EOS Directs CKC Good Food’s Operations

In 2021, CKC Good Food embarked on a journey to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our internal operations, with the ultimate goal of serving our clients better. With the help of Fractional Integrator Adina Dahlin, we began implementing the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), a comprehensive business management framework outlined in "Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business," by developed Gino Wickman.

EOS consists of six key components:

1. Vision: Establishing a clear vision for the company, defining its core values and setting long-term goals.
2. People: Ensuring that the right people are in the right seats within the organization by defining and communicating roles, responsibilities and expectations.
3. Data: Implementing a system for collecting, analyzing and using key data to make informed decisions and solve issues.
4. Issues: Identifying and addressing the most pressing problems and obstacles that hinder the company's progress.
5. Process: Creating and documenting core processes to streamline operations and improve efficiency and consistency.
6. Traction: Establishing a system of regular meetings, short-term goals (“rocks”) and communication rhythms to keep everyone focused, accountable and aligned with the company's goals.

Benefits to CKC Good Food

It has been a journey. We realigned our org chart and responsibilities. We’ve implemented new processes to focus everyone on improving our operations. And our visionary, CEO and Founder Nancy Close, is exploring ways to enhance CKC Good Food’s services even further.  

The benefits to CKC Good Food and any organization that adopts EOS include:

1. Clarity around the company’s vision, values and goals, enabling leaders to communicate effectively and align their teams around a shared purpose.
2. Focus: It provides tools for identifying and prioritizing the most critical issues, ensuring time and resources are directed towards activities that drive success.
3. Accountability at all levels of the organization, ensuring everyone takes ownership of their responsibilities and works towards achieving the company's objectives.
4. Communication: EOS establishes regular communication rhythms with weekly and quarterly meetings, which facilitate open and honest discussions, fostering a culture of transparency and collaboration.
5. Efficiency: By documenting and optimizing core processes, EOS helps businesses streamline their operations, reduce waste and improve productivity.
6. Scalability: The EOS framework is scalable, allowing businesses to adapt and grow without losing focus or control.

"When I began working with CKC Good Food, I quickly realized there was a very talented team in place," Adina said. "EOS has helped clarify the team’s roles and expectations, align on company priorities, and hold the team accountable for meeting established business goals. Now, with an internal, full-time Integrator and a leadership team running like a well-oiled machine, Nancy can focus more time on visionary activities, like building relationships with clients and working ON the business, not IN the business."

Spearheading our transformation is Integrator/COO Katie Fairbanks, who was previously our Director of HR and Finance. She is incredibly knowledgeable about our policies, procedures, core values and our team members. She is a systems-minded person and often helps implement new procedures to help our company serve our clients better and more efficiently. She meets weekly with the core leadership team together and each person individually to address obstacles to achieving goals.

"Using EOS has helped us optimize our processes and streamline our internal communications," Katie said. "Having ongoing, transparent dialogue between team members has enhanced overall accountability, sped up project turnaround time and strengthened our relationships."

Rolling EOS out to our entire organization is a multi-year process as each level of the organization must have a firm grasp on the new way of operating before we move on to the next level.

Benefits to Clients

While this work is largely internal, it has many benefits for our clients. For example:

1. Director of Client Services Laurie Yohn and her team of Client Services Managers provide food service teams at client sites with ongoing guidance and training throughout the year. At least once a month, a Client Services Manager visits each client site to go over any new training material and check in to see how CKC processes are going.
2. Inventory Specialist Steve Fleming visits our cooking schools to assist with inventory management.
3. Recipe Development & Menu Coordinator Brandon Porter visits our offsite kitchens to make sure our recipes are prepared successfully and consistently across all the kitchens we operate.
4. Director of Operations Matt Anderson meets weekly with our delivery route manager, warehouse managers, procurement manager and IT manager to make sure all our systems are working smoothly and to trouble-shoot problems to help prevent them from happening again.

The work is ongoing and is not always easy but the ongoing leadership meetings, continuous goal setting and well-conceived systems that have emerged give us the ability to better provide concierge-level service and delicious food day in and day out.