Inside Track: Implementing EOS by Chris Pearson – MD of the Light

The London-based IT technology company The Light began implementing the Entrepreneurial Operating System in January 2019. Nine months into the process, the managing director Chris Pearson has given us the inside track on what it’s like to implement the system in his business.

I have run The Light  since 2001.  We describe ourselves as a technology partner for privately-held creative businesses based in Central London who want to use technology to grow and be more efficient.

Back in the early 2000’s, most of our work was related to fixing hardware and software issues that you would associate with a traditional IT support company, but as technology has become more reliable, self-service and available anywhere, we now focus on finding the best way for our clients to use technology to improve theirs and their clients’ businesses.

In our industry, the only possible way to mitigate risk and provide a one-stop shop for our clients, is to scale and grow.  Coupled with this, technology has actually become a lot more interesting (no, honestly!), as it is forcing all businesses to evaluate what they do and how they do it.

I heard about EOS through a fellow Managing Director of a technology company and felt that this would put us in the strongest position to help companies with this process.

Having an implementer is key. Julia helps us implement the tools, guides us and acts as an honest broker.

We did consider self-implementing, but only for about 5 seconds!  If we could have done it, we would have.  However, in order to grow it is important that all members of your senior leadership team buy into shared goals, vision and, most importantly, the processes to get there.

Implementing EOS

People were initially hesitant about EOS, as they thought it was another owner-led initiative that may be half-implemented or dropped within a few months.  However, once they started seeing the results, clearer structure and accountability they have all become fans of EOS.

Sharing our VTO and Core Values Speech allowed us all to say the same thing about where we are heading and how we are going to get there.  At the beginning we did this informally, now we do this with all team members after our quarterly EOS meetings.  Reading or listening to the audible book of ‘Traction’ is a must for anyone in your Leadership Team.

Too often in owner-led businesses, there is little accountability to the rest of the people in the business. Having a set of processes that facilitates this process has certainly helped me be accountable to my team and hence, increase our focus and their accountability.

The most difficult thing about implementing EOS has been changing some of the bad habits within our business that conflict with some of the core tenets of EOS, such as missing Rocks and To Dos due to priority being given to the day-to-day.  The Rocks and To Dos are how you achieve your goals!

With Julia’s help, we have fully adopted all the tools, which has resulted in fewer meetings, more time working on the issues that will have the biggest impact and reinforcing to all members of our team, what we are doing and where we are heading.

There are three tools we’ve embedded which have given us the structure to ensure we are balancing the strategic and operational: Level 10 Meetings, the VTO and Accountability Chart. These have become the cornerstones of our business, and will continue to be as we grow.

It is no exaggeration to say that we have solved more of the large issues within the business in the first year of EOS than in the previous three.  Since we started the process, we have revised our plans and goals upwards – once you start implementing you can see the possibilities of where you can get to.

If you ask me which companies would benefit most from EOS, ironically, I’d say creative businesses. They are the least likely to implement as they believe it would not be a good fit and might compromise the creativity.  My counter-argument is, that by having a clearer structure, implementing some core tools, people would have less unnecessary meetings and more time, money and resources to focus on the creative process.

EOS is here to stay for us.

If you’d like to find out more about implementing EOS in your business, contact us on hello@boldclarity.com.