EOS® Implementers that help clarify, simplify and achieve vision
Author: McCale Ashenbrener
Photography: Emma Thompson
Taking the entrepreneurial leap is daunting. It is great fun to sit on the shore and brainstorm, but incredibly challenging to leave solid ground and jump into the cool, rushing waters of the unknown. Many that embark on an entrepreneurial endeavor find that eventually their initial pace of growth slows and they hit a ceiling. They are no longer headed downstream, but are rather recirculating in a big eddy, coming close to flow but not quite. Enter Nathen Fox of Zen Fox Strategies.
Nathen is an Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS®) Implementer that helps businesses clarify, simplify and achieve their goals. EOS® was created by Gino Wickman, and he is the founder of EOS® Worldwide. The central tenants of EOS® are vision, traction and healthy.
Vision: getting everyone on the same page about where the company is going and how it is going to get there.
Traction: building discipline and accountability, executing really well to achieve that vision.
Healthy: building a trusting, cohesive leadership teams that guides the rest of the organization.
Nathen has been helping companies grow for his entire career. “I’ve worked with over 30 companies before EOS® and was seeing the same mistakes time and time again,” he recalls. “EOS® is a proven system because it helps business owners focus and simplify. It’s the hardest thing for owners/entrepreneurs to do because they are reading/listening to all these books/blogs/podcasts telling them all the great things they need to do to “fix” their business. Really, it’s just about simplifying and focusing. What we like to say a lot in EOS® is ‘less is more’, and we work to put that into practice.”
Often the simplest solution is the hardest to implement. According to Nathen the biggest challenges facing growing companies are people, processes and vision. It is frustrating to work with an ineffective manager or coworker, and even more trying if you feel your skills as an employee aren’t realized. “EOS® borrows a Jim Collins term, “Right People, Right Seats”. We provide tools and disciplines to expose the people issues, analyze them, and then work to get the right people in the right seats,” states Nathen. “Most of my clients get to at least 95% right people, right seats by the end of their first year.”
Another challenge is process. Businesses often over complicate processes with too much detail, leading teams to rarely read and effectively use the established process. “Businesses must create consistency and scalability in their operations while maintaining or increasing profits. Again, this is about simplifying, less is more!” asserts Nathen.
The third challenge facing growing companies is vision. “Some companies create an elaborate vision, and it’s so complicated, nobody in the company remembers it. We work to clearly articulate the vision and have everyone 100% agree on it; then, we work to communicate that vision with the entire company. Imagine, everyone in the company rowing in the same direction….when you achieve this, a kind of synergy occurs, and walla! progress!”
Circling in an eddy, revisiting the same challenges in different contexts time and time again, is an issue that affects many growing companies, even the successful ones. Zen Fox Strategies helps break through the stagnant waters that impede growth by clarifying, simplifying and achieving vision, ultimately helping organizations enter the flow of more growth and vitality.
To learn more about Zen Fox Strategies and how EOS® can help benefit your business visit their website at http://www.zenfoxstrategies.com/, call 208.576.4915 or email info@zenfoxstrategies.com
