Best Summer Read; Art of the Deal; Wearable Tech; June 30 Webinar with Verne

"…insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

ScaleUp Marketing (what's missing?) — critical to scaling up is effective marketing. Join me (Verne Harnish) 2pm ET Tuesday, June 30, for my next complimentary webinar to discuss several key marketing activities including the hottest new function missing in most organizations. Claim your spot here.

Summer Read (Winter Down Under) — if you read only one book this summer that will both inspire you and give you some of the best practical business insights I've ever read in any one biz book, grab a copy of Uncontainable by Kip Tindell, CEO and Chairman of The Container Store. Founded in 1978 with $35k, this retailer of "empty boxes" was profitable day one and has enjoyed a historical average compounded growth rate of 21%. Equally important, it's been named one of the Best Places to Work in the US 15 years in a row, debuting at #1 the first year they applied in 2000.

Not Facebook/Apple — What I love about The Container Store story is that it's not a dot-com unicorn and thus their lessons seem much more accessible to us mere mortal companies trying to simply market our goods and services to customers. And the book is brilliantly written, capturing your interest from the first sentence. If short of time, Chapter 1 provides enough insights, like how they survived the Great Recession without laying off anyone, along with an overview of their 7 Foundational Principles.

1 Great = 3 Good — Paying its sales associates 50 – 100% more than the average wage in retail, Kip details how they are able to get 3x or more measurable productivity from their associates (hint, 263 hours of training the first year) while experiencing just 10% employee turnover in an industry that averages over 100%. And they get so many applicants they only need to hire 3% of those that apply – better than the 20:1 applicant to hiring ratio we recommend. How do they do all of this? It's detailed in the book.

Art of the Deal — Again, Kip shares the details in Chapter 9 of how they attracted over 100 private equity suitors (unheard of in any industry) and then chose the one which stuck with them through the recession until they went public in 2013. Like all the greats, they drove the deal on their terms, defying most of the financial world's traditions of how you both structure and sell the deal. Its biz artwork at its finest!

Wearable Tech — yet all companies are tech companies in the 21st Century and The Container Store is no different. Recently the company has started testing wearable tech that has increased communication among employees 60% but reduced the number of messages any one employee receives by 30%. It also allows part-time employees who might have missed the daily huddle to easily listen to a recording of the meeting; and they are experimenting providing employees with access to subject matter experts on various products at just the push of a button. Most importantly, the wearable tech allows sales associates to remain "heads-up" in interacting with customers vs. "heads-down" if they were using a handheld device instead. Here's a detailed explanation, including pictures, of the technology by CIO magazine.

Meet Kip Tindell — Kip is keynoting our fall Growth Summit Oct 20 – 21 in Dallas, TX. GPro and book club members will receive a copy of his book next week – enjoy this important and entertaining summer (or winter) read. I've never devoted this much of an insight to just one book, including my own — and I could go on and on about their distribution center, their employee practices, how they treat suppliers, and how Kip even structured the book around their Foundational Principles (Core Values) – an easy formula for how any CEO should structure their book. Anyway, please read (or listen) to the book.

TECHNOLOGY: Align Software puts everyone on the Same Page – Literally! See, in real time every person in your organization and how they are progress on their priorities – alongside how these Align to the Company Priorities! Scale Up your Rockefeller Habits implementation with www.aligntoday.com – on your computer and on your phone.

COACHING:

Interested in selecting a coach to help your company Scale Up? Check out this video explaining the "4+1 Rule of Thumb" for choosing the right coach.