Who is the author of Predictable Success?

The author of Predictable Success is Les McKeown.

Entrepreneurship

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

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Predictable Success summary

Name: Predictable Success
Rating: 4.4 (17 reviews)
Author: Les McKeown

Les McKeown

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

4.4 (17 ratings)

16 mins

Brief summary

Predictable Success by Les McKeown is a business book that outlines a roadmap for organizations to achieve long-term sustainable growth. It provides practical tools and insights to help businesses prevent and overcome common pitfalls to success.

Topics

Strategy

Table of Contents

Predictable Success
Summary of 7 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 7

What’s in it for me? Get yourself to the sweet spot in the business cycle – and stay there.

Like Dorothy’s famous journey in The Wizard of Oz, a company’s path to success is paved with danger. Many companies start out aiming to achieve greatness, yet few actually make it. Most fall back somewhere along the yellow brick road, sapped by lack of customers, lack of money or lack of management.

These blinks show you how your business can traverse this perilous path and reach a level known as predictable success, where you can plan your objectives and know you’ll reach them. The blinks will also show you how to stay there. As hard as it is to get to where you want to be, it’s just as tough to stay relevant and dynamic. So, if you want to reach – and hold onto – that sweet spot, read on.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how to navigate the dangerous business rapids known as whitewater;
how to grow as a business but still allow employees the space to innovate; and
why a CEO with a full calendar is a sign of business weakness.

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.

There are three stages on the path to predictable success, beginning with “early struggle” and “fun.”

No company can achieve predictable success right from the get-go if it doesn’t follow a process. And though each stage is filled with challenges, if a company plays it right they’ll be unstoppable.

First, a company will hit the early struggle. This initial stage requires you to address two simple problems:

During the third stage – “whitewater” – demand for your product outpaces supply.

So, in the second stage you’re having fun. Your business is doing well and you have plenty of customers. Seems great, right? Well, here’s where things get tricky.

When an organization grows too quickly, decision-making and execution become more difficult. During this third stage, whitewater, mistakes become very common. Prepare yourself: you’ll have to devote much of your time and resources to trying to solve these problems.

The three stages that follow predictable success can send a business into freefall.

Congratulations, you’ve achieved predictable success! Time to breathe easy? Unfortunately, there are still challenges ahead.

Immediately after you’ve arrived at predictable success, you may encounter the treadmill. This phase occurs when a company becomes overly dependant on established systems, thus losing its creative streak.

Simplify decision-making and unite employees around a collective vision to move from whitewater to predictable success.

Every stage on the path to predictable success has its challenges. But the most difficult shift occurs when your company moves from whitewater to predictable success.

At this point, you may see your organization’s decision-making process become overly complex and bureaucratic. Management needs to work against this impulse, simplifying the company’s decision-making at every level.

After achieving predictable success, install effective systems and institutionalize risk-taking.

As we’ve learned, it’s difficult to maintain predictable success. Luckily, there are two steps you can take to avoid the treadmill, the big rut and the death rattle.

The first step requires you to install two systems.

To avoid decline and to maintain predictable success, be flexible with systems and prioritize good HR.

If you’ve achieved predictable success but feel that you might be backsliding, there are a couple of things you can do to get back on track.

Most importantly, make sure you’re using your implemented systems effectively – not being used by them. After all, having a perfectly organized calendar doesn’t make for an effective CEO. A CEO who doesn’t have a single moment of free time in the next five weeks has no time to innovate, dream or create.

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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.

Predictable Success Review

Predictable Success (2010) by Les McKeown is an insightful read that delves into the stages of growth that businesses go through and provides strategies to navigate these stages successfully. Here are three reasons why this book is worth reading:

Offers practical advice on how to identify and address the inevitable challenges that arise in each stage of business growth, ensuring long-term success.
Real-life examples and case studies make the concepts relatable and applicable to both small startups and large corporations.
The author's engaging storytelling style keeps readers captivated and makes complex business concepts easy to understand, ensuring that the book is definitely not boring.

Best quote from Predictable Success

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

—Les McKeown

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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