I’ve always struggled with the idea of the “Integrator”—a person who runs your business while you focus on being the “Visionary.”
In 2015, Gino Wickman and Mark C. Winters published Rocket Fuel, promoting the concept of hiring an Integrator to free visionary entrepreneurs from the burden of managing their businesses. According to Wickman’s Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), the Integrator should manage the executive team, acting as the sole direct report to the Visionary CEO.
While this sounds great in theory, I find the “Integrator as Chief of Staff” concept unrealistic—and even dangerous. Let me explain why I’ve become an “Integrator-skeptic.”
Lifestyle vs. Growth Businesses
There are two main types of sustainable businesses: Lifestyle businesses and Growth businesses.
- Lifestyle Businesses: These are hub-and-spoke models where the owner runs the show with a team of helpers. The goal? More income and freedom than a traditional job. However, the flip side is bearing responsibilities like overhead, employment, and client commitments.
- Growth Businesses: These fill an expanding market need efficiently and scalably.
A Growth Business requires two key components:
- Entrepreneurship: Imagination, experimentation, and insight.
- Execution: Building and operating a scalable delivery system.
At first glance, it seems logical to split these roles: the Visionary handles Entrepreneurship, while the Integrator handles Execution. This division frees the Visionary to focus on big-picture thinking while the Integrator handles operations.
But there’s a catch.
The Perpetual Motion Machine Fallacy
This model assumes that only the Execution component needs to scale while the Entrepreneurial component can remain static.
If that were true, the Visionary could relax at 30,000 feet—playing golf, racing cars, or writing poetry—freed from the daily grind.
Here’s the harsh truth: this dream of a self-sustaining money-making machine—the entrepreneurial equivalent of a Perpetual Motion Machine: a physics-defying contraption that inventors have been trying to devise since the 12th century—is a myth. It’s a dangerous fantasy that has caused many companies to lose momentum and fail.
Why Scaling Entrepreneurship Matters
Scaling a business requires more than just operational execution. The Entrepreneurial component also involves scalable activities like:
- Product Innovation
- Marketing
- Networking
- Thought Leadership
Take Steve Jobs, for example. He couldn’t develop the iPhone from an ivory tower. It required mobilizing a team of designers, engineers, and craftsmen. Even Jobs’s Integrator, Tim Cook, couldn’t have managed this alone.
To grow a business, Entrepreneurship must also scale. A Visionary leader cannot afford to be a part-time strategist detached from daily operations.
The Yin-and-Yang of Visionary and Integrator
The Visionary and the Integrator should work in partnership—not hierarchy. Contrary to the EOS Accountability Chart, where the Integrator runs all major functions, real-world growth businesses require Visionaries in the trenches.
In my 8+ years as an EOS Implementer, Pinnacle Business Guide, and Summit OS Guide, I’ve never seen an Integrator successfully run a day-to-day growth business without the Visionary working alongside them.
A Better Alternative
Stop looking for a silver bullet Integrator to run your business. Instead:
- Hire a COO to manage Execution-oriented functions.
- Keep Innovation, Marketing, and Thought Leadership under your entrepreneurial control.
Want to see how this looks in action? Download the Function Ownership Chart™ here.
Conclusion
What’s your take on the Visionary-Integrator dynamic? Have you experienced challenges with this model? I’d love to hear your thoughts—drop a comment below or shoot me a personal note.