"…keeping you great"
HEADLINES:
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Some business owners are just smarter than others.
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John
Assaraf
author
The
Answer
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3rd
Richest Man in the World — …behind Bill Gates and Carlos Slim is little known
Amancio Ortega, founder of the Spanish-based global fashion retailer Zara
(not everything is bad in Spain!). A super private individual, there was not
even a published photo of him until 1999. Worth roughly $56 billion, Zara is
opening one new store a day and has over 6000 globally. Take 7 minutes (you
need a mental break) to read this Fortune
Article about an entrepreneur who started from humble beginnings and
bucked all industry norms (the only way to win big).
26 Seasons — whereas all other retailers plan for four seasons,
Zara has 26! The key to Zara’s success is a rapid "learn-act" cycle.
Monitoring DAILY what young people are wearing on the streets around the
world, Zara will design and produce clothes the same day to match. Notes
Fortune, "There is a firm 24-hour turnaround deadline for Europe, the Middle
East, and much of the U.S., and 48 hours for Asia and Latin America." This
is the essence of talking to customers each week and adapting accordingly —
only Zara has built this into their very business model!! Again, if you read
only
one article this week, take 7 minutes and read this one.
Top Regrets — David Rich, my forum mate in Barcelona, pointed me to
a regular blog he follows called “Barking
Up the Wrong Tree” — lots of counterintuitive research on every topic
you can imagine. A recent blog focused on regrets. Summarizes the research:
I particularly love the last one — it’s all about
experiences vs. stuff. Spend wisely in 2013. And visit us in (or move to)
Barcelona!!
Vision Boards — while our various Gazelles companies have been
finalizing their
One-Page Strategic Plans and updating their
7 Strata of Strategy, our family created our individual vision boards
this week. First, having just a single focus each for 2012 was powerful —
and 5 of the 6 family members made significant progress on their #1 goal
(the idea of the goal is to create momentum in an important area of your
life). John Assaraf, whom I quoted above, has a book entitled
The Complete Vision
Board Kit.
What’s amazing is to look back at vision boards from several years ago and
see how the very things we put on our boards happened so precisely — so be
careful what you wish for!!
Peer Accountability Partner
— …and nothing will help you to keep your New Year’s resolutions and
effect real behavior change better than having a peer accountability partner
— an idea Marshall Goldsmith, the top CEO coach in the world, uses and
shared with us at the Fortune
Leadership Summit audience (next Summit is May 9 – 10, Orlando). My
partner, a fellow EO member, and I traded our lists this week and we simply
send an email at the end of the day to each other reporting on our progress
— most are simple yes’s and no’s so it takes me literally 20 seconds to
send this email. Yet it’s so powerful!!! The key is picking behaviors. Three
of mine:
- One
significant move in the business each day (name it)
Number of push-ups (the number)
Avoid all "white" foods – bread, potatoes, etc (yes or no)
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The two others are quite personal but probably more
important than the three above. But you get the idea.
#1 Focus/Vision Board, Behavior Change List, and Peer Accountability
Person
— three steps to a great 2013.Simple, fast,
powerful.Happy New Year.
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