Dell Public; 3 Keys to Intuition; Park Square Doubles; Instead of Bonuses; Jan 23 Scaling Up

"...insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

Scaling Up Master Class -- our latest coached online class just sold out, so we're launching another Jan 23. More details below, but first...

Dell Public Dec. 28 -- a year later than his ten-year plan, Michael Dell and his firm Dell Technologies will be back public the end of this year, via a stock swap with VMWare shareholders (so not an IPO). This CRN article details "5 Things You Need to Know" about Dell going back public. With revenues of $87.5 billion, it's been a substantial pivot from products to services - and Dell expects to be over $100 billion by 2022. Congratulations Michael - job well done!!

Intuition Can Only be Trusted If... -- Daniel Kahneman, best-selling author of Thinking, Fast and Slow, emphasizes in this Think Advisor article that people need to be very careful when they trust their intuition. Three things must exist:

1. There has to be regularity in the world - so this greatly limits intuition
2. There has to be lots of practice
3. And immediate feedback must be present

I realize listing these aren't helpful, so please take 3 minutes to scan this article - the examples really flush out his important points. Where are you saying you "trust your intuition" when you have no reason?

Park Square Builders Doubles in One-Year (Scaling Up case study) -- this Professional Builder article highlights how an Orlando-based family owned business is using the Rockefeller Habits to drive revenues up and employee turnover down. Notes co-CEO Vishaal Gupta:

Our company doubled in size in the past year alone - we hired nearly 50 employees and expanded into a new market. Plus, we reduced employee turnover from 25 percent to 15 percent because we made our employees' well-being a priority. Keeping people is key in the construction industry.

After attending our CEO Boot Camp, Vishaal hired Scaling Up Certified partner Petra Coaching to support implementation. In the article, Vishaal details 3 ways the Rock Habits helped by:

1. Involving the whole team in the efforts
2. Improving communications at all levels
3. Making trade partners part of the team, too

Please take 2 minutes to read the details of each to glean lessons, especially around the importance of a regular meeting rhythm, for your own company and culture.

Grant Wishes Instead of Bonuses -- this Moneyish article details how Acceleration Partners and the Schweiger Dermatology Group are using the "Dream On" program created by partner John Ratliff (John co-teaches the CEO Boot Camp with me) to significantly drive up employee engagement and dramatically drive down employee turnover. And what are some of these wishes? Notes the article:

(Bob) Glazer (Acceleration Partner CEO) has spent the past two years asking his 130 remote workers about their life goals, or the most important relationships that they want to grow or rekindle in their lives. He then reads through their submissions with his advisory board and chooses 10 wishes to grant each year. Last year, he called in a favor at MIT to give one woman the opportunity to speak about performance marketing there, as she's always wanted to lecture at a university. His company also paid for lessons in race car driving, flying, skydiving and guitar-playing for workers, and even sent employee John Crooks and his wife to Copenhagen for a week.

At Schweiger Dermatology Group, which also retitled HR to "director of employee experience," the article shares:

...Dream On has helped turn things around with gifts great and small, including: new tires for an employee's car; a new mattress for a worker who had back surgery; sending someone to the Philippines to see their dying grandmother; helping pay off student loans or put a down payment on a car or a house; etc. Schweiger Derm has spent about $45,000 granting 25 dreams to date, and there are 149 more dreams on file - and turnover has dropped to just 19%.

Please take 2 minutes to read details on how to structure this program and some of the heart-warming stories that result. Tis the season. Others are helping

$9.7 million, 5-Year Grant IV C for Cancer Treatment -- The University of Iowa Holden Comprehensive Cancer center received a significant grant to pursue three of the deadliest cancers -- pancreatic cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, and glioblastoma multiforme, an aggressive type of brain cancer. This article provides the details.

Scaling Up Master Business Course -- The first cohort has sold out! I'm so glad there has been so much interest in my course and there are still a lot of great executives that did not make it into the first cohort. So, we've decided to open a second class that will start January 23, 2019.

If you want to know how this course can help you and your team, I invite you to find out directly from one of my former students and now partner, John Ratliff, the former CEO of Appletree Answers (Dream On fame). Learn how he used the methodology to scale his company to an exit valuation five times the industry average. Watch my interview here.

CEO-BOOTCAMP: spend 3.5 days with Verne, serial entrepreneur John Ratliff, and 6 other CEOs in a beautiful retreat setting, addressing the constraints holding back you, your business, and your industry. January 15 - 18; March 12 - 15; Jun 4 - 7, 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://coaches.scalingup.com/.

TECHNOLOGY:

Create Accountability - Drive Execution with Align, cloud-based software designed to scale up your Rockefeller Habits implementation. www.alignwithgazelles.com - on your computer, tablet or phone. Click here to watch an introductory video.

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.