You know you must create a vision of your successful business. Without one, you won’t know where you’re headed. Once you have one, you can use it to reverse engineer a business plan to attain it. The first step is to write down where you want to go. We call this your vision or mission. There are actually two visions you need to develop: one from a customer perspective and one from a business perspective.

Key Takeaways:

• What Bill knows, and loves teaching, is that most businesses are approaching their ‘next level’ growth backwards.
• Every individual has strengths and weaknesses, and when an individual’s weaknesses are the focal point of their career, it’s incredibly difficult to reach any type of goal, let alone a large growth goal.
• In addition to that, you would never speak Chinese to a Russian woman, so in learning to speak the language of success, you must also be sure that you are talking to the right person.

“At this point in business, we’ve all heard of at least one business coach, or possibly even worked with one, who had a million ideas about what you need to do right now to be successful.”

http://www.inc.com/tracy-leigh-hazzard/how-to-reverse-engineer-your-business-growth.html

The retail consultancy Verdict believes further tech price rises will follow. “These will come sooner rather than later for those who have not hedged currency far in advance or for whom there is little flexibility in operational costs to mitigate currency fluctuations,” said Andrew Hall. “Retailers cannot be fully expected to absorb the costs incurred by currency volatility in the wake of Brexit. “As such, price rises are likely to impact a number of products. “For some markets, such as clothing and footwear, this will see a return to inflation after a period of deflation.”

Key Takeaways:

• Hilton and Korski agreed that the best path forward would be an open Brexit, but Prime Minister Theresa May’s administration does not seem to be headed in that direction.
• There are people who are deeply uncomfortable with the progress of change,” Korski said. “The Leave side unleashed some terrible demons in our society.”
• And although Korski agreed that the U.K. will likely close itself off from important trade deals and not access the global economy, he and Hilton differed drastically about the motivations that drove Brexit voters to leave

“Hilton cited economic factors, saying that the tech industry is in part responsible for disrupting traditional employment and leaving many people behind.”

https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/06/whats-next-for-tech-companies-in-the-brexit-debate/?ncid=rss

For those of us with a constant thirst for education, Stanford University is currently offering online courses this Fall. These courses will be hosted on two new learning platforms, designed and developed by Stanford engineers and faculty members. To make education more fun and interactive, they’ll feature exciting tools such as video lectures, discussion forums, peer assessments and team projects, just to name a few.

Key Takeaways:

• Title implies that Steve is negatively affected by Stanford. Incubators are for infants vegetation and alien specimens.
• Entrepreneurship courses seem counter-intuitive as entrepreneurship implies forging your own path- not being instructed by others in an institution.
• Steve is wordy on twitter and while this site may hold tremendous value- the format/design is counter-intuitive and off-putting.

“Stanford is an incubator with dorms.”

https://steveblank.com/2016/10/06/there-are-145-entrepreneurship-courses-at-stanford/

Meetings become ineffective when they combine different types of discussions, because we aren’t good at changing the pace or tenor of a conversation once it starts. Make things easier by splitting discussions into categories. The manufacturing team could split operational discussions about issues on a line or scrap rate concerns from discussions about progress on the introduction of a new line.

Key Takeaways:

• The first key is to send out an agenda in advance that has the subject line–with a verb–announcing the point of the meeting.
• An important part of your agenda is to review the action items that were assigned to individuals during your last meeting on the topic.
• Ideally, meetings are shorter than ninety minutes, because that is the ideal amount of time that the mind can effectively focus on a subject before needing a break.

“The verb is there to direct people, from the get-go, toward some sort of decision or action. Unless it’s a standing meeting just for updates, all great meetings end in some sort of decision or action.”

http://www.inc.com/jessica-rovello/6-steps-to-turn-boring-meetings-into-the-best-meetings-ever.html

Find out how to strategize for an effective future at your company! Alexander Osterwalder offers remedies for 11 common problems that may already be affecting your productivity. Learn how flexibility, evidence-based decisionmaking, and focusing on the customer can maximize your capacity for innovation. Improve your business model today!

Key Takeaways:

• Big companies have great execution habits to manage and improve successful business models and value propositions.
• Create a protected space in your org chart where you invent and test new business models and value propositions.
• Senior leaders acquire a lot of knowledge and experience about their business over the course of their career.

“Amazon distinguishes between non-reversible decisions with substantial sunk costs (like e.g. investing in a new warehouse in Amazon’s case), and reversible decisions like experimenting with a new offer.”

https://steveblank.com/2016/10/13/the-11-bad-habits-killing-innovation-in-your-company/

When you sell into the enterprise, there’s a very fine line between making your customers happy and potentially having them influence the product a little bit too heavily. You have to have conviction in your product to balance making them happy, but not necessarily changing your entire product priorities based on what they think they currently need.

Key Takeaways:

• Doing customer discovery isn’t the same as running a focus group. And customers don’t always know the best way to solve a problem or fill a need they have.
• You have to have conviction in your product to balance making them happy, but not necessarily changing your entire product priorities based on what they think they currently need.
• We did a testing session with a group of girls where we had to make this spinning-disco-ball-dance party.

“Doing customer discovery isn’t the same as running a focus group. And customers don’t always know the best way to solve a problem or fill a need they have.”

https://steveblank.com/2016/09/27/entrepreneurs-are-everywhere-show-no-43-tina-fitch-and-alice-brooks/

There is perhaps no greater compliment CEOs can give Trump than this: U.S. businesses now expect to hire more workers and sell more stuff in the next six months because executives are optimistic about Trump’s agenda. “America’s business leaders are encouraged by President-elect Trump’s pledge to boost economic growth,” says Doug Oberhelman, CEO of Caterpillar (CAT) and chair of the Business Roundtable, a major business advocacy group that says it has been talking with the transition team.

Key Takeaways:

• Businesses now expect to hire more workers and sell more stuff in the next six months because executives are optimistic about Trump’s agenda.
• Oberhelman gave a big thumbs up to Trump’s plans to cut corporate taxes, spend more on infrastructure and scale back regulation.
• Trump went after Boeing (BA) saying he wants to cancel the government’s contract to build a new air force one because costs are “out of control.”

“There is perhaps no greater compliment CEO s can give Trump than this: U.S. businesses now expect to hire more workers and sell more stuff in the next six months because executives are optimistic about Trump’s agenda.”

http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/06/news/economy/donald-trump-ceos/index.html

The success of a B2B company hinges largely on strong client relationships, especially for a small or early stage company. Exceptional client service constitutes a core value for the business, and we always aim to become a trusted partner of our clients, rather than viewing ourselves as a vendor. We have been able to differentiate ourselves from the competition through strong relationships, and our level of service is one of the very reasons clients continue to work with us. The list below outlines what I believe it takes for companies to transition from a vendor consideration set to trusted partner.

Key Takeaways:

• The phrase “it’s cheaper to keep ’em,” doesn’t apply just to spouses but to clients as well. Consider Bain & Co. research that found increasing customer retention rates by 5 percent boosted profits 25 to 95 percent.
• This is hardly surprising news, but what exactly can you do to nurture your personal relationship with clients so they stick around for the long haul?
• Perfecting the customer experience is one way. Nicholas J. Webb, a speaker, holder of more than 42 patents and longtime management consultant, has conducted extensive research on this topic.

“The initial interaction with your product, team or location. “Eighty percent of your client’s permanent impression of you comes from that first touch,” Webb says.”

http://www.success.com/article/how-to-improve-your-client-relationships

Ford’s pony car on steroids, the Shelby GT350, is more than just a quarter-mile monster. Yes, the 5.2-liter V-8 can hustle it down the straight at a brain-melting pace. It’s not the 526 hp, the 429 lb-ft of torque, or the 4.3-second zero-to-60-mph run that has us drooling—it’s that Ford has finally built a muscle car that can hold its own through corners. True speed freaks can opt for the GT350R, which cuts 0.4 second off the zero-to-60 time. Both the GT350 and GT350R are 2017 10Best winners.

Key Takeaways:

• The main ingredient is the engine. And, wow! What an engine. It’s a 5.2-liter V8 that spins to a coarsely shrieking 8,250 revolutions per minute.
• It makes an amazing noise that sends a chill fingering its way up from the base of your spine as the engine winds itself up.
• Considering its overall practicality, which includes usable back seats and a fairly capacious trunk, even an ordinary Mustang offers a really good driving experience.

“The Ford Mustang and I are roughly the same age. This gives me hope because I recently spent some time with what very well may be the best Mustang ever made.”

http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/06/luxury/ford-shelby-gt350-mustang-review/index.html