Best Biz Book 2018; Top 50 Leaders; Prediction Machines; Important Record; Co-Founder Priceline Keynoting
April 19, 2018
Most Pioneering Co.; 52%; More Press-ups Than Dave; Marketing Webinar May 10
May 3, 2018

How to Keep Winning; Nick Saban; Pep Guardiola; the Process; CEO Boot Camp

"…insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

Bill's "Own the Room" methodology has helped countless speakers play at a higher level.
  Sheryl Sandberg, COO Facebook

Final CEO Boot Camp Before Summer two seats are left for the upcoming May 29 – June 1 Boot Camp hosted by McKeel Hagerty of $400 million Hagerty insurance and immediate past international chair of YPO – along with serial entrepreneur John Ratliff and Verne Harnish – identify your constraints and eliminate them.

Perfect Presentations the ability to comfortably deliver a message – to a handful of people or a large crowd – is a key leadership skill. Bill Hoogterp has written the best practical book I've read (with tons of fun exercises) on how to "get over yourself" and present. Titled Your Perfect Presentation: Speak in Front of Any Audience Anytime Anywhere and Never Be Nervous Again, the book notes:

"Bill, who has a quirky ability to make anyone a better public speaker and presenter," has developed a system…called Own the Room…some pretty big and cool companies and a growing number of famous people and leaders (see Sandberg's quote above) have hired (Bill's) coaches to find the star speaker that's hiding inside.

The first two pages of Part 1 outline his process – and the opening exercise, where he has you speak a set of words in a way that represents their meaning, is insightful and sets the tone for the entire book of exercises. Bill is keynoting the upcoming ScaleUp Summit May 22 – 23, New Orleans and SPro and book club members will receive his book next week.

What Being a Champion Means…Being Different this, notes University of Alabama coach Nick Saban, is the key to winning. Named one of the top 50 leaders by Fortune for leading the Crimson Tide to five national championships in 9 years, this article goes on to explain,

"To me it takes a completely different mindset to stay successful as opposed to what you have to do to build something to be successful," says Saban. "All of us are sort of geared toward, if we have success, we're supposed to be rewarded for it, not necessarily that we have to continue to do things even better than we did before."

The article continues:

If imitation is truly flattery, then Saban is much praised: Four of Alabama's Southeastern Conference rivals – Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas A&M – now employ former Saban assistant coaches as head coach. (Saban has never yet lost a game to one of his disciples.)

The Innovator's Dilemma Yet the gist of the Saban article is not how he came in, using his Process – "a methodical, efficient approach to organizational management" – to quickly take a college football to two national championships. It's how he's been able to sustain victory after victory over a long period of time. To quote the author:

How has he managed to navigate the sports version of what Clayton Christensen famously dubbed the "Innovator's Dilemma" – the fact that success makes it hard to keep the edge you need to win in the future?

In short, Saban has been relentlessly committed to self-disruption. Though his Process might seem rigid to those on the outside, it's really based on a constant analysis of what's working and not working. Quotes Saban, "I hate it when somebody says, 'That's the way we've always done it.' It drives me absolutely up a wall."

Cut and Move Swiftly Saban's constant analysis of what's working and not, and then making swift adjustments, was never better demonstrated when he took out his star quarterback at halftime of the championship game and put in a freshman who threw the winning pass in overtime to clinch the title. It is one of the boldest personnel decisions of any team coach I've ever seen. Saban also embraces technology to give his team an edge. Using a GPS system by Catapult that monitors the performance of his players (think "Prediction Machine"), he was able to make adjustments in practice routines that kept his players fresher on the field. These are just two of the many insights this Fortune article shares – it's worth the 3 minutes to read – then reflect on pivots and technologies you should employ to give your team the edge.

…And Cut the Grass: driving similar success, FC Barcelona's former coach Pep Guardiola, just led Manchester City to the Premier League Championship – and in record time! This NY Times article shares how no small detail is left to chance, including the length of the grass, trimmed to different specs to facilitate the fast-paced style Pep has brought north. Reading these two sports article, you'll begin to see a pattern around success – discipline, data, precision, and a point of view that looks at the same game and does things differently.

Need More Copies of Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0)? Amazon continues to premium price the hardcover book. If you need a box of 20, the books are less than $10/each.

Bloomberg Breakaway Membership and CEO SummitAs part of our collaboration with Bloomberg LIVE, 30 ScaleUp CEO's will be eligible to apply and join Bloomberg's Breakaway membership (annual dues just $2500) which includes an invitation to their Breakaway CEO Summit June 20-21 in New York City. If interested in joining Verne and 150 other CEOs hosted by Bloomberg, click here.

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? Contact us at [email protected] for more information or visit https://scalingup.com/coaches.html.

And if you're interested in becoming a certified Gazelles coach, please email [email protected].

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]

TECHNOLOGY:

Create Accountability – Drive Execution
Click Here to Watch a video example.

Align is your cloud based business operating system designed to keep you on your path to executing your goals. 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, tablet or phone. $5.00 per month gets you started.

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.

Verne Harnish
Verne Harnish
Verne Harnish is founder of the world-renowned Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) and chaired for fifteen years EO’s premiere CEO program, the “Birthing of Giants” and WEO’s “Advanced Business” executive program both held at MIT. Founder and CEO of Gazelles, a global executive education and coaching company with over 150 coaching partners on six continents, Verne has spent the past three decades helping companies scale-up. The “Growth Guy” syndicated columnist, he’s also the Venture columnist for FORTUNE magazine. He’s the author of Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0); Mastering the Rockefeller Habits; and along with the editors of Fortune, authored The Greatest Business Decisions of All Times," for which Jim Collins wrote the foreword. Verne also chairs FORTUNE Magazine’s annual Leadership and Growth Summits and serves on several boards including chairman of The Riordan Clinic and the newly launched Geoversity. He is an investor in many scale-ups. A father of four, he enjoys piano, tennis, and magic as a card-carrying member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.