Research Behind Stop Being the Operating System

The author’s experience was the starting point, but it was not intended to be the only evidence behind the book.

The sample

The book uses an exploratory convenience sample of 51 founders and operators. It is concentrated in very small companies:

11 respondents were solo operators or worked in pairs;
34 worked in companies with 3–10 people;
3 worked in companies with 11–20 people;
2 worked in companies with 21–50 people;
1 worked in a company with more than 50 people.

This is not a representative measurement of all European SMEs. The findings are used to surface recurring experiences and shape questions, not to manufacture universal laws.

Functional involvement

Respondents could select more than one function. Among the 51:

45 were directly involved in Sales;
40 in Product or Service Development;
39 in Customer Service;
35 in internal operations and process work;
33 in Marketing;
31 in HR or People work.

Finance and Legal were more often outsourced than the other functions. Outsourcing the records, however, does not automatically transfer ownership of the company’s forward decisions.