Fool’s Meetings; World’s Greatest; Panera 5-Year Themes; Apr 28 Room Cutoff

Hello ScaleUps, 

Hope it’s been a productive and purposeful week. Here are some insights/opportunities to help you outlearn/outthink the competition.

April 28 Hotel Room Cutoff —
For those attending the ScaleUp Summit May 21 – 22 Atlanta and Scaling Up User Conference May 23 where you’ll learn tools to help you scale like Neil Cuggy (quote above), the cutoff for obtaining the discount room rate is Sunday, April 28

Fortune’s World’s Greatest Leaders – (fun facts for the weekend)
Bill and Melinda Gates topped the list, with Jacinda Ardern, Robert Mueller, Pony Ma, and Satya Nadella rounding out the top five in biz, govt, philanthropy, etc. I did NOT know most of the 50, so a great chance to catch up on what’s happening around the globe. Good to be “in the know.”

The Motley Fool Board Meetings —
Just back from attending and keynoting the Conscious Capitalism conference where the co-founders of The Motley Fool shared several innovative board meeting ideas. Specifically:

1. One employee, voted by the other employees, serves on the board – it’s a rotating position providing the other board members with the employee perspective on decisions.
2. To add a fun component to meetings, they play games, like Jeopardy, where the questions test the board members on knowledge about the company.
3. Specific stock pitches are made, after which the board members vote on which stock they would pick (and many buy!). Have your team pitch new product ideas/services.
4. Members are chosen who provide specific expertise into an area of focus for the firm, like cybersecurity (the head of cybersecurity for Google, in their case)

“Secret Missions” —
Tying back to #3, the morning of The Motley Fool board meeting each board member is given a “secret mission” where they meet with the appropriate team inside TMF for 90 minutes, going deep on a specific topic aligned with the expertise of the board member. So rather than the board deciding a specific process needs streamlined; a board member with that expertise will actually meet with a team and help streamline the process. Thus, with four outside board members, four deep dives can take place each quarter, resulting in real work getting done. 

Panera Bread’s Five-Year Themes —
Ron Shaich, founder and former CEO (26 years) of Panera Bread, shared how in 2012 when he returned as CEO, his team transformed the company around four five-year themes:  Wellness, Digital, Loyalty, and Omni-Channel.

And they did, helping drive performance that considerably outpaced the entire restaurant sector in the US and led to the firm going private five years later. These are precisely the kinds of 3 – 5 year “Key Thrusts/Capabilities” you should define for your firm. What are yours? Then we recommend you recruit advisors/board members with specific expertise in each area and put them to work. 

Recession Fears Have Subsided – Double Digit Growth Expected
EY’s Capital Confidence Barometer was released last week and 96% of the 505 C-suite executives believe economic conditions are improving, up from 72% six months ago, and 69% a year ago. And 58% of middle-market firms expect to see double digit growth in 2019, twice the percentage as last year.

Sales Funnels Have Been Replaced —
I’ve always liked how sales gurus Eric Keiles and Mike Lieberman think and write about sales. Authors of Fire Your Sales Team, they released an outstanding new book this week entitled Smash the Sales Funnel: The Cyclonic Buyer Journey–A New Map for Sustainable, Repeatable, Predictable Revenue Generation. 

Exponential Organizations Course – 10 seats left
Notes Cameron Brandis, Director at Brandis Industries:

At the end of the month, my friend Salim Ismail will be leading a group of 75 executives (65 signed up last week when announced, 10 seats left) with his transformational roadmap and updated toolkit on how to shift into high gear and grow exponentially. Apply today for the chance to join him in the upcoming Course.

CEO-BOOTCAMP: spend 3.5 days with Verne, serial entrepreneur John Ratliff, and 6 other CEOs in a beautiful retreat setting, addressing the constraints holding back you, your business, and your industry. Jun 4 – 7 (Sold Out); Aug 20 – 23, 2019; Jan 14 – 17; Jan 21 – 24, 2020.

EXITING: Thinking about selling the business for $40 million or more? Want to get 25% to 200% more than you thought? Request the whitepaper from the Exit Strategies Summit at Harvard from Denise Richmond at (610) 299-6466 or email at [email protected]

COACHING:

Have you ever wondered if working with a coach might accelerate your company's growth, exponentially? Do you have what it takes to move the dial from good to great? The Scaling Up team is prepared to support you. We have helped 40,000 other organizations over the past 30+ years, in scaling up their organizations through coaching, workshops, online training and more. 

We would like to offer you a complimentary, personal follow-up from our Scaling Up team to share how we can support you in scaling your organization.

YES! I WOULD LIKE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT COACHING & RECEIVE A COMPLIMENTARY FOLLOW-UP (CLICK HERE)

For questions or more information contact us at [email protected]

TECHNOLOGY:

Create Accountability – Drive Execution with Align, cloud-based software designed to scale up your Rockefeller Habits implementation. www.alignwithscalingup.com - on your computer, tablet or phone. Click here to watch an introductory video.

Better Book Club — What's your team reading? Increase your books read per team member. Easy, Proven, and in the Cloud at http://www.BetterBookClub.com.