John D. Rockefeller was a famous industrialist and philanthropist. He founded Standard Oil Company and became the world’s richest man controlling 90% of all in the US at its peak. His fortune at his death was $23 billion in today’s dollars. He was also well known for his generosity and donated over $500 million to charities with medical and educational focus throughout his lifetime.
So, how did he do it? For any of us who are thinking about growing our businesses, why not consider one of the most successful Americans in history? Here are some of the main points of his success:
- Too many business owners are busy working “in” the business instead of working “on” the business. It’s important to develop priorities, analyze your success of those priorities in your financials and establish a monthly meeting rhythm to cover your progress towards success.
- There should be one critical number that everyone in the company should be focused on to move the company forward. Profit, revenue and cash are all examples.
- It’s important to have the right people, doing the right things and doing them right to be effective and efficient. The organization should have a person accountable for every facet of the organization: sales, operations, finance, IT, R&D etc. It’s important that each of these areas have a critical number in their particular area to focus on as well as the one critical number overall.
- When you encounter obstacles or roadblocks in your organization, it’s important for the owner to solicit client and employee feedback to accurately assess the issue and resolve it.
- It’s important for everyone in the organization to understand what you do and why you do it. Core values and purpose should be alive in every organization.
- It’s important to keep score on your success with key performance indicators (KPI’s) so everyone knows if you’re winning or losing on a weekly or monthly basis.
- If you’re hitting or not hitting your KPI’s it’s important to understand why. Success or failure is usually a function of the following issues:
- People
- Process
- Strategy
- Execution
When you can successfully adopt these Rockefeller habits, you are well on your way to building an empire of your own like he did! $23 billion anyone? If you’d like some help getting started contact us for more information.
