Mastering the Rockefeller Habits: What You Must Do to Increase the Value of Your Growing Firm

I have read many business books over my career as an entrepreneur having founded two successful companies. Mastering the Rockefeller habits is the simplest best book I have ever read on growing and managing a small to medium business. Verne has a great gift of providing just the simple nuggets that you need to know without all of the other stuff. An addition to Verne's book that I have found enormous value in is defining the values in more detail as outlined in Gregg Lederman's book Achieve Brand Integrity: Ten Truths You Must Know to Enhance Employee Performance and Increase Company Profits. He calls these brand concepts and outlines a great approach to defining the beliefs and behaviors that will make these brand concepts come alive. Between these two books you have an amazing view of how to build a successful company.

This is an important resource for salespeople, managers, entrepreneurs and executives alike. Verne Harnish does a great job in breaking down the habits of Mr. Rockefeller, who is as close to a model of business excellence as you can find. Harnish goes over all the business basics, such as setting priorities, analyzing data and creating the right rhythm for the business. One of my favorite lines from this book is: "Until your people are mocking you, you've not repeated your message enough". This statement is true when it comes to the values, objectives and the methods of implementation of the company. The message of this book, if practiced, will make your business a predictable enterprise for growth. The book has so many good points that I stopped highlighting after the first chapter, lest I highlight the entire book. Enjoy!

Verne is truly the "entreprenuer's guru" - he knows our strengths and weaknesses to a prefect tee and Mastering the Rockefeller Habits is "the well" of inspiration for entreprenuers at any stage of their businesses. What makes Verne the true genius is the fact that all of the ideas and concepts he talks about in the book are tangible resources that you can EFFORTLESSLY implement into your organization. Most books are full of ideas and leave the reader to "re-create the wheel" in order to make the ideas come to life, but Verne knows entrepreneurs well and has removed the burden of responsiblity to create the tanglibles he talks about. I love to read, and have a lot of favorites including Good to Great, Wizard of Ads, Topgrading, The E-Myth and Execution -- but Mastering the Rockefeller Habits is truly the most practical and inspiring book an entreprenuer can read.

Planning is everything. Our company used to be great at developing plans - we had grand plans, plans we'd worked on for months, and plans for our plans. We were planning experts. But we couldn't implement. Our plans sat in fancy binders and we pulled them out to look at them periodically, felt better because we had them, and couldn't figure out why things weren't happening like we'd planned. Then we read Mastering the Rockefeller Habits. And we found we could actually implement the plans that we learned how to develop from the methods and techniques defined in the book. We now have plans that work. And our company has matured tremendously as an organization from following the book. I strongly recommend that any company, from young start-up to those more mature, read and implement the strategies in this book. It will change your world.

For any entrepreneur who is planning on growing their company, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits is the one book to read. Use this as a manual, I have, and it has made all the difference in the world. It's practical, intelligent, and easy to read and follow.