The Agile Scaleup

Zappos Inspiration; Big Ass Fans Success; Covey Quote of the Summit; Nov 1 Deadline Sydney Growth Summit

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Stories Needed for Next Fortune Column -- see below for the five specific examples we're seeking - a chance to feature you and your company. But first...

Free Book Next 72 Hours -- Dave Kerpen's new book Likeable Leadership is available for free right now at this link - again, haven't read it, but Dave does good work.

Early Bird Rate Ends Tomorrow -- March 13 - 14, Sydney, Australia, is our next National Growth Summit. It will include delegate visits to Atlassian, RedBalloon, and EzyPay. Grab the early bird discount rate that ends Nov 1.

Big Ass Fans Hosts Weekly Employee Dinners with Management -- have you noticed their humongous fans in airports and warehouses? This rapidly growing Lexington, KY-based firm has rocketed from $34 million in 2009 to a projected $125 million this year. More importantly, their employee retention is sitting at 93% vs. a national average of 63%. Key is a series of employee initiatives driven by Founder and Chief Big Ass Carey Smith (now that's a title!). Besides offering top-tier perks, including an on-site health clinic, subsidized catered lunches and a game room (hey, this isn't Silicon Valley), Carey and his top managers take a half-dozen workers to the area's best restaurants for dinner each week. I LOVE this idea. Why not do this? What better way to tap into the rumor mill, pick up ideas, and share a little bit of your own DNA with the team.

Marketing Function Critical to Hiring -- if you need to hire someone in the coming year, unless you already know the perfect person for the job, you need at least 20 quality applicants per open position in order to guarantee you find an outstanding associate. This is why marketing is such an important function -- not only to attract the right customers, but to recruit talent. My latest Fortune article highlights a couple ideas for drawing in talent and how to keep them motivated once you have them on board (hint, keep the dumb stuff out of their way). Take 2 minutes to read...

Zappos CEO Focuses on Inspiration vs. Motivation -- Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, was a huge hit at the Growth Summit last week as he described his new "Downtown Project" building a community around the new Zappos HQ (over 100 attendees received a special evening tour). One powerful idea among many was the importance Hsieh places on inspiring employees vs. trying to motivate them. Here's a 3 minute interview following his keynote where he outlines key ideas for doing this and "delivering happiness" to his team. To watch...

Stephen M.R. Covey Shares Three Big Ideas Around Building Trust -- 3 minute summary interviews of all the keynote speakers from last week's Summit will give you some powerful ideas for fueling the growth of your business. Go to www.gazelles.com and you'll see them listed on the homepage - watch one per day or play one per week at your next several weekly meetings. My favorite quote of the summit from Covey "You can't talk your way out of a problem you behaved your way into!" Watch his entire 3 minute interview and the others. To watch...

6 Habits of Highly Successful Companies -- Matt Heinz, President of Heinz Marketing, wrote a quick-read piece for Geek Wire on 6 habits Seattle's fastest growing companies employ. A fan of the Rockefeller Habits, Heinz shares many that align with our disciplined approach to driving growth, like the daily huddle. And he was kind enough to highlight our upcoming Rockefeller Habits workshop Nov 21 in Seattle. It's time to prepare your 2014 One-Page Strategic Plan. Below is a list of all the upcoming workshops.

Stories Needed for Next Fortune Column (Monday Deadline) -- I am looking ahead at key trends that affect growth companies for 2014. I am looking for examples of companies that are making the following trends work for them: hyperspecialization, using robots to work more efficiently, sharing assets with other companies (in the way that airbnb promotes sharing among consumers), launching a prize to spark innovation (instead of investing heavily in internal R&D) and customer financing (through crowdfunding or other creative methods). As always, please include your company name, the city where it is based, its years in business, and annual revenue. Please reply by Monday. Email me at [email protected].

COACHING:

Need help implementing the Rockefeller Habits?

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:

Need help implementing the Rockefeller Habits?

Bronco's Peyton Manning; HP's Meg Whitman; RedBalloon's BHAG Celebration; "Bliss" coming to NYC

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

I think the older you get, the more important it is to have a guy to watch your fundamentals.
	Peyton Manning Denver Broncos Quarterback

Peyton Manning Thrives on Feedback -- I remain a diehard Denver Broncos football fan, so it's been great watching one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time setting records in his 14th season at an age when most players are long retired. Notes Peter McLaughlin, author of Feedback Revolution, Manning feels more than ever that he needs constant feedback and coaching to maintain a fresh attitude and pick up new ideas. And he gets this input from Adam Gase, his former quarterback coach and now offensive coordinator. Peyton is also one who knows how to give feedback as well, leaving Post-it-Notes on fellow players' lockers and providing "feedback on the fly" out on the field of play. Take 1 minute to read McLaughlin's blog post on Manning this week.

HP's Meg Whitman Gets Feedback from Customers -- after chewing through four different CEOs in the past dozen years, HP's new leader seems to be making some steady headway (stock jumped 5% yesterday). This Forbes article (a little dated) is a great mini-case study on the steps necessary to turn around a business. One key - lots of customer visits. Notes Forbes:

"So Whitman hit the road. In the past year she has held a staggering 305 one-on-one meetings with customers or sales-channel partners, aides say, as well as another 42 roundtable chats with small groups. A peek at her calendar the past 60 days shows trips to Munich, London, Brazil, India, New York and Bentonville, Ark., the home of Wal-Mart. 'She's made herself more available than her predecessor ever did,' says Chris Case, president of Sequel Data Systems in Austin, Tex."

Take four minutes to scan through this article - or just read the opening paragraph which describes something she did 26 years ago that says a lot about her management style - worth the click through. I also love that a leader worth $1.9 billion stays at Marriott Courtyards to save the company money - and took the job more as a mission to save an original Silicon Valley start-up!

Feedback On What You're Doing Wrong -- ...and thanks to Rabbi Stephen Baars for pointing me to this story. Notes Baars, "every spouse should read this article - it's a guide map for making your marriage work! The bottom line - you can't have a great _____________ (fill in the blank with anything) if you don't look at what you are doing wrong." Baars continues, "A lot of people think they are great managers, great spouses, great parents - but until you face open criticism you are just fooling yourself. Companies that don't do this, inevitably fail - the same can be said for marriages."

RedBalloon Celebrates Reaching BHAG Tomorrow -- ...and launches a massive radio and online promotional campaign around achieving it. Here's a link to their YouTube video. It's almost as if we've watched Australian-based RedBalloon grow up as I've shared their progress through this insight and presentations. Eight years ago, Founding Director Naomi Simson and her team set a 10 year goal to get Australians to gift 2 million experiences (they had sold 7500 up to that point). They not only beat the goal by almost two years, but they seem to have hit an inflection point. It took them 10 years to reach the first million and just two years to reach the second.

Scoreboards Provide Constant Feedback -- RedBalloon is now upping its game with a new BHAG of providing 5 million 'good times' by 2020. For an experience to count, the customer must score it with an NPS (Net Promoter Score) of 9 or 10. "This puts customer happiness at the centre of everything we do, "exclaims Simson. "And the new scoreboard is ready for the roll over!" Their continuously updated scoreboards, within eye shot of all employees, provide the kind of constant feedback that drives outstanding performance. Here's a link to the video rolling out the new BHAG to the team.

Marriage Feedback - Get "Bliss" in NYC -- Rabbi Baars, one of our favorite couple's coaches, also let me know he's hosting his popular relationship seminar "Bliss" in New York City. It kicks off Monday November 11 at 180 Amsterdam Ave., though you can join in at any time. Each session is self-contained and the cycle repeats -- and your first session, whenever you start, is free. The rest of the program is $127. "It's so much fun it counts as a date night!" If you want more bliss in your relationships (with your children as well) click here for more info.

COACHING:

Need help implementing the Rockefeller Habits?

Jim Collins; James Dyson; Tech vs. Auto Companies; congrats biz-growth Dubai

"...keeping you great" 

HEADLINES:

Growth Summit's Dozen Books -- looking forward to seeing many of you in Las Vegas Oct 22 - 23 for our next Growth Summit presented by Fortune. Tony Hsieh (Zappos), Ram Charan, Stephen MR Covey, Dina Dwyer-Owens (Undercover Boss star), Mark Johnson, Mark Goulston, James McQuivey, Luke Hohmann, and Ariane van de Vin representing over a dozen of the most important biz books are keynoting. If you don't know these thought leaders and their work, hope your competitors don't beat you to implementing their ideas!

Re-Education of Jim Collins -- why are West Point cadets much happier than any of the students Jim Collins taught at Stanford? And what lessons can we all derive from what he's learned? Take 4 minutes to read this outstanding Inc. magazine article. Besides exploring the critical importance of failure in driving growth, Collins, who is West Point's Class of 1951 Chair for the Study of Leadership, offers some key lessons drawn from his two years interacting with the cadets that translate to building an incredible workplace:

• Service to "a cause or purpose we are passionately dedicated to and are willing to suffer and sacrifice for."
• Challenge and growth, or, "What huge and audacious challenges should we give people that will push them hard and make them grow?"
• Communal success, or, "What can we do to reinforce the idea that we succeed only by helping each other?"

Importance of Frontline Leadership -- and my favorite paragraph in the Inc. article "His time at West Point has also given Collins a new appreciation for some aspects of leadership that he had not previously thought much about. The first has to do with frontline, or unit-level, leadership. 'I have come to see how important it is,' he says. 'We tend to think that what matters is having outstanding leadership at the senior level. But great leadership at the top doesn't amount to much if you don't have exceptional leadership at the unit level. That's where great things get done.'" This is why a company with middle and frontline managers needs to structure an effective monthly meeting where the DNA of the senior leadership can be passed down. Here's a short article that details a suggested agenda.

Most Innovative Companies 2013 -- Boston Consulting Group (BCG) just released their annual list of the most innovative companies. Apple topped the list with Samsung coming in second, pushing Google down to the third position. The most surprising outcome: more auto companies (9) than technology companies (8) in the top 20! Here's a link to the BCG list with some useful insights by BCG like the most innovative companies listen to customers. This is why we like to see every senior leader and middle manager formally talk with one customer per week.

Interview with James Dyson -- speaking of innovation, James Dyson, the British multi-billionaire and engineer (think vacuums and hand dryers) has a team of 1500 engineers inventing solutions to some of the most mundane challenges. This delightful Fortune interview captures Dyson's quirky and direct approach to business - worth 3 minutes to absorb his energy and insights. I actually didn't know why he had a passion for vacuums until reading this interview. And I wish the US would take a page from the UK - consider this Fortune question and Dyson's answer:

You're 66. Do you have to consider going public someday for tax reasons? Not in Britain, because shares in private companies are not subject to inheritance tax. They're like farms. The government wants to keep family businesses intact as family businesses down the generations.

Moral Character Wins -- Companies that build teams with strong moral character win. Their teams are happier, perform better and are more successful overall. This bold claim stems from the work of Jim Loehr, renowned performance psychologist and author of the book The Only Way to Win, who keynoted our Leadership Summit this year. In my latest "Growth Guy" syndicated column co-authored with Sebastian Ross, we highlight how Blinds.com, Boston Centerless, and Next Jump, three mid-market growth firms, have built character development into their people systems (I love the replicated run-down alleyway Blinds.com built in their new facility). Take 3 minutes to read about these companies and the success Loehr has had using these same ideas in developing winning high school tennis players.

Congrats biz-group in Dubai -- kudos to Gazelles marketing partner in the Middle East, Hazel Jackson and her team at biz-group for being awarded the #1 SME to work for in the UAE by great place to work institute yesterday.

Dubai Oct 7; Singapore Oct 9 -- I'll be leading one-day workshops in Dubai and Singapore next week - hope to see those of you in the region at the events.

COACHING:

Need help implementing the Rockefeller Habits?