Possibly the most common error of a smart engineer is to optimize a thing that should not exist.
                     Elon Musk

We are intentionally building a culture around systems and processes from the top down, using Scaling Up and Topgrading.
                     Patrick Griffor, co-founder Heritage Hills Capital Partners

An invitation to invest 2 to 22 minutes in your executive education this week.

Workforce Housing Developer Accelerates Growth/Returns
Cincinnati-based Heritage Hills Capital Partners, a vertically integrated real estate and private equity firm, experienced stalled growth. This ScaleUps.com article details how CEO Sean Blythe, with the help of Columbus-based Scaling Up Coach Rick Crossland, increased the number of A-Players from 68% to 88% and saw revenue growth jump from $20 million to $27 million in the 24 months they’ve worked together, delivering returns far above industry standards. Please take 2-minutes to read how the FACe and PACe tools, Scaling Up Cash, meeting rhythms, productivity enhancements, and relentless focus on weekly execution using scrums have helped them drive the cost of the “doors” they manage down to almost half new construction and increased profit and cash flow.

Jack Dorsey’s Biggest Mistake at Twitter
This brief IG Reel features Square and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s self-professed biggest mistake at Twitter and how he corrected it at Square. In short, he didn’t have a good system for seeing the numbers running Twitter, so he created an admin dashboard for Square. Do you have the real-time numbers/data you need, mobile ready, to have better visibility into the biz and make better predictions?

Only ONE Breakthrough Innovation Needed…
I keynoted Insper University’s Innovation Summit this week in Sao Paulo. My key message – you only need ONE stepwise innovation every two to five years (think Pixar). One that lets you leapfrog the competition and build a moat around the business. And it’s not necessarily a product/service offering. The innovation can be in the way you deliver, sell, or support the product or service. But you only need ONE.

Where to Start?
Start looking for this innovation at the intersection of your industry’s constraint and your business model constraint. For SpaceX, the key innovation was a reusable rocket. This 48-second video shows the first successful triple booster landing. Until SpaceX figured this out, nothing else mattered. For Rackspace, it was figuring out how to provide “Fanatical Support” (good to name your differentiation) that included having a Level 2 Tech answer the phone within 3 rings. Sounds easy but it was initially a staffing nightmare.

…Then It’s Continuous Improvement
To continue to drop the cost per pound of payload (the Moneyball stat of the space industry), it's next a process of continuous improvement requiring hundreds of incremental innovations. This photo of the evolution of the Raptor engine says it all – with a reduction in cost from $2 million to $250,000 (rumor has it).

Elon’s “Algorithm”
SpaceX’s version of Lean is based on what Elon calls the “algorithm.” This Inc. article provides a good summary of the five-step process. The key is eliminating as many steps/parts as possible BEFORE automating – otherwise, you’re just speeding up a mess. Below is a visual of the process:


Stay Focused on the Job to be Done
It’s easy to get distracted and innovate a bunch of stuff nobody wants. And be careful what customers do want – they might actually mess up your value proposition as I’m afraid is happening with IKEA (which has seen its profitability plummet) and now Southwest Airlines as it looks to provide advance reservation seating, putting at risk their key Moneyball stat – planes in the air 2 hours more per day than other airlines.

Please Attend a Random Tradeshow
Many of the breakthroughs in Elon’s firms came from the toy industry. Choose one industry tradeshow that seems as far from your industry as possible and walk the aisles, mining insights you can shamelessly borrow to innovate your industry.

What Is Your ONE Key Innovation for 2025?

Order a box of 20 books
Save 50% over the price on Amazon for Scaling Up, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, and 12 Habits of Valuable Employees books here for less! 

Additional Books 
Scaling Up Compensation, a quick read helping you get much greater impact and outcomes from one of your largest expenses; and The Greatest Business Decisions of All Time, which provides you with some great ideas to borrow/steal for your own business are available on Amazon.

EDUCATION: 
Scaling Up Master Business Course
Scaling Up Free Mini Course

COACHING: Unlock Explosive Growth with a Scaling Up Coach
Is your business hitting a growth ceiling? Break through with a Scaling Up Certified Coach™. Our elite coaches master the Scaling Up methodology to reignite growth, align your team, and chart a clear scalability path. From day one, we provide a custom-tailored approach - conducting a comprehensive diagnostic, hand-picking your perfect coach match, and providing dedicated support. Whether a $5M or $250M firm, invest in coaching to propel your business to extraordinary new heights.
Schedule a complimentary follow-up or check out our FAQs. Additional questions can be sent to coaching@scalingup.com.

Have you considered becoming a Certified Scaling Up Coach?
Learn more about what it takes to certify and what being a coach is like. Pop into our Coach Office Hours to talk with our coach certification coordinator and a certified Scaling Up Coach. Learn More & Register for Office Hours here >

SCALING UP WORKSHOPS:
Engage your team with interactive Scaling Up workshops. Here's our list of workshops

San Francisco, CA –  Aug 28, 2024 (Virtual)
Brussels, Belgium – Aug 29, 2024 (In-Person)
Sydney, Australia –  Sep 5, 2024 (In-Person)
Chile – Sep 10, 2024 (Virtual)
Melbourne, Australia – Sep 10, 2024 (In-Person)
Ontario, Canada – Sep 12, 2024 (Virtual)
Denver, CO – Sep 17, 2024 (In-Person)
Adelaide, Australia – Sep 23 & 24, 2024 (2 Day, In-Person)
San Francisco, CA – Sep 24, 2024 (Virtual)
Nottingham, UK – Oct 1, 2024 (In-Person)
London, UK â€“ Oct 2, 2024 (In-Person)
Brisbane, Australia – Oct 2, 2024 (In-Person)
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia – Oct 7, 2024 (In-Person)
Phoenix, AZ – Oct 10, 2024 (Virtual)
Ontario, Canada - Oct 10, 2024 (Virtual)
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – Oct 14, 2024 (In-Person)
Chile – Oct 15, 2024 (Virtual)
Fort Lauderdale, FL – Oct 15, 2024 (In-Person)
San Francisco, CA – Oct 16, 2024 (Virtual)
Columbus, OH – Oct 25, 2024 (In-Person)
Chile – Nov 12, 2024 (Virtual)
Melbourne, Australia – Nov 12, 2024 (In-Person)
Sydney, Australia – Nov 14, 2024 (In-Person)
Ontario, Canada - Nov 14, 2024 (Virtual)
San Francisco, CA – Nov 19, 2024 (Virtual)
Franklin, TN – Dec 5, 2024 (Virtual)
Chile – Dec 10, 2024 (Virtual)
San Antonio, TX – Dec 10, 2024 (In-Person)
Ontario, Canada - Dec 12, 2024 (Virtual)
San Francisco, CA – Dec 18, 2024 (Virtual)
Washington, DC â€“ Jan 28, 2025 (In-Person)

Planning to Exit – Critical Whitepaper
Selling your firm, for its maximum value, is the most important negotiation in which a business owner will participate. You are typically negotiating with sophisticated buyers who have done hundreds of acquisitions whereas this is often your first rodeo. And these buyers have a formula for ripping you off – and it works, stealing tens of millions from you. Seeking help, owners discover the big M&A firms, especially those specializing in your industry, are more beholden to the buyers than the sellers (they will tell you otherwise). Email me to get a whitepaper on how to maximize your valuation and avoid the psychological games buyers play verne@scalingup.com.

TECHNOLOGY:
Scaling Up Scoreboard is AI-enabled and integrated with Salesforce, Slack, and Zapier (allowing it to connect with 1000s of systems). Use Scoreboard to provide your team (working remotely even more important!) with a real-time visual dashboard of cascading priorities and metrics. Get a personalized tour of the Scaling Up Scoreboard to see how you can use it to better implement Scaling Up in your business.

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