"...keeping you great" Ten Minutes with the Growth Guy
HEADLINES:
Complex Negotiation Workshop Sept 28, DC -- Dr. Victoria Medvec, the Northwestern U star faculty member who wowed our Sales & Marketing Summit participants, is producing a DVD program based on her 10 tactics -- the taping is Sept 28, 8am -- noon, and you're invited to attend for the cost of food/facilities -- $99/person -- let us know if you want to participate -- limited to 50 participants.
Warren Buffett pulled Jim Kilts out of retirement to turnaround Gillette -- Kilts then created a bidding war and sold Gillette to P&G for $57 billion! One of the most disciplined old-school CEOs, every morning Kilts and his senior management team received a report tallying up precisely how many razors, batteries, and toothbrushes Gillette sold the day before -- good, old-fashioned basics.
Jim Kilts's long awaited book came out this week -- entitled Doing What Matters: How to Get Results That Make a Difference -- The Revolutionary Old-School Approach, it immediately jumped to #2 on the Leadership best-seller list, right behind Good to Great. I've NOT read the book yet, but have followed Kilt's career for over a decade and have quoted from him extensively in past insights -- and I've been pursuing him to speak at our Growth Summit -- hopefully next year. Warning: he's NOT loved by all!
Maddock Douglas discipline -- speaking of old-fashioned basics, Mike Maddock, founding partner of Chicago-based Maddock Douglas, sent me a quick note last week endorsing the daily huddle. Notes Maddock "we started our '9@9' about a week after we had Patrick (Gazelles' President) in to speak to us in June. The title of the meeting is a promise; we'll never go past 9:09 am. We use your recipe, discussing good news, numbers and 'stucks.' Occasionally we'll slip in a birthday cake or some other surprise."
Invite potential clients to huddle -- further notes Maddock "The meetings have been a success and have brought with them an unexpected benefit. We've seen greater focus and momentum since we've brought back the daily huddle. We've also garnered some real financial feedback from our clients and potential clients. You see, since we often have clients in the office first thing in the morning, we invite them to watch our huddle. We've received amazingly positive feedback on the huddle highlighted by two clients who hired us when our new business pitch was started with the 9@9. Who knew? Anyway, thanks for the great idea. It's working." Potential clients love to see disciplined suppliers!!!
Extreme Entrepreneurship Education -- I've taken a personal interest in helping Michael Simmons, a National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurs (NFTE) graduate, who has launched Extreme
Entrepreneurship Education Corporation (you have to LOVE the name). He's focused on helping college students launch companies and could use some entrepreneurs to serve on college panels and as speakers to the students -- here is his upcoming schedule -- can any of you help? Email Michael at michael@extremee.org:
| School | Date | Location |
| Reading Area Community College | September 19 | Reading, PA |
| Utica College | September 29 | Utica, NY |
| University Illinois Springfield | October 2 | Springfield, IL |
| University of Rochester | October 3 | Rochester, NY |
| Stark State College | October 4 | Canton, OH |
| Bowling Green State University | October 11 | Bowling Green, OH |
| Fox Valley Technical College | October 15 | Appleton, WI |
| Saginaw Valley State University | November 1 | Saginaw, MI |
| Saginaw Valley State University | November 2 | Saginaw, MI |
And I love a great student!! Michael was a guest in the DC Rockefeller Habits workshop in June and he's been extremely disciplined in implementing the habits. Here's his recent update:
Quite honestly, we've really launched forward as a company!! I'm not exaggerating when I say a lot of this is as a result of the increased disciple from the Rockefeller Habits seminar. Here are some highlights:
- We've signed contracts with and gotten verbal commitments from 20 schools who pay us $7,500
- We've closed $70,000 more in corporate sponsorship
- My partner and I have daily meetings using your format
- My partner and I setup a weekly meeting with a close-friend who is an entrepreneur using your format
- We have weekly meetings with our sales team using your format
- We've led group coachings of young entrepreneurs this summer using the weekly format
- We're working on getting a group of twenty-something young entrepreneurs in the Tri-State area together to bring in a Gazelles coach.
- Sheena and I have been going off a quarterly theme to get 30 schools at a $5,000 gross profit per event and we're on track
- We just purchased a 30-foot RV
All very exciting.
It's all about being disciplined! Congratulations Michael.