"...keeping you great" Ten Minutes with the Growth Guy HEADLINES: Best Countries for Business -- Singapore, New Zealand, and U.S. -- for the fourth year in a row named the top three best countries for start-ups and growth companies based on tax laws, regulations, judicial system, etc. Here's a link to the top 20 countries and the rationale for their inclusion. FYI, on the list of the worst countries for small business, Republic of Congo ranked worst of the 181 countries listed.
Best Coffee Cup -- and this from my Australian tour this week -- Nicholas Bloor, CEO of Queensland-based weed and pest control firm Technigro, wanted his branded coffee cup to be the one sitting on his customer's desk, so he gathered up a wide-range of styles and sizes from his local promotional products supplier and decided to simply ask his customers -- novel idea! Surprisingly, they universally picked the same large cup with a large handle, given the demographics of those that tend to purchase his services, and now his cup (and branding) is king among his customers.
Best BHAG Display -- Naomi Simpson, founder of Sydney-based Red Balloon has a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) of providing one of their gifted experiences to 10% of Australia's 20 million people by 2015. To keep this BHAG visible, they have a large LCD screen in their lobby that displays a running total (north of 350,000 so far) of the number of experiences provided to date, updated instantly whenever another experience is booked (an actual figure of a person appears on the screen and is shown being added to the total). And with an annual growth rate exceeding 50% -- 67% last year -- they have a goal to be over a third of the way by 2010 (750,000 experiences). How many of your associates are visually reminded daily on the progress of your BHAG?
Best Line from a Novel -- I've just started reading the Australian/Indian International best-selling novel entitled "Shantaram" -- rumor has it Johnny Depp has signed on for the movie. Written by Melbourne native Gregory David Roberts, he was sentenced to nineteen years in prison, escaped and lived as a fugitive in Bombay -- where he established a free medical clinic for slum-dwellers and worked as a counterfeiter, smuggler, gunrunner, and street soldier for a branch of the Bombay mafia. Recaptured, he served out his sentence and established a successful multimedia company upon his release. He is now a full-time writer and lives back in Bombay, where he's established a charitable trust to care for slum-dwellers. Best line in the book, so far, when Lin (Roberts' alias) is asked by his newfound friends in Bombay to share what he thinks is the best thing in the world after they offered up power, money, love...:
"Well, if you press me, I'd have to say freedom."
"The freedom to do what?" he (Didier) asked...
"I don't know. Maybe just the freedom to say no. If you've that much freedom, you really don't need any more."
Best Testimonial for the Week -- and congratulations to Jai Gill, founder of Inflection Point, our longest standing coaching partner in Australia, who shared with me a letter he received from David Cohen, a well known Australian entrepreneur and advisory board member to many successful firms. Cohen noted that in his 20 years of building, advising, and participating in the strategic planning sessions of companies, his planning session with Jai, using the One-Page Strategic Plan, was the finest he's ever experienced.
LEARNING and COACHING:
For a List of Gazelles Coaching Partners, go to:http://www.gazelles.com/coach_overview.shtml