The Agile Scaleup

Entitlement Trap; Teaching Children Values; Family Entrepreneurship Event with Richard Eyre; Top 50 Tours

"...keeping your family great"

HEADLINES: (about family this week)

Oops -- Caryn Kopp Link -- in Tuesday's insight focused on exec ed offerings and books, we left out the link to Caryn Kopp's Gazelles Growth Institute one-hour online seminar on "Overcoming Objections." Here's the link.

Family and Community Safety -- Gazelles' Memphis coaching partner, Michael Synk, wrote an insightful blog yesterday on how the Memphis police department is using real time data and daily/weekly huddles to significantly drive down crime in an initiative called The Blue CRUSH (Crime Reduction Utilizing Statistical History). Crime is down 29% from 2006 - 2010 and continuing to drop in 2011. It's worth sharing with your own local law enforcement team. Take three minutes to read Michael's blog to learn what they are specifically doing to crush crime.

"Teaching Your Children Values" -- this is the title of Linda and Richard Eyre's book my wife Julie and I are utilizing with our four children (ages 3 - 14). We're following their step-by-step 12 month process in 2011, taking one value per month (Peaceability this month) and discussing it at each of our weekly family meetings (Sundays). Julie also takes the Eyre's description of each value and posts it on the mirrors in each of our bathrooms as a way to reinforce a particular value (remember, we still have therapy funds set aside for our children). BTW, the Eyre's, who have 9 children themselves and are the top YPO parenting resource, have written several books - all worth reading. Right now I'm also reading, with my two oldest sons, Richard Eyre's book on Serendipity.

Family Entrepreneurship Conference with Richard Eyre -- looking for something to do with the family this summer? Just announced, July 1 - 5, 2011 in Park City, UT, Yanik Silver and our friends at Maverick Business Adventures are hosting a family event where you can join like-minded CEOs and successful entrepreneurs and their families for a long weekend to inspire, educate and build your family's entrepreneurial spirit (and have a bunch of fun on the Alpine Sleds at the Olympic Park, Xtreme Ziplines, etc). Mention Gazelles on the application and you'll get the Maverick-member price. Here's a link.

Actual Businesses Launched -- at the conference there are specific business and thinking sessions for 2 different age groups (ages 6-12 and ages 13-23) tailored to their interests and comprehension. And the young entrepreneurs will break into groups and be tasked to create a real businesses 'on-the-fly' during the event! Each group will then be handed a business they will run and develop, culminating in an actual 'on-the-street' mission during the 4th of July festivities.

Avoiding the Entitlement Trap -- while the children and young entrepreneurs are working on their ideas there will be special sessions on raising more independent and entrepreneurial children while avoiding the "Entitlement trap" by the premier expert in this area, Richard Eyre. The Eyre's, as I mentioned above, have been tremendous guides for Julie and me as we raise our four children. But it's not just me singing their praises; they also have high praise from Oprah, Stephen Covey, Bill Marriott & more.

Another Family (or Individual) Option for the Summer -- just named one of the Top 50 "Tours of a Lifetime" by National Geographic Traveler, congratulations to dear friend and Gazelles' client Lauren Hefferon and Ciclismo Classico. They won for their Mediterranean Island Hopping trip. According to Traveler, the winners were selected amongst companies with solid reputations in the industry and the tours "offer a short but deep dive into far-flung cultures and transformative experiences. Their criteria included tours designed for experience, immersion, sustainability, and cultural connection.

June 25 - July 1 Island of Sardegna -- Lauren is also personally hosting a private multi-sport family event (get to hang with the owner of Ciclismo Classico) on the beautiful island of Sardegna off the coast of Italy. Julie and I and our four children will be participating as well. We have space for one more family if interested. Here's a link to more info. Her company's various tours have been our family's "tours of a lifetime" as well. Thanks, Lauren.

Opening Doors at Big Firms; Bag of Goodies; Space for 4 More; Caryn Kopp Online Seminar

"...out-learn the competition"

HEADLINES:

Space for 4 More -- we're almost sold out for the Fortune Leadership Summit May 10 - 11, Houston - we have room for four more exec teams to participate (or 24 individual executives). And my apologies, we normally book plenty of space since I don't like turning anyone away and I know many execs of growth companies are "last minute" types. Also, the conference book prints Thursday. If you want your company name in the book, please register ASAP.

Overcome More Objections, Close More Sales -- "An entire sale can be won or lost on the basis of a single objection response - the words you choose matter" says Chief Door Opener®, Caryn Kopp. Caryn, author of my favorite "how to" manual on handling specific objections, shares her techniques on crafting effective objection responses in our latest Gazelles Growth Institute one-hour online seminar available on-demand 24/7 for a fee - essential information for closing more sales. It's worth reviewing at your next sales meeting or having each of your sales people/reps watch individually.

Can't Get in Front of Enough Prospects? Most business owners and salespeople say they close most of the time when they are in front of the right decision makers -- they just can't get in front of enough of the right people. Caryn also has a service, which she's supplied to companies for decades, called The Door Opener®. It takes the work of finding new prospect opportunities off the shoulders of your closers, freeing up their time to do what they do best...close more deals.

Let Experts Open The Door -- Caryn's team of senior level Door Openers® are experts at the time-consuming, critical work of finding the right opportunities and the right decision makers with money to spend. Her Door Openers® secure the meeting for you; all you need to do is walk in. Her team has secured top level meetings with decision makers at firms like P&G, Pfizer, Merck, GE, Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner, Kraft, Marsh & McLennan, Target, CVS - and the list goes on and on! Caryn's secret sauce is crafting the messaging that gets the door open as well as the answers for difficult prospect objections. Learn more at http://www.koppconsultingusa.com/doors.html

Built to Sell -- one of our highest rated keynoters at the last Fortune Growth Summit, John Warrillow has the updated version of his book Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You (30% new content) being released this Thursday, April 28. The essence of the book is how to build a company that is truly valuable i.e. someone would pay a lot of money for it right now and you wouldn't need to stay on running it (no earn out!). He outlines three aspects that must exist in a marketable business - that it's Teachable, Valuable, and Repeatable - and how to structure these three critical attributes in your business.

$65 Basket of Goodies -- and if you pre-order a copy by Thursday at this link, John is including a one year subscription to Inc. Magazine, an e-book from the E-myth, A BizBuySell Valuation Report, participation in a 2 hour conference call with John, and a $25 Kiva donation in your name.

May is Growth Summit Month -- Barcelona 17th May; Rotterdam 18th May; Mexico City 24th May; Monterrey 25th May

April 18 Cut-off; Josh Bernoff; What Every Sales Person Should Have

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:  

"Ideas are the recipes we use to rearrange things to create more value and wealth."
	Paul Romer, Stanford University

April 18 - Hotel Cut-off -- if you and/or your team are planning to invest 48 hours to garner ideas directly from Greg Brenneman, Marshall Goldsmith, Josh Bernoff, Darren Hardy, Mark Aesch, and Graham Weston (hopefully you know of these people and their contributions to business - critical to stay current) at our Fortune Leadership Summit May 10 - 11, Houston, the hotel cut-off date is next Monday, April 18 to guarantee you'll get our conference rate of $159/night. Here's the link.

Empowered and Groundswell -- two of the leading business books of the past 30 months have been co-authored by Josh Bernoff, who is responsible for identifying, developing and promoting some of Forrester Research's biggest ideas as Senior VP of Idea Development. Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies documents the fundamental changes that have occurred in how we communicate with customers; Empowered: Unleash Your Employees, Energize Your Customers, and Transform Your Business is the exact "how to" book providing a framework for getting all your employees involved in communicating with customers - a way to share the load/burden so it doesn't fall all on the backs of your senior team who is already busy enough!

Four Steps to Connecting -- Bernoff describes a framework your organization can use to reach out to "connected" customers. The four steps in this "IDEA" framework are: identify mass influencers, deliver groundswell customer service, empower with mobile, and amplify fan activity. Bernoff is keynoting the Fortune Leadership Summit May 10 - 11 and will be expanding on these four key steps.

Ideas For Your Sales Team -- book club members will be receiving your copy of Empowered next week. For anyone picking up a copy, go immediately to chapter 2 and have your sales team read the opening story. In essence, it's time your sales team pick up ideas and get in the act of creating videos - video of competitors' products; customer testimonials, training videos enhancing presentation skills; videos documenting their challenges, their product features, and the solutions that worked best in sales situations; etc. The key is getting the proper IT support, sales people with Flip video cameras, and some simple video editing equipment.

Ideas For Your IT Team -- then go to the last three pages of the book to the section entitled "IT staff must find ways to support HERO projects" and have your IT person or team read the following two pages. It's the best manifesto for what IT should be doing for your company that I've read - and how they can be more impactful in their job, giving your IT team a more customer-focused mission. Bernoff outlines four specific activities for your IT team - something I'm asking him to cover at the Fortune Leadership Summit.

CLE and CPE -- Lawyers, doctors, accountants, and other professionals are required to remain current in their profession through continuing education i.e. continuing legal education (CLE) for lawyers, continuing professional education (CPE) for accountants, etc. However, there's no such requirement for business professionals. This is one mission of our two-day Summits - to provide you and your team with two days of continuing education to keep you current. Again, if you're not intimately familiar with the ideas from our Fortune Leadership Summit faculty, you're not as current as those who are familiar with these ideas in your profession. Stay current even if you're not going to utilize the ideas immediately.

5 Strategic Blunders; Rackspace's Strategy; Butler's Strategy; Russian Strategy

New Page 2

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

5 Strategic Blunders - my latest Fortune "Venture" column is out on the newsstands (April 11 edition) and online. See how Randy Cohen, TicketCity; Roger Hardy, Coastal Contacts; Doug Schukar, USA Mortgage; and Tony Petrucciani, Single Source Systems avoided five strategic mistakes companies make. There are still 3 quarters left in 2011 to course correct! Please take three minutes to read their valuable lessons - and review at your next weekly or monthly meeting. Play to Win!

Rackspace's Winning Strategy - with their stock and market cap (just over $5 billion) going through the roof, Rackspace is one of the hottest companies on Wall Street. CNN interviewed Lanham Napier, Rackspace CEO, on their strategy moving forward - and the importance of remaining agile. Take 3 minutes to watch a real pro in action - and then come meet his co-founder and Chairman, Graham Weston, who will share the keys to their rapid growth, in more depth, at our upcoming Fortune Leadership Summit, May 10 - 11, Houston.

Strategies Coming True - Congratulations to Naomi Simson and her team with Australia-based RedBalloon for reaching their 1 million milestone. Several years ago, having sold roughly 7500 "experiences," Naomi set a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) of selling 2 million, representing 10% of Australia's population. Well, they just hit the halfway mark, noting the success with this picture of their huge scoreboard that updates in real time - the precise time being 11:22am on the 1st of April - April Fool's Day! And to add romance to the date, they achieved this milestone exactly 10 years from the date of their first marketing plan - 1st April 2001 - I love when the stars magically align.

Butler's Single-Minded Strategy - I couldn't help but get caught up in the NCAA College Basketball Final Four tournament, especially given the record setting performance of two underdog teams. In a lesson for ALL growth firms, read the first and then last two paragraphs of this summary of Butler's win over VCU - in essence Butler had one strategy going into the game - allow zero fast break points - and they did it and won. Have you stated your focus this simply in 2011? Again, you still have 3 quarters left to course correct or further clarify your strategy. And sometimes the big bully, throwing their weight around, wins in the end (something Rackspace hopes to avoid) - as UConn went on to stifle Butler in the final. Lessons for all of us.

Business Model = Strategy - Alexander Osterwalder's Business Model Generation book continues to dominate book rankings globally, providing simple, tested tools, for understanding, designing, reworking, and implementing business models. It's the business model part of strategy that takes the most thinking and creativity. And he's keynoting our two European Growth Summits 17th May Barcelona; 18th May Amsterdam.

Russian Strategy - and I just returned from Moscow where I hosted my two-day Rockefeller Habits workshop and participated in the release of my book in Russian. It was an impressive group of top entrepreneurs from all over Russia - and half the audience was women - they are helping build some great companies. More later.

How to Track Your Strategy -- Cascading Priorities and Metrics -- to take a load off your brains and make your weekly management meeting much more effective, 3 years ago we launched Rhythm software that helps you track (using a Red, Yellow, Green, SuperGreen scale) all the cascading priorities and metrics within your business (so you can know where your team is "stuck" and make critical adjustments immediately). We've just released Version 7.0 and are hosting a Private Webcast on Wednesday, April 13th at 1:00pm EST for those that want to see a demo. It's best for companies greater than $10 million in revenue. To Register or email/call Deb Colson [email protected] 704-728-1701.

Jorge Partidas, CEO of WAU Movil, the largest mobile integrator in Latin America, has been using our Rhythm system to drive his firm. As a preview, here are Partidas's thoughts in this 3 minute video.