Cameron Herold, Leadership and Business Growth Strategies that work.

8th
MAR

How to Grow a Business from $2 million to $105 million in 5 Years

Posted by Michael under Business Growth, Leadership

I was lucky enough to see Cameron Herold speak at a presentation organised by the Entrepreneurs Organisation. “Leadership At 100mph: Hyper-Growth Strategies the Work. Cameron Herold built 1-800-Got- Junk from a $2 million company to $105 million in the space of 5 years.

It was an interesting presentation from a highly knowledgeable, articulate and approachable business thinker.

His presentation focused on the tips and tricks he used to grow his businesses.

He jokingly referred to his appetite for R&D (rip off and duplicate rather than research and development), but you can’t argue with the idea of taking what has proven to work in one successful business and transferring it to another.

1. Paint the picture

Here he spoke about visualising what the business would like in a few years time. The picture should be as detailed as possible and should cover areas such Brand Presence, Culture, Leadership, Profitability, Service and Image. The picture should be shared with everyone in the company so that there is common understanding of the leaders/company’s direction.

2. Prioritise, Prioritise, Prioritise

He recounted the story of Ivy Lee who was a management consultant who was trying to sell his services to Charles Schwab of the Bethlehem Steel Company in the 1930’s. Lee outlined his services ending with the statement. “With our service you’ll know how to manage better.” To which Schwab responded “What we need around here is not more “knowing” but more doing, not knowledge but action”

What Lee suggested was to spend the last 5 minutes of every working day making out a “Must Do” list for the following day. The list should consist of 5 tasks starting with the most important to the least important. The task should be completed starting with the top of the list and working down without moving on to the next task until the previous one is complete. “Don’t be concerned if you finish two or even one task as you will always be working on the most important one”.

Here Cameron Herold emphasised how not to get sucked into the “crackberry” culture of constantly checking and immediately responding to emails.

3. The huddle

The huddle is a high energy seven minute daily company meeting.

The agenda for the meeting is as follows:

Good news (corporate and personal)
Numbers (achievement against goals)
What does it all mean? (financial achievement)
In the news. (what’s happening in each department, recruitment, what are you looking forward to )
Challenges/Frustrations/Systems/opportunities.
Cheer.

The principle of huddle looks like a great way to communicate and motivate a team. However the whooping and cheering may be a bit alien to the UK.

4. Recruitment

Having the “right people on the bus” is the way Cameron Herold referred to staffing. Essentially his views were the same as “Good to Great” author Jim Collins. It is essential to get the right people in the right roles and to get rid of people who don’t fit into the business.

Pretty standard so far but it got more interesting………

His view was that the most important qualities he looked for in people were leadership and cultural fit and rather than interview people individually he recommended interviewing people in groups. A key question he would ask is “who should get the job?”

Interview over and over again until you are absolutely sure the right person is recruited.

Never interview someone that arrives late.