Gino Wickman joined his family sales training business at age 25. He soon discovered that his father was more of an entrepreneur than a manager, more excited about ideas, strategy, and clients than managing a profitable business. Gino jumped in and helped to right the ship and grow and sell the business.
Wickman embraced the tools of all the Management Blueprints that came before him, augmenting them along the way with concepts from Jim Collins, Dan Sullivan, Andy Grove, Patrick Lencioni, and others. His genius was to simplify many of these concepts and solidify them into a precise recipe that is easy to teach and follow.
Wickman created the EOS Model, a graphical illustration of the Six Key Components of an entrepreneurial business: Vision, People, Data, Issues, Process, and Traction, together with two tools or disciplines to strengthen each of these components. The EOS Model includes a measurement system to track progress toward achieving a great company that executes flawlessly.
He also simplified the deliverables of EOS to three words: Vision (full cultural and goal alignment), Traction (disciplined and accountable execution), and Healthy (creating functional and cohesive teams).
EOS uses the Pareto principle, simplifying the system to 20 tools and then designating five of them as “foundational” that, when adopted, advance companies 80 percent toward mastering the system.
He also came up with the concept of a proven process visual that enables users to see how they can implement EOS in their business. The goal is to ingrain EOS and make companies fully self-run within two years.
In One Sentence: Implement a proven process using practical tools and disciplines to create vision alignment, ingrain execution habits, and build a cohesive team.
