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At pdx, waiting to catch plane to wash dc for #inc500 conf. This will my fourth straight year at this awesome conference. Great insights.
10:14 PM Sep 29th via TweetDeck

President Bill Clinton addresses @inc500 conf thru video
5:42 AM Oct 1st via TweetDeck

Gary Hirshberg CEO – Stonyfield Yogurt

Should be good! RT @inc5000: Today’s 1st session is starting! Gary Hirshberg, the CE-YO from Stoneyfield at #inc500conferenece!

Stonyfield Yogurt is up to $360 million in sales now. Gary going to go over his philosophy on triple bottom line.
5:47 AM Oct 1st

Churchill quote “success is the ability to move from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm”
5:49 AM Oct 1st

If the rest of the world adopted USA energy and total consumption, we’d need 5 Earths to be able to handle it.
5:52 AM Oct 1st

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In an effort to be semi-thoughtful in this blog post, I’m not going to simply copy my Jim Collins notes that I had to write fast and furiously and therefore missed them in my Inc. 500 twitter stream.  I’m going to reflect on some of the stand-out items from his speech and after reading in 2 days his book, “How the Mighty Fall, And Why Some Companies Never Give In.”

Being at the right place at the right time is IRRELEVANT.  Jim’s urging to the entrepreneurial crowd got his message across loud and clear – that the tough economic storm can NOT be an excuse for everything that ails you. We, as entrepreneurs, have control of our own destinies and our own company’s destiny.  It’s up to us to dig deep and build great, enduring companies over the next 15+ years.

I learned a lot from reading his book, but one story that cemented in my brain was what Collins called the Jim Stockdale Paradox. Admiral Stockdale was a Vietnam prisoner of war. When Collins asked him about how he made it through years of isolation and torture, Stockdale responded that he had unwavering faith that he’d get out but was still keenly aware of the brutal journey and circumstances in front of him.  Collins then asked who didn’t make it. Stockdale responded “the optimists.” Stockdale proceeded to explain that the optimists died of a broken heart because they always put a time-table on when they’d be released – by Christmas, by Easter, by end of July and so on.  The lesson is to believe in your path for the long haul and don’t let short-term setbacks deter you from your cause.

Last thing that really stuck with me was the leadership success factor of humility and making your mission all about the company in every way, not about yourself. Many of the most successful leaders like Anne Mulcahy of Xerox repeatedly turned down interviews and coverage of most of the top publications as she focused internally to clean up a nearly disastrous cash situation at Xerox and attributed the success to everyone else but herself.  Collins showed example after example of leaders of great companies who did this AND similar great companies with new leaders who didn’t instill that “it’s all about the company cause” mentality and those companies started their decline and ultimately fell from greatness.

The calm before the storm at #inc5000. Already connected with old friends and Inc magazine staff  http://yfrog.com/0oqxmjj 5:56 PM Sep 23rd from Tweetie

One more photo from Gaylord resort in wash dc. Schwanky. http://yfrog.com/16vonyj 5:57 PM Sep 23rd from Tweetie

#inc5000 conf starting now. Largest attendance ever at 1,700 of us. Aggregate rev of $214 billion http://yfrog.com/0nxn1jj 6:14 AM Sep 24th from Tweetie

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I met Tom Szaky, barely 25 years old at the time, and a pure, scrappy, entrepreneur’s entrepreneur, at the 2007 Inc. 500 conference in Chicago.  He spoke before keynote President Clinton and was clearly the more engaging speaker of the two (a pretty tough feat considering how dynamic Clinton used to be). Tom, born in Hungary, grew up in Canada, and dropped out of Princeton to start “The Coolest Startup in America” called Terracycle where every product and its packaging is made out of garbage.  His story is fascinating and the lessons business leaders and public policy-makers can learn from his success are significant. The irony for Portland, one of the greenest cities on Earth, is that most business leaders and policy folks had never heard of him and were quite doubtful that some young kid would be any good as a keynote speaker at the wildly successful Greenlight Greater Portland annual event – thankfully, Tom proved them wrong with an excellent presentation of how to win by innovating and by being greener, better, AND cheaper. I don’t have his presentation electronically, so until I get it, you’ll have to settle for the YouTube video on his Good Morning America and Oprah appearances six weeks prior.

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Alex Bogusky was on the cover of Inc. magazine a few months ago with the headline something like “Can this Hot Guy Make Microsoft Cool?” Well, Crispin Porter + Bogusky are off to a good start w/ the Jerry Seinfeld / Bill Gates commercials, and even better, the PC commercials. So, I pose the question – did Bogusky make the Inc. 5000 Conference cool? Having been to 2 consecutive years of conferences, I can clearly say that it was already very cool before he came along, but Bogusky did a really good job of speaking to more than just creativity but accomplishing business objectives in a creative way. Here are my notes:

CP & B: 900 employees, 900 freaks, early on, worked with a ton of underdogs. Very Scrappy.

The Truth Campaign- Anti-Smoking
Change the cultural perceptions around a product Brand around youth rebellion. Rebellion is great. This choice is not rebellion, it’s about being manipulated by a huge machine (tobacco campaigns).

Advertising must play into PR and web, social “Playing with your consumer”

Molson Beer- 200 different labels “I’m not wearing any underwear”

Creativity is just a way to leverage business goals

Burger King Whopper Freak out- people got really pissed off with no Whopper. Super funny.
• embrace the creative process – makes it fun
• “you know what you ought to do,” have someone fill in the answer

CP+B 1 Rule: NEVER LIE. NO FIBS. NO BS. (more…)

More notes from the Inc. 5000 Conference.  This young, 30-something, Bay Area entrepreneur is outrageously talented and currently running 3 mind-blowing companies.  Insane.

 Paypal, Zip2, (SOLD THEM)
Tesla, SpaceX, Solar City (NOW RUNNING)

Tesla Roadster- faster than a Ferrari, more energy efficient than a Prius, 3.9 seconds (0-60 mph), $4 for going 250 miles, Price: $109,000

Elon in press is called nano-manager:
• Re-design and re-modeled doors, headlights
• Delorian failed because it was a bad-performing car
• Orders – 1,200 deposits

Charge agent:
Example that Tesla sets for the entire industry (Chevy Volt happened because of that)

Solar City- as big as 5 competitors combined in California

SpaceX- lead designer on space rocket-3 tries- keeps improving. First two paid for by DARPA, third paid for by Air Force.

Considered one of the most powerful women in the world (and certainly in business), Marilyn is CEO of Carlson Companies, and has grown the company from $12 billion to $40 billion during her tenure. She recently wrote a book showing the more human side of how business is just one aspect of life. Here are my notes from her Inc. 5000 speech:

What deeply cared for, fight for, of what personally mattered to her

Sunday School Story – if you don’t like it, fix it -> her Dad

Financial Collapse- Similar to performance enhancing drug for athletes. Performance was pushed (artificially) over stewardship. We are all suffering from this financial economic collapse.

9 days ago (1 week before Paul Newman’s death), his business partner, A.E. Hotchner brought over a thousand CEOs to their feet w/ tears in their eyes at the Inc. 500 conference. Here are my notes from his talk:

“Paul Newman’s Own” Companies:
Great product testimonials of Neman’s Own Salad Dressing, Spaghetti Sauce, and hilarious story of a 70-year-old man with erectile dysfunction for 20 years. In the past, this man had tried Viagra many times, natural supplements, everything, yet nothing worked. Until one day, he ate Newman’s Own spicy mango salsa, and it shocked his system into a frenzy – he and his girlfriend are very satisfied with the product and he keeps a pouch of spicy mango salsa on him wherever he goes.

Over the years, Newman’s Own has given almost $300 million to charitable causes.
– Over 25 years of camps for Kids with cancer. At the time only 30% kids survived the year after.
– Now, 119,000 Kids have attended these camps, 70% survived now, investing in cure for cancer.

– Don’t just give to charity, start your own charity.

– Story of 10-year-old girl who held his hand and thanked him – she lived all year just for 8 days of camp.

STANDING OVATION – SNIFFLES AND INTERNALIZING FOR NEXT 20 MINUTES

The Right Stuff – doing wrong stuff, re-examine, fix it, and get it right.

Numbers run the business, not people.
• Share numbers with your people
• Teach your people how the numbers related to their job
• Teach anybody anything

We DON’T train our employees well enough (which is why we create needless rules)

Practice learning, Practice courtesy

Speaker, Norm Brodsky, greeting people at the door
Hand-written note

Exposing entire life & numbers -> Share with employees – profit sharing culture is huge

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Reduce the Job of leadership to 3 Words:
1) Strategy
2) People (We need to optimize these 3 categories)
3) Execution

1 Man Band- all infrastructure, resource, run through 1 decision-maker, risk is too great.
• Start up or crisis

Tribal Band- strong leader with helpers

Sovereign Organization- leadership creates a hologram of the minds of people

Strategy- (Strategic Planning) a collection of ideas of how we’re going to web

Psychology of Routines- Strategy helps you breakthrough the routine

1) Most companies think about Strategy too seldom -> Should do it every 90 days!!!
a. What are 3 most Strategic important accomplishments we’ve had in last 90 days? (some element of how we’ve changed the field of play)
b. What are 3 most important strategic ways we fell short of our strategic potential?
c. What are 3 most important things we’ve learned about our strategy?

You could build a strategy in 48 hours that is 90% as good as 3-month planning. (more…)

TOM PETERS – A self-described capitalist pig, but a big fan of distributed taxes
SETH GODIN – Not accepting status quo

(GODIN): When asked about the next president, said it’s important to consider:
• How you live the Earth for kids and grandkids
• Amount of debt
• Level the playing field

(PETERS): Small Business leaders should focus in the personal financial issues and microfinance, NOT macro. Everything is ambiguous as hell. Most of the time you could be lying and don’t even know it.

(GODIN) Contract between leader and who is being led.
->Certain things a leader should NOT tell about stupid things said by a board member.

(PETERS) “The Manager’s Handbook of Decency” (Loves that word and word GRACE)
• Caring

(GODIN) Temptation to take a shortcut is so overwhelming because we feel like we deserve it, but we as Inc. 5000 entrepreneurs didn’t take that shortcut – so damaging for taking the easier path.

(PETERS) Engineer, Practical “The Dream Manager”
Everyone has a dream, and as CEO, we are the enablers of our people’s dreams.

(PETERS & GODIN) Great camaraderie, but not afraid to disagree.

(GODIN) There will always be a reason of some catastrophe on front page of Wall Street Journal for me not to reach my goals. We create our own destiny no matter what happens in the outside world. Must be aware of what’s going on, but it can’t change your character.

(PETERS) 100 year flood in financial world. Absolutely floored by crisis, but glad for our leadership in Washington. (more…)

This is my second consecutive year in attending the Inc. 5000 Conference, and I’m absolutely honest when saying it is the best conference of the year for the following 6 reasons: entrepreneurial energy, dynamic and entertaining speakers, approachability and access to those speakers, strategic and contrarian content, networking with other entrepreneurs from around the country, and Inc. staff is very cool and real.

This blog post is all about who I met and why I’m so encouraged about the future of our country’s industry leaders and innovation. Optimism is the new cynicism and we can’t fixate on the nation’s financial industry woes when we have our own companies to grow, innovative products to build, and value creation waiting to happen.  Who I met:

1. Vance Patterson is a stud. I met him last year at this conference – he and I were garnering a bit of attention with our outfits at the Inc. 500 Awards, black-tie event – he was wearing a dapper top hat, tux, and a staff w/ crystal and blue LED light, and I had my late grandfather’s Buchanan-plaid (bright yellow, orange, red) vest and bow-tie on.  He and his wife, Mary Joe, carried themselves with cool confidence and engaged in great conversation throughout this year’s award dinner.  Of the 6-7 businesses he’s involved in, Vance spends most of his time running an industrial fan company called Patterson Fan Company.  We discussed what we love doing (he and Mary Joe ride their Harley Davidson on long trips), family business issues and my younger perspective on what his kids are probably thinking, employee recruiting and retention, politics, and the conference itself.

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I’ve always thought AMEX had amazing customer service, but now I’m a customer evangelist. Susan, President of American Express OPEN (Small Business division), made an empassioned speech at the Inc. 500 Conference in Chicago and had all of the Inc. 500 CEOs reach under their chairs and get the iPhone holder for all of us to claim our free iPhones at the AMEX booth after her speech.

Several other entrepreneurs and I were trying to guess who foot the bill for 500 iPhones (retail value of $400 each x 500 = $200,000). AMEX, Apple, and AT&T were the 3 partners on it with AMEX being the clear leader in sponsoring the Inc. 500 Conference. Regardless, the gift was pure business / marketing genius. I’ve told dozens of business leaders back in Portland that this gift was one of the highlights of the event, and then I’ve shown off how amazing the iPhone truly is.

Until I had a chance to play around with an iPhone, I thought it was just a glorified Blackberry. But, now I realize how wrong my perceptions were. The iPhone is truly innovative and intuitive in how interactive and high-quality the photo albums are, movies are beautiful on it, and of course music is amazing on it. I probably won’t use it as a phone until someone cracks the code for using it with Verizon service, but I love my iPhone and I love American Express.

I fly over 2,000 miles to Chicago for the Inc. 500 Conference, and I run into two guys from my town, Portland Oregon, who I knew all about for the past 5 years, but never met. Eric and Jack (pictured with me above) originally started a company called Handyman Online in ’97 which grew quickly, but got derailed from a $24 million VC investment that ballooned its headcount and expenses before flaming out. Eric and Jack pulled that business model (of selling valuable leads to contractors) out of the ashes, and have built an incredibly successful, high-growth, non-funded company called ReliableRemodeler.com. Looking forward to continuing the relationship in Portland, now that finally met each other in Chicago.

I just returned from the Inc. 500 Conference, and I must admit that I am a complete evangelist of Inc. Magazine, Inc. 500, and especially the Inc. 500 Conference. As an entrepreneur and leader of a scalable, high-growth company (eROI), there is nothing better than being around other entrepreneurs who are dynamic, innovative, and going through the same fight in the trenches as I’m in. President Clinton was the keynote and clearly impressed the audience by driving home the value of entrepreneurial mentoring, empowering entrepreneurs from a micro-lending perspective in the global marketplace, innovation in the areas of cleaner, greener, independent energy sources, health and wellness reform from a cultural perspective. I can’t tell you how refreshing it was to hear a U.S. President that could actually speak intelligently about issues that matter (to me).

While Clinton was the initial draw, there were 3 big reasons why this conference was better than any I’ve ever attended in my life:

1. Getting recognized in business happens rarely, and the whole conference made all 1,000 of us (Inc. 5000 was included in the conference which was a huge success) feel like Hollywood stars.

2. I connected almost instantly with 6 other entrepreneurs from all over the country who had so much to offer on a personal and business level, that we ended up talking and socializing until 4am a couple nights in a row.

3. The speakers were THAT GOOD. One highlight was a guy named Tom Szaky who dropped out of Princeton after visiting buddies from his hometown in Canada who were successfully growing very healthy marijuana plants using a liquified form of worm poop (yes, worm poop)! Tom created a conveyor belt system to take a huge amount of food waste and have worms eat it and poop it out into containers. His company, TerraCycle, makes all of its products and its packaging out of waste. It’s 100%, completely eco-friendly. Tom delighted the crowd with a charismatic presentation.