Predictable Success Book Summary - Predictable Success Book explained in key points
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Predictable Success summary

Les McKeown

Getting Your Organization on the Growth Track – and Keeping it There

4.3 (16 ratings)
16 mins
Table of Contents

    Predictable Success
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    Any company can consistently meet its objectives – regardless of size, age or finances.

    Business is tough: for many companies, success – or failure – is often a matter of sheer luck. No matter how good your idea may be, it’s impossible to predict how it’ll fare upon execution.

    Want to change that? Wouldn’t it be nice to achieve predictable success, when you consistently meet the goals you set for yourself? That might sound impossible, like a privilege solely reserved for companies that have been around for decades. But the truth is, neither age nor size nor finances determine a company’s predictable success.

    Consider Little & Co. The credit-card payment processing company hit the top of the Inc. 500 just five years after it was founded, putting it in the same league as the 120-year-old SC Johnson.

    Finances don’t determine predictable success either. Microsoft might have billions of dollars in reserve, but it doesn’t consistently meet its goals; meanwhile, the small, self-funded graphic design firm the author works with has never fallen short of its annual targets.

    So, if age and cash don’t lead to predictable success, what does? The answer is management. Managers with strong visions and unrelenting commitment to a set path will help their companies achieve predictable success. These leaders stay calm even when external or internal problems arise, working to assess the problem and determine the optimal response.

    Flowing water is a great metaphor for the management style you need. When a stone falls into running water, the water is utterly indifferent to the motives of the stone. It simply responds accordingly, with minimal drama; when the stone is pushed downstream, the water quickly returns to its calm, still state.

    In the following blinks, we’ll show you how companies learn to embody running water and achieve predictable success.

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    What is Predictable Success about?

    Predictable Success (2010) is a step-by-step guide that lays out the different stages of organizational development that occur on the path to sustainable success. The author provides tips and strategies for every phase of the process, showing you what it takes to achieve – and then maintain – predictable success, year after year.

    Best quote from Predictable Success

    Whatever your business plan says you need in funding, triple it.

    —Les McKeown
    example alt text

    Who should read Predictable Success?

    • Anyone who’s trying to found a company
    • Managers and CEOs in every kind of organization
    • Anyone who feels that their organization has become stuck on its path to success

    About the Author

    Les McKeown is the president and CEO of Predictable Success. He has personally founded over 40 companies, including an incubation consulting company that has itself launched hundreds of businesses worldwide. His clients include the US Army, Harvard University, Microsoft, VeriSign and more. McKeown has been featured on CNN, ABC, BBC and in USA Today and the New York Times.

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