my experience has shown me that the people who are exceptionally good in business aren’t so because of what they know but because of their insatiable need to know more. (Location 75)
Tags: learning
That Fatal Assumption is: if you understand the technical work of a business, you understand a business that does that technical work. (Location 226)
The technician suffering from an Entrepreneurial Seizure takes the work he loves to do and turns it into a job. The work that was born out of love becomes a chore, among a welter of other less familiar and less pleasant chores. Rather than maintaining its specialness, representing the unique skill the technician possesses and upon which he started the business, the work becomes trivialized, something to get through in order to make room for everything else that must be done. (Location 286)
Note: Work that was once enjoyed becomes a chore as there are many new tasks to be completed also
The fact of the matter is that we all have an Entrepreneur, Manager, and Technician inside us. And if they were equally balanced, we’d be describing an incredibly competent individual. The Entrepreneur would be free to forge ahead into new areas of interest; The Manager would be solidifying the base of operations; and The Technician would be doing the technical work. (Location 424)
see? If your business depends on you, you don’t own a business—you have a job. And it’s the worst job in the world because you’re working for a lunatic! (Location 577)
Tags: startups, favorite
“The purpose of going into business is to get free of a job so you can create jobs for other people. (Location 579)
Tags: startups
Note: The purpose of going into business is so you can be free of a job
“And to play this new game, called building a small business that actually works, your Entrepreneur needs to be coaxed out, nourished, and given the room she needs to expand, and your Manager needs to be supported as well so she can develop her skill at creating order and translating the entrepreneurial vision into actions that can be efficiently manifested in the real world. (Location 596)
Note: The manger translates entrepreneurial vision to action items
You don’t own a business—you own a job! What’s more, it’s the worst job in the world! You can’t close it when you want to, because if it’s closed you don’t get paid. You can’t leave it when you want to, because when you leave there’s nobody there to do the work. You can’t sell it when you want to, because who wants to buy a job? (Location 752)
“So, if the natural disposition of every business is to either grow or contract—and it is; there is no denying that—then ‘getting small again’ is the natural inclination of The Technician-turned-owner to shrink from the unknown, to shrink from the business she has created, to constrain the business from creating demands on her to which she feels hopelessly inadequate to respond appropriately. (Location 874)
Note: Technicians may be inclined to shrink a business when they encounter new tasks they aren’t skilled in
“Simply put, your job is to prepare yourself and your business for growth. (Location 891)
Tags: startups
A Mature company is founded on a broader perspective, an entrepreneurial perspective, a more intelligent point of view. About building a business that works not because of you but without you. (Location 910)
Note: Mature companies work without you
In other words, I realized that for IBM to become a great company it would have to act like a great company long before it ever became one. From the very outset, IBM was fashioned after the template of my vision. And each and every day we attempted to model the company after that template. At the end of each day, we asked ourselves how well we did, discovered the disparity between where we were and where we had committed ourselves to be, and, at the start of the following day, set out to make up for the difference. (Location 956)
Note: Ibm acted like a great company from day one
the Entrepreneurial Model has less to do with what’s done in a business and more to do with how it’s done. The commodity isn’t what’s important—the way it’s delivered is. (Location 1008)
Thus, the Entrepreneurial Model does not start with a picture of the business to be created but of the customer for whom the business is to be created. It understands that without a clear picture of that customer, no business can succeed. (Location 1014)
Tags: customer focused
Note: The enntrepreneurial model is focued on the customer
The Technician, on the other hand, looks inwardly, to define his skills, and only looks outwardly afterward to ask, “How can I sell them?” (Location 1016)
Note: The technician model focuses on the skillset of the technician
To The Technician, the customer is always a problem. Because the customer never seems to want what The Technician has to offer at the price at which he offers it. To The Entrepreneur, however, the customer is always an opportunity. Because The Entrepreneur knows that within the customer is a continuing parade of changing wants begging to be satisfied. All The Entrepreneur has to do is find out what those wants are and what they will be in the future. (Location 1021)
Note: The entrepreneur and technician have opposing views of the customer
At its best, your business is something apart from you, rather than a part of you, with its own rules and its own purposes. An organism, you might say, that will live or die according to how well it performs its sole function: to find and keep customers. Once you recognize that the purpose of your life is not to serve your business, but that the primary purpose of your business is to serve your life, you can then go to work on your business, rather than in it, with a full understanding of why it is absolutely necessary for you to do so. (Location 1289)
Tags: startup
Note: Your life is separate to your business. Work on your business,not in your business
How can I create a business whose results are systems-dependent rather than people-dependent? Systems-dependent rather than expert-dependent. (Location 1330)
Note: Seek to create a business that is depenent on systems not people
It is literally impossible to produce a consistent result in a business that depends on extraordinary people. No business can do it for long. And no extraordinary business tries to! (Location 1351)
Tags: standards
Note: Focus on an extraordinary system to ensure consistent results
What you do in your model is not nearly as important as doing what you do the same way, each and every time. (Location 1420)
“Creativity thinks up new things. Innovation does new things.” (Location 1521)
THE INNOVATION Instead of asking, “Hi, may I help you?” try “Hi, have you been in here before?” The customer will respond with either a “yes” or a “no.” In either case, you are then free to pursue the conversation. If the answer is yes, you can say, “Great. We’ve created a special new program for people who have shopped here before. Let me take just a minute to tell you about it.” If the answer is no, you can say, “Great, we’ve created a special new program for people who haven’t shopped here before. Let me take just a minute to tell you about it.” (Location 1537)
Note: "have you been in here before?" is a good opener for sales staff
It is the skill developed within your business and your people that is constantly asking, “What is the best way to do this?” knowing, even as the question is asked, that we will never discover the best way, but by asking we will assuredly discover a way that’s better than the one we know now. (Location 1565)
Note: Constantly ask "What is the best way to do this?"
Orchestration is the elimination of discretion, or choice, at the operating level of your business. (Location 1606)
In short, Innovation, Quantification, and Orchestration are the backbone of every extraordinary business. (Location 1641)
Note: Question how to best do everything,track the results and ensure consistency in the process
Your Business Development Program is the vehicle through which you can create your Franchise Prototype. The Program is composed of seven distinct steps: 1. Your Primary Aim 2. Your Strategic Objective 3. Your Organizational Strategy 4. Your Management Strategy 5. Your People Strategy 6. Your Marketing Strategy 7. Your Systems Strategy (Location 1741)
I believe it’s true that the difference between great people and everyone else is that great people create their lives actively, while everyone else is created by their lives, passively waiting to see where life takes them next. The difference between the two is the difference between living fully and just existing. The difference between the two is living intentionally and living by accident. (Location 1791)
Note: Great people live their lives intentionally,not passively
So before you start your business, or before you return to it tomorrow, ask yourself the following questions: • What do I wish my life to look like? • How do I wish my life to be on a day-to-day basis? • What would I like to be able to say I truly know in my life, about my life? • How would I like to be with other people in my life—my family, my friends, my business associates, my customers, my employees, my community? • How would I like people to think about me? • What would I like to be doing two years from now? Ten years from now? Twenty years from now? When my life comes to a close? • What specifically would I like to learn during my life—spiritually, physically, financially, technically, intellectually? About relationships? • How much money will I need to do the things I wish to do? By when will I need it? (Location 1797)
Note: Questions to ask when setting your primary goal
Your Strategic Objective is a very clear statement of what your business has to ultimately do for you to achieve your Primary Aim. (Location 1928)
The first question about money then becomes: How much money do I need to live the way I wish? Not in income but in assets. In other words, how much money do you need in order to be independent of work, to be free? (Location 1953)
Note: How much money do you need to be free
What’s your product? What feeling will your customer walk away with? Peace of mind? Order? Power? Love? What is he really buying when he buys from you? The truth is, nobody’s interested in the commodity. People buy feelings. (Location 1996)
Standards Three Through? There is no specific number of standards in your Strategic Objective. There are only specific questions that need to be answered. • When is your Prototype going to be completed? In two years? Three? Ten? • Where are you going to be in business? Locally? Regionally? Nationally? Internationally? • How are you going to be in business? Retail? Wholesale? A combination of the two? • What standards are you going to insist upon regarding reporting, cleanliness, clothing, management, hiring, firing, training, and so forth? (Location 2012)
Jack and Murray sit back and look at the completed Organization Chart of Widget Makers, Inc., and smile. It sure looks like a big company. The only problem is that Jack and Murray’s names will have to fill all the boxes! They’re the only two employees. But what they have effectively done is describe all the work that’s going to be done in Widget Makers, Inc., when its full potential is realized. (Location 2245)
Note: Creating the org chart and duties of each role outlines the work to be done in the business
“What you’re saying is that I need to create an Organization Chart for All About Pies as it will look when it’s done, seven years from now, rather than the way it is now?” “Yes,” I responded. “And that once I’ve created that Organization Chart, I need to put my name in all the positions I currently fill?” “Right again,” I answered. “And that I need to create very detailed descriptions of each one of those positions, and then sign the Position Contracts for each, as though I were an employee taking responsibility for each job? Do you mean I actually need to sign each Position Contract, exactly as though I were that employee?” “Yes,” I said, “exactly as though you were that employee. Because if your business is going to work, you are each one of those employees! Until you replace yourself with someone else, that is.” (Location 2369)
‘The work we do is a reflection of who we are. If we’re sloppy at it, it’s because we’re sloppy inside. If we’re late at it, it’s because we’re late inside. If we’re bored by it, it’s because we’re bored inside, with ourselves, not with the work. The most menial work can be a piece of art when done by an artist. So the job here is not outside of ourselves, but inside of ourselves. How we do our work becomes a mirror of how we are inside.’” (Location 2578)
Note: How we do our work is a mirror image of how we are inside
“I guess that’s what excited me most about taking this job,” said the Manager. “It’s the very first place I’ve ever gone to work where there was an idea behind the work that was more important than the work itself. (Location 2594)
Note: The idea behind the work is important
the customer is not always right, but whether he is or not, it is our job to make him feel that way. (Location 2597)
Note: The customer needs to feel lik he is right
“And so, seen from the appropriate perspective, the entire business process by which your company does what it does is a marketing process. “It starts with the promise you make to attract them to your door. “It continues with the sale you make once they get there. “And it ends with the delivery of the promise before they leave your door. “In some companies that process is called Lead Generation, Lead Conversion, Client Fulfillment. “In your business, Sarah, it’s called Marketing, Sales, and Operations. (Location 2993)
Tags: businessprocess
Note: .businessprocess
Hard Systems, Soft Systems, Information Systems. (Location 3239)
Note: The physical things you see. The messging and delivery. The metrics measured in the business
Hard Systems,” she said. “The sign on my shop, the floors, the walls, the display cases, the tables, my people’s uniforms, and so forth. In other words, all of the visual elements of my business and the way they all fit together. In fact, when it’s all done correctly, the entire business should look like one fully integrated, beautifully designed system. (Location 3254)
Information Systems,” she continued. “My ability to extract from the day-to-day operation of my shops (she was already thinking about four shops, rather than one!), how many pies are sold, what kind of pies, the time they were sold, how many customers came in each shop and when, how many bought pies to go, how many slices of pie were sold to eat on the premises, how many of the customers who bought pie to eat on the premises bought a pie to go, and so forth. (Location 3257)
“every written or verbal communication with anyone who comes into contact with your business is a Soft System. What so few of us understand is the power of those words when they are totally integrated. That your recruitment script, and your shop’s name, and the training you conduct in your school, and the words in your customer brochures, and your ads, everything you say, must work together just as the visual components of your shop must work together, to make one powerfully effective message. (Location 3269)
Note: The soft system is every written and verbal communication
When you hear something, you will forget it. When you see something, you will remember it. But not until you do something, will you understand it. (Location 3450)
Tags: learning
Note: You must do something to understand it