Book Review: Scaling Up

With so many clubs in the process of just completed or planning redevelopment to capitalise on the ongoing growth of the Queensland Community Club Industry, growth which continues to confound its critics, the industry has been given an extra shot in the arm with Clubs being allowed up to 700 EGMs over three sites. As a sidekick it to this it has also dramatically increase the price of EGM entitlements, enabling small struggling clubs with an un-economical fleet of EGMs to earn some badly needed funds.

So given the industry’s rapid growth I thought this month’s book “Scaling Up” was relevant, It was the winner of the International Book Awards for General Business and Winner of the Reader’s Favorite International Book Award for Non-Fiction Business, would be prudent to understand the challenges and pitfalls of growth and expansion. It has been 12 years since Verne Harnish’s book Mastering the Rockefeller Habits was first released. Scaling Up: How to Build a Meaningful Business and Enjoy the Ride (Rockefeller Habits 2.0) is the first major revision of this business classic.

In Scaling Up, Harnish and his co-authors share practical tools and techniques to help managers grow an industry-dominating business without it killing them-and have fun. Many growth company leaders reach a point where they dread adding another customer, employee, or location. It feels like they are just adding more weight to an ever-heavier anchor they are dragging through the sand.

To make matters worse, the increased revenues haven’t turned into more profitability, so at some point they wonder if the journey is worth the effort. Scaling Up focuses on the four major decisions every company must get right: People, Strategy, Execution an in the dishwasher d Cash. The book includes a series of new One-Page tools including the famous and recently revised One-Page Strategic Plan and the Rockefeller Habits Execution Checklist, which more than 40,000 firms around the globe have used to scale their companies successfully. Running a business is ultimately about freedom. Scaling Up shows owners how to achieve it, no matter how big and complicated a business grows.