What is it that keeps some organizations at the very top, year after year? How is it that a sports team like the San Francisco 49ers consistently play at a championship caliber over nearly two decades, while other teams rise and then inevitably fall back into the pack? How do you sustain excellence?

This Friday morning at the State of the World Forum, Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi will offer a sneak-peek at the work of a team from the University of Waikato in New Zealand.

Two years ago they set out to identify exactly what it is about exceptional organizations that allows them to consistently achieve at the very highest level.

But instead of studying the lions of business, they chose the arena of sports, focusing on the extraordinary Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls basketball team; England's legendary Manchester United soccer team; the five-time Super Bowl Champion 49ers, and, Team New Zealand, winners of the America's Cup.

From that research comes a model called the Peak Performing Organization, or PPO.

This model does away with the traditional command and control strategies of business, military strategies really: target the consumer, penetrate markets, destroy the competition.

In its place come nine principles taken from the sports world, such as Principle #1 - creating an inspirational aura they call Making Magic. Other principles include finding Inspirational Players; enabling Game Breaking Ideas; Sharing the Dream; and finally, commitment to The Last Detail.

Kevin Roberts Keynote presentation is scheduled for 9:30 am, Friday October 30 at the Fairmont Hotel.

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