The Agile Scaleup

Ikea Effect; Decoy Pricing; CEO to Coach; April 5, 12 Webinars

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.
                                          Thomas Jefferson

I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.
                                          Estée Lauder

How You Can Easily Contribute to Ukrainian Refuges
Feel you should contribute, but haven’t? The Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) is supplying $25 wellness kits to Ukrainian refugees through our EO chapter in Poland. 100% of the funds are going directly to the people in need. Here’s the link to purchase 1, 10, or 1000 kits. Quick, easy, important. Thank you.

Conscious Capitalism Webinar April 5; Scaling Up Compensation Webinar April 12
More info below…

Decoy Pricing – and Other Ikea Tricks We Can Use
The Hustle details the various psychological tricks Ikea uses to drive 60% of its revenue through impulse purchases. Besides the maze-like layout (you walk over a mile); the clever use of mirrors to give you a sense of belonging; dump bins of cheap items placed along the route giving the impression of low price; and their clever use of decoy pricing. Please take 1 minute to scan to the decoy pricing section and read an explanation and example – it’s a pricing strategy all of us can use (I used it in the pandemic!).

Lower Prices Over Time
One of several insights/surprises highlighted in the article is Ikea’s focus on continually lowering the price of their most popular items. Notes The Hustle:

• The Billy bookcase — a product so beloved that one is sold every 5 seconds — retailed for $82 in 1985. Today, it goes for $50.
• The Lack side table came with a $25 price tag in 1985. Now, it can be had for $13.

FYI, Ikea is increasing overall prices by 9% in 2022 to deal with inflation. And it sells 1 billion meatballs – some fun infographics in the article.

The Ikea Effect – Have Your Customers’ Self-Serve
Having the customer complete something increases the perceived value of the item. Cake mix sales suffered when you only had to add water; when the recipe was changed requiring you to add your own egg, sales went back up. You are now more emotionally involved/attached to the process. The same with assembling the Ikea furniture – there is a sense of pride/ownership. Customer satisfaction goes up when customers self-serve (think ATMs). How might you put this to work for you? Again, please take a few minutes to read this article. Thank you to John Ratliff, CEO of our coaching organization, for pointing me to this article.

From Tech CEO to Coach
This Scaleups.com article shares how Stacy Eads went from being a successful tech CEO to Scaling Up coach. We’re looking for more partners like Stacy if interested. Today she works with firms $1 million to $250 million in revenue and maintains over a dozen clients in a broad range of industries. Please take 2-minutes to read how she made the successful transition after using the Scaling Up tools to scale her own tech firms.

Conscious Capitalism Webinar – April 5, 2pm ET
Conscious Capitalism is a modern framework for doing business, popularized by John Mackey at Whole Foods and emulated by thousands of firms around the globe. It aligns with the new emphasis on stakeholders, not just shareholders, helping you retain top talent, attract loyal customers, and make a positive impact – all without having to sacrifice profits or growth! We’ll cover all this in a free training next Tuesday, April 5 at 2pm ET. Can you make it? Learn more and register here: https://hubs.li/Q0172C2H0

Verne Harnish Compensation Webinar -- April 12, 2:22pm ET
Register to tune into my first public Scaling Up Compensation webinar April 12 at 2:22pm ET. It coincides with the release of the book in print. Over the one-hour I’ll detail the 5 design principles for getting a much greater return on one of your largest expenses. Small changes can drive hundreds of percent increases in revenue and profit.

Weekend Countdown – 1-Minute of Wisdom
Enjoy this kickoff to your weekend – some bits of wisdom from a fresh set of wise teachers, updated each weekend.
https://vimeo.com/showcase/weekendcountdown

Order a box of 20 Scaling Up books
Want to save 50% over the price on Amazon? Go to this link.

COACHING:

Are you wondering if working with a coach is right for you? Take our Four Decisions Assessment to learn which type of coach is best for you.

All of our Scaling Up Certified Coaches™ are masters at guiding you and your leadership team through the implementation of the Scaling Up Performance. But our promise is a custom diagnostic approach from Day 1, including how we match you with a coach. 

We even have a team member dedicated to helping you find the perfect Scaling Up Certified Coach.™ Schedule a complimentary, personal follow-up. Or check out our FAQ’s.. Additional questions can be sent to [email protected].

SCALING UP WORKSHOPS:
Engage your team with interactive workshops to optimize your company’s performance.
(list of workshops below)

Sydney, Australia – April 6, 2022 (In-Person)
Toronto, Canada - April 14, 2022 (Virtual)
San Antonio, TX - April 19 (In-Person)
Hadley, MA - April 21, 2022 (In-Person or Virtual)
Toronto, Canada - May 12, 2022 (Virtual)
Hadley, MA - May 19, 2022 (In-Person or Virtual)
Ann Arbor, MI – May 18, 2022 (In-Person)
Grand Rapids, MI - May 24, 2022 (In-Person)
London, UK – May 26, 2022 (In-Person)
Naples, FL - June 1, 2022 (In-Person)
Birmingham, AL - June 3, 2022 (In-Person)
Melbourne, Australia – June 7, 2022 (In-Person)
Toronto, Canada - June 9, 2022 (Virtual)
Buffalo, NY - June 10, 2022 (In-Person)
Albuquerque, NM – June 14, 2022 (In-Person)
Auckland, New Zealand – June 14 & 15, 2022 (In-Person 2 Day Master Class)
Hong Kong – June 15, 2022 (Virtual)
Hadley, MA - June 15, 2022 (In-Person or Virtual)
La Crosse, WI - June 15, 2022 (In-Person)
India – June 22, 2022 (Virtual)
Salisbury, England -June 23, 2022 (In-Person)
Toronto, Canada - July 14, 2022 (Virtual)
Sydney, Australia – Aug 3, 2022 (In-Person)
Toronto, Canada - Aug 11, 2022 (Virtual)
Dallas, TX – Aug 25, 2022 (In-Person)
Toronto, Canada - Sep 8, 2022 (Virtual)
San Diego, CA – Sep 13, 2022 (In-Person)
Melbourne, Australia – Sep 13, 2022 (In-Person)
Toronto, Canada - Oct 13, 2022 (Virtual)
Sydney, Australia – Oct 26, 2022 (In-Person)
Toronto, Canada - Nov 10, 2022 (Virtual)
Salisbury, England – Nov 15, 2022 (In-Person)
Melbourne, Australia – Nov 29, 2022 (In-Person)
Toronto, Canada - Dec 1, 2022 (Virtual)

EDUCATION: 
Growth Institute Online Executive Education:
Master of Business Dynamics
Scaling Up Master Business Course
Exponential Organizations Master Business Course
Topgrading Master Business Course

TECHNOLOGY:
ScalingUp ScoreboardIntegrated with Salesforce, Slack, and Zapier (allowing it to connect with 1000s of systems), use Scoreboard to provide your team (working remotely even more important!) a real-time visual dashboard of cascading priorities and metrics. Get a personalized tour of Scaling Up Scoreboard to see how you can use it to better implement Scaling Up in your business.

Planning to Exit?
It’s the most critical decision a business owner will make in their lifetime – and over my 40 years of helping firms I’ve seen owners taken advantage of time and time again – leaving tens of millions on the table. You’re up against sophisticated buyers who have done hundreds of acquisitions – whereas this is often your first rodeo. And these buyers have a formula for ripping you off – and it works. Seeking help, owners find the big M&A firms, especially those specializing in your industry, are more beholden to the buyers than the sellers (they will tell you otherwise). They are not your friend in the process, just another transaction. Email me to get a white paper on what to avoid when exiting [email protected].

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.

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.

Did you miss previous insights? - read here

Read Verne's Insights on Kindle http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003SX13YI

Follow Verne on Instagram: @scalingup2.0

Sign up for Verne's Weekly Insights   

 

Scaling Up,
1660 NE Miami Gardens Dr, Ste 4, Miami, FL, USA

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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.

Everyone a Salesperson; Dan Pink's Latest Book; 4 Keys to Economic Growth; Ft. Myers Jan 9

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:  

The only thing you got in this world is what you can sell. And the funny thing is, you're a salesman, and you don't know that.
	Arthur Miller Death of a Salesman

Need Acquisition Capital? -- I met up with a friend over the New Year who is distributing $100 million of capital for acquisition financing of private companies. If you need $10-30 million for acquisitions in Q1 or Q2 this year... shoot me a note and I'll introduce you.

Everyone a Salesperson? -- an insight reader asked me for a great book that all the non-sales people in their company could read that made the point that everyone is really in sales!! I struggled to come up with a book, though I thought Dan Pink's (author of the huge bestseller entitled Drive) upcoming book To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others might be the perfect read (Dan had mentioned he was writing this book to me a year ago after keynoting our 2011 Growth Summit). And it is!! Released Dec 31, it's already in the top 10 of all biz books and will surely be one of the smash hits for 2013.

1 in 9 in Sales -- this, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is the number of Americans in some form of sales position. In turn, as most growth firm leaders know, the other 8 play a role in sales as well. The key is helping them understand this and giving them the support and skills to be helpful. This is what Dan Pink's book does - in a highly entertaining and readable format. One interesting trend, not only in Pink's book but others, is the focus on introverts - and why they are able to "move people" in ways extraverts can't. The first review on Amazon provides a great summary of the book, but you'll need to scan it for the specific "how to's." This book is worthy of your book-of-the-month club.

Antifragile Children Part 2 -- if you're looking for an overseas experience for your high school student, without having to move the entire family, Pam Krulitz, Managing Partner of Isis Associates, sent two recommendations. Her daughter has participated in both - thus the references to her below:

1. School Year Abroad - Year-long programs with rigorous academics and living with families in China (where my daughter went), Spain, Italy or France. The program was founded by a consortium of boarding schools, and draws heavily from about 40 independent schools around the country, but anyone is welcome to apply. Its boarding school prices, but need-based scholarships are available.
2. United World College - 2-year residential IB program in one of twelve United World Colleges around the world. Over 130 countries, including the US, have national committees that select students to represent their country at the UWC's, so the kids literally live and study with students from around the world. 50 American students are selected each year to attend, and receive a full scholarship courtesy of Shelby Davis. 25 go to the school in New Mexico and the rest go to the other schools around the world (Wales, Canada, Norway, India, Swaziland, Singapore, Hong Kong, etc.). My daughter is finishing her second year at the UWC in Hong Kong. It's a fabulous program, and I'm always surprised that it's not better known.

Concludes Krulitz, "Both programs have a very good track record of college placements."Pam thank you for sharing this information.

Economic Formula for Growth -- my January "Growth Guy" column weighs in on four significant challenges countries and economies are facing around the globe - education, R&D, exports, and competitiveness. There's some surprising statistics and suggested best practices from economies/countries that are thriving.

Ft. Myers, FL Jan 9 -- this is the first Rockefeller Habits workshop in 2013 and our 11th year of offering the course.

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?