Posts tagged with: Cameron Herold

EO / MIT Entrepreneurial Masters Program - Year 3

posted by   Ian Wyatt   |    May 27, 2009

Posted in   Entrepreneurship   |   Comments

Today I'm driving from home in Vermont to the Endicott House in Dedham, Massachusetts, an off campus retreat center owned by MIT. This is my third year of the Entrepreneur's Organization / MIT Entrepreneurial Masters Program (formerly known as Birthing of Giants, when the program was also affiliated with Inc. Magazine).

I'll be spending three days in intensive learning sessions led by business leaders, successful entrepreneurs, and MIT faculty. My class of 60 fellow EO Members are entrepreneurs from around the world, including countries such as Australia, South Africa, Switzerland, India, and the U.K. The diverse group of students provides an amazing global view that is difficult to find elsewhere.

Speakers this year include Cameron Herold (BackpocketCOO and formerly 1-800-GOT-JUNK), Omar Khan (author of Liberating Passion), Jack Stack (SRC President and author of A Stake in the Outcome), Mark Eaton (NBA star), and Eran Egozy (CEO of Harmonix, creator of Guitar Hero and Rock Band).

The program begins this evening and ends Saturday afternoon, making for three packed days of learning. I'm excited to get to MIT, knowing that I'll come back to work refreshed and full of ideas to innovate my business model, improve my management, and inspired to grow my business even during this challenging economic environment.

Look for blog posts and Twitter updates (@ianwyatt) from MIT.

Top 5 Priorities: The Story of Ivy Lee and Bethlehem Steel

posted by   Ian Wyatt   |    January 24, 2009

Posted in   Entrepreneurship   |   Comments

Today I'll share with you a story that I've heard told by Cameron Herold of BackpocketCOO (former COO at 1-800-GOT-JUNK) at my second year at the Entrepreneur's Organization / MIT Entrepreneurial Masters Program in May, and again this autumn when Cameron came to Washington DC to present to the local Entrepreneur's Organization chapter. This is the story of the well-regarded management consultant Ivy Lee and Charles M. Schwab of Bethlehem Steel. The lesson is the importance of defining the the top priorities and focusing on those important items, not the other work that tends to tie up most of our time at work. I have already begun implementing daily top five for myself, and at Business Financial Publishing we're planning on getting every employee on board with top five priorities every day.

The Top 5 story...

One day a management consultant, Ivy Lee, called on Schwab of the Bethlehem Steel Company. Lee outlined briefly his firm's services, ending with the statement: "With our service, you'll know how to manage better."

The indignant Schwab said, "I'm not managing as well now as I know how. What we need around here is not more "knowing" but more doing, not knowledge but action; if you can give us something to pep us up to do the things we ALREADY KNOW we ought to do, I'll gladly listen to you and pay you anything you ask."

"Fine", said Lee. "I can give you something in twenty minutes that will step up your action and doing at least 50 percent".

"O.K.", said Schwab. "I have just about that much time before I must leave to catch a train. What's your idea?"

Lee pulled a bland 3x5 note sheet out of his pocket, handed it to Schwab and said: "Write on this sheet the five most important tasks you have to do tomorrow". That took about three minutes. "Now", said Lee, "number them in the order of their importance". Five more minutes pass. "Now", said Lee, "put this sheet in you pocket and the first thing tomorrow morning look at item one and start working on it. Pull the sheet out of your pocket every 15 minutes and look at item one until it is finished. Then tackle item two in the same way, then item three. Do this until quitting time. Don't be concerned if you only finished two or three, or even if you only finish one item. You'll be working on the important ones. The others can wait. If you can't finish them all by this method, you couldn't with another method either, and without some system you'd probably not even decide which are most important".

"Spend the last five minutes of every working day making out a "must " list for the next day's tasks. After you've convinced yourself of the worth of this system have your men try it. Try it out as long as you wish and then send me a check for what YOU think it's worth".

The whole interview lasted about twenty-five minutes. In two weeks Schwab set Lee a check for $25,000 - a thousand dollars a minute. He added a note saying the lesson was the most profitable from a money standpoint he had every learned. Did it work? In five years it turned the unknown Bethlehem Steel Company into the biggest independent steel producer in the world; made Schwab a hundred million dollar fortune, and the best known steel man alive at that time.

Thanks to Cameron for introducing me to this important and yet simple method for staying focused on the priorities.  I can confidently say that on the days when I outline my top five priorities and work toward those items, I accomplish much more than when I show up to work and just start working.  I highly recommend Cameron's videos and events - he is an outstanding presenter and speaker.

Business Breakthroughs and Adventures

posted by   Ian Wyatt   |    September 26, 2008

Posted in   Entreprneur's Organization   |   Comments

Earlier this week at an Entrepreneur's Organization event in Washington DC, Cameron Herold introduced me to Yanik Silver. Yanik is built a successful online business (InstantSalesLetters.com) and more recently started an events business targeting entrepreneurs.

His newest company, Maverick Business Adventures, creates world class events for adventure and risk seeking entrepreneurs. The company's events combine once in a lifetime experiences with learning and experience sharing.

While speaking with Yanik, he said that most of his business breakthroughs don't come from time with others within his same industry. But rather that he is much more likely to achieve a breakthrough by spending time with a commercial real estate developer whose ideas and experiences will be new and different than his. This makes a lot of sense, and I think it is one of the things that makes Entrepreneur's Organization worthwhile for so many members. It isn't about learning from those who have done exactly what I have done before. Rather, the benefit comes from outside perspectives of those who are in different businesses and have varied experiences that I can draw upon (and vice versa).

Through Maverick Business Adventures, it appears that Yanik is providing entrepreneurs and CEOs with the opportunity to share great experiences and business ideas with other over achievers who like to combine work with fun. The 2009 calendar is posted on the web site, with some really cool events lined up for the next year, including the Olympic games in Lake Placid, Baja racing and super bowl party in Mexico, exotic and classic car road trip from NYC to Montreal with F1 race driving school, or diving with Great White Sharks and enjoying wine in northern California.

I hear the events are amazing, and plan to make it my goal in 2009 to attend one of these Maverick events.

Painted Picture: a 3-year vision of the future

posted by   Ian Wyatt   |    September 21, 2008

Posted in   Entreprneur's Organization, Painted Picture   |   Comments

I had never heard of a Painted Picture until earlier this year while attending the Entrepreneur's Organization / MIT Masters in Entrepreneurship Program.

One of my favorite speakers at this years program (my second year) was Cameron Herold, founder of Backpocket COO. Cameron is the former COO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, a high growth company in the fragmented, unsexy junk removal business. With the help of Cameron's leadership, 1-800-GOT-JUNK? grew sales from $2 million to $105 million in six years. Not only did the franchise company expand rapidly, but it became known as a leading employer in Canada by building a world class culture (if 1-800-GOT-JUNK? can turn a junk removal business into a cool, hip company, nobody can have the excuse that their business / industry doesn't allow for "cool"). Cameron spent four days with us at the EO / MIT program, and I had lots of opportunities to pick his brain outside of the normal class presentations.

One idea I picked up from Cameron and 1-800-GOT-JUNK? was the Painted Picture. The Painted Picture is designed to be a three year dream plan for my company and the future state of our business. This plan aims to discuss the WHAT, not the HOW. Our strategic plan is written after painting the picture of the future, and the strategic plan defines the HOW aspects of the plan. Cameron suggests leaning into the future and dreaming about what the business could be, and what it should be. The three year time frame is designed to be far enough in the future to be able to dream big, while being not so far away that the plan seems unachievable (not a Big Hairy Audacious Goal, or BHAG, per Jim Collins).

It is the entrepreneur's job to dream a vision for the company, and put this down on paper as the Painted Picture. However, it is not the job of the entrepreneur to make it come true - this is the job of everyone within the company. It takes more than one person with a dream for the company to turn that dream into a reality. Cameron encourages the sharing of the Painted Picture with everyone. Obviously the company's employees need to understand and buy in to the 3-year vision for the company in order to take actions to move the company forward toward its goals. He also suggests posting the plan publicly, and sharing it with customers, clients, and prospective employees. Because the Painted Picture doesn't share the HOW aspects of the business, there is little that can be stolen from the plan even if it got into the hands of one of our competitors.

Brian Scudamore, founder of 1-800-GOT-JUNK? painted his first company picture in 1998 at a time when sales were flat at $1.5 million and he was trying to figure out how to grow his business. In his Painted Picture, Brian outlined his 3-year goals for the company, and shared his vision for the company. The goals outlined were aggressive, but not unachievable. The document focused not only on goals, but also what the company would look like, act like, and feel like at that future point in time.

Later this month, Business Financial Publishing will reveal our Painted Picture for 2011. After sharing this dream with our employees next week, I'll post my 3-year vision for our company to our company's web site and this blog.

Cameron will be speaking to the Entrepreneur's Organization Washington DC chapter this week, and I'm sure I'll leave with lots of great new ideas to help grow our company and build a world class organization in the coming years.

More on the Painted Picture:

• 1-800-GOT-JUNK? 2008 Painted Picture
• Planning a Vivid Future: Brian Scudamore's Key Move
• BackPocket COO 2010 Painted Picture