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Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don't

by Verne Harnish · 2014

In a nutshell

Verne Harnish's comprehensive guide to scaling businesses, offering practical tools and frameworks used by over 80,000 companies worldwide to achieve sustained growth.

Verne Harnish and Scaling Up

Verne Harnish is the author of the bestseller Mastering the Rockefeller Habits and Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0), which has been translated into multiple languages and won eight major international book awards.

About the Book

Scaling Up is the first major revision of the business classic Mastering the Rockefeller Habits. With over 500,000 copies in print, it's become the standard for scaling any for-purpose or for-profit organization.

Core Framework

Scaling Up focuses on the four major decisions every company must get right:

  1. People - Having the right people in the right seats doing the right things
  2. Strategy - A differentiated strategy that gives you a competitive advantage
  3. Execution - Flawless execution throughout the organization
  4. Cash - Sufficient cash flow to fuel growth

Practical Tools

The book includes a series of new One-Page tools, including:

  • The often-copied One-Page Strategic Plan
  • Rockefeller Habits Execution Checklist™
  • Individual and team accountability frameworks
  • Meeting rhythm structures

More than 80,000 firms around the globe have used these tools to scale their organizations successfully.

About Verne Harnish

Verne Harnish is founder of the world-renowned Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO), with over 18,000 members worldwide. He is Founder and CEO of Scaling Up, a global executive education and coaching company with over 260 partners on six continents, and has spent the past four decades helping companies scale up.

Who It's For

The book is designed for companies with:

  • 10 to 10,000 employees
  • A desire to dominate their industry
  • A commitment to sustained, profitable growth

Impact

The Scaling Up methodology has been implemented by companies across industries, from tech startups to manufacturing firms, helping them navigate the challenges of rapid growth while maintaining organizational alignment.

Key Insights

Growth creates complexity, and complexity is the silent killer of growth. Scaling Up provides the structure and discipline needed to maintain clarity and alignment as companies grow.

Available at major retailers for approximately $25-35.

Reference

Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don't — publisher / official page. Summary adapted from the Awesome Startup Books collection.

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