Les McKeown on Predictable Success – Part 1
We were so excited today to talk with Les McKeown on The BIGG Success Show today. Les is the President of Predictable Success, a business education and consulting company that helps organizations from small- and medium-sized enterprises to Fortune 100 companies.
Les is also the author of the Wall Street Journal Best Seller, Predictable Success: Getting Your Organization on the Growth Track and Keeping It There.
Listen to the show to hear the first half of our discussion!
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The BIGG Success Show Podcast Summary
We began our discussion by asking Les how, in such uncertain times, he could claim there was such a thing as “Predictable Success.” He said his concept doesn’t make organizations immune from external events like the ones we’ve experienced recently.
However, with the right structure, your organization will know what to do in tough times to survive and even thrive. And you’ll emerge from the downturn even stronger.
Early struggle
In his book, Les uses terms for each stage of a company that paint a great visual. He says every organization starts in the Early Struggle phase. This may last for three to five years.
Fun
If your business survives, you move into what Les calls the Fun stage. You’re able to make payroll. Your customers think you can’t do any wrong. When a challenge arises, everyone rolls up their sleeves and overcome it.
Whitewater
However, difficulty is quietly lurking in the background. As your business grows to add employees to serve more customers, the direct line of communication from the owner gets blurry. Mistakes start to be made. Things aren’t as fun anymore.
You’re in Whitewater, as Les calls this phase. Many owners think their business is dying. In reality, you’re just one step away from Predictable Success. You just have to master the rocking caused by complexity.
Predictable Success
You do that by building systems and processes. You may go through two or three iterations of Whitewater before you reach Predictable Success. You want to bring in just enough structure to manage the business.
When you do that successfully, you’ll reach Predictable Success. You’ll know how and why you’re successful. And you’ll know how to scale it.
What happens when your small business starts to grow and its founders can’t be so hands-on? We’ll talk with Les about that next time.
We highly recommend that you listen to show to really tap into Les’s wisdom. Even better, get your own copy of Predictable Success!
Listen to Part 2 of our interview with Les.
Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file | podcast:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/biggsuccess/00632-092210.mp3
