Jason

Jason had built his electrical contracting business over nine years in auckland. nineteen people. consistently winning commercial and residential work. he had turned down a contract worth 30% revenue growth in the same month he cancelled a family holiday for the third consecutive year. the reason for both was the same: Jason was full. not the business. Jason.

project managers on his team operated more as schedulers than leaders. every decision above the routine came back to Jason. the business could not grow beyond what Jason could personally hold.

there was a strategic problem underneath the operational one. a review of the job portfolio showed residential work was running at margins 40% below commercial. Jason had been taking all work on the assumption that revenue growth meant business health. he had been subsidising unprofitable residential work with profitable commercial work for years. he knew the commercial work was better. he had never had the time or the structure to act on what he knew.

Jason took three weeks in queenstown - the first uninterrupted holiday in four years. one operational issue arose. the senior project manager handled it. Jason found out when he returned. revenue grew from $4.2m to $5.8m in ten months with a materially better margin profile than the business had ever had.

it wasn't a capacity problem. it was an architecture problem. and the revenue growth that had felt like health was masking a margin problem that only became visible when Jason had the time and the structure to look at it properly.