4it realized that after 14 successful years, it was time to evolve and adapt to the shifting demands of their sector. Learn how EOS® helped them reshape their approach and regain “a start-up state of mind.”
4it is a multi-award-winning managed services provider founded in 2003 by Ray Mobayed and Alex Freund. The company specializes in forming IT strategies that help their international clients reduce risk and more efficiently navigate the cyber landscape.
“I enjoyed working with the small business owner and being able to really make a difference in how that company leveraged technology to achieve their goals. I wanted to do that job forever,” notes Ray, who left corporate America behind to follow his “why.”
After years of success, Ray and Alex recognized that the cloud revolution in the managed services market meant it was necessary to shift their game plan. They’d had results over the years with the “20-Mile March” approach, but this route wasn’t flexible enough to chart a new course and redirect their troops in a sector famous for rapid change.
The problems that faced 4it
“We needed to evolve to match the rate of technological change,” says Ray. “We had to focus on which tech to embrace and where best to direct our resources.”
4it’s service sector had seen the decline of traditional managed IT solutions thanks to the rise of the cloud. Price points were plummeting. Any company that couldn’t pivot and reorganize in a shifting marketplace was going to be left behind. 4it’s founders realized that a different business model—one which included cloud set-up and cybersecurity compliance—would be key to survival.
“The technology industry is constantly being disrupted in one way or another,” says Ray. “We wanted to reinvent the entire company and have that start-up state of mind.”
4it had begun to make changes a couple of years before working with The Profit Recipe but by 2017, it was clear that the new direction needed the successful organization to become a reality.
Enter EOS®
4it began looking at different management frameworks and narrowed it down to two, one of which was the Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS). Ray knew the decision was a critical one and understood how the right fit can be a make or break commitment.
“You really want to make sure that the person you bring in to put in front of your leadership team is somebody you can trust to help guide you through,” he says. “I had known Cesar Quintero yet didn’t know he was a Professional EOS Implementer™. When I found out, I brought him in to explain it.”
Cesar detailed EOS for 4it’s leadership team. 90 minutes later, the whole group was enthusiastically on board and committed to implementing the process for change.
How EOS® helped reboot 4it
The Profit Recipe began to lay the EOS foundation, which set out a vision with a 10-year target, three-year picture, and one-year plan. These were coupled with the Quarterly Rocks of the EOS ecosystem—a way of giving weight and clarity to the next important goals that must be met.
Most important, Cesar helped 4it reorganize behind the core values, mission, and vision statement of the company. From there, they began a total accountability reboot by reviewing every staff member’s role in each department, from top to bottom.
4it quickly discovered it had team members responsible for too many things and department heads stepping on each other’s toes. “You put five engineers in a room, it’s gonna get over-engineered,” Ray observes. His company needed to streamline roles and redefine which processes were vital to which team member.
“The first phase was to lay out the foundation and begin the level 10 meetings at the leadership level,” he explains. These steps helped 4it decide who should shoulder which responsibilities and established their key performance indicators (KPIs), desired numbers, and short- and long-term goals with absolute clarity.
This helped build a data scorecard which allowed 4it’s leaders to see at a glance which areas needed attention. One of those issues was their personnel.
Putting the right people in the right seats is a core goal of the EOS process. 4it made significant staff changes to adapt and grow under the new framework. “I ended up replacing five people along the way by finding out I had some of the wrong people in key positions,” notes Ray. “Seven of the people I have today are new.”
How positive change looked for 4it
Simultaneously evolving 4it, gaining a new type of customer, and growing their bottom line were the overarching goals. Did the EOS approach help achieve it?
“Absolutely. I put a lot of being able to do all that on The Profit Recipe’s structure,” says Ray. “When we look at the scorecard from day one until now, going from the red to the green on those numbers has given us the focus to increase our bottom line as we’ve grown. I was able to increase my percentage of the bottom line by 75% over the year before.”
4it shifted its focus toward security, the cloud, and the infrastructures their target customers were using. This has allowed the company to connect with more clients with more-complex IT, security, and compliance needs. It’s a welcome challenge because 4it prides itself on conquering complexity.
“It requires discipline within an organization to help customers be compliant,” explains Ray. “Having the EOS structure in place is letting us chip away at those pieces, one rock at a time.”
Empower your Leadership Team and improve efficiency, increase value, and foster collaboration to get better results. A professional Facilitator can ensure that all of your members are on the same page, so you can kick your business up a notch. Connect with The Profit Recipe to Achieve Traction.