Book Review – Rocket Fuel

Some time ago, shortly after I received a promotion at my job to an executive position, my company implemented a system for running the company which would solidity who was accountable for what, keep the executive team on the same page, and allow us to define our goals and issues so we could focus on achieving and resolving them. While I am no longer at that company, the processes I learned and implemented appealed to me to the point that I chose my current job in part because they follow the same system, the Entrepreneurial Operating System, or EOS.

This system, developed by entrepreneur Gino Wickman, provides a simple and effective framework which any small or medium sized business can use to ensure their leadership team is focused on their core values, long and short term goals, and theirs roles within the company. Two of those roles, the visionary and the integrator, are roles I am very familiar with as I was the EOS integrator as part of my executive roles. These roles are the focus of the book Rocket Fuel, one of a series of books from Wickman about EOS and the many facets of the system.

In Rocket Fuel, Wickman writes about what these two roles entail. The visionary, who is usually the president, CEO, and/or owner of the company, has the role of coming up with the ideas which the company may pursue. Nine out of ten of those ideas might be off the wall, but that tenth idea that does work is the goal. The integrator, on the other hand, is the person who makes sure that everything is running smoothly and, in some situations, plays the foil to the visionary to filter those ideas so the focus is on that one great idea.

The book title, Rocket Fuel, becomes clear as Wickman shows the reader how, like two volatile chemicals which, when combined, create the propellant which sends the rocket to new heights, the visionary and integrator can combine to lead their company to new levels of success while also allowing them and their team to live normal lives outside of work. Wickman also reviews the six key components of the EOS model, with the focus of how the visionary and integrator fit into these components.

I would recommend reading Rocket Fuel if you are in one of these two roles or are looking for somebody to fill either for your company. If you are interested in EOS or are about to implement it at your company, I would suggest reading Get A Grip and/or Traction before this book as those are “EOS entry level” bookswhich better serve to introduce the EOS world to its readers.