"...keeping you great"
HEADLINES:
Steve Jobs Named CEO of the Decade -- let me take a pause from the Growth Summit highlights and pay kudos to Steve Jobs, named CEO of the Decade by Fortune magazine last week. Why? He's transformed four industries - computers in the 80s; music, movies, and mobile phones this decade. And Apple's market cap started the decade at $5 billion; today it's $170 billion, slightly bigger than Google. Take five minutes and read this awe-inspiring article and click through previously unseen photos of Steve. And you can see the list of the other 12 runners-up for CEO of the Decade along with several other fun "galleries."
Steve Jobs Turnaround -- two key points that dovetail on Jim Collins' presentation at the Growth Summit. When Steve took over Apple he did three things: shore up cash by swallowing his pride and getting help from Microsoft; dramatically pruned Apple back to a handful of products so his team could focus; and replaced the top management team which has served as the nucleus of what Fortune calls "Jobs brain trust for the next ten years." Again, take five minutes and read the Steve Jobs story once again and take lessons from this business grandmaster.
Message Timing -- one thing admired about Steve is not just the precision of his messaging, but the precise timing of his messaging. That's why I'm especially excited about next week's video webcast. I had my call with Dr. Robert Cialdini yesterday to discuss his presentation next Tuesday (noon -- 1:30pm ET). He left academe in the spring and is devoting full time to writing a brand new book -- not on the content of the message (the essence of his first book) but on the TIMING of the message (the essence of his next book) -- as he mentioned to me "everyone talks about how timing is everything, but no one has ever helped people figure this out." Every leader talks about getting the timing right, but are there definitive research studies and guidelines that will help a leader get it right? In fact, there are. And Dr. Cialdini will spend 15 minutes giving us a glimpse into the new research. Just trying to keep you on the bleeding edge!
Three Advantages Over Competition -- Dr. Cialdini also shared with me that three of the six principles of influence, which he'll cover next Tuesday, are especially effective in a crisis when customers are putting off the buying decision. Companies that leverage these three principles to their fullest will continue to have a huge leg up on those that don't. He'll be emphasizing these three and how you apply them next Tuesday during his 90 minutes LIVE video webcast.
Idea Paint -- Steve Jobs is also famous for his ideas -- and there's no better way to express those ideas than writing all over the walls, something I saw at 3M's Innovation Center in Austin. To make this easier, check out this product called Idea Paint -- you apply it to any wall and you have an instant white board -- especially fun for painting curved surfaces. Thanks to Bob Hubbard, CEO of Arizona-based Hubbard Family Swim Schools for bringing this to my attention.
Are You the Next Leader of the Decade -- and to gauge the leadership effectiveness of Gazelles insight readers (anyone with people reporting to you), we're assisting Bill Schell, VP of Strategy for Printing4Less, with his PhD thesis on leadership. He's particularly looking at leadership traits of executives and managers of growth firms as a tool for helping us choose the kinds of teams that can be our "brain trust for the next decade." Those that take the survey will get to share in the results -- here's a link, takes about 10 minutes. Again, it's open to ALL insight readers if you have people reporting to you.
Five Fold Growth in Five Years -- on the eve of hitting $100 million in revenue and celebrating their 2000th associate, I received this note this week from Ajay Prabhu, COO of QuEST Global, whose firm (think avionics for the new 787 and A380 planes along with deep R&D for other major global firms) has been an early Indian customer of Gazelles and outstanding practitioner of the Rockefeller Habits "I am happy to share with you that we are inaugurating the QuEST Special Economic Zone in Belgaum, Karnataka (India); we are closing this year with $100M+ revenue; and celebrating the 2000th person to join the QuEST family. Many will be surprised that it includes 300 American and 100 European nationals." I'll be with some of Ajay's team when I?m back in India Nov 30 -- Dec 4. Hope to see many of my readers from India when I'm back in the country (specific locations below).
HEADLINES:
Steve Jobs Named CEO of the Decade -- let me take a pause from the Growth Summit highlights and pay kudos to Steve Jobs, named CEO of the Decade by Fortune magazine last week. Why? He's transformed four industries - computers in the 80s; music, movies, and mobile phones this decade. And Apple's market cap started the decade at $5 billion; today it's $170 billion, slightly bigger than Google. Take five minutes and read this awe-inspiring article and click through previously unseen photos of Steve. And you can see the list of the other 12 runners-up for CEO of the Decade along with several other fun "galleries."
Steve Jobs Turnaround -- two key points that dovetail on Jim Collins' presentation at the Growth Summit. When Steve took over Apple he did three things: shore up cash by swallowing his pride and getting help from Microsoft; dramatically pruned Apple back to a handful of products so his team could focus; and replaced the top management team which has served as the nucleus of what Fortune calls "Jobs brain trust for the next ten years." Again, take five minutes and read the Steve Jobs story once again and take lessons from this business grandmaster.
Message Timing -- one thing admired about Steve is not just the precision of his messaging, but the precise timing of his messaging. That's why I'm especially excited about next week's video webcast. I had my call with Dr. Robert Cialdini yesterday to discuss his presentation next Tuesday (noon -- 1:30pm ET). He left academe in the spring and is devoting full time to writing a brand new book -- not on the content of the message (the essence of his first book) but on the TIMING of the message (the essence of his next book) -- as he mentioned to me "everyone talks about how timing is everything, but no one has ever helped people figure this out." Every leader talks about getting the timing right, but are there definitive research studies and guidelines that will help a leader get it right? In fact, there are. And Dr. Cialdini will spend 15 minutes giving us a glimpse into the new research. Just trying to keep you on the bleeding edge!
Three Advantages Over Competition -- Dr. Cialdini also shared with me that three of the six principles of influence, which he'll cover next Tuesday, are especially effective in a crisis when customers are putting off the buying decision. Companies that leverage these three principles to their fullest will continue to have a huge leg up on those that don't. He'll be emphasizing these three and how you apply them next Tuesday during his 90 minutes LIVE video webcast.
Idea Paint -- Steve Jobs is also famous for his ideas -- and there's no better way to express those ideas than writing all over the walls, something I saw at 3M's Innovation Center in Austin. To make this easier, check out this product called Idea Paint -- you apply it to any wall and you have an instant white board -- especially fun for painting curved surfaces. Thanks to Bob Hubbard, CEO of Arizona-based Hubbard Family Swim Schools for bringing this to my attention.
Are You the Next Leader of the Decade -- and to gauge the leadership effectiveness of Gazelles insight readers (anyone with people reporting to you), we're assisting Bill Schell, VP of Strategy for Printing4Less, with his PhD thesis on leadership. He's particularly looking at leadership traits of executives and managers of growth firms as a tool for helping us choose the kinds of teams that can be our "brain trust for the next decade." Those that take the survey will get to share in the results -- here's a link, takes about 10 minutes. Again, it's open to ALL insight readers if you have people reporting to you.
Five Fold Growth in Five Years -- on the eve of hitting $100 million in revenue and celebrating their 2000th associate, I received this note this week from Ajay Prabhu, COO of QuEST Global, whose firm (think avionics for the new 787 and A380 planes along with deep R&D for other major global firms) has been an early Indian customer of Gazelles and outstanding practitioner of the Rockefeller Habits "I am happy to share with you that we are inaugurating the QuEST Special Economic Zone in Belgaum, Karnataka (India); we are closing this year with $100M+ revenue; and celebrating the 2000th person to join the QuEST family. Many will be surprised that it includes 300 American and 100 European nationals." I'll be with some of Ajay's team when I?m back in India Nov 30 -- Dec 4. Hope to see many of my readers from India when I'm back in the country (specific locations below).