The Agile Scaleup

15 Potential IPOs; Bailey Book; Biggest Biz Deals; #1 Lesson to $14 billion

Dear ScaleUps, 

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

You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.
	John C. Maxwell as quoted in Vitamin B (For Business)

Latest ScaleUp News --
Airbnb, Gitlab and 13 other unicorn startups potentially going public; Microsoft ScaleUp offers support in Africa – this news and more at ScaleUps.com, your one-stop weekly update. 

A Daily Dose of Greatness for Your Business --
Andy Bailey (entrepreneur, coach, and brilliant writer) has done it again with his latest book Vitamin B (For Business): Your one-a-day supplement for improvement in business and leadership. This is a book you’ll read and use every day as he serves up a practical and concise nugget of business wisdom each calendar day of the year (as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases).

January 9th Wisdom --
Published just this week, today’s daily dose of greatness is “The Difference Between Having a Job and Having a Business.” Just two pages each, they are quick practical reads that will remind you of key business fundamentals. Share with your team at the daily huddle? Share your thoughts in an email? Use to stimulate thinking and discussions throughout the company? Then come hear Andy Bailey, Scaling Up Certified coach, speak at our upcoming ScaleUp Summits.

Lessons from a CEO Who Scaled to $14 Billion --
Todd McKinnon, founder of Okta, details in this Business Insider article 6 steps any leadership team can take to scale and weather economic downturns. One key, which aligns with our SWT tool (T for Trends), is to “Identify a macro trend and use timing to your advantage,” notes McKinnon. The market can make you look smart or make you look stupid, so find which way the winds are blowing and trim your sails accordingly. And best if your business doesn’t rely on economic stability – which is why it’s better to sell a need vs. a want! Todd reasoned that cloud computing was here to stay and then identified a niche within that industry. What’s “here to stay” in your world?   

Aligning Business and Family --
Todd was also deliberate in aligning business and family in setting both personal and business goals. This is why we created the One-Page Personal Plan (OPPP). As you finalize your #1 business priority for this quarter and 2020, set personal ones as well. You can download the OPPP and the rest of our one-page tools at www.scalingup.com – link next to picture of book. Thank you to Scaling Up Certified coach Bill Gallagher (who is also leading the EO Accelerator initiative for us) for pointing me to this case study.

What the Biggest Deals of 2019 Tell Us About the 2020’s --
Continuing with a theme of trends, this HBR article looks at the biggest deals in 2019 and how they point to shifts in the next decade. Concludes Steve Hall, who suggested this article:

There seems to be a shift from startups disrupting big companies to big companies waiting patiently to see what technologies/companies are going to be most useful/successful and acquiring those as a strategic advantage. Thus, entrepreneurs may want to shift their focus from disrupting industries to building solutions that enable the incumbents to maintain or even grow their dominance.

Steve stated it better than the authors, but still scan through the HBR article to update yourself on the biggest deals which may have changed the landscape of your industry.

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; Mar 10 - 13; Jul 21 - 24; Aug 18 - 21, 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

Write Your Own Book --
Whether you want to make it to the bestseller lists or just sell a lot more of your goods or services, with a profound competitive edge over the competition, Book The Business: How to Make BIG Money With Your Book Without Selling a Single Copy is for you!

Request your free copy of this ground-breaking book at advantagefamily.com/scalingup.

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 coaching@scalingup.com

TECHNOLOGY:

Execute Scaling Up Faster and Drive Accountability -- Drive Execution with Scaling Up Scoreboard, the official software tool for implementing Scaling Up – available online and in a mobile app. The technology behind Scaling Up Scoreboard is proven to help you achieve 3.5x more goals. Learn more at https://scalingup.com/software/ - on your computer, tablet or phone.

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.

Dog Died, Marriage in Trouble; Five-Year Turnaround; Trillion Dollar Biz; Feb 10 Sydney

Dear ScaleUps, 

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

After 10 years in business, our tutoring company, SurePrep Learning goes under after the elimination of a federal tutoring program. We are forced to lay off 22 beloved team members. My mom passes away. Our dog dies in a tragic accident. We have marital issues at home. I am hanging on by a thread.
	The Rest of David Dodge’s Turnaround Story Below

Latest ScaleUp News --
2020 is the Year of the Trillion Dollar Space Economy; Meetings That Make a Difference; California’s Gig Economy Law – this news and more at ScaleUps.com, your one-stop weekly update.

ScaleUp Summit Feb 10 Sydney, Australia --
More info below, but first…

Top 5 Biz Books to Prepare for 2020 --
Our ScaleUps.com servers had problems over the holidays and the link to my Top 5 Biz Books list was inaccessible – so trying it again. If you haven’t read all five, have each executive team member pick one, read, and share.

A Five-Year Turnaround – Better Than Fiction --
David Dodge, CEO of CodaKid and EO Arizona member, opens up in this EdSurge article about the struggles he suffered, and lessons learned, in pivoting his business – lessons for all of us as we scale. It’s a very quick read – 2 minutes – as he bulletpoints his learnings via a timeline. After going broke and almost losing his marriage in 2014, today he and his wife have launched their 50^th online course serving students from 90+ countries. Please read and reflect.

Too Much Money? --
If you only take 20 seconds to read David Dodge’s “Reflections” at the end of the above article, he notes:

Ironically, the cash infusion we received from the SBA brought us closer to going under than at any other time in our history. We got away from our habit of frugality and began focusing on how to spend money rather than how to operate profitably.

Frugality is a crucial value for most businesses. Take an hour and review your monthly expenses -- particularly all the recurring expenses hitting your credit cards and billings and see which ones are truly necessary and/or can be reduced.

Change the Name of Your Company and Double Revenue? (Scaling Up Case) --
The name of your company matters!  Green Light Events based in Dublin, Ireland had the opportunity to produce events for Google, Facebook, etc. but found their name didn’t resonate with their market. So with the help of branding firm The Pudding (also Scaling Up fans), they changed it to Cogs & Marvel (emphasizing their ability to execute and wow) and supported it with the right color palette and web presence – and revenues jumped from $22 million to over $50 million. This ScaleUps.com article details the process and reasoning – worth 1 minute to read. Then seriously contemplate changing the name of your firm.

Profit Share vs. Market Share --
It’s better to own the bulk of the profit within an industry, than own market share. With just 15% market share, the latest Apple numbers show they are capturing 66% of industry profits and 32% of the overall handset revenue. And Apple has a great company name. Who are the most profitable customers – go after them and leave the rest to the competition! Thank you Scaling Up coach Bill Gallagher for pointing me to these updated numbers.

Pipeline was named one of Time Magazine's Best Inventions of 2019 --
Congratulations to Katica Roy, founder and CEO of Pipeline, who keynoted our last ScaleUp Summit.  Her software platform for employers that both identifies and analyzes bias in the workplace received “Special Mention” in Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2019.

Australian Scale Up Summit | February 10, 2020 | ICC Sydney
I’m very excited to be heading to Sydney in a month to keynote the Sydney Scale Up Summit!  Joining me on stage will be Australian Scaling Up entrepreneurs; including Glen Richards and Naomi Simson of Shark Tank fame, as well as Anna Samios, an entrepreneur in her own right and a certified Scaling Up coach. This is your rare chance to learn directly from Scaling Up practitioners/leaders in your region and connect with business growth peers and Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0) users. More details here https://bit.ly/2P7sN5o

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; Mar 10 - 13; Jul 21 - 24; Aug 18 - 21, 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

Write Your Own Book --
Whether you want to make it to the bestseller lists or just sell a lot more of your goods or services, with a profound competitive edge over the competition, Book The Business: How to Make BIG Money With Your Book Without Selling a Single Copy is for you!

Request your free copy of this ground-breaking book at advantagefamily.com/scalingup.

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 coaching@scalingup.com

TECHNOLOGY:

Execute Scaling Up Faster and Drive Accountability -- Drive Execution with Scaling Up Scoreboard, the official software tool for implementing Scaling Up – available online and in a mobile app. The technology behind Scaling Up Scoreboard is proven to help you achieve 3.5x more goals. Learn more at https://scalingup.com/software/ - on your computer, tablet or phone.

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.

#1 Investment; #1 Biz Book; Top 5 Biz Books; Leaving a Legacy

Dear ScaleUps, 

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

…your culture is how your company makes decisions when you’re not there…
	Ben Horowitz, author What You Do Is Who You Are

Latest ScaleUp News --
5 Top Business Books 2019; Record Unicorns Birthed in 2019 (66); On-Demand Delivery Startup Glovo Over $1 Billion Valuation – this news and more at ScaleUps.com, your one-stop weekly update.

Top 5 Business Books 2019 --
My annual list is out, with details at www.scaleups.com. All five books did an excellent job digging under the bromides and delivering simple, specific, and actionable ideas to scale your business. Three of the five have keynoted our Scaling Up Summits and another, Ritz Carlton co-founder Horst Schulze, is keynoting our Dec 7 – 10 Scaling Up Master Class. FYI,

Excellence Wins, #1 Book of 2019 --
Required reading for our leadership team in preparation for our 2020 strategic planning session, Horst Schulze’s biography Excellence Wins details how he scaled a brand that entered our common vernacular. How many leaders have strived to be the “Ritz Carlton” of their industry? And he beat an incurable form of cancer along the way! Horst (80) is still going strong and I’m looking forward to sharing him with you from the stage. Please devour his book in the meantime (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases).

25 Ideas Shaping the 2020s --
As past and future “best of the decade” lists roll out, Fortune always does a credible and researched job. This list is no exception as it outlines 25 ideas that will shape the decade of the 20s – divided into categories: Economy and Markets, Health, Society, Tech and A.I., and Environment. Predictions of a gold standard of digital currencies and a 4-day workweek will drive further evolutions in how we fund and scale our organizations. It’s a substantial piece, so between my book list details and this article, grab a favorite beverage and chair and enjoy!

#1 Investment of the Decade --
Speaking of digital currencies, bitcoin was the best performing investment of the past decade! A dollar invested in 2010 would be worth $90,000 today even though it’s had a roller-coaster 10 years. This CNN piece outlines the best and worst investments – hope you bet wisely!

Leaving a Legacy (Video instead of Reading!) --
One of the highest rated speakers we’ve ever hosted, Jeff Hoffman, in this video, talks about Leaving a Legacy End of year is a time to reflect and plan for the future. Have you ever asked yourself if people will remember you or your business if you ceased to exist tomorrow? Truth is, it all boils down to the impact you had on individuals - and the world. Jeff Hoffman has taught leaders from all walks of life how to build empowering organizations that leave lasting legacies. Watch his 1-hour seminar Leaving a Legacy, published by Growth Institute as part of their library of seminars. Check it out through a free 14-day trial of the Scaling Up Club by clicking here!

Happy Holidays!! I’ll be back with more insights in 2020.

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; Mar 10 - 13; Jul 21 - 24; Aug 18 - 21, 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

Write Your Own Book --
Whether you want to make it to the bestseller lists or just sell a lot more of your goods or services, with a profound competitive edge over the competition, Book The Business: How to Make BIG Money With Your Book Without Selling a Single Copy is for you!

Request your free copy of this ground-breaking book at advantagefamily.com/scalingup.

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 coaching@scalingup.com

TECHNOLOGY:

Execute Scaling Up Faster and Drive Accountability -- Drive Execution with Scaling Up Scoreboard, the official software tool for implementing Scaling Up – available online and in a mobile app. The technology behind Scaling Up Scoreboard is proven to help you achieve 3.5x more goals. Learn more at https://scalingup.com/software/ - on your computer, tablet or phone.

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.

Businessperson of the Decade; $2 Trillion First; Equality = Innovation; Women of Color Entrepreneur Scholarships

Dear ScaleUps, 

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

…(an) innovation mindset is six times higher in the most-equal cultures than in the least-equal ones.
	Accenture’s Report on Equality

Latest ScaleUp News --
Jeff Bezos Named Businessperson of the Decade; UK’s 10 Fastest Scaleups; Scaleups Thrive in Australia’s Wollongong Region – this news and more at ScaleUps.com, your one-stop weekly update.

If These Insights Have Been Valuable to You --
Please help fund 30 scholarships for women of color to scale their businesses, donating what you feel these insights have been worth to you in 2019 -- $1, $5, $10 or more per week (Donate Here.)? More below, but first…

$1.88 Trillion Aramco IPO (Fun Fact) --
The largest IPO in history, Saudi Arabia’s Aramco is the first company to exceed $2 trillion in market cap on the second day of trading this week – CNBC’s article highlights the milestone.

Saudi Arabia Ends Gender Segregation in Restaurants --
And coinciding with this milestone, Saudi Arabia ends gender segregation in its restaurants, highlighted in this accompanying CNBC article. 

Equality = Innovation --
Companies (and countries!) might pay attention to Accenture’s latest report on equality in the workplace. Summarizing the report, Alan Murray with Fortune notes:

Employees of companies with the most equal culture were more likely to say “nothing stops me from innovating” at work (40%) than those from the least equal cultures (7%); and they were far more likely to say “I am not afraid to fail in the pursuit of innovation” (85%) than those in the least equal cultures (36%).

It might be noted that the CEO of Accenture is one of the top women leaders in the world, Julie Sweet.

#1 Workplace Culture Factor Driving Innovation? --
Accenture measured 40 workplace factors in determining equality and innovation – and #1 was (drum roll, please) “The organization provides training to keep its employees’ skills relevant.” The key word is “relevant.” The only way you, your team, and your organization are going to remain relevant is to invest in training and development. And #3 workplace factor was “Company training times and formats are flexible.” It’s why we host our annual ScaleUp Summits (equivalent of reading a dozen books) and our online education to provide you with our outsourced Corporate University that is available 24/7 to your employees – see next for sample…

Artificial Intelligence: We can't get away from it, can we? --
Though it seems daunting to figure out how to incorporate AI into your business, it's not as difficult as you may think. Watch Doug Rose's 1-hour Learning Suite, How to Discover the Newest AI Products, published in Growth Institute's Scaling Up Club. Check it out through a free 14-day trial of the Scaling Up Club by clicking here! Note, Doug Rose, author of Artificial Intelligence for Business keynoted our Scaling Up Summit last year.

Equality for Women of Color Entrepreneur Scholarships --
Speaking of gender equality, Scaling Up is proud to support Million Dollar Women in their mission to help one million women entrepreneurs each get to $1M in revenues. We believe everyone should have the opportunity to create a thriving business, regardless of gender, race, age, sexual preference or geography.  Million Dollar Women is raising funds to provide 30 scholarships to women of color entrepreneurs, who face even higher obstacles in scaling up their businesses (less access to capital and fewer role models). Women of color run businesses currently make an average of $25,000- $50,000 per year. Can you help us help more women by making a donation of $50, $100, $500 or a donation of any amount to the Million Dollar Women Fund? You can see the full campaign and Donate Here.

Pay it Forward --
Again, if these insights have proven helpful to you in 2019, please pay it forward and donate to Million Dollar Women. I’m on the board of this fine organization and can attest that Julia’s curriculum truly helps women scale. It’s the only charity I promote in the insights and you won’t hear from me for another year!! Thank you for helping these women entrepreneurs.

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; Mar 10 - 13; Jul 21 - 24; Aug 18 - 21, 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

Write Your Own Book --
Whether you want to make it to the bestseller lists or just sell a lot more of your goods or services, with a profound competitive edge over the competition, Book The Business: How to Make BIG Money With Your Book Without Selling a Single Copy is for you!

Request your free copy of this ground-breaking book at advantagefamily.com/scalingup.

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 coaching@scalingup.com

TECHNOLOGY:

Execute Scaling Up Faster and Drive Accountability -- Drive Execution with Scaling Up Scoreboard, the official software tool for implementing Scaling Up – available online and in a mobile app. The technology behind Scaling Up Scoreboard is proven to help you achieve 3.5x more goals. Learn more at https://scalingup.com/software/ - on your computer, tablet or phone.

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.

Google Founders Leave; Shocking Rules; Culture DOESN’T Eat Strategy; Dec 9 OPSP Webinar

Dear ScaleUps,

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

…your culture is how your company makes decisions when you’re not there…
	Ben Horowitz, author What You Do Is Who You Are

Latest ScaleUp News --
A small tech company tried it all to stop employee turnover. Only one thing worked (you’ll be surprised by the answer); Lazard focuses on European Scaleups; Three Point Guide for India to Survive Slow Growth – this news and more at ScaleUps.com, your one-stop weekly update.

Time for Strategic Planning and the OPSP – Dec 9 Online Workshop
Check out the upcoming One-Page Strategic Plan Online Workshop. The One-Page Strategic Plan (OPSP) is a proven tool to help you get your team on the same page and enables quick, daily decision making at all levels of your organization.  My clients often find the OPSP the most rapidly transformative tool, but it’s not easy to fill out. That’s why next Monday, Dec 9th, the Growth Institute and four of our Scaling Up Coaches are hosting an online workshop to guide you through the process of filling out your OPSP, step-by-step. Register today.

Google Founders Step Aside --
This NY Times article does the best job of any I read this week on detailing the departures of Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Notes NY Times:

In a letter announcing the change, Mr. Page and Mr. Brin compared their 21 years at Google to raising a child, saying now was the “time to assume the role of proud parents.”

And this note in the article is a nice summary of the reach and scope achieved by Page and Brin:

Google has grown to be dominant in several markets. Its search engine handles nine out of 10 internet searches, and the company’s Android software powers roughly three-quarters of the world’s smartphones. And for a generation of young people, YouTube, which Google acquired in 2006, has all but supplanted television.

Please take 3 minutes to read this informative NY Times article – it’s an historic week in biz.

Does Culture Fit Hurt Diversity – and Other Myths --
The most important article I’ve read in a while is this HBR article that addresses four myths around hiring people for culture fit. It was a huge topic at the Bloomberg Breakaway CEO summit in London – and a key topic in Ben Horowitz’s new book (see below). My take, after reading and hearing a bunch of experts on the topic – you want to narrow the “culture fit” down to just a handful of very specific values (and you need to make sure they are the right ones that truly represent your unique organization). The rest of what makes for a culture needs to remain fluid and change as strategy, markets, and times change. Please take 2 minutes to read the article.

What You Do Is Who You Are --
The must-read book of 2019, Ben Horowitz has written another classic What You Do Is Who You Are: How to Create Your Business Culture. I took away three key ideas among many:

1. It is what people do, not what they say, that determines culture
2. Culture doesn’t eat strategy – in fact, strategy shapes the culture – and when strategy changes the culture changes
3. Interesting idea – strong cultures include a “shocking rule”

Ben also prefers the term virtues over values.  And because the book is rooted in history, it revealed some interesting historical facts I was unaware of which made the book fun to read.  It’s a book worth reading over the holidays (FYI, as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases if you get the book).

Create Shocking Rules --
One of the really new ideas around culture is Ben’s discovery that successful cultures tend to include a “shocking rule” (Section in Chapter 2) that fits four rules:

1. It must be memorable
2. It must raise the question “Why?”
3. Its cultural impact must be straightforward
4. People must encounter the rule almost daily

It has me and my council thinking about that rule for Scaling Up.  Examples Ben shares:

Coach Tom Coughlin’s “if you are on time, you are late” Jeff Bezos’s “no PowerPoint presentations in meetings” Mark Zuckerberg’s “move fast and break things”

And after Facebook scaled considerably, Zuckerberg changed to “move fast with stable infrastructure.” It’s an example of how strategy, though it doesn’t change values, does often require a change in culture i.e. “how we do things.”

Join Me Feb 10 Sydney ScaleUp Summit --
More info next week and at this link

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; Mar 10 - 13; Jul 21 - 24; Aug 18 - 21, 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

Write Your Own Book --
Whether you want to make it to the bestseller lists or just sell a lot more of your goods or services, with a profound competitive edge over the competition, Book The Business: How to Make BIG Money With Your Book Without Selling a Single Copy is for you!

Request your free copy of this ground-breaking book at advantagefamily.com/scalingup.

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 coaching@scalingup.com

TECHNOLOGY:

Execute Scaling Up Faster and Drive Accountability -- Drive Execution with Scaling Up Scoreboard, the official software tool for implementing Scaling Up – available online and in a mobile app. The technology behind Scaling Up Scoreboard is proven to help you achieve 3.5x more goals. Learn more at https://scalingup.com/software/ - on your computer, tablet or phone.

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.

2 Fire Questions; Bad Family Analogy; Businessperson of the Year; Bill Gates

Dear ScaleUps, 

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

Lead from the back and let others believe they are in front.
	Nelson Mandela as quoted in Fortune

Should They Stay or Should They Go? 2 Questions --
A family business was having problems with an external Managing Director until our Scaling Up Certified coach Omar Hikal convinced the chairman to let him go, which resolved many of the issues the company was facing. Omar used the two “if you’re not sure” questions:

1. How would you feel if they quit tomorrow?
2. What if you had 10 of them?

Omar (who will join me in working with YPO Egypt this week), thank you for sharing these questions – and for doing your job as a coach and helping this family “face the brutal facts” in a Socratic way.

Stop Saying Your Company is Like a Family --
Author Denise Lee Yohn makes a serious case for not referring to your company/employees as family. Instead, she suggests in this Forbes article that a better analogy is a professional sports team where the CEO is the coach. Please take two minutes to scan the article for the nicely bulleted reasons why the family analogy is dangerous and ill-fitting – and the second bulleted list of why a sports team analogy is better, with some important caveats.

Fusing CX and EX --
Denise Lee Yohn also keynoted our ScaleUp Summit last year (one of the highest rated) as author of Fusion – focused on how to align your brand and culture. Your brand doesn't just represent your organization outwardly--it should represent it inwardly as well. Growth Institute just released Denise Lee Yohn's Learning Suite The FUSION Formula as part of their library of short (roughly 1 hour) seminars. This is the seminar I had my client Mynd watch prior to our last session together. Learn to make your brand an intrinsic part of what your employees live. Check it out through a free 14-day trial of the Scaling Up Club by clicking here!

Businessperson of the Year --
Anything but a popularity contest, Fortune’s editors crunch 10 financial factors then look for leaders who “tackled audacious goals, overcame impossible odds, found creative solutions.” And this year’s new Businessperson of the Year is Microsoft’s Satya Nadella. Please take 1 minute to read the incredible outcomes and approach Nadella has used (hint, delegation) to drive Microsoft to over $1 trillion in market cap – lessons for all of us. Go here for the complete list of 20 including #2 Elizabeth Gaines.

Bill Gates Wealthiest --
Do you want to be king or do you want to be rich (former Harvard prof Noam Wasserman question)? Kudos to Bill Gates for delegating the CEO position to Satya Nadella. Earlier this week Gates ($110 billion) once again overtook Jeff Bezos for the top spot.

Thank You Ian Kinnery, Scaling Up Certified UK Coach,…
…for sending me the quote I used to open this weekly insight.

 

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. Dec 3 - 6, 2019; Jan 14 - 17; Mar 10 - 13; Jul 21 - 24; Aug 18 - 21, 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

Write Your Own Book --
Whether you want to make it to the bestseller lists or just sell a lot more of your goods or services, with a profound competitive edge over the competition, Book The Business: How to Make BIG Money With Your Book Without Selling a Single Copy is for you!

Request your free copy of this ground-breaking book at advantagefamily.com/scalingup.

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 coaching@scalingup.com

TECHNOLOGY:

Execute Scaling Up Faster and Drive Accountability -- Drive Execution with Scaling Up Scoreboard, the official software tool for implementing Scaling Up – available online and in a mobile app. The technology behind Scaling Up Scoreboard is proven to help you achieve 3.5x more goals. Learn more at https://scalingup.com/software/ - on your computer, tablet or phone.

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.

Egen’s 5; What is FGF; Telecom Ripoff; Bloomberg Keynote; Anton Passed

Dear ScaleUps, 

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

“If companies are winning new customers, the team get new opportunities (and) that is what is going to create a great culture.”
	Raghu Potini, Egen

Latest ScaleUp News --
5 Strategies for Scaling Rapidly; Strategic Insights for Scaling (Verne interviews 3 UK Entrepreneurs at Bloomberg Summit); 10 Deep Tech Scaleups – this news and more at ScaleUps.com, your one-stop weekly update. 

Raghu Potini’s Egen --
Founded in 2009, Raghu Potini has scaled Chicago-area cloud-based developer Egen to over $50 million and 300 employees, making the Inc. 5000 list multiple times. Believing strategy drives culture (vs. culture eating strategy!), this 1-minute article highlights the 5 strategies Potini uses to continue scaling rapidly as Egen wins best places to work awards and creates award-winning data technology solutions, including our well-received conference app we use at our ScaleUp Summits. Are you doing the same 5?

My Bloomberg Breakaway Presentation in London --
This week I co-hosted Bloomberg’s Breakaway CEO Summit in London with Bloomberg TV anchor Carol Massar. It included a 24-minute keynote where I highlight some important pricing examples and resources. Grab your favorite beverage this weekend and hear my latest ideas for scaling. I include mention of a recent HBR article on the importance of “Good, Better, Best” pricing, something Dell EMC is utilizing to drive a 3x in after sale services.

Tom Kandris’ title FGF --
After co-founding and scaling PackageOne to $60 million and exiting in 2017, Tom Kandris is now an angel investor and mentor to other entrepreneurs. I recently met Tom, a fan of Scaling Up, and loved the title on his business card – FGF – Fairy God Father! He says his job is to help good people make their dreams come true!! Thanks for paying it forward, Tom.

Higher Costs, Worse Service – Telecommunications, etc. --
Sick of the poor telecom service I get from Verizon (and AT&T before them), I wrote my Congressman last week to suggest it’s time government intervenes in these oligopolies since the service is better around the rest of the world. Shortly after, the NY Times published this piece titled “Big Business is Overcharging You $5000 per Year” that provides data that supports my experience. Notes the article:

The irony is that Europe is implementing market-based ideas - like telecommunications deregulation and low-cost airlines - that Americans helped pioneer. “E.U. consumers are better off than American consumers today,” Philippon writes, “because the E.U. has adopted the U.S. playbook, which the U.S. itself has abandoned.”

In short, people in the US are paying more and getting worse service than the rest of the world – and I know it impacts my productivity. As Tom Peters shared years ago, if we don’t complain, nothing will get fixed.  Call your carrier and Congress person.

Correct Link for Kanban Video --
My apologies – last week I supplied the wrong link to Paul Akers’ Kanban process improvement video (the quickest and most complete I’ve seen). Note – mid-market firms are less than a third efficient as the Fortune 500 in generating revenue/employee. One reason is weak processes. Here is the correct link to Paul’s excellent video.

Additional Correction – Anton Kuraia Died
Though he beat the odds and lived 2 years beyond what the doctors projected using IV C, he did succumb to his cancer and died in 2017. The link I was given is dated a few months ago, but my bad for not doing more research as did Gerard Vroomen who noted my error. Rough week last week for reporting. Thank you Gerard (and my followers) for contributing.

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. Dec 3 - 6, 2019; Jan 14 - 17; Mar 10 - 13; Jul 21 - 24; Aug 18 - 21, 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
 

Write Your Own Book --
Whether you want to make it to the bestseller lists or just sell a lot more of your goods or services, with a profound competitive edge over the competition, Book The Business: How to Make BIG Money With Your Book Without Selling a Single Copy is for you!

Request your free copy of this ground-breaking book at advantagefamily.com/scalingup.

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 coaching@scalingup.com

TECHNOLOGY:

Execute Scaling Up Faster and Drive Accountability -- Drive Execution with Scaling Up Scoreboard, the official software tool for implementing Scaling Up – available online and in a mobile app. The technology behind Scaling Up Scoreboard is proven to help you achieve 3.5x more goals. Learn more at https://scalingup.com/software/ - on your computer, tablet or phone.

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.

4-Day Workweek Works; Kanban FastCap Style; Deal on SEALFIT Training

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

Amazing (free) video. This is the PERFECT tutorial for any company wishing to implement a Kanban system. You don't need anything else.
	Bruce Ennis, BE Quality

Latest ScaleUp News --
10 German Scaleups; Investment in European Scaleups Quadruples; India-based Delhivery Using Electric Vehicles and Drones – this news and more at ScaleUps.com, your one-stop weekly update.

Kanban Paul Aker/FastCap Style – Great for COOs
Need better workflow management? Want to emulate a system that effectively drives agile software development teams? Toyota’s Kanban system is a workflow management method designed to help visualize work, maximize efficiency and be agile. In this 19-minute video 2-Second Lean author and entrepreneur Paul Aker teaches Kanban and how he uses it at his company – especially perfect for any head of operations – and a system all leaders should be knowledgeable of – some excellent weekend learning.

Microsoft tried a 4-day workweek in Japan…--
…and productivity jumped 40%. This CNN piece also highlights how Microsoft encouraged shorter meetings (30 minutes) and less time answering emails. Shake Shack is testing something similar as are many smaller firms. One huge benefit if people had more 3-day weekends -- a boost to consumer spending! 

SEALFIT Training – Unbeatable Mind --
Mark Divine, author of Way of the SEAL, has put together a package for the immersive “Unbeatable Mind Experience” in Carlsbad, California, to include a complimentary membership to the online Unbeatable Mind Academy and a signed copy of his latest book Staring Down the Wolf. Ideally, you would do this WITH your core team... but you would also benefit greatly by doing it alone. This training is led by his top coaches and Mark... going deep into their five mountains and the Unbeatable Mind developmental tools he touched on in his keynote at our ScaleUp Summit. Click here to see the details.

IV Vitamin C Saves Another Life in NZ --
Riddled with cancer and given a few weeks to live, Anton Kuraia turned to IV Vitamin C and is alive today – the cancer gone. This 14-minute TVNZ broadcast highlights his case and how science seems to be catching up to this miraculous cure. FYI, New Zealand has been a leader in people using IV Vitamin C to cure various difficult diseases as we learn more about nature’s natural chemo/antibiotic.


Westminster City Council (London) Scaling Up --
The Business and Enterprise team, which is part of the Regeneration and Economic Development service at Westminster City Council, is shown working through their Scaling Up “Vision Summary.” City of Westminster recently co-hosted our ScaleUp Summit as they focus on supporting more scaleups in London. Good to see they are modeling the way, as they work with Scaling Up Certified coach Neale Lewis.

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. Dec 3 - 6, 2019; Jan 14 - 17; Mar 10 - 13; Jul 21 - 24; Aug 18 - 21, 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

Write Your Own Book --
Whether you want to make it to the bestseller lists or just sell a lot more of your goods or services, with a profound competitive edge over the competition, Book The Business: How to Make BIG Money With Your Book Without Selling a Single Copy is for you!

Request your free copy of this ground-breaking book at advantagefamily.com/scalingup.

 

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 coaching@scalingup.com

TECHNOLOGY:

Execute Scaling Up Faster and Drive Accountability -- Drive Execution with Scaling Up Scoreboard, the official software tool for implementing Scaling Up – available online and in a mobile app. The technology behind Scaling Up Scoreboard is proven to help you achieve 3.5x more goals. Learn more at https://scalingup.com/software/ - on your computer, tablet or phone.

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.

McKinsey’s CEO Checklist; How Leaders Coach; Elder vs Elderly; Jan 14 – 17 One Seat Left

Dear ScaleUps, 

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

An effective manager-as-coach asks questions instead of providing answers, supports employees instead of judging them, and facilitates their development instead of dictating what has to be done.
	HBR article “The Leader as Coach”

The Worst and Best Halloween Candy --
I agree with the #1 best, but the new #1 worst, no way!!  It’s the first candy I buy and consume!! I just love how this candy site grabs the headlines each year with their newsworthy research – how could you do that each year? What data, when?

CEO Boot Camp January – 1 Seat
Sold out for months, our January 14 – 17 CEO Boot Camp just had a seat open up – one of the CEOs needed to move to our March dates. December has 3 of 7 seats left and March now has just 4 of 7.

McKinsey’s CEO Checklist --
If you’re a CEO, go right to the end of this McKinsey article and look at the concise list of mindsets and practices of excellent CEOs based on 25 years of performance data of 7,800 CEOs from 3,500 public companies across 70 countries and 24 industries. One conclusion?

Whereas Steve Jobs advised college graduates, “Stay hungry, stay foolish,” we urge CEOs to “Stay hungry, stay humble.”

At first, I baulked at the list of 18, but Ritz Carlton had 17 gold standards they expected employees to know and abide by, so why not 18 for the CEO! And McKinsey bunched them into 5 categories – the equivalent of people, strategy, execution, board, and community. Again, the chart/checklist at the end of the article is worth printing out and reviewing constantly. 

The Leader as Coach --
…and for the rest of the leadership team, this Nov-Dec HBR article details the pivot managers must make to becoming coaches to their teams. The authors use Microsoft as a case study, describing how and why this company made the change as it moved from a know-it-all culture to a learn-it-all culture. This article digs into the details! It concludes:

We live in a world of flux. Successful executives must increasingly supplement their industry and functional expertise with a general capacity for learning-and they must develop that capacity in the people they supervise. No longer can managers simply command and control. Nor will they succeed by rewarding team members mainly for executing flawlessly on things they already know how to do. Instead, with full institutional support, they need to reinvent themselves as coaches whose job it is to draw energy, creativity, and learning out of the people with whom they work.

Please take 4 minutes to read through this transformation Microsoft made as a model for even us mere mortal companies. Thank you Steve Hall for pointing me to this valuable article.

Modern Day Elder --
Hotelier and now key advisor to Airbnb, Chip Conley's, presentation at the Scale-Up Summit was very popular and resonated deeply. He just launched a daily blog this week called Wisdom Well housed on the Modern Elder Academy website. You can subscribe here to the blog if you'd like it to come to your email daily. And, of course, his book is entitled Wisdom@Work: The Making of a Modern Elder. 

Wisdom@Work is available here
Modern Elder Academy’s new workshops are here

Scaling Up in Chinese (Simplified) --
EO Shanghai and their teams turned out in force to help me launch Scaling Up in Chinese. Thank you to Fred Crosetto and Amelie Mongrain for organizing this tremendous event along with Preston Kuo who organized the overall book launch.

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. Dec 3 - 6, 2019; Jan 14 - 17; Mar 10 - 13; Jul 21 - 24; Aug 18 - 21, 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

Write Your Own Book --
Whether you want to make it to the bestseller lists or just sell a lot more of your goods or services, with a profound competitive edge over the competition, Book The Business: How to Make BIG Money With Your Book Without Selling a Single Copy is for you!

Request your free copy of this ground-breaking book at advantagefamily.com/scalingup.

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 coaching@scalingup.com

TECHNOLOGY:

Execute Scaling Up Faster and Drive Accountability -- Drive Execution with Scaling Up Scoreboard, the official software tool for implementing Scaling Up – available online and in a mobile app. The technology behind Scaling Up Scoreboard is proven to help you achieve 3.5x more goals. Learn more at https://scalingup.com/software/ - on your computer, tablet or phone.

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.

FAST vs. SMART Goals; Future 50; Costa Rica Summit; Oct 29 Webinar

Dear ScaleUps, 

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

Extreme communication. You say something 75 times, and then you have to say it another 75 times.
	AMD CEO Lisa Su, on how to execute a turnaround (Fortune)

Webinar Oct 29 – 3 Barriers to Scaling --
I'm going LIVE on October 29 with an online 90-min training.  More below, but first…

Costa Rica Jan 27 – Feb 1 -- $1000 Discount by Oct 31 --
More below, but second…

FAST vs. SMART Goals --
Rarely is there something new in standard business lingo that makes me pivot.  However, this MIT Sloan Management Review article suggested by Adam Grant (yes, the article is a year old) suggests FAST goals are better than SMART. SMART is a standard acronym I reference even in Scaling Up, yet I’ve always found it clunky and repetitive (aren’t Achievable and Realistic almost the same? Specific and Measurable two sides of the same coin?). What Donald Sull and Charles Sull suggest is the acronym FAST:

Frequently Discussed – aligns with our daily, weekly, quarterly meeting rhythm Ambitious – indicative of scaleups and much better than “attainable” Specific – their definition encompasses that the goal is measurable as well Transparent – supports the need for software like Scaling Up Scoreboard

Please take 2-minutes to read the details. I’m switching language in our workshops (and will update my book) – and hope you find this framework more comprehensive and representative of growing firms.

Top 30% Crushing Bottom 30% --
It seems the big are getting even bigger and the small, smaller when it comes to public companies. Lessons for all of us, this HBR article by Vijay Govindarajan, et. al details what smaller companies can do to breakthrough. My favorite paragraph:

How can a manager of a small firm escape the small size trap? We constructed a statistical model to distinguish between companies that remained small versus those that grew much larger. We find that the latter had a substantially higher investment in intangibles, larger debt raised (to finance investment), and fewer annual losses than the perennially small. Escapees had a relatively higher asset base and were younger than those left behind. Notably, investment in physical assets (property, plant, equipment), share buybacks, dividend payments, and acquisitions were negatively associated with the likelihood of escape.

It underpins research Jim Collins shared in Great by Choice (still my favorite of Jim’s books). He found that companies should only pour in capital and technology AFTER they’ve figured out their business model (i.e. one that is profitable!) And we’re big fans of smaller firms using much more debt to then accelerate a successful business model. Please take 2-minutes to read the article and then figure how to be highly profitable (right customer, right product/service) and then pour in the cash/debt!! 

Best Potential for Future Growth – and Crushing the Market --
Fortune’s “Future 50” last year recorded shareholder returns of 13.9%, significantly above the 7.6% for the MSCI world stock index. This week they released their latest list of 50 and making the top 10: Workday, Square, ServiceNow, Contemporary Amperex Technology, Spotify, Atlassian, Xiaomi, Ctrip.com, Salesforce, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

AI and Machine Learning Used to Determine Future 50 --
…and this Fortune article details the factors that go into determining which companies have the brightest future along the dimensions of strategy, technology and investments, people, and structure. And there was a focus on a “path to profitability” test. It’s worth 3 minutes to soak up the details – and contemplate your own company’s future. 

ScaleUp Summit Highlight Reel – Dallas May 5 – 6 is Next --
The equivalent of reading 24 books in two days, the latest ScaleUp Summit is highlighted in this 2-minute video produced by Align5 Films. And the party Tuesday night ran the latest it’s ever run – entertainment courtesy of the Dutch band Policed! The next Summit is May 5 – 6 (I teach a half-day Scaling Up workshop on May 7 – included in registration) in Dallas, TX.  $250 deposit to hold the best seats – based on size of team and timing of registration. See you in Dallas for another great line-up of keynotes representing the latest new biz books.

Webinar Oct 29 – 3 Barriers to Scaling --
I'm going LIVE on October 29 with an online training called 'Overcome the Growth Paradox - 3 Barriers That Keep You from Scaling in 2020'. I’ll share the common mistakes CEOs and business leaders tend to make that prevent them from achieving the growth they’re after. Join me for free here:

Costa Rica Jan 27 – Feb 1 -- $1000 Discount by Oct 31 --
January 2020 Scaling Your Mindset to Scale your Business retreat in Costa Rica is offering a $1,000 early bird discount before October 31st. Led by Scaling Up Certified coaches Juletta Broomfield and Lisa Foulger, here’s a link for more info.

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. Dec 3 - 6, 2019; Jan 14 - 17 (Sold Out); Mar 10 - 13; Jul 21 - 24; Aug 18 - 21, 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

Write Your Own Book --
Whether you want to make it to the bestseller lists or just sell a lot more of your goods or services, with a profound competitive edge over the competition, Book The Business: How to Make BIG Money With Your Book Without Selling a Single Copy is for you!

Request your free copy of this ground-breaking book at advantagefamily.com/scalingup.

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 coaching@scalingup.com

TECHNOLOGY:

Execute Scaling Up Faster and Drive Accountability -- Drive Execution with Scaling Up Scoreboard, the official software tool for implementing Scaling Up – available online and in a mobile app. The technology behind Scaling Up Scoreboard is proven to help you achieve 3.5x more goals. Learn more at https://scalingup.com/software/ - on your computer, tablet or phone.

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.