Leaders feel stretched
More questions, approvals, and competing priorities demand their attention.
OPERATIONS PRACTICE
When running the business gets
harder than it should be
As a business goes through transitions, growth, acquisitions, new products, geographies, leadership changes or other major changes, leadership finds out that what worked before isn't working now.
We help connect your strategy to the roles, decisions, financial information and operating work your team needs to execute it.
ClarityAccountabilityOperating discipline
RECOGNIZE THE PATTERNS
Growth puts new demands
on the business.
As the business grows, activities multiply, complexity increases, and more decisions need to be made. There are more customers to serve, more people to coordinate, and more commitments to deliver.
The processes, tools, and responsibilities that once worked well may no longer support what the business needs. People spend more time coordinating, waiting for answers, and working around problems to keep things moving.
The business may still be growing and performing well financially. It has simply become harder to run.
Work gets harder
Handoffs multiply, coordination takes more effort, and exceptions become more frequent.
More decisions compete for attention
The volume of decisions grows, and people spend more time waiting for answers.
Results take more effort
Delivering on commitments requires more intervention, workarounds, and follow-up.
WHEN GROWTH OUTRUNS THE OPERATION
The strain shows up in your people. Then in your results.
As volume and complexity grow, the processes and systems that once supported the business may no longer meet the demand. Running it gets harder for everyone, especially the people carrying responsibility at the top.
Employees feel the extra effort first. The P&L begins to show it, too. Delays, rework and unreliable handoffs consume capacity and leak margin. Customers and suppliers feel the inconsistency.
When experienced people leave, the same workload falls on fewer people. Delivery and quality suffer further. If customers buy less or leave, revenue can fall faster than the business can adjust its cost structure. Margins compress and cash comes under pressure.
Address the operating gaps while you still have time and options.
- Demand grows beyond the way the business is organized.
- People work harder to compensate for gaps in the operation.
- Delays, rework and turnover put more pressure on the remaining team.
- Customers experience inconsistent delivery and quality.
- Revenue weakens while added costs remain.
- Margin and cash come under increasing pressure.
WHEREVER WORK HAPPENS
Improve how the
whole business runs.
People, processes, tools, controls, information, and systems need to work together. We look across the business to understand how work moves, where it gets held up, and what your leaders and teams need to deliver consistently. A problem showing up in one area may start somewhere else.
Operating processes, tools and controls that work across all operational environments
Different operations. Shared fundamentals.
A plant floor operates differently from a healthcare practice, a field service team or a digital business. The work, risks and requirements vary. But every operation has inputs, outputs, people and data, and needs visibility into delivery, quality, capacity and cost, along with safety and resource consumption where relevant.
We work alongside your team to understand how those elements connect, where work slows down and where inefficiency consumes capacity or leaks margin. Then we help develop and deploy disciplined operating processes, tools and controls suited to your business, so your people can deliver more consistently and improve performance.
WHERE WE HELP
Where we help improve
the operation.
The priorities depend on your business. We look at the connections between these areas and focus the work where it matters most.
Process flow, capacity and delivery
- Improve workflows and handoffs across functions.
- Find bottlenecks, delays and unused capacity.
- Align staffing, schedules and resources with the work.
- Improve lead times and delivery reliability.
Supply chain and inventory
- Connect purchasing, suppliers and material availability.
- Improve inventory accuracy and controls.
- Reduce excess stock and avoidable shortages.
- Make inventory’s working capital requirements visible.
Demand and capacity planning
- Connect sales forecasts with operating plans.
- Align people, production and resources with demand.
- Coordinate purchasing, capacity and delivery commitments.
- Apply SIOP or S&OP where appropriate.
Cost, expense and quality control
- Understand cost drivers and assign expense ownership.
- Address overtime, rework and margin leakage.
- Strengthen quality standards and operating controls.
- Make gaps visible and follow through on corrective action.
Financial visibility and operating information
- Connect financial information with operating performance.
- Improve timely reporting, forecasts and useful measures.
- Investigate variances and emerging financial pressure.
- Give leaders reliable information for decisions.
Business software and connected data
- Assess financial systems, ERP, CRM and HRIS against the work.
- Connect information across functions and specialty software.
- Clarify requirements, reporting and integration needs.
- Support selection, implementation and adoption with technical specialists where needed.
HOW WE WORK ALONGSIDE YOU
Assess. Improve.
Make it part of the business.
The assessment determines the starting point. We agree on the work, responsibilities and measures of progress around what your operation needs.
Assess the operation
Understand how work gets done, what the data shows, and what is getting in the way. Review workflows, leadership capacity, software and reporting before deciding what needs to change.
What this includes
Assess the Operation
- Understand workflows and handoffs.
- Identify bottlenecks and performance gaps.
- Assess leadership and team capacity.
- Review software and reporting tools.
Prioritize and implement
Agree on the priorities and work alongside your leaders to put changes into practice. Clarify responsibilities and decision authority; improve processes, tools, controls and visibility.
What this includes
Define Operating Rhythms
- Set daily, weekly, and monthly rhythms.
- Focus meetings on decisions and priorities.
- Assign actions and follow-through.
- Build consistency into daily operations.
Clarify Decision Rights & KPIs
- Define the KPIs that matter most.
- Assign ownership of business results.
- Clarify decision and escalation rights.
- Establish a cadence of accountability.
Improve Visual Performance Management
- Build clear dashboards and scorecards.
- Make performance visible to the team.
- Establish consistent reporting.
- Turn gaps into timely action.
Apply Improvement Methods
- Identify waste and unnecessary work.
- Apply practical Lean and CI methods.
- Improve flow, quality, and capacity.
- Make improvements repeatable.
Build ownership and sustain improvement
Make the changes part of how the business runs. Build leadership ownership, problem-solving skills, operating rhythms and follow-through so the team can keep improving.
What this includes
Build Leadership Ownership & Problem Solving Skills
- Develop leadership ownership.
- Use structured problem-solving tools.
- Identify the root causes of problems.
- Deploy solutions that stick.
SUSTAINING THE IMPROVEMENTS
The operating discipline
that makes improvements stick.
A management operating system that supports your business
Connect priorities, performance measures, meeting rhythms, decisions, accountability and follow-through.
If you already run EOS, we help your leaders strengthen how they use it. Where another approach is needed, we can apply S5 MOS. The choice supports how your business operates and what your team needs.
- Daily, weekly and monthly operating rhythms
- Clear decision rights and ownership
- Visible measures, scorecards and timely action
- Structured problem solving and leadership follow-through
REMOVE THE WASTE AND INEFFICIENCY
Deploying LEAN
Tools & Methods
Lean is the continuous pursuit of greater customer value through better processes, less waste and the involvement of the people doing the work.
A SPECIFIC PLAYBOOK FOR FOUNDERS
Does too much of the business still depend on you?
If you’re a founder, owner, or CEO and it feels like everything rests on you, we’ve been there. We understand how a business can grow while becoming harder to run:
- Decisions and approvals keep coming back to you.
- Customers need your attention to get problems resolved.
- Your team looks to you to decide who owns what.
- Delivery problems and daily firefighting keep pulling you back into the work.
We’ve developed a playbook for this. It’s called Founder Independence. We help you move from the business running you to you leading the business, with people and processes that can carry more of the work.
That’s what we mean by founder independence: building a business you can confidently grow without everything depending on you.
Explore Founder Independence
THE RIGHT LEVEL OF INVOLVEMENT
How we can work alongside you
Choose the support that fits the work and the responsibility your business needs.
