The Agile Scaleup

2nd Slide Customers; AI Canvas; Mulally's 4 Decisions; Italy July 13

"...insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

Never attribute to malice that which is more easily explained by stupidity.
	Hanlon's Razor (shared by Tim Ferriss)

Inaugural Workshop Italy - July 13th Bologna -- with Scaling Up recently published in Italian, Gazelles coaching partner Ed Capaldi is hosting our first one-day workshop in Italy (taught in English).

Click Here to register and download the Scaling Up Workshop Agenda
Time: 9AM-5PM
Where: Bologna, Just Bologna, Corte Isolani 4/C

AI Canvas Example -- Avi Goldfarb, co-author of Prediction Machines, walked our ScaleUp Summit attendees last week through their AI Canvas - a one-page tool for thinking through how to practically use machine learning in your business. This HBR article takes you through their AI Canvas using a real-world example. Please take 2 minutes to read then set aside 90 minutes with your team to think through your next AI application (next planning session?). PLEASE TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY! If you don't some 20-year-old will, and put you out of business. In fact, find a 20-year old and have them lead this initiative inside your firm.

Artificial Intelligence: An Executive Primer -- or you can travel to Toronto and attend a 1.5-day executive course (no technical background required) hosted by Avi Goldfarb and his colleagues. They will help you discern the specific place in your business where better prediction, using machine learning, will give you the biggest bang for your buck. For Gazelles it's better predicting which firms in our database are more likely to engage with us more deeply. Then once you know what you need predicted, you then Google for a firm that has a solution. The dates:

September 26-27, 2018 December 17-18, 2018

Course description and registration is here.

Find Only "2nd Slide" Customers -- Jeff Hoffman (Priceline.com, uBid, etc.) was our closing keynote at the ScaleUp Summit last week (to a roaring standing ovation). Later he shared an insightful sales story. He went out on some calls with his sales person. The first potential client took diligent notes during the sales person's 20 slide presentation. At the end the client shared that he found the solution promising and would get back to them, which the sales person thought was a positive response (but no sale!). During the second sales call, the prospect stopped the sales person on slide #2 and exclaimed "where have you been all my life, we need this!" and a sale was made. Jeff's point with his team - "let's identify more 2nd slide prospects" and not waste our time with other prospects.

2nd Slide Part 2 -- to identify these prospects, Jeff's team then asks a lot of questions of these 2nd slide prospects to determine if there are any patterns of issues, interests, etc. that might give them a clue i.e. help them predict who is more likely to buy or not. Adele Revella's book Buyer Personas: How to Gain Insight into your Customer's Expectations, Align your Marketing Strategies, and Win More Business gives you a precise process and set of questions to help you discern the specific traits of these 2nd slide customers. Then it's up to marketing to use this data (and possibly machine learning) to identify the best prospects for your sales people to pursue.

How Alan Mulally Saved Ford with Four Simple Decisions -- Gazelles coach Bill Flynn wrote an insightful and short blog aligning CEO Alan Mulally's four key decisions in driving success at Boeing and Ford with our 4 Decisions - People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash. Note's Bill:

(American Icon book excerpt) On November 14, (2006) as he was finalizing his presentation for the board, Mulally finally managed to distill everything down to four simple points: 1 Aggressively restructure to operate profitably at the current demand and changing model mix. (EXECUTION) 2 Accelerate development of new products our customers want and value. (STRATEGY) 3 Finance our plan and improve our balance sheet. (CASH) 4 Work together effectively as one team. (PEOPLE)

That's how it's done. Short and simple - then make it happen. Please take 1 minute to read the details in Bill's article.

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? Contact us at [email protected] for more information or visit https://scalingup.com/coaches.html.

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.

Cool Drink; New Records Set; InfoTrust; ExO June 5

"...insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

The two biggest market opportunities on earth, which 98% of us suck at...?
	Tom Peters

...and the Answer Is? -- go to 1:44 in this video overview of the ScaleUp Summit this week in New Orleans to get the answer -- in Tom Peters' iconic style. Then enjoy the rest. Tom Peters, Linda McMahon, Judith Glaser, and Jeff Hoffman all received standing ovations from our packed ballroom of CEOs and CXOs of the top mid-market firms in the world. Our next ScaleUp Summit, is Oct 16 - 17, Denver. Please pencil us in for another impactful executive education program for you and your team. Outlearn the competition!

Happy National Wine Day (and Memorial Day Weekend in the US) -- and to kick off the summer season in the Northern Hemisphere, this Fortune article reports that the drink expected to sweep the season is white port and tonic. Contributing to this drink's popularity is the dramatic increase in tourists to Portugal. Porto and the Douro wine region are stunningly beautiful.

Fortune 500 by the Numbers -- here's some fun facts - besides the cool new drink -- for weekend conversations. According to Fortune's latest numbers released this week:

This year's Fortune 500 crop grew sales by 6% over last year, to $12.8 trillion, and their profits jumped some 13%, to $1 trillion.

Market cap jumped 11% to $21.6 trillion. These numbers represent an average 7.8% profitability. And with a combined 28.2 million employees this puts average revenue/employee at $453,901 (vs. $126,000 for mid-market firms)! Brand which gives pricing power - plus better process/technology - is what gives these large firms their much greater efficiency in generating revenue. It's why you MUST own a large portion of a narrow niche to give you the same pricing power. Then look across your functions to improve process.

Wal-Mart, Apple Top Lists -- Wal-Mart finally passed the half trillion-dollar revenue mark; while Apple remained the most profitable at $48.35 billion on $229 billion in revenue (21.1% profit margin). This gives Apple a profit/employee of over $390k - wow! Wal-Mart is also the largest employer with over 2.3 million employees. Amazon is #2 with a mere 566,000. This link will let you drill down into the list - always worth looking at the leaders in your marketspace and understanding their ratios in comparison.

Amazing Culture of Fast Growing Company in the US -- one of the regular attendees at our ScaleUp Summits is Alex Yastrebenetsky and his team at InfoTrust. This Inc. article highlights how this "best place to work" firm has created a powerful organizational culture which drives their growth. It specifically details five areas:

1. Initial "Benefits" Of Working for The Company
2. The Goal Is to Remove All "Life Friction" So Employees Can Focus at Work
3. Unique Parental Leave Policy
4. 50/50 Workforce of Men and Women
5. Having a "Vivid Vision" and Clearly Communicating That Vision To All Employees

Please take 2 minutes to read through the specifics for each of these important actions that have created InfoTrust's culture. Thank you to Arnie Malham, Better Book Club, for sharing this article with me - and noting how what Alex is doing aligns so perfectly to the many insights Tom Peters shared with us in New Orleans. Congrats Alex and great seeing you and the team this week.

Have a Great Weekend!

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? Contact us at [email protected] for more information or visit https://scalingup.com/coaches.html.

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’s Grandfather Quote; Where to Get Talent; MTP; Rockefeller Update

"...insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

You're going to figure out one day that it's harder to be kind than clever.
	Jeff Bezos's grandfather

ScaleUp Workshops in June -- 5th Mexico City, 5th Los Angeles, 7th Melbourne, 14th Phoenix. For more info.

Conscious Capitalism Conference Barcelona July 9 -- here's a link to the outstanding program in a beautiful city. Early bird of 250€ available until the 25th of May. And I'm looking forward to keynoting their CEO Summit in the fall - hope to see you there. It's this approach to business that makes your company a magnet for talent.

People Challenges -- with unemployment effectively at zero, my survey of mid-market firms puts "People" at the top of the list. Two options: get much more productive using process improvement approaches, focusing on getting gross margin dollars per employee way up. Most mid-market firms could double revenue without adding any headcount if processes were cleaned up. Check out Paul Akers' 2-second Lean videos on YouTube.

Over 60 Workforce -- the other option is finding more unique ways to tap into talent. At London Business School, where I lectured a couple weeks ago, adjunct professor Tammy Erickson suggested that tapping into the over 60 age group is a hugely viable option. It's not just the millennials that are joining the gig economy - and this older age group is very loyal and packed with wisdom if you can give them project work that lets them keep a flexible lifestyle.

Millennials in the Gig Economy -- this Deloitte white paper notes that a "recent 2017 study reports that overall self-employment is likely to triple to 42 million workers by 2020, with millennials leading the way." It goes on to highlight 6 trends:

1. The proportion of women in the millennial alternative workforce is shrinking, possibly because more millennial women than men are going back to school.
2. The proportion of household income millennials receive from alternative work is increasing.
3. Most alternative millennial workers make less than their traditional full-time employed counterparts.
4. Millennial alternative workers are often supported by someone else in their household.
5. Alternative millennial workers are more likely to find jobs in the arts, maintenance, and administrative professions.
6. Alternative millennial workers appear to be more likely to break the rules, have emotional agility, and work hard.

The whitepaper goes on to provide details for each of these trends and how you might tap into them to capture this talent for your firm. And check out Figure 7 in the whitepaper - it shows the occupations most likely benefitting from this workforce - worth clicking on the link and scrolling down. It's a lengthy report, but worth reading if talent is your main constraint.

Rockefeller Update -- the Rockefellers continue to set records. Notes this Fortune article:

The treasures of Peggy and David Rockefeller set an auction record for the most valuable private collection when they went under the hammer last week. The total of the 1,500 objects and artwork sold at Christie's after a ten day online sale and three day auction reached $832.6 million.

Massive Transformative Purpose (MTP) -- Last week I shared the 11 attributes of companies growing exponentially. This week, Salim Ismail goes deeper with the first foundational element: MTPs. A Massive Transformative Purpose is more than a tagline. A strong MTP forces your mind to break all the old models about how to achieve a task. An MTP does not change often, but it inspires change and innovation within your team. Because of this, it pushes you to think outside your own constraints and create a new model to support exponential growth. The best thing of all is that Salim and his team have developed a simple and very human process to build your MTP. Click here to get the 3-step process for building your own MTP.

Jeff Bezos Interview -- the quote above came from this extensive 48-minute Business Insider interview. And there's a transcript you can scan. Grab your favorite beverage and enjoy this weekend. Thanks to Steve Hall, DriversSelect.com for sharing.

See You in New Orleans -- I'm heading to our spring ScaleUp Summit. Fall is Oct 16 - 17, Denver.

Need More Copies of Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0)? -- Amazon continues to premium price the hardcover book. If you need a box of 20, the books are less than $10/each.

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? Contact us at [email protected] for more information or visit https://scalingup.com/coaches.html.

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.

Buffett's 13; Salim's 11; Go Long; Duane's Big Payday

"...insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

I would love to be a baby being born in the United States today.
	Warren Buffett

ExO Four Minute Video -- plus Salim Ismail's "11 Attributes of Exponential Organizations" are nicely summarized in this blog post and video. More below, but first...

13 Best Warren Buffett Quotes -- Fortune does a great job of extracting the best responses from Buffett's six hours of Q&A with his shareholders last weekend. And one of those responses helped bolster Apple's stock to the point it became the largest market cap firm in history! Please take 2 minutes to scan down through 50+ years of wisdom coming together to give 13 insights into the biz (and political) issues of the day.

Go Long -- this is the title of a new 100+ page book (love short books!) out this week subtitled Why Long-Term Thinking is your Best Short-Term Strategy. Co-authored by Brian Dumaine, Fortune; Michael Useem, Wharton; Rodney Zemmel, McKinsey; and Dennis Carey, CEO Academy - it's a series of case studies and then conclusions that give you a history of important decisions made that turned around companies and drove huge growth. It's a quick read!

Grew 47% More -- page XV of Go Long's Introduction notes this study:

The McKinsey Global Institute examined the performance of 615 large- and mid- cap US publicly listed companies from 2001 to 2015, looking at patterns of investment, growth, earnings quality, and earnings management. This lens allowed McKinsey to separate long- term companies from others, and then compare their relative performance. Among its findings was that the revenue of long- term firms, which spent on average 50% more on R&D, cumulatively grew on average 47% more than that of the other firms, and with less volatility. Cumulatively, the earnings of long- term firms also grew 36% more on average.

A Goldman study discovered something similar.

One-Card "Principles and Practices" -- on page 5 of Go Long you see the single card Alan Mulally used for 45 years to drive success at Boeing and then Ford ($48 billion turnaround). It shows the power of having a handful of rules and then repeating yourself a lot. Notes the authors:

Mulally says he rarely had to fire someone, because if you clarify the rules up front and hold yourself and everyone else accountable, those who can't evolve are likely to realize it -- and leave.

Mulally focused on a five-year horizon with weekly red-yellow-green metrics to drive performance. It's classic Rockefeller Habits.

CVS Takes $2 Billion Hit - On Purpose -- this is the title of Chapter 2. If Mulally successfully led Ford with a set of "values"; Larry Merlo, president and CEO of CVS Health, turned to a "purpose" to drive a big decision. Quote's Merlo:

The opportunity to link your brand's purpose to your actions is tangible, and should never be underestimated in terms of the amount of impact it has internally and externally.

And what this action? To ban the sale of cigarettes at CVS in order to support a transition to healthcare services. This was a short-term $2 billion hit to revenue and caused the stock to drop 7%, but as Jim Collins' notes - if you're not willing to take a financial hit to live your values and purpose, then they are not real. I'm similarly taking a huge financial hit, as I write this, to live Gazelles' core values and purpose -- stay tuned on the outcome!! Anyway, hope you can tell I'm bullish on this quick read book - lots of great reminders of what it means to be an effective leader - and to help you stay the course with much of what we teach in Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0).

Commissions Inc. $240 Million Success with Habits (Gazelles case study) -- Duane LeGate emailed me today, sharing how he was thankful for the Rockefeller Habits in scaling Commissions Inc. and successfully selling it to Fidelity National Financial for $240 million. Noted LeGate:

At the time of the sale, 1 in 20 homes that were sold in America used our technology (without the consumers knowing that we were behind it) We used your morning huddles (the "(9:09), the BHAG, the top 5, the one-page strategic plan, we were data driven (we measured EVERYTHING), we had a handful of rules (came to be known as "Duaneisms"), we had AWESOME quarterly themes (with the 4th quarter always being the best with company trips to far away places as the reward), and of course the core values.

LeGate also noted:

Our clients even started emulating what we were doing. As a result of all of these things, we were consistently voted as one of the top places to work in Georgia, won numerous national awards for being fast growing, and I personally won the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the Southeast Region. None of this would've happened without your book.

The same tools Mulally and Merlo used to guide Fortune 500 firms, LeGate used to scale his firm - and he did it with hardly any outside capital - a story for another time. Congratulations to LeGate and his team.

AI Conference at White House this Morning -- WSJ reports that 40 top biz leaders are gathering to discuss all things AI (artificial intelligence) at the White House. It's why the theme of our upcoming ScaleUp Summit is "Prediction Intelligence" featuring the co-author of the best biz book I've read on AI titled Prediction Machines. A key reason for the gathering is in response to China's growing emphasis at AI. What are you doing to add a machine learning component to your business?

11 Attributes of Exponential Growth -- Salim Ismail, in this 4-minute video, builds on how Haier, the China-based manufacturing firm I highlighted last week, has evolved into "The World's Most Pioneering Company of our Times." A key attribute to accomplish this was their ability to continuously experiment and adapt to new market dynamics globally. How does this work? This is what Salim Ismail explains in his 4-minute video. And if you don't have 4 minutes, jump to minute 2:48 and watch carefully when he explains the way companies use this.

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? Contact us at [email protected] for more information or visit https://scalingup.com/coaches.html.

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.

Most Pioneering Co.; 52%; More Press-ups Than Dave; Marketing Webinar May 10

"...insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

In the past, employees waited to hear from the boss; now, they listen to the customer.
	Zhang Ruimin, CEO Haier

National Small Business Week -- OK, I don't like the "small" designation, but under 500 employees is considered small. To raise awareness, TSheets by Quickbooks commissioned a survey about the sacrifices business owners make, which found:

• 50+ hour weeks are the norm for 1 in 2 biz owners
• 43% have put their own money into the business
• 1 in 3 say their family has made sacrifices for the business
• 62% say work keeps them up at night at least once a month
• Sick days and vacations are rare for many business owners

And the one stat that spoke loudest to me - 52% of biz owners felt they could make more money working elsewhere!! It confirms that entrepreneurs cherish their independence over money. If you'd like here's a link to the raw data.

Eliminates All Middle Managers -- China-based Haier, the world's largest white goods manufacturer, has eliminated all 10,000 middle managers and reorganized into 4000 tiny business units (Team of Teams!) where the workers are self-employed and have equity. This Corporate Rebels blog details what they call "The World's Most Pioneering Company of Our Times." Reading through the article I agree!! Notes the Corporate Rebels:

It feels like an ecosystem of start-ups, Haier calls it the RenDanHeYi model. This model leaves only three different kinds of roles within Haier; the 'platform owner', the 'microenterprise owner' and the 'entrepreneur'.

The blog details perfectly the evolutions and revolutions a company must make to transform from a failed refrigerator manufacturer to a global powerful - well worth the 3 minutes to read. Thank you Elaine Pofeldt, author of The Million Dollar One Person Business, for pointing me to this blog post.

More Press-ups Than Dave -- Hugh Smallridge with Bristol, UK-based Ashwood (gifts, toys, promotional products) had every member of his sales team write personal, meaningful goals and refer to and measure their progress regularly. Notes Smallridge:

It was really good fun and motivational! Example below. We've all shared them with each other and we briefly review them publicly during our Monday morning sales meeting every week. Once we've cracked the habits, we'll insert new ones to crack!

This is precisely what Ivy Lee taught the industrialists, like John D. Rockefeller, to do on a daily basis. Here's Hugh's list:

Intravenous Vitamin C Versus Cancer and Other Killers -- Whole Foods magazine interviewed Riordan Clinic's Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ron Hunninghake about the breakthroughs with IV Vitamin C (I still get 50 grams each month). The article references Riordan Clinic board member Dr. Thomas Levy's book Vitamin C, Infectious Disease, and Toxins which underpins the importance of administering the correct dosage - it matters. Please take 3 minutes to scan down through the interview and then fight chronic diseases the natural way.

Sister Sharon Wins Startup Weekend -- (source of pride #1) competing against 27 startups, my sister Sharon James, along with her son Kyle, won with her new "MySignatureDish" platform. One investor says the platform will be bigger than Airbnb and will transform the food experience industry!

Scaling Up #1 Business Book -- (source of pride #2 and Gazelles case study) Bruce Clay, Bruce Clay Inc., was responsible for my book being listed as #1 of the "one business book CEOs should read." Notes Clay's Los Angeles area based Gazelles coach Jonathan Goldhill:

Bruce and his firm are arguably the world's leading authority on SEO having been in the business 1996. They are "an ethical blue-chip technical advisory company serving emerging, mid-market and large enterprises and agencies needing expert digital marketing solutions with tools, education and consulting services."

Take 1 minute to glance down through the list and see how many of the 15 books you've read.

Need More Copies of Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0)? -- Amazon continues to premium price the hardcover book. If you need a box of 20, the books (paperback) are less than $10/each.

CEO-BOOTCAMP: Spend 3.5 days with Verne, serial entrepreneur John Ratliff, and 9 other CEOs in a beautiful retreat setting, addressing the constraints holding back you, your business, and your industry. May 29 - June 1; October 2 - 5; and January 15 - 18, 2019

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? Contact us at [email protected] for more information or visit https://scalingup.com/coaches.html.

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.