Introduction to the Four Decisions-The most important decisions in business

Editor's Notes

• #2: Slide Purpose: To introduce and provide a memorable (and repeatable) set of images that represent the Four Decisions principles and tools for Growth. Positioning and Content: “We’ll start our time together with an overview of the four critical decisions companies must get right to drive and scale growth. We will delve deeper into each of these areas and as we do, many of you will recognize the content and principles from Verne Harnish’s best-selling book Mastering the Rockefeller Habits (and follow up book Scaling Up). What are the Four Decisions? People, Strategy, Execution and Cash – the four decisions every growth company MUST get right to succeed. The People Decision is about a harmonious culture of accountability. The Strategy Decision is about strong topline revenue growth. The Execution Decision is about converting revenue efficiently into profit. The Cash Decision is about oxygen: having sufficient, perhaps abundant, cash to have options and make wise decisions.”
• #3: Revised (Dec. 2014) Slide Purpose: To lead client through a team exercise, having them grade how they are currently doing relative to the Rockefeller Habits checklist. Positioning and Content: “As growth company coaches with Gazelles, you will see that we always have a “Bias for Action” in all that we do. What does that mean? We consider principles and examples, and always ensure we take forward action to make progress in helping a growth company scale successfully. Let’s do this now! We will begin our time right away with an active exercise with your team to educate and create a point of reference specifically for your company and team. The “education” aspect is to share with you the 10 Habits that will help make you great as you learn and apply them (take action upon them). The “level set” aspect is to have you candidly assess how you are doing today relative to your knowledge and use of these 10 Habits in your company. Here are our instructions: First, we will read these out loud so we have them visually and audibly in mind; Next, we will work on scoring them on a 0-10 scale individually (quietly, without collaboration); and Finally, we will share our scores together within our companies to see how each of us feel we are doing relative to using these 10 Habits to grow and scale our businesses. Let me first acknowledge that for some, you are seeing these 10 Habits articulated this way for the first time, and may not fully understand them: that is okay! We all must begin somewhere…just interpret them to the best of your ability, using your experience in business. The value of the checklist is that it helps to remind you what you need to be doing on an ongoing basis. Just like a pilot of a plane, there are significant tasks that must be done regularly to ensure a safe flight. The pilot may have flown thousands of times, but s/he still pulls a checklist out each time before takeoff. The discipline of using a checklist is what drives the best companies to succeed – it helps them to focus and attain operational excellence. Coaches Note: Lead the teams through the scoring exercise and sharing their scores with one another. Encourage them to make notes of high scores, low scores, and where the biggest variances are between them as leaders. Ask one team member to follow up and collect the scores and place them in a matrix with averages for future review. So – how do we feel? Where are you aligned? Where aren’t you aligned? We will use your exposure and results from this first exercise as we work through the content today. As a coach, you can share with me where you are strongest and weakest, and I can use my experience and skill to help you leverage a strength and grow through a weaker area.
• #4: Slide Purpose: To create connection in the room and an environment of safe, informal sharing and openness. Positioning and Content: “Before we get into the thick of our content today, let’s take a few minutes to get to know one another, so our sharing can flow freely and we can learn from one another today too. Here is what we are going to do…on the flipchart you will see 3 questions to ask one another when we say “get up and get started” in about a minute. When we start, simply circulate around the room and find someone you have never met from another company. You will do this in pairs, and each have one minute to ask the other person the 3 questions. After about 2 minutes, I will say “switch” and then you will find someone else new to ask and share with – we will do this 3 times, so everyone meets 3 new people. Are there any questions? Okay, here are the three questions: 1 – What is your first name, birthplace (city), and current hometown? 2 – Where was your favorite vacation of all time and why? (briefly explain). 3 – Who is the most famous person you have ever met face-to-face and what was the circumstance?” Coaches Note: You can use these 3 questions or insert your own!
• #5: Slide Purpose: To provide a general-purpose, customizable template slide for local coaches to use in their Four Decisions slide deck. Positioning and Content: (Host / Local Coach Comments) Keith Cupp – When I host a workshop or work with a company, I like to provide time for each company (public workshop) or individual (private company workshop) to introduce their team or themselves. The earlier in the day everyone talks and connects, the stronger the energy together and the smaller the barrier to change and adoption of the principles and tools. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Format: ARIAL (font) Header: 60 points Body: 40 points (for IP deck. Point size can vary depending on your default) Color Palette: 4D Dark Orange:  R182  G131  B264D Orange:  R228  G162  B36 4D Dark Blue:  R57  G129  B1634D Blue:  R75  G163  B207 4D Dark Brown:  R129  G116  B824D Brown:  R170  G154  B120 4D Dark Green:  R133  G147  B374D Green:  R181  G194  B53 For information related to the GIC BRAND COLOR PALETTE, please see GIC_Logo Usage Guidelines_6.1.10.pdf For information related to the 4D BRAND COLOR PALETTE in CMYK, please see GIC_Four Decisions Usage Guidelines_10.19.11.pdf
• #6: Slide Purpose: To share a story of success as a backdrop to the power of implementing the Rockefeller Habits. Positioning and Content: “Clate Mask is the CEO of InfusionSoft, an Arizona (United States) based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software development company. InfusionSoft is an illustrative example of a company we refer to as a “gazelle” – a company that is rapidly growing (more than 20% per year for multiple years), and has the unique issues and challenges of growth companies: Just to name a few: getting the right people, building an attractive culture, ensuring cash flow is strong, ensuring every team member is aligned with the same few priorities, being painstakingly clear on their core strategy, and many more. Clate attended a Rockefeller Habits workshop and embraced implementation of the Rockefeller Habits into their operating DNA. Fast forward to 2013 at which time InfusionSoft raised $54 million in growth capital via Goldman Sachs and is deploying this capital to improve it’s product, strengthen its service and support to customers, and grow its customer base. Hearing directly from Clate’s words, ”The Rockefeller Habits and its tools are discussed on a weekly basis among our leadership team. Your work (referring to “Verne Harnish, author of Mastering the Rockefeller Habits”) has made a big impact on our company.” (Optional) “Many of you are familiar with or already using a portion of the Rockefeller Habits and toolsets; for those that are, let’s take a look at the updates from the original “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits” book released over a decade ago and it’s new edition called “Scaling Up: Rockefeller Habits 2.0.”
• #7: Slide Purpose: To introduce new content and updates from Verne Harnish’s follow up book to Mastering the Rockefeller Habits 2.0: Scaling Up. Positioning and Content: “Here are the top 5 areas of updating in the new book Scaling Up: Rockefeller Habits 2.0. Let’s discuss them briefly.” COACHES NOTE: go as light or deep as you like on any one of the points with your client(s).
• #8: Slide Purpose: To show, with some humor, where Gazelles companies fit in company life cycles and why they are so important. Positioning and Content: “Let’s take a moment and look at the life cycle of a company from birth, through growth, to maturity and then (often) dysfunction. Companies are often started by an energetic founder, with a great idea, who works hard to grow from no revenue to the point of becoming a profitable company with a bright future. However, most companies do not make it through this phase; it is a phase of high attrition. Once a company does make it through the start-up phase and becomes self sustaining (that is, self funding through profitable growth or very close to it), they enter into the mid-market, which we define as companies $5M to $500M in annual revenue (turnover). A subset of these post-start up/mid-market companies continue to grow rapidly and enter the “gazelles” phase: Companies that are growing at 20% or more annually for more than 3 years.”
• #9: Slide Purpose: To show, with some humor, where Gazelles companies fit in company life cycles and why they are so important. Positioning and Content: “Gazelles companies are vital for a healthy and vibrant economy, however are often ignored by governments, the media, and financing companies. Start-up companies secure a lot of venture capital and press, and large mature companies receive a lot of financial interest, capital and media attention. However, it is the mid-market and specifically the gazelles in the mid-market that generate the majority of new jobs and sustainable economic growth in countries around the world. We refer to these stages, somewhat humorously, as start up, scale up and screw up! The Four Decisions and Rockefeller Habits exist to help gazelles companies grow, scale and thrive.”
• #10: Slide Purpose: To share an illustrative story of the growth plateaus and valleys for gazelles companies as they scale. Positioning and Content: “Scott Tannas, the Founder and Vice Chairman of Western Financial Group (acquired by the Desjardins Group) regularly shares with growth company leaders his experience from start up to sale to the Desjardins Group for $440M in 2013. Some of his key observations (along with Verne’s) over 20 years leading Western Financial Group include the following: When a company reaches 10 employees it arrives at the first “Valley of Death”: Processes have to change, the Founder needs to hire a second in command, and the business needs a fundamental change in how the Founder runs it. When reaching 25 employees the company arrives at the second “Valley of Death”: The company needs a Controller (CFO); middle management becomes more critical, and Intentionality in building culture becomes more important. When passing through 100 employees, the company reaches yet another “Valley of Death”: a whole new internal communication plan is vital for alignment, company politics and egos come into play, and continued focus on strategy and culture are important as you attract more competitors. In order to successfully scale growth, the company and its leaders must breakthrough each “Valley of Death” to a new way to succeed, scale, while making money and maintaining culture.”
• #11: Revised (Dec. 2014) Slide Purpose: To share an illustrative image of the growth plateaus and valleys for gazelles companies as they scale. Positioning and Content: “Here is a visual image of what Scott and Verne describe as the Plateaus and Valleys of Death. Note the ever decreasing number of successful companies that breakthrough the successive valley’s and move into the next level of both success and challenge!”
• #12: Slide Purpose: To Identify the 5 target outcomes, that growth companies can realize in applying the Rockefeller Habits. Positioning and Content: “Over the past decade of working with gazelles growth companies, and listening and learning from the world’s brightest growth Thought Leaders, Verne has developed the five following outcomes that can be experiences via diligent engagement and application of the Rockefeller Habits and Gazelles Growth Tools. Let’s review them briefly.”
• #13: Slide Purpose: To provide an overview of the Think – Plan – Act – Lean cycle of strategic planning. Positioning and Content: “One of the most important ongoing meetings for long-term sustainable growth is what Jim Collins calls (and recommends as) the CEO weekly “Council” meeting. It is a handful senior leaders (and possible an outside advisor) who discuss one or two strategic ideas each week and do not dwell or get into operational, execution issues. Often these strategic ideas and discussions come directly from two tools we will learn: The Strengths / Weaknesses / Trends (SWT) tool and the 7 Strata of Strategy tool. This is the “Think” stage see in the diagram. Next is the “Plan” stage of the cycle, and it is more accurately termed “Execution Planning”, which includes a broader group of senior and middle leaders in the company, and whose purpose is to plan and execution operationally the strategy laid out by senior leaders. The tools we will learn that are most applicable here include the One Page Strategic Plan – specifically the Annual and Quarterly plans. The next stage in the cycle is the “Act” step where middle managers work with front line team members to execute the day to day business. And finally, the next step before the cycle completes itself and begins again is the “Learn” stage. The most successful growth companies are learning companies and the most effective leaders / managers are those that develop their talent with learning, coaching and feedback.”
• #14: Slide Purpose: To show and share a humorous Steve Jobs’ quote to make a point: Growth takes patient hard work! Positioning and Content: “This quote is so very, very true! The most successful companies stand the test of time and often have their breakout to greatness occur after several long, difficult, laborious years of refinement, change and refocus.”
• #15: Slide Purpose: To share the principle of leadership and the three key elements of healthy, successful leadership teams. Positioning and Content: “As goes the leadership team goes the rest of the company – the #1 principle of business leadership. Challenges within any company can be traced to the trust, cohesion and alignment of the senior leadership team and its abilities in three areas; let’s explore each area briefly.”
• #16: Slide Purpose: To share the principle of leadership and the three key elements of healthy, successful leadership teams. Positioning and Content: “First is Prediction: being so much in touch with customers, markets, and employees that predicting what is coming next (or creating the opportunity to do so) is clear, but not without risk of course. This becomes more difficult as the company scales to more employees, customers, geographies, markets, etc. Building communication rhythms right and well from the beginning has a positive compounding affect in companies.”
• #17: Slide Purpose: To share the principle of leadership and the three key elements of healthy, successful leadership teams. Positioning and Content: “As a company scales and grows, its leaders must let go and select, mentor and hold accountable new managers and leaders to take from them tasks, roles and priorities. The leaders must shift from being “hands-on executors” to “hands-off people motivators.” Many founders and early leadership teams do not make these transitions. This is why engaging a coach can really help negotiate and orchestrate new roles, change, and personal growth amongst senior leadership teams. Just as infrastructure, teams, finances all scale with growth, so must the roles and leadership skills of senior leaders, particularly the founder and CEO.”
• #18: Slide Purpose: To share the principle of leadership and the three key elements of healthy, successful leadership teams. Positioning and Content: “Finally, keeping things simple, focused and always returning to the Main Thing are vital traits for successful growth company leaders. In particular, making sure the Company Vision is kept alive, clear and real to employees, so that they can see where you are leading them and where they fit in to the picture of success. Consistent repetition of a few key messages and key metrics reinforce the direction and culture of the company.”
• #19: Slide Purpose: To challenge growth company leaders (and teams) to be intentional about playing to win and not just playing to avoid losing. Positioning and Content: “During the recent Sochi Winter Olympics, we all watched with excitement the thrill of the snowboarding events. Many viewers were especially interesting in seeing if Shaun White, at the ancient snowboarding age of 28, still had what it takes to be an Olympic champion…or would a new, teenage phenomenon step on the scene and steal the show with new moves to defy gravity and safety. Would Shaun White take new risks, introduce bold moves and acrobatics? Or would he play it safe and rely on his former success and reputation to help him medal? Was Shaun playing to win or not to lose?”
• #20: Slide Purpose: To challenge growth company leaders (and teams) to be intentional about playing to win and not just playing to avoid losing. Positioning and Content: “So, as we saw in the Winter Olympics, Shaun White played NOT to lose, preferring to hold back from risks that others were willing to take in the men’s halfpipe event; as a result, a young Russian, Iouri Podladtchikov (aka iPod), living with his family in Switzerland, took the gold medal and emerged as the new snowboard champion to dethrone. Thus, we ask you as company leaders: Are you playing to win – taking risks, developing winning moves, focused continuously on growth – or are you playing not to lose – having worked your way to success, is risk adversity and the comfort of winning today going to be the complacency that leads to losing tomorrow? We encourage you to reflect on what has made you successful and then chart new strategies and horizons to continue that success and become or maintain being a gazelle.”
• #21: Slide Purpose: To provide awareness and information that builds the credibility and strength of Gazelles as a worldwide participant in serving and helping mid-market growth companies succeed and thrive. Positioning and Content: “Verne Harnish wrote Mastering the Rockefeller Habits in 1997 and it immediately struck a chord with entrepreneurs and growth company leaders in North America. Mastering the Rockefeller Habits and the Gazelles organization have consistently grown to serve companies worldwide since the late 1990s and been utilized by more than 25,000 executives on 6 continents, where we now have more than 150 coaches and host 6 growth summits annually – all based on four key decisions that growth companies MUST get right to succeed! Simple, practical and actionable content and tools.”
• #22: Slide Purpose: To share the 3 key disciplines (habits) of the top performing growth companies that are Gazelles clients. Positioning and Content: “As Gazelles has worked with thousands of mid-market growth companies from all over the world, we have observed that the top performers have committed to 3 key disciplines (habits) that both differentiate them AND lead to their consistent success: #1 They have taken the Four Decisions content and tools that you will learn here and have consistently applied them to their daily operational routines. #2 They have built into their leaders’ schedules a regular, ongoing commitment to executive education (learning). #3 They have developed and utilize an ongoing accountability relationship with an outside, independent business coach.“
• #23: Slide Purpose: To communicate the three key attributes of the Gazelles toolsets. Positioning and Content: “Over many years, we have asked users of the Rockefeller Habits: “What is it about our tools that you find most valuable and useful?” The clear feedback trend is that the Gazelles Tools (e.g. Growth Tools and the One-Page Strategic Plan, which we will cover in a moment), are SIMPLE, PRACTICAL and ACTIONABLE. SIMPLE – Easy to use without complex instructions. PRACTICAL – They make a difference. ACTIONABLE – The tools can be acted on (used) right away. Another key operating principle we advocate is to have a “bias toward action” – what does this mean? When in doubt, don’t overthink a situation – TAKE ACTION and move forward; or as one thought leader has shared – move forward and if necessary, fail forward by taking action!”
• #24: Slide Purpose: To share a Roadmap to Growth™ for companies wanting to scale using the Rockefeller Habits and supporting content and tools. Content and Positioning: “How does a company entering or currently in the midst of a high growth season learn, apply, and implement the Rockefeller Habits, without being distracted and doing so in an orderly digestible manner? After hundreds of “coach years” experience, we have developed a simple Growth Roadmap that serves as a template for a Rockefeller Habits (Four Decisions) Certified Coach to collaborate and facilitate a company through the tools and stages of application from Core Principles to Advanced Concepts, and then onto Mastery of principles and tools. The end goal being to realize, experience and enjoy the 5 key outcomes of gazelles growth companies that apply the Habits.”
• #25: Slide Purpose: To identify and differentiate a Gazelles International Certified Coach Positioning and Content: “As we just saw in our BHAG, one of our key focuses is to provide key metro business markets throughout the world with Certified Coaches to enhance the development of the mid-market and growth companies worldwide. A Certified Coach completes a training process in the use and application of the Four Decisions content, is mentored by a seasoned senior Certified Coach, and must complete a client evaluation to become certified. In addition, after being certified, they have at least 60 hours of continuous education each year and must take a Four Decisions update training course with our Master Trainer. We believe that the sharpest companies want the sharpest coaches that can consistently apply and implement the Rockefeller Habits content, in a professional and successful manner.”