The Agile Scaleup

Problem on the Planet

HEADLINES: "'tis the Season"

Unemployed Young Men -- at the risk of being over-simplistic, a primary challenge on the planet is unemployed young men -- they populate our jails, commit a majority of the crimes, and fuel terrorism. One organization doing something about this is the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurs (NFTE). For some young men and women, the only way out of poverty is to create their own job. If you've had a great year financially, NFTE is looking for 100 entrepreneurial firms willing to sponsor an entrepreneurship course at an inner city high school -- cost is $10,000 -- a great gift for this holiday season. I personally sponsor a course myself -- I see it as entrepreneurs helping entrepreneurs -- it's not so much about charity as helping to keep our economies healthy and our streets safe. Let me know if you're interested.

Complimentary New Years Gift -- I'll personally autograph a complimentary copy of Mastering the Rockefeller Habits and send on your behalf to a decision maker of a mid-market company ($5 million to $100 million) you think would benefit from our tools and techniques. Consider a firm on your accounts payable list -- a firm you spend a lot of money with since they are the most willing to take the gift seriously -- it's important to strengthen your suppliers. Email [email protected] (or simply respond to this email) with a name, title, and mailing address.

Save Some Money and Taxes -- for those of you interested in pre-paying some expenses before the end of the year and saving a chunk of change on our Summits (and getting the best seats) and products, consider joining our $10k membership program. You'll save $249 to $449/seat at our two Summits; and receive a 25% discount on our educational interactive DVD courses. Details below under DETAILS.

50 hrs/year -- Educational/Training Library -- www.gazelles.tv -- one of the benefits your best employees and executives find crucial is access to world-class education -- and nothing is more painful than outgrowing your team! We now have a full online and DVD-based offering. Consider setting a goal for your employees in 2008 to complete X number of hours of online education. Each topic is broken down into 1 to 5 minute segments -- perfect for showing at a brown bag lunch, monthly meeting, or viewing on their own. Topics include:

 

High Stakes Negotiations -- Dr. Victoria Medvec -- four hours of Northwestern University's top-rated professor whose clients include Goldman Sachs.

 

Customer Service -- John DiJulius is author of Secret Service and his upcoming book What's the Secret. 10 specific strategies for gathering customer information that lets you customize the service experience so price is irrelevant.

 

Strategy -- Kaihan Krippendorf, ex-McKinsey consultant and author of The Art of the Advantage, studied the top 100 performing firms and found 36 specific strategies these firms used to crush their competitors.

 

Interviewing and Hiring -- Brad and Geoff Smart's famous eight hour Topgrading workshop and interactive DVD -- knowing how to properly interview is one of those top five management skills.

 

Execution -- Rockefeller Habits -- my complete two-day workshop on DVD and online -- a chance to systematically review and reinforce the fundamental tools and techniques designed to drive alignment, improve focus, and dramatically reduce the time it takes to manage the business.

 

Negotiation, Customer Service, Strategy, Hiring/Interviewing, and Execution -- foundational skills for all supervisors/managers/executives.
 

Each course is $1250 or $995 with a $10k membership -- www.gazelles.tv

DETAILS:

 

• $10k Membership -- BTW, when I asked the question a couple weeks ago "if Gazelles has areas where we're producing bad profits" I had several people respond saying the time restrictions around our $10k membership represented bad profits. So I'm changing that.
     
   
• Membership is not for everyone -- it's geared for those that plan to bring some executives to our Sales and Marketing Summits or Growth Summits and want the big group discount i.e. the seats are normally $1695/executive; $1495 if you bring three or more; and $1250 if you bring eight or more. With the $10k membership, you receive any seat for $1250, so you can send four to the Sales and Marketing Summit and four to the Growth Summit and still get the $1250 price -- it's that simple. And if you end up just sending a couple to each, you can carry over the benefit to future years.
     
   
• Basically, you're pre-purchasing 8 seats at future Summits -- a chance to take the deduction now, save some significant money, and get preferential seating and discounts on all our learning products. Here's a link to sign-up for 2008.  Let me know if you have any questions.
  

146 Ideas

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

HEADLINES:
Word version of the updated One-Page Strategic Plan is now available -- my apologies for taking so long to get this Word version posted. We introduced the new format at the Growth Summit and we taught it during our most recent Rockefeller Habits workshops. You can find it in the left column of My Gazelles (gold box in upper right of www.gazelles.com).
 
Summary of updates to One-Page Strategic Plan -- though there IS NOT an updated manual to go with this updated version (that will come later), most of the boxes are self-explanatory. The major updates: space for summarizing a full SWOT at the bottom; the addition of Jim Collin's Profit/X from the Hedgehog; and space along the top of the form to place Key Performance Indicators for each of the key relationships and processes that drive your business. There is also more detail around the Critical Number and a more complete 7th column for putting each individual's ongoing KPIs, quarterly priorities, and their measurable Critical Number(s) for the quarter/year.
 
146 ideas in 30 minutes -- Bank of Tennessee's employee feedback process -- ‘tis the season when many firms seek employee feedback. Roy Harmon, CEO and President of the Bank of Tennessee, sent me this note Nov 30 "I took a variation of the (Dell) Ideastorm and sent out an email to all our 200 employees requesting suggestions -- it was fast moving and fun. I offered $100 to someone randomly drawn from each 20 suggestions that I received. As I received 20, I had one selected by different employees and announced the winner. I received 146 in about 30 minutes! Contest over. There were duplicates and the ideas ranged from very good to so-so, but the employees had some fun and got a little Christmas cash. I think that sending them to the CEO got their attention as everyone wants to give ideas, but for lots of reasons, do not. Sometimes simple works." Roy, I agree -- simple works!!!

What were some of the ideas? Notes Harmon "There were a couple of main themes...first is what I can do for them to make their life at work better...jeans on Fridays, upgraded computers, more insurance coverage, etc. I did run the last $100 give away for cost saving suggestions though. The best was for us to really push electronic statements which we already have in the works. It does show employee support for that initiative which will help us cut paper and postage cost."
 
Innovate Like Edison: The Success System of America's Greatest Inventor -- this is the title of a new book on innovation which I enthusiastically endorsed. And I was at first leery to read the book since I wasn't a fan of co-author Michael Gelb's first book How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci which I thought was full of feel good platitudes and generalities (though many people would disagree with me). However, his latest book is a homerun from my viewpoint. As I read it, I felt I was reading some of the same fine specific insights that went into the timeless classic Think and Grow Rich. In fact, I'm also teaching Gelb and Sarah Caldicott's step-by-step process to my two oldest sons. Edison WAS systematic in his methodology and what is more important to our children's future than innovation, something not taught in the majority of today's schools.
 
Ignoring Problems -- I did receive some questions regarding my push to focus on "what's working" vs. trying to solve specific problems. My response "you DON'T ignore the problems -- in fact, you have to address the C's -- its just that you can't FIX the C by studying the C -- you have to study what's working in your company or others -- that's the idea of Best Practices.

Public Apology

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

HEADLINES:

NOTE: iPhone, Blackberry, or PDA versions of my "Growth Guy" Weekly Insights are now available in easy-to-read blog form. Click this link to register at Viigo. Then select Business>Entrepreneurship. You will be able to add "The Growth Guy" blog to your mobile device. It's a great way to get the Weekly Insights wherever you are.

Annual and Quarterly Planning -- STOP Focusing on What's Wrong!! My latest syndicated "Growth Guy" column opens with a public apology to all the companies I've misguided over the past twenty-five years -- I apologize for dredging up all their problems, for focusing on what is wrong instead of what is right. Focusing on "what is working" is an entirely new way to approach strategy planning -- please take ten minutes and scan my short column under DETAILS below.

Report Card Time -- Do You Focus More on the A's vs. C's?  Marcus Buckingham, author of Go Put Your Strengths to Work, notes that focusing on the C will not improve the C. Yes, you must address the C, but spend your time studying the A's. Why do they like that subject? What does the teacher do? How is it taught? Only by studying the A can you improve the C. And, again, it gets everyone focused on the positive.

Marriage and Family Counseling -- my wife and I went through a rough period in our marriage a few years ago and sought out traditional marriage counseling. However, after several sessions we both realized that we felt worse after the sessions, since the focus was on "what is wrong." What helped turn around our relationship was a specific activity in an ImagoTherapy weekend called flooding (something we've done with our children as well). In essence, one of you sits in a chair while the other person "floods" you with all the reasons they love/like/admire you, anchoring each positive with a touch across your shoulders.

Relationship Handbook -- this book by George Pransky further strengthened our relationship. Pransky, like Buckingham, denounces the focus on problems and weaknesses. Instead, his thin little book takes a radical and positive approach to strengthening relationships.

The Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry -- this is the 70 page booklet that turned it all around for me. Have your team read this book before going into your next planning session -- or simply read it now. And please take a look at my column below. Focus on what's working!!