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.

DETAILS:

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."