When it comes to business, Europe has a scaling problem. As a European, that bothers me.

Some of the issue is about funding — the lack of growth capital beyond the early rounds and a tendency to sell early.
Some is about regulation — fragmented markets, slow approvals, and risk-averse policy.
But some is about an often overlooked third element: how companies are run.

That is what this blog is about.

I call it Operating System Choices — the often invisible decisions that shape how a company turns aspirations into results. These choices determine whether companies grow with focus, ownership, and speed — or get stuck in complexity, confusion, and inertia.

I’ve seen these problems up close in companies of all sizes. They start early, often with a few dozen coworkers, get worse throughout scaling into the hundreds of people, and do not disappear even in global companies with thousands of employees.

The same frustrations come up again and again:

"We have no idea where we’re heading."
"Everything is supposedly important, no one knows what really matters."
"Nobody truly owns anything around here."
"Management paints rosy pictures, but on the ground, it is chaos."

These are not minor issues. They are core blockers to scale. They are deeply frustrating to the people involved — both leaders and staff. But they are fixable.

This blog is where I share what I have learned about building better operating systems for companies — practical ways to grow without drifting into chaos or bureaucracy.

The blog's name is a nod to two people who have shaped my thinking: Roger Martin, whose "playing to win" strategy framework defines "management systems" as the fifth strategic choice — and Claire Hughes Johnson, whose book "scaling people" offers the most thoughtful and complete view on operating systems for scaling companies I have come across so far.

Over time, you will find three types of content here:

  • A framework – a holistic view on what I have learned about the systems a company needs for successful scaling
  • Additional libraries – tools and models that have helped me turn concepts into action
  • Field notes – stories from real companies and conversations with people building and scaling them

I want this to become the blog I would have loved to stumble upon when I first tried to get a grip of organizing a company that started scaling. If you are building a company and want it to scale without breaking, I hope this page will be useful to you.