What is Scaling Up?
Scaling Up provides executive education, coaching and technology services to help mid-market companies around the world build and execute a strategic plan. Best known for our One-Page Strategic Plan and other one-page tools, Scaling Up focuses on helping executive teams make the right decisions when it comes to four key areas: people, strategy, execution and cash.
Executive education with Scaling Up consists of attending live events — such as our semi-annual ScaleUp Summit — and online seminars focusing on issues related to strategic planning. Our faculty includes leading business experts such as Seth Godin, Pat Lencioni, Geoff Smart, Jack Stack and Neil Rackham.
Scale Smarter
Scaling Up Coaches’ Scaling Up Methodology™ arms entrepreneurs and executives with strategic tools to help them grow their businesses. The method includes, but is not limited to:
- Creation of a sustainable company culture
- Development of a solid business strategy, using the One-Page Strategic Plan™
- Execution of the plan using tools such the Rockefeller Habits Checklist™
- Exclusive cash acceleration strategies
John Ratliff
John is currently CEO of Scaling Up Coaches and Managing Director & Partner of align5 advisors. In his leadership role of Scaling Up Coaches, John will be utilizing years of business experience and relationships with business thought leaders to grow a dynamic community of coaches impacting entrepreneurs and scaling companies around the globe. With over 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur, CEO and investment banker, he co-founded align5 advisors in 2013 (in partnership with STS Capital) to advise growth company entrepreneurs and family enterprises on a variety of strategic issues including sell-side and buy-side M&A.
Before founding align5 advisors, John was a Managing Director with STS Capital Partners, a boutique investment bank specializing in middle market M&A.
John was also the President and CEO of Appletree Answers, a telephone answering service company he founded in 1995. He grew the company organically by implementing strategies from Rockefeller Habits 2.0, and through a series of acquisitions to 24 U.S. locations and 650 employees. John sold Appletree Answers to a strategic buyer in June 2012. John is passionate about strategy, company culture and employee engagement. In addition to growing the company's revenue and profitability, Appletree Answers had a remarkably low turnover rate of 18% versus the industry average of 110%.
John comes into his role in the coaching organization having spent the last 5 years as a strategic advisor to Verne Harnish and Scaling Up. He is active in Virgin Unite, a charitable foundation created by Sir Richard Branson.
John lives in Wilmington, Delaware, with his wife Lynne and their three children. As an avid pilot, John flies his TBM 850 single-engine turboprop plane for both business and pleasure.
Verne Harnish
Verne Harnish is founder of the world-renowned Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO), with more than 13,000 members worldwide. For 15 years he chaired EO's premiere CEO program, the "Birthing of Giants" held at MIT, a program he still teaches today.
Founder and CEO of Scaling Up, a global executive education and coaching company with more than 200 partners on six continents, Verne has spent the past three decades helping companies scale up.
The "Growth Guy" syndicated columnist, he's also the Venture columnist for FORTUNE magazine. He's the author of the bestselling Mastering the Rockefeller Habits which has been translated into 9 languages; and along with the editors of Fortune, authored The Greatest Business Decisions of All Times, for which Jim Collins wrote the foreword. His latest book Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0) has won eight major international book awards including the prestigious 2015 International Book Award for Best General Business book. Verne also chairs two bi-annual ScaleUp Summits in collaboration with Bloomberg LIVE, and serves on several boards including chairman of The Riordan Clinic and the newly launched Geoversity.
A private investor in many scale-ups, Verne enjoys piano, tennis, and magic as a card-carrying member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.
Advisory Board
Thank you to the Scaling Up Coaches Advisory Board, a group of esteemed business coaches from multiple industries who serve as guiding members of our coaching community. They provide advice, assistance, and support to fellow coaches, drawing from their unique expertise in various Scaling Up sectors and/or geographical regions. The Advisory Board also shares an expansive knowledge of learning, building the right talent, and organizational development in the entrepreneurial world.
Brad Feld
Jeff Hoffman
Rick Kash
Tom Stewart
Jack Stack
Global Board of Influencers
Scaling Up Coaches looks to the experiences of these established business leaders, world-renowned speakers, and entrepreneurs to guide John, Verne, and our community on our Scaling Up journeys.
Brad Feld - Early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Co-founder of Foundry Group, Mobius Venture Capital and Techstars; founder of Intensity Ventures. Writer and speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship. Author of multiple books as part of the Startup Revolution series and writes the blogs Feld Thoughts and Venture Deals.
Jeff Hoffman - Successful entrepreneur, proven CEO, worldwide motivational speaker, published author, Hollywood film producer, and a producer of a Grammy-winning jazz album in 2015. Founder of multiple startups, former CEO of both public and private companies, and has served as a senior executive in many capacities for well-known companies including Priceline.com. uBid.com, ColorJar, and more. Serves on the boards of global companies supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses in more than 150 countries, including the boards of Global Entrepreneurship Week and The Unreasonable Group. Co-author of the book SCALE, a how-to guide for growing your business. A featured business expert seen on Fox News, Fox Business, CNN, CNN International, Bloomberg News, CNBC, ABC, and NPR, and in publications including Forbes, Inc., Time, Fast Company, the Wall Street Journal, and more. Recipient of both the Lifetime Achievement Award from the national CEO council for his contributions to the field of entrepreneurship, and the Champion of Entrepreneurship Award.
Rick Kash - Vice Chair of Nielsen, founder of The Cambridge Group; co-author of How Companies Win and the author of The New Law of Demand and Supply: The Revolutionary New Demand Strategy for Faster Growth and Higher Profits; former co-founder of Spectra Marketing Systems, and a member of the United States Senate Business Forum.
Tom Stewart - Senior academic, publishing and marketing executive; author/editor, publisher, and management expert; co-discovered and co-developed the concepts of knowledge-based businesses and the role of intellectual capital and thought leadership in strategy. Experience in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors; C-suite marketing and knowledge-management leader.
Jack Stack - Founder, President and CEO of SRC Holdings Corporation; called the “smartest strategist in America” by Inc. Magazine and one of the “top 10 minds in small business” by Fortune Magazine; A pioneer of the leadership model known as open-book management, and the author of two books on the subject - The Great Game of Business and A Stake in the Outcome.
