Creating a Mastermind group? Put the right people on the bus

Put the right people on the bus and you are headed for success

In Jim Collins’ book Good to Great he advises business executives to “put the right people on the bus” when it comes to hiring decisions. To paraphrase the well respected business guru, “put the right people on the bus and it doesn’t matter where the bus is going.” He succinctly outlines the point on this video, (the “first who” concept.)
Recently I had an opportunity to “load the bus” by forming a mastermind group with some creative colleagues.  As a part of a brainstorm during my 2011 strategic planning session I decided it was important to get four other top regional entrepreneurs together with the goal of sharing information about our companies and discussing ways we could help one another. From the start I wanted to keep the session informal. The five of us met for a working lunch and from that session emerged a “star story” with the opportunities provided by each entrepreneur highlighted as one of the five points of the star. Those points include: leadership (Jeff Brunson), business systems (Curt Henry), financial accountability (Gregg Pechmann), business and relational development (Mary Reynolds), and communications (me, MarketingMel.)

Next we presented the story star to our city’s economic developer. He plans to team the entrepreneurs with some large corporations in our region struggling to share the solopreneur’s flexibility and strategic viewpoint. I’ll keep you posted on our progress. It would be good for all business owners to remember Collins’ point as we move toward 2011. First get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus. Then you will be headed for success.