Running multiple businesses with five operating principles

Executive overview

Managing eight companies across three time zones with ~100 people requires a repeatable operating system, not heroic effort. The five A's provide that system: a 90-day rhythm layered over weekly execution, with shared visibility at every level.

A clear cadence — not constant intervention — is what keeps distributed teams aligned and moving.

Alignment

• Every 90 days, run a session that reconnects the whole team to vision, mission, and values.
• Set clear goals, objectives, key results, and a shared dashboard.
• Everyone must know what the team is trying to achieve and by when.

Awareness list

• An awareness is earlier than an issue or problem — a signal that something might go wrong, or an opportunity is emerging.
• Collect everyone's awarenesses continuously, rank and score them, then assign owners.
• Catching rattles before breakdowns is the entire point — intervene early.

Accountability chart

• Every person knows what they are accountable for and what everyone else is accountable for.
• Makes it easy to identify who to involve when an opportunity or problem appears.

Weekly activities

• Each Monday, every team member publicly declares their top 3–6 priorities for the week (Slack, email, or WhatsApp).
• Each Friday, they declare what was completed and what carries over.
• If someone's activities look misaligned or low-value, raise an awareness — don't let it fester.

Assets

• Businesses grow long-term through assets: more assets means more cash flow, stability, and profit.
• Maintain a list of game-changing assets to build; aim for 3–4 significant new assets per year.
• Each team member should know which assets they touch and how to improve them.