"...keeping you great" Ten Minutes with the Growth Guy
HEADLINES:
BIG OOPS -- the CEO of Catapult Systems, the company named the best place to work in Austin, is Sam Goodner (a close friend whose name I butchered in my last insight -- I was even in Sam and Caroline's wedding!). At the very least I could have had some fun and referred to him as Sam Caskey, referring to his equally famous wife Caroline Caskey, who just sold her firm Identigene, the leader in "whose your daddy" paternity testing. Or if I really wanted to have fun, I could have referred to him as Sam Goodnerd -- as everyone knows he is! My apologies Sam.
The Container Store sold July 6 -- speaking of best places to work, Kip and Garrett's 39 store retail chain has perennially been in the top 10 best places to work in the U.S. this entire century (OK, it's been just
seven years!). Leonard Green & Partners, a private equity firm, made the acquisition for an undisclosed sum -- here's
a link to an article with more details (you may have to register)-- thanks
to Rich Manders, AutomationSolutions, for the heads-up.
National Private Company Survey -- mirroring the Public Company Quarterly survey, the Private Company Index (PCI) is conducting its quarterly Private Company Survey. This three-minute survey captures company perceptions in some key financial areas. PCI index numbers and data are regularly reported by Forbes.com and other financial media; add your voice for the "traditional" financial & investment community to hear.
Get Products to Market Faster -- Ron Hollis, Ph.D., President and CEO of Atlanta-based Quickparts took me up on my CEO challenge to write a book. Entitled "Better Be Running!: Tools To Drive Design Success" the book is focused on helping companies get products to market faster and under budget. You can read about it at www.betterberunning.com. Under DETAILS below Ron outlines the process he went through to write and publish his book.
Summer is a great time to start writing YOUR book -- there is no better P.R. tool.
DETAILS:
Following is Ron's note detailing his book writing process:
As you know, writing (and completing) a book is an interesting and uniquely challenging project.
I used a "writing consultant." Since this was a blend of technical and business topics, I would write the copy and have the professional writer review and significantly edit and/or challenge the content. We would write and re-write until we had the wording to the point where it was very understandable to her AND professionally written. She was very valuable to the process as she helped me stay on a schedule AND provided active criticism throughout the book. Her fees were only $10,000 and the total book investment was approximately $15,000 to get to print.
How long did it take...it was faster to have my son! Seriously, it took about 10 months. I started writing about the same time as we conceived, so it was race and Mother Nature won.
I did self-publish. I had one opportunity to publish with a technical publisher but felt the book would be better served if I could control the process.....with self-promotion and Amazon, the world of publishing seems very accessible today.
My life plan had me writing my first book after I sold my first company and was sitting at the beach looking for my next gig. However, after our last MIT class, I realized that I needed to have 2 books in me (one now and one later)!!
Thanks,
Ron