The Agile Scaleup

Meet CEO of Rosetta Stone; Entrepreneur of the Year; 6 Myths of Business; Amsterdam and Omaha

"...helping you out-learn the competition"

HEADLINES:

NOTE: Deadline for having your company listed in the Fortune Growth Summit conference book is this Friday. Otherwise, we'll take registrations up until the day of the event. We know you lead a crazy existence!

Meet Tom Adams, CEO of Rosetta Stone -- Tom just signed on to be our other celebrity CEO keynote at the Fortune Growth Summit Oct 19 - 20, Orlando. Leading one of the most successful IPOs in 2009, Adams increased revenues 10-fold since taking over in 2003. Named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2009 (the overall U.S. winner), Adams was also named Executive of the Year in 2009 by the American Business Awards (Stevies). And as of today, Rosetta Stone's stock price is up 14.7% over its strike price -- not bad in this economy.

Tom Gets "Going Global" -- Come learn from one of the most accomplished mid-market leaders that is doing business globally. A native of Sweden, Tom grew up in France and England and is fluent in French, Swedish, English and Spanish. He has a working knowledge of German and Chinese and is currently in the process of learning Russian. Tom has done for language learning what Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos (our celebrity CEO at the last Summit), did for shoes. These are the rock stars of our era -- come meet and learn from them.

Invite a Supplier -- having a strong supply chain is critical to your own success. Think about inviting the leadership of a couple key suppliers/service providers to join you at the Fortune Growth Summit. It's a way to build a stronger relationship with them and strengthen your business.

6 Myths -- Need Stories for Latest Fortune Column -- OK, this is column #5 for the year (thanks for the cash ideas -- that column will feature four of you). Let me know if you experienced any of the following, what I call the 6 Myths of Growing a Business:

1.    My margins will improve as my company gets bigger (normally the opposite happens -- so, did your margins shrink as you grew?).

2.    The folks running the big companies are smarter than us (truth, they are not -- your firms can easily beat the big guys)

3.    The company founder has got to go sooner or later, because the company is going to outgrow them (wrong, the Hidden Champion founders lasted 25 plus years).

4.    As CEO, you know what's going on in your business better than anyone else (you're really the last to know what's going on -- any examples of being the last to know?).

5.    Grow or die. (sometimes it's better not to grow -- remaining a "small giant" as Bo Burlingham suggests in his book by the same name)

6.    Be a self-help junkie (actually, self-help is an oxymoron -- you can't help yourself -- the best business leaders have lots of advisors, consultants, coaches)

Any of this sound familiar? Send me a quick email saying "yes" to which myth and we'll call for a quick interview. Or give us a better myth!! Deadline is this Thursday.

Amsterdam Oct 27 - 28; Omaha Oct 27 -- more Rockefeller Habits and SuperGreen Execution workshops in October.

Doubled Revenues and Profits -- and this note from Ben Thompson, EO member and CEO of Sydney-based HR consultancy The EI Group, "I am happy to report that The Rockefeller Habits have been a key contributor to the growth of my business over the past 3 years. During this time we have grown from 10 -30 staff and doubled revenues and profits each year. I thank you for your contribution." BTW, Ben has a useful piece of HR technology called Power2Motivate for managing rewards and recognition. It uses a points-based system that employees can then redeem for rewards -- much like I Love Rewards system in North America. We like these systems for supporting quarterly themes.

Jill Konrath; Herb Kelleher of Banking; Best Strategy; Newbie Mentality

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Jill Konrath -- author of SNAP Selling and Selling to Big Companies, delivers our latest one-hour online seminar. The focus is specifically on how to grab and maintain the attention of "crazy busy people." If you can't get someone to return your initial call or email, you can't progress - and this is applicable to the COO, CFO, HR, and IT, not just the sales and marketing execs. For instance, I use her techniques to get the attention of crazy, busy celebrity CEOs to convince them to come keynote our events -- they work! Use her four techniques to reach anyone in any company, organization, or profession.

Herb Kelleher of Banking -- and what Herb did for Southwest Airlines and the airline industry, Vernon Hill has done for banking. Take five minutes and read this insightful Fortune article on how Commerce Bank beat Citi and all the others in retail banking. He's now doing the same overseas. BTW, Hill has agreed to keynote our 2011 Growth Summit (Oct 18 -- 19)! I want to continue to bring you not only the top business authors, but the most innovative business leaders.

Best Strategy Case Study -- many of you will recognize Commerce Bank -- it's my favorite strategy case study written by Frances Frei, who is my favorite strategy professor at Harvard. What's NOT special, in terms of what you think is a successful strategy, is that Commerce Bank picked a segment of the banking customer population (wanted convenience) and focused on this brand promise. What IS special is that:

They went all the way -- providing a 100% "convenience" solution, including staying open 7 days per week and evenings. They figured out a way to fund it -- and THIS is the counterintuitive part leaders miss in setting a strategy. In the case of Commerce Bank, they offered the lowest interest rates on checking and savings accounts. And they only offered one kind of checking and one kind of savings account.

Therefore, how many of you are willing to go all the way to deliver on a specific brand promise; and are you willing to do something that appears customer UNFRIENDLY to help fund it? Pay $6.95 and read this case study as you prepare to plan your strategy for 2011.

Newbie's See Innovative Strategy Best -- and this BusinessWeek column by Gazelles 200 founding member Mike Maddock, Maddock Douglas which features several Gazelles clients. Scroll to the bottom of his column to the section entitled "The Myopia of Experts" and read his four quick suggestions for maintaining beginners luck in finding the new products and services that blow open an industry -- you can do these in your own firm immediately.

Saving 446 Minutes -- Profit Magazine wrote an excellent article that details how Nurse Next Door, one of the other Gazelles 200 founding members, is implementing Lean -- their reward practices, mistakes, timing, results, etc. One of my favorite excerpts "Nurse Next Door has based the core of its lean initiative on easing workloads to free up employees' time so they could focus on tasks yielding immediate value for clients. A case in point: the firm's overworked accountant, who regularly worked nights and weekends. Analyzing her tasks revealed vast scope for efficiency gains. For instance, it took her 22 steps totaling 686 minutes twice monthly to process billings and payroll. After assessing which steps provided value to clients, the firm has slashed the process to 11 steps taking 240 minutes." Take five minutes and read this article

Nurse Next Door launching Franchise Operations in the U.S. -- FYI, this Canadian-based firm is expanding in the U.S. -- great opportunity in the healthcare services field. Contact Ken Sim, co-founder [email protected]. And they'll be present in Orlando at the Growth Summit.

Invitation; 7 Strata of Strategy; What A-Players Read; One Month Left

"...out-learn the competition"

HEADLINES:

You Are All Invited -- all the weekly insight readers are invited to hear Warren Buffett's "Mr. Fix-it", David Sokol, CEO of NetJets, keynote our annual premier executive education event -- the Fortune Growth Summit, Oct 19 -- 20, Ritz Carlton, Orlando FL.

Seven Strata of Strategy -- my brand new strategy framework will be rolled out at the Growth Summit. I tested it during my Australian Tour last week. It's the first comprehensive strategy framework geared specifically for mid-market growth firms. I'll walk you through it in a 90-minute session on Day 1. And I'll be using a live case study to illustrate each of the 7 components or strata. You must state your strategy simply, but it doesn't mean it's simple.

A-Player Execs Read 24 Books Per Year -- Brad Smart, father of the Topgrading concept, researched 6500 top executives. The difference between the A-Players and the C-Players? The A-Players were continuous learners, reading on average 24 books per year (12 fiction and 12 non-fiction). Those who don't read barely have an advantage over those who can't!!

11 Leading Business Books -- the keynote speakers at the Growth Summit represent 11 leading business books (out of 8000 released each year) that I've handpicked because they have practical tools you can use to grow your business. It would take you longer than 2 days to read these books. And I work with each keynote to draw out their most salient ideas and tools useful to you -- we don't want to waste your time. Plus hearing these keynote speakers back-to-back lets you discern patterns and trends your wouldn't otherwise.

Top Rockefeller Habits Practitioners -- 500 executives of some of our world's top mid-market firms will be in attendance ($5 million to $500 million) -- many of them are also top Rockefeller Habits practitioners. Come meet them. And we structure a formal activity that matches up CEOs, COOs, CFOs, VP Sales, Marketing, HR, IT, etc. -- it's why we ask for your functional title as part of the registration process.

But We Can't Implement Anything Else! -- we don't repeat speakers unless they have a new book (i.e. Jim Collins). Participating each year prevents "not knowing what you don't know." The information files away and will be there when you need it. It's about awareness.

Too Busy to Attend? -- if that's the case, then you need this Summit the most!

One Month Until...the Fortune Growth Summit. Sign-up now. Here's a link to the line-up of keynote speakers

For Future Planning -- the Fortune Growth Summit is ALWAYS the Tuesday -- Wednesday closest to October 22 -- you can put it in your calendar for the next decade so you can plan your other meetings around it.

Out-Learn the Competition (and Customers) -- see you in Orlando.

Best Question; Next Growth Frontier; Bezos's 12 Questions; Last Question

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Two Key Questions -- I have two more Fortune columns to write and could use some examples: 1) What myths about business have you encountered; and 2) What are some things you've stopped doing (below are some examples - have any of you pursued any of these or others)? If so, just send a short email saying "yes" and what topic and we'll call and interview you:

Stopped paying attention to the economic news and asked, instead, your most important clients what their forecasts are for 2011 to plan for 2012 (something I suggested a few weeks ago). Stopped selling 80% of your products and services and focused on the best 20% (same with customers). Stopped doing email, having an assistant handle 90% of your emails instead. Stopped a contentious relationship (employee, customer, partner) that has drained your emotional energy. Stopped eating alone i.e. made it a point to strengthen relationships and meet more people face-to-face

Unemployment 5.1% -- there's no shortage of jobs in Australia with their announced 5.1% unemployment this week. And Australia is the first country in 2010, in which I've taught, where my audience of growth company executives chose "people" as the number one challenge for their business (it was great to see Pat Cannon in my audience, who recently moved from the U.S. to Australia where he took an executive position with PPG). Attracting and retaining talent is back front-and-center down under. BTW, on Tuesday, Julia Gillard was sworn in as Australia's first female prime minister. And with the announcement of Oprah's visit, it's been a fun week to be touring Australia.

Best Question -- Craig Hodges, Managing Director of Australia-based King Content, suggested the best business question I've heard in 2010 -- "What's The Brown Paper Bag in Your Business?" As the story goes, Craig was in NYC and managed to garner a dinner reservation at the famous Gramercy Tavern. One thing led to another and he ended up closing the place down, enjoying beers with the staff (what Aussie's do best!). As he was leaving, the staff handed him a brown paper bag and said it was a little something for breakfast the next morning. He started to look inside, but was instructed to keep it closed until the sun came up.

Delight Inside -- when Hodges was ready for breakfast the next morning, he found inside the properly sealed bag a freshly baked muffin, muesli, and an orange juice - a welcomed delight. It was then that he wondered "what was the brown paper bag-equivalent in his business?" He wondered how his business could generate the same word-of-mouth promotion he's given Gramercy Tavern as a result of something so simple, yet memorable?

12 CEOs and Companies Leveraging Web Video -- the list includes Gazelles 200 founding member BuildDirect.com that has posted hundreds of "how to" videos. Web video is one type of "brown bag" worthy of attention - just ask BlendTek and their "Will it Blend" series with over 130 million views. Here's a link to the 12 examples - watch during your next marketing meeting and decide to create a video or two for your company.

Africa Next Growth Frontier -- excellent article in the NY Times today on IBM's huge infrastructure contract in Africa and why Sam Palmisano, CEO of IBM, flew to Africa for the announcement - they see Africa as the next growth frontier. Notes the article "mobile phones in developing regions like Africa are used not only for talking and texting, but for many other day-to-day activities like banking....only 23 percent of Africans have access to banking services, but already 8 million Africans use their cell phones for payments."

Amazon Founder's 12 Questions -- take three minutes to read Jeff Bezos's commencement address delivered at Princeton University. The best line in the speech is from his father "Jeff, one day you'll understand that it's harder to be kind than clever." It's worth reading to your children this weekend, as Bezos explains what led to him launching Amazon and some key lessons learned. And at the end he poses 12 questions to the Princeton graduates - excellent questions for all of us.

Last Question -- are you, as a leader, growing faster than your company? Join us at our upcoming Fortune Growth Summit, Oct 19 - 20, Orlando. Faculty include David Sokol (Buffett's "Mr. Fixit"), Chip Heath, Liz Wiseman, John Warrillow, David Meerman Scott, Rich Russakoff, Mo Fathelbab, and Verne Harnish.

Asia's 200 Best; Latest Rage; Stop Wasting People's Time

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Free Book on Kindle -- available through today (Friday, 10 Sept), you can download Josh Bernoff's and Ted Schadler's book Empowered for free. I've not read it yet, but Josh Bernoff, Forrester Research analyst, is coauthor of the best-selling book Groundswell -- so I'll bet it's worthwhile. Grab the Kindle version now; then I'll read it this coming week and let you know what pages are worthwhile.

Latest Rage -- the concept of "the Lean Start-Up", birthed in Silicon Valley by Eric Ries, is now sweeping the globe. Applicable to any new product or service launch in existing firms, the message is "we have to stop wasting people's time" building stuff nobody wants. Take a look at this 15 minute video -- and if in a hurry, go right to 12:18 and take 3 minutes to review the 4 Myths/Truths about Lean Start-Ups. And if you only have a minute, go to 14:30 and check out the most important misunderstanding: that Lean Start-ups are trying to replace vision with data or customer feedback.

The Truth -- you want to be driven by a compelling vision and then rigorously test each element of that vision through rapid customer feedback. Many of you have heard me rant about the importance of talking to one customer each week, looking for that Black Swan moment when you're able to pivot (the hot new buzz word discussed in the video above) your product or service to better serve the market. Here's a link to the article . BTW, thanks to Johan Åhlund, founder of Barcelona-based Artificial Solutions, for pointing me to this video.

Lean for Software Development -- this very practical video explains how Lean principles (in contrast to Scrum or Agility) apply to building software. And the most applicable piece for all of us is their discussion about "delayed commitments." The video is structured so you can go right to that 2 minute piece. Many of us make decisions way too early in a process -- quite an eye-opener for me and a lesson I learned just this past week. And for those doing IT work for the government, go to their second to last section and hear them explain what the Norwegian government is doing to write more flexible government contracts which allow Lean to be practiced. Thanks to Emilio Moreno, CEO of Softonic, for pointing me to this video.

Asia's 200 Best Public Companies Under a Billion -- and congrats to India-based Ashiana Housing, a $61 million market cap Rockefeller Habits driven firm, for making the Forbes list this week. India scored 39 of the 200 Asian firms, up from 20 last year. China fell from having 79 on the list to 71. Notes Ankur Gupta "The meeting rhythm, especially the added monthly huddle (with all middle managers), has really helped us and we have been able to more than double our sales. Around this time last year we had sold 2.12 lacs sq.ft. and this year we are at 5.5 lac sq.ft." No slow down in housing in India, at least for Ashiana!!

ThinkProductive's Daily Huddle -- speaking of meetings, Graham Allcott, director of UK-based ThinkProductive, a personal productivity firm, posted a short video explaining how they structure their daily huddles for those still on the fence or wanting to fine-tune their huddle. Thanks Graham.

John Grisham's Career Path -- take a few minutes to read Grisham's delightful guest column in the NY Times this week and then share it with your children. From watering rose bushes for a dollar an hour to plumbers helper to men's underwear salesman, Grisham's path to world class novelist will give anyone hope they can find and then live their passion. BTW, he considers writing the toughest and most grueling job he's ever had.

1 Marketing Lesson; 2 Meeting Tips; 3 Times More Productive Employees; Houston, NYC Workshops

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Show, Don't Tell -- Jason Cohen's blog makes one of the best marketing points I've seen in a while -- show, don't tell i.e.:

Instead of saying it's fast, show a speed test (especially against competitors). Instead of saying it's easy, have a video demonstrating your tool solving someone's problem in 60 seconds flat. Instead of saying you have eager, responsive, intelligent tech support, put a "chat now" bar on every page of your website. Instead of a bullet-list of benefits, quote actual customers describing your impact on their lives.

Be Specific - Cohen goes on to suggest:

Instead of "easy" say "so straightforward, you won't need a manual." Instead of "inexpensive" say "just a dollar a day." Instead of "powerful" say "processes 6,253,427 requests daily." Instead of "disruptive" say "72% of our customers say they'll never go back to a normal email client."

Cohen makes three more equally helpful suggestions including words and phrases that should be banned from all marketing materials -- take three minutes and read his insightful blog post. And thanks to Gabi Kool, Managing Director of VIOLA Hotel Rewards, for bringing this to my attention.
Two Simple Meeting Rules - and this note (awhile back) from Mushahid Khan, President and COO, O'Rourke Petroleum "We are on a mission to make our meetings more effective and we've implemented two steps to help us:

No meeting is more than one hour - ever! I was one of the biggest contributors to this problem and so it's taken a change from me. Before every meeting, we say: "The purpose of this meeting is _________" If you can't fill in the blank, you probably don't need to meet.

We're also doing some of the basic stuff like agenda's etc but I thought I would share the two simple steps that have helped the most.

3 Times More Productive Employees - The Container Store, named one of the Fortune "100 Best Places to Work" for 11 years straight (twice #1), has a simple 1=3 rule - one great employee can replace three good employees. Mike Jagger, CEO of Provident Security, has taken this message to heart, revamping his employee and customer base to live this rule. He recently wrote about it for Security Director News. Notes Jagger "The article talks about how we've worked to integrate their 1=3 philosophy into our business and when we couldn't in one department, we cancelled several million dollars worth of revenue." This is worth taking 3 minutes to read why he did this!

Houston Sept 16 and NYC Sept 23 -- Updated Rockefeller Habits Workshop - It's now called the "Four Decisions: SuperGreen Execution" workshop (after the four key decisions: People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash). If you want to jumpstart execution of the Rockefeller Habits tools, including the updated One-Page Strategic Plan, this is the right workshop. Here's a link for more info