The Entreprenerial operating system (EOS) is a complete set of tools and processes used by a 100,000+ businesses worldwide.
13th December 2022
What is EOS?
Created by Gino Wickman, the Entrepreneurial Operating System is a holistic system that helps leaders run better businesses, and get control as you scale.
I first heard of EOS in 2018 at a digital agency conference in London. There was a buzz around the room about this new way of running small, creative businesses.
Small and scaling businesses often hit a ceiling, which I did in 2018. I was operating my marketing agency, Big Cat using a chimera of tools and processes that I’d picked up along the way and cobbled together, but I didn’t have control of key areas and maintaining momentum was really difficulty. We’d recently launched our applied Behavioural Insights practice and wanted to integrated the practice with the other areas of our business. I first tried OKRs but struggled to apply them across all aspects of my agency.
The brilliant thing about EOS is the simple concepts and practical tools that all work together to give you clarity of direction across your entire operation, helps build and manage a strong company culture, and provides a clear framework for meetings, data and communication.
A really cool thing about EOS is the six key components model which every business can use to manage and strengthen their operations
Vision: set a North Star for your business based and share it regularly with your entire team
Data: business KPIs set and measured weekly in the Scorecard
Process: Document 20% of the detail for 80% of the impact
People: get the right people on the bus, and manage consistently
Issues: the Issues List and IDS is a true eureka moment in dealing solving problems
Traction: the weekly Level 10 meeting and Rocks gets the big things to-done
Combined with the Five Foundational tools of EOS: the Vision/Traction Organiser, the accountability chart, Rocks, the Level 10 Meeting Pulse, and Scorecard have been transformative in my marketing agency.
These two simple parts of the Entrepreurial Operating System belie a highly effective, holistic approach to running a business.
Another great thing about EOS is the support system and reading list. I first read the Traction book, which is more of a manual and how to guide. This really helped to get to grips with the concept and the tools, the model and how its implemented. Get a Grip is more of a fable, a very readable story about a business that’s hit the ceiling, and is struggling to manage the complexity, solve the big issues, and then how they apply EOS to get back in control.
Nowadays there’s heaps more resources: an app, a Level 10 and scorecard platform, an extended reading list, conferences and webinars.
We used a brilliant coach (known as an implementer in EOS parlance), called Alice Jordan to support Big Cat’s adoption of EOS, to teach us about the tools and how to implement them. It took us around 18 months of support to truly get to grips with the entire system.
The EOS Process
EOS Coaches follow this process to teach and support businesses in adopting the system. The process is slick and the coaches are really good.
How much does EOS cost?
You can ‘self-implement’ for free. There’s no licensing fee or set up costs. Read the books and off you go.
You can also hire a coach, as we did, to support and mentor you. They cost from £2,500 to £10,000 a day. Seems a lot but we gained a lot more value and 3-4x ROI.
In the first year we used our coach for 7 days, and 4 days in the second year.
What’s the first step on the journey to running on EOS?
- Give me a call I’d be happy to talk to you about our experience and introduce you to some other businesses that run on EOS. I’ll also recommend a few coaches to you
- Reading the books: Traction and Get a Grip
- Have a call with a couple of coaches
- Book a free 90 min meeting with your coach
- Book the Focus and Vision Building Days in your management team’s diary