Inconvenient Genius; Hostopia Doubles Valuation; Mumbai Update; Tom Peters Interview

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Tom Peters on "Growing in a Shrinking Market" -- take just over a minute (consider sharing at your weekly meeting) and watch FSB's short interview of business icon Tom Peters at our Growth Summit. Then discuss how you might apply his ideas to your business. Go to (www.CNNMoney.com/video). When you get there, scroll to the middle of the page and click on "BY SECTION" then click on the left "Fortune Small Business" - you will see Tom's interview on the second row. Short and sweet. And if you scroll down to the third row you'll see the founder of Staples, Tom Stemberg's advice as well. Worth another 2 minutes.

Colin Campbell Grows His Valuation in a Shrinking Market -- keep from being blindsided -- watch how Co-Founder and CEO of $50 million public company Hostopia successfully doubled the valuation of his company in July 2008, selling his company for $10.55 per share when he was trading at $4.50 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Colin was one of the first to beta-test Rhythm, our new dashboarding software, which transformed his weekly meetings from mere status sessions to meetings focused on priorities and taking action. It's the disciplined, as both Tom Peters states and Colin exemplifies, that thrive in turbulent times.

An Inconvenient Genius -- "How often has one person affected humanity to such a degree that were the fruits of his labor withdrawn immediately from our day-to-day existence, the world as we know it ... would essentially stop?" This is the opening line of a fascinating piece on the real (and little-known) inventor of the radio, wireless power, remote controls, alternating current and hundreds of other technologies. Steve Kayser interviews Marc Seifer, the expert on this genius inventor but bad businessman -- lessons for all of us.

India (and Mumbai) Update -- thank you for all the notes I received concerning our well-being in India. Yes, we were in Mumbai last week and ended up hunkered down in a heavily guarded Marriott. Just the evening before the strikes, the family was sitting around in the Taj lobby and touring India Gate. Despite the craziness, I've grown to love India and its people. Why? -- read this Dec 2 piece from BusinessWeek's India bureau chief entitled "Why India is a Target."

Shiva's "Start, Stop, Keep" -- Shiva is the supreme God in the Shaiva tradition of Hinduism. While at Gateway of India in Mumbai, we took an hour's boat ride to visit the famous Elephanta Caves, hewn out of solid rock in 600 AD. The largest sculpture is that of the three faces of Shiva -- Creation, Destruction, and Preservation -- mirroring the Start, Stop, and Keep aspects of growing a business. East continues to meet West. I look forward to seeing those of you making the journey to my final Rockefeller Habits workshop in DC next week -- more stories to share and a great way to prepare for 2009!

Comments

[Andrea Pezones]

Hi Verne,

I wonder how the valuation of businesses is going to be affected with the current economic crisis. Dot.com's are especially a problem because their market seems more easily "taken away from them" in favor of local markets. I was driving by a www.cars.com poster today and thought "well, there's a business that's not going to survive at the moment - or if it does its shares are going to crash and burn..." I am personally all for the emerging corporate barter exchange networks which allow non-cash trade but I do temper my use so I can still get some cash business. www.ormita.com looks promising but i also use ITEX.