The Agile Scaleup

56 Consecutive Months of Growth; Stock Quadrupled; Five Types of Acquisitions; Banish Fear

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Two must-read articles listed below, but first...

Staying Positive, New Ideas -- this is the reason for the new weekly teleconference call -- a chance for you to hear some good news for a change, learn new ideas from your peers, and get a 30 minute "pump" session each week to keep you positive and action-oriented -- dial in each Tuesday. Banish Fear!

Closes 2x More Business Q1 -- Mike Praeger, CEO of 70+ employee software firm Avidxchange, is already on target to close 2x more business this Q1 compared to 2008 Q1. His current discipline and business rhythm (Quarterly planning, weekly meetings, daily huddles) has freed him to focus on client retention. And by getting closer to his customers, his team has learned and implemented many things that have led to his current success.

Join Mike Praeger on our next complimentary Teleconference Call, Tuesday, Feb 24, 11:58am -- 12:30pm -- here's a link to register -- learn what Mike's team has learned and implemented -- best practices and "juice" from a peer.

56 Consecutive Months of Growth -- also maintaining close contact with customers, Jim Skinner, CEO of McDonalds since 2004, is credited with guiding this mammoth firm through good times and bad. One key -- Skinner has eaten at McDonald's every day while working his way up from hamburger-flipper to CEO. Note the authors of this must-read Forbes Feb 4th article "...the real story behind the resurgence of the chain has to do with something simpler: empathy, the ability to see how the world looks through the eyes of others." BTW, the stock has gone from $13 to over $60. Are you eating your own dog food each day?

Acquisitions on the Rise -- many of our clients tell me they are active in acquiring companies during this down period -- and for very little cash. Here's a link to a summary of a key 2001 Harvard Business Review article, "Not All M&As Are Alike --- and That Matters." In the article Joseph Bower identifies five types of mergers and acquisitions: overcapacity, geographic roll-ups, product or market extensions, M&A as research and development, and industry convergence. This is a great time to review this article and see if you should be making acquisitions.

Third Successful Company -- one of our longest standing clients, Raymond King, CEO of AboutUs.org, now in the top 1000 of all websites in the world, sent me a note this week "This is my third company using the (Rockefeller) habits and we're doing the best job of it by far. I think it's for two reasons, this team is more aligned around core values and they're wiki folks who think collaboratively by nature. Folks external to the company (like my new VC and their advisors) consistently compliment us on our operational disciplines -- and I smile to you every time." Ray and his team have participated in our workshops several times -- the most disciplined win -- see our list of Rockefeller Habits workshops below.

Thank you to Timothy Keenan for this week's call -- here's a link to listen to a tape recording of the call where he discusses fear. And his idea of using your state's Quality Award program as a way to get free consulting was insightful plus the importance of applying for awards in general. When asked about his budget for training, he spends 43% of his benefit costs on employee education -- a better metric than percent of revenue. And his top 30 gathered to watch both the Pat Lencioni and Seth Godin LIVE webcasts -- here's a link to sign-up for the archived programs and join Tim's team as they tune-in for the March 17 LIVE webcast with Guy Parsons on LEAN.

More Conversations with Customers -- I know I'm learning a great deal and its helping Gazelles -- engage with your own customers (another theme of Tim Keenan's as well).

Solution for Economy; Logical Choice Triples Profits; Slept with Dictionary; Tim Keenan teleconference

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Valentine's Day Story -- see below, but first...

Teleconference with Tim Keenan, CEO of $70 million HPTi, Tuesday, Feb 17, 11:58am -- 12:30pm EST -- listen instead of having to read my stuff. Click here to register and get dial in info.

200 Interview Update -- the good news continues to pour in so starting next Tuesday, I'm going to host a weekly 30 minute teleconference featuring a CEO explaining how they are growing in this crazy economy -- 20 minute interview and 10 minutes Q&A -- fast paced, specific actionable ideas to help you grow as well -- and to "pump you up." We have to lead the world out of this mess -- no time for whining, only time for implementing! Dial in while on the run -- simple phone call -- learn from a peer.

Revenue up 23%, Profit up 22.6% in 2008 for 300 employee, Virginia-based $70 million HPTi -- Tim Keenan, CEO of HPTi, will be my first guest. I reported on his success a few weeks ago -- and he just addressed a group of 250 CEOs on how he's growing HPTi, so he's had some practice -- here's a link to my blog that featured Tim's lessons.

Cynthia Kaye Tripled Profitability in 2008 -- founder of $65 million Logical Choice Technologies, Cynthia used a gain sharing program to get her team focused on profitability. If you get Fortune Small Business magazine, check out page 51 in the February issue where she shares the details. She just paid out $2800 to each of her 170 employees across 9 states -- I'll be getting her on a teleconference call and when the article is posted on CNN, I'll send you a link. And check out her latest YouTube video -- great marketing piece for the company -- the 21st Century Classroom experts.

Thomas Friedman's Tuesday Column -- best article on what we should do to get our economy jump-started -- and wouldn't cost us a penny. My favorite factoid from the column "According to research by Vivek Wadhwa, a senior research associate at the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School, more than half of Silicon Valley start-ups were founded by immigrants over the last decade. These immigrant-founded tech companies employed 450,000 workers and had sales of $52 billion in 2005." Take 3 minutes to read this article -- I sent it to my Senators

Slept With a Dictionary -- Valentine's Success Story -- this is what it's all about -- several of our best clients just received a small box of the best chocolates on the planet courtesy of a barter with Katrina Merrem, Chocolatier and Owner of NOKA Chocolate. How could I resist when Katrina wrote me a couple weeks ago and said "I have had a thirst for knowledge since taking the dictionary to bed at a very young age (true story). This is my first entrepreneurial venture and we are the new buzz-word Co-preneurs (couples that start a business together). We are a two person executive team. I know you have a session coming up in Dallas (March 3-4). We have heard great things about your program and feel we could both greatly learn from your seminar. Have you or would you consider a trade for the training? We could send out decadent chocolate gifts to your top clients/friends/family, whomever you choose in exchange for training." Wow, how could I resist. Anyone that hungry to learn I'm happy to cut a deal with. She went on to say that their "theme" for the year is "get scrappy." She's doing just that.

Get Scrappy! 

Big World-Changing Ideas' Three Cycles; Funniest Contact; Xander Drives Revenue; EO Netherlands Purple Cows

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES: (grow while others are shrinking!)

When you are through changing, you're through. Bruce Barton, founder of BBDO ad agency

Xander Heijman Uses Purple Cow to Drive Change and Revenue Growth -- founder of Dutch firm Axoft, Heijman has already seen revenue grow over 20% in January for his 36 employee IT services and hosting company. Noted Heijman in an email to me this week "our EO chapter purchased a copy of (Seth Godin's) Purple Cow for all the members and we received it during our yearly Christmas party in December...I then presented Seth's ideas in combination with the economic crisis to all my employees. I told everybody that we have to be different in marketing and in products."

Finding Purple Cows -- Heijman further explained to his employees "If we find the Purple Cow every day and we all act accordingly we will become stronger than our competitors and we will grow the planned 20% this year." After his presentation, 4 employees immediately emailed or came to him with ideas like:

* Xander I found a cow, we have to change this in our product
* Xander if we change this in our process we can invoice more this month
* Xander we can improve our service by...

...and then they signed their emails "The Blue Cowboy" or "The Brown Cow" etc.

"If they come up with ideas like this and it helps us to reach our monthly goals they get an incentive like lunch / dinner / book / iPod." The key is to engage the brains of your employees! Teach them, incent them, and then turn them loose!

Speaking of Different -- Funniest "contact" page on a website -- Scott Giesler, "The Supremo" for Queensland-based PizzaCapers, contacted me last week. In looking at his website, I found a company that embraces "different" -- is a Purple Cow among the hundreds of me-to pizza joints. I particularly got a chuckle looking at their Contact page where they give customers three options: Good Comment; Bad Comment; No Comment -- you have to click on the No Comment link! Also check out the verbiage on their Caper Club page "...like a secret society, without the goats..." -- it's time to be different, to stand out, or take a stand.

Big World-Changing Ideas Have Had Three Cycles -- this is how Seth Godin, the world's top marketing guru, starts his TED Conference interview yesterday. And it's about taking a stand and creating a movement like Tom's Shoes -- again, could easily be another me-to shoe store chain (11 stores in as many countries) except they've also created a movement to donate ten-of-thousands of shoes to the needy -- i.e. "buy one pair, we'll donate another. "Take five minutes and read Seth's interview on the three cycles and how you can participate in the third wave.

"Teach Your People" -- Seth Godin's LIVE online program, Feb 10 -- join the preeminent marketing thinker of our time and author of seven books including Purple Cow, Permission Marketing, All Marketers are Liars, and his latest Tribes. Stimulate the minds of your people -- everything they do is about marketing. Here's a link to sign-up for next Tuesday's February 10 program, 11:58am -- 2pm EST (and on-demand). Give us two-hours per month and we'll expose your people to the new and different ideas powering companies that are growing vs. shrinking.

"I try to give my family 100% of me" -- and this from George Contos, World Wide Metric Inc., North America's largest inventory of metric products. He participated in Pat Lencioni's webcast last week where Pat took the last 15 minutes to address the need for families to have core values, a theme, and meeting rhythm. Notes Contos "I went home and did the whole family thing with my wife....it was great and timely. I am so busy all the time and I try to give my family 100% of me when I am there, but all too often...we forget...so thanks to Pat for reminding me what else is important in my life and to make time to plan and strategize with them as well as my colleagues!" Pat's presentation is available "on-demand."

"Drilling this stuff into everyone" -- continued Contos "I need to get more of my staff involved in the webcasts -- it was just me for Pat. In fact, I just came from facilitating a sales meeting for a friend's company and found myself using aspects of Pat's stuff...so this is what I need to rollout to others in my organization. I want to upgrade and buy all 3." No problem, George. For just over $300/month you can educate your entire company, taught by the top business thought leaders of our time. Don't miss the ideas possibly powering your competition.

Teach Them, Incent Them, Turn Them Loose 

Ask Seth Marketing Questions; Quickparts Sales Machine; Business Card Mistakes; Front Row Seats

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES: (Sales and Marketing Education -- part 2)

Ask Seth Godin your top marketing questions -- I'm working hard to get you direct access to the top thought leaders of our time -- see below, but first...

Quickparts' Eight Years of Record Growth -- earlier today I received this note from Ron Hollis, CEO of Atlanta-based Quickparts.com "Quickparts has begun implementing Ultimate Sales Machine for Custom Design Parts -- we started in December... we have taken his (Chet Holmes') info as a baseline and developed a Quickparts approach to make it great...I'll have my top guy on the call Thursday with Chet." Ron, thanks for the feedback on Chet's material.

Chet Holmes' Teleconference Call Thursday, February 5, 11:44am -- 12:30pm EST. Here's a link to sign-up for this complimentary learning opportunity. Pick up tips from the guy Charlie Munger (Warren Buffett's partner) called "America's greatest sales and marketing executive." No technology needed but a phone.

"Creativity changes the game, whatever game is being played," notes Seth Godin in his latest blog this morning. 'We're going to run out of cash by the end of the year,' is accurate unless you count creativity into the equation. Then the accurate statement is, 'Under the current rules and assumptions, we're going to run out of cash...' Big difference." Here's a link to Seth's entire blog, which is the #1 marketing blog in the world. I read it every day and I get it delivered via email vs. RSS feed -- that way it's in my flight path -- an option Seth provides.

#1 Marketing Blog -- Top 20 Posts from Seth Godin in 2008 -- review these posts at your next weekly marketing meeting (you have one, right?). I particularly liked his one about the top mistakes we make with business cards (#20) -- he shows 8 cards and picks his favorite. Your business card should make it obvious what you do -- that's what the card does that is Seth's favorite. Ask the question "can people tell what you do from your business card?" All the little stuff adds up -- get it right!

Ask Seth Godin -- here's how Seth is going to handle his LIVE webcast next Tuesday, Feb 10 (11:58am -- 2pm EST and available on-demand afterwards). He'll take time to talk directly about what's new in marketing -- what's working and not working -- then he'll take questions directly emailed to him by the participants during the webcast. And for those signed-up, you'll also get information on how to submit your questions ahead of time if you like -- Seth will review these in preparation for his presentation. Don't hold back. Be specific. Have him look at your website. Send him samples of things you're writing and working on. He wants to get specific and detailed.

Godin WARNING: Seth wanted me to emphasize that he won't be responding with email answers (too hard to answer this way) -- he'll only be responding verbally during the webcast.

Learn while skiing -- McDermott's VP, Bruce Crager, also sent me a note this week "Just wanted you to know how McDermott came to be one of the biggest watchers of the (Lencioni) webcast. I saw the webcasts offered in your weekly email and then asked Dennis Mease of our OD group to buy it and offer it to our offices worldwide which includes Houston, Morgan City LA, Dubai and Singapore. We had a large number of folks watch the live webcast, including me while on vacation in Telluride CO (it was a snowy day so I stayed in instead of skiing). Dennis provides coaching to my team and is a great resource. The point is, your regular email resulted in 100's of people being exposed to Pat and then to the next two speakers. Thanks for setting this up!" And with the bad weather in the U.S., people stranded at home could still participate in the workshop. This is the future of executive education -- get your people in a monthly rhythm of learning.

Front Row Seats --- the full page ad for the Sales and Marketing Summit landed on 1 million CEO desks this week courtesy of our co-hosts FORTUNE Small Business magazine. If you plan to attend and want front row seats, pre-register now. $250/executive saves you the best seats -- like a rock concert, we seat in order of registration and size of team -- earliest and biggest get the front row tables. Here's a link to the ad. Join us April 21 -- 22 in New Orleans.

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Charlie Munger (Buffett's Partner) on Best Sales and Marketing Executive; Why Steelers Should Win Super Bowl

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES: (Theme -- Sales and Marketing)

First, Thank you -- almost 1000 executives participated in our January live video program with Pat Lencioni yesterday (kudos to The Scooter Store and McDermott which had the most). February is marketing guru Seth Godin, Feb 10, 11:58am -- 2pm EST -- watch live or on-demand at your convenience.

Warren Buffett's partner, Charlie Munger, has called Chet Holmes "America's greatest sales and marketing executive." Chet ran nine divisions of a company for Munger, doubling the sales volume of each, most within 12 to 15 months, and again doubling sales for several years consecutively. "It was all in the constant focus on 12 competencies," explains Chet. And Chet's book The Ultimate Sales Machine has been #1 or #2 on Amazon in his category, ranked up there with Gitomer and Rackham. Michael Gerber, of E-Myth fame, wrote the foreword. I would encourage you to read his book, especially chapter 4 -- this is a serious book on a critical topic for 2009 -- sales and marketing.

Help Double Sales -- Complimentary Conference Call with Chet Holmes -- next Thursday, Feb 5, we're hosting a conference call with Chet -- 30 minutes of content, 15 minutes of Q&A -- 11:44am -- 12:30pm EST. Sign-up at this link and pick-up some techniques from a true master in sales and marketing. Chet is also the opening two-hour keynote at our Sales and Marketing Summit April 21 -- 22, New Orleans. A chance to test drive his content.

Case Study -- Maddock Douglas Doubles Billings in 2008 -- Five years ago Maddock Douglas was one of the largest privately held ad agencies in Chicago (founder Mike Maddock is an EO member). However, they saw what was happening to the ad industry--it was becoming commoditized - and decided they needed to reinvent their company. For years they had been helping leading brands launch new products and services. Today they go much deeper with their clients by researching, brainstorming, branding and launching new products, services and business models for them (since large firms are so bad at innovation). In Neil Rackham's terms (author of Rethinking the Sales Force) Maddock Douglas has pushed even further into being a consultative selling company working more closely with executives higher up in the organization. How could you take over doing more for your larger clients as they cut back their own workforces? How could you take over entire internal processes for them?

$2 Billion in New Revenue -- Today Maddock Douglas is the leading Agency of Innovation® with billings that have nearly doubled in the past year. 25% of the Fortune 100 are clients and they have created over $2 billion in new revenue for their clients. Besides being founder and CEO, Mike Maddock is a regular contributor to BusinessWeek.com (Think -- "Control the Ink"). This week he mentions the daily huddle as a key part of a culture that is focused on innovation and growth -- take three minutes and read his latest article.

Case Study -- Customer Cancels Reduced in Half -- not bad for a commodity business during a downturn. John Ratliff, founder of 350 employee Appletree Answering Services noted in an email to me "Well the results are in from our 4th quarter, 4th and 3 theme. We missed our goal by less than 1%. Our goal was 201 cancels and we had 203 or 3.02% of customers. Our second best quarter in the last 5 years was over 4.5% of customers, so a dramatic improvement. It was nearly half of our 6% average per quarter for the year. Obviously in this current marketplace we could not be happier!" The key to their success was picking a critical number, making it a theme, and focusing on it.

"The Power of 10" Theme Videos -- continues Ratliff "We are hoping to ride the success of 4th and 3 with our 1st quarter theme "The Power of 10" which combines a customer attrition goal with a new sales goal to yield $10,000 in Net New Monthly Base Rates in each of the 3 months of the quarter. No theme would be complete without a cheesy Appletree video so the links are below. It gets a little dry in the middle but that is the message for our staff and it was important to get it in there. We had to break the video in 2 due to YouTube's 10 minute limit." If you want to see how a company rolls out a theme, watch clip 1 and clip 2.

Two Outstanding Articles on why the Pittsburgh Steelers are in the Super Bowl this weekend -- the first on Coach Mike Tomlin (36), the youngest coach in Super Bowl history. Entitled "Secret to Steelers Coach Tomlin's Success: Take Note" my favorite line "For all his chattiness on the field, Tomlin was a deliberate thinker, given, a sociology professor said, to hanging back in an argument so he could analyze data -- the thoughtful approach he takes today when talking to reporters." The second article entitled Steeler's Owner Turns Business into Family is about owner Dan Rooney (76) -- may we all be business owners like Rooney! Both articles align with lessons learned from Pat Lencioni yesterday -- the Steelers truly have a "healthy" leadership and football team. Go Steelers!! (OK, I'm a fan).

Amsterdam, Ireland, Barcelona, Sydney, and Perth -- I'm on the road in Australia and Europe (living in Barcelona for a few months) leading Rockefeller Habits workshops -- stop in if you're in the neighborhood -- dates below.