Why Your Operating Model Is More Important Than Your Business Model Part 1

Almost four years ago, I founded Ingez, Egypt’s first online courier service and I’m now launching my new startup Voo. So, as someone who has created businesses, pitched to investors, scaled my services, and more importantly, operated a growing company every day for the past four years, I am here to tell you that if you have a valid business model, an awesome pitch deck, and a great team, your idea means nothing if you don’t have an operating model.

What is an operating model?

Simply put, an operating model is an operational design that facilitates owners (and more importantly, employees) to deliver all aspects of the business model. In simpler terms, if you have no operating model, how do you plan on delivering on all the milestones of your business model? How are you going to scale? Here are eight reasons why you need an operating model for your business:

1. An operating model puts your idea into gear

It gets things going. Your operational design will make it easier for you to break down roles, milestones, KPIs and deliverables for each and every day.

2. It helps track problems and enables their fixes on the spot

The operating model will define, explain and fix every potential scenario, issue, and complaint related to your services/product.

3. It enables the creation of one restoration point

Ever had a problem with your laptop, and then wish to revert to your restoration point so as to get it to work as soon as possible with minimal loss? That is why you need the operating model to have clear points on how every aspect of your company functions.

4. It enables the real spirit of the company

Yes, you can have meetings, brainstorming sessions, team building outings and gatherings every single day- but nothing unifies a team like having a fully designed and straight-to-the-point operating model.

5. It allows you to take care of your clients , employees , services, and products better

Yes, your customer service team will have no problem aiding a client, because they have a detailed explanation on what to say or do when they face a certain issue or complaint. Every crisis is averted before it even becomes a crisis.

6. An operating model helps you scale

Every business model I have created or read has a detailed explanation on how the business plans to scale, but how do you scale if you don’t know how to operate the business?

7. It helps prevent operational hiccups that can render your business model useless

This is self-explanatory. How do you plan to exit at some point, if you can’t transfer your operating model to the shareholders?

8. It helps prevent false promises or over-promises

You have an active sales team and a business development team, but if they don’t have a complete run-through of your complete operations manual step by step, they can easily over-promise on a certain aspect that your company just can’t or will not do. Imagine how that looks when the deal is signed, and your company can’t hold its end of the bargain.