The Agile Scaleup

Buffett's New Heir Apparent; Strategic Preparation; Do More Faster; Next Week's Elections

  "...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Next Week's Elections in the U.S. -- thoughts below, but first...

NOTE: Date Change -- the Fortune Leadership Summit is now May 10 -- 11, Houston, TX. We changed the dates because April 19 -- 20 is Passover. NOTE 2: We're replacing the Sales & Marketing Summit with the Leadership Summit and will integrate sales and marketing topics within both the Leadership and Growth Summits.

Free Help for One-Page Strategic Plan -- there's a new interactive "vook" (video book) that guides you through completing the revised One-Page Strategic Plan. Just click on each box of the interactive plan and a short 30 to 60 second video pops up explaining what is to go into each box. You can also fill it in online and then print a completed copy. Here's a link -- expand the "Strategy" section and you'll see the Vook. We're creating vooks for all the other one-page tools as well.

Strategic Preparation: Three Critical Steps -- it's important that you survey your customers and employees going into your strategic planning session for 2011. Here's my latest 750 word "Growth Guy" column on the subject (publishes Nov 1) -- review as you prepare for your annual 2011 strategy session.

Improved One-Page Tools -- we've also redesigned the Word versions of all our one-page tools (People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash) so they are easier to fill in without messing up the formatting. Go to this link and expand each section to see the various one-page "growth tools."

Phoenix, Chicago, Seattle, Toronto, New Jersey, Portland -- these are the locations of our upcoming Rockefeller Habits workshops in the U.S. -- a great way to prepare your team for 2011. Here's a link to dates and information.

Do More Faster -- Brad Feld's First Book -- one of the top VCs and maverick's in the VC world (and founder of two EO chapters), Brad Feld and his co-author David Cohen share their combined 50 years experience in starting and funding growth firms. BTW, they are on a book tour stopping in Chicago today, San Antonio Monday, and San Diego Wednesday. Here's a link to the details.

Todd Combs, Buffett Heir Apparent? -- the big news this week was Buffett's hiring of Todd Combs. Seems Buffett is looking for two replacements -- one as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and the other to manage the investment side of the business. David Sokol, who keynoted the Fortune Growth Summit last week, is considered the likely CEO replacement. However, there's been no one in the wings on the investment side until this week. Here's Fortune's article this week on why Buffett hired Combs.

In a Slump? Relax More! -- Does it seem like the harder you push, the more the business is pushing back? Sales slumping? This piece in the Wall Street Journal relates how Jack Nicklaus dealt with his golfing slumps. The counterintuitive key? Stop working so hard and take some time to relax. Signs you're in a slump include a loss of confidence, over-thinking every move, dwelling on past failures, or working too much. Thanks to Jon Iveson, founder of Learning to Be a Champion (and Gazelles coaching partner), for bringing this to my attention.

Next Week's Elections -- (warning, don't watch if you're politically sensitive) my thoughts are represented in this 4 minute video my 14-year old son put together this week -- it's his generation that will really pay the price for our ineptitude as citizens. I helped him with the script and held the camera, but he did all the rest. My only other contribution was keeping him from brandishing his air gun in the video -- boys will be boys.

Pecha Kucha; Tom Adams Rosetta Stone; 3 First Impressions

  "...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Following are highlights (simple things I learned), including short 1 to 3 minute video interviews, from the Fortune Growth Summit hosted this week in Orlando:

What is Pecha-Kucha -- Craig Morantz demonstrated a presentation technique that created a mini-buzz throughout the end of the conference...more below, but first.

Tom Adams, CEO of Rosetta Stone -- I finally understand the economics of all those kiosks in malls and airports (since I never see any customers visiting the kiosks). Generating a mere 13% of revenue, they really function as self-funding (and inexpensive) billboards helping to build brand awareness. In my short interview with Tom, he mentions having a coach named Ed and now has he's surrounded himself with other mentors and advisors including Ted Leonsis.

Bob Bloom, Author of The New Experts -- Bob describes the "new experts" in my short interview. He also outlines the three things you MUST accomplish in the initial "now-or-never" moment when a customer first contacts you, on or offline. You must immediately have them like you, feel trust, and get them to talk (share some information about their needs and wants). And what you DON'T want to do is immediately start selling. So think about the homepage of your website, entrance to your building/store, or your sales person's first meeting. Watch Bob's interview for details.

David Meerman Scott, Author of Real-Time Marketing and PR (out Nov 1) -- from Oakley reacting quickly to outfit the rescued Chilean miners with sunglasses to Eloqua, maker of marketing automation software, stealing PR from their competitor's sale to Oracle, we're in a real-time media world -- and you should take advantage of it. David explains in this interview.

John Warrillow, Author of Built to Sell -- essentially told his business was unsellable, he received some key advice from a mentor. The most valuable businesses provide services that meet three criteria -- they are teachable, valuable, and repeatable (TVR). He went on to revamp his business to meet these criteria and then successfully sold it. He describes, in his interview, how this criteria explains the success of JiffyLube.

Liz Wiseman, Author of Multipliers -- the one question that caught our audience most by surprise was Liz's question about the key attribute of a multiplier. By a huge margin, the audience chose "listening." In fact, it's "intellectual curiosity" for which our audience voted least. Liz goes on to explain why this is at the root of those that make people smarter vs. dumber. Take a look at her interview.

Chip Heath, Author of Switch -- there are two simple ideas every leader can utilize immediately. First, rather than focus on problems, it's much better to focus on what's working -- what Heath calls "bright spots." Second, leaders must move beyond just articulating SMART goals, but give people a picture of the end result -- what Heath calls a "destination postcard." He explains with examples in this short 1 minute interview.

Thanks to Nan Palmero -- Chief Inspiration Officer of Austin-based Sales by 5, Nan shot and uploaded the videos while twittering the entire Fortune Growth Summit.

Pecha-Kucha -- Craig Morantz with Leed's, a top supplier of promotional products (including our conference bags), created a mini-buzz by sharing a pecha-kucha style presentation. According to Craig "the name comes from the Japanese term for the sound of 'chit chat.' The basic concept relies on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds."

Concise and Rapid-Paced Presentations -- Craig continues, "It's a format that makes presentations concise and keeps things moving at a rapid pace. I have seen it turn 20 -- 30 minute presentations into 6 minute 40 second presentations that have more impact. Who doesn't want shorter more engaging presentations? You simply set your power point presentation to automatically move to the next slide every twenty seconds and do not exceed 20 slides. Additionally the use of copy should be eliminated (which really should be the rule for any PowerPoint). Just use images." Anyway, it was fun to watch.

Steve Jobs 7 Secrets; The Mesh; Getting Middle Management More Involved

  "...keeping you great" 

HEADLINES:

There are two ways to sleep well at night - be ignorant or be prepared
	- Simon Black

Increased Profit 7-Fold -- I like the counter-intuitive comments. When I asked for specific ideas for increasing cash, Scott Nash, CEO of MOM's Organic Market, exclaimed "I hear frequently that 'cash is king'. My mantra is 'profits are king'..." When Scott thought his $1.4 million line of credit was going to be pulled, since he hadn't heard back from his banker on a requested increase, he hunkered down with his team and got serious about improving profit. After lots of hard work, his team managed to increase profit from 1% to 7% (which is about 2.5 times industry average) and pay down his line to $500k (remember, profit eventually turns into cash). This got the banks attention and he ended up getting his line increased to $2.5 million. Scott's story plus additional ideas to improve cash are in my latest Fortune column

7 Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs -- my apologies if I'm behind the curve on this one. Carmine Gallo, who wrote the book on The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, has a new book out this month entitled The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs. Here are the seven:

	1.	Do what you love
	2.	Put a dent in the universe - have a big vision
	3.	Kick-start your brain - use creativity and have lots of different experiences
	4.	Sell dreams not products - understand what people want to accomplish
	5.	Say no to 1000 things
	6.	Create insanely great experiences
	7.	Master the message

Thanks to Rich Bendis, founder of Innovation America, for bringing this to my attention. Rich was just named the #4 innovation blogger (out of 40) and has my favorite daily innovation blog -- he points to a dozen key articles every day.

The Mesh: Why the Future of Business is Sharing -- this is my latest favorite book which outlines how the internet is driving radical new business models for companies with products. In essence, the latest location-based and smart phone apps allow us to access (expensive) products without having to own them. Think about the fact that, on average, you only drive your car one hour per day. What about those expensive tools you have sitting in your garage or handbags sitting in the closet. Written by serial entrepreneur Lisa Gansky, she co-founded Ofoto (sold to Kodak) and GNN (sold to AOL), Gansky is the first to name this important new trend in business.

Wayne Huizenga's Key to Success -- the only entrepreneur on the planet to create three separate billion dollar-plus public companies from scratch, Gansky points out that Huizenga used the same principle of purchasing a product and then renting it multiple times (think waste bins and DVDs). Conrad Hilton did the same when he created the hotel. So this idea isn't new. However, with the latest internet technologies, it's a lot easier to facilitate the sharing and renting of products. Her book is a very quick read, well-written, and includes an index of hundreds of firms sharing cars (Zipcar), wine-making services (Crushpad), and tools (North Portland Tool Library).

Middle Management Meeting -- a few weeks back I noted that India-based Ashiana Housing (Rockefeller Habits practitioners) was one of Asia's 200 Best Under a Billion firms -- so I wanted to understand how they were able to double revenue this past year. In essence, the top three leaders were able to free themselves up from day-to-day operations by turning over the business more to their middle managers. The key to this transformation was their inclusion of middle management in a monthly huddle -- a total of 65 people. In this meeting they work collectively on solving major challenges and focus on significant improvements to the business. Examples include creating better store and purchasing systems, reducing inventory, creating a WOW factor on-site, and getting payments to suppliers on time.

Passing Down Your DNA -- the overall focus of the broader monthly management meeting is getting the DNA of the senior team passed down to the middle managers so they can run the business. Notes Ankur Gupta "the three of us are feeling removed a lot more from the day to day and focusing on growth. I think the main thing in the monthly huddle is that the whole company feels that we are a team, the values of the company are being dissipated (down), and they (middle management) can see the larger target."

Preparation vs. Ignorance -- this weekend I'm headed back to the U.S. to attend our  Fortune Growth Summit. I look forward to seeing all of you that have chosen to invest 48 hours in further preparing yourself to out-think and out-learn the competition -- join us if you can.

5 Cash Strategies; Facebook's #2; Why Wesabe Lost; Africa Update

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

5 Strategies for Increasing Cash -- my latest Fortune Venture column is out, on the newsstands and online. Thanks to insight readers Scott Nash, Barrett Ersek, Sam Goodner, and Phil Miner for contributing their stories representing ideas you can implement immediately to bolster cash in your business.

Power of Barter -- one of the more unusual ways to bolster cash is to utilize barter on a more regular basis. Barrett Ersek was doing roughly a quarter-million dollars of barter a year through Atlantic Barter when he was building Happy Lawns, receiving up to $100k in advance credit as a regular customer (hey, that's like real cash!). And when he launched his new business, Holganix, he traded in some beat-up trailers for $5k, received an additional $2500 in advance credit from Atlantic Barter, so he could trade for a $7500 trade-show booth. Check out the other four specific strategies in my latest Fortune column

Facebook CEO's #2 -- Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's COO, is key to helping Mark Zuckerberg grow Facebook. And she's an exception to my rule -- that the #2 MUST be someone you've worked with for quite some time. A former Google exec, they met at a Christmas party in 2007. After a six-week intense courting period involving multiple dinners each week (this is always key), Zuckerberg placed Sandberg right into the COO position. Take seven minutes and read this NY Times article including how she won over the rest of the team. BTW, I'm adding to my rule about hiring #2's -- you MUST have worked with the person before unless the last four letters of your last names match!

Sandberg's Discipline -- a key to Zuckerberg's and Sandberg's ongoing ability to work closely together are twice weekly meetings for an hour -- just the two of them at 10am Monday and another on Friday (detailed in the article). Zuckerberg and Sandberg are as busy as anyone on the planet, yet they carve out this specific time to discuss the big (and little) stuff. Just another example that the execs running important companies stick to these kinds of meeting rhythms and don't use the excuse "hey, we see and talk to each other all week" to avoid specific "council" time. Again, take 7 minutes and read how the right #2 can greatly enhance the performance of the #1 and the business.

Roel Nikkessen Agrees...with the power of a meeting rhythm. I received this note from Roel Nikkessen, CEO of a Dutch ICT services firm, OGD, "We've been working for almost two months with your structure of daily and weekly meetings and I can say it works very well for us! The daily meeting at 16:28 is the routine that our management team needed. And the good thing about the daily meetings is that we keep it to 15 minutes!" Nikkessen further notes that the meeting rhythm "not only gives us a better understanding of each other on our Management Team. It gives us more passion and a drive to move further. At the end of this quarter we'll see sales up 20%, while our big competitors in ICT services are still going down." Discipline always wins out, everything else being equal. Congrats to Roel and his team.

Why Mint Won! -- one last article for the week. Take 5 minutes and scan Marc Hedlund's guest CNN/Money article on why his firm Wesabe lost to Mint in the race to be THE website to help people with their personal finances. There are several insightful lessons. A key conclusion, notes Hedlund "Focus on what really matters: making users happy with your product as quickly as you can, and helping them as much as you can after that. If you do those better than anyone else out there you'll win." In essence, Mint, though less robust in its approach (from Hedlund's perspective), provided a much more idiot proof and easier "one-button" functionality than Wesabe -- essentially the user had to do very little themselves. Lesson -- right doesn't mean best. The article is worth a scan

Kenya Rockefeller Habits -- and kudos to Olivia Herriford, our first Gazelles International certified business coach to conduct a two-day Four Decisions -- Mastering the Rockefeller Habits Executive workshop in Africa last week. Working with the Kenya Institute of Management (KIM) to host the workshop, she's also advising them on their transition to a university. Noted Keith Cupp, President of Gazelles International, "Olivia has a passion for the people, growth businesses, and the continent of Africa."

Gambia, the Hong Kong of Africa? -- this week I'm in The Gambia, the smallest mainland African country. A former British colony, it's on the western tip of Africa surrounded by the former French colony, Senegal. I've felt what Africa most needs is a Hong Kong. So I've started the journey along with some Dutch investors (thanks especially to Peter Arensman with BAS Consulting) and business leaders. So far I have more questions than answers, but it's clear, much of the NGO and foreign governments' subsidies are a huge waste of money. In turn, infrastructure is critical and The Gambia is making strides. Lack of cargo planes, expensive power costs, and 22% interest rates are the three biggest hindrances to the local Gambian entrepreneurs with whom I've met (these entrepreneurs are dreaming and accomplishing big things -- I was impressed with the scope of their ventures).

Big Problems, Small Solutions -- it's been interesting to look at the situation here in The Gambia through Chip and Dan Heath's lens (from their book Switch) -- that the mistake companies and countries make is trying to solve big problems with big solutions (I've seen plenty of this the past couple days) -- instead, we need to look for "bright spots" and find small, simple solutions to big problems. And when you look through this lens, you see the world in an entirely different way. I'm excited to hear Chip Heath in person when he keynotes our Fortune Growth Summit in a couple weeks -- hope to see all of you there as we gather the knowledge to make a difference in our companies and the world -- it's entrepreneurs that must get it done!!! And we have to keep learning!

New Strategy Framework; One Bad Example; One Great Example

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Seven Strata of Strategy -- the framework for my next book, here's a link to my latest 750 word "Growth Guy" column outlining the Seven Strata of Strategy -- my latest attempt at a unified theory of strategy. BuildDirect.com, featured in the article, will be my live case study on stage at the Fortune Growth Summit in Orlando. Please take 3 minutes and see if the framework is helpful to you.

Yahoo! As A (Bad) Example -- Carol Bartz, CEO of Yahoo!, is quoted in a Fortune article yesterday describing Yahoo!'s strategy:

"Yahoo is a company that is very strong in content," she said this past May."It's moving towards the web of one. We have 32,000 variations on our front page module. We serve a million of those a day. It's all customized. Our click-through rate went up twice since we started customizing this. People come to check the things they like. 'You can just get it together.' Yahoo is one site people always stop at."

OK, that was clear as mud!! Take another four minutes and read Fortune's September 30 article on Yahoo! -- and read how her Chief Product Officer, Blake Irving, describes Yahoo!'s strategy.

Executing a Mess -- therefore, unless you get your strategy nailed, you risk maximizing the next three to five years. In fact, you risk executing a mess, resulting in a lot of wasted time and effort. Tale of two companies I met this past month: One, that has nailed its Seven Strata, will see revenue go from €30 million (up from €15 million last year) to almost €60 next year. The other, which hasn't, will continue to limp along until they do.

WebMD -- one of my favorite strategists, ex-McKinsey guru Kaihan Krippendorf (author of Art of the Advantage), also produces my favorite weekly strategy newsletter. His latest newsletter/blog post is about WebMD and how they've outperformed Google the past five years in terms of stock appreciation. In each newsletter, he interviews a top CEO and extracts their strategic lessons -- in this case, three strategies Wayne T. Gattinella,WebMD's CEO, used to make them one of the best performing tech companies in the world.

It's Okay to Run Away -- this is Gattinella's Lesson #1 -- it's about stripping everything out of the company that isn't core and focusing on one strategy. Kaihan will share the next two lessons over the coming weeks. Take five minutes to read his latest newsletter on WebMD and then sign-up (delivered by email) at http://www.kaihan.net/index.html.

Two New One-Page Tools -- BTW, I talked with Kaihan last night and asked him to fly down to the Fortune Growth Summit to lend me a hand onstage as I walk you through our two new One-Page tools -- one designed around the Seven Strata of Strategy and the other designed to help you focus on your core processes. And he'll be around to discuss strategy with those that want to talk shop.

6 Myths -- Still 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). Email me immediately ([email protected]) if you've recently 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)