Measure What Matters

Published in 2018 by John Doerr, this is without a doubt the SINGLE BEST BUSINESS BOOK I HAVE EVER READ.

Written by legendary Venture Capitalist John Doerr, Chairman of Kleiner Perkins, this excellent and easy to read book explains how Mr. Doerr learned about Objectives and Key Results (OKR’s) from none other than Andy Grove of Intel fame. Grove, widely recognized as one of the greatest managers of his or any era, created OKR’s in the 1970’s and transformed Intel from an “also ran” to the undisputed world leader in microprocessors.

In the OKR model, Objectives define what we seek to achieve, and Key Results are how those top-priority goals will be attained with specific, measurable actions, within a set time frame. Everyone’s goals from entry level contributor to the CEO are transparent to the entire organization. As the book demonstrates with examples ranging from Google as a startup to Bono (yes that Bono!) and the Gates Foundation, OKR’s really, really work.

Having worked with my clients to put OKR’s in place at multiple Companies, most recently including JonDon, Envirowaste Services Group, Columbus Recycling, Advanced Powering Services, MantleMount and more, I have seen first hand the tremendous impact this relatively simple system actually has on REAL WORLD RESULTS in middle market companies. For example, at JonDon, we grew revenues between 2018 and 2020 by over 50%, and EBITDA by a factor of 3x. At MantleMount, in 2020 revenue grew 48% and EBITDA increased by 100%. At Advanced Powering Systems between 2018 and 2020 revenue grew by ~10%, and EBITDA grew by nearly 70%.

Clearly, FOCUSING AND COMMITTING TO PRIORITIES, which is the essence of the OKR method works not only at Google, Intel and the Gates Foundation, but in companies of nearly any size and in most ANY industry.

Drop me an email at jim@jiminarik.com if you’d like to discuss how OKR’s can help you supercharge your Company’s growth!