10 Years After Scaling Up: What I’ve Learned About Growth

Over a decade ago, I approached Verne Har­nish with the idea of updat­ing The Rock­e­feller Habits. So much had been learned and evolved in the sys­tem since the orig­i­nal book — new tools, sharp­er insights, and real-world inno­va­tions that could make the frame­work even more pow­er­ful and complete.

At the time, I was one of the ear­ly Gazelles coach­es, help­ing mid-mar­ket CEOs imple­ment these tools. Togeth­er, Verne and I set out to cre­ate what began as The Rock­e­feller Habits Imple­men­ta­tion Guide — and became Scal­ing Up.

A big part of the project, I inter­viewed 50 CEOs from around the world who had used the method­ol­o­gy. These were real, unfil­tered con­ver­sa­tions — break­throughs, mis­steps, and sur­pris­ing lessons. Some felt like high-fives. Oth­ers were sober­ing reminders of how tough growth can be.

When Scal­ing Up launched in 2014, it was packed with pow­er­ful insights and prac­ti­cal tools. But I had no idea how much more I’d learn in the years that followed.

A Decade Lat­er: Two Big Lessons

After hun­dreds of com­pa­nies and thou­sands of hours in the field, here’s what stands out:

The frame­work is sim­ple. Get­ting it right is hard.

Scal­ing Up looks sim­ple. But a tru­ly com­pet­i­tive strat­e­gy is rare. I’ve reviewed count­less plans — and true, growth-dri­ving clar­i­ty is uncommon.

The tools are there. But real advan­tage comes from deep debate, refine­ment, and crisp deci­sions. Most teams set­tle for ​“good enough.” That’s not good enough.

Once strat­e­gy clicks, exe­cu­tion makes growth inevitable.

Get the strat­e­gy right, then trans­late it into focused quar­ter­ly goals. Track progress week­ly. Adjust month­ly. Recal­i­brate quar­ter­ly. Do this with dis­ci­pline, and growth becomes a mat­ter of time — not luck.

But quar­ter­ly exe­cu­tion isn’t just about set­ting goals — it’s about account­abil­i­ty and learn­ing. Did we deliv­er on what we com­mit­ted to? If not, why? Each quar­ter is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to reflect and improve:

• Do we need to adjust our strategy?
• Were our goals real­is­tic and aligned?
• Is our oper­at­ing sys­tem or approach effective?
• Do we have the right peo­ple in the right roles to execute?

Exe­cu­tion only scales if your lead­er­ship team is grow­ing, too. In most firms, that’s your #1 asset.

How Our Work Has Evolved

While Scal­ing Up still anchors our sys­tem, I’ve added crit­i­cal layers:

• More Strat­e­gy (Jim Collins Tools):
  Hedge­hog, Fly­wheel, and 20-Mile March now shape more of our strate­gic think­ing. Collins’ research adds essen­tial depth.
• Peo­ple Devel­op­ment as a Sys­tem:
  We treat the lead­er­ship team like a liv­ing P&L — sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly build­ing strength each key leader, each quarter.
• Lead­er­ship Resilience & Account­abil­i­ty:
  From Your Oxy­gen Mask First, we’ve added rit­u­als, growth goals to help keep lead­ers sharp.

What Sets Win­ners Apart

The com­pa­nies that scale con­sis­tent­ly? They mas­ter the bor­ing basics.

They focus on a few clear goals that dri­ve growth. Then they exe­cute relent­less­ly — week­ly, month­ly, quarterly.

But clar­i­ty mat­ters. I’ve seen too many well-writ­ten goals with zero con­nec­tion to real growth. As I argue in my upcom­ing book, The Four Forces of Growth (work­ing title), suc­cess comes from bold, inten­tion­al moves that change the growth math — not feel-good projects.

The Two Most Com­mon Mistakes

• No account­abil­i­ty: With­out a sys­tem that cre­ates both joy (cel­e­brat­ing wins) and ten­sion (address­ing miss­es), exe­cu­tion fades.
• Avoid­ing tough team calls: Even­tu­al­ly, it’s clear who deliv­ers — and who doesn’t. Scal­ing with a ​“nice” but under­per­form­ing team doesn’t last.

What I Believe Now

Growth is sim­pler than most peo­ple think.

Usu­al­ly, two or three moves mat­ter. The rest? Noise.

That’s why I believe in growth-by-the-num­bers. If your strat­e­gy doesn’t con­nect your cur­rent P&L to your future one, it’s not done. Great plans should near­ly cal­cu­late them­selves. If your CFO can’t rec­on­cile it, go back to the draw­ing board.

And often, what real­ly mat­ters isn’t obvi­ous — it only sur­faces through hon­est, rig­or­ous thinking.

How The Four Forces of Growth Builds on Scal­ing Up

Scal­ing Up is the sys­tem. The Four Forces of Growth is the mind­set check.

It helps lead­ers avoid drift­ing into prob­lem-think­ing — and stay focused on where real growth lives: the inter­sec­tion of oppor­tu­ni­ty and coura­geous action.

For CEOs Start­ing (or Restart­ing) Their Journey

Here’s my best advice:

• Focus on a few things.
  • Mas­tery beats motion. Focus dri­ves results.
• Get a guide.
  • Yes, I’m biased — my firm pro­vides this. But I deeply believe in work­ing with some­one who can accel­er­ate learn­ing, hold you account­able, and help you avoid expen­sive mis­takes. I do this myself any time I’m tack­ling some­thing new.

Chal­lenge:

• Is your strat­e­gy com­pelling enough to cre­ate a true com­pet­i­tive advantage?
• Is your exe­cu­tion rhythm strong enough to dri­ve the focus and per­for­mance you need?

Resources 

• Blog: Does Your Strate­gic Plan Dri­ve Growth or Just Improvement?
• The Shared Expe­ri­ence of a One-Page Strate­gic Plan & Scal­ing Up
• The 5 Most Com­mon Ques­tions Asked About Scal­ing Up
• Pod­cast: Com­mon Ques­tions (and Answers) About the Scal­ing Up Framework
• Pod­cast: Annu­al Strate­gic Think­ing Meeting