• The Founder's Mentality

  • How to Overcome the Predictable Crises of Growth
  • By: James Allen, Chris Zook
  • Narrated by: Robert Feifar
  • Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (432 ratings)

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The Founder's Mentality  By  cover art

The Founder's Mentality

By: James Allen,Chris Zook
Narrated by: Robert Feifar
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Publisher's summary

Why is profitable growth so hard to achieve and sustain? Most executives manage their companies as if the solution to that problem lies in the external environment - find an attractive market, formulate the right strategy, win new customers. But when Bain & Company's Chris Zook and James Allen (authors of the best-selling Profit from the Core) researched this question, they found that when companies fail to achieve their growth targets, 90 percent of the time the root causes are internal, not external - increasing distance from the front lines, loss of accountability, proliferating processes and bureaucracy, to name only a few. What's more, companies experience a set of predictable internal crises, at predictable stages, as they grow. Even for healthy companies, these crises, if not managed properly, stifle the ability to grow further - and can actively lead to decline.

The key insight from Zook and Allen's research is that managing these choke points requires a "founder's mentality" - behaviors typically embodied by a bold, ambitious founder - to restore the speed, focus, and connection to customers, all of which are lost as companies grow:

  • An insurgent's clear mission and purpose
  • An unambiguous owner mind-set
  • A relentless obsession with the front line

Based on the authors' decade-long study of companies in more than 40 countries, The Founder's Mentality demonstrates the strong relationship between these three traits in companies of all kinds - not just start-ups - and their ability to sustain performance. Through rich analysis and inspiring examples, this book shows how any leader - not only a founder - can instill and leverage a founder's mentality throughout their organization and find lasting, profitable growth.

©2016 Bain & Company, Inc. (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about The Founder's Mentality

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Actionable book

Great book with actionable items to ensure long term growth. I like that it provides perspectives at all levels of an organization.

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brochures bore me

Great title, disappointing content... entirely 3rd party indirect research and anecdotes packaged on a standard MBA candidate's business coaching sales pitch brochure. Assumedly the authors are actually authentic small biz founders as well, but you'd never know it by this book. they bring mom real world authenticity or insight, strictly library reference material style... seemingly narrated by an unrelated contract voice actor (nice guy, I'm sure... no visceral ownership of the content.)

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Listen at 1.25 speed

Great content. Not crazy about reader. Needed to listen on 1.25x speed in order to stay engaged

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Lots of good tips

One of the. Est books I have listed a long time. I really enjoyed it from the start until the end. Thank you

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Yearly reading

Great reading and learning. Suitable for difficult times but also for the ones seeking to innovate and ramp up new business, or transform existing ones

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Avoid this unless you love buzz word & CEO worship

Honestly one of the worst books I've ever read. Statistics without sources, making CEOs into some sort of powerful beings. For a book that stresses "front line obsession" I would be embarrassed to show our front line workers that we are using this book to drive company culture. 0/10, support front line workers.

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Insufferable Narrator

This is a good book and I was looking forward to listening to it, but it is very difficult to pay attention when the person narrating uses weird intonations on a pretty straightforward business book. I am using the 1.2x speed trick that someone suggested. It helps a little bit.

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Very nice piece to improve your sales and business

I love it, this is a very nice information to grow your business, and it would be apply to live too.

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Amazing!!!

Very recommended reading for leaders in fast growing companies!
A lot of real cases of companies wich have struggled during de growth process.

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Bad Narrator, Pretty High Level

The narrator sounded like a headline news anchor. His delivery made it hard to focus at times and I had to speed up the audio to 1.2x to even make it bearable.

I think the topic is extremely interesting however the content was too high level. instead of coming off as scholarly this came off like a series of anecdotes. The case studies should have been way more detailed. Ultimately you can get this information via a 15 minute YouTube video.

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