company-operating-system

15 · Operating Diagnosis Templates: Monthly + Annual

Downloadable, printable, fill-in-the-blank management health checks. How to use: run the monthly version by the 10th of each month (10 minutes); do the annual version every December (1 day). These templates map to all 13 chapters of the book — the smallest closed loop from “framework → action.”

I. Monthly Operating Diagnosis (10-minute version)

By the 10th of each month, the CEO + finance lead + operations lead go through it together.

A. Finance (3 minutes)

#	Question	This month	Last month	Budget	Variance %	Red flag?
1	Revenue (CNY 10k)
2	Gross margin (%)
3	Net profit (CNY 10k)
4	Cash balance (CNY 10k)
5	Is the 3-month cash forecast sufficient? (✓/✗)
6	AR payment terms (days)

Red-line check:

Cash < X months of expenses? (X = the red line you set)
AR payment terms worsening > 10 days month over month?
Gross margin down > 3 points month over month?

B. Operations (3 minutes)

#	Question	This month	Last month	Target	Red flag?
1	Order value (CNY 10k)
2	On-time delivery rate (%)
3	Inventory turns (days)
4	Yield / first-pass yield (%)
5	Key customer concentration (top-1 share %)
6	New product sales share (%)

Red-line check:

Single customer > 50%? (develop a second customer)
Dead stock older than 3 months? (clear it)

C. Organization (2 minutes)

#	Question	Answer
1	Are all key roles filled? (A/B backup)
2	Core talent attrition risk? (0–10)
3	What are the top 3 customer complaints this month?
4	Are complaints closed out? (✓/✗)
5	How many people hired/lost this month?

D. Strategy (2 minutes)

#	Question	Answer
1	What changed in the market this month? (competitors/policy/demand)
2	Do our strategic assumptions need updating?
3	What are next month’s top 3 actions?
4	What are next month’s top 3 risks?

Monthly Summary (1 minute)

One-line summary of the month: ____________________
The single most important thing next month: ____________________
Decisions that need the CEO: ____________________

II. Annual Strategy Session Template (1 day)

Every December; management + key backbone staff, one full day.

Morning (3 hours): Review & Insights

1. Gap Analysis (30 min)

Dimension	Last year’s target	Actual	Gap	Attribution
Revenue
Net profit
Cash flow
Market share
Organization/talent

2. Five Views Insights (1.5 h) (maps to BLM in Ch. 01)

View	Key findings	What it means for us
Macro (PEST)
Industry (Five Forces)
Customer
Competitor
Self (SWOT)

3. Assumption Retrospective (1 h)

What assumptions did we bet on last year? Which were validated? Which were wrong?
Which decisions were right? Which were wrong? Why?
Failure case review (see the failure modes in Ch. 14)

Afternoon (3 hours): Planning & Budget

4. Direction (40 min)

What will we do next year? (focus list)
What won’t we do next year? (cut list — kill at least one unprofitable business)

5. Three Horizons (30 min) (maps to Ch. 01)

Horizon	Business	Resources %	Goal
H1 core		70%
H2 growth		20%
H3 emerging		10%

6. Budget (50 min)

Item	Next year’s target	Basis
Revenue
Gross margin
Net profit
Cash flow
Capital expenditure

7. KPI & Performance Targets (40 min)

Level	Goal	KPI	Owner
Company
Department A
Department B
Top 3 individuals

8. Top 10 Key Actions + Red Lines (30 min)

Next year’s top 10 key actions (executable, with owners and deadlines)
Next year’s red-line list (cash flow / customer concentration / policy contingencies)
Checkpoints: which assumptions do we test each quarter?

Post-Meeting Outputs (mandatory)

Annual operating plan (1 page)
Budget table (1 page)
KPI & performance target table (1 page)
Top 10 key actions (1 page)
Red-lines list (1 page)

III. Quarterly Retrospective Template (half day)

At the end of each quarter; 1–2 hours is enough.

Revenue/profit this quarter vs. budget (variance %)
What did we do this quarter? (key actions review)
What changed in market/competition/policy? (hypothesis testing)
Next quarter’s top 3 actions + top 3 risks
Does the strategic direction need correcting?

IV. Quick Scorecard (0–100)

Do it once a year; compare with last year to see whether the system is growing.

Dimension	Item	0–10	Last year	This year	Change
Strategy	Clarity of direction (what to do / not to do)
Strategy	Did the annual strategy session happen, and was it substantive?
Governance	Equity/control/ring-fencing clear?
Operations	Does every link of the value chain have an owner?
Operations	Severity of silos (10 = no silos)
Resources	Can we compute true gross margin (by product/customer)?
Resources	Cash flow management (payment terms table/forecast)
Resources	Information systems (ERP/cockpit)
Moat	Moat width vs. last year (1–10)
Risk	Is the red-lines list enforced?
Risk	Are crisis plans rehearsed?
People	A/B backup coverage for key roles
People	Core talent lock-in (equity/retention)
People	Culture made real (values in performance reviews)
Decision	Decision mechanism (type/checkpoints)
Total	(out of 160 → percentage)

How to read it:

≥80%: system is healthy; keep iterating
60–80%: skeleton exists; shore up the weak spots
<60%: still in the “people-driven” stage; prioritize the 6 steps in Ch. 12

V. How to Use the Templates

Print or copy into Excel/Notion/Feishu (Lark, a Chinese workplace collaboration suite) multi-dimensional table
Monthly version: finance lead fills in A, operations fills in B, HR fills in C, CEO fills in D
Annual version: send the materials a week ahead; the meeting makes decisions, it doesn’t give presentations
Every “red flag” must come with an action + owner + deadline, or the diagnosis is spinning wheels

📌 These templates work together with the implementation checklist in Ch. 12. Stick with it for 12 months and the system grows itself.

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