Free Kindle Book; 5 Winning Plays; Revenue Boosters; Ben Horowitz on Cash

"...keeping you great" 

HEADLINES:

Free Book until Friday -- OK, Bruce Kasanoff had me at the word "free." I've not read his latest book entitled Smart Customers, Stupid Companies, but Bruce is brilliant and insightful so I downloaded the Kindle version while it's free this week - just do it and I'll let you know in a couple weeks whether you should read it! Here's the link...

5 Winning 4^th Quarter Plays -- for some reason companies start acting different during the last quarter of the year. My latest Venture column in Fortune magazine highlights 5 winning 4^th quarter strategies:

1. Help clients use it, not lose it
2. Show them you care (love this one!)
3. Trim your budget now
4. React to growth quickly
5. Keep the pressure on (half-court buzzer beater always great)

Take two minutes to read through the details and pick one that will help you power through the 4^th quarter. Read more...

5 Ways to Boost Revenue -- Fortune this week also made my last Venture column fully accessible. Consider these 5 ways to boost revenue:

1. Refocus the sales manager (hint - sales coach vs. manager)
2. Gather daily intel
3. Pursue better quarry (critical!!)
4. Raise your prices
5. Make referrals painless (powerful)

Take another two minutes to read through the details - and again, pick one that will drive revenues up. Read more...

Horowitz on the Importance of Cash Flow -- VC Ben Horowitz's latest blog is yet another classic - addressing the Silicon Valley dilemma, given the pending Twitter IPO, of whether or not it's important for fast growth firms to achieve positive cash flow or just keep the pedal to the metal and raise more money - Twitter is still burning through cash six years after launching. My favorite paragraph for those of you not generating sufficient cash:

"We should first decide how much we like laying people off, because if we love it then let's stay cash flow negative, because when we don't generate cash, the capital markets decide when we have to lay people off. In fact, we will have to listen very carefully to investors on everything because as soon as they stop liking us, we will start dying. I don't know about you, but I do not want to live my life that way. I do not want to have to tell all of our employees that we will do what we think is right until investors tell us we have to do otherwise. I want to control my destiny."

Enough said! Take 2 minutes to read through the rest of Ben's thoughts on the topic. Read more...

David Marquet's Animated Video -- for those of us that have become cult fans of Marquet (spontaneous standing ovation at the Leadership Summit - and he's keynoting the European Summits 29 April in Barcelona and 30 April in Amsterdam) here's a Dan Pink-like RSA animated overview of his award winning book Turn the Ship Around: How To Create Leadership at Every Level - worth showing to your team at your next brown bag training event or monthly management meeting.

Carl Hired -- our first attempt to help a displaced Rockefeller Habits executive was successful. Within 10 days of my note in the insights he was contacted by 11 companies and was hired to help propel a rapidly growing $37 million firm. So, here's an executive fully endorsed by Ken Sim and John DeHart, the two co-founders of Nurse Next Door, which has been one of the fastest growing franchises in North America and a Rockefeller Habits driven firm:

Jamie Birch -- if you're looking for a financially-savvy President or COO for your growing firm, Jamie was the highly-operational and strategic CFO of Nurse Next Door as it grew from 2 locations to over 70. He is deeply steeped in the Rockefeller Habits and Four Decisions methodologies and is the right inside executive to balance an entrepreneur's outward focus. Though geography and industry pose no boundaries for Jamie, he currently resides in Vancouver, Canada. You can reach him at [email protected].

Record Crowd -- we have the largest group of growth company CEOs and their teams we've ever hosted next week in Vegas for the annual Growth Summit - looking forward to seeing many of you next week.

COACHING:

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