Growth hacks for miva driven businesses

Source: Investopedia

They don’t go it alone.
Attribute - They know their strengths and weaknesses
Asset – Numerous, powerful mentors going for their weaknesses as soon as possible. As their weaknesses change, they change mentors as needed. As they grow, they get mentors who have walked the path just ahead of them at every stage.

Again, they don’t go it alone. They seek out and make time for peers.

An offshoot of mentors and peer advisors is a foundation of a decent education and nurturing. There are precious few successful CEOs who come from an inner city state-controlled foster care couch surfing childhood. The assets that make children successful as children and adults involves access to information, being imbued with a sense of the importance of education, and the ability to study. Three are numerous successful CEOs who rebelled against constant adult insults about their abilities. Reaction is as strong a motivation as being among supportive adults.

Chris Gardner’s story was codified in his autobiography and later a movie, titled, The Pursuit of Happyness. While it seems he is the exception to the rule, having overcome extraordinary odds - hunger, poverty, parenting a child literally on the streets, apprenticeship without pay, and more, the truth is that Mr. Gardner has the support early in life – to wit:

“Born February 9, 1954 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Christopher Paul Gardner’s childhood was marked by poverty, domestic violence, alcoholism, sexual abuse and family illiteracy. Gardner published his autobiography out of a desire to shed light on these universal issues and show they do not have to define you. Gardner never knew his father, and lived with his beloved mother, Bettye Jean Triplett (nee Gardner), when not in foster homes. Gardner is indebted to Bettye Jean for his success as she provided him with strong “spiritual genetics” and taught him that in spite of where he came from, he could chart another path and attain whatever goals he set for himself.”

Source: google

I actually pulled a slide on humility out of the deck. And then put it back in. I was conflicted about whether it was really a determining attribute of successful CEOs. Rand convinced me it was.

Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur. It helps if you start early. Optimism is the prerogative of youth. It’s a lot more optional as we age.

Have a personal project going. Something you want to create that is not necessarily related to your money making efforts at your ‘day job’

There is physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion. They are not the same. You want to achieve the first two and avoid the last.

Having a business degree is not an indicator of being a successful CEO in the ecommerce economy. before great business leaders become great business leaders, they hone their skills. Hire pro’s to teach you what you need to know – you can go from being a presenter or even a timid presenter to a superb presenter with training and practice.

This image is of’ Dan Pink talks about what drives excellent employees/team members: Autonomy, mastery purpose are the building blocks of the current, let alone the future of building successful teams. Traditional management is great if you want compliance. If you want any kind of creativity, innovative thinking, or breakthrough products in your company, you’ll need to focus on Autonomy, mastery, and purpose. But I digress.

Again, they don’t go it alone. They seek out and make time for peers. In startups they often start and host the group. They provide the space for meeting and conversation of peers in the business. Sometimes, the peers are competitors. Creating CEO groups of peers, even competitors can be very powerful.

The top 3 you all know… the bottom are Larry Ellison, Oracle; Larry Apge, Google; and David Karp, Tumbler.

There are always exceptions. But sadly, that’s the point. The attribute stands and if you don’t have the attribute, you’re swimming upstream

This hasn’t changed for a very long time.

But give up and don’t think complaining is going to get you any sympathy for not getting off your duff. Because clearly, the road IS passible.

Attribute 4 – Bridled Passion. Passion is overused, but that’s because it’s a good word. The key is that every young person with an idea has passion around their subject. Great CEOs of any size company retain that passion because they control it.

The USP isn’t the sharp point. It’s the color. There are loads of colors, but none are so noticeable as the RED pencil. All the pencils CAN be sharpened. Only the red one can be red.

You’ll hear a lot about needing a unique USP from Angels and VCs. If you’re raising money, being perceived as having a unique USP is a good thing. But in ‘real life’, tell me the USP between one rail line and another, between GM, Ford, and Chrysler, between one cell phone and another. It comes down to stylistic preferences. A robust competitive marketplace keeps you on your toes. USPs are often not more than cosmetic. Keep them in perspective.

All that said, if you can translate a clear, defensible USP into a patent portfolio, you may have an asset worth owning.

Yes. Access to capital makes a great deal of difference. I lot of good ideas DO die for lack of access to capital. However, unlimited capital is as deadly as too little or none. More companies survive with little to no startup capital than thrive under the sodden-ness of working with too much capital. Lack of restraints is not a good thing.

Companies CAN live or die based on where you decide to build the company.

While Podunk might have the advantage of less expensive real estate….

Depending on what you’re building and whether you’re raising capital, you might want to consider other locations.

Wichita is a great place to found a company that supplies the aerospace industry

As is Seattle. And for the same reasons. Boeing has a large presence in both cities. Go to the mountain, as it were.

Or of course, Silicon Valley. Again, if you’re looking for funding, going to where the money is makes a huge difference. While employee costs, real estate and other costs are higher, the best of the best are all around you.

Passion around a subject yields dedication. So does being given a chance to prove one’s value. Having the notion that one can make a difference in the future of a group of others – people, animals, flowers, the planet. Feeling like one’s effort will win a conflict or a war. The satisfaction of an intrinsic motivation is a strong motivator for rote and creative workers. More on that concept in a moment…

This is a photo of Drew Marley, age 22. Now a lanky senior at a college in New Jersey, Drew was drafted to play basketball early in junior high school. While it’s nice that he got to play games and go to school at the same time, in truth, far too much attention is paid to whether tall young men of color can toss a ball.

And far too little attention is paid to the fact that the young man has a far higher than average IQ, managed to juggle a full schedule of gladiator performances we call basketball (hello! March Madness) with an academic course of study. I’m sure you’ve all seen the FIFA diatribe of some months ago. If you haven’t seen this gut splitting and on target latest diatribe about the miserable state of the billion dollar industry of basketball, watch it tonight.

And BTW, Drew is available this summer for an internship for as little as $400 per week + room and board. Unless you’re in Puget Sound. Then I’ll give him room and board. Drew is my nephew and I’m vouching for his capabilities in the business sector… see me after the session if you’re interested.

Know which one you are; know which one you need.

A wizard might not be your product buyer – you probably do that. Your wizard might be the one who tells you what’s next, so you know what to buy.

The purpose of the Executor is to protect the Wizard. A company has but one wizard and perhaps several executors over time.

Because the requirements for success have changed in the 21st century – we rely a great deal more on the creative, inventive, and innovative capabilities of humans and not at all on their use as physical laborers for tech sector companies, the way companies motivate employees must change as well. The most successful companies are intrinsic motivators.

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation?language=en
http://www2.webmasterradio.fm/ceo-coach/
http://www.fastcompany.com/3043461/my-creative-life/the-manager-who-blogged-his-team-to-happiness-and-productivity

Watch Dan Pink’s TED Talk on external and internal motivators in the work place. Theory x management principles were effective through the 19th and most of the 20th century. Theory y became popular in the late 20th century and it turns out to be complete bunk. Pink proposes that tech corporate culture in the early 21st century is a result of understanding motivators for creative minds.

TAGFEE is just one acronym for a successful corporate culture for a company in need of highly committed, creative minds.

Some of you have hear me talk about TAGFEE since before the turn of the century. The idea has definitely ‘jumped the fence’.

We want to answer four questions -

The dynamic interplay of these 3 fundamental market forces determines the value of resource or a capability.

A valuable asset at one moment in time is not necessarily valuable in the next.

Assets are location dependent and industry dependent. An asset may not be as valuable in your location as it might b to someone e in another location.

If you’re accessing huge amounts variant data at your desktop, this multiscreen setup is very cool. If you’re driving a truck, entering and receiving data on the road, a tablet is more valuable. It’s really that simple a concept.

Is it hard to replicate, copy or imitate? Physically unique assets are not replicable

PATH DEPENDENT means it is not likely that others can leap frog the steps you took to get the asset or simply purchase the asset cheaply.

It’s easy to cut costs, get routes and sell low cost tickets. It’s very hard to replicate Southwest Airlines culture of fun, family, and frugality.
Rubbermaid continues to do well throughout good times and recessionary times, through changing technologies, and across socio economic strata.
Diversification of product lines and having a good eye for where to put resources in part of it, but the total picture is still ambiguous
The Moz culture attracts best in class talent and draws a community of top marketers together from around the globe.

If it’s simply too expensive to replicate the asset, your asset becomes even more valuable than the sum of the investment made to create it.

How long will your asset provide you an advantage over the competition? Our ability to calculate has increased dramatically over the past 100 years and the industrial and then technological revolutions rode on the wave of those abilities.
From the abacus to slide rules to calculators, we achieved increasing power.
To backtrack in time a bit from the hand held unit, the computers at Los Alamos increased the speed and accuracy of calculations, but took weeks to accomplish some tabulations. The CRAY computers became the world’s largest… and then we moved to
Miniaturaization – desktops, laptops, tablets, and now Apple and others are playing with watch sized computers that are more powerful than the computer that sent a human to the moon

Who gains the benefit of the asset? Stellar sales people have full Rolodexes– but the asset does not belong to the company. It leaves with them.

How easy will it be for someone to substitute whatever you offer with an entirely different product that solves the same issue?

Alibaba is focusing on the Indian market’s burgeoning cell phone wielding population. Which, by the way, I’ve been telling you has been growing at a pretty steady rate of 1.2M new cell service accounts per month for quite some time. Scary, huh? Even if you hop in now, you will NOT be an early adopter.

The most successful ecommerce companies have visually beautiful websites – eschew clutter.

Leverage the basic human need to share and be part of a group. Raise the bar on ratings & reviews

Allow them to share their own style, knowledge, expertise, experience with each other

It’s more than posting reviews – it’s about being acknowledged for the value of the reviews when others thumb up your review

Agility means being able to meet the FUTURE needs of your target market as well as their current and past needs. It means being able to ID what they will want next and source products/services to meet those needs quickly enough to keep them coming back to you. Relentless research in the thick of your target market is the only way to see trends before they hit the tipping point. At which point, you’re playing catch up, instead of cleaning up the profits.

Now isn’t this familiar? Three tall reasonably good looking white guys and one Asian guy. Where are the women? Well, ladies – this is where you can move the needle. Join. Unlike the New York Athletic Club, it’s not restricted.

I can often tell when I’ve got a break-way startup CEO. S/he starts and hosts the group. They provide the space for meeting and conversation of peers in the business. Sometimes, the peers are competitors. Creating CEO groups of peers, even competitors can be very powerful.

You can’t what was, but you CAN learn what you need to know. Audit classes. Teach a course and hang out to learn from other teachers. Read books. And tap your peers for more resources. It’s ok not to know, It’s unconscionable not to learn.

Risk tolerance is truly an attribute from birth. Wealthy people have it; wretchedly poor people have it.

Only a few have the financial risk tolerance to truly throw their fortunes into starting a company. You may be fine with losing it all, but your spouse may not be. The way to move the needle on this one is…

It’s truly this simple. If you’re not ready to risk it all, set out what you are ready to put at risk and don’t touch the rest. Do the same for your spouse. If there is a lower risk tolerance, sort out what will be risked and what won’t be. Discuss what the spouse can manage and don’t talk about the rest – that’s what peer mentors are for.

You’re not born with humility or boastfulness. They are rewarded differently in various circumstances and places during your upbringing. Be aware of it. Practice it. This one is a learned trait.

Brett Heising is the only CEO on wheels I know. It takes him 3-4 times as long to do anything you or I do on legs and feet. But he still spends a few hours every month writing a play. It has nothing to do with business and renews his creative energy.

It’s an interesting correlation. I am unsure if anyone can prove causation. But I do know that fit people tend to have more energy and therefore accomplish more. Don’t equate fit with skinny. But don’t let slothfulness take over either.

Dan Pink will assert that more than 50% of Google’s products come from the 20% free work time given to all employees. Watching Dan Pink’s TED talk can be your first scheduled random research time.

Correlation does NOT imply causation. Just get on with it.

Flailing is for infants; it’s why we swaddle them, so they can wiggle and struggle against and within the comfort of the confines of the blanket. Maturity brings focus and control. Both are required to reign in the dozens or thousands of ideas you’ve got or others bring before you so you can complete a project. And then another.

Growth hacks for miva driven businesses

Gillian Muessig

Growth hacks for miva driven businesses