The Agile Scaleup

49er’s Draft Values; 70% Market Share; AI Assistant; Sold Out

"...insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

ScaleUp Summit Sold Out -- however we still have LIVE streaming available for next week's May 23 - 24 Summit. Enjoy from the comfort of your office, conference room, or home. The next ScaleUp Summit is Oct 17 - 18, St. Louis - with a Scaling Up User Conference Oct 19. Mark your calendars.

Flexi Owns 70% Market Share -- of retractable dog leashes. Who would think one company dominates, but they do. They are what Hermann Simon calls a "Hidden Champion." He keynoted our Berlin ScaleUp Summit last week and this recent HBR article highlights the lessons learned from almost 3000 of these mainly privately held firms that dominate focused niches globally. BTW, the average tenure of a Hidden Champion CEO is 20 years vs. 7 year for Fortune 500 firms. And almost half are based in Germany, which the article explains why (other countries including the US should take note). Please take 2 minutes to read how to dominate your niche. And here's a link to Hermann's quick interview of me while in Berlin - he's really on top of social media at 71 years old.

AI Teaching Assistant -- Georgia Tech Professor Ashok Goel needed help - so he built an extra teaching assistant using artificial intelligence. Named Jill Watson, it is now 97% successful in answering student's basic questions. This frees up Professor Goel and his human assistants to address the tougher concerns. This Backchannel article goes on to explain advances Pearson and other education firms are making in adding AI to their online and offline offerings. But will AI be replacing teachers anytime soon? Notes Ashok:

..she's not ready to teach- or even take on all the responsibilities of a human TA. "To capture the full scope of what a human TA does, we're not months away or years away. We're decades, maybe centuries away, at least in my estimation," Goel says. "None of us (AI experts) thinks we're going to build a virtual teacher for 100 years or more."

Notes Tom Bemiller, CEO of Aureus Auto Body, who pointed me to the article:

It makes me think about how we could use AI to help teach our employees financial literacy, SOP training, and other internal education programs. Never thought about that before. Pretty cool stuff.

Please take 3 minutes to skim through the article and then continue to ponder how AI is going to assist your business.

49er's Draft Room Values -- below is an image from the San Francisco 49ers' draft room that articulates the "Core Values" they were looking for on draft day (from this article written by Peter King for MMQB). They separated them out into 2 categories: "Talent" and "Spirit". Thanks to Gazelles coach Matt Kuttler for sharing.

The key is to hire based more on core values than skill. Specifically, we think hiring should be based on four criteria in this order:

Will - do they have the desire to learn and win Values - will they fit your cultural norms Results - do they have a track record of delivering the outcomes you're seeking Skills - can they competently do the job

The Topgrading Scorecard does a great job of organizing and quantifying each of these parameters - then serves as an interview and evaluation guide. To learn how to "topgrade" check out this online course taken by thousands to learn how to interview and select A players.

Geekdom -- putting our registrations over the top was Geekdom. We have partnered with San Antonio leaders Graham Weston (former Rackspace CEO), Nick Longo and their Geekdom team to help support scaling of their member companies. We look forward to welcoming more than 50 leading companies and leaders from the Geekdom community next week at the ScaleUp Summit. Geekdom is a new kind of collaborative co-working space where Entrepreneurs, Technologists, Developers, Makers & Creatives help each other build businesses & other cool things together.

Next Insight June 1 -- with our ScaleUp Summit next week, I'll take a break from the insights. Next one June 1.

EXITING: Thinking about selling the business for $40 million or more? Want to get 25% to 200% more than you thought? Request the whitepaper from the Exit Strategies Summit at Harvard from Denise Richmond at (610) 299-6466 or email at [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:

Put your Critical Information in your POCKET
Click Here to Watch a video example.

Align Software runs your Rockefeller Habits in the cloud, anywhere, anytime! Have real time access to Huddles, Priorities, KPI's, Critical Numbers and more. Scale Up your Rockefeller Habits implementation with www.alignwithgazelles.com - on your computer, tablet or phone. $5.00 per month gets you started.

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.

3 New Books; Marketing Partners; Performance Based Leads; Culture is Everything; Multipliers Revised

"...insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES: (3 Book Deals)

Affiliate Marketing Goes Mainstream -- paying only for marketing that delivers results is the beauty of affiliate marketing. Once only a channel for internet marketers, affiliate marketing is going mainstream as major companies are finding a benefit in partnering with companies that have massive lists of customers likely to but their products/services and only paying a commission for those who purchase vs. renting a list or buying ads.

Performance Partnerships (Just $.99 this week) -- EOer Robert Glazer is one of the leaders in the affiliate marketing space and just published a book this week called Performance Partnerships: The Checkered Past, Changing Present and Exciting Future of Affiliate Marketing. This week the Kindle version is just $.99, so grab a copy. GPro and book club members will receive a copy of his book. Robert is also keynoting our fall ScaleUp Summit Oct 17 - 18, St. Louis.

Culture is Everything (Free Chapter 1) -- Tristan White, founder of The Physio Co (8 time Best Places to Work winner in Australia), has pre-released his first book titled Culture Is Everything: The Story And System Of A Start-Up That Became Australia's Best Place To Work. Tristan details a repeatable set of rituals that he and his team have created over 13 years which makes the complex task of building a strong culture much simpler. He's even broken it down to a checklist for you to follow. If you are an entrepreneur or leader and want to build a strong culture, then read this book for a practical case study in how it's accomplished. Chapter 1 is free to download.

New Edition of Multipliers (Free Webinar if Ordered by May 20) -- Liz Wiseman's breakthrough leadership book which created a new language inside companies - multipliers and diminishers - has released a significantly updated edition. Order by May 20 and you'll be invited to a free webinar with Liz. Here's the new content (Liz's voice):

1. A new chapter on how to deal with Diminishers and minimize their impact on yourself and others.(chapter 8) - This is the main reason I wrote the new edition - readers were desperate for strategies for dealing with the inevitable Diminishers in their lives.
    
2. A new chapter on the ways that well-intended leaders become "Accidental Diminishers." (chapter 7) - This is a double click on the most popular idea in the book and where most of the learning/tractions is for executives.
    
3. A new section on how to effect lasting cultural change inside corporations. (in chapter 9) - this is a huge issue for mid-sized high growth companies.
    
4. A set of tools to enable managers to put the ideas into action (Appendix E) - We are giving away a core part of the training, which helps SMB be self sufficient in developing their leaders.
    
5.  Several new case studies of Multiplier leaders (throughout)
    
6. A preface that describes the changing landscape of management and why leaders can and must get more from their talent (pages xvii - xxii) -- a short overview of what I've learned since 2010 and an overview of what's in the new edition.

Three Summits This Week -- the insight is short because we're hosting three European ScaleUp Summits - Amsterdam, Berlin, and Barcelona this week.

EXITING: Thinking about selling the business for $40 million or more? Want to get 25% to 200% more than you thought? Request the whitepaper from the Exit Strategies Summit at Harvard from Denise Richmond at (610) 299-6466 or email at [email protected]

TECHNOLOGY:

Put your Critical Information in your POCKET
Click Here to Watch a video example.

Align Software runs your Rockefeller Habits in the cloud, anywhere, anytime! Have real time access to Huddles, Priorities, KPI's, Critical Numbers and more. Scale Up your Rockefeller Habits implementation with www.alignwithgazelles.com - on your computer, tablet or phone. $5.00 per month gets you started.

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.

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.

Mark Cuban’s Weekly Report; Screaming Emails; Cracking Jokes; Julie’s Olive Oil Won

"...insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

Perhaps the secret of living well is not in having all the answers but in pursuing unanswerable questions in good company.
	Rachel Naomi Remen

First full day as Twitter COO tomorrow. Task #1: undermine CEO, consolidate power.
	Dick Costolo, the night before he joined Twitter as chief operations officer

Julie's Olive Oil Won -- Veritat olive oil, my wife's antioxidant superfood (I take two tablespoons per day) which she is bringing to the US from Spain, did well in her first NY Olive Oil Competition. More below, but first...

Mark Cuban's Weekly Report -- Bob Hubbard, co-founder of Hubbard Family Swim School (four clubs and 7000 children per week), reached out to Mark Cuban this week to inquire about the weekly report he referenced when he keynoted our Fortune Summit. As expected, Mark's response (neat that he replied) was short and to the point:

The format is easy I want all bad news first Challenges and issues you need my help with second That's it

Notes Hubbard, "I love his line that says: 'issues you need my help with' -- love the specificity --- and the invitation to ask for help."

Power of Pride at Facebook -- working with Wharton prof Adam Grant, Facebook's HR team wanted to understand what was at the heart of employee engagement. What they found is pride. Note's the team in this FastCompany article:

Having seen how important pride in the company is, we sat down to figure out where it comes from. When we analyzed our survey questions, three main factors predicted pride:      Optimism: How much do people believe in the company's future?   Mission: How much do people care about the company's vision and goals?   Social good: How confident are people that the company is making the world a better place?

Take 3 minutes to read the details, which just reinforces the power of a BHAG, Purpose, and alignment. Thanks to Pelle Tornell, ScaleUp Partners in Stockholm, for sharing this article.

Scream Your Emails -- Got a tricky email to send? Writing to someone that you know to be overly emotional at times? Simon, Chief Adventurist for Australia-based tour company Inspiration Outdoors, shared with me a communication strategy a former boss/mentor taught him. Notes Simon:

Here is a trick that I teach my staff. Scream your emails. Once you have finished writing your email, read it back to yourself in your head, but scream/yell it to yourself. If it sounds confrontational in this "voice", rewrite it. You never know what emotional state someone will be in when they receive your email. They might have just lost a big client, maybe a troubled call from home. By screaming the email to yourself, you can see the most extreme interpretation your reader could take of your tone.

If the email sounds non-confrontational and maybe even a little bit silly in this screaming voice, you have an email that can't be misinterpreted as confrontational. And extra tip: bookend your email with a genuine thank you. It's almost impossible to scream thank you without sounding ridiculous. FYI, Simon was kind to note in his email to me "we are scaling up thanks to your community of thinkers." Simon, thanks.

Successful CEOs Do Four Things -- a 10-year study using the ghSmart's Topgrading interview data for 17,000 leaders found that successful CEOs do four things:

1. Decide with speed and conviction
2. Engage for impact
3. Adapt proactively
4. Deliver reliably

Please take 4 minutes to read through the important details for each of these four attributes - or one minute to at least look at the first one. Deciding quickly, even if wrong, was better than waiting. Indecision is a killer.

Community of Thinkers -- Barrett Ersek, founder/CEO of Holganix, sent me the opening quote above. Noted Barrett in his email to me:

I saw this quote this morning and thought of you. It's all about asking the right question in good company...and that's the power of your ScaleUp Summits. Exposing us to great content so it spurs the right question and being surrounded by our teams and other like-minded companies is the "good company" she references.

Barrett, thank you - and see you in San Antonio May 23 - 24.

Cracking Jokes Makes You Seem More Competent -- and the second quote above came from this HBR article on the impact of humor. Research shows that those who crack appropriate jokes are seen as more competent - and the jokes don't even have to be good!

Julie's Olive Oil -- 910 olive oils from around the world entered the New York International Olive Oil Competition (NYIOOC), including165 from Spain in four categories. As the newcomer in her highly competitive category of arbequina olive oils, her olive oil Veritat (it's now shipping - order here) brought home Silver. Congrats honey.

EXITING: Thinking about selling the business for $40 million or more? Want to get 25% to 200% more than you thought? Request the whitepaper from the Exit Strategies Summit at Harvard from Denise Richmond at (610) 299-6466 or email at [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:

Need some ACCOUNTABILITY in your business?
Click Here to Watch a video example.

Align Software is Automatic Accountability for all your business priorities. Know where your business stands in real time and create urgency for the important. Scale Up your Rockefeller Habits implementation with www.alignwithgazelles.com - on your computer, tablet or phone. $5.00 per month gets you started.

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.