Russell McGuire

On a surface level, culture describes “how things are done around here”, but at the heart of culture are the values that shape how people act and interact with each other. In a small group of friends, culture naturally begins to form based on the deep understanding of who these friends are, what they care about, and how they engage with each other. The culture of an early stage startup, therefore, naturally forms around the character of the founder. As that startup begins to scale beyond a small group of friends, and as the founder becomes CEO of a growing enterprise, what needs to happen to establish and maintain a healthy culture?

In this article, as I have in previous articles in this series, I consider what “culture” looks like and how it is formed for the company in three different phases: a) while the business is still a startup searching for a profitable, scalable business model, b) when the business finds that business model and begins to scale, and c) beyond that transition as the business grows and matures.

I also use two examples – a large company (The Williams Companies) and a smaller company (Hope Builders) – to see what this process looks like in practice.

Read the full article here.

Culture is one of those topics that everyone believes is important, but very few people can define what it is. As a “strategy guy”, the quote often attributed to Peter Drucker that “culture eats strategy for breakfast” certainly gets my attention. The simplest definition of culture is “the way we do things around here.” Strategies and plans are relatively easy to develop, but if they conflict with the established culture, then they are likely to fail.

Longtime MIT Sloan School of Management professor Edgar Schein said that culture is to an organization what character is to an individual. He developed a model for culture with three layers: artifacts, espoused values, and basic assumptions. From what I have seen in companies that I have worked with, I think a model similar to Schein’s can be helpful, but with perhaps a bit more actionable and workable approach. Like Schein, I think of three layers that define culture: Purpose, People, and Process.

Building a great culture doesn’t happen by accident. It takes thought, planning, and action. Companies that have great cultures may not have used the framework I’ve described in the article linked below, but I hope this can be helpful to you as you build a great culture in your business. Let me know if I can help.

Read the full article here.

The Five Temptations of a CEO by Patrick Lencioni is a lightweight read that requires little of the reader in terms of time or effort, but will still seriously challenge most leaders to examine how they interact with their teams and lead their organizations. The lessons are simple, and yet for some will be profound, and learning them could have a major impact on how well you lead.

That being said, I finished the book with a bit of a “meh” feeling. I can’t fault anything about the book other than the fact that there’s not much to it. Some books feel like they probably were a good 20 page magazine article that was stretched to 200 pages. This one simply feels like a good 20 page magazine article (or maybe 40 pages). The two additional very brief sections added on to the fable contribute very little to the value of the book. The lessons taught are valuable, but they would probably be covered in a single chapter in most of the good business books I read.

Read my full review here.

Startup CEO by Matt Blumberg is an excellent resource for leaders of high growth startups.  I would recommend any startup/small business CEO, board member, or anyone aspiring to start or run their own company to take the time to read the book through once. There may be chapters you choose to skip because they aren’t relevant to you at this time, but most of the content will be helpful at any stage in your business. The author admittedly writes based on his own experience and so you may not always agree with him, but it’s often helpful to hear other perspectives.

After reading it, keep Startup CEO handy. You likely will find yourself referencing it often as you face different situations in your business.

Read my full review here.

By nature, startups are agile and opportunistic. Mature companies often plan years in advance, guided by long term strategies. When and how should the founder of a startup change their approach to strategy as they begin to scale and establish their growing business?

As in previous articles in this series, I think the clearest way to describe this transition is to consider what “strategy” looks like for the company in three different phases: a) while the business is still a startup searching for a profitable, scalable business model, b) when the business finds that business model and begins to scale, and c) beyond that transition as the business grows and matures.

During the startup phase, most founders don’t think of themselves as being strategists. Although their vision may include a long term view of changing the world, their decision making is very focused on the day-to-day. In reality, at this point in a company’s life, the daily search is for Product-Market Fit: do we have an offer that solves a pressing need of a specific market? When the founder figures out the right answers to these critical questions, the business is ready to scale, market demand is poised to takeoff, creating tremendous demand, and the business has figured out the foundational elements of what can become a profitable business.

The founder must now figure out how to scale. The main decisions to be made tend to be around where and how to invest in scaling: Who do we hire? What capabilities/features do we develop next? What resources do we need (e.g. office space, production capacity)? Answering these questions can often be very hard, and making the wrong choices can be disastrous.

Once a company has clearly defined its strategy and is moving forward together, the nature of the CEO as strategist transitions again. The hardest decisions are often portfolio decisions — what products do we offer, what markets do we serve, and what businesses are we in?In this article, I explore what strategy looks like in each of these phases. I also bring in examples from a scaling startup, a mature business, and even the Bible.

Click here to read the full article.

Strategy is a concept that’s used in many different ways, and defined using different words, so can we even define what it means? Even more important than what it is, how do you develop strategy? In this article, I explore these important topics, including providing a 1000 foot level view of 20 different tools often used in strategy development.

Click here to read the full article.

Most startup founders are, at least to some degree, visionary. How does that change when the business begins to scale?

In the article linked below, I consider what it looks like to be the visionary for the company in three different phases: a) while the business is still a startup searching for a profitable, scalable business model, b) when the business finds that business model and begins to scale, and c) beyond that transition as the business grows and matures.

Click here to read the full article.

Great business leaders are often described as visionary. But what does that even mean? And how do you develop that capability?

I believe there are three forms of vision that are essential for today’s business leaders:

1. Global Vision: How is the world changing and how will that impact our business?
2. Industry Vision: How is our industry changing and how will that impact our business?
3. Business Vision: What is the future to which we aspire for our business?

All three of these, to some extent, are in constant flux, and yet it is valuable to periodically take the time to document your current beliefs about each. In the article linked here, I examine each of these in turn. I use two real-world examples to demonstrate, one of a startup and the other of a large corporation.

Please click here to read the full article.

Made From Scratch is a feel-good story of a scrappy American upstart winning in a challenging environment. 

The book tells the story of the Texas Roadhouse restaurant business through the eyes of Kent Taylor, the founder and CEO of the successful chain. 

The book’s story begins well before the first Texas Roadhouse was even envisioned, capturing the lessons Taylor learned to be prepared for his entrepreneurial journey. The story then moves into true startup mode, with many experiments and lessons learned, burning through cash raised from family, friends, and angels. Finally in 1998, the business model was proven, institutional investors provided $5 million, and the company was ready to scale. Between the end of 1997 and the company’s initial public offering (IPO) in 2003, the company grew from 25 restaurants to 183, and kept on growing. 

Throughout the book, Taylor, in his own inimitable style, shares wild tales of quick decisions (good and bad), lessons learned, and a culture created that provided consistency, pride, and loyalty even as the company expanded around the world. That pride and loyalty would prove essential in the final chapter, when Taylor tells how the restaurant chain navigated the COVID-19-driven challenges of 2020. As he put it “we kept the lights on, America fed, and our Roadies employed,” no small feat!

Read this book if:

• You want to better understand the restaurant industry.
• You want to hear how one company built a powerful brand and culture
• You like to learn lessons from other companies as they overcome challenges of many forms

Don’t read this book if you’re looking for simple lessons tied up in pretty bows, or structured frameworks to make your own job easy. Those you’ll find in the “fast food” or “ready to microwave” equivalent books, not Made From Scratch.

Click here to read the full review of the book.

The Public Relations Handbook, edited by Robert L. Dilenschneider, teaches everything you need to know about public relations (PR) in the digital, post-pandemic world. Nineteen different contributors provide seventeen chapters. The first five chapters outline basic concepts applicable across the field. The next six chapters cover six specific sub-disciplines (government relations, investor relations, media relations, social media, internal communications, and crisis communications). The final six chapters deal with the unique requirements of PR in different settings (private families, higher education, China, Japan, Canada, and Europe).

The Public Relations Handbook is not for everyone. It is exactly what its name implies. This is a handbook for those involved in PR, especially at large companies. It could be used as the text for a college course on public relations since it provides a solid introduction to every facet of the profession. It also could be a very helpful guide for executives working closely with their PR teams, and I could see value in the communications department giving it as a gift to anyone newly identified as a spokesperson for their company to help them understand the nuances of communicating with different audiences. 

However, I imagine it is most valuable residing on the shelf of PR practitioners. When you’ve spent the past few years focused on media relations and your boss asks you to help with investor relations, you can turn to that chapter in the handbook and remind yourself of the basics. When your company is expanding into Japan, the corresponding chapter in the handbook can inform you of the unique needs for PR in that country.

Click here to read the full review.