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 operations is a strength and everyone else.

In this episode, Harv is joined by operations consultant Manish Kapur and FinOps expert Rich Brett to walk through the headline findings – and what they actually mean for the way your business is run.

Here are a few of the headlines they discuss:

• Role clarity is rarer than you think – only 35% of firms have clearly defined roles, and the knock-on effects reach everything from project delivery to decision-making bottlenecks
• Most operational knowledge lives in people's heads – just 21% of firms have documented their best practices, leaving businesses one resignation away from losing it all
• Automation remains an untapped opportunity – only one in eight firms have automated any meaningful part of how they work, in 2026
• Time tracking data is being wasted – 41% of firms track time accurately, but only 13% are using that data to make decisions or course-correct mid-project
• Forecasting with confidence is the exception, not the rule – only one in four firms can forecast margins, revenue, and capacity with any real certainty
• Scale readiness is a widespread concern – just 13% of firms believe their operating model is ready for what's ahead

If you want to know where your business sits against the 303 firms in the report – and what separates the top performers from the rest – this is the episode to start with.

This was originally recorded as a live webinar – if you'd prefer to watch with the presentation slides, head to YouTube here: https://youtu.be/GfQ-raYcGQg

Ready to take action to level up?

1) Take the business maturity quiz – https://bit.ly/assess-business-maturity

2) Read The Maturity Gap Report – https://scoro.com/blog/maturity-gap

3) Subscribe to The Handbook: The Ops Podcast for the upcoming maturity series – https://linktr.ee/handbookpodcast

Additional Resources:

👉🏽 Follow Manish Kapur on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manishkapur/

👉🏽 Follow Rich Brett on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rich-brett-36903590/

👨🏽 Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/

➡️ This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system. Sign up for a free trial or a demo at https://scoro.com/demo – and for the VIP treatment, tell them Harv sent you.

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 (where the findings from the business maturity quiz finally get revealed) to the FinOps Conference, two intimate Handbook Breakfast Sessions in London, and – for the first time ever – a Breakfast Session in Manchester.

Register as follows:

1️⃣ The Maturity Gap Webinar, 15 Apr – https://bit.ly/the-maturity-gap

2️⃣ The Handbook: Breakfast Session 'Multi-Entity Madness', LDN, 23 Apr – https://bit.ly/breakfast-apr26

3️⃣ The FinOps Conference (50+ headcount businesses), LDN, 21 May – https://bit.ly/finops-conf

4️⃣ The Handbook: Breakfast Session 'When Finance Met Ops', LDN, 28 May – Drop Harv a DM on LinkedIn to save you a seat!

5️⃣ The Handbook: Breakfast Session 'When Finance Met Ops', MCR, 3 Jun – Drop Harv a DM on LinkedIn to save you a seat!

Hope to see you there!

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 with Alex Bodini, CEO of Spin Brands, to unpack how Spin evolved from a grassroots social media shop into a multi-entity group of 100+ people. Rather than waiting for a crisis to force change, Alex and his co-founder made a conscious decision to professionalize the business so they could attract bigger clients, better talent, and more ambitious opportunities.

They walk through the operational shifts that helped Spin move from “proper scrappy” to a more mature organization – and the cultural tensions that inevitably come with that transition.

Here’s what we dive into:

• Why bringing in a proper finance director changed far more than reporting – from pricing and scoping to forecasting and recovery
• The role HR played in moving from informal “touchy-feely” people management to structured career paths, policies, and development
• How hiring experienced specialists elevated the quality of work – even if not every senior hire worked out
• Why investing in senior-level marketing helped Spin build credibility and compete for bigger clients
• What a chairman can bring to a founder-led business – accountability, perspective, and bigger strategic thinking
• The trade-offs between the fun, chaotic “old Spin” culture and the more structured, scalable “new Spin”

Alex is refreshingly honest about the reality of transformation. Some hires didn’t work out. Cultural change created tension. And the journey took far longer than expected.

But the result is a business with stronger foundations – one that’s now scaling through acquisitions and positioning itself for the next stage of growth.

If you’re navigating that transition from scrappy startup to grown-up, mature organization, there’s a lot in Alex’s story that will feel very familiar.

Additional Resources:

👉🏽 Follow Alex on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-bodini/

🌐 Spin Brands: http://spinbrands.com/

👨🏽 Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/

📈 Measure your business maturity and find out how to get to the next level: https://bit.ly/assess-business-maturity

📬 Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter: https://www.scoro.com/podcast/#handbook

➡️ This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system. Sign up for a free trial or a demo at https://scoro.com/demo – and for the VIP treatment, tell them Harv sent you.