The Agile Scaleup

Brutal Facts; Fast or Right?; Collins’ 7 Questions; Milosi Core Values

"...insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

Confront the Brutal Facts -- take this weekend (Thanksgiving holiday in US) to think about the brutal facts facing your firm/position and what measurable thing you need to accomplish the last month of 2016 and/or first quarter of 2017. End the year strong; start the year strong. For Gazelles, we've been focused (themed) on building out our underlying technological platform in 2016 and it is time to complete 3 key projects by Dec 31.

Faith and Facts -- notes Jim Collins, author of Good to Great:

Productive change begins when you confront the brutal facts. Every good-to-great company embraced what we came to call "The Stockdale Paradox": you must maintain unwavering faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, and at the same time, have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.

Go to this Concepts link on Jim Collins' website, scroll down, and click on the "Confronting the Brutal Facts" link. There is a 41 second video by Jim which is worth watching (and showing at your next planning session).

Getting to the Heart of the Matter -- continuing with a Collins theme, this Tennessee-based "elite landscape company" Milosi took six months to get their core values right and then uses them to drive selection, training, and day-to-day decisions - not just post them on a wall! Notes landscaper Chris Williams:

Working with and saying the Core Values daily, changed me on the inside. For me, Milosi's Core Values started showing up everywhere - in my parenting, in my spiritual life. The more I said them, the more I thought about them. Suddenly, it wasn't just Milosi's Core Values, they were MY Core Values. They were ingrained in me.

Please take 1 minute to scan down through this article on how Milosi keeps their core values front and center in all they do. Are you doing this?

Fast or Right -- do you want it done fast or right? According to this HBR article, exceptional leaders require both. Yet to accomplish this, 7 factors (out of 49 measured) must exist:

1.     Provide clear strategic perspective

2.     Set stretch goals and maintain high standards

3.     Communicate powerfully

4.     Have the courage to change

5.     Consider external perspectives

6.     Inspire and motivate others

7.     Innovate

Please take 2 minutes to read the details for each - most of which align with the Rockefeller Habits. Faith and facts - key to the list above.

Jim Collins 7 Questions (save $150k) -- and for those with a long weekend, take 47 minutes to watch/listen to Jim's talk at the Global Leadership Summit -- or show at your next monthly management meeting or brown bag luncheon. It's divided into 7 short sections you can watch individually based on one of the 7 questions Jim addresses in the talk. It would cost $150k to book Jim to give this talk to your company which you can access for free. I've heard variations of this talk several times and it never gets old.

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.

Year-end Negotiations; Why Trump Won; Social Selling; Microsoft’s CEO; CEO Boot Camp 1 Seat

"...insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

The best way to consistently grow and expand your business is to consistently grow and expand yourself.
	Roberta Ross

Negotiations Course -- Dr. Victoria Medvec, advisor to Goldman Sachs and Northwestern U prof, has her new negotiations course available, more below, but first...

CEO Boot Camp -- a CEO needed to postpone his participation, so one of the 10 seats opened up for my private Jan 11 - 15 Boot Camp in Marathon, FL. Joining me for the entire session is Roger Hardy who sold Coastal Contacts for almost $400 million and is now driving shoes.com. Email Tanya [email protected] if interested -- $7500 all inclusive - please include revenues, # of employees, and BHAG.

84% of B2B Sales Driven by Referrals -- this HBR article highlights how 1 million commercial sales people are likely to lose their jobs, replaced by social selling. This is not the same as social media marketing. Notes the article (and there is so much to quote from this insightful piece):

Social selling makes sense for achieving quota and revenue objectives for multiple reasons. First, three out of four B2B buyers rely on social media to engage with peers about buying decisions. In a recent B2B buyers survey, 53% of the respondents reported that social media plays a role in assessing tools and technologies, and when making a final selection.

"In addition, more than three-quarters (82%) of the B2B buyers said the winning vendor's social content had a significant impact on their buying decision." Please take 3 minutes to read through this important article on driving sales. Thank you to Gazelles partner Christo Popov for alerting me of this piece. BTW, this is what Trump mastered to become the US's 45th President.

Microsoft's CEO -- spending most of his week with influencers, customers, and employees, Satya Nadella understands where he should be spending his time. Driving Microsoft's stock to its highest market cap ever (I still might win that Microsoft/Apple bet next June), he's focused on making Microsoft a more learning environment by being a learner himself - all themes I emphasize with the leaders of scaleups. Please take 92 seconds to watch this video and then another 4 minutes to read the follow-on Fortune article - then make your list of influencers and get out of the office and do the market-facing activities critical to scaling up!!

Origami Inspired Kayaks -- wow, this is functional and fun. Last week I highlighted a kayak inspired by bone growth. Ardy Sobhani, co-founder, CEO, and President of Oru Kayak emailed to let me know about his origami inspired kayaks that easily fold and unfold to dramatically increase where you can spontaneously enjoy some time on the water. Take 1 minute to watch the video - a great example of an effective product demonstration capturing the heart and head reasons to purchase.

Two Critical Executive Skills (free webinar) -- hiring (Topgrading) and negotiations (Medvec) - master both and your effectiveness skyrockets. As you face year-end negotiations, Northwestern University's Dr. Victoria Medvec (adviser to Goldman Sachs) teaches how to use package deals to win all your upcoming contract negotiations. We're hosting a free webinar about negotiation strategies on November 22nd. It will be hosted by a key member of Dr. Victoria Medvec's team. There is limited capacity, so click here to reserve your spot.

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.

Business Person of the Year; Bone-Based Kayaks; Better Corp. Flooring; Geoversity Feb 7 - 12

"...insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

Biomimicry will be the business of the twenty-first century.
	Jay Harman

Fortune's Business Person of the Year is -- more below, but first...

Bone-Based Kayaks -- want to build a kayak with less mass? Dana Seero, President of CAPINC, used a program based on how our body layers on bone. As you'll see in Dana's video, the suggested structural pieces look like bones. Go to 2:39 in the video to see the software rending the parts - then Dana's firm used 3D printing to manufacture the supports. Go to 3:07 to see the full transformation from "bones" to parts - and as Dana states, the results look logical, in hindsight, but not obvious. At 3:47 the video shows the transformation from the standard "stick" approach to something more organic. This is the power of what is called biomimicry - using what nature has to teach us to design better products, services, and organizations.

Biomimicry Expert -- serial entrepreneur Jay Harman, author of The Shark's Paintbrush, electrified our Fortune Summit audience as he shared how leading edge firms, including his, are taking clues from nature to build next-generation products and businesses. For instance, huge municipal water tanks require massive chemicals to keep the water safe, yet with a mixer designed to mimic nature, a small "lily" consuming the electricity of 3 light bulbs can successfully keep 10 million gallons circulating and thus dramatically reduce the amount of chemicals needed.

Better Office Flooring -- taking a clue from nature's "flooring" (sand, leaves, rocks, etc.), the i2 carpet tile system allows tiles to be installed in any order and orientation, reducing installation time. This also means you can replace individual "random" tiles at any time without worrying about a perfect match (lot runs, dyes, fading, etc.). All of this saves you money, time, and waste. In addition, simply putting pictures of nature on the walls reduces stress and increases happiness/productivity.

3.8 Billion Years -- as biomimicry expert Janine Benyus notes, nature has been around a lot longer than humans and has figured out how to adapt and survive in ways that take considerably less resources and lower energy. Take a spider's web, 3 times stronger than steel. Humans use lots of pressure, heat, and force to make steel. Spiders, low pressure and water. Watch this video with your team (and family), going to 9:43 to see how students at Caltech have studied the movement of a school of fish to create wind farms 10x more efficient than what we have today. At 16:11 you'll learn about self-cleaning surfaces based on what is called the lotus effect, named after the lotus leaf. Companies are now producing paints, roof tiles, and coatings that mimic this effect to save billions in time and chemicals in keeping surfaces clean. The video is full of these practical examples which will stimulate your thinking about how nature can inform your company.

Geoversity -- a unique 5-day Singularity U-like executive program, featuring Jay Harman and other top thinkers from Fortune, Harvard, Gehry, etc. is being hosted in Panama Feb 7 - 12. I'm co-chairing this program bringing together 40 leaders (already signed up includes the YPOer and CEO of Copa Airlines) to interact and immerse themselves in practical ways to apply nature's wisdom to office design, service delivery, organizational structure, teamwork, and product development. Apply here.

Business Person of the Year (3 Pillars of Success) -- and this person is using biomimicry principles to design his new headquarters - Mark Zuckerberg. Only 32 years old, he's built Facebook into a $375 billion worth company with $22 billion in profit and 1.8 billion users (that's a lot of billions). Take 7 minutes to watch (2 minutes) and read (5 minutes) this Fortune article titled "How to Lead Like Zuck." Again, two words are associated with Mark - focused and disciplined. Notes Adam Lashinsky:

An examination of Zuckerberg's management approach reveals that his success rests on three pillars: his unique ability to look into the future, his otherworldly consistency, and the business discipline he has nurtured in an industry quite often enamored of bright, shiny objects.

Further notes Lashinsky:

Facebook's CEO attributes his management technique to his training as an engineer. "For me engineering comes down to two real principles," he told a group of Nigerian software developers this summer. The "engineering mind-set," he said, dictates thinking "of every problem as a system" and breaking down problems "from the biggest stage down to smaller pieces."

I'm only scratching the surface of this article. Take time this weekend to absorb what one of Fortune's best writers has extracted as important lessons from the Business Person of the Year.

ScaleUpU Launches Next Week -- our plan to bring scaleup eco-systems to 150 cities around the globe kicks off next week in Kansas City with the Kauffman Foundation during Global Entrepreneurship Week. We're looking for successful entrepreneurs who have deep connections (media, mayor, etc.) who would like to lead this initiative in their city. We already have leaders in cities ranging from Taipei to Moscow to Amsterdam to Raleigh - over a dozen coming on board in the next 12 months. Let me know [email protected]

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.

Coach John Wooden; Cyberattack Update; 7 Lessons Learned; Job Scorecard Sample

"...insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

Update on Cyber Attack (PLEASE READ) -- below are a few very simple, yet critical, things all companies must do to prevent being defrauded like me - I feel so foolish, but first...

Leadership Lessons from a Championship Coach -- Coach John Wooden was one of the winningest Coaches in sports history, but his greatest achievements actually happened off the court. Coach Wooden created a Pyramid of Success, a complete guide to leading yourself and others to a championship life. During his lifetime, Coach taught his Pyramid to high performing CEOs, shared his message with Fortune 500 companies, and mentored many of today's greatest leaders. Now, for the very first time, you can learn to apply his leadership lessons and create championships for your organization. Click here to learn more about a complimentary November 15 webinar hosted by SUCCESS Magazine.

Coaching Replaces Managing -- it's been a constant theme of mine in 2016. No one really wants managed anymore - data has replaced management. But we all need coaching. This is why I'm excited about my dear friend Stuart Johnson's (owner of SUCCESS Magazine) upcoming program he's created with some of the top players and influencers surrounding Coach Wooden. Stuart does everything first class, so expect the same from the webinar and program.

Right Players -- and critical to "championships" is recruiting. Two specific articles/blog posts this week by Scaling Up fans/practitioners provide some excellent details around attracting and hiring the right people. The first is by Sukesh Das, Founder & Chief Editor of hrmanagementleaders.com. He opens with the 3 reasons standard job descriptions end up attracting the WRONG talent (he nailed it!). Then he goes on to detail the creation of a Job Scorecard along with an excellent example and sample Job Scorecard. The key is including the OUTCOMES you're wanting this person to achieve. His example really helps to clarify the whole process, worth the 1 minute to read. Thanks Sukesh.

Common Language -- coaches also create a common language to streamline communication. Besides emphasizing the importance of Topgrading in this Forbes article, David Schnurman, CEO Lawline (largest provider of online legal education), goes on to detail how implementing a common language completely transformed his growth firm. Specifically:

The overall consensus is that we have completely transformed by focusing on 3 major areas 1) transparency of information, 2) alignment of departments, and 3) active participation by creating a forum for employees to share their concerns or challenge without fear.

Please take 2 minutes to scan through David's article for more details. Thank you David.

Great Coaches Know When to Say No -- and my latest Huffington Post column highlights Scott Smigler's $9.4 million firm EXCLUSIVE Concepts which he founded when he was 16. Like all startups, he said yes to everything. But it was when he started saying no that the business scaled. Harder than it sounds, Scott details his thought process and how his firm has honed in on a specific buyer persona that's helped him break out of a very crowded e-commerce marketing space. He went on to establish 9 measures of an ideal client his sales team uses to evaluate each potential deal. Though he had to turn away 40-50% of business he would have taken earlier, the greater focus has actually sped up growth, though it wasn't easy in the transition. Please take 1 minute to read through the details.

Coaches Provide Sense of Security (PLEASE READ) -- ...and I failed. Wow, first, hundreds of you emailed and shared similar stories - this problem is rampant. And we hosted a roundtable of CEOs at the Growth Summit to further discuss. So what are the lessons:

1. I became cavalier/lax about security, thinking it couldn't happen to me. HUGE mistake - and something the hackers bank on - we're easy prey. Read Mark Goodman's bestseller Future Crimes if my experience didn't wake you up!
    
2. Assume ALL your email is being read - and with the "hole" announced yesterday in Microsoft Windows 10, giving hackers deep access (likely the source of my breach), I'm not sure you can keep email safe even using VPNs (strongly recommended, so I'm using more diligently when I travel).
    
3. I say MIGHT because we don't know. So I've taken the position of Google and I'm building all our financial and sensitive information protocols around one assumption - NO email is safe. I heard of many scams where invoices were intercepted and bank account info changed - so your payables department thinks it's paying a regular bill and wires the funds to the wrong account - ugh. One firm was defrauded $10 million this way.
    
4. So what do you do? It sucks, but ALL financial transactions are now reviewed by me via a PHONE call with TWO people. Then I have to take the time, via my CEO Portal, and use my dongle (key) to OK the transactions.
    
5. NO sensitive info is sent via email - account numbers, credit card numbers, etc. - I make a phone call.
    
6. ALL bank wire info included on invoices is varied by PHONE with the supplier we're paying before being entered into our CEO Portal for dual authentication approval. Once it's in the system, we then pay that vendor via that account - not what might be on a future invoice. And if they send a change of bank info, it's verified via a PHONE call to the vendor (verifying the phone number online).
    
7. Sadly - 90% of theft is an internal job! So build your protocols with this in mind as well. TWO people have to verify everything.

BTW, this is another use of the daily huddle - to verbally verify information. The short of it - you can't trust email, no matter what you do.

And please read J. Paul's email to me (figure the hackers already have!) - lots of additional info and stats around this cybersecurity problem. He shares how one company was defrauded $47 million in a similar scam to mine.

From: J.Paul Haynes [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, October 15, 2016 3:51 PM
To: Verne Harnish <[email protected]>
Subject: Sorry to hear the 400k hack story

Verne - it's been awhile since we talked. I think we were doing an Acetech event together. Looks like all is good on your end minus the hacking.

My firm eSentire is a cybersecurity as a service organization that I joined 6 yrs ago. So I feel your pain on the loss. There is even an acronym for it called business executive compromise (BEC). If you want to feel slightly less bad about it, check out the story on Ubiquity Networks where they lifted $47m = one quarters earnings using a similar technique.

We were doing 800k per year when I started 6 years ago. We will finish this year with committed SaaS revenue of $30m. We secure over $3.5 trillion of Wall Street assets in hedge funds, PE firms, broker dealers as well as law firms, hospitals and many others. Point is everybody needs help. Ransomware will be the biggest challenge we have had to face as it has the best of the nastiest methods all rolled into one.

Day one we adopted the one page plan and it has been the only management tool/thing that survived the growth. I use with new staff orientation and to get alignment. Call me old school - I like the retro version for us growing at 15-20% per quarter.

The reality is the government knows this is the single biggest threat to the US economy and we see the attack attempts 24x7 every single day. Mid-sized and emerging companies (majority of your subscribers) are the easy prey. Consider this - ransomware will generate $300m in Q4 alone - pays no taxes and outsources development. That leaves a lot of free cash to perfect their tradecraft. What a perfect business. And they probably stole the one-page plan to boot!

Anyways let me know if there is a way I can help.

J

J.Paul Haynes
CEO
eSentire Inc.
www.esentire.com
519.841.2495