EOS® Implementer in Pasadena

A city with its own economy

Pasadena doesn’t behave like the Westside, and it would be a mistake to treat it as a suburb of anything. There is engineering and science, much of it tied to Caltech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. There are investment managers, insurance companies and banks, plus the accountants and attorneys who serve them. Old Pasadena and the Playhouse District add restaurants, retail and the companies behind them. South Pasadena is small professional firms and local businesses. Farther east, Arcadia and Monrovia bring manufacturing, distribution and healthcare, with Monrovia’s business parks along the 210.

The Pasadena Convention Center hosts trade shows through the year, the Southern California HVAC association’s among them. A show floor is a good reminder of how much of this economy is owner-led: contractors, suppliers, distributors and service firms, each with a founder who still knows every customer by name.

Engineers, scientists and the issues list

Engineers and scientists make interesting leadership teams. They like data, so the Scorecard lands fast. They respect process, so the meeting agenda sticks. Where they struggle is the part of EOS that asks for a decision before the analysis is finished. The issues list fills up with topics that have been discussed for months and decided never.

EOS has a tool for exactly that. IDS means identify the real issue, discuss it briefly, and solve it with one owner and a date. A technical team that learns to solve instead of study moves noticeably faster within a few quarters, and the best people stop waiting for the founder to break every tie.

The same tools in Arcadia and Monrovia

A family-owned distributor in Arcadia or a manufacturer in Monrovia uses the same tools. What differs is which one bites first. In a family business it is usually the Accountability Chart, because the chart asks who owns each function regardless of last name. In a distributor it is often the Scorecard, because margin and inventory numbers live in three systems and nobody sees them together.

Where that comes from

Before I implemented EOS with anyone I ran companies of my own for more than twenty years, and I ran EOS inside one of them. So I have sat where a Pasadena founder sits when an outsider suggests the weekly numbers belong to the team rather than to the owner. It is not a comfortable suggestion. It is usually the right one, and I would rather say it in the first session than spend a year hinting at it.

Getting across town

From Santa Monica it is a cross-town drive, reasonable when the 10 and the 110 cooperate. I come to your office for most sessions. Some teams make the trip west for their annual.

Industry guide: EOS® for Staffing and Recruiting Firms in Los Angeles