The Agile Scaleup

5 Marriage Tips; Stop Your Divorce; Manufacturing Coming Home; Latest Fortune Column

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

5 Marriage Tips - my latest Fortune Venture column is out on the street and online (please comment on the article on Fortune website). When things are going well at home, it's much easier to grow your business. Entitled Save Your Marriage and Your Business, it offers five practical steps you can take to keep your marriage healthy (please comment on the article on the Fortune website - let's get a discussion going). Thanks to Stephen Adele, iSatori; Brad Dresbach, 42Fish; Jeff Booth, BuildDirect; D.J. Rezak, KB Building Services; Razor Suleman, I Love Rewards; and Brad Feld, Foundry Group for contributing to the column.

Discipline and Routine - the response to my request for ideas on marriage and business was so strong that I've decided to write a book on the subject. We hope to have copies in time for the Fortune Growth Summit. Not surprising, the keys to a great marriage boil down to some simple disciplines and routines, though I'll never claim that marriage is simple!

Stop Your Divorce - One surprising resource was a booklet entitled Stop Your Divorce. If you're facing the imminent breakup of your marriage and you don't want it to happen, check out this resource http://www.stopyourdivorce.com -- BTW, one of the most compelling simple websites I've ever seen - we can all learn something from the copywriting on this plain text website.

Manufacturing Coming Back to US - and take 4 minutes to scan this Fortune article entitled Made (again) in the USA: The return of American manufacturing. Increasing labor costs in places like China; the high cost of shipping heavy stuff; and supply chain disruptions are the three main reasons manufacturing is becoming more local everywhere in the world.

Big China Win; 40 Lessons from Southwest; Raising Selfish Children; Canada's Purpose

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

NFTE Big Winner in China -- see below, but first...

Clever Ways to Cut Costs -- my next Fortune column will focus on ways to cut costs when you don't think you have any more costs to cut. Where are some "hidden" places you've found costs to cut? What are some costs you were surprised you had that you were able to eliminate? Email me [email protected] with a short explanation and we'll call to get details. Deadline Friday, 1st July.

40 Lessons From Southwest Airlines -- following the 5 big lessons from IBM's first 100 years, Southwest celebrated its 40th birthday 18th June. To highlight its success, 40 hard fought lessons are shared in the June issue of their in-flight magazine. Lesson 1 (keep it simple); 8 (be the good guy); and 19 (crisis drives creativity) are my three favorite. Lesson 25 is the cleverest; 28 is the most surprising; and 38 likely the most important. It's worth taking 8 minutes to read through the list and pick one or two to emulate.

Canada's Purpose -- and this note from Azam Bhaloo, President of Ontario-based Foray Group, "thought you might find this interesting, given the use of Purpose in your planning model." Notes Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper, as he explains why Canada must prepare itself for a larger role internationally, "If, in 50 more years, we wish our descendants to celebrate Canada's 200th anniversary, then we must be all we can be in the world today. Therefore, my friends, our party's great purpose is nothing less than to prepare our nation to shoulder a bigger load, in a world that will require it of us." BTW, I'm bullish on both Canada and Australia (and their currencies) - they are huge countries with massive natural resources and relatively few citizens to support.

How to Raise Selfish Children -- Rabbi Stephen Baars, founder of Bliss, has launched an excellent set of 90 second video parenting lessons. The latest is on the best thing you can do to teach your children how to give. His conclusions are always counterintuitive and insightful. BTW, he's coming to the Fortune Growth Summit to share quick tips on parenting and marriage. When things are going better at home, it's easier to focus on growing your business.

Good to Great Award Winner -- congratulations to Matt Kuttler and his team at ReStockIt, a leading online retailer of supplies to small businesses, for winning South Florida's Good to Great Award. Regulars at our Growth Summits, they've seen revenues increase from $1 million in 2004 to over $25 million last year. Today they represent over 200,000 products from 3,100 manufacturers. Check them out -- you might be able to save some money for your business!

Big Win in China -- after 500,000 votes and over a quarter billion viewing the awards show, NFTE's partner in China was voted the best charity project in China!! NFTE (Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship) has been my favorite charity (and its founder, Steve Mariotti, one of my dearest friends) for almost 25 years. Working in China since 2003, today NFTE's curriculum reaches 22,000 young people in this growing economy. For me, it says a lot about China and the aspirations of its people that this charity won - I'm not sure US or European citizens would have been as supportive, likely voting instead for a charity that gives people fish instead of teaching them how to fish (entitlement vs. ownership mentality). Anyway, after this award and recognition, the number of youth learning to be entrepreneurs should skyrocket in China.

Austin's Fittest Entrepreneur Update -- well, we didn't quite generate enough votes for Sam Goodner, CEO of Catapult Systems. Even though he came in first on the actual fitness tests (not surprising, if you know Sam); he came in second in terms of popular votes. I'm bummed that my insight readers didn't put him over the top. Anyway, he placed second overall.

Author Dies; 5 Lessons; Technique Lands Huge Deal; Vote for Sam

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Author of "The Goal" Dies -- Eli Goldratt, creator of TOC (Theory of Constraints) and author of one of the best-selling business fables in history, died in Israel last Saturday at the age of 64. With over 5 million copies in print in 35 languages, Goldratt's book is in my top 10 list of books all business leaders should read - it's so foundational to understanding where to focus limited resources. He'll be hugely missed.

5 Lessons from IBM's 100th Anniversary -- born June 16, 1911, IBM has seen its net income increase from $800,000 to $14.8 billion and its stock increase by 40,000 percent! Fortune has been tracking IBM's history for decades and has outlined 5 lessons all CEOs can learn from their 100 years of success. Take three minutes to scan at least the subheads listing the 5 lessons.

Critical Technique Helps QuEST Land $300 Million Contract -- deploying Dr. Victoria Medvec's "synchronous communication" negotiating technique and others, Bangalore-based QuEST landed a significant Airbus contract. "Suffice it to say we wouldn't be here if at a critical juncture in the campaign we had not deployed this technique," described Ajay Prabhu, COO. Synchronous communication means you handle all negotiations face-to-face or directly over the phone - no email!! See their bold move next as they were bidding against huge firms like Infosys.

Bold Decision -- to continue, Prabhu notes "It was a long campaign and at one stage we suffered a severe setback; it was like sliding down the tube in the snake & ladder game. So we took a team of 8 people and parked in a hotel outside the customer's location (UK), booked a business center and started from scratch. Some of the team members would talk to multiple people at the customer site to really understand and unravel customers' challenges and the rest would give shape to a proposal that would address it just right. We validated our approach multiple times by cross-checking against the voice of the customer. After ten days, at the end of a long night reminiscent of the University days, we submitted the proposal which turned out to be the winner. This one is for the QuEST history books." The new Airbus OD Center Inauguration was June 8 - congrats to QuEST.

High Stakes Negotiation -- QuEST, which has been a Gazelles client for almost three years, has been a great student of business, utilizing books, online courses, and live workshops to educate their team. Here's a link to Professor Dr. Medvec's "High Stakes Negotiation" online seminar - just scroll down the "Execution" column. In addition, here's the link to her full 2.5 hour modularized course. Effective negotiation skills, especially when the stakes are high, are key for any middle to upper manager to learn.

Coastal Contacts' Y-Gen Video -- 63% of Vancouver-based Coastal Contacts workforce are Millennials. To kick off their latest quarterly theme, Coastal produced a lip-sync video to the tune "Jumpstart" (they are jumpstarting their glasses business). Take a couple minutes to view this entertaining video. Notes Darren Hutchinson, their PR Specialist, "the video really demonstrates our core values and culture -- those belonging to Generation Y really love this type of social event which we hope will help to retain and attract more. We did this on the Friday of a long weekend and hosted a BBQ for staff and invited all of their family members to join in the fun. It was an amazing success."

Change the View Initiative -- along the same lines as Tom's Shoes, the video highlights Coastal's "Change the View" program where for every pair of glasses that are purchased, they are donating a pair to someone in need. Their latest trip was to Panama.

Sam Needs Your Vote -- Sam Goodner, CEO of Catapult Systems, has contributed so many best practices I've been able to share with you, let's return the favor and put him over the top in his competition for Austin's Fittest Entrepreneur competition. Take 15 seconds to click this link and vote. Why did he do it? Notes Sam "No, I'm not running for political office...it's worse, my wonderful marketing team signed me up (publicity for the company)." Anyway, Sam made the final six (three men and three women entrepreneurs - see their videos). Go to http://fittestentrepreneurs.org/vote-now, fill in your name and email address, and cast your vote. If you feel like having your spouse, kid, or pet vote as well, that's probably fine too, as long as they have a valid email address. Voting closes on June 20th at midnight. Concludes Sam, "I know that I will be getting flack for that video for years to come!"

Affidavit Update; Escaping the Herd; Raising Entrepreneurial Children; Last Workshop

"...out-learning the competition"

HEADLINES:

Escaping the Competitive Herd -- this is the subtitle of Harvard Professor Youngme Moon's breakthrough strategy book entitled Different. She's the opening keynote for our upcoming 2011 Fortune Growth Summit October 25 - 26, Phoenix, AZ. Most companies talk about being different, but very few achieve meaningful difference. Instead, through product and service augmentations, any idea of difference is quickly erased.

Three Brand Strategies -- Professor Moon outlines three particular brand strategies: the "reverse-positioned brand"; the breakaway brand; and the hostile brand - some fresh new language and approaches to anything I've seen before. To save time, skip right to Part 2 and read the opening story - you'll be hooked. NOTE for book club members - we're sending you the book today.

Raising Children to be Entrepreneurs -- this was the title of Cameron Herold's talk at TEDx and it was so well received that it was featured on the main TED.com site. An entrepreneur since childhood, Cameron Herold wants parents and teachers to recognize - and foster - entrepreneurial talent in kids. He was COO of 1-800-Got Junk for nearly seven years growing the company from $2M to $105M with no debt or outside investors. He's been added as a resource to the Maverick 4th July Family Event July 1 - 5, Park City, UT. And the hosts have reduced the price significantly by taking out the "all-inclusive" aspect. The other main resource is my favorite family guru, Richard Eyre - his ideas have helped my wife and me significantly with raising our children.

Harvard Law School's Chief Admissions Officer Uses Who -- notes Josh Rubenstein in an email to Geoff Smart, author of the #1 employee selection book Who: the A Method for Hiring, "I've found the book incredibly helpful both in refining our internal hiring methods and in stimulating ideas for improving our admissions process. In fact, our most successful recruiting innovation from this year - sending copies of recent faculty books, signed with personalized notes, to each admitted student - was inspired in part by your 'Sell' chapter." Just a friendly reminder if you're back in the recruiting and hiring mode to review Geoff's book.

Ghost Writer Available -- BTW, one of my favorite ghost writers for CEOs (yes, I still believe a book is the best marketing and recruiting tool you can create) is finished with his latest gig and is available - email him at [email protected]. And we now have someone on the Gazelles' team, Missy Giltner, who can help you self - publish for a nominal fee. She can connect you to the printers, cover designers, and book distributors you need to keep control of the process . NOTE: Publishers won't lift a finger to sell a single copy for you - but they'll own your work and make you pay a bunch of money for your own book.

Last Rockefeller Habits Workshop -- hosted June 23, Seattle. We'll publish our fall schedule in a few weeks.

One-Page Strategic Plan Affidavit Update -- please keep those affidavit's coming! Your response has been so greatly appreciated. And we can use them from people all over the world, not just the U.S. As for a deadline, we would like to get them in by June 30. For those in Australia, you can send them to: The Growth Faculty, PO Box 1424, Manly, NSW 1655.

Bury These People -- I Need Your Help

"...keeping it free - the One-Page Strategic Plan"

HEADLINES: 

NEED YOUR HELP - please print the affidavit at this link and get every employee you can to sign - then please mail to our Ashburn offices: Gazelles, 44031 Pipeline Plaza Suite 200, Ashburn, VA 20147

BACKGROUND: - the One-Page Strategic plan, which I introduced in the mid-90s at the MIT executive program I chaired and then wrote about in a major article in 1999 and published in my book in 2001, is under attack. I've always believed in an open-source model, providing this tool and other one-page tools to download for free from our website. Some less than honest people are trying to "own" what we've distributed for free and claim that no one else has ever used the term!

Trademark Dispute - in essence, a decade after I introduced the tool, some consultants decided to see if they could trademark the term "One-Page Strategic Plan." Like me, when I sought a trademark, they were told by the Patent and Trademark Office that the term was descriptive, so the trademark was denied. They tried again and were denied. And they tried again, this time claiming that they were the only ones to ever use the term and asking for a supplemental trademark. This means if no one says anything after five years, they'll get a trademark.

Stop Using Term - in the meantime, their lawyers sent us a letter stating that their clients owned the term and we had to stop using it - seems they want to own the term so they can control it, even though their use of it is limited and they don't even have a structured one-page document.

BURY THEM - so I need your help to bury them and keep the term and document open source!! Working with Andrew Sherman, the top IP lawyer in the world (who works for the 3rd largest law firm in the world, Jones Day - many of you know Andrew as the long-time lawyer for EO who helped me file the original incorporation papers when I launched YEO), we've come up with a plan to avoid a long and expensive legal battle by burying them with a boatload of signed affidavits. We're already collected almost 1000 from attendees at our various Summits the past few weeks. We need thousands more.

Please Sign Affidavit - so here's where I need your help. Would you be willing to print up a bunch of these one-page affidavits (here's the link); get as many of your employees to sign as you're willing to do; and then send them to us in Ashburn? Original signed paper documents are much more impactful to the Patent and Trademark Office than something we might do online. I know it means some work and expense, but I'm hoping the One-Page Strategic Plan, our other tools, and my insights (all provided for no charge) are a fair trade for this greatly needed help.

What Affidavit Says -- in essence, when you think about the term "One-Page Strategic Plan" you equate it to the work we're doing at Gazelles. I apologize for all the rest of the lawyer-speak, but we worked hard to keep it to one-page!!

THANK YOU - again, thank you for going to the time and expense to lend me a hand. "Freedom" is our Core Purpose at Gazelles (and mine personally) - and when I sense it's being threatened I'm ready to go on the offensive. I'll keep you posted on the results.

Y-Size Your Business; What Millennials Love; How Great Entrepreneurs Think

"...out-learning the competition"

HEADLINES: 

Y-Size Your Business -- subtitled How Gen Y Employees Can Save You Money and Grow Your Business, this book focuses on practical advice for attracting and working with the fastest growing segment in America's workforce - Generation Y or Millennials. Almost 80 million strong, they comprise the entire 18 - 32 demographic. Note's the inside flap of the book "Along with their ever-present cell phones and new definition of 'business casual' they bring tremendous potential to the workplace (just ask, they'll tell you). However, Generation Y's approach to employment can make them a challenge for managers and executives to attract, retain, motivate, and develop."

Millennials Love Videos -- Sam Goodner, founder and CEO of Austin-based Catapult Systems, Microsoft's leading Solution Provider (7 offices around the US), is the one that turned me on to this book after hearing the author, Jason Ryan Dorsey, speak at a local YPO event. "We've been implementing a number of his recommendations over the past six months at Catapult Systems," notes Goodner. "One of his points, for example, is that Gen-Yers love video. In fact, their number one source to find out how to do anything is YouTube. So we created a cool new recruiting video with Gen-Yers in mind (focusing on what matters most to them), and it's been working really well for us: " Take a few minutes to see what Catapult created.

Microsoft WPC -- FYI, for any of you attending Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in LA this summer, I'll be leading both a Sales Seminar and Marketing Seminar on Tuesday, 12th July. Hope to see many of you there.

Bringing Products to Market -- the book The Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steven Gary Blank, continues to gain momentum as the hip book in Silicon Valley. Clearly the book with the strangest cover, Blank pushes companies to involve customers early on in prototyping, alpha testing, and improving product/service offerings. A very tough book to read, Sebastian Ross, CEO of Barcelona-based Careesma, suggests The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development: A cheat sheet to The Four Steps to the Epiphany is the more digestible version of Blank's book. All of this aligns with last week's insight about the importance of being demand driven and focused this decade.

How Great Entrepreneurs' Think -- it seems the best entrepreneurs don't do much market research - they just start doing and then stay very close to the customer in garnering feedback (sounds like Blank's approach). Here's an excellent article I missed in Inc (because I'm a Fortune fan!) which summarizes the groundbreaking research by Saras Sarasvathy, a professor at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, who set out to determine how expert entrepreneurs think. Take 7 minutes and scan this article for more insights.

9th June Complimentary Webcast -- just a reminder about Thursday's Mid-Year Review webcast. Half the year is already over - will you be able to look back with no regrets? Learn the top 3 things you must do NOW to make sure you finish the year strong. Join Patrick Thean, author of Execute without Drama, for a complimentary webcast on Thursday, June 9th at 1:00 EST. He will provide you with a mid-year checklist, help you figure out the critical adjustments you need to make in the next 6 months and show you how to develop the right people plan to finish the year strong. Please note that this is a Private Webcast for companies with revenue at least $10 million annually. REGISTER NOW.

Malcolm Gladwell Seminar; Demand Wins; Peacetime CEO vs. Wartime CEO; Can You Scale

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES: 

Tom HAGEN Mike, why am I out?
MICHAEL CORLEONE You're not a wartime consigliere. Things may get tough with the move we're trying.
                                                  Scene from The Godfather

Malcolm Gladwell Seminar -- "Why People are Successful" is the title of our June online seminar featuring Malcolm Gladwell. Unarguably the most famous non-fiction writer of our time, his books Outliers; Tipping Point; and Blink have changed the language and thinking of leaders around the world. Our latest Gazelles Growth Institute online seminar focuses on Gladwell's discoveries about successful people as featured in Outliers. It's a program I've also shared with my older children. Anyway, I'm so excited to bring this guru to your desktop. NOTE: because of the deal we structured with Linkage, who is representing Gladwell, we can only offer the companywide license, but you'll want to share this seminar with ALL your employees and family members.

It' All About Demand, Not Supply -- over the past few weeks I've been warning my audiences that a key shift has occurred that is changing entire industries. From World War II until 2007, demand has outstripped supply - therefore, business has been about maximizing and streamlining the supply chain (better, faster, cheaper). However, the situation has reversed. Now supply is outstripping demand in many industries, given that the 1.4 billion people moving into the middle class must first produce before they can consume (it's a timing issue). The only exceptions are the basics - food, water, power, and low cost housing. Therefore, you MUST shift your focus to understanding and managing the DEMAND side of the business.

Google, Facebook, eBay, Amazon -- and mid-market firms like BuildDirect - what these companies do is understand and generate DEMAND. They don't make anything! They help an oversupply of vendors reach interested customers at the right moment. They have the databases, they have the customer relationships, and they have the data. And most importantly, they know where the most profitable niches are. So where do you get ideas for making the switch from a supply to demand focus? Keep reading.

How Companies Win -- this is the book that rocked my world the last few weeks. Subtitled Profiting from Demand-Driven Business Models No Matter What Business You're In Rick Kash and David Calhoun are a couple savvy guys that outline how a business makes the transition to a demand-focused organization. The key is slicing and dicing potential markets in ways that help you find the best "profit pools" - those specific types of customers within your niche that will make you the most money i.e. it's critical you give sales people specific lists of potential customers to pursue. Just skim the first four chapters - that's all you'll need (about a third of the book) - skip the rest. And I'm aiming to get one of the authors to a future Summit - hopefully next spring.

Peace Time CEO vs. War Time CEO -- the other reading that rocked my world (and made me question some of what we've been teaching) is this blog by Ben Horowitz, Marc Andreessen's co-founder in their venture firm. BTW, they purchased Skype for $2 billion, which everyone thought was stupid, until it was sold to Microsoft for $8.5 billion (another great Ben blog post). Anyway, Horowitz suggests that Google has moved from peace time to war time, which is why Eric Schmidt stepped aside as CEO to let Larry Page run the show. And Horowitz suggests that how you lead in war is much different than in peace. His list of differences makes you think i.e. the "Peacetime CEO always has a contingency plan. Wartime CEO knows that sometimes you gotta roll a hard six!!" Take 2 minutes to look over the list. Thanks to Dilendra Wimalasekere, with game-changing 24/7 Techies which provides unlimited tech support for a nominal fee each year, for recommending this blog. Horowitz is one of the key bloggers I'm now following - another really smart business leader.

How to Know if Your Business Can Scale -- and take 3 more minutes to scan this excellent Fortune feature by Alex Taussig, a Principal with Highland Capital Partners. He suggests the question "how scalable is your business" is misunderstood and so he provides a concrete definition, illustrated through some simple graphs. In essence, will the business ever reach a point where gross margins improve with increased revenues?