research tells us is that the number one determinant of employee satisfaction and engagement in a job is how the manager treats the employee.

The realization of the critical importance of committed employees in growing the business transforms the entrepreneur’s perspective. Employees become the necessary “end” rather than simply the “means” to an end.

One of the tag lines in Cote’s presentation was, “Stop talking before I stop listening.” “I don’t have a lot of time to waste,” Cote explained. “And if you want to come in, let’s talk, but get to the point.

What specific behaviors drive value creation in your business? In focusing on behaviors, define them as granularly as possible because you want employees to model their behaviors in ways that will result in success

“Focus on the one thing you can do better than anyone else and then figure out how to make that thing attractive to a big market.

Making improvements to a business means doing what you do faster, better, and cheaper. They are the fundamental way to stay in business. No matter what you decide about whether to grow or about how much to grow, every business must continuously improve to maintain

Commonly used good hiring practices aim to mitigate the natural inclination to hire people like oneself.

A big customer creates customer concentration risks. What happens if you scale up production, sales, and customer support for a big customer and then that customer decides to drop you?

HOGs’ growth systems had two overriding objectives: (1) to create new income streams that could be scaled across a large distribution or customer base and (2) to leverage core operating competencies into new income streams or new cost efficiencies.