"...keeping you great" Ten Minutes with the Growth Guy
HEADLINES: Theme -- Employees -- plus Global 500 List Released Print-Friendly Version
Susan Mealer's 31 "Daily Basics" for Employees -- several of you asked to see Susan's list of 31 "Daily Basics" that she reviews, one per day, during her daily huddles -- an idea she borrowed from Towne Park who modified a similar ritual practiced at the Ritz Carlton -- here's a link to see the nicely laid-out format of these basics.
Roger Hardy's "Book of the Month Club" for Managers -- Jenny Harvey, Coastal Contacts, sent this recent note "When going through your Rockefeller Habits Checklist at our last off-site management meeting, we noticed that the section on alignment had been a bit neglected. The number one thing that Roger (CEO) did that has made the entire management team feel aligned is to start a �Book of the Month' club. Every manager is given a book at the beginning of the month and we are tested on 3 chapters at each Monday morning meeting. After the test there is discussion on the chapters we have read and how it relates to Coastal Contacts. This has really brought the team together and helped us conceptualize the task at hand which we are to be aligned on." Whoever learns faster wins!!
Geoffrey Moore, from the Last Growth Summit, is Chosen -- Jenny continues "The first book Roger chose for us was Inside the Tornado by Geoffrey Moore. The book was great for our team as we were able to realize as a group exactly where we are in the tornado lifecycle, and what we need to do to get ourselves to the next step. We are currently reading Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore and Roger has asked a speaker from the book to give a presentation to the team at our next global summit." For a list of books I recommend all managers read go to mygazelles.com-- just enter your email address if you're already registered at My Gazelles.
"Green" Makeover Opportunity -- FORTUNE Small Business magazine is looking for a small business that would like to be the subject of a "green" makeover that will ultimately save the business money and provide a great ROI. A non New York-area company with a warehouse, factory, and fleet of trucks would be ideal as energy savings will likely be a big part of the ROI. The company we choose will be the subject of an FSB Makeover story, and will receive advice from 3 consultants who offer tips on growing green. Interested business owners should send an e-mail to [email protected] with the re: line "Green Makeover." In your e-mail, please provide basic information regarding your business (industry, city, state, number of employees) as well as your most recent annual revenue figures.
Paul Silvis on "Fostering Trust in the Workplace" Webinar -- I've been recently highlighting Paul's $60 million firm Restek in how he's re-strategized a $7 million division to grow to $200 million. Paul's team has also fostered an excellent environment for employees, being named one of last year's winners of the Top Small Workplace competition. Paul will be sharing his lessons on servant leadership and how they help their staff construct individual growth plans in a July 29, 10am CST webinar. For more information and to register for the webinar go to winningworkplaces.org. And if you think it's all soft stuff, notes Paul "It's just a happy fest if the environment doesn't lead to results."
Excellent Benchmarking Data on Employee Training, Benefits, etc. -- $44 million Professional Placement Resources came in at number 12 of the Top 25 "Best Small Companies to Work for in America." Here's the link to the list which provides a quick summary of the number hours of training/employee; percent of budget spent on training; percent of hires referred by staff; percent of internal promotions; etc. And there's a quick summary section of best practices from each of the 25 winners -- there will be a couple you can shamelessly steal -- review at your next weekly meeting!
Global 500 Largest Companies List Released Today -- Wal-Mart at $379 billion tops the list, edging out Exxon Mobil by $6 billion. And Toyota comes in at #5 as GM drops to #9 -- it's why we're focusing on Toyota's Lean process as it applies to companies our size at the Growth Summit, and ING, the Dutch banking firm, came in at an impressive #7 -- proves the power of focus as they continued to shed non-related businesses and laser focused on their simple business model -- provide the highest rates on deposits and the lowest rates on mortgages. Here's a link to the entire list and for nice thumbnail sketches of the top global companies which outline their key strategies go to money.cnn.com