Grady Hesters and his wife, Linda Olsen, have run two companies honored by Inc. -- the first was Newman Communications, which placed on the Inc. 100 list of fastest-growing public companies, followed by The Audio Partners, which ranked on the Inc. 500 in 1992 and 1994. As with many entrepreneurs, there were lessons learned along the way -- including those gained after Newman's stock crashed and the company imploded in 1987. Hesters is now in a position to share the lessons -- the good as well as the bad -- with his daughter, Anna Olsen, and the growing small business where she is COO, Raising a Reader. Here, he writes about consulting to RAR in which he passed along some Inc. 500 lessons.

I immediately recognized symmetry between my daughter's organization and my own business ventures. Raising a Reader was founded in 1999 through Peninsula Community Foundation's Center for Venture Philanthropy. In five years, RAR has expanded to serve 56,000 children each year throughout the U.S. and in four countries.

The Audio Partners' companies are best known as the Audio Editions Books on Cassette & CD catalog and website. Since last appearing on the Inc. 500 list in 1994, The Audio Partners has grown almost 400%.

Both companies are committed to books and literacy, both are value-added packagers and resellers working in the publishing industry, and both have to produce a "profit" to survive and thrive. With a five-year 1,000% increase in revenues, RAR is climbing a steep growth path with the excitement and loose gravel that is so familiar to Inc. 500 winners.

Behind RAR's astronomical growth were the solid leadership skills of founder and president Carol Welsh Gray and a very capable board recruited from Silicon Valley. I wondered if I could really offer much value in the limited time I was able to commit.

It will not surprise Inc. 500 alumni who have volunteered time to share knowledge that it is the volunteer who learns the most. Here are general observations that I have shared with RAR and taken back to The Audio Partners as a refresher course.

First, it was fascinating to learn about venture philanthropy as a method of attracting results-oriented donors to start up and expand self-sustaining service organizations. This also means the models, lessons, and accountability techniques used to build profit-oriented companies can be applied directly to non-profit enterprises.

Second, for a growth-company executive who spends year after year in constant negotiation with all stakeholders, the luxury of problem-solving as an uninvolved observer gave me new perspectives on my own challenges.

Third, as I pushed Anna to think strategically about RAR's growth, I realized that the same questions and challenges are common to all growing organizations. How much to outsource before you compromise the core competencies or lose control of costs? How do you manage and control outsourced or delegated tasks? How do you delegate enough authority and responsibility to get the job done? How do you maintain and improve margin against a rapidly changing background of competition, technology, and inflation?

Fourth, all problems and challenges tend to be manageable or even avoidable if we stay true to basic principles and remember lessons learned. Here are some of mine:

• Leadership with Vision, Values, and Goals supersedes Management with Plans, Organization, and Controls. RAR has great leadership that has carried it through the early hands-on stages of growth and now is developing the management organization and skills as it moves to the next level.
• Assume goodwill and take nothing for granted. Be clear, ask nicely, trust, follow-up, and double-check.
• Everyone and everything counts. Success is created by people and relationships and by watching the details ferociously. Connect with people in person, communicate, and make it personal. People are social animals (e-mail is only a back-up system). The sooner you spot a problem the easier it is to fix and watching closely is the best preventative. It is said that you can count on people to do what is counted.
• Profits aren't a reward for good behavior, they are as necessary as products and services and your budget should include a profit target. (I learned that one at an Inc. 500 conference.)

Finally, in addition to being a proud father, the greatest pleasure for me in assisting Raising a Reader is getting to know other members of Anna's smart, young, well-educated staff and to know that dedicated people of such high caliber are carrying forward values so vital to our culture and civilization.