A few years ago, I was running two businesses of my own. Two locations. Two managers. A team of thirty-six people. It didn't take long to realize I couldn't solve the second location the same way I solved the first. I couldn't simply split my time in half and expect the same results.
The first thing we put in place was a weekly managers meeting and a monthly team meeting. At the time, I don't believe I really thought of either one as a "system." It was simply a way to keep everyone aligned, share what we were seeing, and make sure we were solving problems together instead of independently.
Years later, I found myself in a very different role. Instead of two locations, I was the COO overseeing eighteen locations across the country. Different markets. Different teams. Different leaders. Some locations were performing well. Others weren't. Some embraced the systems that already existed. Others had quietly created their own, or ignored them entirely.
That experience changed the way I think about scaling a business.
Most people think growth requires better people, better technology, or better strategy. Those things certainly matter. But what I came to realize is that every business, whether it has one location or one hundred, is already operating on a collection of systems. Some are documented. Some aren't. Some exist because someone intentionally built them. Others exist because people simply found a way to get the work done over time.
Those systems are perfectly designed to produce the results you're getting today.
If your leadership team wants different results next year, one of the first questions you have to ask is whether the operating system you're running today is capable of producing them.
When I say operating system, I'm not talking about software. I'm talking about the collection of people, meeting rhythms, communication patterns, playbooks, scoreboards, values, and decision-making processes that determine how your business actually operates every day. Every company has one, whether it was intentionally designed or not.
That's where I think many leadership teams unintentionally get themselves into trouble.
A new leadership team comes in with a vision for where the company is headed. Revenue needs to grow. Costs need to come down. The organization needs to become more efficient. Those are all reasonable goals. Then the changes begin. People are replaced, departments are reorganized, meetings are eliminated, reporting structures change, and new software gets implemented. Sometimes those changes are exactly what the business needs. Other times they're incredibly disruptive because the leadership team changed something before they fully understood what role it was playing inside the organization.
One person might appear unnecessary until you realize they're the reason information flows between two departments. A weekly meeting might feel like a waste of time until it's gone and suddenly every location is solving the same problem differently. On the other hand, I've also seen leadership teams create so many meetings that nobody has enough uninterrupted time left to execute. Even a process that appears inefficient may have been intentionally designed to reduce risk somewhere else in the business. None of this means organizations shouldn't change. Quite the opposite. It simply means change should begin with understanding.
One of the ideas that has stayed with me throughout my career is that your business already has systems. Whether you've intentionally designed them or not, they exist. They are producing exactly the results you're getting today. If you want different results tomorrow, those systems have to evolve.
One thing I want to be clear about: I didn't say people don't matter. They matter more than anything. The right people are the ones who improve systems, reinforce culture, challenge old assumptions, and help the organization move forward. But even great people struggle when they're operating inside systems that no longer fit the business you're trying to become.
I've also come to think differently about meetings. Many executives see meetings as interruptions to the work. I don't. For a leadership team, the meeting is the work.
It's where vision gets reinforced. It's where priorities are aligned. It's where one leadership team becomes one leadership team instead of six leaders each running their own part of the business. When those conversations happen consistently and intentionally, culture becomes much easier to scale because everyone is hearing the same message, solving the same problems, and moving toward the same purpose.
As businesses grow, distance becomes inevitable. Multiple locations. Regional managers. Remote teams. Different markets. Distance isn't the problem. Distance simply exposes whether your operating system is strong enough to keep everyone moving in the same direction.
Before your leadership team starts changing the business, I'd encourage you to spend some time understanding the operating system you've inherited.
What's working today?
Why is it working?
What happens if we remove it?
Which systems are producing the results we want, and which ones are holding us back?
More importantly, does your current operating system have the capacity to produce the business you're trying to build over the next three to five years?
I'd be curious to hear how you've approached this in your own organization. What systems have had the biggest impact as your business has grown?