Predictable Success: Getting Your Organization on the Growth Track-and Keeping It There

by Les McKeown

If you own, manage or work for any kind of organization, you have one goal above all else--success. And not just occasional, elusive or temporary success. You're looking In short, you're looking for Predictable Success. In this timely, no-nonsense guide, experienced business advisor Les McKeown takes you step-by-step through a startlingly simple, intuitive and universal process that shows you how to bring sustained, lasting, predictable success to your organization. Steeped in a street-smart, savvy insider's deep understanding of exactly how business works in the real world, Predictable Success provides you with a precise road map to success, starting from wherever you are today. Whatever your challenge, Predictable Success shows you the exact steps to take to restore equilibrium to your organization, re-ignite confidence in your own management skills and lead your team forward to the next stage in growth. ''Les McKeown is absolutely on top of his game. Les not only knows--and shows--how your businesses can grow and succeed, he explains it a way that is intuitive, entertaining and immediately actionable.''
-- Darryl Hutson , Chief Executive Officer, American Express Incentive Services ''Les McKeown has for over 5 years assisted us in the growth and development of our distributorship network. His understanding of what makes a business succeed--and a passionate commitment to teaching others how to accomplish 'Predictable Success'--has been our secret weapon and can be yours, too.''
-- Mel Haught , CEO, Pella Corp (world leading manufacturer of windows and doors)

Genres: Business, Leadership, Buisness, Nonfiction, Business Leadership, Self Help, Entrepreneurship

200 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2010

About the author

Les McKeown is the president and CEO of Predictable Success. Les has launched and managed over forty businesses and is the cofounder of an incubation company that helped hundreds of entrepreneurs launch businesses employing thousands worldwide. Since moving to the United States in 1999, Les has helped founder-owners, CEOs, C-level executives, and their teams identify and eliminate personal and organizational barriers to growth.

Les lives in Marblehead, Massachusetts, with his wife and two dogs, and receives occasional care packages from his three children.

Contact Les at Lesm@predictablesuccess.com and read more at Predictablesuccess.com

Reviews

[Gurn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ranks as one of the best business books I've read. Not that I'm an expert in evaluating business books or anything. This book had such precise, practical advice. It's definitely weighted more on the practical side than the theoretical. I would even like to re-read it, which I can't say about most books. Bought more copies for friends and I want to read Les McKeown's The Synergist next.

[Scott Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

McKeown’s experience certainly lends credibility to his framework. His framework, as he describes the life cycle of businesses, is extremely helpful for analyzing what is going well and what’s going wrongly. I certainly can look back at my successes and failures and figure out where the weakness lay, using the author’s prescription. He sprinkles many good anecdotes, focuses on a few example companies to illustrate the points. With this, he’s in danger of falling into the typical business strategy book: highlighting the successful followers of the strategy without considering the potentially thousands of businesses that failed with the same strategy. This can make the reading long and sloggy at times and feeling like it’s going to veer into business fable territory. But the readers get through it.

Two cautions (slight spoiler): one of the key components of success is consistent decision-making and McKeown doesn’t spend enough time to describe methods, parameters, styles, etc regarding decision-making and this is a fault because there are certain styles/methods that lend themselves to different situations and perhaps different stages of the business cycle; the author does not apply his own framework, prescriptive plan for success in the first business cycle (Early Struggles), mainly focusing on cash flow—yet his aspects for success should be applied at this stage also. Really should be applied at this stage.

[Hannamari · Rating 5 out of 5]

What this book may have lacked in academic theoretical background, it gained in practical insights on struggles of companies in different development phases. So many points in this book rang true to me, clarified my thoughts on the situation in my organization, and gave food for thought on solution ideas. All in all, a surprisingly good useful business book.

I completely wore out a highlighter reading this.

[Joshua Rowland · Rating 4 out of 5]

In usually hate business books, and I didn’t hate this one. Filled with lots of things that should be obvious but often aren’t. Much more practical than theoretical, written from someone who’s led some folks.

[Shanda Macomber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read. Will definitely need to read again. Helps to identify what stage your business is in and how to not let it go to a dangerous stage.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent! Lacking in specific stories or eaxmples, but good advice I'm sure.

[Mike Siegel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book talks about the stages of growth/contraction that companies tend to go through. I liked his overall paradigm for describing common things companies experience and loved how he gave specific advice on some topics.

The book did a good job talking about something I'm obsessed about, finding the sweet spots. For Predictable Success, you need to hit the sweet spot of process. Too much process, and you have no creativity, too little and you can't handle the complexities of the problems a large organization faces.

I've worked for small, medium and large companies now and looking back it was fun to try to think what stage each was in while I was there. Some were in multiple stages. The book spoke to my personal experiences.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book concisely lays out a compelling framework for understanding the overall issues of increasing complexity as an organization grows, and provides some useful insight into resolving those issues. An excellent book for anyone suffering from the growing pains of a small company turning big, or for someone watching a successful company suffer as it's strangled by the very drive toward systemization that allowed it to overcome the complexity that comes with being big.

I had the good fortune of hearing Les McKeown speak, and I think the book might have read a little better if he had let his sense of humor shine through a bit more.

[Jonathan Crabb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book on the fundamentals of businesses and the stages they go through. Getting to a state of Predictable Success and staying there is the theme of the book, and it does a good job of how business start, evolve, thrive and then atrophy. The author is clearly a practitioner in helping companies in this process, and the book is a good distillation.

I only dock a star as the book as it dragged at the end and the advice got very generic. The large value of the book was the framework rather than the advice to get to the particular stages.

[Richard hong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Practical and Realistic

Most books minimize real life business to one or five things. But that’s called over simplification. This book doesn’t do that. But applies real life experience into principles, not the other way around. Business is complex and cannot be deduced into aphorisms, but a pathway of imperfection, learning, and growth.

[Sara Hurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely insightful read about the seasons in the life of a business and how to move from one to the next and prevent/minimize undesirable effects. Highly recommend for business leaders and managers!

[Lori Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read book on management for knowledge workers, managers, executives, and entrepreneurs.

[Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

An impressively comprehensive and concise guide to organizational growth. Not sure why this book isn't more widely known.

[Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book had a great set of concepts and organizational themes that I will definitely have with me as a reference for the duration of my career. Seeing the life cycle of an organization, and looking at it through the lens of other areas such as my family, is something that was very practical for me. I’ve really enjoyed spending time thinking about which stage I’m in regarding two main areas; my work habits and my marriage.

Part 1 was not the most entertaining to me because it was a bit repetitive though it was educational and I fully grasp the complete picture of each stage. Part 2 was especially insightful because of the charts that make it so easy to tie it all together, with figure 11.4 on page 192 being my favorite by far.

Noticing that “decisions are made without the decision-making process placing a burden on the organization” (23) and “Mediocrity, willful underperformance and simple shirking of responsibility stands out so clearly that the underperforming individual has few places to hide” (27) makes me feel so blessed to work in the freedom that I do. Within the freedom to grow is the freedom to fail.

The reason the organization declines into Treadmill is not because of the overreliance on systems and processes per se; it is because of the resulting loss of knowledge, ability and flexibility on the part of the users of those systems and processes – the organization’s employees.
Page 163, 4th paragraph

In Predictable Success, employees take responsibility for outcomes. In Treadmill, they take responsibility for actions. In Predictable success, employees hold themselves accountable for results; in Treadmill, for compliance.
Page 182, 3rd paragraph

One major thing I’ve been doing and will continue to do is determine where I lie on the organizational graph and take steps towards Predictable Success. I know that right now, at work and at home, I’m coming out of a season of Fun and am currently in Whitewater. On page 63 McKeown writes “the whole purpose of systems and processes is to enable an organization to deal effectively with complexity.” As my job is getting more complex, I have not up until this point taken the necessary steps to put the right processes in place to deal with it. Getting the right structure in my life has been something I’ve wrestled with for years now, and I’m more motivated than ever to mitigate my weaknesses with awareness and a passion to grow and to best serve the church, the people at my campus and my wife. After reading this book, and with my word for the year being consistency and fasting for direction and discipline, I think I am on the right path to getting myself into Predictable Success.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily the best business book I've read in a decade.

I value that the author's knowledge comes from first hand experience; his observations jive with my experience working in multiple companies, some that are chaotic and some that are over controlled (and one that was somehow both, probably because it was in a regulated industry). His paradigm speaks to the tension of (1) chaos resulting from growth and (2) processes and systems which organize a complex business but can also stifle further growth.

I appreciate how he values "soft skills" such as aligning middle management to work together to make decisions that are good for the company and the customer (not just their own department). That's often an undervalued skill set, at least in engineering.

I personally feel more comfortable in an organization with defined processes, and need to continue to grow in responding quickly to customer and business needs. When I work in a chaotic environment, I also need to take ownership for helping to create systems instead of just doing my individual contributor work to the best of my ability. I don't mind chaos, as long as it's confined to a 40 hour workweek and I work with a good team. I definitely want to read more by this author!

For my future self
Stages: Early Struggle, Fun, Whitewater, Predictable success, Treadmill, The Big Rut, Death Rattle

Characteristics of Predictable Success:
1. Decision making: the ability to consistently make & implement decisions.
2. Goal setting: the ability to readily set & consistently achieve goals
3. Alignment: structure, process & people are in harmony
4. Accountability: employees become self accountable in addition to being accountable to others.
5. Ownership: employees take personal responsibility for their actions & outcomes.

[Azucena Coronel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very detailed and lots of examples

I had the luck of attending one of Les’s seminars where he explained the phases of the companies and I got totally hooked with his ideas. This book allowed me to delve more into each of the phases and understand how it is possible to remain in Predictable Success, with specific actions and a very good framework.
As I listened to Les, and now as I was reading I was nodding to myself identifying clearly different phases in which I lived across diverse companies. It is quiet exciting to have now tools and techniques that I can chat about with my current colleagues to help all together maintain our company in predictable success.
Fantastic read, and his seminars are highly recommendable as well!!!! Good amount of knowledge with more that one laugh ensured.

[Rick Ruble · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book about the various stages a business/group/team/non-profit experiences from its beginning to its end. I think the seven stages McKeown identifies are spot on.
Having heard Les in person talk through the various stages of Predictable Success, the book provided the opportunity to reinforce the principles I had heard him talk about.
I liked the content of the book but had I not heard Les in person, I don't think the book by itself would have kept my interest. The writing lacked clarity and missed some of the pieces I heard him talk about. Those pieces (the roles of visionary, operator, processor, and synergist) may have been added in the years since the writing of the book as he continued to consult and teach on the stages.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is better than the average business book because it doesn't just ask successful people why they are successful. The general concept about phases of organizational development sounds a lot like Forming/Storming/Norming/Performing, so it's not revolutionary, but it has strong face validity. The author gives lots of practical stories with tips, and what he says makes sense to me, so it was an easy listen. It would have been good to have some kind of rigorous evidence about how his advice helps organizations.

I found it weird how the author kept bringing up Immelt's GE as a great company.

[Russell D · Rating 5 out of 5]

People and systems must change for a business to achieve ongoing success. It is clear from his writing that transformational leadership is needed at every layer of an organization. Mixing right system and the right people are an ongoing balancing act for any Lon term and predictable results to occur. This book explains in very clear terms what is needed and cycles through the complete life cycle of a business and what each stage looks like. The process is detailed and simple, but not easy!

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you want your organization to excel every time, and not just sometimes? This is a blueprint on how to get there and stay there. While the blueprint is simple, the effort required will be significant to achieve this feat. This book will help you to frame your plan for achieving predictable success. I highly recommend this book for any executive, manager, or talented aspiring manager.

[Jure Adlešič · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good book about the growth processes and struggles that any company goes through. I like it a lot but it is just an all in one book - for small and big companies. So it was just a third of the book interesting for me and the stage where my company is in. However, if you are overwhelmed with your word and the processes in your company are not set up yet you can find a few good info here.

[Bernie Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is very good.
It is also a confirmation that the consulting company I work for is spot on. Growability® Consulting has a Business Operating System and a set of tools that keep businesses in the place of "Predictable Success" -- out of "whitewater" and away from the "treadmill" (We use different terminology, but we tach similar concepts --- with a toolkit.)

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great framework. I’ve been in the whitewater stage a while now and gives some clarity both in terms of understanding this is normal, and how to get out of it. I’ve also been part of organizations in the treadmill phase, and found that concept very fitting.

[Zack · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book closely and with much benefit. McKeown has a masterful grasp of business life cycles, and I learned a lot from him. The writing is decent, and I would have liked to have more case studies as examples. Regardless, this is a must-read book for business leaders.

[Gretchen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read on the cycles businesses go through, especially in attempting to achieve success.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely useful for those looking to understand what is keeping their company from progressing.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book describing the business cycle and how to be proactive building a sustainable and innovative culture. Good for any organization.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Practical as well as enlightening - a must-read for anyone leading or managing a business

[Rachelle Antcliff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview. Lots of applications to organizations big and small.

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great descriptions about business life cycles and high level insights for going from one stage to another with interesting examples.