When 45 Business Gurus Share Their Most Important Insights

Last month, a very interesting book entitled The GuruBook: Insights from 45 Pioneering Entrepreneurs and Leaders on Business Strategy and Innovation, compiled by Jonathan Løw, was published. In it, 45 of the world’s leading entrepreneurs and leaders -- such as Salim Ismail (Singularity University), Naveen Jain (Moon Express), Jimmy Maymann (Huffington Post), Otto Scharmer (Theory U), and Blake Mycoskie (TOMS) -- plainly discuss their ideas about innovation, entrepreneurship, and authentic leadership.


I had the chance to speak with Jonathan Løw about this book, and one of the main questions I asked was: "What inspired you to compile the thoughts of these particular entrepreneurs, innovators, and leaders?" Here is his complete response:  

The GuruBook is first and foremost about listening. Although I have been a serial entrepreneur and have tried to start a number of businesses, have worked with innovation in both large and small organizations, and have been a leader in several organizations, I do not imagine in any way that I have all the answers in these exciting but also complex areas.

I believe that the ability to listen is one of the most important characteristics for future entrepreneurs, innovators, and leaders. This ability to listen, and the curiosity that is inherent in it, may be the factor that gives you an advantage over the competition. Consider, for example, the English mathematician and physicist Isaac Newton, who, like millions of others, saw an apple fall from a tree. The difference was that Newton asked "why."

As a result of my own curiosity and desire to listen more, it was obvious that I should invite the people who, in my eyes, have generated inspiring and pioneering ideas, organizations, and results, to share their thoughts and knowledge with the readers in The GuruBook.

This book’s gurus have been asked to talk/write about what they’re enthusiastic about. That means that you can look forward to becoming more knowledgeable about:

• How to start a business without an idea.

• Why some ideas succeed while others fail.

• How to demystify the task of scaling up a startup as an entrepreneur.

• How you can be enterprising, no matter what phase your organization is in.

• How to create an innovative culture.

• Why simple questions lead to the greatest innovations.

Why businesses and local authorities aren't startups, and what both can learn from each other.

• How to become authentic as a leader.

• Why authentic leadership is a strength.

• Why there’s an entrepreneur in every successful leader.

• Why the ability to listen is all-important whether you’re an entrepreneur or a leader.

The contents of The GuruBook have weight and value because the articles and/or interviews are with people who, for years, have perfected their ability to listen and have consistently become better at understanding their customers, partners, and colleagues.

Through thousands of meetings, sales calls, customer service responses, innovation processes, brainstorms, mail dialogues, LinkedIn discussions, and so on, they have listened and then acted on what they heard. These are the insights that The GuruBook contains.

I fundamentally believe the future belongs to the curious. The future belongs to the entrepreneurs, innovators, leaders, and passionate souls who are not only capable of “listening more intently” to the world about them, but who are capable of “ listening more intently” to the world about them but who also have the ability to act on the input they get.

A website for the book -- https://www.thegurubook.org/ -- includes a list of the gurus participating as well as some more background on the book.

How Do You Grow and Sell a Successful Consulting Firm?

This past month, Raj Aseervatham, published an important resource for consultants titled You're the Boss: Growing and Selling a Successful Consulting Firm. The book is segmented into nine distinct lessons charting the journey of a successful consulting firm—from inception to sale.

I just recently spoke to Raj about the book and asked him: “What are the most common mistakes business owners make when they try to grow and sell a consulting firm?” Here is his complete answer:

Most people are familiar with this statistic -- eight out of ten businesses fail. Paradoxically, most entrepreneurs firmly believe they will be in the 20% that succeed. Do they really know why they believe that? Let’s look at the knowledge that consulting entrepreneurs who actually made the 20% reflect on:

1. Failed consultancies often lack a clear strategy. Having a concept is not the same as having a strategy. Being very specific about your business – what it does, how it’s structured, what maturity looks like, what your sale looks like – help fill in strategy. As the head of your company, no detail is too small for you to contemplate.

2. Failed consultancies often have poor planning discipline. Having a plan is the same as preparing to execute a strategy. Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln once commented that if he had six hours to cut down a tree, he would spend the first four hours sharpening the axe. Invest your time in detailed six-monthly or annual plans, test your assumptions, iterate the plan frequently. Don’t treat it as an administrative chore. Your planning is your preparation and dress rehearsal.

3. Failed consultancies often die of cash starvation. Watch your cash. This is not the same as saying "get your accountant to watch your cash." You are intimately familiar with your strategy and your plan, not your accountant. Cash flow is like the blood flow in your business; you need it to carry out your plan and execute your strategy. You need to know how much you need and when, and you need to know that your business operation will deliver it. So be intimately familiar with your cash flow.

4. Failed consultancies are often inconsistent with their quality. If you promise something, deliver it to the standards expected. Do not compromise the quality your clients pay for. As you hire more consultants into your business, your quality standards might be prone to variation, and to dilution. If this happens, your brand erodes while you grow.

5. Failed consultancies often forget what made them contenders. Don’t let your principles erode with time. The consulting entrepreneur may start with strong ideals – from client service through to cash management, through to the ethical decision making, to how employees are treated. Often, small companies are formed around a core of pride and value, built on principles.  As they grow, that core can become less distinct and the culture can change. Be firm on how you retain and strengthen the principles that allowed you to first break successfully into a market.

6. Failed consultancies forget that their people make up nearly 100% of their tangible assets. Hire slowly and deliberately. Treat every hiring decision like it is your first excruciatingly important one, and you are more likely to build a consulting firm of people who can create lasting value.

7. Failed consultancies do not have a consistent focus on business development. Practice business development even when your business is booming; and especially when your business is booming. The worst time to dust off your business development skills and deploy them into the market is when business is bad. The best time to grow your business is when business is good, so get out there and market in the best of times like it’s the worst of times. In fact, practice business development all the time if you really want to grow.

8. Failed consultancies allow their overheads to get away from them. This is not the same as running your enterprise like Scrooge; you may find that no-one will want to work for you! No, this is about knowing what a manageable overhead structure looks like at every stage of your growth, and ensuring you run your business according to that structure. It’s about considered discipline.

For the consultants reading this post: What do you think of Raj’s points? Does one of these points stand out from the rest? Did he miss any important areas?

Lean... For the Beginning of the New

Last week, the New York Times published this great article detailing a fresh approach to creating new companies dubbed "Lean start-up." The companies that have initially embraced the method are Internet based -- "Free open-source programming tools and easily distributed Web-based software drive down the cost of developing new products and services."

Although the "Lean start-up" concept applies to both both product design and market penetration, the most important benefit is its early emphasis "and constant focus on customers." Eric Ries, who is credited in the article with coining the term Lean start-up, believes that the traditional start-up model can lead companies to invest too much in "one technology path and one business plan" -- thus, losing their ability to change and adapt to the market. Steven Blank, cited in the article as "serial entrepreneur," adds this very interesting definition: "A start-up is a temporary organization designed to discover a profitable, scalable business model."

I would surely appreciate hearing the reactions of Lean advocates and those involved in Lean initiatives to the points raised in this article.