Using EOS to Create a Succession Plan

RCS Influencer Steve Little says that by adopting the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), his business had found more structure for things like succession planning.

KPost Roofing & Waterproofing started ten years ago planning for succession working with Kevin Kennedy and Jow Bazzano of Beacon Exit Planning. Six years ago we adopted EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System from the book Traction by Gino Wickman) to develop a common language for us baby boomers and the next generational community and have a common structure for meetings, strategic planning and execution of a joint plan for succession while capitalizing on the opportunities we collectively are developing as a cohesive team. 

Our Management Team, MAG Seven (Managers Achieving Goals) and the founders, Keith Post, Jayne Williams and Steve Little worked from 2019-2022 with Chris Flickenger's Performance & Mindset Development company to challenge, stretch and develop the "Owner's mindset" for the next stage of succession. In fourth quarter 2022, Chris had the MAG Seven design and vote on the leaders to take over for the founders and delivered their plan in first quarter 2023.

On May 1, 2023, SVP Business Management John Barker, SVP Operation Jeff Hammond and SVP Residential Matt Jaynes took over the day-to-day running and senior leadership at KPost. Jayne's transition as the CFO has been a slower process as we finalize how to monetize the KPost stock for Keith and Steve.

In January 2023, Chris Flickenger's group designed stage two of succession for the next generation of KPost leadership. "The Climbers" group was formed consisting of 12 younger leaders (26-33 years old) between KPost Commercial and KPost Residential Solar Leaders.

Currently, a deal book has been developed and distributed to 20+ PE's and competitions. We also are researching ESOP and a management buyout. All of this is being managed by Joe Bazzano at Beacon to keep this out of the day-to-day operations. 

We expect to finalize which direction we plan to take on exiting the business between January-April 2024. Keith, Jayne and I still have a ton of energy combined with a great deal of respect for our industry so I suspect we'll still be involved at some capacity at KPost and the industry for a few years to come.