Lessons from SCALING UP masterclass: On Friday my partners, my team and I attended the Scaling Up masterclass by the world-acclaimed growth guru, Verne Harnish. It was an awesome learning event for SMEs organised by my good friend, Patrick Cheo, and the good people from the Growth Catalyst team. And Im happy that we were the Supporting Partner for the event. Quite a number of well-known and established businesses were there too. Some even re-attended to learn and integrate the concepts deeper along with their team members. Charles and Keith of Charles & Keith and their team took a couple of tables. Founders of Lunch Actually, Violet Lim and Jamie Lee were there with their team too. And a few others. (Hint: The willingness and readiness to learn and improve... this is why they are where they are... and why others are not.) The Mindset to Learn... Verne was dropping golden nuggets all over the place as he covered one important point after another... some of them are potentially game changers. As a strategist, a lot of what he shared were familiar, but there were still a ton of critical insights that we can adopt to help us (and all SMEs) scale up and grow even bigger, faster, not only for the next quarter but especially for 2015 and beyond. One way to benefit massively from learning events like this is to have the right mindset. The mindset that I adopt and ask all my participants to adopt as well is the How Can I Use / Benefit / Profit From This? frame of mind. This sets up our brain (our most powerful asset) to look for ways to benefit from the new information. Its a powerful mindset to have - open for learning, at the same time not just passively collecting information or notes, but actively absorbing new information and seeking how we can integrate it to any of the millions of other archived information and knowledge in our brain. Its a mindset that you might want to adopt as you read on the rest of the post. How can I use this? How can I benefit from this? How can I adapt this? When Youre Ready, The Teacher Will Appear To me, the saying is not so much about waiting to be ready so that the teacher will appear, its about actively seeking and improving to be readier so we can see and identify the next hidden revelation that might have been in front of our eyes all these while. The Golden Nuggets! Following are some of the important insights and revelations from the masterclass that stood out for me. Of course, these are NOT my full comprehensive notes. My full notes are pretty long as Im not only jotting down what Verne shared, but also my own thoughts and some of the actions and integration that our team can do. Itll be too long to post here on FB. But Ill flesh them out and that will be an exclusive content that Ill share with my Speedsters and my email lists. So here are some of the wisdom nuggets + mixed with my thoughts and commentary... in short, easy to digest points: Verne revealed that there are basically 4 critical areas that you must master to grow and scale up fast and painlessly: 1. People - team, vendors, shareholders, clients, etc. You must have the right system for the various areas to minimise friction and maximise effectiveness & efficiency. 2. Strategy - for Verne, strategy means marketing strategy. I couldnt agree more. :) 3. Execution - plans without execution is just a dream. 4. Cash - cash flow, capital, spare cash (redundancies). === Business PURPOSE Majority of businesses that grow fast and expand exponentially are businesses that are not just set up for the survival of the business owners, but have a clear purpose that are bigger than themselves. Its critical to have a clear purpose for your business. Whats the reason for you to exist? Do you help or do you hurt? Do you make a difference? A positive impact? Do you matter? Anthony Robbins said lives are either examples or warnings. Examples of what others can aspire to be or warnings of what to avoid. Similarly, is your business examples of what others can aspire to be, or warnings of what not to do? Another key question that came to my mind: What if your business doesnt exist? Will your market miss you? Not just your customers that already know you. But your market as a whole. Will they miss your offerings / function? Or can they just move on and live their lives normally? I think its critical that we aim to disrupt our market so that if we dont exist, they will miss us. Eg. If theres no Amazon, Google, etc. itll have a huge impact in our lives. So, how can you make / position your business so that your market will miss you if you dont exist? (I cover some of these strategies that I cover in my workshop) === The WHO Question... Verne stated that it is critical that business leaders ask the RIGHT questions. Asking the wrong questions will lead you to the wrong path, and of course, eventually the wrong results. The right question will lead you to seek the right resources you need to achieve the results you want. How do you ask the right questions? By continuous learning and upgrading and tapping on other peoples expertise and insights. The more knowledge you gain, the more right questions you will be asking. The TOP question to ask is: WHO? Instead of What, When, Where, How, etc. Verne said that the #1 question you should be asking is WHO. Who is the right person for the job? Who has the expertise? Who can you get in touch to help with your challenges? Etc. When you have the right who, you will have the right how. So instead of trying to solve everything and do everything yourself, think about who already have the expertise that you can tap on. Who can help you to move forward, faster? === Your HABITS Create You Verne spent a lot of time on emphasising that your business must have the right routines. I think this is really important too. He prescribes daily routine, weekly routine, monthly routine, etc. Each routine doesnt have to be too long or complicated. The idea is to ensure that everyone is communicating and progressing in a very systematic and deliberate manner. This way everyone is aware of the progress of the business and whether there is any challenges or shortfalls that need to be addressed. I really like this idea. Often times, as entrepreneurs, we are dealing with so many things at any point of time. Without routines like these that condition us to communicate with each other, its very easy for us to loose track of things. Our team is adopting this. Peter Drucker said that The best way to predict the future is to create it. And I always say that: You create your habits, then your habits create you. This is basically the application in business setting. What we do now will have a huge impact in what we will get 3 - 5 years down the road. Your habits (routines) right now, will determine the kind of results you will get in the future. So... Change your routines, change your lives! Another interesting point Verne made: Routines will set you free. This may sound contradicting as people tend to see routines as trappings and the opposite of freedom. However, quite the opposite, routines have the function of systems and processes and checks and balances. Once the right routines are set, then itll drastically minimise other chaos that usually takes up your time, freeing you to do other meaningful work... or giving you more freedom to do what you want. === The BREAKFAST CLUB Another very interesting point that Verne brought up: It is important to form what is known as The Council. This is basically your immediate managers or team members. Have daily communication during breakfast / lunch. He said that Steve Jobs have daily lunch with his Chief designer John Ive. The more you communicate with each other, the closer you become and the more effective you become. I think this is quite significant insight. A lot of entrepreneurs tend to do things on their own. Theyre often lone wolves even though they are surrounded by their team. This is why lots of times entrepreneurs are lonely people outside of their workplace. Because often times other people wont understand their situations or the challenges or the unique experiences they are going through. Lots of times entrepreneurs have little support group. This is also the reason why Ill be organising a mastermind group for high-level entrepreneurs to come together exchange ideas, expertise, advice and support. Not so much about giving referrals to each other that other wonderful organisations are already doing. More about peer learning and support group. Even tough were still drafting this, Im pretty excited about this. Imagine being in a group of high-level fellow entrepreneurs who are there to support and help each other. It would be pretty cool, dont you think? === Hire the RIGHT Team Closely related to the WHO question, you must hire the right team members. If the member is not right, let them go... no matter who they are. 1. As the entrepreneur, you MUST be a leader. The fish stinks from the head up. So you must step up and take up the leadership position. 2. Keep teams small so they can be ultra focus on specific functions. The bigger the team, the more complex the relationship and communication tend to be. Small, closely-knit teams tend to be more efficient. 3. People are your BIGGEST ASSETS and at the same time your HIGHEST EXPENSES. So you cant afford to hire the wrong person. Ive always believed in hiring slow, and firing fast. Vernes principles are very in line with that philosophy and go deeper into the specific methodology of how to do that. When hiring people look for the following criteria: i. Culture fit - this is priority and trumps other criteria. Skills can be taught. But culture fit is much harder to develop. ii. Results - are they producing/have produced the kind of results you want? If they have never done it before, its unlikely that they will suddenly be able to do that just because you hired them. iii. Screen them with initial questions iv. Sit down interview - if they passed the screening questions, then and only then, have a sit down interview with them. This process will filter out majority of those who wont fit into your business. He said that this will give you up to 96% success rate of hiring the right person. You must give them KPIs and metrics based on the requirement of the job function (designation), NOT based on who they are or your perception of their capabilities. It is critical that you must set KPIS because... What gets measured gets done! Once you hire them, invest in them and provide them training and support to make their job easier. As the leader / manager, our job is to make our team members jobs easier. === Ultra FOCUSING He recommended for businesses to get obsessive with one single goal. Choosing ONE single PRIORITY. Dont try to do too many things at the same time. Instead, focus! He quoted the example of Mark Zuckerberg being so focused on going mobile a few years back, even when there were a lot of other distractions like their share prices plummeting, etc. But Mark Zuckerberg were just focused and obsessed with going mobile. Nothing else matter as much. When they finally went mobile, it changed the game dramatically. So what is your ONE single priority? Nope! Not that and that... Just one thing. One thing that will give you the biggest impact in your industry. Find it. Get ultra focused on it. Be obsessed about it. === The GROWTH PATH Verne likened the path to phenomenal growth like river stream down from the mountain. The river has to follow the contours of the land to eventually reach the sea. It wont hit an obstacle and not move, continuing to go against it again and again. Instead, itll FIND ANOTHER PATH. He shared the story of Dropbox and how they PIVOTED a few times before becoming an overnight success. This is such an important point... Lots of SMEs and startups, when they meet challenges, instead of listening to the market feedback and changing and adapting as necessary, they stubbornly hold on to their ideas, insisting that their ideas will work and the market will eventually understand. The market is ALWAYS right. So listen to your market. There are 2 elements to this critical point: - To be flexible and pivot (if necessary) when faced with challenges or market feedback. - To continue to move forward and progress. The water stream will continue to flow downwards towards the sea, no matter what. It wont stop or it wont move back up. A key distinction: While the market is always right, it doesnt mean that it always knows what it wants. Henry Ford famously said: If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses. If Steve Jobs just listened to the market blindly, there probably would be no iPod, iPhone, iPad, etc. So innovation is critical, but dont get too caught up with your ideas and ignore the markets feedback. === The One Who EDUCATES The Market Wins The Market Companies that educate the market on new information tend to become the dominators of their market. This is why I keep saying that marketers are some of the best educators in the world. Marketers shape the way we live. Inventors may invent the product / service. But usually the educators (marketers) are the ones reaping majority of the rewards. Steve Woz was the technical genius. Steve Jobs was the educator. However, educating people to change their behaviours just by using information has limited impact. Its much better to give them tools to change their behaviours. If youre just giving them information (awareness) youre leaving it to their will power for them to change. But if you give them tools (that are incorporated as part of their routine) then your success percentage of changing their behaviours dramatically increases. To take it a step further, what if you can CREATE a favourable situation for the change to occur? Think about this one. This can be a game changer and can have dramatic impact in your business. === CHOKE POINTS - The Pros & Cons of Bottlenecks Verne talked about choke points. These are bottlenecks in businesses / industries. Often times, this are seen as limitations. Eg. The bottleneck of the business is production / your time, etc. In this scenario, obviously its important to see how you can eliminate or reduce the bottleneck. However, choke points can be used as an offensive & defensive strategy in the marketplace as well. Verne gave the examples of iPod dominating the market because when they bought all the supply of the chip that was used in iPod so nobody else can buy them, at least for a period of time. That gave them lead time to dominate the market. Another example was the liquid soap manufacturer. They bought all the pumps that fit into the bottles so no other soap manufacturer can introduce liquid soaps because they wouldnt have the pumps to fit into their bottles. There are a few more examples. This is basically creating barriers of entry for competitors. Creating moats. When you are able to shut out competitors for a period of time, you have free play (monopoly) for a period of time and you can have the luxury to educate & dominate your market without worrying about dealing with competitors. The examples he mentioned were more applicable to big businesses with huge budgets to buy off huge supplies of products to create choke points for competitors. But there are also effective strategies that small businesses can use to build effective barriers of entry without needing that kind of huge capital. I cover these in my marketing workshop. === The DIFFERENCE of Fast Growing Companies & Slow Growing Ones Continuous learning - It is very important to set up an organisation that is learning and evolving continuously. You must instill a learning culture in your company. This is because, the only way to grow is to learn new things. Growth happens when there is NEW input. Without new information / learning, there wont be any growth. Verne showed that the top and most successful businesses incorporate continuous learning into their company culture. So learning and growing is part of their DNA. They schedule it. Its not a once in a blue moon kind of thing. Its a constant, continuous kind of process. In fact, in a lot of the fast growing companies, it is a necessity of their team to clock in certain hours of learning and upgrading. A learning organisation has tremendous edge over their competitors. They learn, SO they grow. Unfortunately, a lot of SMEs dont set aside time or budget for learning or upgrading. In fact, a lot of them see training as expenses instead of investments for their future. They dont realise that without new learning, theyre actually sabotaging their own growth and limiting themselves. In nature, things either grow or they die. Thats a fact. There is nothing that stays still. One thing he said that I really like: The best have coaches! If you think about it, its absolutely true. If you take a look at the top guys in the world who are playing at a high-level, whether entrepreneurs or athletes. They all have coaches. People who provide guidance, show the way, bounce ideas with, etc. Coincidence? Only amateurs do it on their own. I remember reading about a top athlete. He was sharing how he started to become very successful... one of the first things he did: He chose the coach he wants to learn from. It made a lot of sense to me. So I also wrote down who were the people I want to learn from. Interestingly, nowadays this is such a natural thing in the sporting world. But in the business world its still not as wide-spread yet. Basically, Verne said: - The best have coaches. - You need a coach (to be the best that you can be). - The coach you choose matters. I couldnt agree more. There are still LOTS of wisdom nuggets that Verne shared. But its getting pretty long and its pretty late now (last night). So Ill pause for now. Till the next content-packed tip. ;) If its useful, help me Share it so your friends will benefit too. Like this Page if you like to get more tips like these.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 23:25:00 +0000