"...keeping you great"
HEADLINES:
Thank You from the Depths of my Heart -- you continue to be great students of business (summits, webcasts, workshops, coaching) and are reaping the rewards. I received several heart-warming emails this week of the results you're achieving as you continue to invest in learning and execute our teachings -- results achieved globally from Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and North America -- enjoy these positive signs:
- Ajay Prabhu (Bangalore) reports 65% year-on-year revenue growth (ending March 31) on their way to $100m next year -- and a surprise bonus for all the employees
- Jack Harrington (Paris) moved to Paris this week to head up a new $800 million joint venture for Raytheon.
- Kees de Jong (Amsterdam) is heading the other direction, moving to the U.S. to run the $100 million firm that purchased his company
- Nada Alawi (Kingdom of Bahrain) noted that communication and productivity have improved dramatically since putting the daily huddles in place just a few weeks ago
- Randy Amon (Maryland) this week became one of 8 global functional execs of a 123,000 employee firm
- Adam Robinson (Chicago) is controlling the ink in his industry and has seen web traffic jump 300%; web leads up 600%; and a Fortune 50 client hire his firm on the spot
Their short stories are under DETAILS below -- please read to know that there is a lot of positive news, especially among those remaining great "students of business". I look forward to hearing your stories.
Thank you for continuing to participate -- almost 200 executives will be attending the Sales and Marketing Summit two weeks from today in New Orleans -- I greatly appreciate the business as we share tools to drive revenue -- you don't want to miss this once-in- our-lifetime opportunity to grab market share NOW. If you can spare 48 hours, join us and feed on the "juice" from these events -- especially if you and your executives could use a good pumping up -- being around those that are winning!
Thank you for your support -- our family's journey ends tomorrow as we head back to the U.S. after seven months travelling around the world with our four children -- it's been an eye opening experience for all of us. My wife and I will be sharing our experience at the EO University in Barcelona next fall. Special thanks to Raghoo Potinii (India), Fred Crosetto (China), Hazel Jackson and Sonu Shivdasani (Middle East); and Kees de Jong, Sebastian Ross and Leendert Bikker (Europe) -- and their teams that served as our hosts in the various countries we visited.
DETAILS:
Ajay Prabhu, COO, Bangalore-based QuEST -- "Happy to report that we have closed the last financial year (ending March 31, 2009) with 65% year-on-year revenue growth and have announced a surprise bonus for our people. Our five year goal was to cross $100M revenue in the year ending March 31, 2010. The market conditions are challenging to say the least. We are making progress with confidence. The Gazelles movement has taken hold in QuEST." Ajay noted that they meet one day a month for learning and a "workout" session; quarterly decide on Top 5 and Top 1 of 5 goals with posters pasted all over their buildings; established a mail id and web-page exclusively for Gazelles; and are popularizing a "daily question of the quarter" which Ajay asks all the time.
Jack Harrington sold his company, VTC, to Raytheon a few years ago. So impressed were they of his management disciplines they put him in charge of their fastest growing half billion dollar division. He's continued to send his team to our workshops and Summits (they'll be in New Orleans), and now Raytheon has given him an international assignment in France, outside Paris, as the CEO of a Joint Venture, 1/2 owned by Raytheon and 1/2 owned by Thales ($20B+ French defense company). Notes Harrington "it is about $800M in size, very globally focused, with 80% of business international. It will be a 3 year assignment and I'm moving the family to Paris. I want to get my new team to the Dec Rockefeller event in DC."
Kees de Jong has a similar story. He sold his Amsterdam-based firm to a larger company in the U.S., Survey Sampling International. The private equity firm that orchestrated the deal has now asked Kees to move to the U.S. to run the whole company, again, based on the management disciplines he had placed inside his own firm and helped spread to the larger company. You'll meet a couple of his team members in New Orleans as well.
Nada Alawi, General Manager of National Occupational Safety & Health Centre in the Kingdom of Bahrain, noted "Your workshop made a great impact on my business! I used to suffer from a lack of communication and ridiculous delays of all kinds in our workplace! Now I feel that most people are productive and I actually have disciplined myself to participate in our 9:30am huddle...I am very happy with the positive effect it has had on me and my company."
Randy Amon, in a similar story to Kees and Jack, sold his company to a billion dollar firm APCC several years ago, was able to survive the transition and became a Senior Leader of the larger firm. This week, he was named SVP, Global Customer Care, Quality and Process of Schneider Electric, the firm that acquired APCC over two years ago. Noted Amon in his email to me "I remain as one of the Sr. leaders in North America but my focus returns to a global leadership position. I had to once again see if I could survive in a new and much larger organization - we have 123,000 employees worldwide. I believe my continued success is in part attributed to the learning I received (via Gazelles)."
Adam Robinson, President of Illuma LLC, sent this note last Thursday "I wanted to share with you a major impact you've made to my business. I listened as you told us, 'if you're not blogging about your business or your industry, you're losing out on an amazing opportunity. Try it for 6 months, and see what happens.' So, I did.
My company is in the business of helping companies find and select talent and since August of 2008 I've been blogging at my Verne-inspired http://BetterHiringToday.com. What started off as a 'let's see if I can do this' side project has turned into a catalyst for a whole new way of looking at the world.
A few key results:
- the VP of Sales at a Fortune 50 company read my 4-part series on "How to Hire Salespeople" and sent me an email hiring us on the spot.
- Publishers have republished my articles, and paid me to license content that I was happy to post for free. Unbelievable!
- I was asked to pitch an outline for a book, based on the content I've been delivering to the blog, and have a proposal on the table to publish it.
- Web traffic to my business website is up over 300%, with inbound web leads up over 600%. Several of my posts are on Page 1 on Google for organic results (i.e. "recruiting templates", "30 60 90 Day Plans")
- Since I'm always looking for new things to write about, I'm out talking with more customers, and in more meaningful ways, about things that they care about. I then write about what we discussed, and send them a note telling them so. Loyalty has skyrocketed.
The results have been so good that I recently tossed the original rinky-dink free Wordpress design template and spent a few bucks to have it professionally redesigned and integrated with our mailing list. Thanks again for the incredible value delivered, and I'll see you in Chicago in May (Rockefeller Habits workshop). Keep on learning and growing!