Built for Growth: How Builder Personality Shapes Your Business, Your Team, and Your Ability to Win

by Chris Kuenne, John Danner

Overview

A Wall Street Journal Bestseller
Are You a Driver, an Explorer, a Crusader, or a Captain?
Many factors shape the success or failure of a new business, whether it’s a stand-alone startup or a venture inside a larger corporation. But the most important and least understood of these factors is the personality of the entrepreneur, the particular combination of beliefs and preferences that drives his or her motivation, decision making, and leadership style. And your builder personality is the one resource you can directly control in growing a business that wins. Simply put, who you are shapes how you build for growth.
Built for Growth decodes the interplay between builder personality and new business success. Using a patented analytic methodology, authors Chris Kuenne and John Danner discovered four distinct types of highly successful entrepreneurial personalities the Driver, the Explorer, the Crusader, and the Captain. Each is motivated, makes decisions, manages, and leads their businesses differently.
Kuenne and Danner blend pioneering research and exclusive personal interviews to illustrate how each type handles the five dynamic challenges in building a business of lasting value: converting ideas into products, galvanizing individual talent for collaborative impact, transforming buyers into partners, aligning financial and other supporters, and scaling the business.
With assessments and tools, including a brief Builder Personality quiz and in-depth profiles of each builder type, Built for Growth is the ultimate guide for how to play to your strengths, complement and compensate for your gaps, and build a successful business from startup to scale-up. Its vivid stories and practical advice show how you can unlock the potential of your builder personality to shape your business, your team, and your ability to win in the marketplace.
Please visit builtforgrowthbook.com to learn more and access the Builder Personality Discovery tool.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781633692763
Publisher:	Harvard Business Review Press
Publication date:	06/06/2017
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Chris Kuenne is a successful business builder, growth capital investor, and member of Princeton University’s entrepreneurship faculty. He is the founder of Rosetta, a digital marketing firm sold in 2011 to Publicis Groupe, and the private equity firm Rosemark Capital. He is a frequent speaker to business and entrepreneurial audiences, including the Young Presidents’ Organization, CFO Roundtable, Association for Corporate Growth, and numerous venture capital and industry conferences.

John Danner is a senior fellow at the University of California Berkeley’s Institute for Business Innovation and serves on the faculty of both the Haas School of Business and Princeton University. An experienced entrepreneur and business adviser, he anchors executive leadership courses globally. He speaks widely on innovation, strategy, and entrepreneurship, keynoting corporate events and premier international conferences, and his work is frequently cited in major business media. He is the coauthor of The Other “F” Word: How Smart Leaders, Teams, and Entrepreneurs Put Failure to Work.

Table of Contents

1 Builder Personality: The Essential Force for Growth 1

Part 1 The Builders of Growth: How Drivers, Explorers, Crusaders, and Captains Build Differently

2 The Driver: Relentless, Commercially Focused, and Highly Confident 28

3 The Explorer: Curious, Systems-Centric, and Dispassionate 58

4 The Crusader: Audacious, Mission-Inspired, and Compassionate 88

5 The Captain: Pragmatic, Team-Enabling, and Direct 118

Part 2 Assembling Your Best Crews for Growth: Finding Those Who Best Leverage Your Builder Personality

6 Partnering With Cobuilders: Choosing Collaborators Who Fit You Best 153

7 Recruiting Your Inside Team: Selecting the People Who Work Best with You 175

8 Attracting Your Best Financial Sponsors: Powering Vision with the Right Capital 187

Part 3 Becoming the Best Builder You Can Be: Strategies for Enhancing Your Impact

9 Expanding Your Repertoire: Growing Beyond the Limits of Your Own Personality 211

Appendix A Our Research Methodology: How We Decoded the Secrets of Entrepreneurial Builders 231

Appendix B Builder Archetypes: Response Patterns for Each Builder Type 243

Notes 249

Index 255

Acknowledgments 263

About the Authors 267

Editorial Reviews

Advance praise for Built for Growth:

Alex Gorsky, Chairman and CEO, Johnson & Johnson—
“In order to achieve long-term growth, large corporations must foster the entrepreneurial spirit. Built for Growth provides a practical framework on how corporate leaders can foster, deploy, and support entrepreneurs inside their companies to unleash innovation and growth.”

Steve Blank, inspiration for the Lean Startup movement; coauthor, The Startup Owner’s Manual—
“Product-market fit is central to the Lean Startup movement. In this essential book, Kuenne and Danner focus on the fit between the founder’s personality and the teams, customers, and investors needed to build for growth. A must-read!”

Alan Blinder, former Vice Chairman, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve; former member, Council of Economic Advisers—
“The ancient Greek philosophers advised us to ‘know thyself.’ Kuenne and Danner agree, and they argue that the personality of the founder is one of the key elements in the growth of a new business. To find out what kind of actual or potential entrepreneur you are, read this fascinating book.”

Paul Maeder, cofounder, Highland Capital Partners; former Chairman, National Venture Capital Association—
“Built for Growth provides investors and founders alike with a pragmatic guide on how best to select and work with one another.”

Jeff Hoffman, cofounder, Priceline.com; cofounder, ColorJar—
“The title says it all. Built for Growth is a must-read for any entrepreneur, startup team member, investor, or executive committed to growing a successful large-scale business that lasts.”

From the Publisher