Zebras and Cheetahs: Look Different and Stay Agile to Survive the Business Jungle

Preface

I’m 30,000 feet in the air on a flight to Charlotte, North Carolina, to work with one of the top 50 builders in the United States—the second of the top 100 that my firm has landed in the past two years. I always carry a good book with me wherever I travel; for this trip, I’ve decided to reread Tim Ferris’s famed The 4-Hour Workweek for the fifth time. I think the concept of Lifestyle Design is about to sink in as his book has forced me to not only look at the drivers of the business Models I evaluate but also the actual vehicles people use to advance their strategy. I’m starting to understand that sometimes it’s not the vehicle’s driver that poses the major problem in getting from point A to point B; rather it’s the actual vehicle the ’driver is using to get there. It’s important to look at both the strategy and the people as they relate to growth, and many times it takes a fresh perspective and someone who specializes in finding and filling the missing structures companies have to take complicated growth and make it simple and engaging.

I’ve been working as a coach and thought Leader to small entrepreneurial firms and multibillion-dollar companies over the past several years. During this time, I’ve witnessed a constant problem that keeps people from breaking through their own ceilings of success—a problem that stems from two places: their Model (or lack of one) and their people. Even if they do have the right Model, there’s often a substantial gap between what their people ...