The Agile Scaleup

#1 Challenge; China Outsourcing; 5 Ways to Attract Talent; Austin Oct 30

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

"China Outsourcing to Africa" -- this was one of my favorite unconventional insights shared at the Fortune Growth Summit this week - more below, but first...

Short Videos -- while going through emails, tune into these short interviews with each of the Fortune Growth Summit's seven keynotes and pick-up some quick pointers for growing your business and living your life.

"People" #1 Challenge -- surveying audiences around the globe, including the 500 CEOs and executives attending this week's Fortune Growth Summit, "people" challenges are by far the #1 decision in 2012 needing focus vs. strategy, execution, and cash. This is a change from 2011 when the #1 focus was on strategy, especially with firms in the developed world. This is why my latest Fortune column is focused on attracting great talent.

5 Ways to Find Extraordinary Employees -- this is the title of my Venture column in the Oct 29 edition of Fortune magazine. Please take 3 minutes to see if any of these unconventional ideas for recruiting talent, including placing notes on the cars of employees parked in "employee of the month" parking spots at other companies, might work for you. Thanks to Mark Lancaster, Steve Hall, Jennifer Walzer, and Brad Smart for sharing their ideas.

Fortune Growth Summit Highlights -- and it was an extraordinary two days in Phoenix with 7 of the top biz thought leaders in the world. What we learned:

Rick Kash, co-author of How Companies Win, which I named the top biz book of 2011, detailed why every leader must make a 180 degree pivot from focusing on the supply-side of the business to focusing on the demand-side, identifying the richest "profit pools" and then designing specific products and services to go after these more desirable customers (including definitive lists of customers to pursue by the sales team). One hint - spend more time thinking through pricing strategies (demand focused) than cost structures (supply side). Jim Kouzes, co-author of The Leadership Challenge, named one of the top 20 biz authors of all time, shared his framework of five leadership practices. Using their Leadership Profile Index, we identified five specific behavior changes we will each make to raise our game as leaders - sharing with us research that "who" we are (educational background, age, experience, etc) had zero correlation to being a great leader vs. "behaviors" which had a high correlation. The great news is these can be learned and coached. Anne Morriss, co-author of Uncommon Service, my #1 biz book of 2012, detailed how product companies understand the importance of tradeoffs (MacBook Airs sacrifice battery life and lack ports) yet when it comes to services, we try and give the customer everything they want. The best companies are a "5" (scale of 1 to 5) in only two or three aspects of service and then absolutely stink in all the other areas, scoring 1's across the board. In turn, good companies end up scoring 3's on all aspects of service as they strive to make everyone happy and thus fail to really make anyone happy. Chip Conley, CEO of the famous $250 million JVD chain of boutique hotels and author of Emotional Equations, shared his roller coaster journey of building a company and how, when he contemplated ending it all, that he discovered several powerful equations to steady his nerves including Despair = Suffering - Meaning. I also found it fascinating how he designed each of his hotels around a specific magazine - and thus attracting a very focused "profit pool" of customers - a demand-side focused strategy. Vijay Govindarajan, author of Reverse Innovation, who's recognized for naming the last "big concept" of the last 100 years in the upcoming issue of Harvard Business Review, made a case for innovating products/services for the poor which can be sold to the rich. From a $30 prosthetic limb designed in Thailand which competes with $20,000 limbs in the US; to $2000 India-based heart surgeries which are coming to the Cayman Islands to compete with the $50,000 price tags in the west; these products and services are of equal or better quality for a magnitude or less in price. We had all better wake up and pay attention to this global trend and participate vs. end up road kill. Ron McMillan, co-author of Crucial Conversations, whose team of authors are also considered the top 20 of all biz authors in history, detailed how we can avoid the "silence or violence" approach that can rear its ugly head when we find ourselves in high stakes, highly emotional conversations where opposing views are clashing - and how to stay focused on getting the problem resolved while strengthening relationships. Ron's detailed techniques on how to maintain safety in the conversation if it starts to go bad (back away from content and refocus on intent, for instance) are useful at work and home. Rich Moran, venture capitalist and CEO of Accretive Solutions, a 900 plus employee firm, as well as author of six books including Sins and CEOs, provided a humorous look at some of the 10 simple sins all of us as leaders often commit - like fibbing and being a "donkey!" He also pushed us to get control of our calendar and quick wasting our time on things that don't really matter - always a great reminder.

Orlando May 9 - 10, Leadership Summit -- Jack Welch calculated the return on executive development as "infinite." Mark your calendars for the next two-day Leadership Summit presented by Fortune, May 9 - 10 (Thursday-Friday this time) in Orlando - and stay the weekend with family. If you're 15 minutes more productive each day, between now and next May, you will have the two-days to invest in attending the Summit with your team. Out-learn the competition.

Rockefeller Habits Austin Oct 30 -- the last RH workshop in October is next week in Austin, TX.

Top 40; Most Unnatural; Nasty Sandwich; Tough Decision

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Top 40 under 40 -- Fortune's latest list is out and topping the pack is Larry Page, co-founder and CEO of Google, leapfrogging Mark Zuckerberg and taking the #1 slot for the first time. Reasons: Google owns over 95% of mobile ad revenues (wow); Android powers half of all smart phones sold in the US; and the stock is at an all-time high. Read what else he's accomplished in his first full year as CEO - impressive - and glance at the rest of the list. Seems Eric Schmidt has coached Page well.

Speaking of New CEOs -- once again, Ben Horowitz's blog, entitled "Making Yourself a CEO", is a must read for ALL leaders. First, learn what the most unnatural move a boxer must make - great cocktail trivia. And then glance into what Ben considers the most unnatural move CEOs must make - giving feedback - and lots of it.

Better than a Sh#t Sandwich -- Horowitz first explains what doesn't really work - the proverbial sh#t sandwich approach. He then outlines six keys to giving effective feedback (read his blog to get the details):

• Be Authentic
• Come From the Right Place
• Don't Get Personal
• Don't Clown People in Front of Their Peers
• Feedback is not One Size Fits All
• Be Direct but not Mean

And I can attest that none of this comes natural, at least to me (sorry team)!!

Give Lots of Feedback -- OK, I mentioned this already, but note's Horowitz, in what is likely his most debatable point, "As CEO, you should have an opinion on absolutely everything. You should have an opinion on every forecast, every product plan, every presentation and even every comment. Let people know what you think." Again, it's worth two minutes to read his blog and see his rationale. Liz Wiseman (Multiplier fame), if you're reading this, please weigh in.

Tough Decision -- firing an employee is always a tough call; firing a customer can be even tougher. Notes Vernon Menard, COO of Choice Translating, "On Monday this week Michelle (CEO) and I terminated a contract with a large healthcare network after providing services to them for over 15 years. After years of roller-coaster rides with them, we made the decision based on our realization that the client just did not share any of our core values or our culture of respect for clients and suppliers."

Tough Call Results -- continues Menard, "This misalignment manifested in many ways, but in the end Michelle and I realized we were unwise to continue investing in a client we could not trust as far as we could throw a piano. We will forego plenty of revenue but not much profit, after we count all hassles involved. Our team was energized by the decision and is focusing now on profile clients and prospects whose values and culture align with ours." Again, many things leaders must do come unnaturally, to Horowitz's point, and must be learned over time.

The Right #2 -- in response to my mentioning the importance of CEOs hiring the right #2, NK Tong, CEO of Malaysia-based Bukit Kiara Properties (BKP), replied "In 2005 you challenged me that I needed a no. 2 so that I could carry on with the 'visioning' as an entrepreneur. I still remember the 4 options you outlined (in order): 1) promote from within, 2) hire someone I had known for a long time, a friend, an ex-employee, etc., 3) get in a change consultant for 6 months, and if he did well, bring him in, and 4) least preferred, use a head hunter."

#2 Hiring Results -- shared NK, "Coincidentally, I did hire a COO in 2005 using step 1), from within, and 5 years later, when he retired, used step 2) in 2010, and hired a former employee from 13 years before (known him 17 years by then). Both transitions worked out perfectly!" Love when suggestions turn out good!"

Correct Links for Thursday Webinars - Planning and Topgrading

"...out-learning the competition"

HEADLINES:

Successful Turnaround -- last November an insight reader emailed me to see if I had any recommendations on books/seminars that would help him turnaround a medical equipment business he just purchased... the key resource I recommended (and his results) are below, but first:

Thursday Webinar - Good vs. Great Planning -- As you prepare for annual planning - join Patrick Thean, CEO of Gazelles Systems, for his webcast "Is Your Annual Plan Helping You Double Your Business?"A good annual plan identifies the 3-5 things to focus on for the year; a great annual plan helps you focus on the year AND drive your long term strategy. October 18th @ 1:00pm ET - no cost.

#1 Challenge - Hiring Great People -- as I'm traveling the globe and surveying my audiences, the focus in 2012 has dramatically shifted to hiring the right talent (2011 was Strategy). In turn, the surest way to drive down morale is to hire B or C players who demotivate the A players - so the cost of making a hiring mistake is costly in time, money, and team energy/enthusiasm. The only hiring method measured to deliver a 90% success rate is Topgrading.

Topgrading Webinar Thursday -- following Patrick's webinar, dial into a thorough review of the new 12 step Topgrading Process -- 2pm - 3pm ET Thursday, October 18. The Topgrading hiring process has been updated, resulting in 12 practical and easy to implement steps. And research confirms a greater than 90% success rate if you follow these steps.

Peter Drucker Exclaims -- The toughest decisions in organizations are people decisions - hiring, firing, promotion, etc. These are the decisions that receive the least attention and are the hardest to unmake. As such, hiring is one of the top 2 skills all leaders must master. And Topgrading is used by firms like GE to also determine who is promoted.

Keith Wright, CEO Sensatronics -- a recent graduate of the Topgrading Executive Class notes:  

"This Topgrading class has significantly changed the way I approaching hiring. I now follow a proven process that allows me to "dig deep" and get specific with the people whom I'm about to bring into my organization. I no longer just look at resumes and ask a few questions and rely on gut-instinct hiring. This same process has helped me to slow down and gain terrific insight into what separates the "A Players" from the rest of the crowd... and has most certainly helped prevent me from making an expensive and time consuming bad hire."

Bob Bloom Online -- Gazelles Growth Institutes' latest one hour online seminar is now available - Bob Bloom's "Inside Advantage: The Strategy That Unlocks the Hidden Growth In Your Business." The retired CEO of Publicis, the third largest ad agency in the world, Bob wrote my favorite "how to" strategy book that supports strata 2 of our "7 Strata of Strategy" framework - how do you define succinctly your best customer ("who") and then describe as succinctly your product/service ("what") - then how do you frame the messaging to maximize attention. As always, full money back guarantee if you didn't benefit from the online course.

Southwest Airlines -- recognized by Harvard strategist Michael Porter (featured in his famous "What is Strategy" HBR article) and by Jim Collins as one of the best companies in the world, Southwest Airlines was birthed in Bob Bloom's offices in Dallas. And Bob helped shape Southwest's messaging for a decade. Bob understands branding and messaging, something he's shaped for hundreds of the top brands in the world, and delivers his concrete ideas in his one hour online presentation. Watch it at your next weekly marketing meeting.$99 single license (unlimited individual access); $495 company license (unlimited access for all employees).

Turnaround Success -- ...here's the response I emailed him last November 18 "I would watch the Greg Brenneman one-hour online seminar - he's the top turnaround guy in the US - turned around Continental, Burger King, Quiznos, and 50 other firms - and it includes his one-page turnaround plans for Burger King and Quiznos. I would also read the Continental Airlines HRB article about the turnaround...and if it isn't helpful, happy to give your money back!"

His Response -- "Verne, hope all is well. Loved the Brenneman seminar and article. I have turned the business around in 8 months to become profitable from near bankruptcy...I don't want to spike the ball before the end zone so once I hit the end zone we can maybe go into more detail as to exactly what I implemented from the seminar." In the meantime, he asked me to keep his identity anonymous, but he wanted others to know how useful this simple one-hour seminar was to his turnaround.

For "A" Players -- Fortune Growth Summit Next Week -- I look forward to meeting all of you attending this "mini-Think Week" featuring 7 of the most important biz books ever written taught by the authors themselves. As Brad Smart of Topgrading fame discovered, what separates A player execs from B and C was simply reading on average 24 books per year - 12 of which were biz books; the rest for fun. "Keep on growing."

Successful Turnaround; Good vs Great Planning; Topgrading Webinar; Bob Bloom Online

"...out-learning the competition"

HEADLINES:

Successful Turnaround -- last November an insight reader emailed me to see if I had any recommendations on books/seminars that would help him turnaround a medical equipment business he just purchased... the key resource I recommended (and his results) are below, but first:

Thursday Webinar - Good vs. Great Planning -- As you prepare for annual planning - join Patrick Thean, CEO of Gazelles Systems, for his webcast "Is Your Annual Plan Helping You Double Your Business?"A good annual plan identifies the 3-5 things to focus on for the year; a great annual plan helps you focus on the year AND drive your long term strategy. October 18th @ 1:00pm ET - no cost.

#1 Challenge - Hiring Great People -- as I'm traveling the globe and surveying my audiences, the focus in 2012 has dramatically shifted to hiring the right talent (2011 was Strategy). In turn, the surest way to drive down morale is to hire B or C players who demotivate the A players - so the cost of making a hiring mistake is costly in time, money, and team energy/enthusiasm. The only hiring method measured to deliver a 90% success rate is Topgrading.

Topgrading Webinar Thursday -- following Patrick's webinar, dial into a thorough review of the new 12 step Topgrading Process - 2pm - 3pm ET Thursday, October 18. The Topgrading hiring process has been updated, resulting in 12 practical and easy to implement steps. And research confirms a greater than 90% success rate if you follow these steps.

Peter Drucker Exclaims -- The toughest decisions in organizations are people decisions - hiring, firing, promotion, etc. These are the decisions that receive the least attention and are the hardest to unmake. As such, hiring is one of the top 2 skills all leaders must master. And Topgrading is used by firms like GE to also determine who is promoted.

Keith Wright, CEO Sensatronics -- a recent graduate of the Topgrading Executive Class notes:  

"This Topgrading class has significantly changed the way I approaching hiring. I now follow a proven process that allows me to "dig deep" and get specific with the people whom I'm about to bring into my organization. I no longer just look at resumes and ask a few questions and rely on gut-instinct hiring. This same process has helped me to slow down and gain terrific insight into what separates the "A Players" from the rest of the crowd... and has most certainly helped prevent me from making an expensive and time consuming bad hire."

Bob Bloom Online -- Gazelles Growth Institutes' latest one hour online seminar is now available - Bob Bloom's "Inside Advantage: The Strategy That Unlocks the Hidden Growth In Your Business." The retired CEO of Publicis, the third largest ad agency in the world, Bob wrote my favorite "how to" strategy book that supports strata 2 of our "7 Strata of Strategy" framework - how do you define succinctly your best customer ("who") and then describe as succinctly your product/service ("what") - then how do you frame the messaging to maximize attention. As always, full money back guarantee if you didn't benefit from the online course.

Southwest Airlines -- recognized by Harvard strategist Michael Porter (featured in his famous "What is Strategy" HBR article) and by Jim Collins as one of the best companies in the world, Southwest Airlines was birthed in Bob Bloom's offices in Dallas. And Bob helped shape Southwest's messaging for a decade. Bob understands branding and messaging, something he's shaped for hundreds of the top brands in the world, and delivers his concrete ideas in his one hour online presentation. Watch it at your next weekly marketing meeting.$99 single license (unlimited individual access); $495 company license (unlimited access for all employees).

Turnaround Success -- ...here's the response I emailed him last November 18 "I would watch the Greg Brenneman one-hour online seminar - he's the top turnaround guy in the US - turned around Continental, Burger King, Quiznos, and 50 other firms - and it includes his one-page turnaround plans for Burger King and Quiznos. I would also read the Continental Airlines HRB article about the turnaround...and if it isn't helpful, happy to give your money back!"

His Response -- "Verne, hope all is well. Loved the Brenneman seminar and article. I have turned the business around in 8 months to become profitable from near bankruptcy...I don't want to spike the ball before the end zone so once I hit the end zone we can maybe go into more detail as to exactly what I implemented from the seminar." In the meantime, he asked me to keep his identity anonymous, but he wanted others to know how useful this simple one-hour seminar was to his turnaround.

For "A" Players -- Fortune Growth Summit Next Week -- I look forward to meeting all of you attending this "mini-Think Week" featuring 7 of the most important biz books ever written taught by the authors themselves. As Brad Smart of Topgrading fame discovered, what separates A player execs from B and C was simply reading on average 24 books per year - 12 of which were biz books; the rest for fun. "Keep on growing."

1 billion women; Jack Welch tweet; Core values poem; The Commitment Engine

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

How 1 Billion Women Will Impact Your Business -- referred to as the "third billion" the most significant trend impacting companies is the movement of 1 billion women into the global economy. Take five minutes to read this Fortune management article. One interesting data point from the article "already, half of the world's self-made female billionaires are in China, and a quarter of that country's entrepreneurs are female."

Coke's 52 Million Facebook Likes -- using what she calls a "flawsome" approach, Wendy Clark, Coke's Senior Vice President of Integrated Marketing Communications and Capabilities, explains that in social media "You have to be awesome with your flaws, the things that aren't exactly perfect. You want to be human, to speak like a human and act like a human." Take 3 minutes to read how she gets 15,000 tweets per day about Coke and other social media hints in this Fortune article.

Core Values Poem -- Michael Assad, co-founder and CEO of Toronto-based Agility, sent me a fun link to what is a first, at least for me -- a one minute video where Joel Varty, Director of R&D, shares Agility's core values via poetry! Gazelles International coaching partner Les Rubenovitch has been working with Michael and his team the past year and a half implementing the Rockefeller Habits, including the discovery of their core values.

The Commitment Engine -- this is the latest book by John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing fame released today. As I note in my endorsement of the book "As I read John's book I kept thinking of Steve Jobs' admonition that you must follow your heart first - and that if you're not passionate about what you're doing, you'll give up just when the going gets tough. John has extended this idea to the entire company and shows business leaders how to ignite this same kind of passion and commitment throughout an organization." Here's a link to all kinds of info on the book including a deal where you get a free copy of John's book The Referral Engine (excellent as well).

Apples' Decision to Bring Steve Back -- Chapter 1 of my new book highlights the decision by the Apple board to bring Steve Jobs back (I'll highlight one chapter each week). Lesson -- is there a former partner or employee that might be lured back to your company? BTW, the right #2 for an entrepreneur is often a former employee, partner, customer, etc. See this earlier "Growth Guy" column on the topic.

Best Business Decision of the Week? -- Anyone nominate Jack Welch's tweet this week? Please send me a quick note if you or someone you know in your industry made a wickedly important decision this week - a key price change, a new product launch, a clever marketing campaign, a decision to radically refocus the business, a critical acquisition or a decision that surprised or delighted you.

Avoid Burnout; Brad Feld's New Book; Key to 2013; Rockefeller Habits workshops

"...out-learning the competition"

HEADLINES:

5 Ways to Avoid Burnout -- my latest Fortune Venture column is online -- take three minutes to click through five ideas for recharging your batteries - and please provide some more intelligent comments/feedback!! Thanks to Dave McLurg, Dale Donat, Paul Berman, and David Meerman Scott for contributing ideas - hopefully one of their ideas re-energizes you.

Key to a great 2013 -- As you prepare for annual planning - join Patrick Thean, CEO of Gazelles Systems, for his webcast "Is Your Annual Plan Helping You Double Your Business?" A good annual plan identifies the 3-5 things to focus on for the year; a great annual plan helps you focus on the year AND drive your long term strategy. October 18th @ 1:00pm ET.

Start-up Communities -- this is the title of Brad Feld's new book out today. A well-known venture capitalist and co-founder of the innovative TechStars incubator process (plus author of a killer blog), Brad is leading a revolution in building entrepreneurial ecosystems in communities around the world. This is a critical activity in revitalizing economies globally and something worthwhile for all growth firms to be involved with locally.

Employee Engagement - Need Ideas for Next Column -- Recent research shows that employee enthusiasm and engagement are at record lows. For an upcoming Fortune column, I am looking for anecdotes about how you keep employees excited about your company, even if you have asked them to do more and have not been able to offer big pay raises since the recession. How are you beating the odds and keeping them motivated? I'm looking for sustainable strategies, as opposed to fun, one-time gimmicks. Please let me know where your company is based, how many employees you have, and your revenues. Email me at [email protected] and garner some publicity for you and your firm.

Level One Thinking -- Vijay Govindarajan, author of Reverse Innovation (keynoting the upcoming Fortune Growth Summit), recently did a survey of executives on their attitudes toward global business - poor vs. rich countries. Here are the levels of thinking. I'm concerned that most US growth firms are stuck in level one thinking, at their peril (the Dutch have always been Level 5):

Level One Thinking. Only the rich world matters. Poor countries are too poor to be worth thinking about. Level Two Thinking. In poor countries, there is an opportunity to sell our offerings at the top of the economic pyramid. This market will slowly expand, as poor nations get richer. Level Three Thinking. Emerging-market customers have different needs. We will have to customize our existing products and services. Level Four Thinking. Emerging-market customers have vastly different needs. To capture the opportunity, we will have to design new products and services from scratch. Level Five Thinking. The stakes are global, not local. Market leadership in poor countries will be a prerequisite to continued vitality in rich ones.

Two-Thirds GDP -- in turn, these "poor" countries (Martin Sorrell prefers to call them "growth countries") are likely to account for at least two-thirds of world GDP growth for decades to come. It's a huge opportunity, but, according to Vijay "will not be easy for companies with rich-world legacies to capture." In Reverse Innovation, Vijay outline steps companies can take to move to Level Five Thinking, which is why we're hosting him in Phoenix Oct 23 - 24. See you there.

Wilmington, Baton Rouge, Manchester, Austin -- fall is a great time to tune-up your Rockefeller Habits and prepare for 2013. these are the locations for the October Rockefeller Habits one-day workshops. Wilmington, Oct 11; Baton Rouge, Oct 18; Manchester, NH, Oct 18; and Austin Oct 30. For more info.

Apple's Tribute to Steve Jobs - and Some Lesssons

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Apple's Tribute to Steve Jobs -- today marks the one year anniversary of Steve Jobs passing. As a tribute, Apple has produced this short video (thank you Bill Becker for pointing this out to me).

Inside Apple -- and if you've not read it yet, take the weekend and read Adam Lashinsky's book Inside Apple. It chronicles the key business practices, like no other book has, that led to the most valuable company on the planet. I specifically like how Lashinsky shares details down to Steve's specific day-to-day routines.

Daily Luncheon -- one of those routines was having lunch almost every day with his chief designer, Jonathan Ive. Design is what drove Apple's success; in turn, Steve's calendar reflected what mattered most. Like John D. Rockefeller's daily luncheon with his directors, their lunch gave Jobs and Ive the critical talk time they needed to drive this critical function of the business. "If you want to move faster, pulse faster."

Weekly Marketing Meeting -- Hermann Simon's research on "hidden champions" found that the CEO stays laser focused on two functions: innovation and marketing. Steve, himself, chaired the 3 hour Wednesday afternoon marketing meeting - not surprising.

3-Hours per Day Focused on #1 Priority -- and to support innovation, Steve literally spent three hours each day working on whatever was the key focus - launching the iPod, designing the new retail store, etc. He learned in his "wilderness years" the power of having a single focus i.e. Pixar's "Toy Story." As such, he would pick one major initiative, and like an Olympic athlete, give it three hours per day of is undivided attention. That's how you get big things accomplished!

Join Me in Getting to #1; Rap Genius Investment; Steve Jobs' Return; 2 Left

"...making great decisions"

HEADLINES:

Bringing Steve Jobs Back -- more below, but first...

#48 So Far -- The Greatest Business Decisions of All Time, since its launch on Amazon Tuesday, has reached as high as #48. Join me in driving it to #1 today on Amazon (if you purchase two copies, it's free shipping on Amazon). I'll update you with a short email every couple hours to let you know how we're doing. Game on!!! Thanks.

Bringing Steve Jobs Back -- what's your reaction? Chapter 1 of the book digs into the back story on how Steve ended up back as CEO of Apple. People are commenting at www.greatestdecisions.com (add yours!). I wanted to specifically address this insightful comment by Bertie Du Plessis, Stellenbosch University:

"Hind sight is a perfect science. What reasons for the decision can be abstracted and reapplied with a more than 50% chance of success?"

My Reaction -- The point of the book is to get people to consider ideas/decisions they might dismiss too easily - like re-involving someone that had been pushed away earlier (I like Bruce Kassanoff's comment about Jim Cantalupo at McDonalds). In general, I think founders have been pushed out of companies way too soon. And the VCs at Andreessen Horowitz seem to agree (see below) which has helped them to become one of the hottest and most successful Silicon Valley investors recently - it's a conscious decision, even their key strategy, to keep founders at the firms in which they invest.

Research Supports -- In addition, Hermann Simon's research (of Hidden Champions fame) found that the average tenure of the founder/CEO of these highly successful and global firms was 20 years. Jim Collins found the same in his research.

Why Andreessen Horowitz Invested $15 Million in RapGenius -- short answer, 3 founders. And a couple other very personal reasons. Their blog is always worth reading.

#1 Business Decision This Week -- what is the best business decision you've seen made this week? What was your best decision? Was Tim Cook's decision to publicly apologize for Apple maps the best decision last week? Please add to that discussion at www.greatestdecisions.com as well.

Update -- 3 of 5 taken -- only two of the 1500 book packages ($12.50/book) are left where I'll also keynote an event of your choice ($25k value). Deadline today.

Helping You Get to #1 -- the goal of the weekly insights, and the new book, is to help you become the best in your industry (and make lots of money) - success is all about making lots of good decisions and a few great ones.

The Greatest Business Decisions of All Time - Foreword by Jim Collins

"...making great decisions"

HEADLINE: (personal request - first in 10 years)

Greatest Business Decisions of All Time: How Apple, Ford, IBM, Zappos, and others made radical choices that changed the course of business -- with a Foreword by Jim Collins, this is the title of my new book being released this week. Complimentary gifts (retail value of up to $25,000) for purchasing at www.greatestdecisions.com - gift levels outlined below. This is where I need your help.

Please Blog, Tweet, Order Oct 4 -- I'm trying to concentrate our marketing efforts to drive book list rankings. I'm hoping in exchange for all the free insights you'll considering blasting out to your fans and lists info about the new book - it's greatly appreciated. Below is a paragraph you can use. The hashtag for the book is #bizdecisions.

Complimentary Chapter and Introduction -- go to www.greatestdecisions.com to download a free chapter and my six page introduction that highlights my choice of the top 5 biz decisions ever made.

Jim Collins Foreword -- Jim's almost chapter-sized Foreword on decision-making, including what is the single most important decision business leaders must make, is worth the price of the book alone. And each of the 18 decisions is written by one of the top writers and editors of Fortune magazine - each with unique access to the companies and decision-makers. For instance, we outline the inside story on how Apple's board came to rehire Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple - information not in Steve's biography.

Fortune Excerpt -- Fortune magazine has produced a 7-page excerpt of the book in the latest "Most Powerful Women" issue of the magazine. Here's a link to the online version.

Thank Your Customer...for making a great decision in doing business with you by giving them a gift copy of the book (perfect holiday gift ) i.e. "thank you for making a great decision to work with us, here are 18 more - hope they provide inspiration and ideas to grow your business."

Complimentary Gifts -- Here are the gifts you'll receive if you order books directly at www.greatestdecisions.com - or send your Amazon receipt to [email protected]:

1 Book($14.95) - receive two complimentary short videos - ideas from Apple and Facebook you can apply immediately to your own company 10 Books - ($14.95 each) participate in a 60 minute webinar where I discuss the book and share what I found were the most interesting "behind-the-scenes" stories underlying the 18 decisions 250 Books ($12.50 each, limited to 50 people) - seat at either Fortune Summit ($1995 value) and an invitation to both private dinners with the keynote speakers 1500 Books ($12.50 each, limited to 5 people) - the author, Verne Harnish, will keynote an event of your choice ($25,000 value) - email me directly about this [email protected]

Paragraph to Use in Blogs/Email -- again, it's greatly appreciated if you would email, blog, tweet and blast out to your fans an announcement of the book. Something like:

The Greatest Business Decisions of All Time - with a Foreword by Jim Collins -- is Verne Harnish's latest book. Author of the ever popular Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, Verne along with some of the top writers and editors at Fortune magazine, share the inside story on 18 of the most unconventional decisions ever made in business - decisions that not only changed companies, but changed industries and even nations. Endorsed by several top CEOs and biz authors, these decisions should spark important ideas to transform your own companies and industries. Here's a link to the book site. where you can download a free chapter (GE's key decision) and read Verne's six page Introduction. And Jim Collins' Foreword on the most important decision all biz leaders must make is worth the price of the book alone.

Decisions = Success -- thank you for helping to promote the book. These 18 decisions should help spur ideas on how to grow your own business. Enjoy reading these inside stories.

Hotel Room Rate Ends Today -- for those waiting until the last minute to register for the Oct 23 - 24 Fortune Growth Summit in Phoenix, today is the last day to get our conference rate on hotel rooms. Here's a link to the hotel information.