Breakpoints
BREAKPOINTS
How to Shift Your
Business to the Next Level
Dr Mike Ashby
First published in 2016 by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd
42 McDougall St, Milton Qld 4064
Office also in Melbourne
© The Breakthrough Company Limited 2016
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (for example, a fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review), no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All inquiries should be made to the publisher at the address above.
Cover design by Wiley
Disclaimer
The material in this publication is of the nature of general comment only, and does not represent professional advice. It is not intended to provide specific guidance for particular circumstances and it should not be relied on as the basis for any decision to take action or not take action on any matter which it covers. Readers should obtain professional advice where appropriate, before making any such decision. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the author and publisher disclaim all responsibility and liability to any person, arising directly or indirectly from any person taking or not taking action based on the information in this publication.
FOREWORD BY JUSTINE ROSS
I'm not sure exactly what a businessperson is but I am most definitely not one. I guess I'm a business groupie. I hang around businesses and businesspeople and I consume information on business. Then, like all good groupies I form an opinion and scream about it. On the other hand, my husband and business partner Geoff is a business builder, a visionary and a change maker.
Together we run fairly critical eyes and ears over business ‘how to' manuals and their authors, and usually we wind up thinking it's total ‘blow' covering simple stuff. Everyone wants the next secret to success or to be the next 42 Below (ideally a heap bigger) and everyone hopes that someone (anyone) can tell them how. Breakpoints comes close to this answer because ultimately it tells you to ‘Get On With It'. If we had one regret over 42 Below it would be not to have gone ‘harder, faster, sooner'. We almost missed the 1990s crest of a growth curve in global super premium liquor, and then we clung to our day jobs and worried about ‘security' and ‘risk' for too long.
We find lack of ‘field experience' a tough pill to swallow in a business adviser but the ideas shared in this book come from a very good place. Not only is Dr Mike Ashby educated to the very highest level in his field but he's also been a very successful business leader. He is the full package and he has challenged himself and others to keep evolving critical thinking as times and markets have moved on. This book is like a continuation of Dr Mike's ebooks, blogs, programs and learnings over many years of business coaching and personal experience, systemised and synthesised for the benefit of anyone anywhere. This is a man passionate about his messaging and generous enough to ensure everyone has access to success.
Dr Mike seems to have a slightly different spin on all our favourite sayings. We say, ‘If what you are doing isn't working, change what you're doing'; he says, ‘Doing the same thing and expecting the same results is dangerously delusional today'. Ha! We like his version better.
In business you hear about moments where there is a departure from the past after which life becomes different. Thanks to Mike these now have this cool name – ‘Breakpoints'. But of course the inverse of the word Breakpoint is point break, a surfing term that is also apt for business – you surf the curve until each breakpoint. With our businesses there have been more do or die moments than we care to recall. Much work has been needed to support people at these times because too many superb businesses don't make it.
In a way few business books do, this one addresses our emotional energy, mental wealth and even our ‘breathing' but not in a weird way. Mike understands that our well-being is as essential to business success as supply chain management and he is rooting for you to have some balance – and Arianna Huffington and a ground swell of new research on productivity concur. With 42 Below, we didn't have any balance at all, but with our new businesses we are trying to work smarter and this book tells us how.
Breakpoints offers a brilliantly straightforward marketing framework; a people plan; and the seven mistakes made by businesses, which on their own make the book worth owning, if only to read them once a month. Mike also addresses the question of ‘mastery', or what happens after you reach a certain level of success. This is walking the talk, and he expects you to need this bit.
This book is destined to be around for some time because it has unusually wide audience appeal. The knowledge shared isn't just for one stage of business or personal growth – its wisdom will benefit a rookie startup as much as an experienced and successful entrepreneur. When people ask us about the 42 Below story we can just hand them our book, Every Bastard Said No. When people ask us to tell them our thoughts on business, the best thing we can do for them now is hand them Breakpoints.
Thanks Mike for delivering such a superb tool. The world sure needs brave entrepreneurs creating smart, strong businesses in a mindful and healthy way and Breakpoints teaches us all how. Mike doesn't shy away from offering implementation approaches – he cares about the how.
So, get on with it. Sort out your vision, your purpose, and your values. Then, when you burn your boat, cross your chasm … take this book with you and BREATHE.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The best Oscar acceptance speeches are short, funny and memorable, but I don't watch the Oscars so my acknowledgements won't be like that.
I've really enjoyed writing this book; it's been one of the most challenging and fulfilling things I've done in my life so far. There are some people I want to thank in that context:
• Matt Church insisted that I had to write it and took away all my objections and obfuscations, damn him.
• Bob Weston, Marguerite Delbet and Rose Fann made some really helpful comments on the draft.
• Ryan Castle, my business partner and friend, supported me all the way, as did The Breakthrough team who didn't see a lot of me when I was in my writer's garret.
• Wendy Taylor, my good friend and colleague for the last seven years, who contributed so much to the business and who, even more importantly, can always make me laugh.
• My clients over the years who gave freely of themselves, which enabled me to develop a lot of the insights and examples contained in this book. It's been a privilege to work with you.
• Lucy, Harry and Dominic for providing motivation.
And my greatest thanks go to my wife, Franceska Banga, who always said, ‘Wonderful though you are, you're capable of so much more'. Frank, you're number one on my list of reasons to be grateful.
INTRODUCTION
Read this bit!
Exactly 12 minutes before I was due to give my standard ‘business success' presentation to 200 business owners a couple of years ago, the convenor of the conference was rushing around yipping and yahooing to the speakers as we gathered for the pre-event briefing. As he raced past me he asked me what I was going to talk about, and then said to me ‘Great, great Mike, fabulous. Go out there and tell them the four things they've got to do to grow the business'.
That