Rocket Fuel Book Review - 10 Ideas

In this blog post, I am going to give you a Rocket Fuel book review, and the 10 big ideas which Kev has taken from this book. This is going to be a fantastic blog post for you, because you are a business owner and you will most likely be able to relate to many of the stories which are given in this book. So, you as a business owner of a founder, will most likely have big goals and visions of what you want to create, but you are also not afraid of taking action each day. You may feel like you are doing admin, accounting, sales and operations - you are doing a bit of everything, and throughout your journey, as you start to build your business, and you start to create teams and systems, then over time, this book will become very relevant to you.

This is the book called Rocket Fuel, and the Rocket Fuel book is really targeting the visionaries and integrators within the business. 

In this blog post, I am going to give you Kev's 10 big ideas.

Introduction to Entrepreneurial Operating System 

This is 6 components - vision, people, data, issues, processes and traction. This has been one of the biggest ideas which Kev has taken from this book. When you are trying to build a business, then you must imply it into your industry. It is not specifically structured to your industry, but you having the experience and knowledge, then you will be able to take what works for you and what doesn't work for you. If you think about the EOS System, it makes sense.

Vision

The first thing is that you must create a vision - whatever this is, you need to have a vision of your future - your businesses future. 

People

Then you need to think of the people. This book talks all about the people and the elements within it, everything from the core values, core focus, accountability and a numerous of different things you can go through.

Data

Once you have got the vision and the people, how do you know that you are moving towards it. The answer is data, something like keeping a KPI report, and see what the states of your business are -  are you moving upwards of downwards? What is the priority of where you need to focus?

Issues

Then the most logical step after this is the issues. This is when the data, the KPIs are not healthy, and it suggests that you have some issues. 

Processors 

Once you are at this point, you are going to want to go into your processors. This is your systems and documentation on how you can systemise your operations to make the data in your data healthy. 

Traction

Once you are this point, you are then going into traction - your annual plan, your 90-day-rocks, quarterly rocks, everything from your Monday meetings to your weekly level 10 meeting.

Visionary and Integrator   

You as a business owner, you will most likely, or if you are running a business or inside of one, you will be able to identify one of these two roles - the visionary or the integrator. You will naturally have a bit of both, but thinking about what you are, and looking at and working solely in that role, will help you rock fuel the growth of your business.

What is the visionary?

The visionary is someone who has those big ideas, ideas for the future, and coming up with many ideas every week. You are looking at how to tackle the big problems, you are solving them, and you are very much an entrepreneur, and you are able to see things before they are done.

What is the integrator?

The integrator is someone from a management point of view, they are the manager of the business, where they love to manage, structure, be able to ensure that the different functions within your business are all operating correctly - they love to have that accountability, making sure that everyone is moving in the right direction. 

Which one are you going to focus on going into the future? Where do you see yourself? Where do you specialise?

Self-Awareness - Who Are You?

Once you have the discovery of whether you are the visionary or the integrator, it is going to feel liberating for you. The more time that you focus on the things that you love to do, that is when you are going to have the creativeness come out of you, and you are going to really repel your business. It is all specifically on who you are. 

Developing the Relationship Between Visionary and Integrator 

There is a great story in the Rocket Fuel book, which is about Ham and Egg, which is about two golfers who are in pairs - one golfer may have a bad shot, then you have another person, the partner, who will do an outstanding shot, and they were in fine balance with each other. If one is quite low, the other may be quite high, and you pop each other up. And it talks about that relationship between the visionary and the integrator.

Accountability Structure 

Sharing with you in your business, a formula for an operational structure, and what it actually looks like visually. First you have your visionary and the integrator at the top, then you have the major functions. Those major functions may be different to everyone depending in what industry you are in, but as a general, you have your finances, your operations, then you have your sales and marketing. This is the major hierarchy of the functions, and it is developing a leadership accountability chart, who is accountability for what and what are they responsible for. This is developing your leadership team.

Issues Solving Track

Specifically IDS, which stands for identify, discuss and solve. This is really giving you a framework on the issues which you may be experiencing. So, going back to the EOS, you have your vision, people, data and now you have your issues. Issues is a big part of business, every day something is happening and something has happened, and you need to go through a great process of identifying what that issue is at the root cause, then discuss with your team and come up with different ideas of what it may be, then how can you solve that issue.

Annual Structure

This is to do with your one-year goals, what your one-year vision is, then breaking that down into quarterly rocks. As you transitioning in your business from a day to day, taking action, as you start to build your team, you need to start expanding your horizon - not from just a day to day, but expanding it from a quarterly point of view - what is it that your teams are focused on over the next. 90 days? Then you decide and commit to those 90-day rocks, then every 90 days you have another leadership meeting and you come up with the next 90 days. 

Level 10 Meeting

This is once a week, getting together with your leadership team, or the people you are closest with, and having a structure for your leadership weekly meeting - this is everything to do with good news and headlines, review of goals, review of scorecards, KPIS, discussing any issues, going into priorities, then getting everyone on the same page.

Team Scorecards

The weekly scorecards are the KPIS across your functions, which are the most important metrics, so in your sales and marketing, leads, sales, and having a pulse on your business - what is actually happening. Are you trending upwards of downwards?

Core Values and Core Focus

It is really important for you to know what your core values are in your business, the DNA of your business, the culture of your business and what is your core focus around the business. As you grow your business and if you are the visionary with all these ideas this is what you want to do, you have got a million and one ideas, but you have got to identify a core focus which keeps you on track that keeps you focused on the one thing instead of trying to become a generalist across multiple things, and starting to specialise on a core focus.

Further reading:

How To Achieve Goals - 3 Tips To Ensure You Achieve Them

How You Can Open 3 Wholesale Accounts In 24 Hours

How to Make Your Business Easy to Sell