Version 2 · September 2026

Operating Principles

I have never met a founder who described building a business as easy or linear. Most of us get ten things wrong for every one we get right, and these came out of the ten rather than the one.

Sixteen years of building a sustainability consultancy from three people to more than a hundred, reduced to nine rules I can use under pressure. Open one for the working.

How I lead

The inverted pyramid Five stacked bands narrowing downward. Clients form the widest band at the top, then front line, senior staff and executive, with the CEO as the single point at the bottom. CLIENTS FRONT LINE SENIOR STAFF EXECUTIVE CEO
Each layer holds up the one above it. The chief executive is the point at the bottom, and the client is never underneath anyone.

The pyramid is upside down. Clients on top, then front line, senior staff and executive, with the CEO at the bottom holding it all up.
  • Serve the layer above you, and make sure every layer does the same.
  • Spend your time with the team, not with the board pack.
  • If the people above you have started serving you, the pyramid has flipped and the client is at the bottom.

Delegate authority, not work. Give decision rights away freely. Hand over the work only to people who have already shown they can carry it.
  • Know exactly what good looks like, and how it fits the whole, before handing anything over. Best endeavours and even excellent outputs do not integrate themselves.
  • Delegate only to people aligned on values and direction, not just to smart people you trust.
  • If you are not confident in the person and the plan, press pause.

Manage by people, not by numbers. Relationships and a shared mission work up to the size where you know everyone. Past that, change the style or narrow the scope.
  • Know the headcount at which your way of leading stops reaching the work.
  • When a management layer appears between you and the team, change how you lead or shrink what you lead. There is no third option.
  • Overloaded founders (that would be most) are usually running the old operating system on a much bigger company.

On people

Get it, want it, capacity. Then values. Three questions, each needing a clear yes. Then values, where one uncertain match is survivable and two is a no.
  • Ask them to explain what the role is for and what it has to deliver, in their own words.
  • Ask whether they want this job, not the next one and not a place to recover from the last one.
  • Treat a probably on any of the three as a no, whatever the urgency and whoever made the introduction.
  • Test values on specific examples of someone living them, never on agreement when you describe them.

Speed is mercy. Once you have decided someone has to go, every week of delay makes it worse for them, for the team and for you.
  • Decide, plan it properly, and move within weeks, not months.
  • Set generous terms and a short timeline. Generosity has never needed slowness.
  • If you are reading this with someone specific in mind, you already have your answer.

These cost me the most to learn, and I have yet to meet a founder who has not run at least one of them.

If one is live for you right now, I would enjoy a coffee or a call: jb@jonas-bengtsson.com

On building

Culture is what you do, repeatedly, where people can see it. Values statements and culture decks are decoration. Teams copy what the leader does about quality, clients and looking after people.
  • Repeat the same standard until you are thoroughly bored of yourself. That is roughly when it starts to take.
  • Protect the unnecessary expenses, the boat day and the beer fridge, from the first corporate-minded hire who wants to cut them.
  • If the culture is not what you want, look first at what you are modelling.

Authority beats visibility. Sponsoring an event puts a logo in front of people. Speaking at one puts you in the room as the person they might hire.
  • Take every real speaking slot in a room with buyers in it, and decline the rest.
  • Publish positions other people avoid. People remember what you stand for.
  • Never sponsor. It is a logo on a stage, and I have never seen it turn into anything.

On deals and money

Leverage is the only language. Speed and competitive tension are the only real leverage in a transaction. Keep alternatives alive until the money is contractually locked.
  • Never go exclusive. The leverage leaves with the alternatives.
  • Treat 99% complete as 0%. Terms move until the funds have moved.
  • If they think you have nowhere else to go, you do not have a deal. You have a begging bowl.

Almost never discount. 5% symbolically, 10% at the outside. Every discount is a discount on the future.
  • Hold the number. A discount resets what the client thinks the work is worth and reappears in the next scope.
  • Never discount to win a client already showing the warning signs: quick, cheap, sceptical, or sent by someone else.
  • Test the ceiling. We raised a capacity-constrained service by a third overnight and the win rate did not move.

Version 2 · September 2026 · revised when the evidence changes

The unabridged version runs to twenty-two chapters and names names, so it stays where it is.

If you have run the same experiment and reached a different answer, I would like to hear it. jb@jonas-bengtsson.com