The Agile Scaleup

#1 Book; Bossy Girls; God's Architect; Four Things Men Need to Do; Grand Rapids March 20

"...keeping you great" 

HEADLINES:
 

As men get more successful, they are better liked by men and women; as women get more successful, they are less liked by men and women.
	Sheryl Sandberg, COO Facebook

#1 Book This Week -- a book for both men and women, Sheryl Sandberg's book entitled Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead soared to #1 this week of all books. Here's a link to a quick interview of Sandberg by Fortune magazine where she highlights the likeability gap I quoted above. As COO of Facebook, she is probably the most powerful and influential woman biz leader in the world. Take 3 minutes to read and watch her interview where she also outlines 4 main messages for men in helping women (outlined below at the end).

Bossy Girls -- and this 11 minute interview of Sheryl Sandberg, on the highly-acclaimed news program 60 Minutes, is something I'm having my 9 year old daughter watch tonight with the rest of the family. I particularly love her observation that when a girl is called bossy, it's because she's a leader!! Sandberg points to all kinds of credible research on why women get held back resulting in a loss to themselves, our companies, and the world.

Top School Leadership -- one of the top women biz gurus and former VP of Oracle University, Liz Wiseman (author of Multipliers), has a new book out next Tuesday entitled The Multiplier Effect: Tapping the Genius Inside Our Schools. I've already gifted a book to the headmaster of our children's school. Co-authored with two educators, the book takes a deep dive with more than 100 of education's best leaders and explores the five disciplines that distinguish Multipliers from Diminishers and how these leaders attract and develop talent, as well as harness new ideas and energy to drive educational innovation.

Read the foreword by Clayton Christensen (Innovator's Dilemma guru) here: Get access to Chapter 1 of the book here:

Accidental Diminisher Quiz -- Is it possible that, despite good intentions, you've been accidentally diminishing the people on your team (like me over all these years - why Liz's first book was so painful for me to read)? Take this 5-minute quiz to find out.

Why The Multiplier Effect is an important Idea for both Business and Education

1. We face what might be the challenge of this decade: To rethink and revitalize education at a time when the life we are preparing students for is changing as fast as our budgets are shrinking. We need leaders who can mobilize all the energy and intelligence in their schools. And, we need to do this across all our schools.
2. In the current economic realities, we can't afford schools that operate on a fraction of the intelligence inside them.
3. Our businesses need an education system that delivers new graduates who enter the workforce with critical thinking skills and able to lead in a new era where a leaders job is to access and unleash the talent and intelligence of others.
4. The Multiplier Effect has a suite of extremely practical tools for any leader (in business or education) who want to begin practicing Multiplier Leadership. The ten, one-page "Multiplier Learning Experiments" and the "Accidental Diminisher Workarounds" are alone worth the price of this book.

Four Things Men Can Do - back to Sandberg's book, below is the short list she outlines in her short interview and elaborates in the book - and she tells a couple relevant stories in the interview that highlight what she means:

1. Help women sit at the table; help women reach opportunities
2. Push back on the success and likeability gap
3. Have the honest conversation about sponsorship and mentorship
4. Help women navigate through the child rearing years

And I like how she describes her brother's handling of the pregnancy question in the interview

God's Architect - Antoni Gaudi -- BTW, check out the short piece 60 Minutes produced on Gaudi's famous SagradaFamilia - another reason I love Barcelona. It aired during the same episode as Sandberg's interview.

Grand Rapids, MI -- first one-day workshop of the spring season - March 20. This is our 15th year of offering workshops - going strong because the tools/methodologies work. Below is list of full spring schedule - book a refresher course.

5 Big Ideas; Closing Big Sales; Covey's Take; Execute Faster; David Marquet

"...keeping you great" 

HEADLINES:  

Research has consistently shown that a company's investment in learning -- for their executives, managers and front-line employees -- is the most powerful predictor of their ability to outperform their competitors.
	Laurie Bassi, Author Good Company

How To Execute Fast -- Feb 15, 1pm ET Webcast - more below, but first...

Closing Big Deals -- entitled "5 Ways to Close Big Deals" my latest Venture Column in Fortune is online. Take 1 minute to scan down the list and see if any of the 5 practical ideas can move you from talk to contract more quickly.

5 Big Ideas -- ...5 huge trends that will impact all our businesses is the topic of my latest February "Growth Guy" syndicated column: Return on Luck; Big Data; Reverse Innovation; Newsjacking (Trump is the master!); and Robots/Capita. Take 3 minutes to scan through the article. Useful list for your next marketing meeting.

Sizeup.com -- in my column I highlight www.sizeup.com as a way to experience the power of Big Data. Within seconds, this free site will tell you how many competitors exist in a specific locale, how your revenues stack up against theirs, and where to hunt for new business. Give it a try.

Create Leaders At Every Level -- the only way for the senior team to free up themselves to work on the big ideas/deals is to turn over the day-to-day running of the company to the middle managers. David Marquet's book Turn the Ship Around!: How to Create Leadership at Every Level is a key - a VERY how-to execution book on how he took the worst sub in the nuclear navy and made it #1. I named it in my Fortune column one of the top 5 biz books of 2012.

Stephen Covey's Take -- when you get David's book, go immediately to Stephen Covey's Foreword (probably the last one he ever wrote) and take 4 minutes and read his insights into what it takes to create leaders at every level and why he felt David's sub had the most empowered team he had ever met. Then come hear David keynote the Leadership Summit May 9 - 10 Orlando. Book club members will get a copy of David's book next week.

Execute FastWebcast -- to executive with speed, your team must be able to make critical adjustments weekly - if you want to move faster you MUST pulse faster. Join our complimentary webcast with Patrick Thean, "How to Get Your Team to Execute Faster Than Your Competition." You will learn how to: Create the right baseline metrics; Set up a simple rhythm to get every member to share WHY they are off track; and a structure for weekly meetings so your team can execute with speed and make critical adjustments. February 15th @ 1:00pm EST Register Now.

Topgrading Certification Starts February 14 -- we're enrolling right now executives to participate in 6 webinars (recorded if you miss the live session), 3 hours of online video training watched at your own pace, a 90 minute private coaching session scheduled when you're available, access to specific Topgrading tools, and a personal coach - spread over three months -- a quick and easy way for someone in your firm to learn and become certified, in-depth, the Topgrading methodology. No time for amateur hour. Enroll someone in your company now. Hiring is one of the two most important executive skills. 100% Money Back Guarantee. For more info.

Malcolm Gladwell Seminar; Demand Wins; Peacetime CEO vs. Wartime CEO; Can You Scale

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES: 

Tom HAGEN Mike, why am I out?
MICHAEL CORLEONE You're not a wartime consigliere. Things may get tough with the move we're trying.
                                                  Scene from The Godfather

Malcolm Gladwell Seminar -- "Why People are Successful" is the title of our June online seminar featuring Malcolm Gladwell. Unarguably the most famous non-fiction writer of our time, his books Outliers; Tipping Point; and Blink have changed the language and thinking of leaders around the world. Our latest Gazelles Growth Institute online seminar focuses on Gladwell's discoveries about successful people as featured in Outliers. It's a program I've also shared with my older children. Anyway, I'm so excited to bring this guru to your desktop. NOTE: because of the deal we structured with Linkage, who is representing Gladwell, we can only offer the companywide license, but you'll want to share this seminar with ALL your employees and family members.

It' All About Demand, Not Supply -- over the past few weeks I've been warning my audiences that a key shift has occurred that is changing entire industries. From World War II until 2007, demand has outstripped supply - therefore, business has been about maximizing and streamlining the supply chain (better, faster, cheaper). However, the situation has reversed. Now supply is outstripping demand in many industries, given that the 1.4 billion people moving into the middle class must first produce before they can consume (it's a timing issue). The only exceptions are the basics - food, water, power, and low cost housing. Therefore, you MUST shift your focus to understanding and managing the DEMAND side of the business.

Google, Facebook, eBay, Amazon -- and mid-market firms like BuildDirect - what these companies do is understand and generate DEMAND. They don't make anything! They help an oversupply of vendors reach interested customers at the right moment. They have the databases, they have the customer relationships, and they have the data. And most importantly, they know where the most profitable niches are. So where do you get ideas for making the switch from a supply to demand focus? Keep reading.

How Companies Win -- this is the book that rocked my world the last few weeks. Subtitled Profiting from Demand-Driven Business Models No Matter What Business You're In Rick Kash and David Calhoun are a couple savvy guys that outline how a business makes the transition to a demand-focused organization. The key is slicing and dicing potential markets in ways that help you find the best "profit pools" - those specific types of customers within your niche that will make you the most money i.e. it's critical you give sales people specific lists of potential customers to pursue. Just skim the first four chapters - that's all you'll need (about a third of the book) - skip the rest. And I'm aiming to get one of the authors to a future Summit - hopefully next spring.

Peace Time CEO vs. War Time CEO -- the other reading that rocked my world (and made me question some of what we've been teaching) is this blog by Ben Horowitz, Marc Andreessen's co-founder in their venture firm. BTW, they purchased Skype for $2 billion, which everyone thought was stupid, until it was sold to Microsoft for $8.5 billion (another great Ben blog post). Anyway, Horowitz suggests that Google has moved from peace time to war time, which is why Eric Schmidt stepped aside as CEO to let Larry Page run the show. And Horowitz suggests that how you lead in war is much different than in peace. His list of differences makes you think i.e. the "Peacetime CEO always has a contingency plan. Wartime CEO knows that sometimes you gotta roll a hard six!!" Take 2 minutes to look over the list. Thanks to Dilendra Wimalasekere, with game-changing 24/7 Techies which provides unlimited tech support for a nominal fee each year, for recommending this blog. Horowitz is one of the key bloggers I'm now following - another really smart business leader.

How to Know if Your Business Can Scale -- and take 3 more minutes to scan this excellent Fortune feature by Alex Taussig, a Principal with Highland Capital Partners. He suggests the question "how scalable is your business" is misunderstood and so he provides a concrete definition, illustrated through some simple graphs. In essence, will the business ever reach a point where gross margins improve with increased revenues?

Trumps Harvard

"...keeping you great" Ten Minutes with the Growth Guy

HEADLINES:

Trumps Harvard -- we had many experienced CEOs and executives that have been through the Harvard negotiation courses (purportedly the best) who raved that Dr. Victoria Medvec's (Northwestern University) detailed 10 step process for handling complex negotiations clearly trumps anything they had learned before -- she is the Jim Collins of Negotiation, backing up her approach with solid research and "in-field" experience since she's often the chief negotiator on multi-million dollar deals. She was the opening four hour workshop this week at the Sales and Marketing Summit -- following is a summary of top ideas from the faculty:

Name price first! -- There are six steps that must occur before you name price first. However, what is clear from the research is that whoever names price first achieves one key objective -- strengthening the relationship instead of damaging it. By letting the other person name price first, in most cases what you're countering with is subtlety saying "that your product, service, business, etc." isn't worth what you think it is -- and for many this can be downright insulting. By offering price first, you put the other party in the position of countering. This is very, very important and the opposite of what most of us were taught.

Make offers face-to-face or via phone -- NEVER send in your proposal via email, fax, or mail. First, this prevents you from being rejected outright without the ability to defend your proposal. Second, synchronous communication lets you gauge reactions immediately and make adjustments if necessary. Third, pushing for all synchronous communication (face-to-face or phone) can shorten lengthy negotiations from months to days -- again, she has the real world experience and research. And she showed us how to get around the purchasing agent, even   when the RFP explicitly states you can't talk to anyone but the purchasing agent.

Reactive vs. proactive service -- Randy Schwantz, author of The Wedge, drove home the point that what most of us call "great service" (which is generally a key differentiator when you're not strictly the low price competitor) is really just reacting to customer issues as they come up i.e. "hey, if it breaks we'll fix it in 24 hours, etc." What we need to do is bundle all these "service" pieces into a proactive service offering, give it a name like "Gold Service" and use it to truly differentiate our offering from the competition.

Challenge sales candidate in first interview -- Dave Kurlan, CEO of Objective Management (for 30 years the leading sales organization assessment tool used by professionals around the world), emphasized the importance of making the first interview with a potential sales candidate a challenging event i.e. act like the kinds of customers they will encounter on first sales calls -- rushed, making them wait, not overly friendly, guarded -- and see how they react in the first five minutes of the interview (great sales candidates will figure out what you're doing and actually enjoy the challenge). The second interview then is the "good cop" interview. He suggested renting the movie "Antitrust" and watch the great recruiting scene.

iPhone will ultimately fail -- Laura Ries, author of "Branding," made a strong case for why markets diverge instead of converge, giving growth firms the opportunity to pick new niches within a specific industry i.e. within   technology, something IBM used to own in total, Microsoft now owns the operating   system, Dell/HP the PCs, Oracle the databases, and IBM just services. Thus she predicts the iPhone will have limited success. Like her, I see business people with a phone, PDA, and iPod because each does its job superbly whereas combo units (note the death of TV, DVD combo units) have to sacrifice key aspects to integrate.

The answer is yes...now what is the question? -- John DiJulius, author of "Secret Service," wowed us with his motivational presentation style while delivering concrete substance on driving superior service. We walked through an exercise where we outlined several key situations in our businesses where we're tempted to say "no" and how our teams should handle without saying "no." I loved the Disney example where a child that was a ¼" too short to get on a ride, but had waited in line for an hour (despite the   various warnings about height restrictions) leaves the ride operator in a huge bind of having to say "no." Instead, they are instructed to give the child a certificate that lets them cut to the front of the line the next time they visit Disney and are tall enough. How much is that child going to bug their parents to come back to Disney!!! Brilliant solution. You can find similar solutions in your business.

2008 Sales and Marketing Summit -- next year's Summit, with a whole new faculty, will be April 22 -- 23, 2008. We've not picked a location, but you can lock in the dates. And so many of the CEOs attending, like always, wished they had brought more of their team. Hope to see you teams next year   and this fall at our Growth Summit October 23 -- 24 in Las Vegas.

Billionaire Advice

 "...keeping you great" Ten Minutes with the Growth Guy

HEADLINES: (what I learned up at MIT this week)

Radical change requires radical stability -- Robert "Jake" Jacobs was our first presenter in the Advanced Business Program I chaired up at MIT. He explained "why" the Rockefeller Habits of meeting rhythms and quarterly themes are so important. They provide a kind of stability that most employees need if they are to deal with the change leaders of growth firms are often thrusting onto their organizations. This is why it's said "if you want to move faster, pulse faster." The more you change, the more stability you need.

Use paying-labor vs. paid labor -- Jim Gilmore, author of "The Experience Economy," suggested we all think of things in our business where we could get people to actually pay to do some work for us (THINK   -- working dude ranches and Dennis Tito paying $20 million to fly into space). In fact, there's a company called Vocation Vacations where you pay to work i.e. as an evening bartender in a British Pub for a week. Gilmore himself uses paying   labor to help organize their annual "ThinkAbout" event. Here's a link to more info on paying-labor including a link to Gilmore's article on the subject -- what about having people pay a contest fee to submit their designs for your new packaging?

99% of processing time is wasted -- Guy Parsons, co-founder of the Lean Institute, delivered a fast-paced workshop on applying Lean to all our companies -- the Toyota method we must all use so we can double revenue with the same number of people. Two key tools are Value-Maps and a one-page   form called A3. Value-Maps let you document that a billing process that takes three days might only have 14 minutes of actually labor being performed -- the best Value-Map booklet is "Learning to See" by John Shook -- here's a link to learn more and purchase --

"Rocks" or Priorities need more detail -- the biggest criticism I receive about the One-Page Plan is that there needs to be some additional worksheets to help people flush-out the details behind their individual "Rocks" or Priorities. I've found the answer!!! Its Toyota's A3 one-pager (named after the European equivalent of an 11 x 17 sheet of paper -- the same as the One-Page   Plan). Here's a link to see a completed A3. In addition, here's a link to templates and info about A3s -- stay tuned for more info

Why Toyota might lose -- Jim Womack, co-author of the original book about Toyota "The Machine That Changed the World" which was just re-released, wrote a piece on Toyota and why they might lose -- if you read just one article this week, read this one -- it's below under DETAILS (reprinted with permission).

Scarcity focuses the mind -- Evan Chrapko co-founded one of the top technology firms in Canada, DocSpace, selling it for almost $600 million. They turned down an offer of $12 million for the company when they barely had enough food to eat. The VCs visited their home furnished with furniture from   dump heaps and walked past the garden where they were growing some vegetables. When the VCs asked "but don't you need the money" his answer was "we can live like this forever." Side story -- one of the MIT participants is funded by one of the top VC firms in the U.S. His BMW had broken down, so he borrowed his mothers old Acura. He still has it years later. When the VCs visited him, he took them around in the Acura and saw him have to open his door to pay tolls since the drivers-side window doesn't work. The VCs were impressed. All his time and resources are directed at the business.

Alex d'Arbeloff, co-founder of multi-billion dollar Teradyne, concluded our executive program with a very simple piece of advice. In the 37 years he built and operated Teradyne he would pick one specific project each year that he would spearhead -- a pet project he thought would help take Teradyne to the next level. Looking back, it was these specific projects that had tremendous impact. What is the one personal initiative you're going to spearhead in your firm? This is often different from the #1 priority for the company. For me, it's writing another book in 2007. Last year it was recruiting Patrick Thean to run Gazelles.

DETAILS:

Latest Note from Jim Womack, founder of The Lean Institute:

Simon & Schuster has just re-issued "The Machine That Changed the World," which Dan Jones, Dan Roos, and I co-authored 17 years ago. Doubtless, our publisher has noticed the current Toyota boom when any book with "Toyota" on the cover sells.

Fortunately, Machine is still the best description of the complete Toyota business system - product development, supplier management, dealing with the customer, fulfilling orders from raw materials through production, and management of the global enterprise. It still has a story to tell. As new CEO Alan Mulally remarked to Ford employees when he arrived in Detroit last fall, it is the best summary of why Toyota is winning.

But in fact Toyota has already won. It's just a matter of totaling units sold and revenues during 2007 to know exactly when to transfer the industry leader's jersey from GM to Toyota. Much more important from a business standpoint, Toyota won the profitability race years ago.

The interesting question for the future is not the precise day Toyota wins but how Toyota can lose. The conventional wisdom is that it may fumble on quality (as evidenced by recent recalls) or go soft on costs or stumble in trying to make Lexus a truly elite brand or fail to gain a stable production and sales base in the emerging markets of China and India.

And these could happen. But if they do they will be symptoms, not the root cause. Toyota's real challenge for the future is to introduce and sustain lean management and lean leadership at every point in a rapidly growing organization.

It's sobering to realize that many new employees at Toyota read Jeff Liker's "The Toyota Way" and Jeff and Dave Meier's "The Toyota Way Field Book" (which every lean thinker should read as well) to try to understand the company they have joined. Toyota's traditional way of creating managers by hiring them straight from high school or college and carefully coaching them over many years to become seasoned Toyota-style leaders is being severely strained by Toyota's breakneck growth rate. There are too many new pupils and not enough mature teachers as Toyota opens new plants, engineering centers, and supplier development groups across the world.

Toyota's great risk, the way it can lose, is that its new managers and the managers in its new suppliers will revert to the old, mass-production mentality of the companies or schools they have come from. If this happens, Toyota's management performance will regress toward the mean. Instead of moving the whole world to embrace lean management, Toyota will become just another company. And that will be a tragic failure for us all.

What does Toyota need to teach its new lean managers? Obviously, the specific methods (tools) for conducting production, product design, supplier management, and sales are important. But these are the easy part. The heart of the lean manager's knowledge is strategy deployment originating with senior managers, A3 problem solving for line managers in the middle of the organization, and standardized work for primary supervisors near the bottom.

And at every level Toyota needs to teach its managers to utilize these concepts by going to the gemba. There, they need to lead by asking questions about the true business problem, the current condition causing the problem, a better condition (that is, a better process) that could address the problem, who must do what when to achieve this new condition (the future state), and what evidence will show that the problem has been addressed.

This means managing the organization's value-creating processes (value streams) by asking highly informed questions rather than managing results at the end of the reporting period. (The latter is simply another form of end-of-the-line quality inspection.) And it means avoiding a resort to orders on what to do next when matters seem to be getting out of hand.

Issuing crisp orders is the natural instinct of any boss. Indeed, most bosses seem to think that by virtue of their experience and authority, they should be able to solve any problem lower in the organization. But orders from the boss rather than informed questions take away the lower-level managers' responsibility for solving problems. They start a vicious circle in which lower-level managers wait to be told what to do by higher-level managers who are much further from the gemba where value is created and who inherently have less - not more - knowledge of the best thing to do.

Compared with the rest of us, Toyota has one major advantage. It never acquires companies or facilities. It expands by opening "greenfield" operations in new locations. So if it finds that it can't grow lean managers at the same   rate as sales it can simply slow down. And my bet is that Toyota will slow down if it senses that its management values are being diluted.

The rest of us face a harder problem. We already own and operate "brownfields" that urgently need a transformation in their management. Slowing down this transformation simply makes us fail faster!

In summary, Toyota can fail and if it does the root cause will be a failure to propagate its management system. We can also fail. And if we do the root cause will be a failure to transform our outdated mass-production approach to management. Thus it turns out that we all face the same challenge!

It follows that all of us in the Lean Community need to learn from each other about the best way to create lean managers and lean leaders. I'm happy to report that sharing our experience will be a key objective of the Lean Enterprise Institute as we begin our second decade next fall. We don't want anyone to fail.

Best regards,

Jim

Jim Womack
  Chairman and Founder
  Lean Enterprise Institute

P.S. For years -- and again in recent weeks as I have been speaking at lean conferences in Australia -- readers have come up to me to say that "Machine" was a great book about factories. And I hope this is true. But anyone who says this didn't understand the book. "Machine" is about factories and it is also about manufacturing more broadly. But it's much more important contribution is to describe for the first time a complete, lean business system, a new way of managing multi-function organizations that is relevant to any organization creating any type of value.

I'm hopeful that original readers will now give "Machine" a fresh look and that a new generation of readers will discover the book and read it for lessons on lean management going far beyond its lessons for lean production. Dan, Dan and I have written a new Foreword and Afterword for the re-issued book   to place it in historical perspective and to describe what we've learned in the years since it was published. And I autograph every copy from our web-based   bookstore at www.lean.org. Feel free to forward this message to suppliers, customers, or colleagues who are implementing lean - or should be.

If this e-letter was forwarded to you, visit LEI <http://www.lean.org> to subscribe. Just click the "Join" button on the right to get a free subscription and access to all the valuable content about implementing lean principles in production and service value streams.

The Three Most Important Pages Ever Written In Business

 "...keeping you great" Ten Minutes with the Growth Guy

HEADLINES: (Theme -- the "Council")

NOTE: Following is my latest "Growth Guy" syndicated column entitled "The Council: The Three Most Important Pages Ever Written in Business" -- please take ten minutes and scan the article -- thanks.

The three most important pages ever written for business leaders are pages 114 -- 116 in Jim Collins' landmark book Good to Great. It's a bold statement, but I've seen the transformational impact on leaders and their growth companies when the concept on these pages is implemented.

It was key to putting $160 million in Richard Kay's pocket; it's been critical in helping Brian Scudamore manage the growth of one of North America's top franchises; it repaired Lance Pederson's executive team; it aided Lee Prosenjak in designing their new dance studio and Scott Mesh in solving   a major staffing problem; it helped Larry Weinberg win two prestigious national awards; and it's already brought Nick Arrigan closer to his children.

This simple concept even underpinned one of the most successful U.S. college football seasons for a rookie coach in 2006 and was something that drove the success of the wealthiest entrepreneur of all time. What Collins outlines on these three pages are the eleven characteristics of what he calls "the Council."

Unlike the standard executive or management team meeting that's a weekly staple of most companies, this additional meeting is aimed solely at giving council to the CEO. It's not about consensus building; it's about generating "talk time" in an era when executives have been driven to silence by technology and left to solve problems via email.

It's about generating conversations around what's vital to the success of the business and helping the executive team discover and face "the brutal facts" as Jim Collins so aptly describes in Good to Great.

Structuring Success

"Players that shoot foul shots the same each time, make a lot of shots," notes Richard Kay, co-owner of the NBA Washington Wizards and founder of OTG Software. "The same in business. I felt my most important job was creating a consistent structure for being successful."

And successful they were. Launched in 1992, Kay's data management software firm grew to 450 employees with 12,000 customers, including more than 1,000 credit unions and over 500 hospitals. Going public in 2000, OTG was acquired by Legato in 2002 for $403 million, of which Kay owned 40%. Legato was then acquired by EMC for $1.3 billion while Kay was on the board of directors.

Underpinning this success was a simple meeting and accountability process that started with a 7am breakfast every Monday morning, including most Monday holidays, at the Bethesda Marriott Suites across from OTG's offices in Maryland. From the day Kay started OTG until the day it sold, he and his executive team stuck to this routine.

"The reason we met so early on Monday was we knew we were up against a lot of smart, well prepared competitors," recalls Kay. "This early start to the week motivated us to prepare and helped us generate excitement as the company grew. And some of the best conversations occurred on the walks over and back from these meetings."

Following Kay's "council" breakfast were a standard set of management, sales and marketing, software development, and finance/accounting meetings that often took the executive team (and department heads as they grew) through to lunch.

The key is that they had this additional breakfast meeting that was more open ended, giving the top team a chance to talk through the challenges facing the company every week. I sat in on some of these meetings and observed as Kay's team would debate, laugh, discuss, decide, and most importantly, talked openly and candidly with no set agenda. The more tactical issues were then handled during the follow-on functional meetings.

The STORM

1-800-GOT-Junk? is one of the fastest growing franchises in North America, adding 110 of their 315 franchisees in 2006 alone. Key to driving and managing this growth is a weekly 3.5 hour STORM (STrategic Operational Review Meeting) attended by a nine- member Leadership Team -- CEO, COO, CFO, VP IT, VP Strategy, VP Operations, VP Call Center and Director of People.

"We meet to engage in dialogue and debate focused on our Strategic Plan," explains founder and CEO Brian Scudamore. "We'll discuss and debate opportunities 6 months to 3 years out, a lifetime when your business is growing rapidly. We really try not to argue to be right but debate to really ensure we all get our fears and worries out on the table."

"Sometimes the discussions just continue to further align us in our goals and strategic opportunities facing the company. We have a set of Norms that we try to follow and respect to make the meeting as productive, focused and respectfully contentious. Considering the level of debate there is a ton of   respect too."

"The cool part about this STORM meeting is that we never get into any other issues. It's always strategic. If we have more tactical or urgent issues to discuss they are always held at other times," concludes Scudamore.

What Scudamore and his team understand is that if you want to move faster you have to pulse faster. Whereas most teams moving as fast as Scudamore's would exclaim there is no way they can take this much time each week to meet, Scudamore knows that the strategic issues must stay top of mind and be continuously tweaked.

Executive Team Health

Pat Lencioni, author of the best seller Five Dysfunctions of a Team, emphasizes the importance of a team being both Smart and Healthy -- Healthy defined as having a level of trust and understanding that allows conflicts to surface among the team members.

"The state of our relationship as a management team wasn't very good," describes Lance Pederson, CEO of Oregon-based Convergence Networks. "I think secretly each of us had issues with one another in more ways than one."

So starting in January of this year, Pederson, his business partner, and the VP of Sales and Marketing started meeting every Thursday morning at 6:00 AM at Sheri's, a local breakfast joint near their offices (they've recently switched to Friday mornings).
 
"At first I would say that our conversations weren't the greatest but we kept showing up each week," explains Pederson. "Eventually what started to happen was that we began to talk more and more about the future of the company and the things that we would like to see happen."

One recurring topic was how they would be able to bring on five new employers a day. "This is when I finally understood the term ‘blue sky' -- some of the things you come up with are pretty wild but if you can pull them off they would totally work," recalls Pederson.
 
The team then started to spend more time just talking about one another when they were younger and the crazy things they did. Lencioni has emphasized the importance of team members doing just this to develop a deeper level of understanding and trust.

"We would talk about our families and stuff like that," notes Pederson. "Now for most that probably doesn't sound like a big deal but I just so happen to be one of those guys that is pretty much dead serious all day long at work." The informal breakfast setting worked out better for Pederson because he didn't feel pressure to have to discuss strictly business -- he knew that his team would have time to cover the tactical issues of running the company in a more formal meeting later on in the day.
 
"I could go on and on at how beneficial it has been for us, but the bottom line is that we are more connected as a management team in every facet. We no longer spend countless hours debating the semantics of a point. We accept each other for who we are because we know each other at a deeper level than we previously did," explains Pederson.

"As we all know running a great company starts at the top. If your management team isn't on the same page then the rest of the organization doesn't stand a chance."

Major Decisions

Lee Prosenjak, founder of Colorado-based Cherry Creek Dance, started his Council October of 2006. Rotating breakfast places Friday mornings at 7:45am so they don't get bored with the menu, they'll often bring in an expert to help facilitate the discussion.

"We invited in a real estate broker one morning when we knew we were going to talk about where to move our location," explains Prosenjak. "The whole team was then a part of the planning process, engaging in a blue sky conversation to design the perfect new space. In speaking with the broker afterwards, he walked away with as much from the discussion as we did from him."

Scott Mesh, co-founder of Los Ninos, a New York-based provider of early childhood services, has tackled similar big issues at their Friday lunch meeting. Separate from their Monday morning management meeting, though with the same management team, the purpose is to dig into one topic deeply a bit more informally.

"The goal is to get to the bottom of big hairy problems," notes Mesh. "For instance, last summer we lost five case managers over a change in their Service Coordination (SC) Plan and compensation plans. That got our attention!"

Mesh used their Friday lunches to talk through and reexamine every aspect of the compensation plans, core values, and management of the staff and decided to create a new Senior SC position. This new position provided an additional salary step with added responsibilities, allowing Los Ninos to "hire up"   and provide a career path for their existing SCs.

"Morale turned around 180 degrees," beamed Mesh. "And we're growing significantly again. Many of the issues facing our firm need significant talk time, which you have to schedule or it just doesn't happen."

Longer Sessions

Larry Weinberg's executive team has had lunch every Monday for the past several years, following their management meetings. And he credits these luncheons to why his McLean, Virginia-based firm, BOWA Builders won National Remodeler of The Year in 2006. These meetings were also critical in designing and maintaining the kind of work environment that led to Weinberg being named one of the "Best Bosses" in the U.S. by FORTUNE Small Business magazine in 2005.

In fact, they've found the informal strategic discussion time so valuable that they no longer consider lunch once a week enough. "With the pressures of the day and the interruptions of the waiter, we sometimes come away frustrated," notes Weinberg.

As a result, they started scheduling quarterly CEO council retreats. "Sometimes we combine them with an industry conference or an educational event. Two of the retreats are just all day talk time away from the office," explains Weinberg. "It's too numerous to describe all the concrete ideas we've hatched   during these sessions -- just know they've been crucial to our success."

A Long Walk

For Nick Arrigan, Senior Account Manager of New Jersey-based Vega Consulting Solutions, the idea of the leadership "council" spurred him to start weekly walks with his children individually. Recalling his first week, Arrigan shared "it was like a typical sappy Broadway review. We laughed, we cried, it was amazing."

It was another weekly walk that was behind the successful first season for Bret Bielema, coach of the Capitol One Bowl Champion Wisconsin Badgers college football team. Following in the footsteps of the legendary Barry Alvarez, who took the Badgers to eight bowl wins in 16 seasons, all eyes were on Bielema, the second youngest coach in U.S. college football.

Though Alvarez and Bielema talked frequently, every Thursday Alvarez and Bielema took a scheduled hour and half walk. Noted Bielema, in a Wisconsin State Journal interview "During the season, it was about games that weekend, matchups. I'll usually go in there with a couple thoughts, questions to bounce off him about the direction of the program. We've really become good friends, more than anything else."

And when Alvarez asked if it was OK if he missed the Capitol One Bowl game, since he was doing color commentary for the Fiesta Bowl on the same day, Bielema responded affirmatively, so long as they still did their Thursday walk -- which was scheduled on a Saturday to keep it two days before the game like in the regular season.

Now that's sticking to a routine!

I hope the pattern of success is apparent. Like John D. Rockefeller's daily luncheon with his directors, getting regularly scheduled talk time is crucial to the success of your company. Locate your copy of Good to Great and get a "council" in place.

 

150 Candidates Line Up for Aquire

 "...keeping you great" Ten Minutes with the Growth Guy

HEADLINES: (Theme -- sourcing employees)

Sourcing employees article -- Mike Frommelt, Principal and Co-Founder of KeyStone Search (and new EO member) authored an excellent and short article on sourcing employees -- complete article under DETAILS below -- take five minutes and scan this article. Thanks Mike.

150 deep at booth for job fair -- Lois Melbourne, CEO of Acquire, participated in a MBA summer job fair and had candidates lined up 150 deep. Corporations like Wells Fargo, TI, Bank of America and others kept coming to her booth and asking "who are you guys and what did you do???"

Inspired by Trench Safety -- a while back I shared Trench Safety's recruitment brochure. Based on their brochure, Melbourne designed one for Aquire -- here's a link to download a copy.

Best Places to Work in Texas -- noted Melbourne, "We did no advanced marketing prep for the job fair. The students had done web research on the company prior to the job fair (as any candidate we would consider hiring does these days). On the web site they found two things they said impressed them: 1. our customer list; 2. our award for "Best Places to Work in Texas" -- here's a link -- this is why it's   important to apply for these awards!

"Remarkable" word of mouth -- "At the job fair we started handing out the brochures to the candidates we spoke to that really clicked with us. We started getting people coming to us asking for the brochure   and telling us it was impressive, which told us people were showing it off elsewhere in the lobby or in the job fair," described Melbourne.

Bragging rights -- concludes Melbourne "I believe this type of positioning will be more and more important to the newer generation of workers coming on board. They want to respect their employer and what to be able to brag about the workplace environment."

Speaking of sourcing employees -- I'm going on my first tour of India: Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and New Delhi May 9 -- 14. I'll be leading one-day Rockefeller Habits public workshops hosted by Bob Potini with E Gen Solutions.

DETAILS:

Sourcing: The Missing Link to Great Hiring

All CEOs interested in growth aspire to fill their teams with "A Players". Unfortunately, despite the many books and articles on how assess and evaluate talent, hiring the best every time can still be elusive.
 
One key reason is the lack of attention, or lack of understanding, of one of the most critical pieces of great hiring: Sourcing. If you are not fishing in the right body of water, you will never land the trophy.
 
Like many things in business, good sourcing starts with the right mindset.

The Mindset:
Recruitment is a sales process, not a human resources process. Don't get me wrong, I'm not putting down the HR community. Certain HR types can make great recruiters, but they are generally trained to screen and assess, not source. Ask yourself this, "Is my HR person able (or even willing), to pick up the phone tomorrow, call one of our competitors, and solicit their VP of Sales to leave that company and join ours?" If not, you have a screener, not a sourcer. Recruiting is a sales function. It is the process of "selling" the vision of an organization, and convincing a candidate to "buy" (join the company). Because it is so similar to sales, an easy way to illustrate the recruiting process is through the 100 year old, tried and true "sales continuum". (diagram below).

For recruitment, the continuum represents the entire pool of "minimally qualified" candidates in any particular region or industry, for an open position.

Always available
On the far left are the people who are always ready to move. You know the types, 25 cents more an hour and they're gone, never been happy with any employer, no employer has ever been happy with them, etc... These are the first to apply when you put your feelers out. They scan Monster and Career Builder from their employer's PC and apply for your job, using the other guy's equipment. They will do the same thing on yours, if you hire them!

Never available
On the far right are the never candidates. You can't move them from their current position, even with a crowbar. They love their employer, have golden handcuffs, work two minutes from home, etc...

Maybe available
The middle section represents the maybes, the people who may move, if they are presented the "right" opportunity. This could be more responsibility, a better working environment, a chance to be a part of something really exciting,   etc. Every individual has their own hot buttons.

Where the A Players are
Studying the continuum, you will quickly see where A Players generally reside; Toward the right, closer to the "Never" category. Why is this? Put simply, these people are successful in their current companies. They may not be 100% happy, but they keep their nose to the grindstone, work hard to succeed, and are generally paid accordingly. Also, they are highly regarded by their co-workers, giving them a sort of "first among equals" status. Basically, everything you would love them to be in your company. These people do not scan the classifieds, or Monster, they work hard all week and spend their free time with family, significant others, etc... If they do become extremely unhappy, they simply take a few of the recruiter calls coming in regularly, and confidentially explore opportunities.

So, how do you get to them? The following are six ways to start sourcing more A Players.

1. Write "exciting" and "descriptive" ads -- Verne Harnish gives some great examples on how to do this on Gazelles.com, so I won't repeat it here, but do make sure you include information regarding culture and values. Good people move for culture, not money. Studies have shown that great people look for three things in their employer 1) "Where are we going 2) "What is our plan to get there" and 3) "How do I factor into that plan". If you can't paint a compelling picture of your corporate vision and culture while answering those questions, you will not be very successful in luring A Players.
2. Build a recruitment database. Let all employees know that the organization is committed to talent, and that you are always recruiting, even if you have no official openings. Any time you or any of your people, go to an event, bring back as many names/titles/information as you can and enter them into a database. Also, make sure all your vendors and customers are in that database, as they can be great referral sources. For a small company, you can use Outlook or ACT! to manage this very inexpensively.
3. Get a sales minded individual to manage recruitment. Once you have a database, you need someone to call potential candidates. Again, this has to be a person with a strong sales orientation, who is not afraid to make cold calls. I suggest if you are adding people quickly, you may want to pull someone from your sales group to handle recruiting. Of course, you still have to pay them like a salesperson. This will quickly raise the number of A Players coming across your desk. TopGrading by Brad Smart reminds us that only A Players will hire other A Players. The     same is true of referrals; A Players more often refer A Players. As you build your database, develop a method of identifying the A Players in their respective fields and industries and call them first.
4. Don't rely on personal networks: Nearly every CEO I know believes they have a wide, diverse,     and willing network capable of producing almost anything with a few phone calls. Although this may be true for getting tickets to the big game, when it comes to recruitment, its simply not enough. Take this example: As an executive search consultant, when I recruit on a C-Level position with regional parameters, I will make an average of 150 targeted phone calls. For example, all CFOs with manufacturing experience in a three state area. For a search with a national scope I will often make 250-300 calls. These calls generally result in 12-15 candidates strong enough to interview. From there, 4-6 will be strong enough to present to my client, and usually only one or two will ultimately be worthy of an offer after evaluating cultural fit, skillsets, track record and potential for growth. Here's the eye opener - only about 10% of the people I will contact in that initial round of 150- 300 calls will be a part of my existing "network" or database. The rest are developed through original research and start out as pure cold calls. I spend the majority of my work life talking with executives, yet my "network" only accounts for 10% of my calls on any given search! Even if you have 200 A Players in your network, you cannot possibly     know enough people to give you a complete scan of any major market or industry, as it relates to a particular position. You must rely on the networks of others to ensure you have evaluated the whole field of talent.
5. Be "broad" when asking for referrals: When you call (or your recruiter calls) and asks for referrals, do not ask "Who do you know that can fill our Director of Marketing job?" When     asked this question, people automatically try to think of others they know who are "looking." The truth is, A Players, are never really "looking." Ask instead, "Who are the very best Marketing people in XYZ Industry, or Anytown, U.S.A.?" This question they can usually answer with a few     relevant names. Let them know you will not be using their name when you call these people. This will maximize the number of referrals you will receive. If you have a good, sales oriented recruiter, they will create interest in the role and your organization when they reach those A Players.
6. Get your culture aligned before starting an employee referral program:
   Formal employee referral programs rarely work. Most of the ones offering trips, cash or the like are desperate attempts to create candidate flow into an unattractive environment. The truth is, if your culture is not healthy, invigorating and well aligned around your core values, employees simply will not refer A Players. I do not know many people who will "sell out" their best friends     and top colleagues for a trip to Tahiti, or $2000 in cash. Remember, A Players are nearly always currently employed and have done well for themselves in their careers by making smart moves. If there is not a compelling reason to leave their current employer (usually cultural in nature), they will hold tight. There are many great resources available on cultural/values alignment,     including Gazelles.com, The Rockefeller Habits and jimcollins.com, just to name a few.

Of course, all of these suggestions will only provide results if they are part of both a well thought out plan and sincere intent to hire the very best. Many companies I encounter claim to be "all about talent" but then refuse to make sourcing a priority in terms of time and/or dollars. Sourcing, and overall   recruiting, is like anything else - what you get out of it will be a function of what you put into it.
Happy Hunting!

Mike Frommelt is Principal and Co-Founder of KeyStone Search. He is also a new EO Member. KeyStone provides executive search services to CEOs who know the power of a well aligned corporate culture. [email protected],   www.keystonesearch.com

 

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Brain Can't Multitask

 "...keeping you great" Ten Minutes with the Growth Guy

HEADLINES:

FRIENDLY REMINDER -- Please take five minutes and do a quarterly check-up on your company -- every 90 days it's vital to review the 10 point "Rockefeller Habits" checklist of disciplines that make for a well-managed company -- here's the link to the checklist -- just do it and pick one or two items on which to focus -- see next Headline.

Brain can't multi-task very well!!! -- if you read just one article this week, read this NY Times piece summarizing new research on the limits of your brain to multi-task. This is the article I've been waiting for! Less is more. Focus is key. ONE THING AT A TIME! And email is killing us -- you must answer it just once an hour, not every few minutes! And you can only handle a few big projects at a time. It's all here in this article!
 

Notes Rene' Marois, a neuroscientist and director of the Number Information Processing Laboratory at Vanderbilt University, the human brain, with its hundred billion neurons and hundreds of trillions of synaptic connections, is a cognitive powerhouse in many ways. "But a core limitation is an inability   to concentrate on two things at once," said René Marois.

A recent Microsoft study found a group of Microsoft workers took, on average, 15 minutes to return to serious mental tasks, like writing reports or computer code, after responding to incoming e-mail or instant messages. They strayed off to reply to other messages or browse news, sports or entertainment Web sites. "I was surprised by how easily people were distracted and how long it took them to get back to the task," said Eric Horvitz, a Microsoft research scientist and co-author, with Shamsi Iqbal of the University of Illinois, of a paper on the study that will be presented next month.
 
Speaking of single minded focus -- Rob Parker, new CEO of Kiwanis International, shared with us at the last Growth Summit his BHAG of 1 million members by the 100th anniversary of KI built around the theme of "Mission Possible." He then held a Million Member March in January. Here's an excellent video clip of that announcement posted on their website -- a way to keep the BHAG and Theme alive and visible. Watch it as a model for what you might do to bring your BHAG and Theme alive --  
 
Invitation from Rob Parker -- CEO Council for Kiwanis. At the   tender age of 91, Kiwanis is reinventing itself to respond to the needs of a next generation of leaders. With a fresh approach to leadership development, Kiwanis is equipping men and women to serve as leaders in their families, careers and communities. Kiwanis CEO Rob Parker told me he would like to hear from executives   of growth firms who are willing to serve on a CEO Council to help guide Kiwanis through this remarkable transformation. Rob can be reached at [email protected]

On-Site's Quarterly Employee Recognition -- Notes Chris Canada, CEO of On-Site, an IT services firm,   "we spend almost 25 percent of our quarterly meetings recognizing people which include annual acrylic tombstones for people and they love them. We etch the number of years of service into the reverse side for the tenure, translating the years of service into number of days." It's given to each employee whose annual tenure falls within that quarter. Here's a link to a photo of the plaque. They get these plaques from Jennifer Owens, 512-970-6388, [email protected]. Ask for "L Custom 4" x 6" x 1" with Embedded 2 color Acetate & Laser Engraved on Back."

Trimester vs. Quarterly Priorities -- again, speaking of focus, it's that time for most people to set quarterly priorities. However, many firms are finding it better, given the rhythm of their business, to do this once every four months. At Gazelles, we have three distinct seasons -- Jan - May; June - Aug; Sept - Dec. Do what works, but do set a handful of priorities.

"If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it." John D. Rockefeller. John Anderson, whose wife had me read "Titan," Rockefeller's biography, sent me this quote. Seems getting rich wouldn't be the best single focus! Pick a focus each day, week, quarter, year, and 10 years!

Best Employment Ad

"...keeping you great" Ten Minutes with the Growth Guy

HEADLINES:

Outstanding employment ad -- Scott Nash, President/Owner of MOM: My Organic Market, received outstanding response to his ad seeking a CFO/HR Director. I particularly loved his list of questions including "Do you have an entrepreneurial spirit trapped inside a CPA body?" and "Do you want to come to work in jeans?" This is the kind of "sell the vision" ad you need to attract talent. The full ad is under DETAILS below.

Custom motorcycle company opportunity -- U.S. "Hero of Manufacturing" winner Gene Kirila, and close friend, has suffered health issues that are necessitating lifestyle changes and forcing him to step aside from Hardbikes, his fourth venture launched in 2005. The company has a full senior team in place, capital, and a dealer network established. Hardbikes is seeking a strategic partner or purchaser with marketing skills to take over day to day operations. Hardbikes is the world's only build to order licensed custom motorcycle manufacturer that can deliver tricked out custom bikes in 60 days. To learn more contact Hardbikes CFO John Kelly [email protected] or Michaelene Harris [email protected] at 724-981-7000.

Bill Gates recommended book -- I just finished reading "Emergence" by Steven Johnson (one of the brightest guys I've ever read!), who is also author of "Everything Bad for You is Good" which makes the case, among other things, that video games might just be critical to your child's development!   Here's a link to Johnson's blog where he details his encounter with Geoffrey Moore moderating a panel with Bill Gates and the CEOs of Google, Cisco, and Skype at Davos where they are discussing the "digital lifestyle." And I'm excited that Johnson has agreed to keynote the Growth Summit in Vegas -- where he'll also encounter the very famous Geoffrey Moore (our opening four-hour workshop).
 
Congratulations to Paul Hogan, founder and chief executive officer of Home Instead Senior Care® who was just named Entrepreneur of the Year - one of the highest honors in franchising - by the International Franchise Association (IFA). Past winners of this award include franchise greats such as J. Willard Marriott and Fred DeLuca (Subway). I look forward to keynoting their 450 person international convention in a few weeks and you'll usually see their team at our Summits.
 
Congratulations also to The Marena Group, recently chosen as the #1 apparel company in the U.S. by Apparel Magazine. Noted William (Bill) Watkins, Founder and COO, "yup, little, tiny us was pitted against the biggest and baddest apparel retailers and manufacturers in America and after careful review, our industry chose us. Gazelles was a ‘behind the scenes' part of our success (your book and seminars like Rockefeller Habits, Dell visit, Topgrading, and much more). Thanks for the help." And they are really helping people. Their scientifically developed products are designed to be worn after a surgical procedure in order to help minimize bruising and swelling. And they were the first to feature antimicrobial technology in their products.

DETAILS:
Here is the My Organic Market Ad

           

Title:       Classification:       Target Work Week:       Department:       Reports to:       Direct Reports:       Location:       Salary Range:

CFO / HR Director       Full-Time, Exempt       45 hours       Finance / Human Resources       Owner / President       5 (1 HR, 2 AP, 1 Payroll, and 1 Reporting)       Rockville, MD       Negotiable

HELP ME MAKE MOM's A GREAT COMPANY!...
"As the Owner of MOM's- My Organic Market, I am looking for a talented and successful CFO/HR Director to oversee and guide our finance, accounting, and human resources functions. Working side-by-side with myself and other members of the Leadership Team, you will also need to provide insight for company-wide strategic planning and initiatives. I am looking for someone with a "partner mentality", to help innovate, strategize, and move this company forward!"... Scott Nash, President/Owner
 
At MOM's, we are committed to organic products, our Purpose of environmental restoration, training, a great culture, and strong Values.

For the A-player looking for something special who can answer "yes" to all of the following questions, this is the opportunity for you.

 

• Do you have an entrepreneurial spirit trapped inside a CPA body?
 
• Are you seeking meaning and purpose in your career?
 
• Do you hate office politics as much as we do?
 
• Do you want to come to work in jeans?
 
• Do you excel in accounting but want to do more?
 
• Are you seeking an atmosphere of open and direct communication, debate, and creative brain-storming?
 
• Are you professional and results driven, yet lighthearted and fun?
 
• Can you see the forest and work in the trees?
 
• Are you level-headed and able to see both sides of the coin?
 
• Do you exceed people's expectations of you on a regular basis?
 
• Is it in your bones to seek continual improvement?
 
• Do you have passion?
 
• Would you rather work for David than Goliath?
 
• Do you want to make a difference?

If you answered "yes" to these questions, we want to meet you! Please visit our hiring website at myorganicmarket.iapplicants.com. Phone calls are not accepted.

Our Company
MOM's- My Organic Market is a successful locally owned organic grocery chain. Everyday, MOM's promises and delivers to our customers the highest quality 100% produce, an incredible selection of products, and remarkable customer service. MOM's is much more than a successful retailer of healthy foods, we are a proactive leader for environmental restoration. MOM's mission is to "restore the environment to the maximum extent we are able." Currently, MOM's has 4 stores located in Rockville, College Park, Alexandria, and Columbia and we have 1 additional store slated for opening April 2007 in Frederick, MD. We launched our "15 X 15 Initiative" in 2005, when we currently had 3 existing stores... 15 additional stores by the year 2015.

The Position
The role of the CFO/HR Director has 4 primary components consisting of (1) Leadership Team -- Provide consistent and positive input, results, & leadership; (2) Accounting Dept Head -- Provide timely and accurate financial reporting, (3) Financial Leadership -- Provide useful financial insight, monitor cash flow, control costs, etc.; and (4) Human Resources -- Design & implement systems to hire A-players.

At MOM's, success in this role will be measured against performance in the following areas:

 

• Monthly financial reviews (key metrics include, but not limited to, financial statements, cash flow, AP aging, monitoring line of credit, projections, cash controls, etc.)
 
• Cost Cutting Progress (metric includes setting goals, reviewing project status, and accomplishments to reduce costs)
 
• Human Resources (ability to manage and continually improve the 'people process'; metrics primarily include turnover rates, days to fill open positions, employee tenure, morale, etc.)
 
• Positive leadership team contributions & company-wide contributions
 
• Maintain positive & favorable external relationships (banks, vendors, suppliers, etc.)
 
• Other accountabilities, as assigned.

Qualifications
At MOM's, your values, abilities, and track record of success are more important than direct experience. That being said, an ideal candidate would have the following:

 

• Strong competencies in intellect (the ability to learn, understand, and innovate), personal skills (integrity, candor, excellence, etc.), and interpersonal skills (oral and written communication, customer service, etc.)
 
• Candidate is a CPA with at least 5 years of successful experience in accounting, payroll, human resources, and financial reporting. Experience and knowledge of consolidation and retail inventory accounting a plus.
 
• Proven ability to multitask and follow-through.
 
• Excellent proficiency in using QuickBooks (or similar accounting software) and Microsoft Office Suite. Experience and knowledge of ADP a plus.

Benefits
MOM's goal is to maintain a diverse, motivated, and positive work environment full of great people. Take pride in working for a company that lives its Purpose/Mission and Values and continually provides quality food for consumers, while working to improve the environment. As a salaried exempt position, benefits include:

 

    o Competitive salary
    o Medical coverage
    o Paid time off / comp time
    o A matching socially responsible 401k plan
    o 20% Employee discount on all store products
    o Generous $3,000 company contribution towards the purchase of a hybrid vehicle
    o A "Green" Benefits Package
    o And more!

Contact
If you are interested in this opportunity please visit http://myorganicmarket.com/iapplicants.com   to fill out an application online (all candidates must fill out the online application to be considered). You can also submit a cover letter and resume to the HR Manager, Katie Ennis, at [email protected]. Phone calls are not accepted. Please visit our web site for additional information on our company and this position at www.myorganicmarket.com.

Warren Buffett Letter; CEO Survey; More Energy; Best Buffett Line

"...keeping you great" Ten Minutes with the Growth Guy

HEADLINES:

Warren Buffett’s annual letter -- released yesterday evening, this is your "must" reading assignment for the weekend! Buffett’s firm once again beat the S&P 500 by 2.6% -- 18.4% vs. 15.8%. Notes Buffett, "We believe that $16.9 billion is a record for a one-year gain in net worth -- more than has ever been booked by any American business, leaving aside boosts that have occurred because of mergers (e.g. AOL’s purchase of Time Warner). Here’s   a link to download the letter.

Power of productivity gains -- most telling was Buffett’s praise for GEICO, which saw policies increase from 5.7 million to 8.1 million, a jump of 42% between 2003 and 2006. Yet during this same timeframe the number of fulltime-equivalent employees FELL 3.5%. This is a productivity gain of 47%! "And GEICO didn’t start fat," notes Buffett. In turn, GEICO over doubled its advertising budget. Success formula -- get more operationally efficient and then plow a good chunk of the gain into driving sales!

For CEOs only, a chance to be heard -- speaking of CEO insights, if you want your opinion to be heard and compared against the NYSE's CEO's and Deutche Bank's recent "Alternative Investment Survey"; here's your chance. Logon and take the Private Company Index's 10 minute survey of Private Company's CEOs to share your thoughts about the economy, the market and the challenges...

Want more energy? Mixed nuts and fresh fruit -- plus breakfast. Mark Brownlee, Managing Director of Nightlife Music and Video, an international leader in providing music videos to businesses, was in our Rockefeller Habits workshop in Brisbane. To maintain energy among their employees, they are providing healthy snacks throughout the day and are initiating breakfast service in a couple weeks. Mark emphasized the importance of serving unsalted nuts, otherwise people will tend to eat too much (and get too much salt) and serving sun dried fruits vs. sulfur dried.

Best Buffett line -- "Once you’ve flown NetJets, returning to commercial flights is like going back to holding hands."