Baja Racing

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

HEADLINES:

30 Initiatives "Kakushin" theme for NationLink Wireless -- a Japanese management concept of radical productivity improvement, Andy Bailey, president of NationLink, sent me some photos of their Sumo wrestling celebration held in their parking lot on November 2. Celebrating over 30 productivity improvement initiatives for Q3, they are on course to exceed their 70% growth rate target for 2007. Initiatives included:

1. Implementing the TopGrading hiring program
2. Starting a new "weekly" sales-focused meeting in addition to our group huddle
3. Outsourcing our PR efforts rather than "struggling" with it ourselves
4. 100% use of our CRM sales opportunity program.
5. Implementing a DISC profiling program to tell us "why" people do what they do.
6. ID’ing and fixing the top three "time suckers" in our support group.
7. Making sure "every" person has two monitors and the fasted PC we could find.

3 days of wild off-road adventure driving starting in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and ending in Loreto with highly seasoned Baja off-road driving experts, Wide Open Baja. Gazelles is partnering with Maverick Business Adventures to offer their first "Ultimate Baja Experience" -- limited to 26 CEOs and entrepreneurs, I think it’s important that business leaders play hard and work hard together (no, I’m not getting a free trip -- just thought this would be neat to promote since I’m always writing about such serious business stuff). The founder, Yanik Silver, is a serial entrepreneur and "adventure junkie" who knows how to plan an event -- Jan 29 - Feb 2 which includes an optional Super Bowl party. And you should see the specially equipped Baja racers you get to drive -- details under DETAILS below.

9 things to buy for the Billionaire on your holiday list -- Jonathan Lieberman, of Focalex fame (all of you who have attended a Rockefeller Habits workshop have seen his short "Fast and Furious" theme video), has a new firm called Deal Locker, which is a discount code and coupon sharing service for online shopping (hey, entrepreneurial firms are always looking for the best deals). Anyway, for fun he’s created this Billionaire gift list -- enjoy and start shopping early -- our economy needs it!!!

Celebrating the "Unknown Entrepreneur," -- the Private Company Index, a Gazelles partner, is doing a pitch to the national media aligned with Veteran's Day. Reporters are expressing interest, but we need your help. The concept -- Celebrating the "Unknown Entrepreneur"

• The entrepreneur who started a company, grew and sustained it for a while, but ultimately closed it (doesn’t mean it failed).
• The angle is that these entrepreneurs worked to launch a company that, for a time, provided jobs, innovative products/services, and stimulated local/regional economies.
• In a nutshell, leaders of these closed companies should be recognized for their collective contributions and paving the way for today's companies. We'd like to identify any entrepreneur CEOs who are currently running their second or third (or fourth +) business. Please let us know who you are!

Here's a link to recent article about lessons from failed companies.  We're not pitching this exact angle, but you can see that reporters are willing to write about it.