Mastering the Rockefeller Habits

This morning I had the opportunity to attend the Mastering the Rockefeller Habits workshop facilitated by Verne Harnish at the new St. Regis hotel in Buckhead. Put on by EO Atlanta, the event was over-subscribed and well received. As for the content, Verne does a great job synthesizing ideas from a variety of other well known authors into a cohesive plan for high growth companies to follow.

In the book, the general theme is centered around John D. Rockefeller’s focus on business rhythm, data, and priorities. My takeaway from the event is that when you implement this methodology, the business and corresponding team members have a process to follow that actually eliminates wasteful activities and focuses everything on what is needed to be successful.

In my company, we don’t follow all the steps recommended by the book, but we do do the following:

• One page strategic plan with our mission, vision, values, BHAG, three year goals, annual goals, quarterly goals, and several other pieces of information
• Scoreboard which, for us, is a large LCD TV in our lobby that has a Google Spreadsheet with key performance indicators related to revenue recognition and new customer wins
• Rhythm of meetings with daily check-ins, weekly tacticals, monthly strategics, monthly all-hands, and quarterly off-sites

The book is well worth the time of any entrepreneur serious about building a high growth business.