Enabling success and efficiency
There is a simple formula for turning a small to medium sized business (10 - 150 staff) into a smooth running, powerful and efficient engine of success:
(EOS + 2HEM) x T
Sounds technical, but it's really quite simple, but not simplistic. It's all about your team. We help you and your people follow the formula, to implement the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), adopt 2 Highly Effective Meeting structures, and use Technology to multiply the impact on your team, customers and your business.
Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS)
Most people don't get in their car and turn the key, without knowing where they want to go, and confident that the engine will run smoothly.
Having your business as a smooth running engine allows you to navigate and run a successful business, coping with whatever challenges and diversions occur each day.
What is the best smooth running engine though? That depends on "where you want to go". In a car, if you want to cruise comfortably to a destination hundreds of miles across the country, you may want a silky smooth BMW straight 6. To race around a race track, you may prefer a high revving V8 or V12 in a Ferrari; or you might prefer light and moderately powerful 4 cylinder in a Caterham or Elise may be perfect. It depends on your vision and the rules of the race. If you're regularly popping to the nearest town, an efficient 1 litre engine, or electric motors may be best. In each case, it's a case of choosing the right engine for where you want to get to. Of course if you want to get to the other side of the world, a jet engine in a plane may be the best way if you want to get there fast, or a big diesel engine in a ship if you want to move a large amount of cargo more slowly. To go to the moon, a rocket will be best.
The same applies in business - there is no single right team or details of how to work. What you do and how you work is makes your business special unique. But there are some straightforward tools that will help businesses with 10 - 250 staff build the right smooth running engine, based upon the business's goals of where you want to go - the equivalent of the difference between electric motors, 4 cylinder, 6 cylinder, 12 cylinder, jet engine, diesel marine engine or rocket.
EOS gives business leaders the tools to create and set that vision, shared by all in the team. It also helps to choose the right style of engine, to then build the smooth running engine that will help the team deliver on the vision of success as efficiently and enjoyable as possible with:
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The right people, in the right seats
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The data - a scorecard and measurables - to enable good decision making
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Processes documented, and followed by all - to ensure consistent quality to customers
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Issues identified and solved - to respond and adapt to the real world
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Getting traction with a weekly meeting pulse aligned to quarterly objectives
Dave Abraham is an experienced EOS "Integrator" (what would typically be called a CEO, or Managing Director, which are both titles that he's held over the years). He helps founders and their management teams to focus on and deliver their vision, as big or as small as they wish. He does this either by helping them self-implement EOS by becoming a part-time Integrator, or by helping develop their existing Integrator through training and guiding their management team.
He says "EOS is brilliant at giving clarity and a consistent model of the core minimum set of things that every good business should have. EOS knows its limits, it doesn't have try to do everything, just define what must be at the core. The one addition to EOS, that I almost always add, is 2 highly effective meetings - daily huddles for teams, and management teams. This is the one structure that is in the book Rockefeller Habits, that isn't included in the book Traction which introduced EOS to the world. EOS doesn't say you shouldn't do daily huddles, it just doesn't mandate that you should. I usually find they're invaluable.
Therefore I apply EOS, add the 2 daily meeting huddles. And then we apply appropriate technology to turbocharge the structure."
If you run an SME with 10 - 250 staff, and have a clear vision of success, whether that's large or small, and you have the team, processes and systems in place to deliver that success, that is fantastic. We hope all your dreams come true, and I'm sure they will, if you keep focused on that vision.
If you run an SME with 10 - 250 staff, and would like some help either getting your vision of clear, or would like help making the appropriate adjustments to turn your team, processes, or systems to turn them into a smooth running engine of success to confidently get to your goals, then feel free to contact us.
We'd love to discuss and understand you a little more of what success means to you, and together decide whether we can help enable your success.
Dashboards, reporting and the scorecard
People make the best decisions if they have good information to inform their mental model of the world.
One key to build an open and successful business, is to create a "data democracy". Give your staff as access to information, in relevant, easy to access ways, with appropriate security controls. Not everyone needs all data. And too much data can be overwhelming. A scorecard for each team, feeding into a management scorecard, is a key ingredient.
A key step in building a great company, with a data democracy, is visualising what is going on within an organisation. And using visual tools to understand and evolve. Often, instinctively people feel they know. But beyond a company of 8-10 staff, it is amazing how different reality can be from the feeling. And especially the ability to spot trends and see what is going to happen, before it happens.
The EOS scorecard is a superb way of visualising this.
Often producing the measurables can take significant effort. But it's a necessary step to go through to make sure the team understands the driver of the business, and how to use the systems in the business. We used to go straight to implementing a dashboard. Now we slow down slightly, for the greater good, and iterate the scorecard for a few weeks, before automating it with a dashboard.
Therefore once you've identified your scorecard measurables, one key step is to ensure that as many of the measurables can be produced automatically. To do this we implement a dashboard for a team by using live data from their existing systems. This dramatically streamlines the data democracy and access to information and helps an organisation evolve and improve with only minor interventions to shape processes. We typically work with PowerBI and Brightguage, and work directly with SQL to give you real time data from your systems.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
In order to produce the measurables on a scorecard and dashboard, you need your data in a suitable system. You shouldn't be creating scorecard measurables just for the sake of the scorecard with manual effort. It should come from the data in systems that actually help people do their job better. Typically this is a CRM or ERP system. Some people may just call it "the system".
We help companies align their IT systems to their business strategy (rather than vice versa!). We have worked with "standard" CRM systems Salesforce.com, MS Dynamics and CapsuleCRM to industry specific systems as diverse as Connectwise for IT Managed service providers and Gamma for Tourist Attractions - we have worked with many, and they all have something in common.
CRM, financial systems, other line of business/ERP systems help optimise and manage an organisation's relationship with its customers, from initial sale, delivery of the product or service, and ongoing further sales.
We can help you make the most of your systems, and your people, and align them all to your business strategy, and use the data within them to drive the access and clarity of data.
Usually, by visualising the data within the systems, you discover the data is not perfect. This is fine. To use the phrase "sunlight is the best disinfectant" - we find that by helping teams visualise the data in their systems, it very quickly gives reason and purpose to use the CRM and other systems better.
