More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
August 24 - September 2, 2022
People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash.
The quickest action you can take is to have your CFO give you a modified cash flow statement every day detailing the cash that came in during the last 24 hours, the cash that flowed out, and some idea of how cash is looking over the next 30 to 90
Repetition encompasses consistency. Finish what you start. Mean what you say. And don’t say one thing and do something else. Consistency is an important aspect of repetition.
As a company scales up, the toughest decisions involve people and their changing roles in the organization, especially within the leadership team.
The key to finding them, as Nash, Browne, and others have discovered, is by creating a recruitment strategy that reflects your Core Values and Purpose and then using your marketing skills to reach the right potential pool of talent.
At MOM’s, the online job application asks questions such as “What companies do you admire?” to get a sense of a candidate’s values.
A typical follow-on question is, “What will so-and-so say about you?” “It’s a real truth serum,” says Nash.
Interviewers will also ask candidates to discuss a time that they had to deal with a difficult boss or when someone said something painful to them. “We’re looking for people who receive candor well,” says Nash.
Nash believes that people who had to earn money for themselves as teenagers tend to be well-grounded, so the questions might include: “What did you spend money on as a teenager? How did you get that money?”
“If the answer to the last question was, ‘I’ll never respect that person again,’ we know the person isn’t open to different ideas,” says Nash.
Hire fewer people, but pay them more. 4. Give recognition, and show appreciation. 3. Set clear expectations, and give employees a clear line of sight. 2. Don’t demotivate; “dehassle.” 1. Help people play to their strengths.
Onboarding needs to be a celebration, not paperwork. It should create emotional connections between the new recruit and a maximum number of team members.
good to remind ourselves that in business and in life, the journey, not the destination, is the reward.
“When all is said and done and we’ve completed this journey we call life, what will matter most is not what we have achieved — but rather who we have become.”
Ask the leadership team, “Are there plenty of examples where we lived these Values? ” If there are, you likely are talking about a Core Value.
Practice what we preach • Nothing less than ecstatic customers • First class for less • Honor intellectual capitalists • Everyone an entrepreneur • Never, ever, ever give up
In the end, it’s all about freedom. It’s freeing leadership teams from the day-to-day so they can get out and grow the firm.
BIC more accurately describes its strength as “making disposable plastic anything,” which led it into lighters, razors, and other stationery products.
No one was ever fired for buying IBM”) and then justified logically by the head. That’s why established brands play on people’s fear of purchasing from a new entry in the marketplace.
Competitors can pursue owning the same words, make the same Brand Promises, and offer the same guarantees. However, it’s HOW you deliver on your promises where differentiation occurs.
Habits #1 and #2, emphasizing the importance of having a “healthy team” that is able to face the brutal facts and support the kind of constructive debate necessary to set a main priority that everyone can support.
If the daily huddle is so powerful, why do organizations start and then stop it? In a word, generalities! As teams tell stories and share information, it’s critical that they include specifics. We need to hear names, numbers, dates, issues, and concerns if our brain is going to make the kinds of connections that make this process powerful.
Busy, productive people who are doing anything of consequence get stuck pretty regularly. The only people who don’t get stuck are those who aren’t doing anything or are so stuck that don’t know it!!
Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth of Organizations.
Revenue is vanity (and the weakest number) when it comes to your P&L. Focus instead on a redefined version of gross margin.
It’s actually THE most powerful indicator of an effective sales team, a differentiated strategy, and real growth. As a company scales up, the market demands better pricing (e.g., your largest customers now ask for discounts).
Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, and cash flow is king.” You do not pay bills or distributions with profit. You can buy your spouse that holiday house or nice car only when you have sufficient monthly cash.
An insatiable desire to learn • An unquenchable bias for action
