The Agile Scaleup

Father's Day Appeal

"...keeping your children and wives great"

HEADLINES: (NOTE -- time sensitive material -- June 11 deadline to help your children and wives -- see below)

George Naddaff is one of the great "founders" of our time -- 77 years young, George will be teaching again in the MIT executive program tomorrow and sharing his stories of how he's launched (or found!) several well-known companies including Boston Chicken. His latest, KnowFat! Lifestyle Grill has grown to eight locations in the Boston region with 15 other national territories being built out as we speak -- he's taking on the obesity issue -- it's entrepreneurs that solve problems!

Chicken and Children -- George also launched two successful early learning center chains that eventually helped anchor KinderCare's expansion in the Northeast -- he's always had a soft spot for young people, especially children. With this passion, he's helping dramatically reduce the violence against   women and children.

To all you Fathers on Fathers Day (and "founders") -- consider becoming a "Founding Father" -- join with other men across the country to advance a new concept: use Father's Day as a reminder to take a stand against violence against women and children. If your $500 or larger donation is made by June 11, you'll be included in a full page ad in the NY Times. Please see the note below from my dear friend George Naddaff -- I dedicate this weekly insight to his message.

Please take five minutes to read George's message to us Fathers -- and then act -- you'll see my name in the ad -- I hope to see many of yours -- www.founding-fathers.org!:

  From: George Naddaff
  Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2007 5:18 PM
  Subject: FW: Founding Fathers Outreach

Dear Friends & Colleagues:

Please join me in planning something special for Father's Day this year. Last   year I was approached by one of our investors to become a Founding Father. The idea was to join with other men across the country to advance a new concept: that fathers could use Father's Day as a reminder to take a stand against one of the most pervasive, destructive, yet largely hidden problems in this country -- violence against women and children.

• 1 out of 5 teenage girls reports being beaten or abused by a dating partner  
• More than half of teens (57%) know friends who have been physically, sexually or verbally abused
• 1 in 3 women will be physically or sexually assaulted in her lifetime

I never really considered ending domestic/sexual violence a personal priority because fortunately, I never witnessed it in my own home. But it shocked me to know that these statistics could easily represent any one of our own daughters, sisters, friends and family.

Our kids look up to us as fathers, coaches, and role models. As concerned men, as fathers, husbands, brothers, and "coaches" to boys and girls, we can no longer stand on the sidelines. We must become part of the solution.

As new Founding Fathers, we each took a pledge to dedicate ourselves to coaching the next generation of boys to be better men and we each invested a minimum of $500 in the Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF), the nation's leading organization working to make families strong and communities safer for all of our daughters and sons. Our investment in FVPF is already making a significant difference.

This past year Founding Fathers helped launch the Coaching Boys into Men Playbook, a program that instructs athletic coaches on how to teach boys to channel their energy through sports and to resist violence -- on and off the field. The Playbook features "teachable moments" and inspiring quotes from champion coaches such as M.L. Carr, John Thompson, Sr., and Pat Riley to name a few. It has been   adopted by UNICEF for international distribution to soccer coaches and fans around the world, and it is being used by hundreds of local community and school-based sports programs throughout the United States.

With Father's Day just around the corner, I hope I can count on you to join me by making a gift of $500 toward this year's effort. When you do, the Ford Foundation will match your investment dollar for dollar to help the Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF) sustain and expand programs such as Coaching Boys into Men (among others) throughout the world.

In recognition of your support, you will be listed alongside other caring fathers in a special Father's Day Declaration in the New York Times. In the past this list has included men such as Joe Torre, Russell Simmons and Tom Brokaw, to name a few. This year will feature a particularly special message as Founding Fathers lay the foundation for a new campaign called, Give Respect.

Give Respect is a direct response to the overwhelmingly positive public reaction to the Coaching Boys into Men program. Scheduled to launch later this year, Give Respect will engage individuals everywhere to participate in building a foundation of respect for a violence-free tomorrow. It is based on the simple premise that giving respect to one another is the ultimate tool to prevent violence against women and children. At first, Give Respect will focus on enlisting workplaces through dynamic education and involvement activities for employees. Over time, it will become a leading platform to involve corporate executives and their employees, pop culture icons and opinion leaders, and the public at large.

By lending your name to this year's Father's Day effort and declaring your support as a new Founding Father you will have a deep and lasting impact on programs such as Coaching Boys into Men, Give Respect, and so many other groundbreaking initiatives led by the Family Violence Prevention Fund. Consistently listed as one of Worth Magazine's best nonprofits in America and recognized by Congress   as the nation's leading organization working to end violence against women and children for more than two decades, I assure you that your donation will be invested wisely (and don't forget, it will also be matched $1:$1 by the Ford Foundation)!

On a more personal note, I must also say that you will take great pride in knowing that you are playing a significant role in paving the way toward new kind of society -- where decency and respect are the norm and violence against women and children is a thing of the past.

As men, there is no question that we have a special role to play in making the world a safer place for all of the women and children in our lives. As new Founding Fathers, we now have a unique opportunity to give back and be part of the solution. Together we can make Father's Day mean even more.

Thank you in advance for your consideration. I hope you will take a few minutes to visit the Founding Fathers website www.founding-fathers.org and that you will feel free to contact me with any questions you may have about this campaign and my involvement. Please note: the deadline for inclusion in this year's New York Times Father's Day statement is Monday, June 11th.

Happy Father's Day!

All the best,

George Naddaff

  George A. Naddaff
  Chairman & Co-CEO
  KnowFat Franchise Co.
  o: (617)787-6000
  www.knowfat.com

 

Live Forever

"...keeping you great" Ten Minutes with the Growth Guy

HEADLINES:

June 11 deadline -- FORTUNE Small Business magazine's pro-am business plan contest is now open to companies with 100 employees or less. Submit your business plan and compete against entrepreneurship students from the nation's top colleges for recognition in magazine—which has a circulation of 1   million. I will be judging the contest, along with business leaders including USA Networks founder Kay Koplovitz and venture capitalist Ann Winblad. Deadline: June 11. For details, go to www.fsb.com/showdown.

India is a free-for-all -- 550 executives participated in my Rockefeller Habits workshops across India last week. Key impressions of executives: wicked smart, love to debate, enjoy theory, hungry for practical, organizations too flat, and understand polarities -- more on these topics, India, and their   amazing Indian School of Business (ISB) under DETAILS below.

Best book on India -- in preparing for my trip, it was recommended I read "In   Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India" by Edward Luce. Released in 2006, it's an easy read which helped me understand some important cultural nuances and history.

Ray Kurzweil's formula for never dying -- three articles caught my attention this past week -- if you can only read one, scan this one -- it's FORTUNE's latest piece on Ray Kurzweil, one of the brightest   futurists and artificial intelligence inventors; father of the electronic keyboard, speech recognition, and the flat bed scanner; and founder of ten companies. He now has a hedge fund using his AI technology to recognize patterns and invest. But what caught my eye is that he's also tackling aging and has managed, at age 59, to stop the aging process and actually achieve a biological age of 40 and some hormonal and nutrient levels of someone in their 30s.

Hospital's "catalytic mechanism" -- offers warranty! (Note: these NY Times links expire quickly, so click and grab this article). In essence, this central PA hospital is guaranteeing its workmanship, charging a flat fee that includes 90 days of follow-up treatment. Results: less likely to return to intensive care; fewer days in hospital; more likely to go home immediately vs. going directly to a nursing home. Here is a link to Jim Collins famous article on catalytic mechanisms -- you do have a catalytic mechanism in your firm?

NEVER use a book publisher to publish your book -- Dick Cavett, famous talk show host, lambastes the publishing industry in his latest blog   -- this is exactly why I recommend all of you skip traditional publishers and self-publish your own book (are you writing one?)! Cavett details the real world nightmares here. You may have to sign up to NY Times Select.

DETAILS:

 

Attendees in my four Indian workshops included execs from GE and Microsoft and various growth firms. In addition, execs from two of the top five "best places to work" winners in India participated including an innovative company called MindTree Consulting.
 

 

Indian School of Business (ISB) -- check it     out -- I toured this ninth wonder of the world! Five years old, it's already Asia's largest graduate business school. McKinsey is the impetus behind the school and the board reads like a Who's Who of top Indian and global entrepreneurs including Michael Dell. Steve Jobs was a recent visitor as well. Its educational partners are Kellogg School of Management, Wharton, and London Business School. Google, Microsoft, and others have major facilities on or near the campus. I'll be back on campus in November speaking to 1200 top executives.
 

 

Organizations are too flat -- in order to compete on a global scale, Indian firms have had to be low cost providers. To maintain this position, I found many of the Indian companies way too thin in terms of management talent, running spans of control of 15:1 up to 25:1. This is penny wise and pound foolish.   Spending money on more and better mid-management talent would address the number one issue raised by Indian firms -- huge employee turnover. This was a real revelation for the audience.
 

 

Radical Change requires Radical Stability -- in a recent insight I discussed this important polarity of Jake Jacobs. The Indian audience embraced this idea easily, given that they have the single best culture for handling polarities i.e. their entire history and philosophy is rooted in dealing with fundamental     polarities: unity and diversity; super rich and super poor; passivity and aggression; left brain and right brain (something they discuss a lot).
 

 

Going into the horn repair business -- their traffic is the loudest and craziest I've ever experienced -- sort of like the "free-for-all" I generally experienced in all aspects of their country.

Godin/Rie Smackdown

"...keeping you great" Ten Minutes with the Growth Guy

HEADLINES: (Emergence vs. Divergence vs. Convergence)

Laura Ries/Seth Godin "Smackdown" -- the "iPhone failure" piece last week generated a lot of response, including a note from Seth Godin, the world's top marketing guru. He's made a prediction, including number of units sold, that the iPhone will be a success and has challenged other marketing gurus to a wager -- he specifically highlights Laura Ries' comments. Here's   a link to Seth's blog and Laura's counter blog

iPhone will end up being an excellent PDA -- but you'll still need to carry at least two devices! -- In the "for what it's worth" category, my response to the iPhone debate is under DETAILS below -- convergence loses once again. And I share my prediction on which company I think might be the real winner in all this iPhone mania.
 
YouTube -- 1-800-GOT-JUNK's Daily Standup Meeting video -- if you want to see a successful daily huddle, here's a link. It's been a key tool for driving their rapid growth. "If you want to move faster, pulse faster."
 
"If the answers are yes, don't ask...just do it!!" -- Randy Nelson, co-founder of NSTAR Global Services (www.nstarglobalservices.com), which provides staffing solutions to the semiconductor industry, has empowered employees to makes decisions based on "if the answers are yes" to five questions:

 

1. Is it right for the customer?
 
2. Is it right for NSTAR?
 
3. Is it ethical?
 
4. Is it something for which you're willing to be accountable?
 
5. Is it consistent with NSTAR's basic beliefs and values?

BTW, this is the kind of rules-based approach that creates "Emergent Systems" of management -- more about this breakthrough approach to managing a company at the Growth Summit in Vegas -- thus Emergence wins over Convergence and Divergence!

Multi-tasking debate -- Michael Caito, CEO, Restaurants-on-the-Run, encouraged me to look at this recent Inc. article that seems to contradict the assertion that we can't multi-task.

Multi-tasking surgeons! -- My response: "It's not that we don't have to multi-task a lot of the time, it's just that we also all need some focus time. I know people that essentially get no uninterrupted time --   that's what is bad. Give your priorities 30 -- 60 minutes per day of uninterrupted time (hey, you don't want your surgeon multi-tasking on the job!) and then you can multi-task your heart out the rest of the time." FYI, Michael let me know that he's implemented a "15-30 minute ‘most important thing first' routine himself."

Rockin' 2007 -- Mark Lancaster, CEO of Employment   Group, sent me some photos of their latest quarterly theme, where the executive team is representing a different band each quarter. Check out these "KISS" photos. The key to a successful quarterly theme is having a question you pose to the organization every day. Notes Lancaster "we accomplished our 5 priorities for Q1, achieved 105 percent of our Critical Number and continue to recruit and develop ‘A' players with the focus of our daily question ‘How many ‘A' players have you hung out with or talked to this week?'"

DETAILS:

Here are my thoughts on the iPhone debate:

 

• I was having drinks with Bert Quigg in Vancouver last night (Quigg has become THE premier high-end residential builder in Canada with his latest billion dollar plus project just underway) and discussing the Godin/Ries Smackdown when he pulled out both his Trio and Motorola Razor. I asked him why he carried both and he said because the PDA phone is just too hard to dial (as I found), isn't as good a phone to hear and be heard, etc. -- and his contacts are in both. At our Sales Summit, several companies acknowledged that their sales people carry both as well for the same reasons.
 
• The PDA really needs a bigger screen which the iPhone has but the phone needs to be smaller -- that's the divergence. Therefore, I think the iPhone will actually be a just a smaller computer while the phone functions are moving more to the Plantronic-type ear devices which will communicate with the PDA (yes, I've adopted the Cyborg-look myself courtesy of a gift from Mike Faith, CEO of Headsets.com) -- so we'll still have two devices requiring two chargers, not one! That's Laura Ries' point!
 
• Most PDA/phone people find the Bluetooth devices necessary so they can be looking things up on the PDA (and doing email) while talking on the phone. And these Bluetooth headsets are becoming as inexpensive and feature rich as phones.
 
• Thus, two devices -- phone and PDA!!!
 
• BTW, same with camera phones -- just a fad. Laura Ries pointed out that fads are typified by rabid and rapid sales that then fall off, whereas solid technologies have more of a traditional exponential ramping in sales. Case in point, Mike Faith, CEO of Headsets.com, wanted to take a photo with Laura Ries -- now this is one of the most high tech guys I know and he has a camera phone -- but he brought out his small digital camera to take the photo. Each device does its job the best and what makes for a great phone by definition doesn't make a great camera -- in fact, my wife has a camera PDA yet LOVES her high end, full size Canon M20 -- she takes 500 times (literally) the photos than she does from even her small digital camera.
 
• Conclusion: iPhone is poorly named, it will do well initially and morph quickly into a handheld Mac, and the Headsets.com and Plantronics of the world will be the "phone" distributor and manufacturers of choice. And like high end stereo equipment, we'll own and use a separate camera, PDA, and phone -- three devices from three separate companies to do three distinct jobs.