Business Model (V2MOM)

Owned by Michael Cannon (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Mar 19, 2024
4 min read

The business model or operating system is how a company is run. Thanks to our engineering background, Axelerant's operating system is simple. We bind people through all levels of the organization through a common why, what, and how. The following are ways we apply them at Axelerant.

  • As an organization, we have a common purpose (why), a mission we align to (what), and shared cultural values (how).

  • Our departments and service areas have a shared mission (why), prioritized goals (what), and success metrics (how).

  • Project teams have a shared desired outcome (why), prioritized goals (what), and expectations (how).

  • A domain of authority bounds roles (why), core responsibilities (what), and verifiable expectations (how).

We unite our organization for success through the semantics of why, what, and how.

Why Use V2MOMs?

Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, introduced the V2MOM over 20 years ago to help people focus their collective energy towards success through constant communication and complete alignment, with the help of a management process based on aspects of Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles, and Measures.

These five V2MOM parts guide us to where we are going and help us understand how to get there by our simplified business modeling.

  • Why in vision.

  • What encapsulates values and methods.

  • How obstacles and measures.

V2MOMs work because of four underlying principles.

Alignment: Every V2MOM aligns with V2MOM, ensuring all team members work toward the same goal. In addition, everyone can see how their work is connected to the bigger picture.

Priorities: Using V2MOMs to manage how team members spend their time and resources makes it clear to everyone what tasks are most important to the company. For example, please Don't ask people to work on something inconsistent with their V2MOM.

Accountability: Since the V2MOM is public, everyone knows where they stand. Progress is easy to monitor and track, creating a high level of accountability.

Adaptability: Business plans tend to be static and oft-forgotten. A set of tightly linked V2MOMs makes far more sense in a fast-moving business. When you need to change direction, update the V2MOM at the highest level, and people will switch gears.

Making Why/What/How Practical at Axelerant

Much of what we do in Axelerant's day-to-day operations is defined by V2MOM documents that tie back to our Being Axelerant. Each domain and some smaller groups have a V2MOM they jointly work towards.

The V2MOM enables Axelerant to clarify what we're doing and then communicate it clearly to the relevant domain through these five points, which create a management framework for alignment and leadership:

Vision: Defines what we want to accomplish.

Values: Principles and beliefs that help us pursue the vision.

Methods: Actions and steps to take to get the job done.

Obstacles: We must overcome these challenges and issues to achieve the vision.

Measures: How we measure achievement.

Start the V2MOM

Make a copy of V2MOM DOMAIN Template and customize it for your domain.

V2MOM Tips

Vision

The vision is the 6-month to 3-year targeted high-level context, AKA the desired outcome of what to accomplish.

Values

While Axelerant's values don't change, other intentional meanings, behaviors, and attitudes of values might change per group besides additional values. For example:

  • Organization - Enthusiasm: We regularly learn, do, retrospect, iterate, and share what works.

  • Engineering - Enthusiasm: We constantly learn and improve ourselves and our ways of working

  • Excellence - Striving for top 1% effectiveness

Methods

These are ways we will accomplish what we've declared to do. These are often qualitative, inspirational reasoning or intended behaviors of how a group will fulfill its V2MOM.

Towards focus, the number of methods should be reasonable, like no more than five. Hopefully, it will be in a prioritized order, so we might know that precedence towards decision-making.

It would be best to consider the outcomes of methods like meaningful intent and unintended behaviors. Then, optionally, prioritize practices by department ownership, improve external interactions, improve internal operations, and develop our people.

Priority Examples

  • Encourage customer retention by providing staffing services in a consistent and meaningful manner.

  • Create a sustainable Axelerant by generating consistently profitable revenue.

  • Improve cross-functional morale and engagement clarity by removing silos between teams.

  • Ensure role success through clarity of role expectations

  • Increase sales opportunities because of our industry-leading quality assurance practices

  • Demonstrate Axelerant's relevance as a leader in the Drupal ecosystem

Obstacles

Recognition of the things that get in our way of our desired state of being.

For example, Development environments change from project to project; NPS data isn't connectable to projects and their team members.

Measures

Desired outcomes, measures, and metrics determine when the V2MOM is successful. Typically, these are something we're working towards on an ongoing basis. One-off measures, like documentation, should be considered a method, obstacle, or outcome rather than a metric.

Sample Measures

The following happenstance aspects have been vetted as desired outcomes that we might measure.

  • Lean processes

  • Consistent operations

  • Useful documentation

  • Better hiring practices

  • Clear onboarding expectations

  • Integrated systems

  • Iterative improvements

  • Relevant training & education

  • Living Axelerant's EKO values

  • People skills - Certifications, Events, Training

  • Technology plays

References