Gaining Traction
This week’s Convenience Matters podcast talks with Tanner Krause, Kum & Go president, about the company’s framework for success.
Nov 28, 2018
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – On this week’s episode of Convenience Matters, “A Culture Conversation with Kum & Go,” NACS host Jeff Lenard and Kevin Coupe, author and content guy for MorningNewsBeat.com, caught up with Tanner Krause, president of Kum & Go Inc., and Mark Stanley, founder of WHY! Company, at the NACS Show to discuss Kum & Go’s system for success.
For Kum & Go, the epiphany came more than a dozen years ago when the current senior management team realized they “lacked [many] processes,” Krause said. “We were more a fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants company and we weren’t great at long-term planning.”
What helped Kum & Go was implementing the ideas found in Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman. “The EOS [Entrepreneurial Operating System] framework was extremely helpful for us to put some systematic checkpoints in place to evaluate our business and our growth protectory,” Krause said.
Retailers often grapple with the “relationship between being efficient and being effective,” Coupe said. “A lot of retailers will put efficiency first and think less about effectiveness. I think that’s a short-term play.”
Stanley pointed out that “For efficiency and effectiveness, I think about harnessing human energy. We want to be efficient and conservative in how we use that energy and direct it in the right way. … One thing that EOS does better than anything else is harness that human energy inside the organization at all levels, from leaders to middle managers to frontline folks, so that we’re all walking the same path, step in step, arm and arm, as we execute this vision.”
At Kum & Go, “Using the EOS framework … puts more purpose and design in how you run your meetings,” Krause said. “This framework … allows you to have those personal touches … [while also making] sure you’re focusing on the priorities of the business.”
Each week a new Convenience Matters episode is released. The podcast can be downloaded on iTunes, Google Play and other podcast apps, and at www.conveniencematters.com. Episodes have been downloaded by listeners more than 60,000 times in 80 countries.
