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The Handbook: The Operations Podcast
Running a serviced based business, an agency or consultancy isn’t just about great client work. It’s about keeping everything behind the scenes running smoothly.
That’s where The Handbook comes in. Our goal? To help you take your business to the next level of business maturity.
This podcast is for operations and service-business leaders who are juggling it all – people, processes, finance, tech, and everything in between.
Every other week, we dive deep into a specific challenge that businesses face as they grow in headcount and complexity. You'll get practical insights and real-world advice from experts who’ve been there, solved the problems, and know what works.
If you’re looking for smarter ways to scale, streamline, and strengthen your business, you’re in the right place. Welcome to The Handbook community, your go-to guide for better business operations.
And don’t forget to sign up for The Handbook newsletter – we’ll send you the key takeaways from each episode straight to your inbox: scoro.com/podcast/#handbook
The Handbook: The Operations Podcast is brought to you by Scoro.
Episodes
58 episodes
Why Only 13% of Firms Feel Ready to Scale – with Manish Kapur & Rich Brett
The data is in – and it's not pretty.After surveying 303 agencies and consultancies through the Business Maturity Quiz, we've launched The Maturity Gap Report, revealing just how wide the gap really is between the firms where ope...
5 ops events. 8 weeks. Zero excuses. RSVP now!
Five events. Eight weeks. Zero excuses.If you're in ops, finance, or senior leadership at an agency or consulting firm – Harv runs through five upcoming events worth getting in your calendar right now.From the Maturity Gap Webinar...
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6 Ops Changes That Took This Business from Scrappy to Scalable – with Alex Bodini
Growing a professional services business often starts the same way: scrappy teams, generalists wearing multiple hats, and a lot of momentum driven by energy rather than structure.In this episode of The Handbook, Harv sits down w...
Why Ops Is Really About Culture (Not Just Process) with Nicky Russell
The work we produce gets all the attention.But the real question is: what’s happening behind the scenes that makes that work possible?In this episode of The Handbook, Harv sits down with creative operations expert Nicky R...
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Live event: Run like you're looking to sell, 19 March
Have you heard of The Handbook: Breakfast Sessions?These are intimate breakfast roundtables where we dive into big operational topics with leaders from forward-thinking agencies and consultancies.The next one is coming up o...
From 11% to 43% Net Profit – Fixing the Fundamentals with Robert Patin
Your numbers might look healthy.Revenue’s up. Projects are flowing. The pipeline feels… fine.But underneath? Margins are eroding. Cash is tighter than you’d like. And no one’s totally confident in the data they’re using to make de...
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5 AI Guardrails COOs Need to Put in Place Today with Sharon Toerek
AI is moving fast in professional services firms. And while most conversations focus on efficiency gains and new tools, the harder questions are around risk – ownership, liability, and what happens when AI use goes wrong.In t...
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The 8 Systems Every COO Needs to Scale with Jason Swenk
Most service businesses don’t stall because of a lack of talent or ambition. They stall because the business quietly outgrows the systems it was built on.In this episode of The Handbook, Harv Nagra sits down with Jason Swenk – a...
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One Question Before the Break – What Should We Tackle Next?
A short one to close out the year! 🎁No frameworks. No deep dives. Just a genuine thank you.Whether you found The Handbook last week or you’ve been listening since episode one, I wanted to reflect on the year and say how m...
Ops Quickie: Fixing the Sales-to-Delivery 'Black Hole'
Ops Quickies – snackable episodes on tech, tools, and systems. 🍿"Ballpark" is a dangerous word.Especially when Sales sells the dream, and Delivery is left living the nightmare.In this Quickie, Harv shares a real story from ...
Scaling Effort, Not Results? This is your wake-up call – with Michael Wark
When your business feels busy but the numbers don’t back it up, something’s off.Agencies and consultancies often confuse effort with progress – and today’s guest has the data to prove it.In this episode of The Handbook, H...
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Ops Quickie: AI isn't the threat. Flying blind is.
Ops Quickies – snackable episodes on tech, tools, and systems. 🍿Flat demand, tighter budgets, squeezed margins. And AI is adding uncertainty on top of it all. But the real risk? It’s flying blind. If you don’t kno...
How to Run Annual Planning Like a CFO (Even If You’re Not One) with Adam Cooper
Most teams treat annual planning like a spreadsheet exercise.Finance builds the numbers. Everyone else nods along. Then the plan gets filed away until next year.But real planning isn’t about producing a static budget – it’s about ...
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Ops Quickie: PSA vs ERP – Same Same...or Totally Different?
Ops Quickies – snackable episodes on tech, tools, and systems. 🍿So many acronyms, but what do they mean!? This one’s for anyone wondering: what’s the difference between a PSA and an ERP? And which one does your business act...
Beyond Experiments: What It Really Takes to Operationalize AI with Luke Alexander
AI has stopped being a side project – it’s rewriting the rules of how professional services businesses operate – and – stay competitive.Luke Alexander, Chief Digital & AI Officer at Four, has led an ambitious AI transformati...
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Ops Quickie: MCP – the Missing Link Between Ops & AI?
Ops Quickies – snackable episodes on tech, tools, and systems. 🍿This one’s for anyone curious about the next big shift in how AI connects with the tools you already use: MCP. Model context protocol.Harv breaks down what it is (a...
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Becoming Better Ops Leaders: Lessons from Operations Nation
Ops isn’t just about keeping the lights on anymore.As Aušrinė Keršanskaitė, co-founder of Operations Nation, puts it – today’s ops leaders are expected to drive growth, protect culture, and build resilience. And if you’ve ever felt like ...
Ops Quickie: When your stack starts to crack 😬
Ops Quickies – snackable episodes on tech, tools, and systems. 🍿This one’s for anyone who’s ever looked at their jumble of spreadsheets and apps and thought: “Is this normal?”Harv explains why the state of your tech stack is act...
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Lessons From Scaling $750k to $25m with Lindsey Head
Touch the same piece of information more than twice – fix the workflow. That’s the kind of CFO-meets-COO thinking we get into in this episode of The Handbook, where Harv sits down with Lindsey Head to connect the dots between finance, ops, tech...
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Ops Quickie: What ERA is your business in? Find out here!
Ops Quickies – we're back with another snackable episode. 🍿This one’s for anyone who’s ever wondered: Is my business actually set up to scale – or are we just surviving?Harv breaks down:👉🏽 Why business matur...
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How to Scale Smarter: Productizing Value with Brian Kessman
When businesses talk about “productizing,” they often picture cookie-cutter scopes and rigid templates. But according to Brian Kessman, that’s missing the point.Brian is the founder of Lodestar Consulting, and he’s spent 25 years helping...
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Ops Quickie: Why a PSA ≠ PM Tool
Ops Quickies – snackable episodes on tech, tools, and systems. 🍿This one’s for anyone who’s ever asked: How is a PSA actually different from a project management tool? And does it even matter?Spoiler: it does.
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What 11 Acquisitions Taught Dom Hawes About M&A
From the outside, M&A can seem like a clean transaction – a new parent company, a logo change, a cheerful announcement.But inside? The reality is messier. Integration. Culture clashes. Reporting headaches. And a long list of decision...
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Ops Quickie: What the heck is a PSA?!
New series alert: Ops Quickies — snackable episodes on tech, tools, and systems. 🍿We're kicking off with a big question wrapped in The Clunkiest Acronym: what the heck is a PSA ... or professional services a...
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Board-Level Thinking, Sale-Ready Ops – with Sam Wood
Your ops might be ticking along just fine.But what if your founder got sick tomorrow? What if your top client left? What if you had to make a big decision with zero visibility on the numbers?You might not be planning to sell yo...
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