The Agile Scaleup

$72 million in 5 years; Rebel Talent; Topgrading Webinar Thursday; See You Next Week in Dallas

"...insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

Maybe the mentor we needed was someone who can coach us in the process in structuring the company in the right way to be more successful.
	Ivan Orrego, Andes Global Trading

Webinar on Hiring People Who Pay for Themselves -- join Topgrading guru and author Brad Smart Thursday Oct 20 1:30pm EST for a LIVE webinar. More info below, but first...

$72 Million in Five Years -- when childhood friends Santiago Manzur and Ivan Orrego launched a meat trading business in 2011, Miami-based Andes Global Trading LLC, its growth took off faster than they anticipated. After reading Scaling Up, Manzur and Orrego brought in Gazelles Certified Coach Aquiles Nunez to help install systems around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash. And it included educating them on the importance of using the Topgrading methodology for interviewing and hiring.

Head of Logistics -- using Topgrading, they recently hired a head of logistics who in her first three months renegotiated several major contracts with transport companies and achieved savings that will hit more than $250,000 in a year by their estimates --about three times her salary. "If you don't hire someone who knows logistics, you are making mistakes every day," says Manzur. Once they began using Topgrading, it was easier to find people whose contributions more than covered the cost of paying their salary and benefits.

8th Fastest Growing Firm...in South Florida, please take 2 minutes to read Santiago and Ivan's story of more great hires - then get serious about hiring the right people. When you do, your life is great; when you don't your life is miserable. So no time for amateur hour when it comes to the interviewing and hiring process - use Topgrading.

Rebel Talent -- speaking of talent, Harvard Business Review is launching Oct 24 a "Big Ideas" program starting with one titled Rebel Talent - seems employees are best engaged when they are allowed to break some rules! Take 1 minute to watch this video and then sign-up for the HRB series of articles and presentations at www.hbr.org/rebel.

Topgrading Webinar for Hiring People Who Pay for Themselves -- If you do not have a success-proven, fully detailed hiring process, business growth is not in your future. And resume reviews don't count as a hiring process.

For you to increase your percentage of hiring success, you will need to improve your entire approach.

After years of research, Dr. Brad Smart, creator of Topgrading, identified these TOP 7 Interviewing Techniques that every hiring manager needs to master.

1. All appropriate questions are asked
2. The interviewer connected with the interviewee
3. Control was maintained
4. No biased questions
5. Thorough notes were taken
6. Appropriate follow up questions were asked
7. A summary was used every 15 minutes

Want to learn more? Join Brad Smart on a live webinar this Thursday at 1:30PM EST.

He will discuss the benefits of a structured hiring process, how to use Topgrading for hiring frontline personnel, how to make sure you can hire without wasting time, plus much more!

This webinar has limited seating, claim your spot here. Topgrading Webinar.

See Many of You Next Week -- see you next week in Dallas for our annual gathering of Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits) enthusiasts - CEOs and exec teams of mid-market growth firms from around the globe. I'm looking forward to learning from 8 of the top biz thought leaders in the world.

COACHING:

Have you ever wondered if working with a coach might accelerate your company's growth, exponentially? Do you have what it takes to move the dial from good to great? Click here to watch Gazelles International President Keith Cupp describes the four most important attributes of successful clients. Contact us at [email protected] for more information.

And if you're interested in becoming a world-class certified Gazelles International coach, please go to gicoaches.com/becomeacoach for more information. If you determine that we're a fit and wish to join our premier organization, we invite you to contact our Dir. of Coach Engagement at [email protected] or 877.217.2253 ext.700.

TECHNOLOGY:

Align Software puts everyone on the Same Page - Literally! See, in real time every person in your organization and how they are progressing on their priorities - alongside how they Align to the Company Priorities! Scale Up your Rockefeller Habits implementation with www.alignwithgazelles.com - on your computer and on your phone.

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.

$400k Defrauded; Cyberattacked; Expensive Lessons; Don’t Let it Happen to You!

"...insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

Defrauded $400k -- it was a bad night last night, finding out that Gazelles was cyber-attacked and $400k was cleverly "taken" from our Gazelles bank account, more below, but first...

Why Drucker is Still Relevant -- Hermann Simon, a dear friend of the late Peter Drucker, wrote an insightful piece in HRB this week titled "Why Peter Drucker's Writing Still Feels So Relevant." Notes Simon, there are three reasons:

In addition to his global outlook and deep knowledge of history, Drucker's mind possessed yet another trait which I have observed to such a great extent only in the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges Jorge: the skill of bisociation.

Bisociation is the skill of associating two unrelated ideas to get a new one - a skill many consider the key to creativity. Take 3 minutes to scan through this thoughtful piece. FYI, Simon, author of my favorite growth book of all time Hidden Champions of the 21st Century and the #1 book on pricing titled Confessions of a Pricing Man will be keynoting our Growth Summit in a couple weeks in Dallas - see many of you there.

How Was $400k Taken from Us - we believe the process started in Moscow last Tuesday when I was giving the day's closing keynote at the Atlas Business Forum - 3000 leading CEOs and entrepreneurs from around Russia. While on a public network that morning my email was hacked - I have some ideas how and I believe it was "automated" as an algorithm scanned for clues that there was an opportunity to steal funds. Clues? I receive daily alerts from my bank on our bank balances, so they could see we had a substantial amount in the bank. And I had just instructed my assistant to wire some funds to an account in Spain - so it was obvious how we worked together in getting this accomplished by observing our back and worth conversations.

So What Happened Next? -- "they" sent an email to my assistant completely imitating my style, subject line, and signature asking her to wire funds to three different places. I'm in the middle of funding several real estate and investment opportunities so this didn't seem out of place. My assistant responded back to confirm and they responded appropriately for me, the whole time deleting these emails from our server after sending and receiving.

Deleted Bank Alerts -- They also deleted my daily bank alerts which I didn't notice since I was busy with meetings in Moscow or travelling. Anyway, my assistant calls in the wire transfers because our bank had suggested that calling in was less costly in terms of exchange rates and fees when wiring internationally - but much less safe than using our CEO Portal which requires two people with dongles to approve (penny wise, pound foolish). With the call in, my assistant's voice is verified and then they call her back to confirm. Dumb process - my fault and the bank's for thinking that this is a sufficient "dual" response.

Almost Saved -- To the bank's credit they did flag one of the three transactions to Hong Kong and suggested to my assistant that she call me to verify. She emailed me asking when we could talk while on the road. The perpetrators intercepted this email and replied, again in my style, that I was busy travelling, that the transfer was good, and to get the bank to send. Then these emails were deleted (we were able to recover all the deleted emails on the server to confirm they had been sent and received and the bank alerts erased.)

Expensive Lessons Learned -- Anyway, the funds were wired and the likelihood we'll ever see them again is nil. Hard lesson exposing massive numbers of failures on my part. The big failure was not thinking it could happen to me! The second was falling out of some critical daily and weekly routines with my team, especially when travelling. And it underscored the importance of talking about these large transactions, not just relying on emails. The difference in time zones makes it difficult at times, but not an excuse.

Cybersecurity -- it just so happens we have someone speaking at the Growth Summit on the need for small to mid-size firms to take cybersecurity more seriously. If they can hack into governments, they can hack into you! Lesson learned the hard and expensive way.

COACHING:

Have you ever wondered if working with a coach might accelerate your company's growth, exponentially? Do you have what it takes to move the dial from good to great? Click here to watch Gazelles International President Keith Cupp describes the four most important attributes of successful clients. Contact us at [email protected] for more information.

And if you're interested in becoming a world-class certified Gazelles International coach, please go to gicoaches.com/becomeacoach for more information. If you determine that we're a fit and wish to join our premier organization, we invite you to contact our Dir. of Coach Engagement at [email protected] or 877.217.2253 ext.700.

TECHNOLOGY:

Align Software puts everyone on the Same Page - Literally! See, in real time every person in your organization and how they are progressing on their priorities - alongside how they Align to the Company Priorities! Scale Up your Rockefeller Habits implementation with www.alignwithgazelles.com - on your computer and on your phone.

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.

Use Price to Get Attention; Pigeons Smarter Than CEOs?; Panama Feb 7 - 11

"...insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

Companies are living, breathing organisms. As such, the more they can mimic nature, the faster they can scale.
	Verne Harnish, Co-Chair, Geoversity

7-Minutes to Mastery (ScalingUp Club) -- I was so impressed, we hired Ari Meisel's team to teach us to "hack" our work using his Less Doing, More Living tools. This 7-minute clip provides one of his many powerful tools. More below, but first...

How to Stop Customers from Fixating on Price -- Pricing is one of your most important strategic tools and this HBR article shows how you can use pricing to grab the attention of customers and JOLT them into reconsidering your value proposition using four pricing strategies. One is using "willful overpricing." This chart speaks volumes:

Please take 4 minutes (yes, a long time) and study the four pricing strategies and then discuss at you next marketing meeting (you have one, right?) which one might be ideal for you to gain more attention from customers.

Pigeons Resist Misguided Leaders -- we can all learn something from homing pigeons. This NY Times article highlights research that shows when the leader heads in the wrong direction:

Either the lead pigeon recognizes that it has no clue and falls back into the flock, letting birds that know where they are going take over, or the flock collectively decides that the direction that it is taking just doesn't feel right, and it doesn't follow.

Take 1 minute to watch the video accompanying the article. Now they are trying to understand how this all happens so they can program robots to make better decisions than humans! The lesson for leaders? Encourage a culture which allows for the "crowd" to do what is right. And personally know when to get out of the way and let others lead.

Geoversity Feb 7 - 12, Panama -- those scaling fastest are relying on more organic or biological models (think pigeons!). Join me and 40 chosen leaders for five days in Panama (half in the city; half in the jungle via helicopter) to explore more deeply how:

• Biological systems are informing strategic and competitive decision-making
• Biomimicry is helping companies create new innovative products and services
• Nature is instructing leaders on how to build not just resilient but "anti-fragile" organizations
• Companies are embracing sustainability and eco-efficiency to drive increased revenues and profits
• Workplace design is being influenced by natural environs
• Executives are finding in nature the peace and quiet they need to unleash their best creative and problem-solving talents

$4995 inclusive - just need to get to Panama City (PTY) via lots of direct flights. I'm co-chair of Geoversity and have co-designed the program with Harvard and Fortune to bring down the top thought leaders in this evolving space. For more information and to apply.

LawnDartz iPhone App -- speaking of nature (your own backyard), checkout this new 3D game app LawnDartz that is one of the first to use the new Force Touch for iPhone 6 and 7s. Notes Kyle Herman, president for JustJump Studio, "Our newest app brings back the nostalgia of playing backyard family games." The older style graphics channels a 1960's vibe with iconic symbols of the era, including ranch style homes, muscle cars, and metal swing sets. Yet it allows you to play your own choice of music and to throw other objects (let your imagination run wild). It also includes polling functionality with trending topics posted to the LawnDartz Facebook page. Why am I pushing a game app? Hey, it's my nephew's new company - blood is thicker... - and it's a blast and a blast from the past.

From Russia with Love -- Tuesday I, along with Raj Sisodia (Conscious Capitalism author and founder) keynoted the Atlasses Business Forum in Moscow - 3000 entrepreneurs and business leaders. We'll be launching our ScaleUpU initiative there as a way to help stimulate the economy which everyone knows is needed. And meeting with several EO and YPO members, they were much more upbeat than two years ago. Anyway, here's a link to a photo of the storyboard they created from my 90 minute keynote.

7-Minutes to Mastery (Scaling Up Club) -- In Less Doing, More Living, efficiency expert Ari Meisel details his apps/tools/virtual services which will streamline your work and make everything easier. This 7-minute video will help you understand how to automate, using low or no-cost apps like IFTTT, much of what takes you hours to do now. To access the clip, go here!

COACHING:

Have you ever wondered if working with a coach might accelerate your company's growth, exponentially? Do you have what it takes to move the dial from good to great? Click here to watch Gazelles International President Keith Cupp describes the four most important attributes of successful clients. Contact us at [email protected] for more information.

And if you're interested in becoming a world-class certified Gazelles International coach, please go to gicoaches.com/becomeacoach for more information. If you determine that we're a fit and wish to join our premier organization, we invite you to contact our Dir. of Coach Engagement at [email protected] or 877.217.2253 ext.700.

TECHNOLOGY:

Align Software puts everyone on the Same Page - Literally! See, in real time every person in your organization and how they are progressing on their priorities - alongside how they Align to the Company Priorities! Scale Up your Rockefeller Habits implementation with www.alignwithgazelles.com - on your computer and on your phone.

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.