The Growth Guy

Losing Our Freedom; Most Fragile LInk; Steve Jobs Back; Summer Reading; Teenagers

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES: (while on vacation -- so more personal)

First, glad Steve Jobs is back -- he officially returned this week, though he was on the Apple campus as early as last week.

We're Losing Our Freedom -- on the eve of Independence Day in the U.S. I have to share the single biggest shocker that struck me while traveling the world with my family the past nine months -- we've slowly lost our freedoms in the U.S. It took being gone for nine months to see it from afar. It's not that we don't have more freedom than others on the planet, it's just that we're losing a lot of freedom we've had. Like the proverbial frog in a pot of hot water, our freedoms have been slowly eroded -- our freedom to make our own decisions, our freedom to do as we choose, our freedom to live without fear of violating some law, even our freedom of speech -- the entire Life, Liberty, and Right to Private Property (how it was originally written) aspect of our Declaration of Independence. I'll be speaking to this subject when my wife and I make a presentation on our trip at the EO Barcelona University this fall.

Join Us in Panama -- our favorite hideaway, Panama, inaugurated a new President this week, WPOer Ricardo Martinelli, a self-made businessman who built one of the largest private companies in Panama, the Super 99 supermarket chain. And his Vice President is YPOer Juan Carlos Varela. I spent last Thursday leading another workshop for the Panama YPO chapter. One of Martinelli's agendas is to institute a 10% flat tax making Panama the Hong Kong of Latin America. And the new Finance and Economic Minister is Alberto Vallarino, one of the wealthiest business owners in Panama as former CEO of Banistmo Bank, which he sold to HSBC for $1.6 billion. Alberto is our neighbor as the developer, with EOer Fernando Duque, of Latin America's premier five-star resort Buenaventura where we own a couple properties.

BuenaVentura Opportunities -- there are some real estate opportunities in Buenaventura -- would love to have you as a neighbor. I particularly recommend the few four-bedroom villas left at the Bristol Hotel in Buenaventura. And you'll be among other business executives and owners including other EOers and YPOers. Contact Tatiana Dominguez if interested (I'm not receiving a penny of compensation nor do they even know I've made this mention -- I'm just bullish on the resort and Panama).

Most Accessible Private Jungle Reserve in the World -- and my two oldest sons joined me for a three day adventure in the jungles of Panama located in what I call "the most fragile link" in the Americas. It's a 10,000 acre private reserve (one of the new rages among the wealthy) located at the narrowest point of Panama (35 miles). It's vital in that birds and animals have just this narrow spot to move between North and South America. And leading the initiative is Nathan Gray, founder of Earth Train, a global organization educating a new group of youth leaders through biocultural restoration. Nathan also brought OxFam to the U.S. and has 40 years of educating youth around the world. And since it?s located just 45 minutes from Panama's International Airport (PTY), it's one of the most accessible (and bug free) jungles in the world. With Wifi and satellite phones, we were also in touch with the world while communing with nature. My sons had a blast.

Teenagers -- having four children, I continue to struggle with the whole parenting role. One of my mentors is Rabbi Baars and his Get Bliss programs. His latest short piece on dealing with teenagers is perfect where he outlines the worse punishment you can administer a teenager! And it helps build the relationship vs. hurt the relationship as does most punishment.

Summer Time Reading -- and I just started the latest biography on Andrew Jackson entitled American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. It's excellent so far.

Number One Business Question

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Half-day Rockefeller Habits Workshop -- last-minute addition -- July 30 Atlanta, GA -- it's the last workshop I'll lead in the U.S. before heading to Barcelona for a year...Details

Who Are the 250 Most Important Relationships To Your Business? -- and who are the 50 most vital! This is a very powerful and strategic question -- the key question posed by Keith Ferrazzi on our Growth Series video webcast Tuesday. He's been sitting with CEOs of top companies around the world and working on this very question. We've started our list for Gazelles -- influencers, media-types, suppliers, global partners, inside staff, and of course a key list of customers. It forces you to examine your short and long term strategy, which must be clear if you're to decide the right 250! Excellent exercise for your next weekly, monthly, or quarterly meeting.

What Are You Doing to Deepen Those Relationships? -- Keith describes five levels of relationship one can have with a person ranging from no relationship to what he calls a "lifeline relationship" -- someone who truly has your back. Even most couples can't say that about each other. And many people have "chains" from childhood that prevent them from developing deep relationships i.e. issues of worthiness, self-esteem, intimacy, or openness.

Four Steps to a Deeper Relationship -- Keith described four steps one takes to deepen an existing or new business (or personal) relationship so it's more close, personal, and sincere: Generosity, Vulnerability, Candor, and Accountability. The first step aligns with Robert Cialdini's "Reciprocity" principle of Influence. You must first be generous and genuine in finding out what would be helpful to the other person and then helping them. Vulnerability is a willingness to discuss your own passions, struggles, and beliefs. Candor is caring enough about someone to be straightforward with them. And Accountability is holding each other to the promises and goals you make.

Five Minutes Is All it Takes -- notes Ferrazzi "Because of fears and insecurities, most people take a very long time to develop intimacy. With the right approach, in five minutes you can develop a level of intimacy with somebody you've never met before that is deeper than what you probably have with people who share cubicles and office space. It starts out very simply by being willing to share some of your passions in life and asking others to do the same. Then it goes to the next level: sharing some of your struggles and asking others to do the same." I experienced this in Bahrain -- one of the EO Members and I immediately delved into questions concerning Islam and Christianity leading to a deep and powerful conversation and relationship -- and it happened as quickly as Ferrazzi describes.

Read Who's Got Your Back First -- and then read Never Eat Alone. Ferrazzi suggests he wrote the books in reverse order. Or tune into the archived version of Tuesday's 90 minute webcast -- it's the soft stuff that delivers hard results to the business. Ferrazzi's presentation had a real impact on my thinking and actions, which I put into practice the very next day to deepen a relationship with a key thought leader -- powerful, yet simple, stuff.

Father -- Son Relationship -- speaking of relationships and social networking, Dave Davis, CEO of RDA Systems sent me this note in reaction to us hiring an intern to work our Facebook strategy "Wanted to let you know I also took David Meerman Scott's advice in Rave (World Wide Rave) and hired my 18 year old son to do the same thing you are doing with your intern. A win / win / win. Company, family & son." Doesn't get any better than that!

Americorps VISTA Volunteer -- and Steven Reames, Executive Director of Genesis World Missions, sent me a similar note "We procured an Americorps VISTA (Volunteer in Service to America) for a year-long $10,000-stipend opportunity. She's helping us write and assemble our 3-5 year strategic plan, marketing plan, fund development plan etc. Part of her activity is updating the Facebook page 1-2 times a day: thanks to volunteers, thanks to donors, current needs list for our non-profit, etc. It keeps our activities at the top of everybody's news feed this way and is generating BUZZ. Then she recruited a volunteer who is heavily into Twitter and has trained her to generate material within her sphere. Great use of volunteers for non-profits!!"

The Youth Have Our Backs -- all across the globe, it's the youth that remain the future of our nations! May we be great role models in helping them build deeper and more lasting relationships than our generation.

Why You Need One of These People in Your Business

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Private Equity Firms -- do any of you have connections with Private Equity Firms? If so, let me know vharnish@gazelles.com -- thanks.

Eleven-Page Must Read e-book -- Matt Heinz, Heinz Marketing, sent along his new e-book entitled Six Essential Social Media Tools for Every Small Business -- it's both concise and specific on what businesses should do re: Facebook, Linked In, Flickr, Blogs, YouTube, and Twitter. Review at your next one-hour marketing meeting (you have this meeting, right?).

How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live -- Raghoo Potinii, founder and CEO of Knowledge Capital in India, pointed me to this excellent Time magazine piece by Steven Johnson, the famous author of Emergence. In the article Johnson describes precisely how Twitter enhanced a conference on school reform he attended earlier this year (attended by entrepreneurs, VCs, educators, etc -- the kind of group that could actually reform school!). Take 3 minutes and read this article.

10 Ways Twitter Will Change Business -- the Time article also points you to their equally excellent piece on applying Twitter to business. Here's the link that provides the specific list -- you can then choose which idea you wish to dive into. Again, review this at your next one-hour weekly marketing meeting -- that's all it takes to stay on top of your marketing initiatives.

Best Use for a Summer Intern -- frustrated with my own lack of time to understand and execute how our company can use Web 2.0, I hired a summer intern who just graduated from high school (they get it). He has 20,000 twitter followers, his neighbor is the VC behind Twitter, and he's launched his own social networking business. I found him through my own staff whose children and spouses knew of Greg and his talents -- and who thought that working with us might be more educational than working at a Smoothie King this summer to earn some spending money for college. BTW, I used Topgrading's five screening interview questions to interview Greg (you use them as well, right?) to make sure he was a great fit with our culture and company -- it still matters even with interns.

Specific Assignment -- his project is to get Gazelles up on Facebook and to figure out how best we can connect with existing and potential customers. With Facebook projected to have 500 million users by the end of this year, your customers are likely to be there. He'll also structure a Twitter strategy to help us communicate with those customers who prefer this channel (I was up teaching at MIT yesterday and several CEOs in the class used Twitter as a way to take collective notes of my lecture which are permanently stored on Twitter and available to the other Executive Management Program attendees).

Reading and Watching Assignments -- I also gave Greg several books to read, starting with David Meerman Scott's New Rules of Marketing and PR and World Wide Rave. He also watched Scott's two hour webcast from our Sales Summit and is excited to tune-in to Keith Ferrazzi's webcast next week since Keith is so well known in the marketing and internet/Web 2.0 world. In addition, I have him reading Steven Johnson's famous book Emergence, which is the strategy behind Google, Facebook, Amazon, Wikipedia, etc. Last, I had him Google "Olgivy's Five E's of Marketing" which provides an outstanding PowerPoint and white paper on the Five E's that have replaced the Five P's of marketing. It's been fun for me to see Greg light up over this material vs. the mind numbing stuff they teach 18 year olds in high school i.e. the need for school reform.

Cost of Intern -- actually Greg wanted a high-end laptop (roughly $2200) as compensation for a summer of work. He's in our offices each day cranking hard and reading at night -- and its great having his youthful energy and insights injected into our offices. And I feel we're helping to educate a future entrepreneur. What's better than that! So find a young person and mentor them this summer.

CEOs Only; Success Isn't Tied to Intelligence; Keith Ferrazzi Webcast

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES: (Learning opportunities)

Keep your team smart -- Keith Ferrazzi LIVE Video Webcast -- Tuesday, June 23, noon -- 1:30pm ET (US) -- a dose of first class monthly execution education for your management team, but first...

For CEO/Founder's Only (and former BOGers) -- join 35 top-notch CEOs from around the globe -- evening in suite at NY Met's new ball field with Hall of Famer; Jack Daly, Cameron Herold, Simon Sinek, Stephen Jagger, Jamie Flinchbaugh as faculty; Poker Tournament; 35 CEOs from MIT's "Birthing of Giants" executive program. Four seats left for June 24 -- 28^th executive program in NYC co-hosted by John Ratliff, CEO of Appletree -- a chance to build close lasting relationships with your fellow CEOs -- complete details below under DETAILS or go to www.birthingofgiants.com

Success isn't a result of intelligence -- so much as hard work and a unique process of collaboration. That's been the power of the MIT Executive program I chaired for fifteen years -- and I'll be back up at MIT Thursday to kick-off a new class as the opening keynote. It's the power of collaboration i.e. "tapping into more brains" that is the key to maximizing your potential. And this is the power/message behind Keith Ferrazzi's new book.

#2 NY Times Bestseller -- just edged out by Gladwell's megahit Outliers, Ferrazzi's new book
Who's Got Your Back: The breakthrough program to build deep, trusting relationships that create success - and won't let you fail demonstrates that becoming a winner in any field requires a trusted team of advisors who can offer guidance and hold us accountable to achieving our goals.

9-step Program -- Ferrazzi's 90-minute video webcast presentation will focus on his 9-step program for building the ultimate team-based success strategy. Participants will learn:

		1)	The Four Mindsets to build deeper, more trusting "lifeline relationships"
		2)	Tips and tools to overcome the career-crippling habits that hold us back
		3)	How to set goals in a dramatically more powerful way
		4)	Why we should replace "yes men" in our lives with those who get it and care - and will hold us accountable to achieving our goals
		5)	How to lower our guards and let others help

Marshall Goldsmith Concludes -- author of the NYT best seller What Got You Here Won't Get You There notes "If I'd had this book at the start of my career, I would have saved myself 30 years of trial and error. If you are serious about your success, I strongly recommend that you read this book and build your support circle today."

Sign-up for Keith Ferrazzi's inspiring and insightful 90 minute LIVE video webcast with your team June 23, noon -- 1:30pm US ET.

	I love the webinars. I haven't missed one yet. We watch with our team and lively discussion always follows.
	Scott Nash, CEO MOM's Organic Market

DETAILS:

This note from John Ratliff re: the June 24 - 28 Executive Program in NYC:

As some of you may know I have attended a program for the last 3 summers called Birthing of Giants at MIT in Boston. It is a program designed to help Entrepreneurs drive their companies forward. My class has organized a Birthing of Giants program again this summer in NYC. It is an invitation only event attracting amazing Entrepreneurs from around the world. Due to a few last minute cancellations, and the fact that I am on the organizing committee, I have been given the authority to offer up to 4 spots to individuals outside the program. It is short notice but this is a don't miss event. It is an ultra small and intimate group with no more than 35 attendees, and most of the presenters are "staying around" for the night networking events and will be available essentially one on one.

So the Details...

Birthing of Giants Year 4 / BOG Reunion

Hosted at the amazing Empire Hotel in New York City -- www.empirehotelnyc.com

June 24-28^th in New York City

*Hosted and Moderated by Cameron Herold, former COO of 800-GOT-JUNK *June 24th Opening Reception and Networking event *June 25th Full Day with Jack Daly on Sales and Marketing -- Jack is essentially doing the follow up talk to the Culture discussion from Owners Forum!! *June 25th evening -- Jack and Cameron to host workshops and one on one discussion over dinner and drinks and networking *June 26th am Simon Sinek, EO and YPO top 5 rated speaker discusses the concept of The Golden Circle *June 26th afternoon Jamie Flinchbaugh cofounder of The Lean Learning Center discussing operational efficiency *June 26th Evening dinner and networking and member workshops followed by a Poker Tournament and lessons with a Poker Pro! *June 27th Stephen Jagger of Combustion Labs Media discusses the web and online tools as they relate to business and marketing *June 27th afternoon, networking lunch and free time in NYC

The culminating event of the week will be the Empire Suite at new CITI Field, home of the NY Mets for the Mets / Yankees "Subway Series"!!! These are impossible to get tickets. We will have a special guest Mets Hall of Famer visit the suite during the game.

www.birthingofgiants.com

The cost to attend is $3600 all inclusive except alcohol for single occupancy at the Empire, and $3200 if you want to double up. Everything, speakers, hotel, food and refreshments (except alcohol) and the game in the Empire Suite are included in the price. Every penny collected for the event fee is going back into the event as it is being run by volunteers from our class and not a third party. It is a true value!!

So, this is a once in a lifetime chance to get into a Birthing of Giants program without the formal application process. If you attend year 4 you will be guaranteed a spot in all future BOG events we host going forward, which will be at least yearly. It is truly one of the most significant learning events I have ever been a part of, and I am excited to get a few industry people involved. The only requirement is that you are the Owner or a Senior Manager of the business.

We only have 4 spots so if you think you might be interested please email me directly ASAP and let me know. The spots will not last very long.

I am at jratliff@appletreeanswers.com

Have a great day!
John Ratliff
Appletree Answers

Bank Refuses to Finance New Stores -- Scott Nash's Response

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Best Year in Profits and Revenues in 23 Years -- Scott Nash, founder of MOM's Organic Markets, was filling out an application for "best business in Maryland" award. One of the questions "How have you made your company better as a result of the recession?" prompted the following answer, another indication that this "black swan" moment in our economy can provide once-in-a-lifetime opportunities...

Bank Refuses to Finance New Stores... "This recession is one of the best things to happen to me as an entrepreneur. MOM's is largely recession-proof and grown nicely over the years, but until now I have been neglectful in almost solely focusing on top-line growth. When the bank told me in Oct. of 2008 that they would not finance any more new stores, I was forced to focus for the first time on existing operations and how to make the best of what I have."

Gross Margin is Key... "Since then, without compromising sales or service, we reduced our labor 3 points, improved margin 1.5 points (we have maintained our "lowest price guarantee" by mostly reducing shrink and lowering cost of goods sold), implemented meaningful daily/weekly/monthly metrics, and conduct effective monthly P&L meetings.

Daily/Weekly Metrics... "In the past, I never really analyzed the details of financial statements- mainly focusing on the top line and merely glancing at the bottom line, figuring that growth would solve any problems. Now, I have a very good reading fiscally on how MOM's is doing each week, if not each day in some categories. 2009 will be MOM's best year in our 23 year history- both in revenues and in profits- and I feel fortunate to have been taught this valuable lesson (better late than never!).

Securing Cheap Real Estate and Hiring Good People... "One more thing- not only is MOM's stronger right now within our 4 walls, but our competition is much weaker. Whole Foods is getting beat up and the other independents in our region are pulling back. One such direct competitor who was moving into the area from Richmond just pulled out of a lease in downtown DC and we are now negotiating for that same space at a lower rental rate. The opportunities in hiring good people and securing cheap real estate are as good as I've seen in my 23 years in business!"

Unlimited Opportunities...concludes Nash (FYI, he was worried when giving me permission to share his note to me that he would come off as bragging -- anyone that knows Scott knows that he's one of the most humble leaders you'll ever meet) "When this economy turns around, surviving companies will be lean and mean and have unlimited opportunities." Scott, thanks for sharing the good and the bad.

Richard Branson's Question; Number One Book; Ferrazzi Webcast June 23

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Do You Have an Elegant Business? -- one that flows, is almost effortless, that scales naturally. This is the question that's been haunting me since I read pages 13 -- 15 in Keith Ferrazzi's new book Who's Got Your Back: The Breakthrough Program To Build Deep, Trusting Relationships That Create Success -- And Won't Let You Fail. Keith is the acclaimed author of Never Eat Alone. Join us June 23 for his 90 minute LIVE video webcast -- next in our "Growth Series"

Number One Non-Fiction Book -- and this past weekend Who's Got Your Back hit #1 on Publisher Weekly's official list. I thought Jack Canfield, co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul, summed up Ferrazzi's new book the best:

"Keith Ferrazzi does for relationships what Tom Peters did for management . . . he's opened our eyes to a new reality that relationships are the key to success in business. Who's Got Your Back will teach anyone, from job seekers to CEOs, how to quickly build the kinds of relationships that really make a difference in business."

Richard Branson's Success -- right after reading Ferrazzi's book, I finally got around to reading the 624 page autobiography of Richard Branson this weekend. And wow -- it's obvious that what Ferrazzi teaches is exactly what Branson has done to become the huge success he is. His life is all about relationships and having people covering his back (and front and sides!). And how Branson does it, again, mirrors what Ferrazzi teaches. It seems the "soft stuff" is the "key stuff."

Branson's Question -- as you know, I'm all about the question more than the answer. So Branson is going to meet, for the first time, the guy to which he's going to trust his life as they fly first across the Atlantic in a hot air balloon, then across the Pacific, and then around the world. When they finally meet, Branson only has one question for the guy. Can you guess what he asks to determine whether he's going to bet on a guy not to get him killed? Think about it -- I'll give the answer below.

Four Vows -- anyway, back to Ferrazzi. He suggests, if you choose a better future, that you must commit to four vows:

1) We've chosen to help others and stop worrying only about ourselves. 2) We've chosen to let our guards down so others can help. 3) We've chosen transparency and candor over politics and BS. 4) We've chosen to hold each other accountable so that we don't fail.

Then he asks three questions: What choices are you making today to be more prosperous? What choices will you make? How will you reach out to someone to make a difference in your life -- and in theirs? And he asks leaders to share their commitment with a comment on his blog

Marshall Goldsmith Concludes -- author of the NYT best seller What Got You Here Won't Get You There notes "If I'd had this book at the start of my career, I would have saved myself 30 years of trial and error. If you are serious about your success, I strongly recommend that you read this book and build your support circle today."

Sign-up for Keith Ferrazzi's inspiring and insightful 90 minute LIVE video webcast with your team June 23, noon -- 1:30pm US ET.

	I love the webinars. I haven't missed one yet. We watch with our team and lively discussion always follows.
	Scott Nash, CEO MOM's Organic Market

Branson's Question -- so, since Branson has two children of his own, the only question he asks Per, the guy that he'll team up with for the balloon adventures, is "Do you have children?" When he says yes, Branson agrees to go!

Team of Leaders; 14 Year Problem Fixed; Ratliffs Big Return; Mulally Meeting

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Team of Future Leaders -- "this one idea has already been worth a quarter million dollars the last five months," notes John Ratliff, CEO of Appletree Answering Service. John was chatting with Cameron Herold (franchising and PR guru) about how customer complaints and issues in his company are left up to his customer service managers and operations managers to handle -- he simply didn't trust his supervisor level (first level above his call center agents) to handle properly nor did they have access to his CRM system.

Customers Made to Wait -- continues Ratliff "problem is, we are 24/7 and the managers only work Monday -- Friday, therefore if a problem came up over the weekend, we made the customer wait until Monday. "At that point Cameron said, "then you're an a*s!" (direct and to the point!)

14 Year Problem Fixed -- so John immediately bought 38 additional Salesforce.com licenses, bringing their total to 102 (not cheap). He then flew his supervisors from 13 locations across the U.S. to his corporate office for training (again not cheap) so they could learn how to professionally handle customer issues and avoid losing the customer. Results -- Appletree has cut customer turnover from night and weekend complaints to the tune of $250k. They track complaint times, dates, and quit dates and had experienced a high skewed number of quits on Mondays from weekend complaints -- a problem that's existed in his business for fourteen years. "It is gone," exclaims Ratliff. "Our Monday quits are now in line with the rest of the week and overall service-related quits are down."

Babysitting Role -- concludes Ratliff "we always viewed our Supervisors in a more babysitting role -- by empowering them we are seeing dramatic results and we're developing a team of future leaders. It still amazes me how very, very simple some things are yet when you're on the inside looking out you just cannot see them."

India's Future Leaders -- speaking of empowering future leaders, I just returned from educating over 250 CEOs and executives of growth firms (and large firms) in India on the Rockefeller Habits. India's economy is expected to be one of the fastest growing in 2009 and their business leaders remain eager to learn. And roughly 50% of the audience represented repeat business -- CEOs and MDs bringing larger teams a second or third time to the workshop indicating that the habits are gaining traction and starting to have a significant impact on these Indian firms.

Ford's Weekly Huddle -- Jeff Snyder, President of CT-based Inspira Marketing Group, summarized this piece out of Fortune Magazine:

"I live for Thursday mornings at 8 a.m.," says Ford Motor CEO Alan Mulally in a Fortune article by Alex Taylor III (5/25/09). Thursdays at eight is when Alan meets with his direct reports from 12 functional areas in the Thunderbird conference room at the Ford headquarters. Alan and his team sit "around a circular dark-wood table" with Alan in the "pilot's seat." Blackberries aren't allowed and neither are side conversations.

"If somebody starts to talk or they don't respect each other, the meeting just stops," says Alan. "They know I've removed vice presidents because they couldn't stop talking because they thought they were so damn important." Instead the team presents reports coded as either "green for good, yellow for caution, red for problems." The first few times Alan held these meetings everybody coded their reports "green," but Alan fixed that in a hurry.

He said: "You guys, you know we lost a few billion dollars last year. Is there anything that's not going well?" Well, um, maybe. Within a week, says Alan, "the entire set of charts were all rainbows." Whether there are pots of gold waiting for Ford at the end of those rainbows remains to be seen, of course. But Alan sounds resolute: "I am here to save an American and global icon," he says. His secret is, there are no secrets. "This is a huge enterprise, and the magic is, everybody knows the plan," he says.

Jim Collins on Fannie Mae and Circuit City; Mastery Disciplines; Front Tables Reserved

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Urgent Media Request from FORTUNE Small Business Magazine -- May 27 deadline -- looking for small business owners/CEOs who have cut their own salaries (permanently or temporarily) sometime in the last two years to help keep the business running and seen positive results. They are looking for upbeat stories, told by people who are willing to be honest about their experiences. They are NOT looking for start-up stories where the entrepreneur didn't take a salary for a couple years. If you think you fit the bill, or know of anyone who does, please email Megan Erickson at Megan_Erickson@Timeinc.com.

What Jim Collins Say About Circuit City and Fannie Mae -- Two of the "Good to Great" companies, many have wondered what Jim has to say about these failures. He dedicates a long passage in his new book, How the Mighty Fall, defending Good to Great -- and he shares some thoughts in a major Sunday NY Times piece. To quote Jim from the article "Just because a company falls doesn't invalidate what we can learn by studying that company when it was at its historical best."Take five minutes and read this article more for an insight into Jim Collins the person, how he writes, hires assistants, his personal goals, and his amazing discipline.

Sleep and Time Logs -- among Jim's disciplines are to make sure he sleeps enough, so he remains creative, and that he spends at least 50% of his time on creative work. He went to a sleep lab to understand his sleeping patterns and has found that he needs 70 to 75 hours of sleep over a ten day period, so he keeps a sleep log (I think I'm running short myself and I'm going to track for a few weeks). To track his creative time, he keeps a stopwatch in his pocket which tracks three times -- his creative time, his teaching time, and his "other" time. To understand "mastery" take five minutes and read the NY Times article about Jim -- lessons in there for all of us.

Only 18 Speeches per Year -- notes the article "Mr. Collins also is quite practiced at saying 'no.' Requests pour in every week for him to give speeches to corporations and trade associations. It could be a bustling sideline, given that he commands a top-tier fee of $65,000 to dispense his wisdom. But he will give only 18 speeches this year, and about a third of them will be pro bono for nonprofit groups. "BTW, one of those top-tier speeches is at our upcoming Growth Summit, October 20 -- 21, Dallas, TX. Joining Jim will be four other best-selling authors.

Private Luncheon with Jim Collins -- companies that send an executive team of four or more to the Growth Summit will receive a seat at a private luncheon with Jim Collins (eight or more will receive two seats).

Front Ten Tables Already Reserved -- instead of playing games with early bird discounts, etc., we're more like a rock concert -- the earlier you reserve a seat (simple deposit of $250) and the more seats you reserve, the closer your table is to the stage. Companies have already reserved the front ten tables. Reserve your seats and the balance isn't due until Sept 20 (help you save cash), so grab the best seats now.

June 1 Full Page Ad for Growth Summit Reaches over 1 Million CEOs in FSB magazine -- we usually get a big spike in reservations when the ad hits. We want you to have preferential seating -- so reserve seats now and beat the crowd. Here's a link to the ad

How the Mighty Fall -- It's time to grab market share and gain a leg-up on our competition. It's been over 70 years since we've had similar market conditions. In 48 hours we'll give you the ideas, tools, and techniques to take advantage of this opportunity. It's the bold that win during times like this, not the faint at heart. Come join a growing list of winners at our upcoming Growth Summit 2009.

"Awesome Summit. We now have 14 things we must do to be massively successful in the next 24 mos. The Summit is responsible for about half of them!"
	Paul Taylor, CEO Webmarketing 123

Growth Summit Sponsors: American Airlines, American Express, AFLAC and Pitney Bowes

Boring CEOs More Effective; Getty Habits; Stunning Home Videos

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

"The individual who wants to reach the top in business must appreciate the might of the force of habit and must understand that practices are what create habits. He must be quick to break those habits that can break him and hasten to adopt those practices that will become the habits that help him achieve the success he desires."
	J. Paul Getty 1892-1976, American Oil Tycoon

Slightly Boring CEOs More Effective -- David Brooks, one of my favorite columnists in the NY Times, penned an excellent summary of some recent research on CEO effectiveness this week. Seems people skills are overrated and execution/persistence more important -- it's been my experience as well. Take three minutes and read this important column -- and he ties it to Jim Collins work -- hopefully you picked up a copy of Jim's new book that came out on Tuesday -- I'm just now reading it

Execution and Organizational Skills -- and my favorite paragraph in the article "What mattered, it turned out, were execution and organizational skills. The traits that correlated most powerfully with success were attention to detail, persistence, efficiency, analytic thoroughness and the ability to work long hours."

Clear Direction and Incremental Efficiency Gains -- Brook's continues "The market seems to want C.E.O.'s to offer a clear direction for their companies. There's a tension between being resolute and being flexible. The research suggests it's more important to be resolute, even at the cost of some flexibility. The second thing the market seems to want from leaders is a relentless and somewhat mind-numbing commitment to incremental efficiency gains." Remember, this is for big company CEOs, who are more likely hired-guns vs. the original entrepreneur -- keep this in perspective. Smaller firms often have to be nicer to people in order to attract and keep top talent -- and entrepreneurs often hire CEOs/Presidents to fulfill the above functions as the company gets bigger -- it depends on your own ability to follow habits of success.

How to Engage Your Entire Organization in Driving Business Results -- in an article entitled the same, Gazelles coach Kevin Lawrence shares how Victorian Epicure (blended spices), founded by Sylvie Rochette in 1991, uses Quarterly Themes to provide clear direction and drive incremental efficiency gains -- one of the reasons why she runs one of the largest woman-owned companies in Canada helping 5000 women across Canada to run their own businesses.

In & Out in 72 -- one of their quarterly themes focused on a serious issue customers were having in getting their orders just before Christmas. In order to drive home the need to deliver orders in less than three days, they called the theme "In & Out in 72." And to counterbalance the concern that increased delivery speed (Process) might hurt accuracy (effecting customer satisfaction -- People), they also declared that delivery accuracy would need to be at least 97%. This is why there are two Critical Numbers listed on the new One-Page Strategic Plan, one that impacts the people/reputation side of the business and one that counterbalances and impacts the process/productivity side of the business.

Bold Move -- as a way to drive home the theme and put some visible heat on the company to meet these new aggressive delivery goals, the team created a series of ads which they sent to their external sales consultants -- here's a link to these clever ads. The final ad entitled "Period5" ran after the end of the quarter to acknowledge accomplishment of the goal. Again, read Kevin's short article to get an excellent example of using Critical Numbers and a Quarterly Theme to drive performance.

Pixability's Discipline (and Outstanding Home Videos) -- and this note from Bettina Hein, Founder & CEO of Pixability who's firm takes amateur home videos and makes them into stunning custom home videos -- check out these before and after videos. Notes Hein "We've been using the Daily Huddle for 2 months now and have integrated it not only with our Quarterly Themes/Goals but also with a management methodology called Agile that was originally designed for software development teams. We're not developing software at Pixability but we've found the methodology works wonders for us."

Iterate More Quickly -- continues Hein, "Agile involves:

	1) creating a 'backlog' of 'stories' (things that need to get done)
	2) dividing the quarter into 2-week sprints
	3) deciding in a 2-weekly planning meeting what everyone will be working on (2hrs.)
	4) all those stories go up on our "Scrum Board"
	5) every day we meet in front of the Scrum Board for Huddle to discuss numbers, progress and bottlenecks/blockages
	6) at the end of the 2-week sprint we have a retrospective meeting (max 1hr.) to measure our 'velocity' (how many stories we got done) and to discuss learnings.

This process has made us so much more productive and connected. It has also helped us correct mistakes earlier and iterate more quickly. It makes my job as a manager much easier because everyone's stories/tasks are in plain view for all to see and everyone sees how they progress on the board. The group is the manager and the group feels much more responsible for getting everything done."

What a Beautiful Thing -- Kelly Freeman, co-owner of Network People, a Microsoft Solution Provider and IT Services firm, adds to the importance of Quarterly Priorities and Daily Huddles. In a recent note to me, Freeman notes "To our daily huddles, this morning we posted scoreboards for our Quarterly Priorities around our meeting room (Baseball theme- if we make the goal we are taking the team to dinner and a Tampa Bay Rays Game). Just before receiving your e-newsletter about daily huddles I asked the guys to rate the helpfulness of our daily meetings on a scale of 1 -- 10. Average score was a 7, but all agreed that it was helpful for the company as a whole. Later in the day I overheard the guys discussing between themselves the real goal behind our metrics. An hour later I had a phone call with a team member letting me know about an accomplishment toward our quarterly priority. And later I found 3 team members working together on accomplishing another.

What a beautiful thing it is to see alignment...for the first time in 10+ years."

Quarterly Themes and Daily Huddles -- a powerful way to drive incremental improvement and discipline -- just like the best CEOs of large companies! Keep implementing the Rockefeller Habits.

Jim Collins New Book; Best Guerilla Marketing Campaign; Come Drink

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Jim Collins New Book -- his long awaited next book, How the Mighty Fall And Why Some Companies Never Give In, arrives in bookstores (and ships from Amazon) next Tuesday, May 19. And an excerpt from the book will be in the May 22 Business Week that hits the newsstands tomorrow (Friday, May 15). This is the new material Collins, author of Good to Great and Built to Last, will be sharing in a four hour presentation at our Growth Summit Oct 20 -- 21 in Dallas. Mark your calendars.

Chocolate Covered Grasshoppers -- talk about "lumpy mail" -- GotVMail just changed their name to Grasshopper and to highlight the change and guerilla market their company (they provide virtual phone systems for entrepreneurs) they FedEx'd out 25,000 chocolate covered grasshoppers to influential entrepreneurs and received Fox News coverage. And it's working. I spoke to the EO Chapter in Chicago yesterday where several members were talking about the chocolate covered grasshoppers they had just received and whether or not they had tried them!

Entrepreneurs Can Change the World -- CEO David Hauser and the Grasshopper team also produced an excellent video on how entrepreneurs can change the world, part of a viral marketing campaign -- take a few minute to watch this inspiring piece and share with other entrepreneurs and your children. BTW, this is the same company that got actor Gary Busey to do the YouTube video piece on their core values and uses Post-it-Notes to share their values around the office -- they continue to find clever ways to market internally and externally. Thanks to their Gazelles' coach Les Rubenovitch for alerting us to these innovations.

Looking to Expand Into New Zealand? -- Rockefeller Habits practitioner and fan, Adrian Low, is between gigs and looking to see if any other companies aligned with our techniques is looking to expand into New Zealand. Low would like to help you rapidly grow and expand your business in one of the most beautiful spots on the planet. Contact Low at Adrian.low@duffillwatts.com.

6 Critical Success Factors for Managing a Successful Acquisition Program -- white paper available. Gary Moon, BOGer, Rockefeller Habits practitioner, and M&A guru and his team have developed their buy-side acquisition program methodology across hundreds of transactions including best practices from today's most prolific acquirers, developed specifically with Gazelles mid-market client companies in mind. Here's the link.

Should you be considering acquisitions today? Most of our client companies have done well in identifying new markets, developing new revenue streams, and growing their companies organically -- but they often overlook an equally important path to growth - Acquisitions. The more successful a company gets, the more likely they will need to acquire in order to develop new and varied streams of growth and earnings. When the economy turns and the recovery shifts into full swing, the playing field in many industries will have shifted, sometimes dramatically. Companies can either participate in this reordering, or risk watching it happen around them. Acquisitions in today's environment create an unprecedented opportunity to separate from your competition in this time of uncertainty.

Frequent buyers consistently outperform non-buyers -- Bain and McKinsey studies have shown that companies that pursue an active balanced program of acquisitions create more shareholder value than those with passive, or no M&A strategies. They also show that constant acquirers - or those that buy consistently through economic cycles, and recession acquirers -- or those that increase their buying in recessionary times, consistently outperform growth buyers -- those which buy principally in growth periods.

Yet, why do such a high portion of acquisitions fail? According to many studies, up to 70% of acquisitions fail to create value for owners, yet it is virtually impossible to build a world-class company through organic growth alone. Most firms should engage in disciplined, strategy driven deal making, which usually means both buying and selling, and need to bring on specific deal expertise to increase probability of success. Get some help by finding the right "who."

Are you Playing Not to Lose, Or Are You Playing to Win -- My Last Two-Day Rockefeller Habits Workshop This Season -- June 9 -- 10, DC. Before I move the family to Barcelona in August I'll be personally leading a two-day Rockefeller Habits workshop. You have a six to twelve month window to grab market share and take advantage of your competitors' weakened business. I'll be working with you on five strategies for doubling revenue in the next twelve months and providing specific updated tools for reducing by 80% the time it takes for you to manage the business so you can spend more time on market-facing activities. Join me in DC (next to Dulles airport) June 9 -- 10.