By Verne Harnish “Growth Guy”

In the same (simple) way that lemon juice prevents a quartered apple from turning brown, high dose vitamin C prevents harmful oxidation from sapping the life out of today’s busy executive – and now we understand the mechanism

Year after year I’ve watched CEOs come off high stress periods in their businesses and develop chronic illnesses, some severe including cancer and heart disease.  I wanted to understand why and how to prevent this.

Similarly, I wanted to understand why I and many of my entrepreneurial friends would come down with the flu around the holidays – almost as if our bodies knew we couldn’t get sick during the busy times, but had permission to “let down” when we had some time to rest.

And this search for answers became very personal when I suffered a chronic illness while building my first venture twenty-five years ago.  It was a dear friend and mentor that introduced me to the Center for Human Functioning in Wichita, KS – funded by one of the wealthiest families in the U.S. at the time – the Garvey family – and led by the late Dr. Hugh Riordan.

It was Dr. Riordan who picked up the torch from Dr. Linus Pauling, the two-time Nobel Prize winner who discovered that high dose vitamin C, along with certain nutritional protocols geared to a person’s unique body chemistry, cured most chronic diseases, even cancer.

Stagnant Water

The analogy I like to use is that of stagnant water – without “flow” a body of water will become toxic.  The same for the flow of electrons within our bodies.

As we face a daily bombardment of environmental toxins (airplane flights are the worse), degraded food, viruses, bacteria, and stress, the same oxidation process that turns apples brown and rusts metal is happening within our own cells.  Where the oxidation does the most damage is dictated by our genetic code which points to our most vulnerable point (the lungs for me).

It’s at this weak spot that an infection develops (“…itis” means infection i.e. arthritis, tendinitis, laryngitis, etc).  What we know medically is that at the infection site, the flow of electrons – the energy force — is essentially blocked.  This leads to a stagnant situation which becomes further toxic leading to chronic conditions.

The trick is getting the electrons to start flowing.  This is where Vitamin C plays a crucial role.  If you look at the chemical make-up of vitamin C, it mimics the structure of sugar (which is why cancer cells readily absorb vitamin C, making it nature’s perfect chemo) with an extra oxygen molecule hanging off the side.  It’s this extra oxygen molecule that holds the key to health.

Hydrogen Peroxide

I remember my mother liberally using hydrogen peroxide to clean the various cuts I sustained as a child.  Chemically structured like water, except with an extra oxygen molecule, it’s a fairly unstable compound which is why it’s stored in a dark brown bottle.  Once liberated from the bottle and poured on a cut, the extra oxygen molecule is released (thus the fizz) along with a flow of electrons.

It’s these electrons that kill the infection, almost like laser surgery, and helps restore the flow of electrons that were absorbed by the oxidation process.  And it’s this same hydrogen peroxide process that occurs internally when vitamin C faces an infection or cancerous cell.  The challenge is getting a high enough plasma level of vitamin C, especially since we’re one of only two mammals unable to manufacture C internally, to knock out these infections.

Collagen and Adrenaline

Vitamin C is crucial to the production of adrenaline. It’s why after pumping so much adrenaline during stressful and busy times, you’ll have drained most of your vitamin C reserves and become ill.

Vitamin C is also key to the production of collagen, the tough, glue-like protein that makes up 30% of your body’s protein.  Wrinkles are just one indication of the lack of sufficient vitamin C, which tends to deplete over time as stress, toxins, and pumping adrenaline sucks up your reserves.

Another indication of insufficient vitamin C is bleeding gums, due to the weakening of arterial walls (thinnest at the gum level).  It’s why the body produces cholesterol – a way to patch up weakened arterial walls, trading off long term complications in order to prevent the rupture of a blood vessel due to the lack of Vitamin C and other nutrients.

Intravenous Vitamin C

Again, the challenge is getting enough Vitamin C given the toxic environments in which we live and work.  Most doctors will tell you that it’s fruitless to take mega-doses since you’ll just pee it out – and to some extent they are right.

However, what Sebastian J. Padayatty, MD and his former chief, Mark A. Levine, MD (Harvard Medical School) discovered in 2004 is that blood plasma levels of Vitamin C, 60 times greater than expected, can be achieved when administered intravenously — levels toxic to cancers and infections, yet helpful to healthy cells.

This is what the Mayo Clinic missed when they attempted to replicate the success of Dr. Pauling’s use of Vitamin C.  Decades later the mistake was found.

As such, three to four times a year, to fight the “rust”, I receive 50,000 mg (50 grams) of Vitamin C intravenously along with glutathione which revitalizes the liver.  I use the protocol created by Dr. Riordan that is being used by cancer researchers and found a local doctor willing to support this protocol, which he now shares with scores of patients and executives throughout the DC region.

I also have most of my family members and several colleagues within my company following the same protocol – and it is so safe my wife continued the protocol through pregnancy (they are now discovering how important Vitamin C is to the development of the fetal brain along with folic acid). 

In addition, I take 8 grams of C orally each day — 800 times the Recommended Daily Allowance.  I’ve come to learn this is the right amount for me (different for each person).  I’ve learned from research why you have to increase your dosages slowly, why you need this much, how enzymes are produced by the body to aid absorption, and how this impacts you if you skip a day.

There’s an excellent book entitled “Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, and Toxins” by Thomas E. Levy, MD, JD.  It summarizes over 1200 medical and scientific journal articles on Vitamin C spanning the past century.

While waiting for the rest of the traditional medical community to catch up, I’ve followed the advice of Dr. Frederick Klenner, one of the early pioneers in the use of high dose vitamin C, who administered IV Vitamin C whenever a patient first entered the hospital:

“Vitamin C should be given to the patient while the doctors ponder the diagnosis.”

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By Verne Harnish “Growth Guy”

No company better exemplifies the power of a strong corporate culture than Zappos, the online shoe and clothing retailer acquired by Amazon last November for $1.2 billion.  Just over a decade old, its corporate culture is the critical glue that helps this rapidly growing company deliver on its promise of providing exceptional customer service – and delivering happiness!

To witness this culture firsthand, I organized a private tour of Zappos corporate headquarters in Henderson, NV for 120 CEOs and executives of growth companies.  We also invited their well known CEO, Tony Hsieh, to share his personal insights into corporate culture with a broader audience of growth company executives the following day.

FAILED CULTURE

Hsieh’s obsession with corporate culture dates back to his first company, LinkExchange, which he sold to Microsoft for $265 million when he was 24 years old.  He decided to sell the company the morning he found himself hitting the snooze button on his alarm clock multiple times, dreading the thought of having to go into work.  And he wondered how many other employees felt the same way.

He vowed if he launched another company he would focus on maintaining a strong corporate culture rather than one that haphazardly drifted and shifted as new employees were added to the firm.

CULTURE DRIFT

This cultural drift begins around 70 employees – when the senior executives no longer know everyone’s name in the company.  This drift accelerates when the company moves to a second floor in a building or opens a second location.  The physical separation makes it that much harder to keep the corporate culture tight and aligned.

The key to maintaining a cohesive culture is discovering a set of core values that accurately reflect the nuances of the organization’s personality.  Hsieh led this discovery exercise during Zappos’ fifth year in business.  This is about the right timing.  Like a child, the corporate culture or personality isn’t fully revealed until the company is five years old, being shaped through early experiences and the collective values of the people involved.

DISCOVERY PROCESS

I’ve seen firms spend tens of thousands of dollars and months going through a laborious process that often generates a generic list of core values.  And this generic list often fails to represent the uniqueness and power of the existing culture.  Alternatively, there is a way to get at your core values that’s fun and amazingly fast.  It’s an approach outlined in Jim Collins’s and Jerry Porras’s article “Building Your Company’s Vision.”  You can download the article from www.hbr.com for $6 or Collins has some

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There is a difference between a house and a home.

A house is a structure, nothing more, nothing less.  To build a house requires a technical knowledge, materials and some money. There are well built houses and there are some weak ones too.  A house serves as a place to keep our stuff and protect us from the elements. But a home is different.

You can live in a house that doesn’t feel like home. To be a home, it needs to feel like a place you belong.  A place you feel at peace. Comfortable. A home reflects your personality, so it stands to reason that people like you will also like being in your home.  And even if you don’t own the house, the home is yours.

The same is true for a company, but sadly we don’t have two words to make the comparison.

A company is like a house. It’s a structure. Nothing more, nothing less. It requires technical knowledge, materials and some money to build.  There are well built companies and some weak ones too. A company serves as a place for us to work so we can earn a living, pay our bills and protect our families. But some companies are different. Some companies also feel like a home.  Some companies are more than a place to work, the people who work there feel like they belong.  They feel at peace.  Comfortable. These companies reflect the personalities of the people who work there, so it stands to reason that people who like it there are all alike.  And even if you don’t own the company, it still feels like yours.

The company that is like a house, focuses on the structure. Strategy and tactics are a way to increase sales, and money is the pursuit.  The company that feels like a home, focuses on the culture – the very thing that makes a house into a home. Strategy and tactics are a way to share that culture, that belief, with people outside the company too, and money is the result.

The funny thing is, with all these contractors out there building all these fancy houses with all the latest modern conveniences, it is the homes that are more profitable, more innovative, have the most loyal customers and employees. If there is a storm, people rally to fix the home where others abandon the house. Our houses have value, but we value our homes.

It’s a shame we don’t have a word for companies that are built like homes.  If we did, we’d probably have more of them.

http://sinekpartners.typepad.com/refocus/2010/02/house-vs-home.html

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At its core, Capitalism is about voluntary association and collaboration, which is one of the reasons Capitalism works, why it won the battle with Socialism in the 20th Century, and why it continues to persist and flourish. But the abuses of the early 21st century (e.g. Tyco, Worlcom, Enron), the recent financial “meltdown,” and ongoing issues including the social costs of externalities, the extreme and widening gap between executive and worker compensation, among others, have undermined trust in business and confidence in Capitalism. For several decades, companies emerging out of the culture of the 60s have been cultivating a new genre of Capitalism.

This is a Capitalism that recognizes the power of purpose and the principle of interdependence. It is a Capitalism the sees leaders as stewards and facilitators. And it is a Capitalism that embraces the cocreative, generative nature of business, and is directed towards fulfilling the potential of business and the marketplace to be a powerful force for positive change.

This is a Conscious Capitalism, embodied by Conscious Capitalists. Many of these companies, their founders and leaders – such as Kip Tindell and the Container Store, John Mackey and Whole Foods Market, Chip Conley and Joie de Vivre Hotels, Sally Jewel and REI, to name a few – are purposefully coming together to share their experiences with each other, to support each other to address pressing issues they face with their companies, and to catalyze a broader Conscious Capitalism Movement, to spread the CC meme to other businesses, to the investment community, to consumers, employees, and other stakeholders.

John Mackey co-founded Conscious Capitalism, Inc. to provide a home for the Conscious Capitalism Movement and to create community and content to deepen and broaden the Movement.

to learn more visit http://consciouscapitalism.com/

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Today I spoke with a friend that told me he just see an entrepreneur we met 5 years ago. This entrepreneur was beginning a company to custom-made dress shirts for the wealthy executives.

So the business idea was to send nice looking girls to visit wealthy individuals to their offices and sell them custom-made dress shirts, and send the shirts to be made with tailors in Hong Kong. When he told me what he was doing, I said, well cool idea and fun to hire by commission all this beautiful girls to send to my friends offices… and also I hate to shop and it would be great to have my shirts sent to my office. But on the other side, I thought, what unsexy business with little scalability and low income potential.

5 years later… very different story… today he is closing his second round of financing by a prestigious group of VC´s, has over $10 million in sales and he is on his way to create the Amway for the rich executives!!!! Wow what a different story!!!! Imagine the potential of sales of having an Amway for the rich? Amway today has sales over $8 billion dollars!!!! An sells to the base of the pyramid an mid class.

This confirms my thesis that ANY idea with a good and passionate entrepreneur perusing it can grow significantly and bring great wealth to him and the ones that trust him at the beginning. So the first thing I like to see when analyzing an investment opportunity is who is the entrepreneur behind the opportunity… I believe if you have the right entrepreneur executing and running the company, you have at least 50% chances of success in your investment.

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By Verne Harnish “Growth Guy”

Customers experience your company’s processes, not its functions.  Yet executives spend most of their time focused on making sure the functions of the firm i.e. sales, operations, finance, HR, IT, etc. are properly led, staffed, and driven by appropriate key performance indicators (KPIs).

For the sake of customers and the sanity of your team, it’s important to turn your company on its side and focus on those processes that flow across your various functions.  This is a critical activity in building a sustainable and profitable growth firm – and building a firm that isn’t driving everyone increasingly insane as the company gets bigger.

It’s poorly designed and executed processes that suck up large amounts of money, time, and energy – and ultimately lead to a frustrating employee and customer experience.

What Are Your 4 to 9 Processes?

There are normally four to nine of these horizontal processes that cut across your various functions, processes like “how do we bring on a new customer” which can involve sales, operations, IT, and even finance.

And like with functions, they must be properly led, staffed, and driven by appropriate KPIs – and they must be designed with the end customer in mind.

So the first step is to gather your executive team in a room and name these processes.  While several of the processes are similar across many companies (“how do we bill and collect from customers”) there are some that are specific to your firm.

For instance, GrupoIntercom, the internet incubator I’m working with in Barcelona, has a special process for attracting and selecting entrepreneurs to join the incubator.  They also have a specific process for helping an internet entrepreneur go from concept to monetizing their internet portal. We identified eight key processes that drive this incubator.  What are yours?

Process Accountability

The next step is assigning accountability for each process to a specific leader.  And because a process cuts across several functions/departments there might be some perceived turf battles.  However, assigning someone accountability for a process doesn’t mean they are the new boss of everyone that touches the process nor do they necessarily have increased decision making authority.

Their job is to monitor the process (time, cost, accuracy), let the team know if there are any issues, and lead a regular meeting to fix or improve the particular process.  As such, its best if the person with process accountability has some cross-functional experience.

So, who are your key process owners?  It’s as critical of a decision as who heads up each function in the business.

Process Mapping

This leads to the third step – mapping the process.  Gather together someone from every function that touches a specific process, including a few customers that are impacted by the process (if possible).  Using colored Post-It Notes to represent each function (sales is green, accounting is blue, etc), map out the steps and decision points as the process presently flows.  Then step back and begin streamlining the processes, eliminating wasteful steps and removing obstacles.

For instance, think about how a certain piece of paper (physical or electronic) moves from a website to an email in-box to an order fulfillment desk in the warehouse, including emailed confirmations and order tracking systems for the customer.  You’ll be surprised at the number of steps and people required for a simple process.

Along the way, set specific KPIs at critical steps and decision points so the process can be continuously monitored.  In the case of Grupo Intercom’s process for helping entrepreneurs monetize their portals, specific KPIs are tracked that let the executive team know if progress is being made.

I’m a particular fan of the Lean approach to process mapping and improvement.  It focuses on reducing the overall process time, which leads to less steps, reduced costs and improved outcomes.  Contact the Lean Enterprise Institute in Cambridge, MA for books, resources, and support at www.lean.org.

How-To Manual

The beauty of identifying and documenting the processes in your business is that it provides you an excellent “how to” manual.  I have a friend whose father is getting ready to retire from the family business.  By identifying and mapping the various processes, they were able to both extract useful information that was locked in the mind of their father and the other employees while taking advantage of his expertise in changing the processes.  And the process improvements will further enhance the value of the company should they need to sell it.

Last, it’s useful to revisit and examine one process every 90 days as part of your quarterly planning process.  Like hallway closets and garages, these processes get junked up and need to be re-cleaned periodically.  With four to nine processes, each will get examined every twelve to twenty-four months, which is sufficient to keep your company running insanity-free.

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I just read this great article By Michael Fisher and Marty Abbott about the Myths that can kill a Startup… I found great insight and very concise ideas… here are the myths:

Myth #1: Hire Smart People and Let Them Do Their Magic

Truth: Hire Stars and Let Them Do Their Magic

Myth #2: It’s About Your Great Idea

Truth: It’s About Your Customer

Myth #3: Conflict Is Bad

Truth: Affective Conflict Is Bad; Cognitive Conflict Is Good

Myth #4: It’s About Hard Work; Don’t Expect to Have a Life

Truth: It’s About Results and You Need a Life

Myth #5: It’s an Uphill Battle Until One Day, When It All Comes Together

Truth: It’s a Rollercoaster Ride

if you want to read the full article go here

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“…keeping you great”

HEADLINES: (Growth Summit Highlights Day 1, 2 minute interviews)

Best News from Jim Collins — THE question that got the attention of a lot of entrepreneurs and their teams in the room last week was when Jim was asked whether founders were able to actually build a company beyond start-up i.e. would they be able to go from telling time to being clock-builders. And the answer is yes!! In the great companies it was NOT the case that the entrepreneur had to be replaced with professional management. Whew! This was reinforced with Hermann Simon’s research that the tenure of the founder/CEO in Hidden Champions was over 20 years.

Jim Collins’ Top Ten Books — Jim spoke for over 3.5 hours, so difficult to summarize everything, however, here’s a link to a short 2 minute interview I conducted asking him about the specific disciplines necessary to build a great company. There is also a lengthier interview available as well — both in the right hand column at www.gazelles.tv. And below are listed Jim Collins top ten recommended books and top ten courses.

Aubrey Daniels takes on Dan Pink — Aubrey carefully corrected Pink’s assertion that traditional rewards can’t drive creative thinking — here’s the link to a short 2 minute interview where I asked Aubrey to elaborate on his Dan Pink comments (www.gazelles.tv — in the right hand column). More to Aubrey’s point, most reward/compensation schemes are useless in driving performance since they are not reinforcing to the performer, whether it’s highly creative problem solving work or routine process activities. What does work all the time are PICs — Positive, Immediate, and Certain reinforcers. The best example? A scoreboard!! That’s why the BHAG video scoreboard, posted where everyone can see it at Australia-based Red Balloon, is such a powerful tool. Go to right hand column of www.gazelles.tv and look for the “BHAG — Red Balloon” video to see their BHAG scoreboard.

Theme/Celebration for 2009/2010 — and to add a little spice to the Growth Summit, we featured Gazelles customer Wide Open Baja (Christian Hammarskjold, CEO) and one of their $100k high-performance off-road vehicles. If you’re looking for a reward for your team for doing a great job, a place to host your strategic planning session, or a customer appreciation event, it’s one of the best I’ve found. Check out their executive excursions and Horsepower Ranch at www.wideopenbaja.com NOTE: Gazelles isn’t receiving any compensation for this — we’re just enthusiastic supporters since we know how hard it is to come up with fun executive activities and rewards.

Do you need expert assistance constructing a winning plan for 2010? — At the Summit, Jim Collins talked about how the best companies are actively taking advantage of the current market conditions to come out as big winners. Are you playing to win in 2010 or not to lose? Take the time now to block out two days to work with your team to develop a solid plan for 2010. If you need help with your Annual Planning, Gazelles can help you. Contact Cindy Praeger at Gazelles (cindy@gazelles.com or 704-996-0399). If you sign up before December 31, we will help you jumpstart your plan with 1 free month of Rhythm Execution Coaching and Software.

Feedback from Benetton India — and India Tour Dec 1 — 3 — I’ll be leading one day workshops in Mumbai Dec 2 and Bangalore Dec 3. I’ll also be leading another private session for Benetton India — this note from Sanjeev Mohanty, CEO of Benetton India post our first session earlier this year. “During our session we had set up a challenging target of 65% growth for the 3rd quarter. I am happy to share that we have achieved this target! We had launched a very creative campaign across the organization and charged up and motivated everyone with the same and it was a great experience. This is an amazing achievement as most of our competitors are either no growth or even worse, de-growth in business. The most amazing part of the story was that more than the sales guys the supply chain, design, manufacturing and HR guys were chasing the numbers on an hourly basis.” The Rockefeller Habits tools are effective across various cultures.

Jim Collins Top Ten Lists:

Ten Books Jim Collins Recommends

1. Churchill, The Second World War
2. Caro, Master of the Senate
3. Goodwin, Team of Rivals
4. Bernstein, Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk
5. Lewis, Moneyball
6. Homer, The Iliad
7. Drucker, The Effective Executive
8. Gardner, Self-Renewal
9. Lewis, Assault on Lake Casitas
10. Manchester, Goodbye Darkness

Jim Collins Top 10 Great Courses from the Teaching Company

1. How to Listen to and Understand Great Music by Robert Greenberg.
2. Great American Presidents
3. Argumentation — The Study of Effective Reasoning
4. What are the Chances? Probability Made Clear
5. Economic History of the United States, 1900 – 2000
6. Art Across the Ages
7. Dante’s Divine Comedy
8. Emperors of Rome
9. The History of Ancient Egypt
10. History of Modern Russia + From Yao to Mao — 5000 years of Chinese History

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By Verne Harnish

“…keeping you great”

HEADLINES:

Hiring the Right #2 — “Jemma is a great barrier to protect the team from my overzealousness and enthusiasm,” notes Naomi Simson, founder and CEO of Sydney-based RedBalloon, on her #2. “She balances all my ‘brilliant’ ideas with a focus on making them process driven.” Take five minutes and read ((http://www.gazelles.com/new_articles/Hiring_the%20Right2.pdf)) how she and other CEOs found their right #2s, one of the most important hiring decisions an entrepreneur will ever make, in my latest “Growth Guy” syndicated column.

Hiring the Right #3, #4, etc. — Gazelles is hiring; we’re excited many of our clients are hiring; and it’s still a great time to acquire critical talent. But it’s no time for amateur hour when it comes to recruiting and interviewing. The ONLY selection and hiring technique found to give a 90% success rate is the Topgrading methology. The rest of the methods: testing, behavior-based interviewing, or “passing the breath test” have between a 30% and 60% success rate — too costly! Join us for the #1 selection process if you’re going to hire at least one person in 2010:

“19 Appointments with the Right People” — and this note from Mark Dover of Canadian-based warehouse supply firm Doverco “I wanted to share the success we have enjoyed as a result of the Webinar we participated in several months ago given by Chet Holmes (http://www.gazelles.com/ggs_chet.html). Following the model of his ‘Best Buyer’ program, we conceived of a program of 10 monthly letters directed at 165 ‘Best Buyer’ prospects. Each letter contained industry intelligence (teaching is the highest form of selling as related to us by our Gazelles coach Les Rubenovitch) and our related capabilities. And every other letter had a small, low cost, attention grabbing gift related to the theme of the missive. We are at letter #6 and have already been able to secure 19 appointments with the right people! We have reached our objective and we’re only 60% through the project. Thanks to Les, Chet and Gazelles for making us smarter. BTW, the (Dr. Robert) Cialdini Webinar (http://www.gazelles.com/ggs_cialdini.html) on ‘Influence’ was awesome.”

Keeping the Right People Smart — commit to 90 minutes of first class executive education each month using our monthly online seminars — LIVE or archived; alone or with your team (perfect for the monthly management meeting). Jeff Jarvis (http://www.gazelles.com/ggs_jeff.html), author of What Would Google Do? is our February 18 online seminar; and Chip Heath (http://www.gazelles.com/ggs_chip.html), author of Made to Stick and Switch is our March 25 online seminar. These are the #1 business thought leaders of our time that would cost you $25k plus in speaker fees and travel expenses — now delivered right to your desktop for a fraction of the cost.

Vision Board Update — the children loved the experience of putting vision boards together this past weekend and I especially enjoyed sitting with my 6 year old daughter who surprised me with her desire to be a high board diver, something my wife always wanted to do but had never shared with any of us. We used Google image and lots of magazines to find the appropriate images for the boards — and appreciated the guidance given by John Assaraf’s The Complete Vision Board Kit (http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Vision-Board-Kit-Visualization/dp/1582701911/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263315748&sr=8-2)

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In today’s world its extremely important that you are a master of communication and presentations have become the de facto business communication tool. if you want to grow your business is 2010, one this you have to get better is in communicating your ideas, solutions and products better.

Below one of the best presentations ever given… Steve Jobs Apple Music Event 2001-The First Ever iPod Introduction presentation… its a must see!!!

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