Rockefeller's business habits applied to modern company growth

Executive overview

John D. Rockefeller built history's greatest fortune without a high school diploma. His habits — not luck or inheritance — drove that result. Three execution disciplines and one strategic move form the core of what became the Rockefeller Habits framework.

The Rockefeller Habits checklist translates these principles into a diagnostic tool for founders scaling a business today.

The three execution habits

• Priorities: set them regularly with yourself and your leadership team to stay focused on what matters most
• Metrics: track customer, employee, and business performance data via dashboards shared across the company
• Rhythms: lock in annual planning, quarterly updates, monthly and weekly meetings, and daily huddles — schedule everything else around them

Strategic edge: eliminating constraints

• Rockefeller identified the biggest constraint in his business — transportation cost for fuel oil
• Locked up exclusive railroad contracts to gain an unfair cost advantage over competitors
• Pursued horizontal integration by acquiring rivals, which stabilised and lowered oil prices
• Became the dominant fuel supplier and, as a side effect, helped collapse the whaling industry

Applying the checklist

• Score yourself on each item; have your leadership team score themselves independently
• Bring scores together and identify the lowest two
• Pick one habit to work on for three months until it is solidly in place
• Rescore, then move to the next habit
• Over one to two years, the compound effect produces faster growth, more cash, and more profit