Don't Do This to a Friend; 3 Investing Criteria; Lessons from Billionaires; Toronto and Dubai Workshops

"...ideas (videos) for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

ASIA-PACIFIC ONLY -- need a process for attracting and hiring the right people 90%+ of the time? Hosted for the first time in the Asia-Pacific time zone, the Topgrading certification course - more details below, but first...

How to Be a Friend -- do you have a friend in need who has suffered some kind of loss? Just do something for them. Notes this NY Times article:

BE A FRIEND IN DEED Our instinct is often to say to a friend who's suffering, "Let me know if there's anything you need." While well meaning, this gesture unintentionally shifts the obligation to the aggrieved. Instead of offering "anything," just do something. I heard of friends who sent packing supplies to someone getting divorced, and others who held a "fire shower," a bridal shower type of gathering for a friend who had lost her home.

And in most cases, avoid the "happy talk" like "everything will be OK." Take 3 minutes to read the article to see what you should say instead plus pick up some additional tips on how (and how not) to be a great friend. Thanks to Adam Grant, author of Give and Take, for pointing me to this article.

FORTUNE Summit Summary -- last week's Summit hosted a record crowd of over 600 CEOs and executives of scale-ups. Below are four short 5 minute or less FORTUNE interviews of the Day 1 keynote speakers highlighting their main points - 20 minutes of content worth listening to while plowing through emails. NOTE: Our next "meet-up for scale-ups" Growth Summit is Oct 20 - 21, Dallas.

3 Criteria for Investing -- Nir Eyals, author of Hooked, kicked off the Summit with a three hour workshop on creating products/services that are habit forming (addictive?). His 5 minute interview includes the three criteria he uses for evaluating ideas and making investments - GEM - growth (number of customers), engagement, and monetization. If a business model drives all three, you'll create a highly valuable company.

Real Time Everything -- once you've designed a killer product/service, you need to get the word out. David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Sales and Service, emphasizes the importance of real time response as he guided the audience through how they might "newsjack" Tom Brady's deflategate story, which several did in real time, generating tens of thousands of social media hits within 24 hours. Enjoy his 4 minute interview.

9 Times Productivity Gain -- now that customers have found your habit forming products/services, it's time to execute. Rather than throw people at the problem, as you rapidly scaleup, Paul Akers details how a series of 2 Second Lean (name of his book) initiatives reduced a 45 minute process down to 5 minutes over a period of just a few weeks - and how he's repeated these same productivity gains over and over and over both inside his own 50 employee firm and helping hundreds of others. Toyota, Amazon, Microsoft, and other organizations around the world visit his facilities to learn how to streamline any process (or office). His 5 minute interview highlights some of his approaches.

Lessons from Billionaires -- what's the key to scaling to a billion? John Sviokla, co-author of The Self-Made Billionaire Effect, suggests you don't need to find a blue ocean. Based on the largest research effort ever undertaken of self-made billionaires, John shares the 5 habits of mind unique to those that scale big. In this 4 minute interview he lists the five and then discusses the critical pairing of producers and performers. And he shares some great advice for young entrepreneurs - including the importance of going to work for a big company first.

Learn From A Bad Example -- Apple CEO Tim Cook's recent 20 minute commencement address proved you don't need ANY charisma to lead (he's not Steve Jobs)! Only watch if you need an example of how not to deliver a speech - style, substance, delivery - it had none. Don't make the same mistake - hire a speech coach like David Butlein, PhD ([email protected]) who attached our FORTUNE Summit last week and has helped thousands of executives become more influential and powerful public speakers.

Scaling Up Workshops Next Week -- May 26th Toronto; May 27th Dubai.

ASIA-PACIFIC ONLY -- Win the talent war with the online Topgrading class. For any organization, finding great people is difficult. Good news for the Asia-Pacific region, you can now learn and IMPLEMENT the Topgrading methodology from the comfort of your office or home with the help of live-coached sessions at GMT +11 Time Zone.
Win the Talent War and join this 3-month program. Protect your brand and culture, register here. This class has limited capacity and seats are filling in fast. If you have any questions or are looking for assistance while making your decision, please do not hesitate to contact Juan Gonzalez at [email protected] or skype him at: juanjosegzz

COACHING:

What is the value of working with a Certified Gazelles International Coach? There are four key roles a coach plays in helping your company Scale Up...listen here to learn.

TECHNOLOGY:

Better Book Club -- What's your team reading? Increase your books read per team member. Easy, Proven, and in the Cloud at http://www.BetterBookClub.com.

Align Dashboard -- Want to keep track of your plans and progress in the cloud? The complete Growth Tools and Rockefeller Habits disciplines in a SaaS offering.