How Does your Profit Compare?; Fortune 500 Stats; CEO advice; Hooked

"…insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

7 Minute Mastery — Scaling Up Club — Create habit-forming products/services with this week's selected video clip from Nir Eyal, author of Hooked but first…

How Do You Compare — the 2016 Fortune 500 list is out and I find it useful each year to pick a few firms in my related industry and see how Gazelles stacks up in terms of revenue and profit per employee. As a whole, the 500 generated $12 trillion in revenues representing two-thirds of the U.S. economy, $840 billion in profits, and employ 27.9 million people. Revenues were actually down 4.2% and profits down 11% from a year ago — mainly dragged down by oil prices.

$430k Revenue/Employee — given these numbers, the Fortune 500 averaged $430,000 revenue/employee. For all their perceived bloated-ness and bureaucracy, the big firms generate over 4x the revenue/employee than most mid-market firms. The challenge: mid-market firms tend to throw people at problems rather than focus on improving productivity through process re-design.

$30k Profit/Employee — in turn, the Fortune 500 averaged $30,107 profit/employee last year. Apple, which moved up from #5 to #3 on the list, generated $53 billion in profit on $234 billion in revenue with 110,000 employees – giving it a whopping $485,000 profit/employee – greater than the average revenue/employee of the Fortune 500!! Insane.

7% Profit — overall the Fortune 500 generated an average 7% profitability (the Global 500 was lower at 5.4%). If you're hyper-specialized on a profitable niche, mid-market firms should be generating 15% to 30% net profit, giving them something close to the same $30k profit/employee of the Fortune 500 even though their revenue/employee is much lower. Revenue is vanity; profit is sanity. How do you compare?

CEO Advice — Fortune also surveyed the CEOs of the 500 list, asking them for the best management advice (they had ever received. Hiring the best people; listening and asking questions; relentless focus; and pacing were the main categories of insights. The pacing comments spoke most loudly to me – here's a couple of my favorite:

In essence, the best advice mirrored the Rockefeller Habits – ageless principles that serve "elephants" and "gazelles" equally. Take 1 minute to scan the 300 words of sage advice – simple yet difficult to follow.

Keep Scaling Rev/ and Profit/Employee — no matter where you stand right now, the key is continuing to improve these two key performance indicators. Let's say you're at $100k/employee. With the help of your team, drive it to $125k/employee; then hire down to $115k/employee; then drive to $135k/employee; then hire down to $125k/employee; etc. Keep scaling!

Just 7 Minutes Per Week — stay one step ahead. Psychology plays a key role in influencing people's behaviors. In this week's 7-minute clip, understand the 4-step process of the Hook Model by Nir Eyal and create products people can't put down and habits that stick.

To access the clip, go here!

COACHING:

Have you ever wondered if your company would be a good candidate to work with an executive growth coach? Click here to watch Gazelles International President Keith Cupp describes the four most important attributes of successful clients.

And if you're interested in becoming a world-class certified Gazelles International coach, please contact Jean Carpenter at [email protected] / (360) 798.9471.

TECHNOLOGY:

Align Software puts everyone on the Same Page – Literally! See, in real time every person in your organization and how they are progressing on their priorities – alongside how they 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.