Why Companies Acquire, The AT Protocol & Why The One Page Plan Works
4 December 2022 Newsletter
“Our goal is to make the best devices in the world, not to be the biggest” Steve Jobs
Hope you’re Thriving!
It’s been a good week, with life returning to normal after the Onboarded book launch and media promotion.
Let’s jump in!
Man Fired For Not Being Fun
When building Core Values with teams, I’m often asked about one of the questions on our stress test — “If a person breaches the core value, they probably don’t belong”.
And so, I might respond with a hypothetical value of ‘Fun’ and explain that if someone isn’t fun, it doesn’t mean they should be fired. But if they actively breach the value of fun, if they are actively working to undermine the value, they probably don’t belong.
As always, seek your own legal advice on these things.
But, recently, in France, a company had the core value of fun, and a man was fired for not being fun, and he asked for $481,000 in damages (the judge awarded $3,120).
Read here: Man fired for failing to be ‘fun’ at work wins compensation lawsuit
Why Companies Acquire
This week I came across this interesting infographic.
IPOs make the news, but 99% of companies in a transition event are most likely to die or get acquired. According to Boston Consulting Group, there was more than $1.7 Trillion in M&A deal activity in the first half of 2022. But most M&A strategies occur for one of 9 reasons:
1. Build economies of scale
2. Reduce competition
3. Expand your TAM
4. Vertically integrate
5. Move into a new geographic market
6. Acquire talent
7. Acquire a rare asset
8. Accelerate your roadmap
9. Rollup
The infographic shows the most common strategies, why they occur, and real-life examples.
The AT Protocol
I don’t know which reason in the above infographic relates to the Elon Musk acquisition of Twitter (maybe acquiring a rare asset), but it sure is fascinating to watch.
And a part of that change was Jack Dorsey leaving the company in 2021 and being increasingly frustrated at the way Twitter evolved. In leaked text messages, Dorsey told Musk that Twitter being founded as a company (rather than a foundation) was the ‘original sin’.
And now Dorsey is seeking to right that wrong, having founded the “Authenticated Transfer Protocol” or AT Protocol within Bluesky.
Think about it, no one owns the web, no one owns email, or RSS feeds. So why should a company own a social networking platform?
At the moment, you could use any web browser or email client and interact with others using the underlying protocol. This is what the AT Protocol would do for social media.
And I don’t think the importance of this can be underestimated. This could be a significant change if you think about the negative impacts of social media on people and society. But it also could weaken social giants like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter significantly.
Consider that Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta strategy is to build and own the Metaverse – a virtual reality playground that he is ‘all in’ on, having invested tens of billions of dollars already, and is due to be the largest single investment by a company ever. The AT Protocol could make that redundant.
The AT Protocol offers the following unique attributes;
Account portability – you own your online identity and can move from one provider to another
Algorithmic choice – users control what they see and who they reach, not algorithms
Interoperation – the ability to easily switch between different networks and architectures without challenges
Performance – built into the protocol for fast load times
Between Elon Musk’s acquiring Twitter, Mark Zuckerberg’s gamble on the Metaverse and Jack Dorsey’s open new protocol, one thing’s for sure, social media is going to change a lot in the coming years.
Read here: The AT Protocol
Millionaire Migration
This week the annual millionaire migration results came out, and it’s interesting, yet perhaps not surprising, where millionaires are migrating to and from.
Once again, Australia was among the highest at number 2, while UAE made number 1. But, of course, UAE has no personal tax compared to Australia’s 45%.
So there’s that. Check out the migration numbers for High Net Worth Individuals below.
New Growth Group Program 2023
The Growth Group Program is suitable for businesses with $1m to $10m in revenues.
The purpose is to help you grow yourself, your team, and your company. To drive your goals and impact your life. The program consists of CEO coaching as well as facilitated strategic planning workshops with your leadership team working through a customised, structured strategic planning program.
We have a unique opportunity for select businesses to join a new Growth Group program beginning in early 2023.
Not sure if this may be suitable for you and your team? Watch the video here for more info. Then, send us an email so we can determine if this group is the right fit for your team.
This week on The Growth Whisperers Podcast
Why The One Page Plan Works
Many companies might have a plan, but some plans work better than others. Focus matters; having an ideology, strategy, and execution goals in one plan enables leaders to focus and achieve results.
By bringing together the ideology (Core Values & Core Purpose), Strategy (How you’re different) and execution together into a logical fit, you avoid just having a list of goals with different time horizons.
This week we discuss the One Page Plan, where it comes from, why it works and the principles that underly its success. Also, we discuss how people make mistakes with the one page plan.
Episode 138 – The Growth Whisperers
Listen to The Growth Whisperers
Or watch it on YouTube
In The Media
The Dynamic Leader Podcast
Effective Onboarding
Human Resources Director Magazine
Poor Onboarding Process? You run the risk of losing 10% of your talent
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Keep Thriving!
Brad Giles
