(by 14 people)
Best practices for leaders of growing companies.
The faster your business grows the simpler you need to keep things. It is hard to keep it simple because the business wants to get more complex. There are four key decisions you must get right: People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash.
Below are practical Advice, Resources and Links to help you grow your business.
People (Reduces Your Headaches)
Key Decision #1
Hiring and retaining the right people makes the difference between ulcers and headaches or a company you look forward to leading.
Links for People Decisions
- Topgrading Online
- The best process for ensuring you hire the right person 90% of the time.
- 5 Dysfunctions of a Team
- Make sure you have a healthy executive team. Learn how to hold each other accountable.
- Bringing Out the Best in People
- The guru on human behavior and how to get an extra 40% effort from your people.
- Mini-Game Handbook
- A great tool for creating quarterly themes and driving toward your goals.
- First, Break All the Rules
- The best resource for managing people including 12 questions for determining if you have effective managers.
- Compensation
- How to structure compensation.
- Relationship Handbook
- The very best little book on keeping all your personal and professional relationships strong.
- Leadership and Self-Deception
- Most organizational problems are not separate problems at all, but are symptoms of the single problem of self-deception.
- Accountability
- Easy to use accountabilty doc that allows you to clearly see the Who, What, When required to hold people accountable
Strategy (Makes You Money)
Key Decision #2
If you can't state your strategy in a sentence, you don't have one--at least one that's viable. These are the decisions that make you real money and help you dominate your industry.
Links for Strategy Decisions
- One Page Strategic Plan
- A simple tool for getting everyone on the same page.
- Inside the Tornado
- Still the best book on new product/service introduction.
- Blue Ocean
- The keys to picking the right sandbox to play in.
- All Marketers Are Liars
- The next ten years is all about marketing-and getting your story right.
- Building Your Company's Vision
- Jim Collins' best strategy article.
- Catalytic Mechanism
- My vote for the best read Jim Collins article ever. Nail this and you can practically print money.
- Jim Collins
- A great set of free tutorials courtesy of the top business thinker of our time.
- Brand Promise
- The single most important brand decision you make.
- The X Factor
- Gaining a 10X to 30X advantage over your competitors.
- Rethinking the Sales Force
- The first new thinking in sales and sales force structure in 75 years.
- Selling Your Business for a Premium
- If you all get is some multiple of EBITDA you're leaving significant money on the table.
Execution (Saves You Time)
Key Decision #3
This is where you save time. The challenge is how to blend an entrepreneurial culture with a disciplined culture without killing either one. If you want to reduce the time it takes to manage your growing company get good at these disciplines.
Links for Execution Decisions
- Rockefeller Habits Rate Your Discipline
- THE preflight checklist for managing a growing firm.
- Death by Meeting
- The key to effective communication--you have to get meeting rhythm and agendas right.
- Driving Sales
- The key fundamental to driving revenue.
- Driving Marketing
- Learn the one thing you must do and the two things you must measure.
- The One Thing You Need to Know
- This takes priority setting to the Nth degree.
- The Great Game of Business
- Southwest Airlines, Harley Davidson and many of the great firms have learned at the feet of Jack Stack on how to execute.
- MapPoint
- The first company to fully utilize this Microsoft application will dominate their industry.
- Execution
- Everyone pushes this book, read the first 2 chapters and skip the rest.
Cash (Needed Oxygen)
Key Decision #4
You can survive a long time without profit but you cannot survive a day without cash. It is the lifeblood of any firm. You have not truly earned your entrepreneurial stripes until you've missed a payroll.
Links for Cash Decisions
- 12 Ways to Improve Your Cash Flow
- My take on one of the most important areas of your business.
- How Fast Can Your Company Grow
- Give this article to your CFO or CPA immediately.
- Private Equity Funding
- Steve Watkins is the Alexander Hamilton of our era creating a public market for private stock.
- Visibility Equals Liquidity
- Sign your company up to be part of this free listing.
- Finding Money You Didn't Know You Had
- A case for why you should delay raising money as long as you can.
