Rhythm

How to Achieve Breakthrough Execution and Accelerate Growth

Greenleaf Book Group, 2014

15 min read

10 take-aways

Audio & text

What's inside?

Put your strategic plan into action.

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If you listen to most CEOs, you might think that strategic planning is a company’s most critical business activity. Considering that, it’s ironic that most strategic plans end up gathering dust. Serial entrepreneur Patrick Thean’s approach to strategic planning can help you transform this sadly neglected but worthwhile exercise into practical, implementable and beneficial corporate action. Thean’s engaging style showcases the basic common sense and easy application of his tactics. He provides chapter-ending worksheets and numerous helpful, real-world examples. getAbstract recommends Thean’s method to executives and managers – especially those at start-ups and growth companies – who must forge, implement and execute plans successfully.

Summary

“Complexity Ceiling”

Companies that enjoy robust growth inevitably run into complexity ceilings that hamper operations and make management difficult. These roadblocks tend to crop up at distinct milestones – 50 staffers, 100 staffers, $15 million in sales, $100 million in sales – which vary in their nature and timing from company to company. Such complexity barriers render previously productive management practices ineffective. Super-hot firms begin to cool down, and soon become indistinguishable from their stuck-in-the-mud competitors.

The “rhythm” for turning around this negative dynamic is simple, but seldom easy. Companies must anticipate the future instead of focusing on metrics that measure the past. Those at the highest level of management must ask probing questions about what lies ahead. This inquiry helps your executive team think about – and prepare for – upcoming problems and opportunities. Follow this overall rhythmic pattern to place your firm in the best possible position to cope with the “ceilings of complexity” that growth companies inevitably face as they hit new milestones. Once you orient to the future, you can adjust quickly to new challenges and...

About the Author

Patrick Thean has started several companies. As CEO, he guided Metasys to 151 on the Inc. 500 roster. He is also CEO and co-founder of Gazelles Systems and the creator of Rhythm software.

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G. N. 9 years ago

great !
S. W. 9 years ago

the summary reads as if it describes a basic strat book from the late 1990s...not enticed to read the actual book

Patrick Thean