The Amp It Up Fieldbook: A Guide for Leaders, Teams, and Facilitators

By Frank Slootman

Hyper scale your organization with practical prompts and exercises

Snowflake's chairman and former CEO Frank Slootman, one of Silicon Valley’s most respected figures in tech leadership, has penned the Amp It Up Fieldbook to help leaders grow any organization by challenging the status quo every day, getting used to making conflicted trade-offs, avoiding incrementalism, refocusing resources to the only places where they count, and being uncompromisingly objective.

Building on Slootman’s wildly successful book, Amp It Up, this fieldbook helps readers easily apply his conceptual first principles, mindsets, and tactical advice to their own organizations and careers.

Readers will learn about:

• How to align people around first principles that guide change and execute with urgency and intensity every day
• Maximizing growth and scale without making expensive changes to talent, structure, or fundamental business models
• The three essential characteristics of great mission statements, and why Slootman chose Snowflake’s current mission statement, broken down word-by-word
• How to identify personal blind spots that keep us from achieving our best

With firsthand insight gleaned from Slootman’s personal experience over three decades of building hyper-growth companies, the Amp It Up Fieldbook earns a well-deserved spot on the bookshelves of leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs looking to take their organizations and careers to the next level.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wiley
• Release date: May 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9781394245031

Book preview

Cover: The Amp It Up Fieldbook by Frank Slootman

Table of Contents

Cover

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Preface

HOW TO USE THE FIELDBOOK

WHO THE FIELDBOOK IS FOR

GETTING STARTED

1 Introduction: The Power of Amping Up

GET THE LAY OF THE LAND

ORGANIZATIONAL SCAN

2 My Journey from Teenage Toilet Cleaner to Serial CEO

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

TOUGH TIMES

YOU AS A LEADER

3 Make Your Organization Mission Driven

DRAFT YOUR MISSION

BIG, BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE

CLARIFY YOUR MISSION

MEASURING YOUR MISSION

LIVING THE MISSION EVERY DAY

4 Declare War on Your Competitors and on Incrementalism

KNOW YOUR ENEMY

KNOW YOURSELF

BANISH INCREMENTALISM

ADOPT A GROWTH MINDSET

OUTPACE YOUR COMPETITION WITH A GROWTH PLAN

LEADING YOUR TEAM INTO BATTLE

5 Put Execution Ahead of Strategy

SET A CAREER PATH FOR EXECUTION EXCELLENCE

EVALUATE YOUR EXECUTION: ON YOUR OWN

CONSIDER ALTERNATIVES

EVALUATE YOUR STRATEGY: WITH YOUR TEAM

6 Hire Drivers, Not Passengers, and Get the Wrong People Off the Bus

DRIVERS AND PASSENGERS

MAKE ROOM FOR MORE DRIVERS

DRIVE ACTIVE RECRUITMENT

PERFORM ACTIVE CALIBRATION

7 Build a Strong Culture

CLARIFY YOUR CULTURAL VALUES

CULTURE THROUGH ACCOUNTABILITY

PROTECT YOUR CULTURE

8 Teach Everyone to Go Direct and Build Mutual Trust

IDENTIFY SILOS

GO DIRECT

STEP INTO A HIGH-TRUST ENVIRONMENT

9 Put Analysis Before Solutions

WHEN THE SOLUTION IS THE PROBLEM

DIAGNOSE YOUR PROBLEM

PRE-INTERVIEW PLANNING

NEW-HIRE CALIBRATION

IMPROVING FUTURE ANALYSIS

10 Align Incentives for Customer Success

SUPPORT YOUR CUSTOMERS AT EVERY LEVEL

11 Ramp Up Sales

GET THE TIMING RIGHT

CROSS THE CHASM

ESTABLISH YOUR PROCESS

EVALUATING RESOURCES

12 Grow Fast or Die Slow

BUILD YOUR GROWTH MODEL

BEATING THE COMPETITION

KEEP GETTING BIGGER

MANAGING COSTS

13 Stay Scrappy as You Scale Up

PEG YOUR EXPENSES TO YOUR STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT

THE RIGHT LEADER FOR YOUR STATE OF DEVELOPMENT

14 Materialize Your Opportunities

SURVEY THE LANDSCAPE

TAKE THE MARKET'S VITALS

LOOK END TO END

DETERMINE YOUR TECH

KEEP LOOKING AHEAD

15 Open the Aperture

IDENTIFY SUPER-GROWER POTENTIAL

LAY THE GROUNDWORK FOR YOUR EXPANSION

PLAN TO TRANSFORM YOUR STRATEGY

WIDEN THE APERTURE

ICE OUT THE COMPETITION

16 Swing for the Fences

PLAN THE NEXT SHIFT

DEFINE YOUR STRATEGY EVOLUTION

17 Amp Up Your Career

PRODUCT-MANAGE YOURSELF

FIND YOUR APTITUDE

DEFINE YOUR PATH

STAY THE COURSE

18 Not Just for CEOs: Dealing with Founders and Boards

UNPACK THE FOUNDER MYTHOLOGY

TREAD LIGHTLY

DEFINE THE BOARD'S ROLE

LEAD YOUR BOARD

CONSIDER YOUR PERSONAL BOARD

19 Conclusion: Great Leaders Have Great Outcomes

TRACK YOUR OUTCOMES

ORGANIZATIONAL SCAN

Index

End User License Agreement

FRANK SLOOTMAN

Chairman and Former CEO of Snowflake, Inc.

THE AMP IT UP FIELDBOOK

A Guide for Leaders, Teams, and Facilitators

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Published simultaneously in Canada.

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