The Handbook: The Operations Podcast

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.

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 Russell, co-founder of WDC, We Deliver Change, and chair of the Creative Operations Summit in London. Together they explore the discipline of creative ops – the systems, culture, and leadership required to help creative teams do their best work. 
What starts as a conversation about creative teams quickly expands into something bigger: how operations leaders create the environment where great work can actually happen.
Here’s what we dive into:
What creative operations actually is – and why it’s becoming a strategic role inside agencies, brands, and consultancies
Why ops is fundamentally about culture – not just processes, workflows, and systems
Why happiness and psychological safety matter more than most leaders realise when it comes to producing great work
How creative ops and business ops are converging as technology and AI reshape how work gets done
How learning to speak the language of different stakeholders is often the key to unlocking real influence.
Whether you work in a creative environment or not, the themes in this conversation will resonate with any ops leader trying to build a healthier, more effective organisation.

Additional Resources:
👉🏽 Follow Nicky on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicky-russell-989a4719/
🌐 WDC London: https://wdc-london.com/ 
🌐 In-House Agency Leaders Club: https://www.ihalc.com/ 
🗓️ Henry Stewart Creative Ops Summit London, 19th March 2026: https://henrystewartconferences.com/creative-operations/ 

👨🏽 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.

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 on 19 March in London, and the theme is:
Run like you’re looking to sell. Even if you’re not.
I’ll be joined by Dom Hawes. Dom has led 11 acquisitions and scaled his marketing services group to £22m in just 30 months, so he’s seen first-hand what makes a business attractive when someone starts looking under the hood.
Whether an exit is on the horizon or not, the disciplines that increase valuation are the same ones that make a business more profitable, more resilient, and easier to run.
The Breakfast Sessions are intentionally small to give everyone space to contribute, and they operate under Chatham House Rule to encourage open conversation.
If you’re leading a 25+ person agency or consultancy and want to see your firm through a sharper lens, this one’s for you.
Request a seat:
bit.ly/handbookbreakfastmarch