Zuckerberg’s Priorities; Elon Musk Vision; Bad Meeting Habits; India Tour; YPO Workshop
March 29, 2012
Reverse Innovation; Gatorade’s Real Back Story; Mike Maddock; Favorite Paragraph
April 10, 2012

80 Seats Left; Saving Massive Amounts of Time; Four Short Interviews; EO Ft Worth

"…keeping you great"

HEADLINES:  
 

Just 80 Seats Left – "You deliver more value per $ than anyone else in the business!" notes YPOer Henry McGovern, founder/CEO of AmRest (billion dollar restaurant chain). He'll once again have his team, from Poland and the US, at the FORTUNE Leadership Summmit – will you? More below…but first:  

Saving Massive Amounts of Time
– my own team at Gazelles, experiencing overload, huddled and reviewed three critical rules:
 
  1. Everyone must set aside one 90-minute uninterrupted session/day to focus on one big thing (this doesn't mean catching up on email); two 90-minute focused sessions per day for our head of operations (others must protect her); and as CEO I must get three 90-minute focused sessions per day.
  2. No problem-solving without getting ALL the affected parties on the phone – and in most cases, many of the effected parties are on our Monday calls. If key people are missing (like a supplier), invite them to participate for a few minutes on the call. It drives me nuts (not a far drive!) when people try to solve problems via email over days and weeks!
  3. No long emails – and only one subject per email with the subject line matching the topic. It also drives me crazy when the email topic changes but people are too lazy to update the subject line! And, again, no problem solving using email, just confirmation of decisions.

In addition, taking a page from Jim Collins, we must always ask a "who" question first i.e. "who already has the solution so we don't have to waste time figuring it out ourselves."

Four Practical Tips – please take 2 – 4 minutes to watch each of four Short Interviews I conducted at our recent Growth Summit in Sydney. Jim Collins also beamed in for two hours and delivered a powerful four-part framework for thriving in turbulent times – what he'll share in Atlanta. The four quick interviews:
 

Fred Reichheld – author of the Ultimate Question 2.0, discusses an important name change – NPS doesn't just stand for Net Promoter Score anymore! Remain current on the latest biz lingo. And tune-in to Fred's latest one-hour Growth Institute Online Seminar as well.

Jack Daly – he's well-known for his sales and sales management training, but what is the third critical ingredient to high performance sales teams? Jack explains in his short interview.

Halley Bock — as president and CEO of Fierce Inc., Halley contributes a very insightful idea – that "conversation is the workhorse of organizations" – and that conversations drive relationships which drive culture.

Lucy Cornell — designated LinkLater Voice Coach describes the four keys to commanding more attention and power when you voice your thoughts in any situation. You have a voice; learn to use it properly.

Thank you to our Australian partner, The Growth Faculty , for co-hosting a first class Growth Summit with Gazelles. 

Changing Face of Massive Wealth – Wall Street isn't the best way to a billion. NY Time's Dealbook Spring Edition Spring Edition has some interesting articles today, including how the heirs to old money are plunging into high tech.
 
Zero to ?25 Million – continues Selman, "We used the one-page strategic plan, the meeting rhythm, everything. The company has grown to Euro 25MM in sales in five years with strong double digit net profit margins. I'm not working in the company on a day to day basis now but the team is still doing the daily huddles, the rocks, the one page plan etc. and is still growing like crazy."  

Latest Venture –
Selman concludes, "I started another company two years ago and with a tiny team we again use all the stuff. In the photo below you see a picture from my desk here in Spain with the one page plan in the back. Underneath the left computer screen you see a small piece of paper glued to the screen. Those are the five annual goals. Just looking at it every day makes it almost inevitable that they will be met. The team in Amsterdam has it as well and we refer to it at least weekly. Living here in Spain now, I can say its life changing stuff!"

Right-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet.

New EO Chapter – speaking of the power of EO, Jeremy Brandt, founder of X5 Ventures, is heading up the launch of a new EO chapter in Fort Worth, TX. Contact Jeremy and visit their new chapter website.

Join Henry's Team in Atlanta — "More practical ideas per hour than any other executive education program, guaranteed." We've had several clients, including Henry McGovern, attend competitive events and confirm we score at least 3:1 on this critical practical idea metric. And we already have the largest audience ever for the FORTUNE leadership Summit, May 15 – 16, Atlanta. Over a dozen top business books represented by our faculty — Jim Collins, Peter Diamandis, Jim Stengel, Brad Hams, Brian Souza, and Kevin Daum. "Outlearn the competition" and grab the last remaining seats for your team.
 
Verne Harnish
Verne Harnish
Verne Harnish is founder of the world-renowned Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) and chaired for fifteen years EO’s premiere CEO program, the “Birthing of Giants” and WEO’s “Advanced Business” executive program both held at MIT. Founder and CEO of Gazelles, a global executive education and coaching company with over 150 coaching partners on six continents, Verne has spent the past three decades helping companies scale-up. The “Growth Guy” syndicated columnist, he’s also the Venture columnist for FORTUNE magazine. He’s the author of Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0); Mastering the Rockefeller Habits; and along with the editors of Fortune, authored The Greatest Business Decisions of All Times," for which Jim Collins wrote the foreword. Verne also chairs FORTUNE Magazine’s annual Leadership and Growth Summits and serves on several boards including chairman of The Riordan Clinic and the newly launched Geoversity. He is an investor in many scale-ups. A father of four, he enjoys piano, tennis, and magic as a card-carrying member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.