Grow: Take Your Business from Chaos to Calm
Michael J. McFall
An Inc. Original (June 2023)

How well leaders grow their people will determine how well they will grow their company

Why did Michael McFall write this book? It is about the growth and transition [that he and the co-owners of their company, BIGGBY COFFEE] had to go through as individuals to make our sustainability goal achievable. My hope is that this book will encourage  your thinking and guide you to a place where you can beat the 1-in-37,000 odds as well, where you are leading an incredibly powerful company and where you as the founder/entrepreneur have any options as you move into the twilight of your career.”

I think this book can also be of substantial value to others, notably those who are now thinking about launching a new company as well as service providers (e.g. bankers, accountants, insurance agents) who work with start-ups, and those who are employed by them, especially those who have supervisory responsibilities.

Of special interest to me is the high levels of McFall’s emotional intelligence as well as street smarts, both for those who read the book and for his own associates. He immediately establishes a personal rapport with his reader with skillful use of direct address. For example, from the Introduction:

“If street credibility is important to you, I hope I have earned enough to push you into a few areas that make most people uncomfortable. Do I have your permission?

“I hope you’ll believe me when I say that to continue to grow your business, you need to become 100 percent focused on people and the relationships within your organization. They are all that matter; they are everything. You need to make love the glue that holds your organization together. Yep. I did it! I used the word ‘love’ in the context of management and leadership.  Some will shut down when they read those four letters. I am here to tell you the organization of the future is going to make love the cornerstone of what they do. Get with it or get left behind.”

These are among the subjects and issues discussed in the book that are of greatest interest and value to me:

o Getting and keeping relationships right
o Establishing and sustaining a healthy workplace culture
o Making bold dreams practical (and profitable) realities
o Non-negotiable integrity
o Personal accountability

o The power of love
o Getting people’s backs…and fronts
o Overcoming barriers to sustainability
o Seven critical forms of communication, cooperation, and collaboration
o Rules of positive, productve engagement

o Relationships are everything
o Establishing and strengthening an entrepreneurial climate and operating system
o Curing addiction to financials
o Endless learning (both self-directed and team-driven)
o Creating a workplace environment within which innovation is most likely to thrive

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out these: Tony Fadell’s Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making (2022), Eric Ries’s The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses (2011), and Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future (2014), written by Peter Thiel with Blake Masters.

Here are two concluding suggestions: Highlight key passages, and, keep a lined notebook near at hand while reading Grow in which you record your comments, questions, action steps (preferably with deadlines) and page references as well as your responses to questions or issues suggested by the material. These two simple tactics will facilitate, indeed expedite frequent reviews of key material later.