"...keeping you great" Ten Minutes with the Growth Guy
HEADLINES: (Deadline to get discounted hotel Growth Summit rate next Monday Sept 24 -- info below)
"In times of change, learners inherit the earth while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists." Eric Hoffer
Making "blink" decisions -- I've heard executives tell me that they don't want to overload themselves or their teams with new ideas/knowledge. However, the key to creativity (Edison read or scanned 10,000 books in the Detroit library) and making right decisions fast is having a brain full of knowledge (often competing knowledge) that lets patterns and trends be quickly discerned. And if an executive can't sort through ideas and stay focused, that's a whole other issue.
Five Key Market Powers -- I had my one hour conference call with Geoffrey Moore to outline the details of his 3 hour presentation at the Growth Summit -- and I'm stoked!! Besides covering the classics (Inside the Tornado, Crossing the Chasm) in terms of new product/service introduction and how you cover your backside from competition (the biggest mistake companies make is not providing a 100% solution on their existing offerings), Moore has evolved a "powers" model of the marketplace and provides a detailed matrix of specific marketing activities a company must drive in order to maintain these five key types of power in any niche market. As a VC, consultant to Silicon Valley, and famous author, Moore is one of the top five most respected thought leaders in the world -- your entire team should know his frameworks inside out (and his significant modification to "The Discipline of Market Leaders"!
Six Principles of Persuasion -- Dr. Robert Cialdini's book Influence is a classic and the only book I've ever seen highlighted on Jim Collins website. A professor of psychology at Arizona State University, he's spent decades devoted to the scientific investigation and research of persuasion techniques. Out of this work he's identifies six basic social and psychological principles that form the foundation for successful strategies used to achieve persuasion. He's the two-hour "People" presenter at the Growth Summit -- persuasion tools applicable in all areas of your business.
Handful of Rules -- Steven Johnson is the one "stretch" presenter at the Summit. Unarguably one of the five brightest minds of our time, Johnson's new "emergence" approach to leadership is spawning an entirely new management discipline. In essence, leaders don't make decisions; they set the rules and the right decisions emerge. BTW, the very best web strategies work this way as well as Johnson will explain.
The Ultimate Question -- I covered this extensively last week. In essence, the only way to break through the noise of any market is to nurture advocates -- however, you can only manage what you can measure and Fred Reichheld has provided the formulas through his "Net Promoter Score". Customer focused strategies are back!
Thirty-Six Stratagems -- though there are only 36 known strategies to win, Kaihan Krippendorf knows how to make them practical and has created a tool that helps a company, given a specific competitive situation, pick the handful of strategies most likely to succeed. Microsoft, GE, and other major firms are booking all of this ex-McKinsey's time.
Paul Orfalea -- founder of Kinko's, he's a mad man, that's all. He says some of the most outrageous, yet insightful things, like how he set prices at Kinkos (he would walk in and ask store managers if they had received any complaints about prices; if not many, he would have them raise prices!). Above all else, he's a simple and practical leader/entrepreneur who failed miserably in school and knows how to have fun along the way.
Hotel situation -- our $145/night conference rate and block of rooms goes away next Monday, Sept 24. We picked the Luxor because of its proximity to the airport and we're the only event in the hotel (EO, on the other hand, is sharing their hotel with sheet metal workers and bull riders!). And because of the nature of the market and deal we received on meeting space, if an attendee chooses to stay at another hotel, there will be a $145/night surcharge to the conference registration fee. Here's the hotel info:
Luxor Hotel and Casino
3900 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, NV 89119
www.luxor.com
800 288 1000
"You are what you repeatedly do. Excellence is not an EVENT - it is a HABIT."
| Aristotle 384-322 BC Philosopher and Scientist |
I hope you and your team will make the annual "Growth Summit" a habit. My commitment to you is to hand select the faculty best geared to growth firms.