The Agile Scaleup

Triple, Triple; Rockefeller Habits Wedding -- August 29

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES: (A little light today -- just settling in Barcelona for a year)

Three Daily Huddles; Triple Stock Price -- so I missed this sidebar quote by Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, back in the May 28th issue of Fortune "Our management team, 15 to 30 people, talk every day at 7:30, 12 Noon, and five o'clock - what's going on, sharing information, making some decisions on the spot, reviewing facts and information. I'm always surprised at companies that don't have discipline - they don't have business reviews, they aren't looking at their competitors." BTW, JP Morgan's stock has tripled since its low point this year as the second largest bank in the U.S. and the largest credit card issuer -- and they basically avoided the credit crunch with Jamie Dimon President Obama's supposed Wall Street favorite. Thanks to J.J. Abbott with New Jersey-based Premiere Creative for bringing this fabulous example of meeting discipline to my attention -- the real players do this stuff!!!

Rockefeller Habits Wedding -- and our sincere congratulations and best wishes to Niklas VanHaeren and Cheryl Greene on their upcoming wedding this weekend -- the first couple we know that met because of a Rockefeller Habits pick-up line! Here's the story from Niklas (I was told Cheryl approved):

A little over 2 and a half years ago I picked up a wonderful woman named Cheryl Greene from the Airport. She was the general manager of a client of ours. They were based in Vancouver, and I'm in Ontario. There is a 5 hour flight between us. I originally invited her out to do a train the trainer event and teach her some of our training techniques and share some of our tools. It was a sunny Sunday afternoon when we made our way back to the hotel at which she was staying. We were sharing a Gin and Tonic getting to know each other and building a business relationship. She asked me what my typical day was so I started by saying that we have 3 daily meetings/huddles that happen in our company and the first 30-40 minutes of my day are attending those meetings. At which point... she said is that "Rockefeller Habits??" I said it was and that I attended one of your conferences and saw you speak on multiple occasions, including in Boston a couple of times at BOG. I may have mentioned that we at one point shared a drink or two. You should have seen her light up... it turns out that she attended one of your conferences in Seattle with one of her previous employers from Vancouver. Well 1 gin turned to 2 or 3... we were talking about you, Rockefeller, business... then things started getting personal. It was amazing. We hung out the next night, and then she flew back to Vancouver. I "found" an excuse to fly to Vancouver about 2 weeks after that. One thing led to another and we dated long distance for about a year, until she moved here to Ontario. I asked her to marry me last October, and we will be married August 29th. Now, I can't give you all the credit (I don't want to feed your ego :)... but I do have to say thanks. Rockefeller habits helped 2 people connect and eventually fall in love. And I couldn't be happier.

We can now add this to the "loss avoidance" list of benefits of the Rockefeller Habits!

One-PHRASE Strategic Plans; Australia Next; Gazelles New Website

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Gazelles' New Website -- rebranded the "Four Decisions for Driving Growth" company, we're committed to bringing you the educational, coaching, and technology resources to dominate your industry while helping you manage the chaos that comes with growth. It's been amazing to continue to talk with long standing participates in our programs and hear how they are thriving during these turbulent times -- it's what it's all about! Please take a look at the newly designed website -- we welcome your feedback.

One-Page Strategic Plan Resources -- and check out the new link in the upper right hand corner of the website -- we heard you and we've responded -- you no longer have to log-in and link through My Gazelles to access resources supporting the One-Page Strategic Plan -- now there's a direct link via the homepage.

One-PHRASE Strategic Plan -- as I mentioned Tuesday, RIM, the famous makers of the Blackberry, is the fastest growing public company in N.A. according to Fortune -- and their Curve outsold Apple's (#39 on the list) iPhone. Almost every year since they launched, pundits have been predicting the demise of RIM, most recently given the launch of the iPhone. However, they just keep growing faster. Why? A profoundly simple strategy. I still remember Jim Balsillie, co-founder of RIM, sharing with a group of us (at a YPO Alaska event) that "if you can't state your strategy in a sentence, you don't have one!!" And RIM's? "Easy in, impossible out" i.e. RIM makes it very easy for a corporation to install, but because the way the technology spiders its way into the main systems, it's almost impossible to extract. So even though a whole host of executives would love to get iPhones, its impossible.

Southwest Airlines' One-PHRASE Strategy -- for them it's simply "Wheels Up" -- if that expensive hunk of metal is in the air more than the competition, then they are going to make more money. And notice this is different than a Brand Promise (though aligned), which is just one aspect of the business model. This one-phrase definition of strategy is more in line with Michael Porter's (Harvard's famous strategy guru) definition of strategy -- that it's the difference in underlying ACTIVITIES from the competition that makes for an effective strategy. And the one-phrase provides a focus for those activities. In Southwest's case, no advanced reservation seating and using the same aircraft are two key activities they do different than all the other airlines AND are key to getting the "Wheels Up" on their aircraft faster.

Rackspace's One PHRASE Strategy -- in their case the One-Phrase Strategy is in line with their brand promise of Fanatical Support -- "it's not about the servers, it's about the support." BTW, their stock price is 12% ahead of their offering price last August -- impressive in this market.

Congrats to Alan Trefler's Pegasystems -- and number #19 on the fastest growing company list is Gazelles' angel investor Alan Trefler's firm which has seen its stock skyrocket 125% in 2009 -- I suspect it will be one of the fastest growing stocks in the U.S. And I've always maintained that the first company in any industry that deploys Pegasystems' "Built for Change" software engine will dominate their industry. BTW, their tagline captures the One-Phrase Strategy Alan has been pursuing since 1983 -- to make it easy for business managers to change the software underlying their systems -- changes that can be made in minutes instead of months which allows a company to be much more agile in the marketplace. Pegasystems is also an example of a firm providing a product companies need more of in a recession. I have no doubt Alan will get the company to a $1 billion soon

Indian Firm Funds Dreamworks -- indicative of the future, Anil Ambani's Reliance ADA Group sunk $325 million into Stephen Speilberg's movie studio this week. I remain bullish on India -- you'll continue to hear more from their global companies -- and hope you're finding ways to connect with business leaders in this amazing country.

Australia Next -- my next workshop tour is Australia Sept 15 -- 17 (Melbourne, Brisbane, and Sydney). Our partner in Australia, BusinessConnect, is offering a $100 discount for my insight readers -- just use the promo code Gazelles when registering online. I'll be sharing my Five Strategies for Driving Revenue material as part of the updated Go For Growth workshops.

Four Companies Play to Win; Secret to Higher Prices; Skype Video for Customers

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Business Owners in Pittsburgh, Morgantown, Charlottesville, Houston, and Arlington/Alexandria -- Fortune Small Business is working on their annual Best Places to Live and Launch issue and would like to speak with small business owners who have a story about why they chose to launch their business in the cities listed above. Please only respond if you or the person you know is a small business owner who is currently running a business in one of the above cities, and include specifics when possible. Email [email protected]

Four Large Companies Playing to Win -- entitled "The New (Recovery) Playbook", take five minutes to read this excellent Fortune article about how GE, Nalco, Avon, and others are adapting their companies to the new realities. It started with Jeffrey Emmelt, CEO of GE, commanding his divisions to find ways to win rather than detail why they were losing! And Nalco's "Big Bang" meeting is the kind of deep pruning all companies must face -- especially stopping unprofitable products and services. And the most interesting statistic came from Andrea Jung, CEO of Avon, who shared research that says only 13% of those trading down will go back to their old spending habits. We all have short memories so we'll see.

Close to the Customer Using Skype Video -- Lora Stevenson with Nashville-based Randa Solutions was in my Las Vegas CompTIA presentation last week and shared how she uses Skype Video Chat to communicate "face-to-face" with customers. Notes Stevenson "I've sent cameras to customers and team members who were global and found that a $20.00 camera and 30 minute install of this free software makes not only my business relationships and teams stronger, but improve the lives of my customers (who doesn't have a grandchild, friend, or associate at a great distance these days)." These are great tools to bridge the generation gap between those who are accustomed to one on one conversation and those (perhaps younger) folks who hope to make technology a more frequently used tool.

"Hidden Champions" are Closer to the Customer and Command Higher Prices -- Robbin Phillips with Brains On Fire took my note about Hermann Simon's new book on Hidden Champions (Simon is keynoting the Growth Summit) and wrote an excellent blog. To excerpt: http://brainsonfire.com/blog/index.php/2009/08/07/is-closeness-to-customer-a-new-measure-of-success/

It seems that of the Hidden Champions Simon has studied, 88.7% of them have this characteristic in common: Five times as many employees (25-50%) have regular customer contact. This is compared to larger companies who typically have only 5-10% of their employees who have regular customer contact.

Hmmm.

Number One or Number Two In the World -- continues Phillips "It is probably important to note that Hidden Champions are number one or two in world market share, less than 1 billion in revenues with low visibility and public awareness. An interesting (and some might argue odd) bunch for those of us involved in social media to learn from for sure. But I love studying the less obvious.

So what is the value of customer closeness? According to Simon, by staying close to your most demanding customers, these companies drive performance and innovation. Their strategies become value driven, not price driven, so they can charge 10-15% more for their product or services. (I would bet money that employees are more engaged if they are closer to the customers. It's always a signal of corporate health and profitability in my opinion.)" I'm reading Simon's new book now and looking forward to hearing this global guru keynote our Growth Summit along with Jim Collins.

Near-Death Experience; Netflix Culture; OpenRDA Global Move; Hidden Champions

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Near-Death Experience -- this is what is required for a company to become great, at least this is the advice John Chambers, CEO of Cisco, received from Jack Welch. Take three minutes to read this insightful NY Times interview as Chambers discusses hiring, his new approach to leadership, and from whom he garners advice!

Netflix Shares Their Internal Presentation on Culture -- the blog Hacking Netflix posted the 128-slide presentation on Netflix's culture along with an excellent summary this week. Slides 24 and 28 are my two favorite, including the "Keeper Test" managers should use to determine if they have a star employee (go to slide 29 for the rest of the lesson!). By posting the slide deck, Netflix has a powerful recruiting tool and it serves as an excellent way to inculcate new employees. And it's an alternative to writing a lengthy book (or employee manual). Take three minutes to pop through the slides. Thanks to Todd Klein, Managing Partner of Legend Ventures (and Gazelles Advisory Board member), for bringing this to my attention.

Going Global By Following a Customer -- the quickest way to expand globally is to ask your existing clients if they have any opportunities in other countries for your products and services. I mentioned this in my workshop last week in Atlanta. The next day Dave Davis, CEO of OpenRDA which provides open source accounting software for schools and governments, sent me this note "today I spoke with one of our vendor/partners, Sujee Saparamadu, President of OrangeHRM an open source HR software package. Sujee has roots in Sri Lanka. I shared with him a desire to take our products to his native country. Not only was he very receptive, he mentioned he has customers in several countries around the globe. Furthermore, he has been looking for a system like mine to compliment his offering. Amazing. It might take a couple of years but it begins with one small step. Again, thank you for the encouragement."

A Narrow Niche Pursued Around the Globe -- this is a key strategy and one highlighted by Hermann Simon in his book Hidden Champions of the 21st Century -- and this is a key strategy for a company like OpenRDA. Dave may have found an ideal partner to help him grab his niche around the planet. BTW, we're bringing Hermann over from Germany to keynote the Growth Summit -- he's considered the Jim Collins of our world of privately held (family-owned in many cases) mid-market companies, having researched them for over three decades.

80% Revenue Growth -- and this note from Paul Taylor, President of Webmarketing123 "wanted to mention that our company is doing very well this year with 80% revenue growth so far. This is thanks in large part to Gazelles and Keith's (Keith Cupp, Gazelles' coach) wise counsel. BTW, the Dallas summit looks like an awesome lineup. I look forward to it."