While the pandemic has taken the world by storm, businesses in every sector have had to make tough decisions and incorporate significant modifications to face this unexpected weather.
One notable frontrunner who’s making it through the Covid storm at lightning speed is RBB, an electronics contract manufacturing company based in Wooster, Ohio. RBB attributes their success to using the Entrepreneurial Operating System® purely throughout their entire company.
RBB began their EOS journey back in 2017 with just the leadership team utilizing Level 10 Meetings (L10s). In 2018, they hired me to fully engaged EOS throughout the entire company.
In the face of the pandemic, RBB decided not to change course but buckle down and figure out how they could still meet their profit goals within the given situation and without having to lay-off employees. They took all the necessary precautions to stay safe on the shop floor and via remote work, but the biggest challenge was to maintain that level of communication and connectedness that has always been key to their success. Running EOS was the answer. As Amy Hart, General Manager and Integrator at RBB, simply stated, “Using the EOS tools kept us gaining traction for the win.”
A small company of 55 employees, everyone takes part in L10 meetings within their department and the company’s success is based on each employee’s rock completion (i.e., 90-day goal). In these meetings, they review the company scorecard, list headlines, determine whether rocks are on or off-track then identify, discuss and solve issues, called IDS in EOS terms. With some working at home, some on site, and some split between the two, the L10 plus their weekly companywide 15-minute “huddle” meetings has kept everything transparent, everyone connected and the company 100% laser-focused.
To make it more fun and engaging, Amy created a “Go Fish” game with custom cards that have RBB’s core values on one side. If an employee is “on track” for their rock, they get to draw that week for a chance to make a match and receive a little monetary bonus for actively working on their rock.
With their long-standing healthy workplace culture, RBB’s employees are empowered to focus on continuous improvement. The crisis of the pandemic put emphasis across all departments to find ways to cut costs and improve processes with the resources on hand and do so without compromise. This EOS culture has enabled RBB to make more money on less sales to, ultimately, realize their 2020 goals that were formed well before the Covid storm arrived.
Amy Hart sums it up: “EOS provides us the way to develop the big plan and communicate it so that everyone in the company knows how they fit into the plan and knows that we can’t do it without them.”
Special thanks to Amy and to Carrie Guenther, their Sales and Marketing Supervisor, for sharing their story with us. We are so honored to be part of RBB’s EOS journey of success!