Build Your Business and Change the World
The Book
Adapt or Die
People & Processes
The answers to success in life and business
Over the last twenty years, Tom Douglas built an innovative, industry-leading business that Inc. magazine listed as one of the fastest-growing companies in the nation for nine consecutive years. He did this by putting people at the center of every decision and building processes to help each person on his team do their best work. The stories, processes, areas of focus, and activities in this book will arm you with the strategies and tactics Tom learned along the way, so you can skip the painful learning curves and get faster, more effortless results as you write your own success story.
Our Mission
Build better leaders who run better companies that result in better lives.
“I believe we can change the world one leader, one teammate, and one business at a time. When we empower people to be their best, their lives and the lives of their family and friends improve as increased self-confidence and self-worth have a domino effect. That changes the world.” –Thomas H. Douglas
The Author
Meet Thomas H. Douglas
- Tom has led his company to 9 consecutive appearances on the Inc. 5000, something only 1% of CEOs who make the list ever achieve.
- Tom joined JMARK as a level one engineer and worked his way up the ranks before purchasing the company in 2001. As CEO, he soon formulated processes which provided repeatable outcomes and a predictable revenue stream, putting JMARK on a growth trajectory that continues to this day and transforming the way the region engaged with technology.
- Tom is a trusted technology adviser to a global list of clients, an innovator in managed services, and an engaging speaker on topics such as executive strategies, entrepreneur tactics, technology trends, IT maturity methodologies, cybersecurity, and other leadership and technology subjects.
What You’ll Achieve
- Master the Algorithm of Success. Learn the eight pillars of an unbeatable business and how to create alignment that fosters innovation and growth.
- Every product is a promise to your customer. Adapt or Die will help you keep those promises by showing how to implement the processes that create predictable, repeatable outcomes as you deliver products and services that will earn you lifelong clients and fans.
- Put people at the center of your business. Foster a people-first culture in your organization and leverage that environment to attract and retain the best teammates and unlock the true potential of the people who will generate success for you company.
- Learn to lead through change. Growth is change. Become the leader who helps your people and organization come out stronger on the other side.
- Financial stability for your company and your self. Walk through the process of piecing together a financial model that will give you vision into every part of your business so that you can make informed, data-driven decisions to guide the future of your company.
- Resolve operational challenges. Every business grows in stages, and, at times, “growing pains” can create impediments and slow you down. Learn the processes that break down barriers between teams and speed up workflows to keep you moving forward.
Reviews
What Other Leaders and Readers Are Saying
This book catalogs the many journeys, complete with struggles and “knee scrapes”, of starting a business, building that business, and learning that it is not about the business OF BUSINESS but about the work-culture that powers that business. The author’s open narrative is almost a day by day, event by event, on the many challenges that might strike a growing business. The author learns along that journey that the work-culture was going to be the fuel to power the engines of success and allow the company not only to survive but to thrive. I look forward to a sequel with the author looking back on what successes lasted the test of time and inevitable change but also what work-culture impacts had the greatest impact on his personal life. I found the book to be engaging, thought-provoking and written in a manner which was easy to digest.
I have read a minimum of 100 business books a year since 1989. Most are repetitive and mundane. This one is not. It’s evident that the author knows what he’s talking about. He has taken his years of personal experience and created an “algorithm” for what every small business (or large business) needs to focus on to succeed. A great story with lots of fantastic ideas, advice, and tools. Most importantly, it was written in such a way that I could immediately start to implement what I was learning. I’m going to make sure that everybody on my team reads it, I know it’s going to improve our business greatly. This book was a superb investment of my time and money. Definitely a five-star.
Tom Douglas makes it clear in a very practical way that your ability to adapt is essential to the survival of your business. Then he goes beyond that to show how making a difference in the world and for your people need not be deleterious to the bottom line. In fact, he points towards a surprising intersection between your people’s success and your business’s success, the value of doing the right thing throughout the organization, and showing us the steps of how to get there. This is a very readable book full of wisdom you can implement to combat difficulties we all know all too well. Don’t miss this opportunity!