More Facebook, More Depression; Salim Ismail; Office Branding; Better Elementary School?
July 3, 2014
7000 Hired; 18,000 Fired; 80% vs 20% Success Rate; Aug 14 Master Class; GGI Accredited
July 17, 2014

Seeking Advisors; Secret Society; #1 Job for Customers; Carrot Clarinet

"…keeping you great"

HEADLINES:  

"We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have."

 

Frederick Keonig

Seeking Advisors/Influencers? — source TED. David Katz, founder of PlasticBank (love the name), was trying to figure out who might be the best advisors for his new venture. Then it occurred to him, why not search the TED talks (brilliant idea!). There is no better list of the top thinkers and doers in the world. He landed:

  • Illac Diaz – a well-known social entrepreneur
  • Dr. Mike Biddle – plastics engineer and cofounder of MBA Polymers
  • Paul Pollack – author of Out of Poverty

"I've also used TED to initiate other important contacts," notes David, an EOer I met at the EMP program at MIT. He and his partner have scaled up a biz in 18 months that might take others 18 years, while solving a huge problem on the planet. They have branded the term "social plastic"; they are normalizing the price of recycled plastic so people around the world can make a living farming, fishing, and finding plastic; and they are getting companies to agree to only use social plastic. This is a billion dollar venture in the making – stay tuned.

Intuit's (QuickBooks) Brad Smith — "getting rid of friction" is how Intuit's CEO Brad Smith sees the company's job in serving customers. This is why they've struck deals with many of their perceived competitors. Powerful idea! Please take 3 minutes to scan this Fortune interview. Here's my favorite paragraph – which details something every CEO and leader of a growth firm should do:

"When the company was founded 30 years ago, our founder, Scott Cook, developed a method that we still use today called Follow Me Home. We do 10,000 hours of Follow Me Homes with consumers and small businesses every year. I do 60 hours myself. We're not stalkers – we're invited into their home or business. We observe them for a day, go through things, and we'll observe the things that surprise us. Like, they'll grimace, they'll write a Post-it note to themselves, and then we go back afterward and say, "What stumped you?" Or, "What was it that you were puzzled with?" And then we try to find ways to eliminate that friction."

Go hang out with some customers this month!!

Secret Society for High-Achieving Women — this Fast Company magazine article details the Committee of 200 (C200), an organization of women business leaders including Denise M. Morrison, president and CEO of Campbell Soup Company and Ellen J. Kullman, chairman of the board and CEO of DuPont. Half the members run companies larger than $400 million. On the other end, they have a Protege Program helping 15 women scale-up their businesses so they can qualify for membership. Though not mentioned in the article when discussing this innovation initiative, Gazelles landed the contract to provide the training, led by our Gazelles International Certified Coach Lisa Ridley. We couldn't be more proud to be helping these women "scale up" over the next several years. Thanks to Mary Naylor, CEO of VIPDesk and C200 member, for championing our efforts. Please take 2 minutes to read about this important organization for women business leaders.

Can Men Have it All? — speaking of women business owners, Naomi Simson, founder of Sydney-based RedBalloon, has written another insightful "Influencer" piece for LinkedIn. Her rant – why do interviewers only ask women the question "can you have it all?" Can anyone really? The quote at the start of this insight came from Naomi's article as she reminds us "The number one way to experience happiness with your choices is to be present in what you do – not wishing you had it "all". Please take 2 minutes to scan her article and then make some choices.

Carrot Clarinet — looking for a fun activity with the children? Take 5 minutes to watch this TEDxSydney talk on how to make a clarinet out of a carrot. It's a great way to be "present" with your children and have some fun with music.

COACHING:

Need help implementing the Rockefeller Habits?

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.