The Agile Scaleup

Smart's 4-Step Hiring Model

"...keeping you great" Ten Minutes with the Growth Guy
 
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Three Outstanding Articles on Bill Gates' Transition -- Gates gave FORTUNE an exclusive interview and access to some never before seen photos. The three part series is outstanding. Under DETAILS below I provide links to these three articles plus my favorite excerpt from each article.
 
Four-Step Hiring Model -- Geoff Smart's new book entitled Who: The A Method for Hiring -- based on a four-step "S" model: Scorecard, Source, Select, and Sell that generates a 90% success rate. Watch Geoff's CNN Money interview here. And the book is thin! He's also pioneered a new visual model that greatly simplifies the process using the letter "A" -- a process based on interviews with over 20 billionaires (the stories are worth the read), 60 CEOs, and a University of Chicago study with 300 CEOs on hiring practices. Pre-order here.
 
Four Live Interactive Teleseminars, Bonus Video, and an additional 90-minute exclusive "Gazelles Fireside Q&A Session" with Geoff Smart and Who co-author Randy Street a month after the book comes out. All you have to do, before July 15, is pre-order one book for the bonus video or 10 books (every hiring manager should read the book or give as gifts to customers) to participate in the 4 one-hour live Teleseminars and the 90-minute Q&A session. Go to http://www.whothebook.com site to order books then RSVP for the Gazelles-only event by emailing Beth Murtaugh, [email protected], who is the administrator in charge of that event.
 
One-Page Plan wiki -- for most of you it's that time of the year to update your Gazelles' One-Page Strategic Plan. And because I'm often asked for sample plans, we've launched another wiki (just think of it as a shared website that anyone can update), like the Quarterly Theme wiki where you can upload your One-Page Plan for others to see -- obviously, many of you will want to leave off some of the numbers, but it's useful for other firms to see your Core Values, Purpose, BHAG, Brand Promises, Critical Numbers, and Themes. Here's the link to post your plan  -- please contribute!!
 
Quarterly Theme Ideas and Contributions-- and remember, there are over two dozen Quarterly Themes you can look at for ideas -- just scroll down and you'll see a list of themes. And please upload your recent quarterly theme for others to see.
 
Tips for Getting to Sleep -- FORTUNE Small Business magazine wants your ideas/tricks for getting to sleep -- ideas they can share with other entrepreneurs.  Email [email protected].
 
Better Ideas -- notes Bill Gates "Even today people at the foundation get lots of e-mail from me, but after Sept. 1 they'll get a lot more because now I'll be able to take courses, read more, meet more smart people, and have better ideas." Again, check out DETAILS below for links to the latest three article series and some great quotes!
 
More Better Ideas -- and Priority Seating for Tom Peters -- OK, not sure that passes second grade grammar rules, but the full page ads for our fall Oct 21-22 Growth Summit in Atlanta hit the stands July 1. Since we give preferential seating to those that pre-register early, if you're planning to attend the Growth Summit (where you'll "take courses, meet more smart people, and have better ideas"!) then get registered and reserve the best seats. Whoever learns fastest wins! Just click on the Growth Summit link to see the full program including four hours with one of the most famous and still highly insightful and relevant business thought leaders, Tom Peters.

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Gates' Three Offices -- Bill Gates will be splitting his time between three offices: a day at Microsoft; two days at his foundation; and two days at his new personal office, where he'll have time to think. Here's the first link to the FORTUNE article entitled "Gates Without Microsoft." And my favorite quote from the article (warning, some bad language) "The classic CEO needs to be right, or rather needs to appear to be right more than he needs to actually be right -- and that's not Bill," says his pal (Nathan) Myhrvold. "Lewis and Clark were lost most of the time. If your idea of exploration is to always know where you are and to be inside your zone of competence, you don't do wild new shit. You have to be confused, upset, think you're stupid. If you're not willing to do that, you can't go outside the box."
 
Gates' 4 Golden Rules -- 1) Think of software as a utopian tool; 2) Let the engineers rule; 3) Institutionalize paranoia; 4) Invest for the long term. Here's a link to the second FORTUNE article entitled "Gates' 4 Golden Rules." And my favorite quote "At a recent executive retreat, Gates said he thought every great businessperson at Microsoft should cultivate at least five close relationships with engineers."
 
Ballmer's Three Priorities -- the final article entitled "Microsoft without Gates" outlines three challenges: Growth, Google, and those "pesky Apple ads." Here's the link. And here's my favorite quote, colored by the fact that Gazelles has in beta with six customers our new Rhythm dashboard and smart board technology, "And around the same time, he (Ballmer) persuaded Kevin Turner to leave his job as Wal-Mart's CIO to join Microsoft in a newly created chief operating officer role. Turner, 43, is a stickler for accountability and measurement. At Microsoft, he's developed a 30-metric "scorecard" with concrete annual goals -- in everything from customer satisfaction to growing Windows market share -- or every manager in 65 countries where the company sells its products. Each month Turner gets a report on what he calls ROB, the rhythm of the business. It's the list of 30 metrics, each with a color next to it -- red, yellow, or green. You don't want to be a manager with more than one red."

Accountants Rock

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

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Gates/Ballmer Handover -- several of you had trouble getting a full version of the WSJ article last week. The link remains elusive (it goes from being the full article to becoming a teaser for subscribing to WSJ), but you can always go to Google News and search "Gates Ballmer WSJ Guth" and find a link that displays the entire article. The article is entitled "Gates-Ballmer Clash Shaped Microsoft's Coming Handover" written by Robert Guth.

Tiger Woods and John D. Rockefeller Related? -- not exactly, but David Brooks wrote an outstanding Op-Ed in the NY Times, on the heels of Tiger's amazing US Open win, on Tiger's power to focus -- it's an article every business leader/manager should read. And like Rockefeller, Tiger was going to be an accountant! It's all about discipline -- accountants' rock! Here's a link to the article.

Discipline of Customer Feedback and Daily Huddles -- speaking of discipline, Susan Mealer, Owner/CEO of Memphis-based Answering Advantage, sent me a note detailing the impact daily huddles have had on boosting the confidence of her frontline employees -- knowledge is power! She also noted that the weekly customer calls drove them to revise their training and re-program individual accounts and message tickets. They are also working on their "uncommon offering" -- this is Bob Bloom's process for figuring out your unique selling proposition from his book Inside Advantage.  Details of her feedback and results are under DETAILS below.

Uncommon Offering -- Bob Bloom interview -- take three minutes and watch Bob Bloom's interview from the Sales and Marketing Summit. About a minute in he gets to the uncommon offering discussion. Almost like his "four imported cheeses" example, we've decided our uncommon offering is the Gazelles One-Page Strategic Plan tool along with our other "four one-page tools." Gazelles -- home of one-page tools for growing your business! The key, as Bob suggests, is to repeat this message at all your customer touch points. View interview at www.gazelles.tv -- scroll down right hand column.

Class III-IV Whitewater, Rock Climbing, Mountain Biking and a 4x4 Off-roading Experience in Aspen, CO August 13-17 -- "Work Hard, Play Hard" -- 7 spots left in Maverick Business Adventures� experience taking place August 13-17, 2008 in Aspen, CO. Join fellow like-minded CEOs and successful entrepreneurs along with special guest Frank McKinney, who the Wall Street Journal called "the Real Estate Rock Czar". Frank builds $10, $20, $30...even $100M+ luxury ocean front estates entirely on spec. Watch 12 different Maverick members (several Gazelles among them) share their candid insights about their experience: Even if you're a little unsure about your schedule for August, don't worry. Maverick members are covered with the added assurance of "cancel anytime" insurance policy. So you can get a full reimbursement for any business reason right up until the last minute.

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Here's the note from Susan Mealer, CEO, Answering Advantage:

I wanted to share some feedback about the implementation of my many take-aways from the ATSI Owner's Forum in January.

Mentor -- First I found a mentor as you suggested -- John Ratliff agreed -- lucky me! And he's been very patient in allowing me to "suck his brains dry" (your words)!

Daily Huddle -- The daily huddle is an outstanding idea! (I was the undecided one at the Forum who asked you during a break for motivation in starting a daily huddle in my small business). I couldn't be happier with the results. Our front line supervisors now have insight and better understanding of issues (payroll, cash flow, service inquiries) that I have attempted to help them understand for many years. Their main focus has always been in the call center and on the employees. Having this extra knowledge seems to have given them more confidence in what they do on a day to day basis. I also see more ownership from them. I created a month of daily basics which are read at the end of every huddle. Many of the quotes I have chosen have sparked many fantastic conversations. (Because we are smaller, we have extra time during the 15 minutes). I have hooked so many peers on this concept -- practically everyone in my peer-peer mentoring group has started a huddle. Of course, I tell them to read your book first.

Weekly Customer Calls -- Also, we started making the weekly calls to our customers, asking the 4 questions you suggested. The results have been better than we could have ever expected -- even my 2 naysayers in the office (they're the number crunchers, naturally their glass is half-empty) see that the feedback is invaluable. Based on the results, to name a few changes, we have re-tooled our training ("your operators always do a great job, but we can always tell when you have a new operator") and re-programmed individual accounts and message tickets ("I've been meaning to call you because I wish you could do X for me" You'd think we invented the world wide web)!

Uncommon Offering -- Almost finished with our "uncommon offering." I polled most employees individually about what they do well -- most said the same things. It was an extremely humbling exercise to ask our customers what we did best and/or set us apart from our competition. A practice administrator in a big GI group actually went to EVERY practitioner, to everyone in A/P and to all front-line staff who regularly interact with our service to obtain a response. Another customer obtained feedback from every staff level as well before responding. Wow! Taking that amount of time to answer our question was overwhelming!

One of the most enlightening outcomes? That we mean so many different things to different people. The On-Call techs like us becauseour operators are friendly and appreciate the fact that they have to deal with the same cranky customers they do. The On-Call coordinator likes our flexibility when she has to change the on-call schedule sometimes 2-3 times a day or even within one hour. The physicians like our compassion with their patients. The business owner likes our tenacity in tracking down the on-call personnel to deliver a message as quickly as possible. The billing office likes our quick response time to billing questions.

Net Promoter Score (NPS) -- My 3rd quarter goal?  To implement NPS!  The recent articles in FORTUNE Small Business magazine were great!

Bill Gates Confession

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

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"I had to change" Notes Bill Gates -- and thus the relationship between Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer was saved. Bill Gates steps down from Microsoft June 27. Please take five minutes and read this insightful June 5 WSJ article by Robert A. Guth on how Gates and Ballmer made their relationship work and how they've handled the delicate transition of power -- it's a Master Class on succession and finding the right #2. Thanks to Jimmy Calano (founding board member of YEO) for turning me on to this article.

Someone You've Known a Long Time -- this is one of my favorite moments in the article "Their relationship started at Harvard University in the mid-1970s, where the two played poker and thrived by pushing their intellectual limits. Once they skipped a graduate economics class for the entire semester, then teamed up a few days before the final exam to try to learn the material all at once. Mr. Ballmer recalls he got a 97; Mr. Gates a 99." Later in the piece Ballmer notes "I think brothers tend to argue a lot, and somehow they stay brothers and stay connected," he said. "I think Bill and I have figured out how to do all of that." My research indicates that the best #2 is someone the entrepreneur has known for quite some time (and played a lot of poker with!), which is why the Michael Dell/Kevin Rollins partnership blew up as did all of Howard Schultz's (Starbucks) CEOs.
       
Max Weber on Charismatic Authority -- Guth notes in the piece "Looking for guidance, Mr. Ballmer says he cracked open a book from his college years by Max Weber, the German sociologist, on how organizations handle the disappearance of 'charismatic leaders'....One way for a firm to retain the charisma of a departing leader, Mr. Weber wrote some 100 years ago, is for the leader to name his own replacement." I found an interesting Wikipedia piece on Max Weber and his theories around Charismatic Authority -- worth another five minutes.
       
Speaking of Microsoft and Leadership -- congratulations to Sam Goodner for being named the 2008 Entrepreneur-of-the-Year for his region. Goodner is President & CEO of Catapult Systems, a 250 person Austin-based IT consulting firm focused exclusively on Microsoft solutions. His firm has also been named the "Best Place to Work" in Austin and was listed as the #2 Best Place to Work in Texas by Texas Monthly. And check out this photo  -- proud to see Sam's One-Page Plan prominently displayed in the background!!  Congrats Sam and everyone at Catapult.

#1 Customer Service Book and interactive DVD -- and congratulations to customer service guru John DiJulius (and Sales Summit superstar) -- his new book What's the Secret: To Providing a World Class Customer Experience is the #1 ranked customer service book on Amazon this week. In most cases it's superior service that is the main differential advantage growth firms provide their customers and John lays out ten simple commandments for doing this inexpensively and well -- and his four hour training program is now available on an interactive DVD which you can view/demo at www.gazelles.tv -- just scroll down until you see the product.       

Houdini's Metamorphosis -- and forgive a little fatherly pride, but those of you that attended the last Growth Summit saw me perform some less than smooth illusions. Well, my son Cameron is learning the art and performed his first major stage illusion last Friday in his school's talent show -- Houdini's famous "Metamorphosis" illusion. Here's a link to the YouTube video (he's dressed in black, his friend Charlie in white). Thanks to Shep Hyken, who preformed some real magic at the Summit, for all his assistance. And stay tuned as I prepare a major illusion for the upcoming Growth Summit, October 21 -- 22, in Atlanta.

7 Ways to Drive Revenues

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

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Where to Find the Best Sales People to Drive Revenues -- Neil Rackham, the father of sales research and author of four of the most important books on sales (SPIN Selling, Rethinking the Sales Force, etc.), has a half dozen concrete ideas for helping growth firms find and select top sales people - hint: hire top sales people from 3rd tier firms. In addition, he summarizes succinctly what growth firms must do to add value to the sales process -- hint: product differentiation is not enough...sales people must add value themselves!

Half the Number of Customers to Drive Revenues -- and Rackham's overall advice is to go after half the number of customers and shower them with twice the attention. Take five minutes and watch his insightful interview on Gazelles.tv (right hand column) - and then watch it again with your sales team (these interviews were conducted at the Sales and Marketing Summit a few weeks ago). BTW, Rackham shares an interesting stat -- the top 10% of a sales force typically outperforms the bottom 10% by a 3:1 margin! This is where opportunity exists.

A Simple Metric That Measures Referrals and Drives Revenue -- coming off last year's Growth Summit, FORTUNE Small Business magazine wrote a comprehensive June cover story on how growth firms are using Fred Reichheld's (The Ultimate Question-guy) Net Promoter Score (NPS) to measure customer advocacy and create focus and alignment within their companies around this simple metric. Results -- sales are up!! And congrats to Tony Hartl, CEO of Planet Tan (Mark Cuban does commercials for him!) and long standing client of Gazelles, for making the cover of the June issue for his use of NPS -- and congrats to Ron Hollis, CEO of Quickparts  (I think Ron has one of the best websites I've seen) and John Ratliff, Appletree Answering Services, Gazelles clients also featured in the article.  Take five minutes to scan this article and then implement this very simple metric

Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive -- and Drive Revenues -- in the fields of influence and persuasion, Dr. Robert Cialdini is the most cited living social psychologist in the world. His classic book Influence has sold over a million copies and is backed by 30 years of research into how to get someone to say "yes." So I was obviously excited to hear that he was co-authoring a new book -- really the first new book from Cialdini in over 20 years. And I love the structure of the new book entitled Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive -- fifty short and concise chapters that take one idea, provide the science behind why it works, and gives you an idea how to apply to your business. I've been pushing the importance of marketing and this book will give you plenty of ideas to discuss at your weekly marketing meetings (you are holding weekly marketing meetings? Here's my article on the subject).

Your Video Golf Lesson is Ready to Help Drive Revenues -- OK, maybe I'm pushing it a little with this one, but a lot of business is done on the golf course -- and here's a link to some online golf lessons from Targeted Golf -- just click on the Targeted Golf video in the upper right hand column. And if you took some swings in their golf simulator at the Sales and Marketing Summit, your personal golf lessons and swing video are now available as well -- just click on the same link. For the personal golf lesson from the Sales Summit your username is your full email address: (Example: [email protected]) and your password is: Password.

Entrex Company Book -- Exposure that Drives Revenues -- 25 companies are premiered in the Entrex Private Company Index's first "Alternative Monthly." As I've said before, this is a free and anonymous index of private company performance, now check out the exposure and credibility your sales, finance and corporate leaders can get by association. Join today! Request your free copy.

The Employee Spirit That Will Definitely Drive Revenues -- and this from Tiffany Luby, Medical Solutions Supplier who noted in an email to me "Increased Sales = Job Security!!!"  Now that's an associate who gets it!!