By Daniel G Taylor
Why don't Australian business owners flock to overseas experts when they visit? Could it be the tall poppy syndrome we're famed for; we simply don't respect people who put their hand up in class?
Successful entrepreneurs – if not willing to be the one to put their hands up, must be the ones to copy the notes of the know-it-alls – leap at the chance to learn from leading thinkers, such as Verne Harnish and the speakers he has lined up for a Summit to be held in Sydney in February.
What makes Harnish a brain? He's the "Growth Guy" for Fortune magazine and a number of other titles, plus author of Mastering the Rockefeller Habits: What You Must Do to Increase the Value of Your Fast-Growth Firm. Fortune Small Business magazine named him one of the Top 10 Minds in Small Business.
For 15 years, Harnish chaired the "Birthing of Giants" entrepreneurship leadership program at MIT. He founded the Young Entrepreneurs' Organisation (now Entrepreneurs' Organisation), that offers education to young business owners, boasting 7,300 members in 42 countries. He also founded the international Association for Collegiate Entrepreneurs, that helps students plan, finance, and complete their business ideas.
Harnish's current focus is Gazelles, Inc., described on the company website as an outsourced corporate university for mid-size firms that hosts a faculty of well-known business experts including Jim Collins, Geoff Smart, Jack Stack, Neil Rackham, Seth Godin, Pat Lencioni and David Allen and sponsors best practices trips to GE, Southwest Airlines, Microsoft and Dell.
"We think it takes a combination of two things for you and your executive team to keep up with the growth of your company and the opportunities in the marketplace," Harnish says.
"First, education. Second, coaching. Coach without the education and you're not going to be able to move as far and fast. Education without some supporting coaching and it's doubtful you'll get the traction and the implementation you'd like."
Even with all the successful things he does, family – wife Julie and their four children, Cameron, Cole, Jade and Quinn – come first. It was his family where he was first exposed to business. He grew up going to any business meeting his dad would let him sit in on and the first business he was in was one they started together.
Mastering the Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish
What if you had a toolkit that gave you the right tool for any challenge a small to medium business can face? Pick up a copy of Mastering the Rockefeller Habits and you'll have one. Harnish has such a breadth and depth of knowledge – some of his ideas will have a familiar tinge – but he turns great ideas into doable actions. For example, most entrepreneurs have heard of the need to identify and align your organisation with a set of values. In the tool Harnish provides, instead of a list of dispassionate values that gets laminated then gathers dust on the wall, you use values to create a culture that supports your business goals. One of the tools I tested was the one-page strategic plan. I used it with two teammates and not a third. Those who had the plan drilled into them created the culture it expressed; the person who only had instruction in how to do their work saw it as just another job. The tools work and if you want to get results, use them.
In his introduction to Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, Verne Harnish quotes Buckminster Fuller, "If you want to teach people a new way of thinking, don't bother trying to teach them. Instead, give them a tool, the use of which will lead to new ways of thinking."
What are the Rockefeller habits? Harnish defines them as Priorities – having a specific priority for each quarter. Data – collecting the numbers that give you a clear idea you're on track. Rhythm – how often do you need to meet with whom to build solid, productive relationships.
Here are some of Harnish's tools:
This is the page you want to get everyone onto in the expression ‘on the same page'. It's your business dashboard, showing your long term and short-term vision, metrics and priorities on a single page so you can communicate them to everyone in your organisation. Then everyone can work toward the same goal
Common business sense is to cut meetings to a minimum – and always have an agenda. While Harnish is a giant on agendas, he's also a giant on the number of meetings. Two meetings are vital. The 5-to-15 minute daily meeting, with everyone in the organisation, looks at what's up, the daily measures and where people are stuck. A weekly meeting tracks the weekly numbers and uses the genius of the team to work on a big issue.
Connect your theme to a quantitative goal, a key number you want your business to focus on, then use the theme to imprint onto your team-mates where you're heading, what's important and the role each person plays to make the vision happen.
What do you do when your teammates challenges their having with the organisation? Do you even have a system in place to get that feedback and then solve the challenge, seeing it for the opportunity it offers?
What is brand promise? It's what really matters our customers, the reason they keep coming back to you. Identifying your brand promise helps your business narrow in on the key strategy to dominate your market.
Use all these tools – and the others in the book – and you'll be in the iron age while your competition stay stuck in the stone age.
