"...keeping you great" Ten Minutes with the Growth Guy
HEADLINES:
The Breakthrough Company: How Everyday Companies Become Extraordinary Performers -- this week - Jan 15 - Keith McFarland's highly touted book was released, based on a five-year study that resulted in a focus on nine companies that broke through the $250 million barrier. I have the book in hand and plan to read it over the weekend -- I'll come back to you with my feedback. Stay tuned.
Vannevar Bush's "As We May Think"
-- on the heels of Amazon's new wireless reading device, Kindle, and
Apple's continued release this week of well designed "memex's" I
encourage you to take five minutes and read (or re-read) one of the
most classic essays ever written about the future of technology
published in The Atlantic Monthly July 1945. I'm told that
many of the great technology entrepreneurs of today gained their
inspiration from this article. Vannevar Bush was the director of the US
Office of Scientific Research and Development for the WWII effort and
was both before and after the war president of the Carnegie Institute
and Dean of Engineering at MIT. In this article he discusses what goals
scientists should pursue now that the war is over.
Fleck.com allows you to interact with web pages like you would the pages of a magazine
-- think electronic Post-It Notes for the web™. Boris Veldhuijzen is a
well-known Dutch serial internet entrepreneur and co-founder of
Fleck.com. He's the one who turned me on to the Vannevar Bush article
during a recent dinner in Amsterdam. It's exciting how a 63 year old
article can still provide inspiration to today's entrepreneurs. Again,
scan through Bush's article and see what it inspires you to do.
As We May Watch -- David Rich, founder of ICC/Decision Services,
a leading mystery shopper and customer experience management firm, is
using his recently produced video hosted on YouTube to visually convey
the power of his service and "who his shoppers are" to retailers,
something he found was difficult to do via just the written word. This
video cost David $5000, but he finds it engages his clients better than
the written word, who normally wouldn't take the time to wade through
his pages of description anyway. Here's a link -- scroll down to see the video.
Seeing is Believing -- Brad Skelton, founder and CEO of Brisbane-based ST Group,
one of the world's largest movers of massive equipment, also produced a
video hosted on YouTube showing how his firm moves one segment of the
world's largest tunneling machine using a 14 line trailer and three
prime movers in tandem. Here's the link -- it's just amazing to see how this is done.
Multi-family apartment industry -- quick request -- Richard Roos, VP of Finance and Operations of Ontario-based Venterra Realty,
wanted to connect to with other multi-family apartment firms who are
further down the path in implementing the Rockefeller Habits -- you can
reach Richard at rroos@venterraliving.com
Quote of the Week -- Brian Price, President of Rochester, MN-based Rockwood Retaining Walls,
noted in a recent conversation about the importance of executive and
employee education "I don't want to be the smartest guy in the room!"
It's all about surrounding yourself with people smarter than you and
then keeping them smart!