1 in 3 Children; Sisodia; Adele; Rosenzweig; Sept 26 Cutoff

Dear ScaleUps, 

Hope it’s been a productive and purposeful week. Here are some insights/opportunities to help you outlearn/outthink the competition.

Latest ScaleUp News --
SpaceX’s Orbital Starship; WeWork’s Rough Week; Facebook’s Supreme Court; and how a mine in Africa dramatically reduced employee theft - this news and more at ScaleUps.com, your one-stop weekly update.

The Full-Circle Biz Owner Experience --
Russ sold then bought back his firm - more below, but next…

The Healing Organization --
Raj Sisodia, co-founder of Conscious Capitalism with Whole Foods’ founder John Mackey - and co-author of the best-seller by the same name - has a new book out this week titled The Healing Organization. Another brilliantly written and timely book, it shares many real-world examples of how firms are taking a complete stakeholder approach - care for customers, employees, community, and shareholders - and driving superior performance. This Conscious Magazine article provides a good two-page overview and highlights Appletree Answers, the call center business that Scaling Up Coaching CEO John Ratliff scaled to 650 employees while driving down employee turnover to 18% -- one-tenth industry average.

Recession? Time to Prune? But Don’t Layoff? --
The nation’s top CFOs and other indicators are pointing to a recession fall 2020, just before the US elections. We’ve often suggested the talk of recession provides a good reason to clean house - reduce unnecessary expenses, streamline processes, etc - activities you should be doing quarterly anyway. But what about trimming back employees? The article, highlighted above, includes how Detroit-based DTE Energy, during the last financial crisis, went to its 10,000 employees and asked their help to survive, working more creatively and passionately, without laying anyone off The results -- a significant turnaround within a year and a much stronger culture as a result. Raj’s book is full of these specific “conscious” leadership decisions - SPro and Book Club members will receive a copy and Raj is keynoting our May 5 - 6 ScaleUp Summit in Dallas next year. 

1 in 3 Children in US Have One of the 4As (This Needs Healing!) --
Autism, Allergies (food), ADHD, and Asthma now inflict 1 in 3 children in the US earning them the label Generation Rx because of the amount of medication they are taking. Cancer is the leading cause of death in children under age 13. This is an epidemic of huge proportion and all epidemics have a trigger. Robyn O’Brien says it’s our food! Her TED talk has been viewed by millions around the globe and she’s been called “food’s Erin Brockovich” by Bloomberg and New York Times. This 28-minute video details her findings (7:38 in the video is where she shares the facts stated above). It’s our food and children that need healed - and is a true energy crisis in the US, given that our own happiness/energy is tied to the least-healthy of our children. This should matter to all our companies. Thank you to Scaling Up Coach Greg Eisen for sharing.

Again, Daily Huddle Works! (Scaling Up Case Study) --
QuickBox has scaled to over $60 million and 300 employees in 3 years and was just named by Inc. to the top 10% of the fastest growing private companies in America. Notes CEO Stephen Adele:

I too, want to send you an immense amount of gratitude for teaching us the importance of the “Daily Huddle” - among many other great business concepts. (Our growth) is in no small part to our internal mantra (because we serve ecommerce marketers/brands in health and wellness), “the internet doesn’t shut off, so we can’t either” and how that aligns with our daily huddles, across the business units.

14 Business Units, Morning Huddle 365 Days a Year --
Stephen goes on to explain:

EVERY SINGLE BUSINESS UNIT inside QuickBox (14 in total) has a morning daily huddle, 365 days a year. Our huddles are loved by everyone, because they are fast, organized, set priorities and build plans for the day - and we can make business decisions or course corrections quickly. They provide transparency and a high level of accountability. They are the bedrock of our success. Thank you, thank you, thank you! For staying persistent on the foundations of what makes a good business turn great!

Thank you, Stephen and team, for your persistence and discipline. 

Visualization of Major Award Works --
A consumer products company, aspiring to win a major international award, used visualisation. Notes their Australia-based Scaling Up Coach Rob Nankervis,“it was a bold ambition considering their current state of scale and performance. So, my colleague and I dressed in formal attire, dimmed the lights, stood behind a lectern and ran a mock ‘awards’ ceremony where we called them to the stage and asked ‘how did you get here?’. Two years later they were on the real stage in the USA getting the real award.” This stuff works!!!

Full-Circle, continued --
Russ Rosenzweig emailed me to let me know he just bought back the expert witness services firm he sold to Thomson Reuters in 2010. Called Round Table Group, Russ’s story runs the gamut of entrepreneurial journeys -- inventing a new industry, creating one of the first virtual companies, almost folding during the 2000 dot com crash, then growing from 0 to $15m fast, having an exit, and then buying it back. That’s how it works out sometimes. Congratulations, Russ!

Room Cut-off Extended to Sept 26th --
Attending the ScaleUp Summit? To secure the discounted conference rate for hotel rooms at the Anaheim Marriott, the cut-off date is Sept 26 - go to this link. And let us know if you need anything special. See you in Anaheim in a month.

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. Jan 14 - 17; Jan 21 - 24; Mar 10 - 13, 2020.

ORDER a BOX of 20 SCALING UP BOOKS --
Want to save 50% over the price on Amazon? Go to this link. 

EXITING: Looking to sell the business in the next 18 to 36 months? Want to avoid the traps many sellers fall into with today's buyers? You can download the white paper Seven Traps Sophisticated Buyers Deploy Against Unwary Sellers from align5 advisors here

Looking to take a deeper dive? Join the align5 team at the Exit Strategy Retreat Oct 21-24 in Marathon, FL - same amazing venue as CEO Bootcamp! This event is limited to 5 growth company entrepreneurs. All aspects of the exit process will be covered in depth. Additional benefits for attendees and Retreat amenities detailed at the Exit Strategy Retreat site.

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? The Scaling Up team is prepared to support you. We have helped 40,000 other organizations over the past 30+ years, in scaling up their organizations through coaching, workshops, online training and more. 

We would like to offer you a complimentary, personal follow-up from our Scaling Up team to share how we can support you in scaling your organization.

YES! I WOULD LIKE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT COACHING & RECEIVE A COMPLIMENTARY FOLLOW-UP (CLICK HERE)

For questions or more information contact us at [email protected]

TECHNOLOGY:

Create Accountability - Drive Execution with Align, cloud-based software designed to scale up your Rockefeller Habits implementation. www.alignwithscalingup.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.