The Agile Scaleup

Jobs' Last Product; Being Out Loud; PulsePoint's 3HAG; 2018 CEO Boot Camp Dates

"...insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

Steve Jobs' Final Product -- in the first 15 seconds of this 2-minute promotional video I share what was Steve Jobs final "product" - the one he knew would be crucial to sustaining his company after his death (crossing the $800 billion market cap line as of yesterday). More below, but first...

2018 CEO Boot Camp Dates -- dates have been set for 2018, more below but second...

Power of Talking Out Loud to Yourself -- most of us are familiar with the power of self-talk, but studies show that talking out loud is much more powerful than just self-talk in your head. Notes this NY Times article:

Beyond motivational self-talk, talking to yourself out loud in an instructional way can speed up cognitive abilities in relation to problem-solving and task performance.

And to take off some pressure, it's often better to talk in the second or third person i.e. "you can do this" or "Jane can do this" vs. "I can do this." Please take 2 minutes to scan down through the article for more examples, including performance on the basketball court (for you sporting types).

Talking to Yourself Out Loud, Part 2 -- if you would like more business application of this idea, HBR reported on the same research geared to the workplace. For me this research reinforces the power of the daily huddle (or nightly dinner with family), getting people to verbalize their activities, priorities, and most importantly, their stucks/constraints. Upping the talk time around the goals of the organization makes their achievement easier and more real. It's a lengthier article, but worth the 4 minutes of insight.

PulsePoint's BHAG (Gazelles case study) -- my latest Huffington Post article details how CEO Sloan Gaon's BHAG is scaling NYC-based PulsePoint into a Fortune 1000 public company and onto Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For list. This means driving revenue to $1 billion, from $120 million in 2016. With 143 employees, his digital media firm has been utilizing Scaling Up since 2012 and has engaged serial entrepreneurs Rich Manders and Wayne Ferrari as coaches (Gazelles certified).

PulsePoint's 3HAG -- borrowing an idea from another coaching partner Shannon Susko, Manders and Ferrari have Gaon utilizing the power of a 3HAG -- a highly achievable but very ambitious set of three-year goals. Notes Gaon:

It is far enough out into the future that it forces you to think big but close enough that you can see the way.

Please take two-minutes to read the details of PulsePoint's 3HAG - a fun term for the 3 - 5 year Key Thrusts/Capabilities on the One-Page Strategic Plan. Do you have clearly delineated the three to five key priorities for the next 3 - 5 years? They do serve as basecamps on the way to your Everest (BHAG).

2018 CEO Boot Camp Dates -- Oct 2017 and Jan 2018 are sold out. But we have dates for the balance of 2018 (below). Limited to 10 CEOs, it's an opportunity to spend 3.5 days with me and serial entrepreneur John Ratliff in small group and one-on-one time. Here are the rest of the dates in 2018 (starts Tuesday 6pm and ends Friday 1:30pm):

April 3 - 6 May 29 - June 1 Oct 2 - 5

For details www.ceo-bootcamp.com or email me at [email protected] with questions.

Steve Jobs' Final Product -- if you've watched the video, you know. And to help you create the same kind of opportunity to grow your employees, we have ScaleUp Summits (mini-universities) twice a year - the next one is Oct 17 - 18, St. Louis where we'll host multi-billionaire Sam Zell (his book is a great summer read); the hottest new biz writer on the scene, Ryan Holiday; The Master Coach Gregg Thomson; plus myself and a half-dozen other best-selling authors. You and your team's chance to out-learn the competition.

Priority Seating Deadline Tomorrow -- we're expecting 1200 CEOs and CXOs in St. Louis. To get the equivalent of "orchestra" seating -- the front-third of the room -- register by tomorrow, Friday 28 July.

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:

Create Accountability – Drive Execution
Click Here to Watch a video example.

Align is your cloud based business operating system designed to keep you on your path to executing your goals. 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, 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.

Beer Supporter?; Powerful Influencers; Need Free Advisor?; Global 500 Stats

"...insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

When you have an influencer that has 30 million followers, 20 million, five million-that's more powerful than any of the other traditional media outlets out there.
	Mike Heller, CEO Talent Resources

Fortune's Global 500 -- the list was released today. With $485 billion in revenue Walmart still tops the list for the 4th year in a row. Notes Fortune's Alan Murray:

But that doesn't mean the giant retailer can sit on its laurels. Amazon is on an epic tear up the list, moving to 22nd this year from 44th the year before and 340th at the start of the decade. Then there's Alibaba, which broke onto the list for the first time this year, at No. 462. Alibaba already claims that it sells more products than Walmart. But because it doesn't take those products into inventory, the sales aren't fully counted as revenue, leaving the Chinese competitor with reported revenues that are roughly one twentieth of Walmart's.

How Do You Compare? - Notes Fortune:

The world's 500 largest companies generated $27.7 trillion in revenues and $1.5 trillion in profits in 2016. Together, this year's Fortune Global 500 companies employ 67 million people worldwide and are represented by 34 countries.

Doing the math, the Global 500 averaged 5.4% profit and a whopping $413,000 revenue/employee in 2016. How do you compare? Pick a few firms off the list that are in your industry space. You should be 3 - 5x their profitability, but lucky if you're a third their revenue/employee. The key is making progress on both these key metrics. Here's a link to the full list that also allows you to sort by profit, industry, etc.

Influencer Marketing -- even big firms are recognizing the importance of teaming with bloggers, YouTubers, even celebrity pets! This Fortune article notes:

Influencer marketing capitalizes on social media's reach, by paying Internet celebrities of varied levels of fame-including pets-to tout products in their social media accounts to their followers. It's gaining popularity among brands who would rather not shell out for the relatively inefficient and hard-to-measure traditional advertising tactics. Even Internet behemoth Amazon is looking to recruit influencers with its recently launched "social influencer" program.

Please take 2 minutes to read this insightful article and then watch the short interview with Mike Heller, CEO of Talent Resources (dumb name), one of the leading firms in helping companies connect with influencers. Then identify the top 5 and 25 influencers (or become one yourself) and begin to connect with them. It's a highly measurable approach to effective marketing in any industry.

Why This Tech CEO Hires Humanity Majors -- this Fast Company article highlights why Michael Litt, cofounder and CEO of the video marketing platform Vidyard, is looking to the arts and humanities to power his business. Explains Litt, "People will never embrace your product if you don't understand their motivations and needs -what excites them or annoys them to tears." To help him gain these insights and make up for gaps in his formal education as an engineer, Litt notes:

I've started reading psychology and philosophy books with an eye toward better understanding human behavior, which is key for any successful entrepreneur (or person, for that matter).

Scaling a company ultimately requires, to quote Litt "...instinct, critical thinking, and a deeply contextual understanding of human nature." As such, Litt is hiring more fine arts majors who have gained tech skills to help him build products that people really want. Please take 2 minutes to scan down through the article for details.

Looking for a Free Advisor? -- are you $50 million to $500 million in revenue and looking for advisors? A dear friend, early client, and entrepreneur who scaled a B2B business and sold to one of the Global 500 firms today is one of the top leaders of a $40 billion organization. On the side, he would like to find one company, preferable in the Mid-Atlantic region, that is looking for an advisor for a few years, especially in the area of customer service/strategy. No charge - just a willingness to engage, learn, and execute. He plans to retire in a few years and wants to exercise his entrepreneurial muscles advising a firm that wants to grow aggressively.

Want to Support Beer? -- Jim Koch, founder of Boston Beer (Samuel Adams brand of beers), has been supporting/advising entrepreneurs wanting to get into the craft brewing business. To raise funds for Brewing the American Dream a unique 12 pack from 5 different brewers, who have benefited from coaching by the Sam Adams team, has been assembled and is for sale. All profits go to support loans to food and beverage entrepreneurs in the US (food is the next internet, as Kimbal Musk has stated).

The Brewing the American Dream collaboration 12-pack is now available nationwide with limited availability for an SRP of $16.99-19.99. For more information and specifics on the brews included, visit www.brewingtheamericandream.com/collabpack.

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:

Create Accountability – Drive Execution
Click Here to Watch a video example.

Align is your cloud based business operating system designed to keep you on your path to executing your goals. 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, 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.

Zell's Angels; Leading Countries; Samsung Surpasses Apple; High Stakes Negotiations Course

"...insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

If everyone is going left, look right.
	Billionaire Sam Zell

High Stakes Negotiation -- Northwestern U professor Dr. Victoria Medvec's next accredited online course is launching. More below, but first...

Free Starbucks Tea Friday 1pm - 2pm -- Customers in North America can try a complimentary Tall (12 fluid-ounce) Teavana Shaken Iced Tea Infusion during "Free Tea Friday" on July 14 from 1-2 p.m. Maybe a great time to grab a drink and read the rest of the insights! Enjoy.

Am I Being Too Subtle? - this is the title of maverick entrepreneur and negotiator Sam Zell's autobiography. Subtitled Straight Talk from a Business Rebel this is THE business biography for 2017 (I just finished it this past weekend). Always the contrarian, he details why he turned down an offer to purchase the World Trade Center a few months before 9/11. Known as the Grave Dancer, he shares his formula for spotting bargain real estate and companies - and how he negotiates the deals. Someone who started wearing jeans to work in the 60s, he explains how he established a strong culture that allures and keeps team members fiercely loyal for decades. SPro and book club members will get a copy next week.

Zell's Angels -- Sam also believes in having fun. A motorcycle enthusiast, he and his friends (Zell's Angels) take a ride someone around the world each year. Someone who keeps ducks at his office, his annual music box gifts, with custom lyrics highlighting current affairs, are legendary. And every few years his birthday party is an intellectual and musical fest not to be missed as everyone figures out a clever way to wear the mandatory t-shirt. Having taken many companies public, his roadshow t-shirts are also classics. Zell will be our "celebrity CEO" at the fall  ScaleUp Summit in Collaboration with Fortune - Oct 17 - 18 St. Louis. In the meantime, grab a copy of his book and pick up some important ideas for scaling your business.

Which Countries are Leading Digitally -- Sam Zell is a trend watcher - and uses this information, like Warren Buffett, to know where to invest or buy around the globe. This HBR article has an info-graph that shows which countries are leading and lagging digitally. Didn't surprise me that Portugal is in the "stand out" section - it's one of the first countries to also embrace our ScaleUpU initiative with the launch of 20 impressive scaleups a couple months ago. The graph has informed me where we might want to launch next - what about you?

Nona Creative's Quarterly Theme -- Ed O'Reilly, Founder of Nona Creative, a Cape Town, South Africa-based digital studio, has his team focused on billable production this quarter. The first photo shows the digital scoreboard he's created that keeps the team updated real time (as of today they are just R29k behind - roughly $2k). The second photo provides context for where he has this posted - in a place everyone can see. Do you have your quarterly theme decided, tracked, and visible?

Samsung's Profit Surpasses Apple's -- fun fact for weekend conversations - Samsung's quarterly profit will surpass Apple's for the first time in the smartphone era. This Telegraph article provides the details and a historic graph as Samsung's quarterly profits top $12 billion while Apple is expected to report just over $10 billion.

Trust the Company; Not the CEO -- and a second sobering fact for the weekend. Notes Alan Murray, President of Fortune:

...an interesting poll unveiled at last week's Aspen Ideas Festival by Burson-Marsteller and polling firm PSB found 59% of Americans say they trust corporations, which they see as having a more positive impact on their lives than the federal government. But at the same time, 61% view the business executives who run those corporations unfavorably. Something for CEOs to ponder. The full results are here.

High Stakes Negotiation -- how do you "win" while strengthening the relationship.
Every executive, leader, and manager needs to know how to negotiate, as negotiations both internally and externally take place within every role and company. In the next "High Stakes Negotiations Master Class" Dr. Victoria Medvec and her team are going to help you assess your current skills, develop new strategies and thus improve your negotiation capabilities. During this accredited program, you will learn new negotiation strategies and how to directly apply them with case-based exercises all under a safe but challenging learning environment. To learn more about the course please contact Juan Gonzalez at [email protected] or call him at (512) 773 5465. Note: This program has a maximum capacity of 30 students and already has 21 executives registered.

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:

Create Accountability – Drive Execution
Click Here to Watch a video example.

Align is your cloud based business operating system designed to keep you on your path to executing your goals. 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, 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.

Bezos’ Insight; Gladwell’s Omission; Mind-Hack; Two Resilience Questions; CEO Boot Camp

"...insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

Jeff Bezos' Insights -- this 1997 5-minute interview shows how Amazon's founder recognized a significant trend and then conceived the best business to take advantage of the current situation. This is precisely the idea behind the SWT tool (Strengths, Weaknesses, and Trends). Just the first 30 seconds is worth a watch - then let the rest of the interview flow while you read the rest of this insight and work on some email. I love when an entrepreneur understands the various levers of their business the way Bezos articulates his business model. Thank you to TicketCity founder/CEO (and author of Secrets of Swagger) Randy Cohen for sharing the love.

You Should "Slack" More -- seems Malcolm Gladwell left out a significant fact with his 10,000 hours to mastery idea. The opening paragraph of this insightful Nautilus article notes:

Figures as different as Charles Dickens, Henri Poincare, and Ingmar Bergman, working in disparate fields in different times, all shared a passion for their work, a terrific ambition to succeed, and an almost superhuman capacity to focus. Yet when you look closely at their daily lives, they only spent a few hours a day doing what we would recognize as their most important work. The rest of the time, they were hiking mountains, taking naps, going on walks with friends, or just sitting and thinking. Their creativity and productivity, in other words, were not the result of endless hours of toil. Their towering creative achievements result from modest "working" hours.

Research seems clear that working more hours dramatically decreases creativity. And since this is our only real future advantage over AI/robots, predictions of 16-hour work weeks might just be what the doctor ordered! If you can truly put in a focused amount of time on a significant task/project/idea each day, 3 to 4 hours is max (like Olympic athletes). BTW, this is precisely how modern entrepreneurs like Richard Branson structure their days. Please take 5 minutes to read one of the most important articles written so far in 2017.

Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less - the Nautilus article is an excerpt from Alex Soojung-Kim Pang's book titled Rest. He is also the founder of the Restful Company and is a visiting scholar at Stanford. Notes Pang at the end of the article, which explains the headline from above:

This is how we've come to believe that world-class performance comes after 10,000 hours of practice. But that's wrong. It comes after 10,000 hours of deliberate practice, 12,500 hours of deliberate rest, and 30,000 hours of sleep.

So maybe it's not the 4-hour work week as much as it is the 4-hour work day. But it means shutting off the email/noise and getting some real work accomplished - and then being as deliberate in relaxing/resting. Again, please take a few minutes and read this hugely insightful article. With our move back to the US (today) I'm going to take this opportunity to rearrange my workdays accordingly and find more time for biking, tennis, piano, and magic - and will be asking my peer coach Sebastian Ross to hold me accountable to this (you have a peer coach, right?). Thanks to Gazelles coaching partner Terry Schaefer for pointing me to this article.

Two Questions to Build Resilience -- it's also critical not to let the world get you down in the process. This HBR article highlights two questions to build your resilience to life's ups and downs. Notes Srikumar Rao, author of Happiness at Work and the hugely popular MBA course (called the best in the world) titled "Creativity and Personal Mastery":

...is it possible that what you are about to label a bad thing today could, at some point in the future, turn out to have been a good thing? If so, why be in a hurry to label it bad? Just asking yourself the question "Is there any possible way in which this could actually turn out to be good?" presents a realm of possibility. And if you take the question one more step and ask "What can I do to make this happen?" you will find avenues opening up that you may never have conceived of before.

The article ends with a 3-step process to cultivate a new mode of thinking about bad things. Please take 1 minute to jump to the end and review.

Michael Singer's Lesson -- serial entrepreneur John Ratliff and I hosted another great group of CEOs at our CEO Boot Camp a few weeks ago. And we once again hopped on some private planes and made the trip up to hear The Untethered Soul author Michael Singer speak. Noted one of his "students" during the Q&A time - when bad things happen to you try re-scripting your mode of thinking from "why did this happen TO me" to "why did this happen FOR me." What are the lessons I'm supposed to learn? What do I need to release? For me this simple reframe has been powerful. FYI, the next CEO Boot Camp is Oct 3 - 6 (Tuesday evening through Friday afternoon) in Marathon, FL at John's beautiful retreat center - and we'll be flying up to hear Michael as well on Thursday. Bob Verdun, who just sold his firm, will be one of our guest entrepreneurs and he's bringing along one of his toys for us to play with as well!

Oops -- several of you caught my mistake last week. Chris Zook's book, which I referenced, is called The Founder's Mentality. It's my other friend Noam Wasserman who has an excellent book called The Founder's Dilemmas (do you want to be "king" or be "rich"?). Noam recently moved from Harvard Business School, where he’s taught since 2003, to USC where he is the Founding Director of USC's Founder Central Initiative which researches issues and decision making faced by founders in the early stages of startups. Noam continues to contribute practical ideas to help entrepreneurs.

Back in the US of A -- today is our big move back to the US after 8 years in Barcelona. My wife Julie's olive oil business and our daughter Jade's body butter business are two reasons. Plus the epi-center of the biz world has shifted back west - in anticipation of the repatriation of trillions back to the US economy, so it will mean less trips across the pond for me. We're settling in Wilmington, DE and look forward to connecting more often with our North American friends.

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:

Create Accountability – Drive Execution
Click Here to Watch a video example.

Align is your cloud based business operating system designed to keep you on your path to executing your goals. 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, 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.