Issue No. 518 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a book jammed with management and leadership insights—such as why the grand prize for winning the entrepreneurial pie-eating contest is (wait for it…) more pie! Plus listen to The Discerning Leader Podcast (bottom left) for Steve Macchia's interview with John. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for John's new blog, Pails in Comparison (PIC), with shorter book reviews of his latest “PICs.”
“Some people say leading a fast-growing startup is like winning a pie-eating contest: the grand prize is that you get to eat even more pie.”
A Mandatory Must-Read!
I love this book—but I almost didn’t read it. What could I, a nonprofit guy, learn from this new Wall Street Journal bestseller, Zero to IPO? On the other hand, I do enjoy watching and learning from those Shark Tank episodes. Maybe this book is similar—plus helpful and entertaining like the TV shows.
But…who would actually believe the hype in Frederic Kerrest’s subtitle? The author promises “Over $1 Trillion of Actionable Advice from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs.”
Wow. Was I wrong! The entrepreneurial advice and counsel is stunning! You’ll be hard-pressed to find a page—any page—in this extraordinary book that doesn’t deliver practical, practical leadership and management insights. While the author, cofounder and COO of Okta, takes us on his journey from startup to IPO (the book’s framework), it is much, much more than that. Zero to IPO could just as easily have been titled:
• The Only Unforgiveable Sin in Business
• Your CEO’s 20 Most Important Meetings Each Year
• The Grand Prize of the Pie-Eating Contest
• Crashing and Burning (4 Crashing Chronicles)
• Why You Need a Stupidly Expensive Espresso Machine
I swiped those titles from the snippets in this fun-to-read book that delivers powerful management axioms (yet with humility) and so, so strategic counsel on building your organization or company. The author—clearly—is a lifelong learner and he generously shares his platform with dozens of entrepreneurs who have helped him and his companies along the way. I listed 40 favorite insights in my notes—but I have room for just 10. Enjoy!
#1. CHECKLIST FOR FOUNDERS: Broken Glass! While all founders are unique, the author lists 15 qualities that founders need, including “Resilience.” He quotes Sean Parker, Napster founder and early Facebook president who “famously said running a startup is like chewing broken glass—to succeed, you need to fall in love with the taste of your own blood.”
“You’re going to get punched in the mouth every day,” writes Kerrest. “Are you the kind of person who’ll just keep getting up? Or will it eventually flatten you?”
#2. PIE-EATING CONTEST! Founders report that life never, ever slows down—especially after the IPO. The author remembers one trip to Europe: “Over eight days, I went to five countries and somehow passed through London’s Heathrow Airport eight times. I remember thinking, Well isn’t this glamorous.”
Growth is pressure-packed. “Some people say leading a fast-growing startup is like winning a pie-eating contest: the grand prize is that you get to eat even more pie.”
#3. FIGHTING FIVE FIRES! Kerrest cautions team members at startups that “You’ll never stop racing.” (Yet…his insights on family life are helpful and memorable.) He notes, “Don’t let the jovial demeanor of the founders you see on stage at conferences deceive you. They might look calm and relaxed, but offstage, five different fires are raging.” (Solution: read how the most effective leaders prioritize and stay focused on the critical few—not the growing dozens of issues.)
#4. A STUPIDLY EXPENSIVE ESPRESSO MACHINE! The author devotes two pages to “You’re Flush, Now What?” After your company or organization is funded, what are your most strategic purchases? He lists five essentials including “A really good, full-time, in-house recruiter. Your company is only as good as the people you have in it. A top in-house recruiter…will repay their cost many times over.”
What else? “A stupidly expensive espresso machine—seriously. No more productivity lost on staff trips to the local coffee shop. Plus, break areas often spark conversations, which lead to closer relationships and breakthrough ideas.”
#5. FIRING BEST PRACTICES. “…firing somebody is really hard to do. We’re human.” In one wisdom-packed page, the author delivers six best practices, including: “Always fire on a Monday and never on a Friday.” (Read why.)
#6. NO “HEAD OF…” TITLES. In startups, warns Kerrest, the tendency is to award prestigious, but unmerited, titles to early hires like “Head of Marketing,” or “Head of Sales.” DON’T! Later, when you bring in a more senior person—with years and years of relevant experience—you’ll be forced to have an uncomfortable conversation with your “Head of…” who will no longer be the “head of…”
#7. FOUR FUNDRAISING DOCS. By the way, almost every two-page spread of this creatively-designed book delivers succinct action steps on fascinating niche topics. Example: The two pages on the four fundraising pieces of collateral you’ll need for approaching investors (or in the nonprofit world—donor prospects) are memorable. They include: 1) The Elevator Pitch, 2) The Executive Summary, 3) The Business Model, and 4) The Pitch Deck. (Helpful Hints for the elevator pitch: “Be specific. Avoid jargon. Say it so an eighth grader could understand.” Note: I use Microsoft’s tools to measure readability. This eNews weighs in at an eighth grade level.)
#8. DEATH BY POWERPOINT! In your “Pitch Deck,” limit your presentation to just 12 slides. “No one will sit through a 30-slide deck” and “learn to tell your story without your deck.” This reminded me of Suneel Gupta’s storytelling insights on startups in Backable: The Surprising Truth Behind What Makes People Take a Chance on You. (Read my review.)
#9. THE ONLY UNFORGIVEABLE SIN. “As a founder,” the author admonishes, “…you have one job above all. One job that, if you fail at it, nothing else matters. And that job is: don’t run out of money.” Interestingly, that’s the exact counsel that Bob Buford (1939-2018) gave Dan Bolin many years ago, when Buford was a board member at Pine Cove Christian Camps. (Read this true story in the Budget Bucket chapter of Mastering the Management Buckets.)
#10. “GET USED TO GIVING STUFF UP: Especially, and most painfully, the stuff you like.” As I mentioned above, while this is a book tracking the pathway to an IPO, it’s really much more—and you’ll urge your colleagues to read this book. Example: “Early on, develop the ability to anticipate when some part of your work is going to get so big that you’ll need to peel it off and give it to someone else. Start the hunt for your replacement six to nine months ahead of that handoff.”
I gotta stop at these 10 favorite best practices—but you’ll be rewarded tenfold when you read and apply the street-smart principles. The 13 crisp chapters cover the journey from “Should You Be an Entrepreneur?” to Ideas, Teams, Fundraising, Sales, Culture, Leadership, Growth, Crashing and Burning, Managing Yourself, and Boards—plus a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the IPO process and what comes next. Dozens of helpful book titles are recommended and the quotable quotes are a feast, including:
• We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ MBAs (Yet)
• You’re going to be buried under a tsunami of tough decisions…
• Thinking of going it alone? Think again.
• Prioritization 101: The Eisenhower Decision Matrix
• Be stingy with your calendar—very stingy.
• [Contrarian counsel!]: Ditch Your 1:1s
Don’t make another mistake by skipping this book. It’s another must-read. If you’re too busy to read this—then it’s a mandatory must-read!
To order from Amazon, click on title for Zero to IPO: Over $1 Trillion of Actionable Advice from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs, by Frederic Kerrest. Listen on Libro.fm (8 hours, 3 minutes). And thanks to Fortier PR and the publisher for sending me a review copy.
YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) In Frederic Kerrest’s enlightening two pages on “How to Push Past the No: A little chutzpah goes a long way,” he shares the true story of the startup team that asked for a meeting at an investor’s office. After hearing the pitch, the investors said “No!” and exited their conference room. “Let’s just sit here,” suggested the startup CEO! Then after multiple inquiries from the potential investors, “Are you guys going to leave?”—they, amazingly, were able to reengage with the investors—and got a deal! (LOL!) QUESTION: When should you NOT take “no” for an answer?
2) Zero to IPO suggests you “Max Out on Mini Teams: To get big, you might have to start small.” One company noted grows by constantly building small teams. Each mini-company “contains no more than the number of people who could fit in a van or a bus.” (Note: Amazon uses a “two-pizza” standard for cross-functional teams. See my review of The Amazon Management System. QUESTION: What is our business model for growth? Are our teams right-sized?
The Drucker Bucket affirms “We don’t just give lip service to management—we are disciplined students of great leadership and management thinkers like Peter Drucker, Ken Blanchard and others.”
Buckets Countdown:
The Drucker Bucket (#4) Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook: Management Tools, Templates and Tips from John Pearson, with commentary by Jason Pearson (2nd Edition, 2018) - Order from Amazon.
The Drucker Bucket Core Competency: “We are privileged to be leaders and managers and we steward that privilege by being lifelong learners and practitioners in the art of management. We don’t just give lip service to management—we are disciplined students of great leadership and management thinkers like Peter Drucker, Ken Blanchard and others.”
Zero to IPO features a very strong focus on the customer, much like Peter Drucker’s five most important questions, including: Who is our customer? and What does our customer value? And speaking of quotable quotes, click here to enjoy a few “Druckerisms” including these:
• “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him [or her] and sells itself.”
• “People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.”
The 20 management buckets are perfect content for the lifelong learning segment in your weekly staff meetings (you do have weekly staff meetings, right?). Visit the 20 buckets webpage here. For more, visit the Drucker Bucket.
BONUS! Listen to The Discerning Leader Podcast for Steve Macchia's interview with John Pearson (Episode 4, April 21, 2022). And click here to read John's review of Steve's new book, The Discerning Life.
SYNERGY! The The Synergy Solution: How Companies Win the Mergers and Acquisitions Game.
Read just one line in this new book on mergers and acquisitions—and you’re hooked: “In most organizations, PMI is not a core skill.” PMI (post-merger integration) torpedoes many, many mergers. (Read the review at John's new blog, Pails in Comparison.)
JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. The author of Zero to IPO quotes a founder: “Only 1 percent of interesting things have been invented yet. Ninety-nine percent have not.” If you agree—call us and we’ll work on the 99 percent with you! Contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).
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