F**K Plan B: How to scale your technology business faster and achieve Plan A

My purpose as a coach is to demystify business growth. Specifically assisting technology firms to scale up. There are some amazing business tools and processes that I learned to use through reading and trial and error. To help others move faster I have put some of what I picked up into a book called F**K Plan B: How to scale your technology business faster and achieve Plan A. Plan A is creating a business culture that enables your success. Building a great place to work to attract and retain A-Players. Not sacrificing enjoyment for money.

Our journey at Rackspace, ITLab and PEER1 was powered by books, tools and inspiration from some amazing management thinkers and writers.

Credit must go to Jim Collins, Patrick Lencioni, Fred Reichheld, Verne Harnish, Brad Smart and Marcus Buckingham for their work and its impact.

In particular to Verne Harnish. His first book Mastering the Rockefeller Habits: What You Must Do to Increase the Value of Your Growing Firm was our bible at Rackspace. I have personally thanked him and told him that this book changed my life. It came at the perfect time as I was battling with the challenges of scaling up Rackspace and needed some structure to help prioritise our efforts.

His 2014 revision called Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It…and Why the Rest Don’t, Rockefeller Habits 2.0 came out as I transitioned from scale-up executive to scaling up coach. More detailed and infused with case studies this isn’t as much of a page-turner but has the depth you need when going back time and again to find the tool to overcome this month’s challenge.

In Scaling Up – Rockefeller Habits 2.0 Verne consolidates his own learning and that of his global Gazelles coaching organisation into four business model pillars around people, strategy, execution and cash. He emphasises the importance of core values, leadership skills and a communication rhythm to cascade company priorities.

The Agile Manifesto

The scaling up methodology allows technology firms to move the agile principles from software development to the broader business and often generate industry leading growth, profitability and cash flow.

The Agile Manifesto is built upon 12 principles or beliefs. Those principles rest under 5 clear pillars:

1. Iterative – 90-day sprints to produce workable deliverables. No more 5-year plans.
2. Empirical – Transparent, measurable results aligned with key goals.
3. Cross-Functional – Clear alignment of different functions and goals.
4. Focused – Doing less while being more accountable for outcomes.
5. Continually Improving – Building a business is a work in progress.

Leadership coaching

Hear Robert Belgrave, CEO of EMEA Pax8, talking about the impact of coaching in strengthening the leadership team at Pax8.

Five secrets of success for agile scale-ups

1. It starts at the top.
   The CEO casts a long shadow. Change won’t happen without the commitment from the leaders of an organisation. Meeting rhythms, new communication norms and other behaviours need to be modelled top down.
2. It takes time.
   There is no magic bullet. It can take iterations over eight quarters of deliberate practice to move the organisation from feeling awkward to creating new habits.
3. There will be a tipping point.
   The company will go from willing to change to actually taking up the challenge and embracing the new ways of working.
4. Measure the right things.
   The ultimate goal is to improve the business. Selecting the right catalytic mechanisms and a single profit per X are key decisions on the journey.
5. It is never over.
   At its heart, Agile Scaling Up is about creating an environment in which your people get to do their best work. It is a way to run and continually improve your business.

As an experienced and certified Scaling Up™ Coach, Dominic can help you implement agile principles, resulting in higher team productivity and morale, better quality products and services, and lower risk than other, more traditional business management approaches.

Dominic works with clients in London, Wiltshire, Hampshire, Surrey and Berkshire.