BE 2.0 (Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0): Turning Your Business into an Enduring Great Company

ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY AND SHARE CREDIT Be prepared to shoulder full responsibility for poor decisions and, conversely, to share the credit for good decisions. If you do the opposite—if you take all the credit for good decisions but blame others for mistakes—you will quickly lose the respect of your people.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. Most of us are familiar with situations where people are unwilling or afraid to present unpleasant truths. In many cases, who can blame them? The unspoken rule in all too many companies is: We don’t want to see anything negative, even if it is true; we like our rose-colored glasses. Ignoring facts, e

The development of the tank, for example, was not part of the allied war strategy at the start of World War I. However, the invention of the tank altered the allied strategy at the end of the war. The generals didn’t say, “Our strategy calls for a tank. Build us one.” No, the tank was invented by a British War Department skunk-works and presented t

Of course, all this depends on having the right people. You need people who can argue and debate out of passionate commitment to the success of the enterprise, who argue for the best decisions to help the organization and its cause, not themselves. You need people who would rather see the team win and their argument lose than to see their argument

Which style is most effective for long-term health and success? There is no single, clean answer, yet we can offer a few observations. In general, the most effective leaders tend to make extensive use of participative decision making. The best decisions are made with some degree of participation—no one is brilliant or experienced enough to have all

Four Basic Principles of Setting Effective Strategy There are four key principles to keep in mind when setting company strategy. The strategy must descend directly from your vision. Remember, it’s impossible to set strategy unless you have a crystal clear idea of what you’re trying to do in the first place. Vision first, then strategy! The strategy

CHOICES—DECISIVENESS REVISITED Setting priorities requires making tough choices as to what is really important. One reason so many people have such a difficult time getting focused is that they also have a difficult time making decisions: they balk at choosing which items will be left off their priority list. And you must be willing to take items o

Kenneth Atchity, president of Atchity Entertainment International, observed that there is a vital difference between managing time and managing work: work is infinite; time is finite. Work expands to fill whatever time is allotted to it. To be productive, therefore, you must manage your time, not your work. The key question to ask yourself is not “

Making the most of victories is what the flywheel principle is all about (see the previous chapter on The Map for a brief description of the flywheel concept). I’ve come to see the flywheel effect as one of the most important strategic principles to come from all of our research into why some companies become great, why some fail to become great, a