It was the year 1987, where a bunch of analysts and investors have teamed up to meet the new CEO of Alcoa.
Alcoa is one of the largest aluminum manufacturing firms where employees work in a dangerous environment. Millions have invested in the stock.
The Ballad of Paul O'Neill:
Get a cup of coffee.
Today, I will talk about one of the brilliant management stories I have ever read. Let's get started.
It was the year 1987, where a bunch of analysts and investors have teamed up to meet the new CEO of Alcoa.
Alcoa is one of the largest aluminum manufacturing firms where employees work in a dangerous environment. Millions have invested in the stock.
Recently management has made missteps letting competitors take away profits and market share.
It was a sign of relief when investors heard about a management change.
The new CEO is Paul O Neill, who is a former Govt bureaucrat.
AGM has started. Paul entered the stage. His only emphasis is *worker safety* He aimed to bring down worker injuries to zero.
He talked nothing about firm profits, capital ratios, taxes.
The investors were confused. They thought he is crazy and sold their shares.
But to their surprise, the firm market value has increased from $ 3 billion in 1986 to $ 27.53 billion in 2000 while net income improved from $ 200 million to $ 1.484 billion.
What's more, all the growth occurred while Alcoa becoming one of the safest firms in the world.
How did Paul manage to turn a dangerous firm into a profitable and a safe one?
The answer lies in understanding keystone habits.
The loop of a habit is Cue, routine, reward.
You see ice cream (cue), buy and eat it (routine), Feel happy (reward)
We are not talking about habits in detail though. That is a topic for another day.
Keystone habits are habits that have the power to create a chain reaction and change the entirety of the form.
For instance, take this, you exercise ➡️eat a good diet ➡️ be productive at work ➡️ create healthy relationships ➡️ improve your life.
This is what exactly Paul has done. He attacked a single habit *Worker safety* and watched it bring changes across the organization.
Paul identified a simple cue: worker injury.
He developed a routine: Anytime someone was injured, the unit president had to report to Paul within 24 hours.
The reward is the people who report on time get a promotion.
The unit presidents are busy people. To report on time, they need vice presidents to be alert.
Vice presidents have to follow up with floor managers. And the managers with employees.
As soon as, an injury happened, Paul got an alert from unit presidents. He understood why it happened.
He took corrective action to ensure from not happening of the same mistake.
For instance, if molten metal was injuring workers when it splashed, then the pouring system was replaced.
If a machine kept breaking down, it was replaced.
This improved production and adoption of new technology improved firm efficiency.
The second big thing Paul has done is he linked up Alcoa's offices across the world with electronic networks.
The premise is simple. To get to know about worker injuries as quickly as possible.
At first, people have used the network to discuss safety issues. Then as email habits became more comfortable, they started posting info on other topics such as local mkt conditions, sales quotas, and business problems.
"I would send in my accident report, and I knew everyone else read it, so I figured, why not send pricing info or intelligence on other firms," a manager said.
"It was like we had discovered a secret weapon and the competition couldn't figure out how we were doing it"
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50. Fastest-growing companies use growth loops
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48. Steal These 7 growth hacks (pt.2)
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50. Fastest-growing companies use growth loops
What was the common denominator in the fastest growing companies like Dropbox, Netflix, Yelp, and Instagram?
— Alex Garcia \U0001f50d (@alexgarcia_atx) May 9, 2021
Growth loops.
Not funnels.
Here are 6 examples of growth loops that will help you acquire and retain users \U0001f9f5 pic.twitter.com/Wu4i8ReQ62
49. 7 Proven growth hacking strategies (pt.1)
I've studied hundreds of growth-hacking strategies.
— Alex Garcia \U0001f50d (@alexgarcia_atx) May 7, 2021
These 7 are proven to work \U0001f9f5
48. Steal These 7 growth hacks (pt.2)
How did Facebook, Zapier, and Tinder drive growth early on?
— Alex Garcia \U0001f50d (@alexgarcia_atx) May 7, 2021
Growth-Hacking.
PayPal growth-hacked its way to 5M users in 3 months.
Tinder used sororities and frats to 3x their user base.
Steal these 7 growth-hacking strategies that led to millions of users\U0001f9f5
47. 15 Lessons to write viral Twitter threads
Twitter threads are the new blogs.
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A thread of marketing tools. Some you may have heard of, some you definitely haven't.
Each link is an affiliate link. The 98 tools linked to here are just a small part of the 5k+ tools listed on https://t.co/3wamEl3B3Q
1/99
Logic Hop
https://t.co/yohwqYclMi
Logic Hop brings content personalization to WordPress. Personalized marketing is suddenly easy: more sales, more leads, and more revenue. Plus, integration with the services you already use.
2/99
Improvely
https://t.co/bXiZPYQk4Y
Improvely shows you where your conversions and revenue are coming from so that you can spend more time on marketing that works, and stop wasting money on poorly converting traffic
3/99
HumCommerce
https://t.co/vgdCvgajpx
An analytics tool which records ALL visitor activities. It even tells you keywords for which you’re ranking on Google and Bing!
4/99
OptInMonster
https://t.co/m7Tvrgwue3
Powerful lead generation software that converts abandoning visitors into subscribers with our dynamic marketing tools and Exit Intent® technology.
5/99
Each link is an affiliate link. The 98 tools linked to here are just a small part of the 5k+ tools listed on https://t.co/3wamEl3B3Q
1/99
Logic Hop
https://t.co/yohwqYclMi
Logic Hop brings content personalization to WordPress. Personalized marketing is suddenly easy: more sales, more leads, and more revenue. Plus, integration with the services you already use.
2/99
Improvely
https://t.co/bXiZPYQk4Y
Improvely shows you where your conversions and revenue are coming from so that you can spend more time on marketing that works, and stop wasting money on poorly converting traffic
3/99
HumCommerce
https://t.co/vgdCvgajpx
An analytics tool which records ALL visitor activities. It even tells you keywords for which you’re ranking on Google and Bing!
4/99
OptInMonster
https://t.co/m7Tvrgwue3
Powerful lead generation software that converts abandoning visitors into subscribers with our dynamic marketing tools and Exit Intent® technology.
5/99
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Viruses and other pathogens are often studied as stand-alone entities, despite that, in nature, they mostly live in multispecies associations called biofilms—both externally and within the host.
https://t.co/FBfXhUrH5d
Microorganisms in biofilms are enclosed by an extracellular matrix that confers protection and improves survival. Previous studies have shown that viruses can secondarily colonize preexisting biofilms, and viral biofilms have also been described.
...we raise the perspective that CoVs can persistently infect bats due to their association with biofilm structures. This phenomenon potentially provides an optimal environment for nonpathogenic & well-adapted viruses to interact with the host, as well as for viral recombination.
Biofilms can also enhance virion viability in extracellular environments, such as on fomites and in aquatic sediments, allowing viral persistence and dissemination.
Viruses and other pathogens are often studied as stand-alone entities, despite that, in nature, they mostly live in multispecies associations called biofilms—both externally and within the host.
https://t.co/FBfXhUrH5d
Microorganisms in biofilms are enclosed by an extracellular matrix that confers protection and improves survival. Previous studies have shown that viruses can secondarily colonize preexisting biofilms, and viral biofilms have also been described.
...we raise the perspective that CoVs can persistently infect bats due to their association with biofilm structures. This phenomenon potentially provides an optimal environment for nonpathogenic & well-adapted viruses to interact with the host, as well as for viral recombination.
Biofilms can also enhance virion viability in extracellular environments, such as on fomites and in aquatic sediments, allowing viral persistence and dissemination.
