The Insprie Operating System
Consumer businesses rarely succeed or fail because of one department. Performance comes from how the entire operating system works together.
Consumer businesses are systems. Fixing one department rarely fixes the company.
INS/OS
Business performance is a system.
Direction, demand, product, delivery, economics and organisation are connected. Improving one dimension while ignoring the constraint elsewhere often makes the problem worse.
01 / Direction
Where are we going, and what matters?
What the business is trying to do, and what it has decided not to do.
Typical symptoms
- Everything is a priority
- Board and management are not aligned
- Resources are spread across too many initiatives
- Strategy exists on paper but not in the plan
Constraints underneath
- No agreed definition of what the business is optimising for
- Market and channel choices never narrowed
- Capital and attention allocated by history rather than by return
- Decisions escalate rather than resolve
What we deploy
- Strategy reset
- Priority sequencing
- Resource and capital allocation
- Board and shareholder alignment
How the system moves
One commercial event, six dimensions.
This is why treating symptoms function by function often fails. INS/OS is designed to identify the underlying constraint rather than simply the area making the most noise.
Demand increases
Demand
Inventory requirements increase
Delivery
Working capital requirement increases
Economics
Cash conversion deteriorates
Economics
Economics become constrained
Economics
Management becomes reactive
Organisation
Organisation and Direction begin to suffer
Direction
INS/OS
Six dimensions, one operating system.
Consumer businesses rarely succeed or fail because of one department. Performance comes from how the entire operating system works together.
INS/OS is the operating framework we use to understand where performance is being constrained, how the parts of a consumer business interact and where intervention is most likely to create value. We use it to work out where performance is actually being created and where it is being lost. It is how we structure a diagnostic, a transformation programme, a due diligence assessment and a board review, because the constraint is rarely where the noise is loudest.
- 01 /
Direction
What the business is trying to do, and what it has decided not to do.
Strategy · Priorities · Decision-making · Resource allocation
- 02 /
Demand
How the business creates and holds customer demand, profitably.
Brand · Marketing · Retail · Channels · Customer growth · Ecommerce
- 03 /
Product
Whether the product range earns its place commercially.
Innovation · Portfolio · Commercial proposition · Product-market fit · Product economics
- 04 /
Delivery
Whether the operation can carry the plan the business has signed up to.
Operations · Manufacturing · Inventory · Supply chain · Fulfilment · Technology
- 05 /
Economics
Whether growth converts into margin, cash and returns.
Cash · Margin · Working capital · Unit economics · Forecasting · Financial performance
- 06 /
Organisation
Whether the people, structure and governance can execute it.
Leadership · People · Structure · Governance · Accountability · Execution
How we use it
INS/OS is the operating framework we use to understand where performance is being constrained, how the parts of a consumer business interact and where intervention is most likely to create value. We use it to work out where performance is actually being created and where it is being lost. It is how we structure a diagnostic, a transformation programme, a due diligence assessment and a board review, because the constraint is rarely where the noise is loudest.
A stalled growth number is often an Organisation problem. A cash problem is often a Delivery problem. INS/OS keeps the assessment honest by forcing us to look at the whole system before we agree what to fix.
INS/OS diagnostic
Find your growth constraint.
The INS/OS Diagnostic is a structured 24-question assessment designed to identify the part of the business most likely to be constraining performance. You will receive a score across Direction, Demand, Product, Delivery, Economics and Organisation, together with an indication of the likely constraint and what usually needs to happen next.
- Twenty-four questions, taking about six minutes.
- A score across Direction, Demand, Product, Delivery, Economics and Organisation.
- An indication of the likely constraint, and what usually needs to happen next.
Twenty-four statements, four for each dimension. Indicative, and not financial, legal or investment advice.
Where each dimension is carried
- 01DirectionStrategy, Priorities, Decision-making, Resource allocation
- 02DemandBrand, Marketing, Retail, Channels, Customer growth, Ecommerce
- 03ProductInnovation, Portfolio, Commercial proposition, Product-market fit, Product economics
- 04DeliveryOperations, Manufacturing, Inventory, Supply chain, Fulfilment, Technology
- 05EconomicsCash, Margin, Working capital, Unit economics, Forecasting, Financial performance
- 06OrganisationLeadership, People, Structure, Governance, Accountability, Execution
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