40 THINGS EVERY

START-UP SHOULD
DO TO SCALE UP
From the book ‘Scaling Up’ by Verne Harnish
1

Hire Fewer People,

But Pay Them More
2

No Team Can Be So Big That It Can’t Be

Fed With 2 Pizzas 
3

If more than one person is accountable, then

no one is accountable, and that’s when things
start falling through the cracks. 
4

Hire people who don’t need to be

managed, and regularly wow the team
with their insights and output. 
5

Leaders must hire people who are

better than them. 
6

Heads of Business Units need to lead as

if they are individual CEOs.
7

Use the Lean technique - Eliminate time

wasted on activities that don’t add
value for customers / clients.
8

The cost of a bad hire is 15x his or her

salary (according to TopGrading)
9

You need a strange culture and strange

strategy to differentiate your firm in the
marketplace. 
10

It’s better to do 3-4 hours of interview

instead of spending hundreds of hours of
headaches if you hire the wrong person 
11

Failure to develop sufficient leadership

is one of the three biggest barriers to
growth 
12

Focus on eliminating or delegating

tasks that drain you. 
13

Great Managers discover what is different

about people and capitalise on it 
14

Onboarding needs to be a celebration. Throw

a party for people who join the company
instead of doing it when they leave
15

Modern Careers are like rock climbing where

top does not have to be the goal. Getting
across the rock face or reaching another spot
can be more exciting & rewarding. 
16

Organise your employee handbook into

sections around each Core Value
17

Deadlines cannot be an excuse for making

mistakes. Be quick but don’t hurry! 
18

Identify your one-phrase strategy which represents

key lever in your business model that drives
profitability and helps you choose which customer
desires to meet and which ones to ignore.
19

A company can outperform rivals only if

it can establish a difference that it can
preserve.
20

If everyone can accomplish one thing in

addition to his or her daily job, that’s a
dozen improvements every quarter, or
hundreds.
21

Knowing what trends are going to

shake up your industry — and having a
plan for dealing with them — will help
you stay ahead of the competition
22

Quarterly Theme is a fun motif you can use

in your internal marketing to rally
everyone around achieving your
Critical Number.
23

Senior leaders need to be in the market

80% of the week, either figuratively or
literally.
24

• What should we start doing?

• What should we stop doing?
• What should we keep doing?
3 questions you should ask your recent hires. 
25

• How are you doing?

• What’s going on in your industry/ neighborhood?
• What do you hear about our competitors?
• How are we doing?
4 questions leaders should ask clients in person (not
on a survey). 
26

Share insights from conversations with

clients at the executive team’s weekly
huddle. Don’t bog down the process
with a bunch of written reports. 
27

Whichever competitor has the most

market intelligence, and uses it, wins.
28

All executives and middle managers

should have a coach (or peer coach)
holding them accountable for
behavioral changes.
29

Make sure that the Core Values, Purpose, and

Priorities are posted throughout the
company. These can be displayed on walls,
floors, ceilings or even in the boardroom. 
30

Most matters can wait for the daily huddle or the

weekly meeting. Bigger issues, which
necessitate getting everyone in a room for a few
hours, can be addressed during the monthly
management meeting. 
31

Avoid checking up on whether someone did

something the previous day. Looking forward
is great management; and looking backward
is micromanagement. 
32

Line up all your meetings in a day instead

of spreading them over in a week. 
33

Have your CFO give you a cash report

everyday. Observing the sources of cash
flowing in & out on a daily basis gives real
insight into your business’s financial model. 
34

Find ways to speed up & move cash more

quickly through the business. Eg. Specify a
due date on the invoice rather than include
the standard due in 30 days. 
35

10% (profit) is the new breakeven. Once you

add new labor and profitability drops, hold
labor costs steady and grow back to 15%
profit. Keep repeating the cycle. 
36

Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, and

cash flow is king.
37

Midsize businesses should target at

minimum a 30% return on net assets.
38

Success belongs to those who have

these two attributes:
1.  An insatiable desire to learn
2.  An unquenchable bias for action
39

And along the journey, there is a set of

habits — routines — that will make the
climb easier. “Routine sets you free”
40

And lastly, whatever you do, avoid

doing everything all at once. One step
at a time.
 Thanks & Keep In Touch!
Creator: Kanchan Lad | @Socialpaparazzi

Any questions?

You can find us at: @hmarketer | hello@happymarketer.com

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