Mr. Disruption; Huge Opportunity; Banking Relationship; Recruit at the Dock

HEADLINES:

One-Page Tools Translated — preparing for the second half of 2012 and need the Gazelles' Growth Tools in different languages (French, German, Spanish, Dutch)? See below…but first:

Schedule Update — I'm personally teaching a half-day Rockefeller Habits public workshop in Madison, WI, June 27 while I'm in the states for the summer. Plus the entire fall schedule is now published – 28 cities, 15th year (this stuff works!). See below…but second:

Mr. Disruption Invests in Crowdfunding — the movement Woodie Neiss and his team started is gaining momentum. Clayton Christensen, Harvard Biz Prof and author of bestseller The Innovators Dilemma, has invested in CircleUp, a crowdfunding platform. Fortune.com writer Dan Primack quizzed Christensen on just how disruptive crowdfunding might be to the traditional financing world. The last three sentences of his interview describe the classic approach to how all of us can disrupt the big guys!! Take one minute to read Clayton's thoughts.

Huge Manufacturing Opportunity — it's a small deal but it points to a huge opportunity for growth firms. Take four minutes to read why Starbucks is buying ceramic mugs from a small factory in Ohio. More importantly, it's led to the players involved buying a Japanese factory and bringing it to the US (page 2 of the article). This is the real opportunity!! And why does this make sense? To quote this NY Times story: "The effort is not all altruistic. Chinese labor has become more expensive, and Starbucks and other companies are looking at their supply chains more holistically. American Mug can deliver to Starbucks in four days, while Chinese suppliers may take three months. A Chinese supplier is also likely to require an order in the hundreds of thousands, increasing the risk that Starbucks will get stuck with inventory. And then there is the difference in shipping costs." Manufacturing is coming back – so how can you profit from this trend.

Great Banking Relationship — My comments about the power of having a single focus prompted Mushahid Khan, President & COO of O'Rourke Petroleum, to send this note "We have a great banking relationship with Chase. Each quarter we do a review of our business with them. During our review we presented our "one thing" which is to increase EBITDA per employee. It's interesting that explaining our business to outsiders forces me to be sharper and more thoughtful about our "one thing". I can't rely on inside, tribal knowledge and instead I need to be clear enough that outsiders understand what I'm saying."

Never Surprise a Banker! — Continues Khan, "Incidentally, Chase told us that almost none of their middle market clients present to them regularly like we do. We have a standing quarterly review with them and we tell them the good, the bad and the ugly. My philosophy is never to surprise a banker! Tell them big stuff as it happens instead of waiting until the end of the year and then reporting a big adjustment to previously reported financials." Great idea!

Recruit at the Dock — and my request for staff recruiting stories landed this whopper of an idea. Dietmar Petutschnig, Director of New Zealand-based ISD Limited shared "I recruit on or near the dock…no joke! After selling (my company) in 2006 I followed my lifelong dream of sailing around the world and once I got back to NZ I could not help myself and took over a 45 year old engineering company. And I discovered the best talent is fellow cruisers on the dock who arrive in New Zealand! It's a huge problem getting top talent as most people leave this place."

Why Recruit Cruisers — continues Dietmar, "So every November onward, when the cruising season starts and the cruisers arrive after crossing the Pacific, I meet as many of them as I can. I reason, after crossing the Pacific for several months or cruising for years, these people are: highly motivated, adaptive, responsible, goal oriented, inspired, immigrants -no family to fall back onto, had enough drive to sail on their own boats thousands of miles, and can weather storms and adversity." Love it!

Translated One-Page Tools – here's a link to the translated Growth Tools that bundles the various one-page worksheets, including the One-Page Strategic Plan, into one document. Special kudos to the following Gazelles coaches for their work on Version 2 of the Growth Tools™.