Interview with Josh Bowling, Managing Member The EVE Group
Welcome to the latest edition of Founder Spotlight, featuring Josh Bowling, Managing Member of The EVE Group. With extensive leadership experience, he is dedicated to guiding companies and leaders through transitional stages of development. Josh started EVE because of his experience as an operating executive and owner of for-profit companies where he experienced firsthand the challenges of focusing on maximizing value while tactically operating on a daily basis. He often felt the need to clone himself to accomplish everything necessary to effectively conceptualize, operationalize, execute, and manage the mission required to maximize potential value. EVE was created as a versatile clone that seamlessly integrates with the team, to operate alongside them, achieve the objectives, and enhance value.
Let’s hear Josh Bowling’s story about The EVE Group and how it tailors its support to different industries.

Hi Josh, welcome to Founder Spotlight! Tell me about The EVE Group?
First, thanks so much for talking with me. I am grateful for the opportunity. EVE is a group of experienced owners and executive operators specializing in providing operational expertise and support to the leaders and investors associated with for-profit business enterprises. We work with teams as operators to identify, prioritize, and implement changes which are intended to positively impact the operational efficiency, profitability and enterprise value of the company.
What types of businesses benefit most from working with The Eve Group?
Any for-profit enterprise can benefit from working with EVE regardless of size, maturity, or industry, and we have worked with companies ranging from the concept phase to publicly traded multi-nationals in almost every industry segment. I know it sounds unrealistic for me to say, “We can help everyone”, but I genuinely believe that we can. Let me try to explain.
Core to our approach is the belief that every enterprise is an asset with a value that can be either enhanced or diminished as a result of how the enterprise is managed and operating on a daily basis.
Furthermore, the value of the asset needs to be maximized to the benefit of 3 equal stakeholders: The Team, The Customer, and The Owners. If the needs of all three groups are not met, true enterprise value is diminished. Stakeholder alignment, clear objectives, effective communication, and focused execution are required for the value of the asset to have a chance to reach its fullest potential. We have worked with individual executives, functional teams, and companies as a whole to instill operational excellence, financial discipline, and executional rigor to positively impact the enterprise value of the asset.
In that context, any leadership or ownership group that is concerned with maximizing the value of the company that they are managing or investing in can benefit from a relationship with EVE.
What we have seen is that companies experiencing, anticipating, or desiring some type of transition need what we do best. Some areas that come to mind are:
- Strategy: The team is finding it challenging to create a holistic strategy in real terms that can be used to inform every decision that needs to be made throughout the enterprise. Or, the industry or customer is demanding a change of strategy or product to stay relevant and the team doesn’t have the process in place that enables them to rise above the tactics in order to assess the macro environment and create a viable strategy.
- Product Management: There is a realization that the current product is not grounded in an intimate relationship with the customer and the insights that result from that understanding. The process used to create and consistently maintain a product roadmap is not operating in a manner that leads to a well defined, appropriately prioritized, and executable set of product features.
- Growth Management: Growth is happening so quickly that the team is finding it difficult to keep up and they are starting to feel the “wheels begin to wobble”. On the reverse side of the coin, growth is occurring too slowly when compared to the team’s previous expectations.
- Operational Execution: The existing team is experiencing a lack of forward momentum and an inability to remain focused on the objectives that really impact the value of the company. The company has come to the realization that the people, processes, and tools that have gotten them to the current point are not going to meet their needs in the next phase of execution and season of growth but are not yet certain how to move forward.
- Financial, Data, and Reporting: There are difficulties capturing, processing, and utilizing data (financial, operational, etc.) to effectively inform decision making in an accurate, timely fashion and there is not a sustainable process to consistently report what is happening in the business. Oftentimes, the company needs to address cash flow by either raising capital (debt or equity), divesting non-core operations, or streamlining the enterprise to operate with more financial efficiency.
How does EVE customize its approach to suit the needs of various industries?
Every industry has its unique aspects that must be understood and managed for sure. That said, every for profit company, regardless of industry, is an asset that must be successfully managed to the benefit of the three stakeholder groups previously mentioned. Furthermore, companies regardless of industry are built on a, relatively speaking, common “skeletal system” that serves as the foundation for operations. To identify what is really driving the issues, we compare the company’s existing “skeletal system” against our “scalable operating system” that has been developed over years of our own successes and mistakes as operators. The components of this system serve as the structure on which a company is able to operate efficiently and effectively regardless of industry. In many cases, challenges are not driven by the more industry specific areas of a company. Rather the breakdowns are often associated with a lack of attention to or complete absence of one of these core components. We have seen this lead to diluted enterprise value, at best, and destroyed enterprise value in the worst cases. We spend a great deal of time focusing on establishing the scalable model for a specific company in a specific operating context at its current stage in the life cycle. Does the company have a clear definition of what success is? Does the company have the right seats on the bus identified to achieve that definition? Does the company have the right people in those seats? Where is the company in terms of operational excellence? Where is the company in terms of financial excellence? Where is the company in terms of focus of execution and disciplined rigor.

What specific strategies does EVE use to enhance client loyalty?
Well, we have never spent a single dime on marketing, and many of our new clients are the result of referrals from either former or existing clients that have first-hand experience of the positive impact we have had on their companies. Furthermore, many of our former clients call us back to help them either in the same company or on other ventures. I guess we must be doing something right in this regard! When I think more specifically about why, a few concepts come to mind:
- We are honest at our core regardless of the cost. Our clients know that we will tell them the truth as we see it, without question. We have turned down potentially lucrative relationships when we did not believe we could add value or meet the objectives and have “fired ourselves” from existing projects if we felt that the stakeholders were better served by going in a different direction. Additionally, we make mistakes as well and when we do, we are open and honest about it. Clients have mentioned this level of honesty as one of the primary factors when deciding to pick up the phone and ask us to come back.
- We are comfortable in ambiguity and chaos and provide reassurance in the face of it. Building a company is a “full contact sport” and anyone that tells you it should go smoothly has either never built one or is lying. Business assumptions will be wrong, mistakes will be made, unforeseen risks will materialize, and adjustments will be required. Our teams have experienced this dynamic many times over and bring a calming, informed presence that enables the team to “work the problem” and maintain a solution focused mindset.
- We listen actively to understand how each company defines “success” and then focus on the clearly defined solutions, outcomes, and tactical plans required to get there. Every company’s definition of success is unique because no three stakeholder groups are alike. As such, we must listen to fully understand that definition at its most granular level before we can move forward in the process. Only after we have an intimate understanding of “success” for each client will we be able to clearly define expected outcomes and develop a detailed plan of execution to get there.
- We are not consultants but function as operators. I heard someone say a long time ago, “A consultant gets paid to take my watch and tell me what time it is.” We pride ourselves on not being “consultants. We are operators and approach everything with an operator’s mindset. Operators live in the world of tactical execution focused on specific, well-defined objectives where success or failure is determined by outcomes. We do not see our role as simply to tell a stakeholder group what they should do. Our role is to work side by side with the rest of the team in a tactical fashion to build the operating plan, execute, adjust, and achieve the objectives that will result in increasing the value of the enterprise to the benefit of the three stakeholder groups.
- We assume best intentions and are concerned with responsibility rather than blame. I have never met anyone that wakes up in the morning saying, “How can I mess up or make things more difficult today”. Have you? My wife and I have three children. Our middle son has always been a physical being full of energy and movement. When he was young, a day didn’t go by without some type of “spill”. It really bothered him. To counter this negative thinking associated with life’s inevitable drops, we created a saying in our house: “Everybody spills, what matters is that we own our spills and clean them up as best we can”. “Everybody spills” has become a staple in our family over the years and might even be considered a core philosophy for us. The corporate world is very similar to a family unit, and we work hard to create a psychologically safe environment where people know that their teammates have their back when they “spill”. This doesn’t mean that we don’t place a value on accountability, we most certainly do, and honest ownership of a mistake is expected. That said, an accountability and ownership mindset is completely different than a mentality that focuses on blame, finding fault, or self-loathing.
The EVE Group emphasizes balancing team, customer, and shareholder needs. How do you maintain that balance in the face of growth challenges?
At the macro level all the stakeholders are entering into the relationship because they see the enterprise as a vehicle to meet their needs on a micro level. In order to make that assessment, all three groups have to be clear about what the enterprise is capable of achieving, aligned on that objective, and able to see the direct link between how obtaining the macro goal has a direct and positive impact on their specific need at the micro level. After that realization has been established, all three groups must have an understanding and appreciation of each other’s needs and their importance in achieving the overall goal of maximizing the value of the asset. We have found that focusing on what truly adds value to the asset generates sustainable positive results that the stakeholder groups appreciate and from which they all benefit. This focus does not care whether the symptom is growth, expense management, culture, etc.
How do you approach balancing short-term execution with long-term strategic planning, especially when clients are facing immediate challenges?
- Prioritization: Clarity and prioritization of the operating objectives that truly lead to the maximization of the value of the enterprise. We must remove what I call the “shiny squirrel syndrome” that many companies experience.
- Communication: It must be effective, efficient, honest and transparent.
- Process: Extreme focus on tactical execution at the most granular level.
What key prioritization and decision-making frameworks does The EVE Group use to help organizations navigate complex scenarios with clarity and purpose?
There are several great methodologies out there that operators can use as a starting point to enhance decision-making, prioritization, and execution. If I had to recommend two places as a starting point, they would be:
- The concept of OKR’s outlined in the book Measure What Matters by John Doerr, Ryan Panchadsaram, and Lisa Shufro.
- The SMART framework for goal setting.
Finally, as a financial expert, what advice would you offer organizations seeking to increase their enterprise value?
- Cash is king, so use it wisely, with intention, and an expectation of the return on investment.
- Identify ways to remove complexity throughout the enterprise. I have repeatedly experienced the first hand benefits of a focus on simplification and it has almost always resulted in our ability to do more with less.
- Invest in financial and operational reporting systems & processes earlier than you think you should. Getting these processes operating efficiently and consistently will improve the team’s ability to manage the company proactively. Proactive management is one of the keys to increasing the value of the enterprise.
- Invest in the process required to know your customer intimately so that you can delight them consistently on a proactive basis.
- Be brutally honest about the roles and individuals that you need to achieve your goals for the next season of the company. Having the right seats on the bus is as important as having the right people filling those seats. Likewise, invest in your people and the process for building, maintaining, and assessing the team continuously.
- Invest in the ability to clearly define, publish, and monitor objectives & expected outcomes at all levels: Enterprise, Function, Team, Individual.
- Prepare and live by a detailed operating/financial plan spanning 18 – 24 months.