It’s a familiar problem for smaller companies as they attempt to scale the business: lacking the formal structure or the historical experience that an older, large company generally takes for granted, how do you organize yourself to accomplish it?
We once struggled with that challenge at Torch Group. At least until a peer suggested the EOS® system some years ago.
EOS®, or Entrepreneurial Operating System is a complete set of simple concepts, practical tools and a proven business process that has helped thousands of entrepreneurs get the results they want from their businesses. It was designed for busy entrepreneurs and small companies in a state of transition, offering a holistic approach that fosters sustainable fast growth.
Implementing these processes helped our leadership team get better at three main things:
- Vision—getting everyone in the organization on the same page about where we’re going, and how to get there
- Traction—instilling focus, discipline, and accountability throughout the company so that everyone executes on that vision—every day
- Health—helping leaders become a more cohesive, functional, healthy leadership team
How EOS Helped Us
This system, in short, gave us a simple but useful framework for growth. It taught us how to set a clear vision for the company while instilling focus, discipline and accountability throughout the organization. This in turn showed us how to scale our Executive Search operations.
Perhaps most important of all, it showed us how to remove the major bottleneck in most growing companies—too many decisions waiting for the founder/leader to make—by delegating responsibility throughout the entire team.
With the proper management structures and processes in place, sensible delegation freed me from having to work in the business every day so I was able to work on the business, as a strategist and future-focused leader. That’s how real, sustainable growth happens.
The Result
For us, the proof was in the pudding.
We had experienced some great early growth over the first few years in business and had won a coveted Weatherhead 100 award—which annually ranks the fastest-growing companies in Northeast Ohio—three years in a row. But then we hit a ceiling, and our business was flat. We needed better tools to break through that barrier. Sure enough, last year, we won another Weatherhead 100 award by achieving 233% growth over the last five years.
What changed? The system helped our leadership team become more cohesive, which in turn helped us function at a higher level as managers of our executive search team and search process. It pointed the way to how we could make the necessary internal hires and more clearly identify everyone’s roles and responsibilities, bringing greater team accountability.
Crucially, it also facilitated our ability to create a niche focus and marketing strategy including differentiators that make us unique in the market, and how to translate that into a repeatable/scalable search operations process. That became our Signature Search ProcessTM—which we use to identify, recruit, and evaluate candidates that are A Perfect Fit.
By defining and refining the process, we’ve delivered more value to our clients, because it drives higher placement rates and longer “stick” rates for our candidates. EOS has also made us better consultants, allowing us to bring important new efficiencies to those we serve. As a bonus, we also use the Signature Search Process internally to evaluate people we hire for our own organization.
To Learn More
Are you interested in learning how EOS can help your organization? Take the organizational checkup test here and see your results. https://organizationalcheckup.com
EOS has been such a game-changer for us. I’d highly recommend that you give it a try and if you find that you don’t have the right people in the right seats, give me a call at 440-519-1822 x101. We can help you with that.
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