The Agile Scaleup

Next Big Frontier; Jumping Prices; Why Stimulus is Bad Idea; Global Opportunity

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Africa the Next Frontier -- the World Cup has clearly put South Africa front and center. Sir Bob Geldof did the same in a key article in the Financial Times on Monday, warning UK pension funds that they are missing out on the "last great investment opportunity left" by not investing in Africa. As he notes "200 million new consumers emerging over the next five years; 25 per cent of the world's available arable land at a time of looming food shortages; and a potential $35 billion worth of mineral deposits." And the best indication from my own intel? The Dutch are crawling all over Africa (as are the Chinese). Read this short article and then join me in launching the first Hong Kong in Africa -- stay tuned (working with some Dutch on this as well).

India Growing Faster Than China -- just back from my sold-out tour in India, I can share with you firsthand that India is on fire -- and changing daily! Even the infrastructure is dramatically improving including new highways reaching their beautiful new airports. And the incessant honking has even subsided as New Delhi prepares to host the Commonwealth Games in October. As for GDP growth, some experts see India growing faster than China this year.

India's Top Brands -- And it was an honor to have some of the leaders of the most recognized brands in my audience including Ganesh Krishnamurthy, GM for Wipro's Semiconductor Business and his team; Vikas Gutgutia, founder of the biggest brand in online flowers and flower shops, Ferns & Petals and his team; and the famous Dr. Mukesh Batra, Chairman and Managing Director of Dr. Batra's, the most recognized chain of health clinics in India. They are leaders dedicated to learning and to the education of their executive teams.

Strategy Is #1 Issue -- the other major change in just six months is their focus on strategy -- at least the audience in Hyderabad (less so up north). Six months ago, the concern was execution, but this time Strategy was the #1 focus by a factor of 3:1 over People, Execution, and Cash. This is due to Indian companies losing their sole advantage of price. Now they are facing a much more competitive environment and having to adjust rapidly.

Pricings Going Way Up -- the government just announced taxi costs are going up 40% though they are holding the line on bus fares. This is just one indication of how rising costs in India are changing the strategic landscape. Right now, the biggest battleground is in the retail sector as six major families battle for India's half billion new consumers -- and the price wars are fierce as retailers face increasing costs.

Thin Middle Management -- and I continued to encounter firms with sparse middle management. As a result, the senior leaders continued to complain about the incredible hours they are working. We are doing what we can in India to encourage the firms to add more middle managers and get senior management DNA transferred down -- the key is the monthly management meeting with all middle and senior managers (hopefully you're all hosting these critical half-day to day long educational and problem solving sessions).

Gazelles India -- and we're excited to announce that Raghoo Potinii, our partner in India, is officially taking on the name Gazelles India. We're also making plans for our first Growth Summit in India, this being our fifth (Australia, Asia, Europe, and North America being our other four -- Latin American likely happening in the next year as well).

The New Global Opportunity -- take another three minutes and scan through this June 21 Fortune piece that succinctly puts in perspective the opportunities a global $58 trillion economy provides -- this is going to be a great decade for those that take understand how to navigate the world.

Spend Less, Borrow Less -- and last, the debate in Europe and the U.S. is whether the governments are spending enough to get us out of our unemployment mess. Fortune magazine weighs in and shows how those claiming Keynes would support more stimulus are misrepresenting his position.

YPO-Only Announcement; Alan Rudy's Triple Play; Slammed into Concrete

"...out-learning the competition"

HEADLINES:

$7 Million to $1.2 Billion in Three Years -- Alan Rudy, in his announcement of the first YPO/WPO International offering of the advanced Rockefeller Habits workshop noted "These are HABITS I have learned and used to:

1.     Build a company from US$20M losing money to US$65M making a ton,

2.     Take another company from US$7M to more than US$1.2B in three years while still scoring the highest service rankings in our industry, and

3.     Now resurrect a US$100M company that until six months ago was hemorrhaging cash."

YPO/WPO-Only International Event -- Rudy, YPO Columbus, is chair of the first YPO/WPO International offering of the advanced Rockefeller Habits workshop entitled Making the Rockefeller Habits Rock - October 21 -- 23, Orlando, FL, immediately following the Fortune Growth Summit.

Limited to 15 YPO/WPO member-led companies (five have already signed up prior to the announcement last week), I'll be flying over from Europe to lead the first two days. Guy Parsons, the Lean Execution guru, will lead a half day program on the third day. To register you and your team or for additional information about this event, visit: www.myypo.org/rockefeller10.

Meet Rudy's New Team -- continues Rudy "I am bringing my new company team to this class in October so they can get more formal training in these HABITS. I urge you to do the same. If you are willing to learn and want to streamline your business, all while giving more responsibility to your subordinates, I strongly recommend you join us in October." Rudy is one of the best implementers of the Habits I've had the pleasure of teaching -- and we'll all gain tremendously by having his team participate in the program.

From 80 Hours to 8 Hours -- I've featured Rudy in several videos, one which describes how the HABITS helped him reduce from 80 hours to 8 hours the time it took for him to manage his first business on a weekly basis -- and keep the wheels from falling off his growing company.

Slams You Against Concrete -- concludes Rudy "Everyone talks about managing growth and working 'on your company rather than in your company' but no one tells you exactly how. Great as it is, growth can feel like a force that slams you against concrete. You often find yourself running ragged trying to keep up. You don't understand why the rest of your team just doesn't 'get it' on their true priorities. The solutions seem obvious to you! This workshop (yes, you will be expected to have deliverable actions when you leave Orlando) goes over those HABITS that will free you up to work on your company. It will show you the practical step-by-step, day-by-day methods for getting everyone in your company aligned to the few most important items that really matter to your customers and your bottom line."

Painful Leadership Question; Steve Jobs Coach; Latest Growth Guy Column

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Painful Leadership Question -- Does everyone seem to get dumber the longer they work for you?

Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter -- Released this week, Liz Wiseman's and Greg Mckeown's book is the best how-to leadership book I've read since Kouzes' and Posner's classic The Leadership Challenge. I hosted Wiseman in Barcelona this week for our European Growth Summit where my toughest CEO "students" raved. Wiseman is also keynoting our Fortune Growth Summit Oct 19 - 21 in Orlando.

Read Pages 20 and 23 -- on these two pages are charts that do an excellent job of summarizing the book and provide a glimpse into how you move from being a diminisher, someone who seems to get about half the intelligence from their people, to becoming more of a multiplier. Multipliers tend to make people feel and be smarter, which is critical if you need people to perform at their peak and free you from having to micromanage the organization.

Chapter 7 Bill Campbell -- coach to Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt (CEO of Google), and many of the top CEOs in Silicon Valley, Campbell was also CEO of Intuit (Quicken) and is still Chairman of the Board. Campbell was also the head football coach at Columbia University. Interestingly, he knows he was a first class diminisher and was able to change his ways -- so there's hope for all of us diminishers. Read his story in Chapter 7.

Summary of the Lessons -- below is my latest "Growth Guy" syndicated column where I highlight key aspects of the book. I also highlight the application of their ideas to raising children -- read below.

Are You A Multiplier or Diminisher?

The most painful leadership book I've ever read is the new bestseller Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter by Liz Wiseman and Greg Mckeown. It raises a fundamental question about leadership, one that has been waiting to be named, explored, and finally addressed: As a leader, are you a multiplier or a diminisher?

In asking the question, Wiseman and Mckeown have created a new set of terms that will be with us for a very long time affecting millions. Their premise is that you're either a leader who causes everyone around you to feel and actually become smarter (multiplier) or you're one who causes everyone around you to feel and become dumber (diminisher). It gets to the crux of leadership -- especially now that companies rely on the brains of their employees, not their backs, to stay competitive."

Genius or Genius Maker

The authors ask another important question: "Are you a genius or a genius maker?" Do you need to be the one in the room seen as having all the answers or do you draw out the genius that's within others in solving many of the complex problems facing business today?

Stephen Covey, of Seven Habits fame, makes it clear why genius makers have an edge today when he quotes management icon Peter Drucker in the foreword. Drucker notes that management in the 20th century increased the productivity of manual labor in factories fifty-fold. That was essential at a time when our economy depended more on manufacturing. "The most important contribution management needs to make in the 21st century is similarly to increase the productivity of knowledge work and the knowledge worker," he explains.

Multipliers do this. Wiseman and Mckeown's research found that multipliers get 2.1 times more capability from their workers than diminishers. Factor in the 5% to 10% annual growth bonus they estimate because these same workers are getting smarter and more capable working for a multiplier and you get the kinds of knowledge worker productivity Drucker exclaimed is needed this century.

Impact on Family

These same multiplier effects extend to the family. Wiseman and Mckeown share the results from several studies showing how the environment parents create has a direct impact on a child's IQ.

One specific change my wife and I made, after reading Multipliers, is to avoid praising our children for their intelligence and results. For instance, we've stopped saying, "You're so good at math." The research shows that this actually decreases kids' confidence as they face tougher problems since they don't want to disappoint their parents. In many cases, they will simply avoid math altogether when the going gets tough, rather than risk looking dumb.

Instead, the research suggests it's better to praise children's hard work and effort. You might say "I appreciate the effort you're making with these math problems." This approach increases their ability to reason and to solve more difficult problems. And it creates a belief, and then a reality, that grows their confidence and intelligence.

So it's not that diminishers are necessarily mean-spirited or bad people (whew!) -- its just that they don't fully understand how their words and approaches sap energy and intelligence from their families and associates. And it's a continuum, with most of us falling somewhere in between the extremes.

Starts with Assumptions

The bulk of Wiseman and Mckeown's book focuses on how to become more of a multiplier, offering concrete how-to advice on attitudinal and behavioral changes. It starts with changing your assumptions about others as a leader.

Diminishers basically believe their people "will never figure this out without me" and tend to "use, blame, tell, dictate, and control people," according to the authors. Multipliers, in turn, believe their people "are smart and will figure this out" and tend to "develop, explore, challenge, consult, and support people."

In essence, diminishers micromanage their people; multipliers invest in their people.

5 Disciplines of Multipliers

It's no accident that some managers are multipliers. Wiseman and Mckeown frame five disciplines that help them succeed. Multipliers:

1.    Attract talented people and deploy them at their highest point of contribution

2.    Create an intense environment that requires people's best thinking and work

3.    Define an opportunity that causes people to stretch

4.    Drive sound decisions through rigorous debate

5.    Give people ownership of results and invest in their success

So multipliers aren't wimps. They demand and receive outstanding results from their people. It's how you go about it that matters. Read the book and start making changes.

Woman Author

It wasn't lost on me that the lead author of this important book is a woman, a rarity among business best-sellers. My latest glance at the Top 100 business books on Amazon found just five women authors, only two of whom received top billing on the covers. That's equal to the number of dead authors among the Top 100 business books! In a future column I might explore the reasons for this dearth of women wordsmiths.

For now, I'm just happy this book has been written, helping to usher in a decade focused less on stuff and more on people -- and doing what we can as leaders to bring out the best in the people we touch at home and at work.

Yelling at Son; Letters to Daughters; Meeting Protocols; India Tour

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

IMPORTANT -- venue change for Growth Summit Europe next Tuesday (15 June) -- it's now at IESE University South Campus, Av. Pearson, 21, Barcelona.

India Tour -- Join me in Hyderabad June 23 or New Delhi June 24 for one-day Rockefeller Habits workshops. Last time these workshops were oversold -- expect it again given how intense the Indian firms are to compete globally. Here's a link for more info.

Nine Meeting Protocols -- before each weekly Exec Com (Executive Committee) meeting, Will Siganto, Managing Director of Australia-based Siganto & Stacey, reads a quick checklist of nine meeting protocols that have dramatically improved the effectiveness of his meetings. It's the power of a simple checklist, like airline pilots use before takeoff. Here's a link to the nine protocols. #7 is one of the most important "We will trust that whatever is said or discussed is from the heart and for the good of the entire team and company." BTW, this best practice of reviewing a set of protocols before each meeting is used by the best CEO forums (Siganto is in a YPO forum).

Eight Reminders -- Siganto also sent along a copy of his reminder list he uses "before I get into the car with my son as he is learning to drive." Continues Siganto, "after an initial terrible shouting match with him I had a rethink and concluded that a few personal reminders and setting a few rules is a heck of a lot easier than having a 16 yr old get upset at you. It has been a dream run ever since!!" Again, the power of a simple checklist. Here's a link to his heart felt reminder list, including reminding each other "I love my son!" and "My son loves me!"

Five Letters For My Daughters -- last week Bruce Johnson, President of Accelerated Growth Consulting, started a blog for his two daughters (ages 18 and 21) of life lessons he'd like to pass along to them. Notes Johnson, "as we talked about it, they liked the idea of using a blog so that their friends (and others) could learn from them as well. So far I've posted five lessons this week." Lessons include "Why Slow is Much Better than Fast (In Dating)" and "Eliminate 'I Know That' From Your Vocabulary." Concludes Johnson "Wouldn't it be great if fathers regularly wrote down lessons for their children that generation after generation could pass along?" I couldn't agree more. Here's the easy to remember link to these life lessons http://www.lettersformydaughters.com.

Daily Routine -- and this note from Dr. Ilan Lieberman, Director, UK-based Angel and Bowden, providers of medical legal services who attended my EO workshop in London "daily huddles have become part of the team's life, big improvement in communication, improvements in efficiency at every level much of it small but all incremental like a coral reef -- lots of small changes making a big difference over time." Continues Lieberman, "the team was unsure about it to begin with, now won't give it up! Very positive impact on morale and locus of control." Its routines, like all those above, that "set you free.

Mexican Hero; 40% Wrong; Dawn of VC in Mexico; Microsoft Invitation

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

You're Invited -- Microsoft WPC Leadership Summit July 12 or 13, Washington DC. Taking over an entire city, this is the major corporate event Microsoft hosts each year for their Worldwide Partners. This year they've partnered with Gazelles to host 2 one-day leadership events featuring several top name speakers. Those receiving my insights are invited to participate -- more info below.

Go East Instead of North -- my main message in interviews and to the over 800 Mexican business leaders I addressed in Monterrey and Mexico City this week was to go East! Because of security concerns, many of the prominent Mexican families are moving to Austin, San Antonio, Houston, etc. However, given the cultural similarities, I encouraged these families to make a move to Spain instead, placing them seven time zones closer to where the economic action is this century -- India, China, Indonesia, etc. At least one family member should make the move, establishing a beachhead for their business on the eastern side of the planet.

Mexico's Hero -- Marco Gloria, founder of Great Food And Beverage, is a true Mexican business hero. He's one of the few mid-market firms in Mexico that is doing business in India, operating a juice factory just outside of New Delhi. According to Marco and the Mexican Chamber of Commerce, only 15 Mexican firms (out of 4.8 million) are operating in India. I was excited to bring him on stage with me and highlight his efforts to lead Mexico east.

Reform and El Norte Publications -- while the rest of print media around the world is suffering, a chain of newspapers in Mexico are thriving. The key, according to the brother-in-law of the owner? Their leadership team formally meets three times daily, like JP Morgan, and 480 citizens sit on various editorial boards, helping to crowdsource story ideas and drive the editorial direction of the newspapers. The rest of the industry has questioned the wisdom of turning over editorial control to the citizens, but it's worked so far for companies like Facebook, Wikipedia, and Amazon! I would say this owner gets it and the rest of the industry doesn't. Daily huddles and tapping into the wisdom of the crowd -- two keys to success this century.

Venture Capital Explosion -- several wealthy Mexican families hired famous Harvard Prof Josh Lerner to study the potential for venture capital in Mexico. His conclusion? It's the next hotbed! As such, money is starting to pour in. Combined with a change in law last year allowing the large Mexican pension funds to invest in venture capital funds, an initial $350 million has been raised with much more to come. Here's a link to the conference hosted in April launching VC in Mexico. Stay tuned.

Demographics Drive Economics -- Mexico has one of the youngest populations in the world, with over 40% of its 120 million people under the age of 20 and a median age of 26 (vs. 37 for the U.S). This is the demographic elephant that is moving through Mexico's economic snake -- the equivalent of the U.S. baby boom of last century.

2012 Is the Key -- Pedro Ferriz de Con, one of Mexico's top political and economic commentators, keynoted after me in Mexico City yesterday. The current Mexican president has remained tough, vowing to pursue the drug cartels even in the face of one of his best friends being murdered. The concern is 2012, when Mexico elects its next president. Ferriz de Con was blunt in stating that whichever party gets elected, if the citizens don't elect a president willing to continue the fight, Mexico will be lost. It was a serious presentation about a serious topic.

40% Wrong -- for over a year (and with my Mexican audiences this week) I've been sharing what I consider the single largest business opportunity in history -- the 1 billion additional consumers moving into the middle class this coming decade. Well, I was only off by 40%! According to the Brookings Institute, the middle class will expand from 1.8 billion to 3.2 billion between 2009 and 2020 -- a 1.4 billion or 77% increase. This is the global demographic elephant moving through the economic snake that will raise all boats this coming decade. It's why I'm so bullish. Demographics drive economics.

Also Wrong -- and I knew better, I was just in a rush and misspoke. In my last insight I mentioned that the term "itis" represented an infection. Not quite. It means "inflammation." Noted Jason Canapp, Chief Operating Officer, Orthopedic & Sports Medicine Group, "In some ways, inflammation is worse in terms of the body's ability to heal itself and the long-term deleterious effects." What was correct is that inflammations stop the flow of electrons and high dose Vitamin C IVs help restore the flow (as do magnets -- which is why they work, drawing electrons to the site of the inflammation -- it's not so voodoo afterall).

Microsoft WPC Leadership Summit -- choose either July 12 or July 13 plus receive a pass to the Expo Hall for the entire week where you can see the latest technology products. Each day features three learning tracks. I'm heading up one track featuring Liz Wiseman (best leadership book I've read in the past ten years); David Meerman Scott (New Rules of Marketing and PR), and Guy Parsons (Lean). The other two tracks are focused on Sales and Marketing. Here's a link to the details. Cost is $595 per executive and is open to your entire executive team -- an opportunity to provide your team with some outstanding executive education. Here's the registration link.