S1:E2 Sue Hawkes - Learning How to Incorporate Strong Systematic Improvements for Success

By Colin Sheehan, RCS Reporter. 

How to take control of your business, clarify your vision and how the Owens Corning Business Accelerator program can help. 

In this Business Accelerator podcast, sponsored by Owens Corning, RCS Partner Heidi J. Ellsworth talks with Sue Hawkes, an Owens Corning Business Accelerator partner, about her role in assisting Owens Corning roofing contractors in integrating EOS®, the Entrepreneurial Operating System, into their business. Sue Hawkes is an award-winning, globally recognized seminar leader and business coach who has been helping contractors identify root problems and clarify business visions for decades. In this podcast, you will learn about the importance of working on your business rather than simply working in your business. 

Sue’s worked with hundreds of companies, written four books, is an Expert EOS Implementer® and Community Leader, the CEO and Founder of YESS! - Your Extraordinary Success Strategies, Inc. - and brings 30+ years of experience delivering transformational results to her clients.  

“I have a passion and a commitment [to help] people run a better business so that they can actually have time left over to pursue other things,” said Sue. “And I love roofers. The sincerity, the pride, the care, the work ethic, the kindness, the commitment to quality, the actual ‘we’re in this together teamwork’, it’s just awesome. I’m grateful to be part of it.”  

Sue describers her entrepreneurial path as a somewhat messy, enthusiastic, and engaged journey. Over her career she’s learned that business owners need to invest time to systemize, not bureaucratize, their company’s operations. 

"We [Owens Corning Business Accelerators] aren't about turning [your business] into a company with huge documentation that's difficult; what we want is to get you to think about the solid foundation you need in place when change happens.” 

And, as we all know, change happens.  

“I will tell you, in 2020, the clients that I've had have been saying, ‘Thank God we had an operating system,’ because they could scale up or down at any time and there's the bedrock. That's what you press into when it gets hard or complex or things change.” 

The flexibility and overall functionality of EOS® has been highlighted over the past year due to the teams’ ability to use the system to respond to the immense changes that have occurred throughout the business world. Sue even expressed that our world underwent the equivalent of 10 years growth in a three-month time period in Q2 last year.  Clients running on EOS® navigated it more readily due to the “bedrock” stability it provides.  

"In times of disruption, that's actually where businesses are made or broken,” said Sue. “Some will survive because they responded appropriately and they adjusted and got creative again. But in turbulent times, that's when you need it most. What it meant for me was I had to learn how to deliver what I do 100% [of the time, no matter the outside circumstances]." 

Listen to the entire podcast to learn how to put yourself in the driver's seat and transform your company’s operations for a more adaptable and successful long-term business.