The Agile Scaleup

Founders Dilemma

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

Headlines: (warning, mostly about founders/CEOs, not the rest of the exec team)

The Founder's Dilemma -- this is the title of an article in the February 2008 Harvard Business Review. Notes the article: "Most entrepreneurs want to make a lot of money and to run the show. New research shows that it's tough to do both. If you don't figure out which matters more to you, you could end up being neither rich nor king." Here's a link to the article -- you only get the first page -- the rest of the article will cost you $6.50 -- I found the article worthwhile to read and made me think about how I might transition myself in Gazelles, though WARNING -- it is mainly focused on technology-based firms. Thanks to David Mammano, founder of NextStep Magazine  for bringing this to my attention.

Founder Frustrations -- the author of the article, Norm Wasserman, is an assistant prof at Harvard specializing in Entrepreneurial studies. He has an interesting blog entitled "Founder Frustrations" -- he has both an excellent overview of the above article (i.e. businesses that are not capital intensive are the easiest for founders to maintain control) with links to his data and research. And if you scroll down you'll see his various postings on topics like how to split equity with the founding team, founder-CEO succession, whether to partner with friends, etc. I've added his blog to my list to receive.

Founder Fun -- "Top-Gun Airborne Action" May 15 -- 18, Las Vegas -- late last year I told you about Maverick Business Adventures™ -- they host one-of-a-kind adventure experiences for business leaders. The first experience was an off-roading Baja adventure with Jesse James and 3-time Super Bowl winner, Darren Woodson. You can watch a 4-minute highlights video here. Two Gazelles' insight readers participated and their enthusiastic feedback is under DETAILS below. The next trip is their "Top-Gun Airborne Action" May 15-18, 2008 in Las Vegas, NV. It's a Zero-G flight, Aerial combat in a jet fighter (you fly), Helicopter into the Grand Canyon, dinner with Peter Diamandis (founder of the X prize), unique business sessions and much more still shaping up -- it's already half sold-out. Check it out here. Work Hard, Play Hard!!

Founder's Freebie -- I don't know how long it will last, but the banner ad on the HBR site (click on the HRB article link above) offers a free copy of Michael Porter's HBR classic "Strategy and the Internet" if you take a quick survey. The article highlights how companies can mistakenly dismiss strategy fundamentals just because the internet has changed the playing field. It's always a great idea to read Porter's HBR articles -- we have his classic "What is Strategy" referenced on the My Gazelles page -- one of the seven "must read" articles.

Founder's Quote -- "Selling the product is for sales guys... Selling the company is for CEOs" Stephen Watkins, founder of Entrex.

Founder's Mistake -- and last, I loved this piece in the NY Times this week about Steve Jobs and reading. Seems he did make a big mistake. According to AP research last year, only 27% of Americans had not read a book recently. In turn, 27% had read over 15 books in a year and 50% six books. As Timothy Egan, the author, points out 60 million copies of the DaVinci Code have been sold vs. 3.7 million iPhones. OK, OK, not a fair comparison, but hey, I'm a reader and enjoyed the article defending books and reading!

DETAILS:

Here's what a few of the Gazelles on the trip had to say about their Baja experience (and I like the added note Mike sent me -- see last posting):

"What we found here is a group of likeminded individuals. We're not all in the same business; we're not doing the same things and that's part of the beauty of it. But everybody is here to work hard and play hard, so you get a very intense group of guys. You don't get to meet a guy like that in an evening or over a round of golf...these are guys I'm going to be talking to and relating to for weeks and years to come." -- Mike Lally, PCB Group

"When I first got here the first day, I thought, "Well, I won't be lasting," but after a couple of days I found that I was looking forward to the next trip out to Las Vegas ....from a business perspective, the meetings were phenomenal with great insight. They were really motivating to, I think, any business man at whatever level you may be, at the top of your field or just an entry-level guy. With the type of talent and consideration that these fellows have, this club will definitely make a difference in my life and I'm sure will make a difference in a lot of the people that I deal with." -- Jim Spano, International Resort developer

Mike Lally further noted, to my delight "...as part of the evening business sessions, I introduced the whole maverick group to the one page strategic plan. Many were one man internet businesses, but a few were from the brick and mortar world. Ironically, guest celebrities Jesse James (Monster Garage) and Darren Woodson (Dallas Cowboys) were scribbling notes just as fast as all the mavericks as we discussed tips and tools in the 'what's working' sessions."

Best Tip

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

HEADLINES: (highlights from Australian  Growth Summit)

Best "quick tip" -- Alex Lopez, principal with Sydney-based Quantify Corp www.quantify.com.au, recently started color coding the items on his to-do list -- red for non-income producing activities; green for income producing activities. Notes Alex "when I first started, I found a 2 to 1 ratio of red activities to green activities; however, today, it's just the opposite." He showed me his list -- nothing fancy. Just a single sheet of paper listing his to-do's and then he uses a red or green highlighter to colorize each item. I did the same with my to-do list yesterday -- very insightful (and visual)!

Best "quote" -- "Use hands less, brain more" -- Diana Williams, Founder and Executive Chair of 3000 employee Fernwood Fitness and previous Australian Woman of the Year as she described the importance of delegating and getting others to "do" so she has more time to think. Carve out more time to think!

Best statistic -- Bill Evans, Chief Economist for Westpac bank, noted that the world's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was split 50/50 between the developed countries and the developing countries. And whereas the developed countries (U.S., UK, Australia, etc) had a combined growth rate of just 2% last year the developing countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, etc) had a combined growth rate over 8% giving the world an average growth rate between 4% and 5% -- and this is expected to be the case for the next decade. Seems obvious, if you want to go where you have the wind to your back, is head to the developing part of the world. It was also noted that China has grown 8% per year for 55 years!!!

Best example of strategic activities -- Kaihan Krippendorf, author of The Art of the Advantage, describes how Kola Real has competed successfully against Coca-Cola in Latin America -- they partner with rural bottlers; re-use old beer bottles; distribute through beer companies; stop advertising; and sell huge sizes. These are all ACTIVITIES that would almost be impossible for Coca-Cola to do. As the famous strategist Michael Porter emphasizes in his classic HBR article What is Strategy? (Read the article at "mygazelles.com" login or quick registration required), the key to strategy is doing different ACTIVITIES than your competition. What are the ways you go about doing business -- the activities -- that are different from the way your competition does business? Don't confuse this with your Brand Promise. Again, it's differentiating your activities and picking activities that are difficult, if not impossible, for your competition to do.

Best book recommendation -- for those of you doing business with other cultures (or plan to) get the book Riding the Waves of Culture by Charles Hampden-Turner and Fons Trompenaars. They studied 51 national cultures and found 7 major differences that I found were practical and useful like Universal vs. Particular. For instance, they asked what you would do if you were with a friend and he hit a pedestrian while speeding in his car and you could spare him some serious consequences if you simply testified that he wasn't speeding. What would you do? In Universal cultures, like the U.S., the focus is on rules more than relationships (with an emphasis on contracts); in Particular Cultures, like Mexico, the focus is on relationships more than rules (and a belief that legal contracts can be modified).

Best list -- Phil Ruthven, Founder and Chairman of IBISWorld Business Information, is one of the more entertaining CEOs I've heard speak. His firm is one of the top business intelligence firms in the world and he was kind enough to provide each attendee at the Growth Summit a $1500 set of reports on their respective industry. Through this research he's distilled 12 keys to operating a great company. This list is under DETAILS below.

New Jersey Rockefeller Habits workshop -- March 12-13 -- Only three weeks away. Sign up today!

DETAILS:

Here is Phil's list for operating an industry dominating business:

1. Stick to one business and one business only
    
2. Aim to dominate
    
3. Forever innovate -- product, process, marketing, sales, etc.
    
4. Outsource non-core aspects of the business
    
5. Don't own hard assets
    
6. Have good and professional financial management
    
7. Think and plan outside-in -- have great external intelligence
    
8. Anticipate industry life-cycle changes
    
9. Build strategic alliances
    
10. Learn and implement world best practices
     
11. Strong unique cultures
     
12. Leadership is first; management is second
     

Hidden Champions

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

HEADLINES: (Happy Valentine's Day)

NPS Stories Wanted -- Justin Martin is writing a story for FORTUNE Small Business on small to mid-market firms using Fred Reichheld's Net Promoter Score (NPS). If you have some experience, good or bad, using NPS please email Justin  -- and read Reichheld's book The Ultimate Question. Firms that utilized NPS had 2.5 times the growth rate of those that didn't -- it's all about focusing the organization on creating advocates for your business.

Keep Building -- this is Ram Charan's first principle for managing during a possible recession (my favorite of his four). Take five minutes and read his FORTUNE magazine article "Managing Your Business in a Downturn" (skip right to his four principles).
 
Charan is one of the most famous business thought leaders of our time as co-author of Execution with Larry Bossidy and his latest two books: Know-How: The Eight Skills that Separate People Who Perform from Those Who Don't and What the Customer Wants You to Know: How Everybody Need to Think Differently About Sales. I've just ordered the latter book for review since I'm pushing EVERYONE to focus on sales and marketing in 2008. Ram tends to be very practical and insightful as a former Harvard, Northwestern, and Boston U prof -- and as a close advisor to leaders like Jack Welch. I tend to pay attention to what he says.

Go Global -- this is my recommendation, recession or no. For companies in the U.S., go international. The rest of the world's economies are growing at 3 to 4 times the U.S. economy and the low US dollar gives us a huge advantage right now. Even GM, while offering buy-outs to all their employees in the U.S., is booming overseas. A close friend of mine in the AV furniture business is doing a booming business in Russia. I'm moving my family to India in September to build up our Gazelles business in Asia and the Middle East. The problem with companies in the US is we've become spoiled living in a huge domestic market and thus never developed the DNA to do business internationally, like our entrepreneurial friends in small markets like New Zealand or The Netherlands.

Export-Import Bank -- 85% of their loans go to small businesses. FORTUNE Small Business magazine did an excellent piece this month, with plenty of small to mid-size company examples, of U.S. companies taking advantage of the dollar's decline. Take a look at this article which includes links to the Ex-Im bank info.

Hidden Champions: Lessons from 500 of the World's Best Unknown Companies -- I read this book over a decade ago and found it to be one of the most insightful books about mid-size firms I had ever read (though now out-of-print -- check your library). The main point that stuck with me, if you want to dominate a narrow niche, was the importance of extending your reach into markets around the globe before companies in other parts of the world, focused on your same niche, enter your market! Your biggest competitive threat, even in the tiniest of niches, is a competitor you don't see coming from the other side of the planet. And you need the global market intelligence that comes with doing business in other markets. Here is an excellent article that outlines the five keys to being a hidden champion (take 15 seconds to glance at the sidebox in the article).

Australian National Growth Summit -- speaking of international, we co-host with Business Connect, our first annual "Growth Summit" in Sydney next week -- February 18 -- 20. Joining me from the U.S. are business thought leaders Geoff Smart (Topgrading) and Kaihan Krippendorf (The Art of the Advantage). A dozen additional Australian business experts will round out the program. Here's a link

Selling in Harder Times

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

HEADLINES:

Execute without Drama -- 40 seats available for Patrick Thean's March 4 studio taping of his 4-hour workshop, Chantilly, VA (same place we've taped the other programs). Specifics under DETAILS below. $99 per person.

Selling in Harder Times -- Customers will pay more -- for those that missed mention of Neil Rackham's article on selling during tougher times -- here's the link  to his article and several other complimentary "tools" from the faculty speaking at our upcoming Sales and Marketing Summit in Orlando (scroll down and click on the "Free Tools" starburst). One surprising conclusion from his research -- customers will actually pay more for your products and services during down times!! He explains why in the article. This and more insights from the father of sales research and the famous author of SPIN Selling and Rethinking the Sales Force.

Do Your Sales People "Show up and Throw Up" -- Eric Darmstetter, founder of SalesBy5, uses as his "marketing piece" an airline-grade barf bag with his Sales Safety Information card inside. It proved to be a "remarkable" piece at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas. Are your marketing materials "remarkable" i.e. people "remark" about them? Here's a link to Eric's blog where he details the promotion and provides his 10 Sales Safety Information tips. His "salt and pepper" tip is the best!

Best Sales and Marketing Tool -- Andy Buyting, CEO of Green Village Home & Garden, shared with me a detailed update on the specific impact on sales and marketing his book has had since being published last October, including helping him attract franchisees, employees, and establish his credibility as an expert in retailing. And he's going to come out with a new book each year -- details below.

EVERY CEO should write a book!!  Contact me if you need a ghost writer -- and here's a link to my short article on writing a book which will give you the inexpensive ($7k), mid-range, and expensive ($70K) approaches to publishing your book.

Here are Andy's thoughts on the impact of writing a book:

The Retailer's Roadmap to Success: 33 Secrets for Driving Your Business to the Next Level  has made a huge difference for me and my business, Green Village Home & Garden. Quickly here's what my book has done for me.

1. It is helping me to establish credibility as an expert in retailing and gain exposure. It's enabled me to publish a few articles in business & trade magazines, book a few speaking engagements (which I increased my prices and demand has grown), I've been able to meet several interesting people and have actually added the president of Home Depot Canada & Asia to my list of mentors whom I meet with regularly.
2. It is also helping my business grow. I plan to start selling franchises in 2008, and because of the book I've gained serious interest from two potential franchisees already, before I've done any kind of promotion or marketing effort. I'm also finding that people, more than ever before, want to do business with me and my company. My purpose for publishing the book has always been for the marketing aspect it could generate for my business. And it is certainly doing an incredible job, putting my name and my business on the map.
3. The last benefit, and it's a huge one, is how it helps align my team. I'm finding it easier to attract high quality managers (again, people want to do business with our company), as well as educate our existing staff. This season we are going to have a staff of about 120 people in retail, and each person will get a copy of my book as an initiation gift. For each person who thumbs through it and reads it, I have another person who learns my entire philosophy on management, customer service, marketing, pricing and merchandising. This is powerful stuff. Also, the feedback I see and get is that they are proud to be working with a progressive company, where the leader as actually published a book.

I would recommend it for anyone who really wants to expand their business.

We actually love this approach so much so that we are going to be embarking on a series of books, geared towards our customers as the target audience. I am hiring a ghost writer to coordinate and put together a series of books on gardening. Not entirely decided on the title yet, but the "Green Village" series of gardening and landscaping books will be written using content from our staff and self-published to sell through our stores, on Amazon and possibly through a distributor. This will again go a long way towards establishing our company as experts in the gardening and landscaping field, and will add so much credibility to what we do in the eyes of our customers. We plan to start within the year, and publish one book per year for 4 to 6 years. Exciting stuff!

Andy Buyting

Green Village Home & Garden
Author of The Retailer's Roadmap to Success
Tel: (506) 450-3388 ext. 222
Fax: (506) 450-2622
Email: [email protected]
http://www.greenvillage.ca
http://www.retailersroadmap.com

DETAILS:

Here's a more detailed description for the Execute Without Drama workshop we'll be taping on March 4.

Execute Without Drama™ Workshop

The power of metrics is astounding! Actually, it's the RIGHT metrics that carry all the power. What can you measure NOW that will give you insight into the FUTURE of your business?

You will learn how to:

• Develop the RIGHT METRICS to measure performance
   
• Get everyone ALIGNED behind the right metrics
   
• PREDICT outcomes, solve problems, avoid being blindsided
   
• Make BETTER DECISIONS and make them faster

Tools you can apply immediately and get results:

• Practical and simple Performance Dashboards
   
• 3 dashboards every growth company must have
   
• A common language that infuses performance into your culture
   

Here is what past attendees have to say:

"Thank you for your presentation last week at B.O.G. I really connected with your no nonsense approach and have been working hard to "desuck" my company."

-  Clint Drawdy, President, Medical Methods

"Thank you so much for speaking to us at BOG this year. Your presentation was excellent and I look forward to implementing what you have shared with us. I am requesting the forms you had in an EXCEL format and will definitely put them to good use. Please let me know if I can EVER do anything for you."

-  Scott Woodland, President, Onestream.net

"Thanks for the awesome presentation at BOG last week. I am going to take my current Rhythm meeting and accountabilities to a new level with the Green, Yellow, Red."

-  Jarrett Davidson, President, World of Water International Ltd.

"Thanks again for your amazing presentation and ideas. I've started building my dashboards and it would be helpful to receive what you've built in an excel format. Thanks for everything and I'm excited about the results."

-  John Trapp, President, Total R.

Volatile Times Call For Sales and Marketing

Volatile times mean we need to crank up sales and marketing  within our firms.  Here's a link to some complimentary tools provided by the top sales and marketing thought leaders presenting at our Summit -- particularly check out the famous Neil Rackham's (SPIN Selling) article on the keys to sales and sales management during recessions. And Jigsaw is providing everyone 25 complimentary contacts -- the largest database of business cards.

The ad below just came out this weekend in FORTUNE Small Business magazine. Those that have attended the Sales and Marketing Summit know that the best seats (like rock concerts) go to those that put down a deposit first (the balance isn't due until later) -- first come, first serve. If you plan to bring your team (everyone is welcome) and want to beat the one million CEOs that will be receiving their FSB magazine this week. For more details and to register now go to this link. Over a dozen of the top sales and marketing books of our time will be represented at our Sales and Marketing Summit April 22 - 23, Orlando.

As Paul Orfalea, founder of Kinkos, shared at our last Summit "the #1 thing we must give our companies is ideas" -- he shared how one marketing idea generated over $30 million to the bottom line of Kinkos. You're not going to get ideas just sitting in your office doing email. This is you and your team's Bill Gates-like "mini-Think Week" -- immerse yourself and knock out the equivalent of a dozen books in two days -- and enjoy some time in sunny Orlando.

Successful Workplaces

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

HEADLINES:

URGENT -- February 1 (tomorrow!) deadline for nominations -- Top Small Workplaces in the U.S. -- co-sponsored by The Wall Street Journal, if you're under $200 million in revenue and think you have a great place to work, nominate your firm by tomorrow -- it's a very short form -- then you'll receive a more extensive application which will be due later -- here's the link: -- winning awards like this can really boost your ability to attract top talent -- they are worth the time to apply. FYI, this is the old "Best Bosses" contest which FORTUNE Small Business is no longer doing.

SUCCESS magazine - What Achievers Read -- One of my closest friends and a founding board member of YEO, Stuart Johnson, purchased SUCCESS July of last year and is re-launching the publication with a promise to return it back to its legendary roots as the preeminent personal and professional achievement magazine. Expecting 100,000 newsstand distribution when the premier issue is released in March, Stuart has already reached over 700,000 in paid distribution making it one of the biggest first issue magazine launches of all-time. Stuart has offered my insight readers an exclusive reduced rate of $24.99 for 12 issues -- this is real savings over his best discounted rate. It's definitely a magazine I want sitting around for my children to peruse! Subscribe right now.

Speaking of success, Bob Parsons, Founder of GoDaddy, has "16 Rules for Success in Business & Life" -- now this is a list worth posting near your desk!!  Here's a link to the list -- be sure to scroll down on the landing page to see all 16 Rules (under the poster he's selling). Thanks to Tom McFadyen, founder of McFadyen Solutions  for pointing me to this insightful list

#16 is my favorite:  To quote Parsons "There's always a reason to smile. Find it. After all, you're really lucky just to be alive. Life is short. More and more, I agree with my little brother. He always reminds me: ‘We're not here for a long time, we're here for a good time!'" I've been getting too serious lately -- I need to loosen up!! Bob, thanks for the reminder.

Rate your e-commerce site -- BTW, Tom McFadyen wrote an excellent and detailed (with examples) article on how to rate your e-commerce site -- I've already passed it on to my webmaster and we're going to review it at our next weekly marketing meeting -- you have a weekly marketing meeting, don't you?

Save 4 hours -- read Inc article on Breakthrough Companies -- Stephen Adele, founder of Golden, Colorado-based Isatori, a leader in "lifestyle" supplements, sent me the following note: "I, too, was excited to read it (Breakthrough Companies), but found it difficult to take McFarland's book seriously...I actually thought the article/interview on this book, found in the most recent Inc. magazine  was sufficiently better than the book itself (and could save you 15 bucks and about 4 hours).

Quote of the week -- Maria Sharapova, while waiting to receive the Daphne Akhurst Trophy for winning the Australian Open, shared with the crowd that she had received a text message from tennis great Billie Jean King telling her "Champions take chances and pressure is a privilege."