Foreign Partners?; China Facts; Biggest Robot Market; Chrissy Nardini Case; Fortune Stories Needed

"…insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

Stories Needed — do you have experience, good or bad, with business partners in other countries? How do you vet potential partners? Please share. More below, just first…

Uplifting Service — Ron Kaufman is the reason Singapore Air, Raffles Hotels, and Changi Airport (Singapore) are continuously rated #1 in customer service. Kaufman, author of Uplifting Service: The Proven Path to Delighting Your Customers, Colleagues, and Everyone Else You Meet, has the #1 firm in the world training organizations (and their people) the art of outstanding service. FYI, he's the best trainer/keynoter I've ever seen – so precise, engaging, and informative – not to be missed when it comes to this critical organizational capability, especially when service is often your main competitive advantage! His book is being sent to GPro and book club members – and he'll be keynoting our Growth Summit in Dallas Oct 20 – 21.

China Facts — Gordon Orr, who opened the first McKinsey office in China in 1993 and is Chairman of McKinsey Asia, keynoted EO's Unlimited event in Berlin last week. Some fun facts he shared about China, since their stock market is in the news:

• For 2000 years China represented roughly 20% of global GDP; they are just trying to get back to that position, at 16.71% in 2014
• 1993 China's GDP was 6% of US; in 2014 it represented 60%
• There is a crisis of confidence, particularly in the quality of Chinese food/products (and stock market?). This is why brands are doing so well in China. So you have a respected brand?
• China had one billionaire in 2000; it has 321 in 2015
• Of its 7.4% GDP growth; 3.8% came from consumption. Very little is the result of increased exports.
• Last year there were 100 million Chinese tourists – this represents a huge opportunity.
• Key to accessing talent in China – hire from Universities and then train them to work in your firm.

And China is seeing a massive outflow of money as it buys up and joint ventures with everyone they can. Three of the companies in which I have investments all have significant financial and distribution opportunities with Chinese firms. Opportunities for you?

Biggest Market for Robots? — since 2013, China has been the biggest market for robots and by next year is expected to have more robots installed than any other country. However, it's "robot density" stands at just 30 per 10,000 industrial jobs, as reported by this excellent Fortune article. In comparison, South Korea has 437 (15 times China); while Japan sits at 11 times China; Germany at 10; and the US at 3. What are you doing to utilize technology to drive up your productivity? FYI, Gordon Orr mentioned that China struggles with having enough high quality jobs for its graduates, as does the rest of the world. Seems the robots are getting all the good jobs! The article is worth 2 minutes to read.

Scaling Up Case Study — Chrissy Nardini, president of American Metals Supply ($56 million in revenue), has used the principles in Scaling Up with quick success. She achieved revenue growth in the first quarter that was more than 15% higher than in the same quarter last year, after attending a workshop YPO arranged in New Orleans in December 2014. Find out how she pulled it off using the daily huddle — which they call the "daily hug" — and other tools from Rockefeller Habits 2.0 in my recent article for Distribution Center magazine. Notes Nardini, "It (Scaling Up) really is a way to get our employees engaged, get everyone on the same page and define more clearly the thoughts that roll around in your head."

Foreign Partner Experience? — For my next Fortune column, I am looking at how to select a business partner from another country. Many companies look to team up with a local firm when entering a new market, but they don't always know how to vet potential partners. How have you made sure your cross-border partners are the right ones and gotten them off to a strong start? Have you learned from any disasters in selecting a partner in another country? Please include the name of your company, what it does, the city where it is based, your annual revenue (Fortune requires this) and your number of employees. Please email me directly at [email protected]. Thank you.

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.

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.

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.