The Agile Scaleup

Powerful Women; Uber Founder’s Letter Never Sent; WeWork’s Founder; Anaheim Oct 15 - 17

Dear ScaleUps, 

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

Scaling Up Scoreboard® --
Want to increase the number of priorities completed by 3.5x? The newly branded Scaling Up Scoreboard® powered by Align puts your priorities, KPIs, and all the Scaling Up tools at your fingertips (mobile ready). More below, but first…

The Letter Uber’s Founder Never Sent --
If you read just one thing today (or this weekend), I hope all leaders of scaleups read the letter that Gizmodo reports Travis Kalanick wrote but never sent detailing the mistakes he made in scaling up Uber. We’re always talking about the good, but it’s rare we get a direct glimpse into an entrepreneur openly admitting their faults. The 2000-word letter opens with “Over the last seven years, our company has grown a lot - but it hasn’t grown up.” Please take four minutes to read this incredibly insightful look at the pitfalls facing most scaleups - and possibly discussing at your next weekly meeting. Thank you Scaling Up coach Pelle Tornell for sharing this with me.

What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There --
I was struck, in the letter, by this line of Kalanick “...As we grew, I held on to too many things that helped me survive and build a great company, but at scale became ever-increasing liabilities.” He then goes on to list many of those “things” detailing what he called “organizational debt” which built up because of their rapid growth - one being processes that didn’t scale and another having too many first-time managers. Granted, going from 400 to 14,000 employees in seven years is more growth than 99.9% of us will face, nevertheless the lessons he lists are useful to review from your own organizational context. Again, I hope you’ll take a few minutes to read. At a minimum, I found it powerful that Kalanick wrote the letter if for no other reason than to clear his head as he was facing a series of major challenges, both personal and professional. 

WeWork’s Founder Out as Well – So How Did He Scale?
This Fortune article details the reasons WeWork founder Adam Neumann was forced out of his CEO role this week. What I found insightful was this sentence
“Neumann grew WeWork into a disruptive force within the commercial real estate industry through a blend of branding, marketing, messaging, and design.” For all his failures, the lesson we can all take from WeWork is the importance of branding, marketing, messaging, and design. Imagine, then, if you put these things behind a winning business model! These are four powerful topics for your ongoing one-hour marketing meeting – get to it!!

Fortune’s Most Powerful Women List --
Published this week (with excellent video interviews of each woman – really worth watching), the top five are Marillyn Hewson, CEO of Lockheed Martin; Mary Barra, CEO of GM; Abigail Johnson, CEO of Fidelity Investments; Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM; and Gail Boudreaux, CEO of Anthem. Moving up or newly joining include Accenture’s new Global CEO Julie Sweet and Best Buy’s new CEO Corie Barry. Here’s a link to the entire list of 50.

Scaling Up Scoreboard® Whitepaper --
Looking at data from 1900 companies which have created more than 435,000 priorities on our partner dashboarding system called Align -- now white label branded Scaling Up Scoreboard® - the software’s data provides quantitative insights into how successful companies scale up and grow. Using this data, we compiled a whitepaper featuring research that proves you can reduce your timeline for achieving your goals by continuously improving your strategic planning and execution using technology. You can download the whitepaper here.

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.

First Canadian; T. Boone Quotes; Dashboard Saves Life; Sept 19 Room Cutoff

Dear ScaleUps, 

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

When you invent the ship, you also invent the shipwreck.
                                           Philosopher Paul Virilio as quoted in Indistractable

I guess these visualizations really, really work…
                                           Bianca Andreescu, US Open Tennis Champ

Room Cut-off Sept 19 ScaleUp Summit Anaheim --
Attending the ScaleUp Summit? To secure the discounted conference rate for hotel rooms at the Anaheim Marriott, the cut-off date is Sept 19 - go to this link. And let us know if you need anything special. See you in Anaheim in a month.

How a Dashboard Saved Doug’s Life --
This week on ScaleUps.com read how Doug Wick used the same dashboarding system he uses with clients to save his own life - from zero percent chance of survival to cured (know someone battling for their life? Please have them read!). And Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, retired at 55 worth $41.8 billion. This and more news about scaleups at ScaleUps.com.

Indistractable by Nir Eyal --
Released this week and titled Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life” Nir has done it again - written another beautifully titled and written book on the heels of his runaway hit Hooked. Please go to page 228 and review the “Chapter Takeaways” (he summarizes the main point from each chapter - wish I would have thought of that!). Then pick a chapter/topic and dig in - my two favorites are Ch 34 and 35 dealing with indistractable relationships. SPro and book club members will receive a copy next week; then come hear Nir keynote our ScaleUp Summit May 5 - 6, 2020 in Dallas - mark your calendars for two-days of insightful exec ed.

5 Lessons in Mental Strength from US Open Champ --
Last Saturday 19-year-old Bianca Andreescu beat Serena Williams to become the first Canadian to win a singles Grand Slam tennis title. This Thrive Global article details five mental tactics she used to win, available to any of us. My favorite was writing herself a mock $3.25 million check when she was 15, representing the winner’s check that year at the US Open.  She then updated the check each year, as the amount raised, until she received the real check for $3.85 million on Saturday. Her reaction? “I guess this visualization stuff works!!” Here are the five strategies:

• Visualize, visualize, visualize – she did more than just write a mock check
• Write the check – just like Canadian Jim Carrey
• Be present (with every shot) – her meditation routine honed this skill
• Breathe! – deep breathing calms mind and body
• Dream Big and Get Big – something she learned from her mother

Please take 1-minute to scan the details - and then share with your children!!

Mr. Jenkins’ Two-Questions (Biz Biography) --
Scaling to over $100 million and 453 employees, Jonathan Bancroft, President & CEO of Charlotte, NC-based Morris-Jenkins, shares the lessons he learned from his mentor Dewey Jenkins in a book released this week titled Mr. Jenkins Told Me…. At the heart of Morris-Jenkins’s success were two questions:

1. “How can we give our customers a better experience?”
2. “What can we eliminate, or make easier, so that doing business with us is effortless, happy, and fun?”

Not surprisingly, these two questions are at the heart of what we’re teaching scaleups. First, its not just about the product or service but the entire customer experience. Is every touch point in the business a great experience? Second, the ultimate strategy for every business is to make something easier for the customer. Are you easy to find? Is your website easy to navigate? How does your product/service make a customer’s life/work easier? These two questions are key - ask them at your next quarterly/monthly/weekly gathering.

The Daily Huddle Works (Scaling Up Case Study) --
Eric McDonald shared the following story:

I wanted to relay a quick, funny story with you and show a bit of gratitude. My wife Rachel and I were just on vacation for a week. She learned Gazelle’s methodologies years ago when she worked for a company called Plant Interscapes, and it was years after I had worked with you guys, but your core teachings were still the same.

Anyway, at breakfast, every morning last week, both of our phones pinged at exactly the same time and said exactly the same thing. “Reminder - Daily Huddle”. We’re both people leaders in our respective organizations, and we both, to this day, have a daily huddle with our direct reports. I know you have tons of testimonials, but by my calculations I’ve been practicing a daily huddle for about 20 years now, and her for 10. In case anyone asks, yes, IT WORKS! Thank you!

T. Boone Pickens Has Died at Age 91 --
Both a big thinker and doer, T. Boone Pickens passed away this week from natural causes. Working up until a year ago, I shared, again, from the stage in Mexico City how T. Boone implemented just one-daily routine and turned $2.8 million into $4 billion, which he proceeded to give away. And that routine was the same as John D. Rockefeller and Steve Jobs. He would have breakfast every morning with his senior team to talk and set priorities for the day after an hour of working out (he once challenged Barack Obama, 33 years his junior, to a fitness challenge) and gathering intel from the marketplace. He understood if you want to move faster you have to pulse faster - the daily huddle works!! This Fortune article shares T. Boone Pickens life and philosophies in a series of memorable quotes - please take 2 minutes to take in the wisdom of this “Oracle of Oil” icon of the entrepreneurial world.

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.

Elon in China; Modern Day Rockefeller; Huddle Golden Rules; Chief Executive Interview

Dear ScaleUps, 

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

“Routine sets you free.”

Scaleups.com, the Medium for Growing Firms --
This week we launched a new media property called ScaleUps - the latest up-to-date news, articles, and videos featuring growing firms. Curated each week by Elaine Pofeldt, who led Fortune Small Business online, take a few minutes to scan through the site and read about the “50 Best Private Equity Firms for Entrepreneurs” and how Elon Musk went to China and received tax breaks for Tesla…and more…

Chief Executive Magazine Interview --
One of the most extensive interviews I’ve done lately, for the premier CEO magazine in the world, I loved Editor Dan Bigman’s opening question about what John D. Rockefeller would think of businesses today (hope you agree). I also share what is the most important leader KPI; what is the biggest challenge facing mid-market firms; and we explore a host of other topics including important routines that drive growth. Grab your favorite beverage and take 3-minutes to scan the article. And I keynote their annual CEO Leadership Summit in Dallas. 

Modern Day Rockefeller - Keys to Scale
Not surprisingly, Microsoft is the largest market cap firm. This HBR article details four habits/routines Microsoft uses to maintain a sense of community and “learning culture” among its 144,000 employees – all available to us mere mortal mid-market firms. Specifically:

1. Enterprise-Level Social Networking - key to staying connected around the globe
2. Daily Pulse Checks -- snapshot of how employees are feeling about the company, its culture, and other timely topics
3. Monthly Live Events - chance for employees to connect directly with CEO Nadella
4. “Growth Mindset in Action” Video Series -- to model the shift toward creating a learning organization, to spark dialogue, and to prompt employees to talk about their learnings.

“Routine sets you free.” Check out the short article for more details about each routine. Thanks to Mirko Wormuth for sharing. 

Golden Rules for Daily Huddle (Scaling Up Case Study) --
Intraway CTO Matt Torchinsky attended our 2.5 day Scaling Up workshop with his senior team and came away committed to the daily huddle (the importance of which our competition downplays!). To fine tune his 9-person huddle, he instituted some simple rules. Notes Matt, in an email to me:

What I did?

1. I setup what i called "Huddle Golden Rules" which are:
2. Daily Huddles take, maximum, 15'. Then the call will shut down (no matter who is speaking)
3. If you arrive late, you have the right to listen but not to talk, and must share your updates with the team through slack/hangouts/mail/etc.

What was the Outcome?

1. Everybody started attending the huddle on-time (Everybody wants to talk!!)
2. The team auto-regulates. Having in mind golden rule #1 it turns out that when someone takes too much time the team pushes them to stop (We all want to talk!)
3. Our Daily Huddles take (maximum) 15', therefore we are learning day by day how to improve our messaging and share relevant information!
4. Focus: People understand this is THE call were we (the team) sync up (and it takes maximum 15'!!!), we need them all to focus on the call.

And most importantly, the Daily Huddle works – if you want to move faster you want to pulse faster – and every minute in a daily huddle, if operated correctly, saves everyone 10 minutes – a 10x return on time!  Let us help if your daily huddles need a tune up!

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.

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

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.