of this that Walmart is now
working to it too you know the World
Bank did this work
they’ve identified permitting it’s one
of the key things now every Mexican
governor competes to show that they’re
the best at permitting now Walmart is
working with the IDB
and a bunch of other businesses the
Guatemalan government across all sectors
to create a certification because we
don’t just want government’s to compete
we want every individual student who
wants to work in the privates in the
private sector or public sector public
officials politicians all to have
something they can compete for a
certification and permitting best
practices so that’s what I think is in
the middle um I’m here at Inc I business
school so a bunch of you who are
students here recognize that this
flowchart happens to look a lot like the
school’s logo that’s not my mistake that
is the founding of an Chi Business
School it’s not a bunch of business
people standing around hoping to have
business be about business and hope that
government and civil society just let
you do your thing no this was founded
that that this school was founded right
at that point right in the middle where
the jobs to be done in Central America
were so great and honestly politicians
and a bunch of other sectors Harvard
Business School and so forth were
worried that there wasn’t enough of a
mechanism to get business competing for
a role in those jobs to be done and so
they founded in KY with its management
skill set and unleashed a competition
and now all of you are part of that rush
to try to solve jobs to be done in yours
in this space a few years after the
founding humankind 1963 in 1967 my dad
John layman after studying Spanish here
in Costa Rica moved to la ceiba Honduras
during his lunch breaks at his from his
job at a hospital he would go out into
the park and practice Spanish with a
little local shoeshine boy named Juan
Seto one day while in the morgue
under a burlap bag
on a concrete slab he found the body of
Juancito dead for malnutrition that is a
job to be done that cuts across sectors
and there are sectoral solutions to it
what did my dad do well my dad moved
from a hospital job he was a farm boy
from Lancaster Pennsylvania so he knew
about protein so he went out and got all
the families together that raised
chickens here and there and started
teaching them best practices with
regards to chickens put them together
into a cooperative so it turns out that
of course that cooperatives unleashes
competitive forces people start seeing
one family making money and all of a
sudden there are a whole lot more
chicken producers so the poultry
industry grows a lot in La Ceiba and as
it does so the price drops frozen
chicken in La Ceiba in 1967 cost $1 a
pound
by the time this project had fully
matured it was down to 20 cents per
pound and families like Quan C tous
family saw their malnutrition rates
dropped substantially so but that’s not
where the competition ends because Edgar
nice men wrote a book they included a
case study about it and through the
grapevine
a man named edy Bullock who was in Ghana
halfway around the world scouting out
philanthropic opportunities for his
family heard about my dad’s project and
two weeks later knocked on my dad’s door
with a $40,000 check for the rest of the
money half that he hadn’t been able to
raise for phase two because there was a
competition out there to solve the job
to be done and Ed Bullock wanted to
compete to be part of it that $40,000
check was actually the first project of
Ed’s nonprofit technoServe which fifty
years later is now one of the largest
and most expert development agencies in
DC setting us high standard for what
best practices mean in the development
space on which others compete but that’s
not it
now Honduras is of all Latin American
countries
the one country that has the highest US
Department of Agriculture standards for
export of poultry products into the US
market export promotion being one of
president air non-diseased most
important and high-level policy
priorities so was my 22 year old father
a businessman a civil society member
policy maker yes he was at that point
that point where he could actually build
a bridge across sectors in one
particular way creating mechanisms
defining the terms on which people would
compete to be part of something that was
a big job to be done
Oh end where I started in Peru Thornton
Wilder wrote a book fiction but as I say
sometimes fiction is the greatest truth
on Friday noon July the 20th 1714 the
finest bridge in all Peru broke and
precipitated travelers into the Gulf
below horses and coaches and chairs had
had to go down hundreds of feet below
and pass over the narrow torrent on
rafts but no one not even the Viceroy
had descended with baggage rather than
cross by the famous bridge of San Luis
Rey the moment a Peruvian heard of the
accident he signed himself they had the
hallucination of seeing themselves
falling into that Gulf everyone was
deeply impressed but only one person did
anything about it and that was brother
juniper there are a lot of Rapids out
there and if you’re gonna pick a space
in which to build that bridge that
cross-sectoral bridge that creates
competition mechanisms that keep
everyone honest so that you get that
virtuous cycle of jobs to be done pick a
spot on the river where it’s hard to
Ford there are a lot
malnutrition and Honduras in 1967
permitting and public contracting that
give rise because of poor systems to
corruption in Brazil and Mexico and
every other country in the in the
hemisphere lots of other priorities like
that that require cross-sectoral effort
and whether you are in business in
government in civil society it’s at that
point it doesn’t matter exactly where
you are it just comes down to only one
person did anything about it and that
was brother juniper so if you want
meaning in your job regardless of your
sector then that’s you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
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