Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don't

PEOPLE   STRATEGY   EXECUTION   CASH

E-book and Audio formats of Scaling Up are available from major online bookstores only.

Mastering the Rockefeller Habits 20th Anniversary Edition

E-book and Audio formats of Mastering the Rockefeller Habits are available from major online bookstores only.

12 Habits of Valuable Employees: Your Roadmap to an Amazing Career

Scaling Up Compensation -- Available on Kindle and paperback

How you compensate people is one of the most important strategic decisions fast-growing companies will make – but few get it right. Do any of these challenges sound familiar?

“I gave a star performer a raise, and now everyone else is marching into my office, demanding one, too.” “If anyone looked closely at our payroll, it would be hard to rationalize why we’re paying certain people what we do.” “I’m tired of losing our best people to the Googles of the world because we can’t match their salaries.” “It seems like our bonus plans have become entitlements – like we’re just giving money away.”

These and many more challenges arise when setting up compensation schemes. And given that compensation is one of your largest expenses, it’s critical to get it right and then out of sight — and turn it into a strategic advantage in attracting, retaining, and motivating talent (or not accidentally demotivating them). This book details 5 design principles along with practical examples of compensation schemes from leading small, medium, and large firms.

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ABOUT SCALING UP

It’s been over a decade since Verne Harnish’s best-selling book Mastering the Rockefeller Habits was first released. Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It…and Why the Rest Don’t is the first major revision of this business classic.

In Scaling Up, Harnish and his team share practical tools and techniques for building an industry-dominating business. These approaches have been honed from over three decades of advising tens of thousands of CEOs and executives and helping them navigate the increasing complexities (and weight) that come with scaling up a venture. This book is written so everyone — from frontline employees to senior executives — can get aligned in contributing to the growth of a firm. There’s no reason to do it alone, yet many top leaders feel like they are the ones dragging the rest of the organization up the S-curve of growth.

The goal of this book is to help you turn what feels like an anchor into the wind at your back. To create a company where the team is engaged, the customers are doing your marketing, and everyone is making money. To accomplish this, Scaling Up focuses on the Four Decisions® methodology that every company must get right: People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash. The book includes a series of new one-page tools including the updated One-Page Strategic Plan and the Rockefeller Habits Checklist™. More than 40,000 firms around the globe have used these tools to scale their companies successfully — many to $1 billion and beyond.

Running a business is ultimately about freedom. Scaling Up shows business leaders how to get their organizations moving in sync to create something significant and enjoy the ride.

Praise for Scaling Up

Testimonial
Geoffrey Moore
Geoffrey Moore

Scaling Up addresses the second half of the venture ball game, something often lost in all the hoopla about incubating disruptive innovation during the first half. Half-time scores don’t matter-it’s all about how you finish the game. So get yourself into Verne’s locker room for a great half-time pep talk, and then get yourself out on the field to play a great second half.

Testimonial
Sanjeev Mohanty
Sanjeev Mohanty

Verne’s tools and techniques have been key to scaling up Benetton to become the #1 international fashion brand in India. They work!

Testimonial
Scott Farquhar
Scott Farquhar

Scaling up a significant business requires precisely the kind of discipline and focus detailed in Verne’s practical and ‘how-to’ driven book.

Testimonial
Graham Weston
Graham Weston

Fast-growing companies — not small ones or big ones — create almost all the jobs and innovation in our economy, and Verne has been an invaluable guide to leaders of such companies, like me. Scaling Up helps us put in place the disciplines critical to building a significant business.

Testimonial
Henry McGovern
Henry McGovern

Verne delivers more value per page than anyone else in the business!

Testimonial
Liz Wiseman
Liz Wiseman

Verne Harnish has once again proven he’s the Growth Guy. Scaling Up is packed with the tools to help you bust through the barriers to growth and climb learning curves faster. But don’t let your leadership team carry the load alone — multiply your impact by sharing the book with every employee on your team.

Testimonial
Robert B. Cialdini
Robert B. Cialdini

The idea of guiding a company from the small tide pools to the big seas of business can be exhilarating, but also daunting without a detailed set of directions. Scaling Up provides those directions, along with a remarkably detailed map for how to get there safe and happy.

Testimonial
Scott Tannas
Scott Tannas

We’ve scaled up our company from a single office near Calgary to 2,000 employees in 165 locations across Western Canada. Verne’s tools and techniques have been critical to helping us drive and manage this growth during my 20 years as CEO — and ultimately to freeing me up as the founder to pursue other interests.

Testimonial
Patrick Lencioni
Patrick Lencioni

Verne Harnish is more committed to helping companies grow than any other person on the planet. Really. He’s also radically practical in his approach and that is reflected throughout this terrific book.

Testimonial
Jack Stack
Jack Stack

Imagine walking into a library and finding one book that captures the ideas of all the books in the library. Scaling Up is that business book. You will not have to go any farther.

Testimonial
John Mullins
John Mullins

Delivers the practical lessons that most B-schools don’t. If you want to grow your business faster, buy Scaling Up, turn to Chapter 14, and read ‘The Power of One.’ Not next week. Not tomorrow. Now.

Testimonial
John Warrillow
John Warrillow

Scaling Up is a blueprint for building a growth company. With this book, Verne has pulled back the curtain on how the fastest-growing companies in the world fuel their growth. Scaling Up gives you an insider’s view into the inner workings of the most successful companies on earth. A must-read for an ambitious entrepreneur.

Testimonial
Alburt Lefebvre
Alburt Lefebvre

The book is fantastic in the sense that it provides all the facts, proven methods, tools and techniques specifically required by an organization at the stage we are at. What is most laughable about your book is within 2 chapters you have already identified what consultants consistently miss in regards to complexity. Anyone scaling a business regardless of what you know should use this book to learn a thing or two. If you’re not already thinking about these concepts and have gotten thus far then kudos I hope you still have your sanity.

Testimonial
Stephen Redmond
Stephen Redmond

 

I have never enjoyed reading a book so much, in years!

Verne Harnish

Founder and CEO of Gazelles,
Author of "Scaling Up"

Verne Harnish is founder of the world-renowned Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), with over 16,000 members worldwide, and chaired for fifteen years EO’s premiere CEO program held at MIT, a program in which he still teaches today.

Founder and CEO of Scaling Up, a global executive education and coaching company with over 200 partners on six continents, Verne has spent the past four decades helping companies scaleup.

He’s the author of the bestseller Mastering the Rockefeller Habits; authored The Greatest Business Decisions of All Times,” for which Jim Collins wrote the foreword; and wrote Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0) which has been translated into 22 languages and has won eight major international book awards including the prestigious International Book Award for Best General Business book. His latest book, Scaling Up Compensation, rocketed to the #1 HR book on Amazon.

Verne also chairs the annual ScaleUp Summits and serves on several boards including vice chair of The Riordan Clinic; co-founder and chair of Geoversity; and board member of the social venture Million Dollar Women. A private investor in many scaleups, Verne enjoys piano, tennis, and magic as a card-carrying member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.

Table of Contents

THE INTRODUCTION Tools for Scaling Up

THE OVERVIEW People, Strategy, Execution, Cash
THE BARRIERS Leadership, Infrastructure, and Market Dynamics

SCALING UP PEOPLE

INTRODUCTION
THE LEADERS The FACe and PACe of the Company
THE TEAM Attracting and Hiring
THE MANAGERS Keeping and Growing (Educating) the Team

SCALING UP STRATEGY

INTRODUCTION
THE CORE Values, Purpose, and Competencies
The 7 STRATA OF STRATEGY The Framework for Dominating Your Industry
THE ONE-PAGE STRATEGIC PLAN The Tool for Strategic Planning

SCALING UP EXECUTION

INTRODUCTION
THE PRIORITY Focus, Finish Lines, and Fun
THE DATA Powering Prediction
THE MEETING RHYTHM The Heartbeat of the Organization

SCALING UP CASH

INTRODUCTION
THE CASH Accelerating Cash Flow
THE ACCOUNTING Driving Profitability
THE POWER OF ONE 7 Key Financial Levers

SCALING UP

NEXT STEPS 5 Things to Do Now
KEY RESOURCES
INDEX

Resources

Key Resources and Companies highlighted in Scaling Up

Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder

Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Link

The E-Myth Revisited

Michael E. Gerber
Link

The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses

Eric Ries
Link

Willful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril

Margaret Heffernan
Link

Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter

Liz Wiseman with Greg McKeown
Link

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable

Patrick M. Lencioni
Link

Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck--Why Some Thrive Despite Them All

Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen
Link

Roar! Get Heard in the Sales and Marketing Jungle: A Business Fable

Kevin Daum and Daniel A. Turner
Link

Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think

Viktor Mayer-Schonberger and Kenneth Cukier
Link

Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go: Career Conversations Employees Want

Beverly Kaye and Julie Winkle Giulioni
Link

Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits!: 4 Keys to Unlock Your Business Potential

Greg Crabtree with Beverly Blair Harzog
Link

The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications, Blogs, News Releases, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly

David Meerman Scott
Link

Bringing Out the Best in People

Aubrey C. Daniels
Link

How Companies Win: Profiting from Demand-Driven Business Models No Matter What Business You're In

Rick Kash and David Calhoun
Link

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

Stephen R. Covey
Link

The One Thing You Need to Know: ...About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success

Marcus Buckingham
Link

Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (Harper Business Essentials)

Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras
Link

How The Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In

Jim Collins
Link

The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action

Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton
Link

The Soul of Money: Reclaiming the Wealth of Our Inner Resources

Lynne Twist with Teresa Barker
Link

The Inside Advantage: The Strategy that Unlocks the Hidden Growth in Your Business

Robert H. Bloom and Dave Conti
Link

Change to Strange: Create a Great Organization by Building a Strange Workforce

Daniel Cable
Link

Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow

Chip Conley
Link

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't

Jim Collins
Link

Intellectual Capital: The new wealth of organization

Thomas A. Stewart
Link

The Billionaire Who Wasn't: How Chuck Feeney Secretly Made and Gave Away a Fortune

Conor O'Clery
Link

The Ultimate Question 2.0 (Revised and Expanded Edition): How Net Promoter Companies Thrive in a Customer-Driven World

Fred Reichheld
Link

Competing On Internet Time: Lessons From Netscape and Its Battle With Microsoft

Michael A. Cusumano and David B. Yoffie
Link

Key Performance Indicators (KPI): The 75 measures every manager needs to know (Financial Times Series)

Bernard Marr
Link

The Business of Happiness: 6 Secrets to Extraordinary Success in Life and Work

Ted Leonsis with John Buckley
Link

The Weekly Coaching Conversation: A Business Fable about Taking Your Team's Performance and Your Career to the Next Level

Brian Souza
Link

Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, Second Edition

Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan & Al Switzler
Link

Leadership and the One Minute Manager Updated Ed: Increasing Effectiveness Through Situational Leadership II

Ken Blanchard, Patricia Zigarmi and Drea Zigarmi
Link

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right

Atul Gawande
Link

Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.

Ron Chernow
Link

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Daniel H. Pink
Link

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

Sheryl Sandberg
Link

The Customer-Funded Business: Start, Finance, or Grow Your Company with Your Customers' Cash

John Mullins
Link

Topgrading, 3rd Edition: The Proven Hiring and Promoting Method That Turbocharges Company Performance

Bradford D. Smart
Link

Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software

Steven Johnson
Link

The Lords of Strategy: The Secret Intellectual History of the New Corporate World

Walter Kiechel III
Link

Trombone Player Wanted Marcus Buckingham

Marcus Buckingham
Link

Epic Content Marketing: How to Tell a Different Story, Break through the Clutter, and Win More Customers by Marketing Less

Joe Pulizzi
Link

Managing Up: How to Forge an Effective Relationship With Those Above You

Rosanne Badowski
Link

Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

L. David Marquet
Link

First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently

Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
Link

The Great Game of Business, Expanded and Updated: The Only Sensible Way to Run a Company

Jack Stack
Link

Uncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business

Frances Frei and Anne Morriss
Link

Good Company: Business Success in the Worthiness Era (BK Business)

Laurie Bassi, Ed Frauenheim and Dan McMurrer, with Larry Costello
Link

Now, Discover Your Strengths

Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton
Link

The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You do Business

Clayton M. Christensen
Link

Who: The A Method for Hiring

Geoff Smart and Randy Street
Link

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