1 billion women; Jack Welch tweet; Core values poem; The Commitment Engine

"…keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

How 1 Billion Women Will Impact Your Business — referred to as the "third billion" the most significant trend impacting companies is the movement of 1 billion women into the global economy. Take five minutes to read this Fortune management article. One interesting data point from the article "already, half of the world's self-made female billionaires are in China, and a quarter of that country's entrepreneurs are female."

Coke's 52 Million Facebook Likes — using what she calls a "flawsome" approach, Wendy Clark, Coke's Senior Vice President of Integrated Marketing Communications and Capabilities, explains that in social media "You have to be awesome with your flaws, the things that aren't exactly perfect. You want to be human, to speak like a human and act like a human." Take 3 minutes to read how she gets 15,000 tweets per day about Coke and other social media hints in this Fortune article.

Core Values Poem — Michael Assad, co-founder and CEO of Toronto-based Agility, sent me a fun link to what is a first, at least for me — a one minute video where Joel Varty, Director of R&D, shares Agility's core values via poetry! Gazelles International coaching partner Les Rubenovitch has been working with Michael and his team the past year and a half implementing the Rockefeller Habits, including the discovery of their core values.

The Commitment Engine — this is the latest book by John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing fame released today. As I note in my endorsement of the book "As I read John's book I kept thinking of Steve Jobs' admonition that you must follow your heart first – and that if you're not passionate about what you're doing, you'll give up just when the going gets tough. John has extended this idea to the entire company and shows business leaders how to ignite this same kind of passion and commitment throughout an organization." Here's a link to all kinds of info on the book including a deal where you get a free copy of John's book The Referral Engine (excellent as well).

Apples' Decision to Bring Steve Back — Chapter 1 of my new book highlights the decision by the Apple board to bring Steve Jobs back (I'll highlight one chapter each week). Lesson — is there a former partner or employee that might be lured back to your company? BTW, the right #2 for an entrepreneur is often a former employee, partner, customer, etc. See this earlier "Growth Guy" column on the topic.

Best Business Decision of the Week? — Anyone nominate Jack Welch's tweet this week? Please send me a quick note if you or someone you know in your industry made a wickedly important decision this week – a key price change, a new product launch, a clever marketing campaign, a decision to radically refocus the business, a critical acquisition or a decision that surprised or delighted you.