The room every business book is about
This is the room that needs no introduction.
This is the room where the action happens.
Operations is the field of play. It's where the magic happens, and where nearly all the attention in business resides.
Most business books are written about this room in some fashion.
A couple of my favorite authors: Gino Wickman, Jim Collins, Michael Gerber who write for the operations room.
The world is changing fast around us.
So the leaders of operations have to stay focused on what will never change.
To be a steward is to hold the timeless AND the timely. We must hold legacy AND innovation. That means building on first principles.
If you're standing on a solid foundation of the first three rooms of the four room model: a healthy family room, owner room, and board room, then look out. Your operations get to play the long game.
I've done quite a bit of reading. Here are four common threads I found running through those classic business books above, threads that will stand the test of time.
Vision. Vision precedes greatness. Vision is direction, behaviors, and mission. Vision is the culture. As the great Peter Drucker said: "Culture eats strategy for breakfast."
People. As stewards of a family business, our job is to create the container where "A" players shine. We don't create success. We attract it. You cannot run operations with family alone. Who, not how. (Literally one of the titles on this list.)
Systems. We don't rise to our goals. We fall to the level of our systems. One genius and a thousand helpers will never transcend generations.
Data. What you measure is what you value. What you measure is what you manage.
Timeless first principles for the operations room.
When the other rooms are functioning, this room carries less drama and can most likely outperform investment firms, because it gets to play a long-term game with heart, a big vision, and a noble purpose.
It's that simple, and that hard.
Operations is the last link in the chain. When every other link holds, operations holds an incredible amount of potential energy, ready to unleash and serve the marketplace.
The upside-down org chart is lived first in the owner and board rooms. Then it gets to be truly lived in operations. And when it's lived out there, incredible fruit bears over time.
The beauty of compounding takes effect.
The family room develops high-character humans.
The owner room plays a long-term game of stewardship.
The board room defines the end results for all stakeholders to win.
The operations room executes those ends on behalf of the shareholders while building people.
And the shareholders get to join a crowded table for a family dinner filled with laughter and love while doing meaningful work!
The behind-the-scenes work of three of these four rooms is THE work of building a family business for centuries. Without it, there is no continuity. Time is the best filter.
A lack of intentionality compounds, the process debt grows, and eventually the only way forward is a sale or the closing of the doors.
In a healthy family business, operations gets to do the greatest work of all: build people.
Great things take time. I think it's worth it. It’s fun to lead in an operations room where there is no exit. We’re playing the game to play the game.
The work is the reward.
What a journey we get to be on.
Onward,
Matt