The Agile Scaleup

Coach vs. Manager; Summer Family Events; Kayak Atlantic to Pacific; Portland and Madison

"...out-learning the competition" HEADLINES:   I just attended Kevin Lawrence's one day Rockefeller Habits seminar. I'm blown away by the content I received in this one day. Kevin's enthusiasm and willingness to ensure you "get it" takes his approach and teaching to a whole new level. Looking forward to taking my business to a whole new level   Farouq Manji, CMO SleepShop Making Summer Plans? -- two family opportunities highlighted below, but first... Two Rockefeller Habits Workshops Left -- Portland, May 31; Madison, June 27 (half-day). Fall schedule out soon. Coach vs. Manager -- after Brian Souza's presentation at the Fortune Leadership Summit, we need to get rid of the term "manager" and replace it with the word "coach" - precisely because that is the primary role of a manager. Brian brought advance copies of his book The Weekly Coaching Conversation (it's excellent!) to the Summit and though they won't be available to the general public until 17th July he's happy to make Advance Readers Copies (ARCs) available to Gazelles readers -- $14.95/copy plus S&H. Email Brian directly [email protected] Best Marketing Tool Ever -- notes George Contos, World Wide Metric Inc., "The Fortune 500+ App may be one of the very best tools for marketing I have ever come across. Forget marketing email lists, most suck! I think LinkedIn is a great tool, but what Fortune has done is added steroids. My only concern is for all those listed there...they are going to get bombarded. I have spent over an hour just linking to so many contacts already. Can't thank you enough for that one." I couldn't agree more - and for $9.99 it's practically free. Teaching Your Children Entrepreneurship -- how to create real-world entrepreneurial activities for your children while enjoying a fun family vacation? My friend Yanik Silver, Maverick Business Adventures, is hosting a special, intimate event for successful entrepreneurs and their families - it's his 2nd annual Maverick Family Freedom Event going on July 1-5, 2012 in Park City, UT. If you have children (or grandchildren, nieces, nephews, etc) ages 6-18 this is a great way to let them get a taste for business and actually hit the streets during the 4th of July Parade selling what they create. Parenting Guru Richard Eyre -- And while the kids are learning about entrepreneurship the parents are taking part in discussions and workshops on raising more independent and less entitled children. This part is led by one of the top value-based parenting experts in the world, Richard Eyre. You may remember me recommending Richard's books and materials over the years. In fact, Julie and I are using his values book with our four children and teaching one value per month. Get more details and apply here (Make sure you indicate you're a Gazelles insight reader on the application.) 2nd Family Adventure -- several of you participated in (and loved!) the Mother Nature, CEO "seminar adventure" in the jungles of Panama. Now the hosts of that event, led by Earth Train, the international youth leadership organization, have something for the entire family. Called the Junglewood Design Co-opetition, the program starts this summer with 8-day sessions that begin at its 10,000-acre ecological preserve in Panama where you'll be hands on building tree houses; testing extreme light weight inflatable boats; and advising on the design of a rural center to go with the Frank Gehry-designed Biomuseo currently under construction at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal. Kayak from Pacific to Atlantic! -- The sessions conclude with a three-day hike and kayak trip from the preserve on the Pacific side of the continental divide to the Atlantic coast of the indigenous Kuna (only possible in Panama - one for your bucket list!). I'll be attending one of the sessions in a team with my two teenage sons, Cameron and Cole. The program description begins on the front page of www.earthtrain.org. Check out the videos in the Adventure section. Full Program: Centro Mamoni, Kuna Yala and Panama City. Includes all ground transportation, guides, food and accommodations. $2,900 per person. Children 10 years and below: $900 per person (partially tax deductible - see below). Important Details -- Participants in the trans-Kuna Yala hike and kayak expedition have to be 18 or older and in good physical condition. Ground transportation to our destination in Kuna Yala is available for those not doing the hike and kayak trip. In recognition of the contribution all adult participants will be making as voluntary advisors to Earth Train, a US federally tax-exempt public charity, your payment will be acknowledged as a contribution to Earth Train. For individuals paying US taxes, your gift will be tax deductible to the degree allowable by law.

Jim Collins' Top 10 List; A Company's Ideal; Facebook IPO; Embarrassed

"...keeping you great" HEADLINES:   Another spectacular event (Fortune Leadership Summit) - thank you for consistently putting together such a world-class panel of experts to stimulate my thinking!   Bruce Powell, Managing Partner IQ PARTNERS Inc. Jim Collins' Top 10 List -- Jim led a highly insightful 3 hour opening session at last week's Fortune Leadership Summit in Atlanta (and beamed to 9 locations around the globe). He capped it off with a top 10 list for growth firms: Change "what" questions to "who" questions Double your question to statement ratio Embrace the "Stockdale Paradox" - keep getting up when knocked down Discover your personal "hedgehog" - what are you both passionate about and best at Be clear your Core Values, Purpose, and BHAG Establish a 20 Mile March Create a "Stop Doing" list Turn-off electronic gadgets one day every two weeks Focus on getting a huge return on your next "luck event." Strive to be useful (would the world miss you if you/your company was gone?) A Company's Ideal -- Jim Stengel, named four times the #1 Power Player in marketing and the former Global Marketing Officer of P&G, outlined the most important marketing decision a company must make - what he calls their "ideal" - and how you convert this into a handful of measurements that allow you to track progress. Take 3 minutes and watch my interview of Jim where we explore two examples - go to www.gazelles.com and click on the "Grow Author Jim Stengel" link. BTW, Jim doubled P&G's revenues during his 7 year tenure as GMO using these ideas, including taking Pampers from $3 billion to over $10 billion and increasing profit 5 fold! He now helps mere mortals like us do the same. Best Olympic Commercial -- Jim's legacy continues at P&G. Here's the video we showed just prior to his keynote - how a powerful ideal, themed around the upcoming Olympic games in a few weeks, continues to drive P&G brands. Take 2 minutes (and a tissue) and watch. Create Your Own X-Prize -- the second standing ovation of the day was for X-Prize founder and author of Abundance, Dr. Peter Diamandis. Best known for creating the $10 million Ansari X Prize which unleashed the private space race (I'm literally watching Elon Musk's SpaceX Dragon hook up to the International Space Station as I write this), Peter outlined how various smaller prizes have solved a myriad of problems and why all of us can do something similar. The beauty of a prize is you only have to reward the winner and not the other 349 teams that compete. And typically over 10 times the amount of the prize is spent winning the prize (maybe governments should pay heed to this approach before they waste our money betting on a myriad of companies!). Take 2 minutes and watch my interview with Peter as he describes one such prize, unknown to many, that unleashed 350 competing teams with one of the top teams coming from a meet up in a tattoo parlor! Go to www.gazelles.com and click on the Dr. Peter Diamandis video link. Facebook IPO -- kudos to Mark Zuckerberg and his team for not leaving a bunch of money on the table at IPO time - seems they priced it about right, which is why the rest of Wall Street is up in arms - they weren't able to steal billions from the company. In turn, the NASDAQ/Morgan Stanley debacle is another thing - and as is always the case, the small investor gets the short end of the deal. For an interesting look at where Zuckerberg gets his strategies, take a look at this May 18 NY Times blog. Hint, they claim he practices with video games! Kudos to Eduardo Saverin -- as if already paying hundreds of millions in taxes to the US Government isn't his "fair share," certain government officials continue to beat-up the most successful in our society. Brazilian-born Saverin has renounced his US citizenship after moving to Singapore in 2011 and now a bill has been proposed to bar him and other wealthy Americans from ever visiting the US if they renounce their citizenship - please know how embarrassed I am for such childish behavior on the part of some of our government leaders in the U.S. BTW, massive amounts of capital are flowing to places like Singapore and exiting places like France with a proposed top tax rate of 75%.

100th Coach; Most Profitable; Fortune 500+ App; Africa

"...keeping you great" HEADLINES:   It took some floundering to navigate the path of attempting to apply the Habits by ourselves but we then signed up for a Rockefeller Habits workshop and started working with your coach Ron Huntington. The results have been completely as expected - phenomenal. As a result of our success, I now actually have the time to work on my business (and myself). Thanks to Gazelles for being a huge part of our success at P2P!   Dan Rogers, President/CEO Point to Point Transportation Services, Inc. Gazelles International Signs 100th Global Coach -- and the 100th coach is from Africa (with our first coach in China certifying next week), more below but first... Exxon Back on Top -- the Fortune 500 was announced on Monday and Exxon Mobile is back #1 with revenues of $452.9 billion (and stock up over 20%). Rounding out the top 10: Wal-Mart ($447B), Chevron ($246B), ConocoPhillips ($237B), GM ($150B), GE ($148B), Berkshire Hathaway ($144B), Fannie Mae ($137B), Ford ($136B), and HP ($127B) - fun facts. Fortune 500+ App -- if you do business with any of the Fortune 1000 firms get the Fortune 500+ app (free access with your subscription to the magazine - you should be reading it!). Find and research the 1,000 biggest companies in America. Use LinkedIn to see who you know at each company-and who your contacts know. Build and share lists for sales calls, trips or meetings. Get instantly updated news and financials on every company. Map all 1,000 companies or just the ones you want to meet with. Here's a link to try the app until June 15 just enter the code FREE500ACCESS. The offer is only available in the U.S. but it's only $9.99 anyway. Exxon's GM Global Procurement -- Coolest feature of Fortune 500+ app -- with one click you link with LinkedIn and it shows you how many connections you already have with people inside each of the Fortune 1000 companies i.e. I have 126 connections with people inside Exxon, including a 2nd level connection with the General Manager, Global Procurement - who would have known? Top 10 Profits -- Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity. Here's the Top 10 in profit: Exxon (41.1B), Chevron (26.9B), Apple (25.9B), Microsoft (23.2B), Ford (20.2B), JP Morgan (19B), AIG (17.8B), Wells Fargo (15.9B), IBM (15.9B), and Wal-Mart (15.7B). Entrepreneurs Should Be Watching Africa -- this is the title of an article posted on Fortune.com yesterday. Notes contributor Tony Elumelu "Africa's workforce will soon be the largest in the world. According to McKinsey & Company, by 2040, Africa will be home to one in five of the planet's young people and a working population of 1.1 billion people." Demographics can never be ignored! Take 2 minutes to scan through his article and then find one of your existing clients (Fortune 1000 firm?) which is already doing business in Africa and see how you can be of help! Marketing Video -- BTW, my bad for pointing you to Amazon for Kevin's short 100 second video promoting his latest book Video Marketing for Dummies. Several iPad users noted that it was in flash, so they couldn't watch it (Amazon only supports flash), so here is the best location - YouTube -- which is where Kevin recommends ALL promotional videos should sit (again, Google owns YouTube, so helps with SEO). Here's a link to his video, with some additional footage he had to cut out for the Amazon video. And BTW, get his book! 100th Coach -- ...and he is Graham Mitchell, Johannesburg, South Africa. Plus Michelle LaVallee, founder of Shanghi-based Management Success China, is getting certified in the Rockefeller Habits next week - our first certified coach in China, though she both worked with a firm that implemented the Rockefeller Habits and has been coaching firms for years. Congrats.

Video Marketing for Dummies; Quick Idea; Pixability

"...out-learning the competition" HEADLINES: (quickie) You Are What You Publish -- David Meerman Scott has pounded this idea into our marketing heads - and he's right. And videos, since YouTube is owned by Google, are a more powerful way (7x) to move up the search engine rankings. We all need more videos - but ones that work! Video Marketing for Dummies -- Kevin Daum and his co-authors released their new book today on Amazon entitled Video Marketing for Dummies. Also author of bestselling marketing book ROAR: Get Heard in the Sales and Marketing Jungle, Kevin and his team have simplified and codified the process for creating marketing videos that work. Take 100 seconds and watch their promotional video for the book (scroll down the Amazon page) - and see what you DON'T have to do! Bettina Hein, Pixability -- Bettina, one of the other co-authors, has been producing corporate videos for years via her firm, Pixability. She understands how to create videos fast and inexpensively. Give to a Young Person -- IDEA: give a copy of the book to one of the teenagers of an employee who has an interest in video - and have them take the lead in producing some videos for you - just get started. Young people take to this naturally - and with some guidance, they'll amaze you with their output - plus they understand all the editing and uploading techniques. Kevin Daum Keynoting Fortune Leadership Summit -- and for those attending the Summit next week, you'll learn from Kevin directly. And Bettina will be there with her own crew filming the Summit - and showing how her team is able to turnaround a video of an event in 24 hours. She'll shoot footage Tuesday and we'll show her finished product Wednesday.

Biggest Leadership Challenges; Leadership Mash-up; Five Gurus, Pat Lencioni Online

"...keeping you great" HEADLINES: Challenge of Promoting from Within -- Scott Weiss's insightful blog post last week hits right at one of the toughest challenges in leading a growing firm - do you promote from within or bring in outside talent. He notes, "The key to all of it (promoting from within) is making sure that there's a sponsoring executive that is willing to spend a boatload of time coaching the budding leader." He then outlines four suggestions - please take four minutes to scan through his post where he has the four suggestions bulleted. Great Leadership Training -- one of Weiss' suggestions: "It helps to have some great leadership training. In my experience, most leadership training courses suck. You get two hours of useful information spread out over two weeks of mind-numbing presentations. We put together a rapid fire, two-day course and had our leadership team teach it. Interviewing, performance reviews, 1:1s, career planning, holding staff meetings, etc. We all got together and boiled down the best practices for all the important areas into short, punchy presentations/role plays. Every new manager went through it to give them some tools that were culturally consistent with what we were doing." Gazelles is following up and structuring a practical leadership course in addition to the Rockefeller Habits. To this point: Leadership Mash-up: Five Gurus -- in another "it takes a village of thought leaders" series, here's the latest Growth Guy syndicated column (May) featuring my mash-up for Leadership - a quick summary of the five gurus whose combined ideas will get you 90% of all the leadership tools you need. Master these techniques and you're ahead of 99% of the rest of the leaders. Take five minutes and scan through the column. The Five Gurus/Topics -- Everything in business begins and ends with leadership. And because it's a complex topic, no one expert (no matter what they say) has a complete formula for what makes a better leader - and it's no time for amateur hour when it comes to leadership or any topic. Here are the five: Pat Lencioni - his Five Dysfunctions of a Team framework is vital to maintaining a healthy leadership team. His latest book The Advantage fills in the gaps. Jim Kouzes & Barry Posner - their Leadership Challenge framework is celebrating its 25th anniversary. No one has come close to a better overall model for leadership action. Brad & Geoff Smart - recruiting and hiring the right talent IS the most important skill a leader must possess. Their Topgrading methods deliver a 90% success rate. Victoria Medvec - the second most important skill is negotiations. Her High Stakes Negotiation methodology gets the outcomes you want while building key relationships. Marshall Goldsmith - in the end, it's about getting out of our own way and knowing thyself. In turn, "self-help" is impossible. His peer coaching process is the very best way to improve as a leader - to Weiss's point about a sponsoring executive. Pat Lencioni Online -- based on his latest book, we produced a one-hour online seminar with Pat Lencioni, released yesterday. Like a book-of-the-month club, commit your leadership team (and mid-managers) to viewing one online seminar each month and use it as a platform to discuss and support each other in leadership development.

Tony Hsieh's Best Advice; Five Keys to Landing Big Clients; Hangover Heaven

"...out-learning the competition" HEADLINES: (another short insight - holiday in Spain*)   I spoke to a group of CEOs and told them they needed to attend a Rockefeller Habits workshop and if they did not love it I would pay for their attendance!   Dwight Cooper, co-founder, PPR Healthcare Staffing, G200 member Landing the Big Fish -- my latest FORTUNE "Venture" column is on the newsstands and online. Take five minutes and check out five ways to land (and keep) business with the FORTUNE 500. Thanks to Jimmy Spradley, CEO of Standard Functional Food Groups; Edward Sullivan, founder of Aria Systems; George Gendron, Board Member of Competitive Inner City; Ryan O'Hara, Dyn (check out their video in the article); and David Rich, CEO of ICC/Decision Services (who is moving his family to Barcelona for a year!) for sharing their best practices. -- speaking of big fish, BofA has signed on as the FORTUNE Premier Sponsor for our upcoming Leadership Summit in Atlanta with Jim Collins. With a record audience of 675 CEOs and executives of leading growth firms, it will be an energizing event - "more practical ideas per hour than any other executive educational event." See you May 15 - 16. Tony Hsieh's (Zappos) Best Advice Ever -- take 30 seconds and read about the best advice Tony ever received - hint, build relationships for relationship sake. And under Tony's accomplishments: in March, Zappos set the Guinness world record for Most Simultaneous High Fives! I love this short feature in FORTUNE. Hangover Help -- OK, if you won't do it for your health, do it for your hangover. A doctor in Las Vegas has launched a mobile clinic called Hangover Heaven, administering IV vitamins (C, B, etc) to help people more rapidly recover from a rough night out. One of the key ingredients is glutathione, something I receive via IV every few months. It pumps in 10,000 times more electrons than Vit C and is critical for revitalizing the liver - the equivalent of the oil filter for your body. FYI, the 2013 Growth Summit is heading back to Las Vegas (2012 in Phoenix). I'll look into having the clinic pull up to our JW Marriott for medicinal purposes! Thanks to Adrian Low in NZ for pointing me to this new service. 3rd May -- Des Moines, Milwaukee, Philadelphia Rockefeller Habits workshops -- with Austin May 9 - more cities listed below. Over 40,000 executives have benefited. 15th May -- Jim Collins beamed to Qatar, Dubai, Mumbai, Munich, Amsterdam, Barcelona, London, Cambridge, and Mexico City for local "Growth Summits". *It's always a holiday in Spain!