Operations Directors

[Rupert Pupkin]

Hi Guys,

I'm new here and looking for some advice.

I've just completed an MBO with colleagues and we have taken on new roles. Mine is Operations Director.

I have no experience in this position although I was snr manager of a department within the business.

I have been tasked with improving processes, our end product and quality.

Does anyone have any advice on where to start here? Is there a template/strategy to follow in the business world that I can adapt?

How do I understand where we are underperforming? What to focus on? What success looks like?

Would love to speak to anyone who's had to go into a business as Ops Director before and what their steps are.

 

[Mark T Jones]

I think this is very much a conversation you need to be having with your co-directors. Starting with discussing why you have a director role on a facet of the business you don't even claim to understand

Without insight to the current business operations, it's a 'piece of string' question.

 

[Rupert Pupkin]

I think this is very much a conversation you need to be having with your co-directors. Starting with discussing why you have a director role on a facet of the business you don't even claim to understand

Without insight to the current business operations, it's a 'piece of string' question.

We have each taken up roles best suited to us, Marketing, Finance, Operations. I am best suited to it, however, I am coming in fresh, so I have a lot to learn. This is why my original question pertains to speaking with Operation Directors. Ops Directors must move jobs from business to business and my goal is to develop an understanding of how they view the business on day 1 and gather the knowledge they need before implementing a strategy to improve the business.

I, at present, don't understand the strategy they implement or the way they measure the current operations and define areas for improvement. Hope this is clearer.

 

[BubbaWY]

Without knowing the size of the business, one thing Id suggest is spend time in each department, speaking one on one with the employees (or the key employees if its a large business). Try and get some honest appraisals from the foot soldiers, let them know their feedback is appreciated and see what feedback you get.

Ive seen companies struggle in the past when the 'foot soldiers' have known what the issues are, but the management has been blind to it. So its potentially a decent place to start.

 

[Mark T Jones]

Anyone coming in to do this role, (as a director or consultant) will initially sit down with the directors to establish what the current processes are, what metrics they are using (and why) and what they are looking to achieve.

As @BubbaWY say, there is also a lot of value in sitting down with employees and having a similar discussion from a somewhat different angle.

 

[Lisa Thomas]

Are you a Director just in title, or registered formally as a Director over the company at Companies House?

 

[ctrlbrk]

my original question pertains to speaking with Operation Directors. Ops Directors must move jobs from business to business and my goal is to develop an understanding of how they view the business on day 1 and gather the knowledge they need before implementing a strategy to improve the business.

Hi there,

A title such as Ops Director can be pretty generic, can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

I doubt you will find a 'template' on what to do about this role.

I have been tasked with improving processes, our end product and quality.

This is a much more identifiable set of goals - I would start there, i.e. as for improving processes - what are the current ones, are they documented, where are the obvious gaps and what are their obvious (or not so obvious) fixes?

Same goes for quality and end product. Is current quality measurable? Against what targets? Are those targets currently acceptable? If not, how can you raise them, etc.?

 

[Rupert Pupkin]

Are you a Director just in title, or registered formally as a Director over the company at Companies House?

Formally at Companies House. Why?

 

[DazRave]

I took a full year learning most of the roles required within the business before I started to change things up with new processes etc. I started off the year by asking questions about what the goals of the company were and what problems they think they will have (but don't have yet) in getting there.

The most common issue I come across in my time is how to scale something without increasing costs (decreasing as a bonus!) and without impacting the quality of the product or service. I constantly used to ask "would your most loyal customer notice if you did it this way instead". I asked this because sometimes in order to scale the core offering other services/features less required by customers need to be cut completely.


My two cents based on a long time as a Product and Operations Manager

 

[ctrlbrk]

I asked this because sometimes in order to scale the core offering other services/features less required by customers need to be cut completely.

Curious about this statement.

Could you provide an example of a service's core offering and 1-2 features that need to be eliminated, in order for said service to scale?

 

[IanSuth]

Curious about this statement.

Could you provide an example of a service's core offering and 1-2 features that need to be eliminated, in order for said service to scale?

From my experience this is usually when for instance whilst dealing with a few customers you can make tweaks/slight customisations for the customer free of charge, but to scale to mass market you have to stop those customisations as the time/energy spent doing it would mean taking on extra staff/machinery costing more than the business is worth

 

[ctrlbrk]

From my experience this is usually when for instance whilst dealing with a few customers you can make tweaks/slight customisations for the customer free of charge, but to scale to mass market you have to stop those customisations as the time/energy spent doing it would mean taking on extra staff/machinery costing more than the business is worth

Thanks, although this sounds more about a product than a service, doesn't it?

 

[IanSuth]

Thanks, although this sounds more about a product than a service, doesn't it?

Same thing applies - you may tweak a design for a customer if you have only a few whilst if you have a lot they are all getting the standardised version

 

[Lucky8]

Hi Rupert,
As others have said, it's a big question. I have had several Ops Directors report to me as a Chief Operating Officer, but it depends on the business.
I hope you don't think this a rude question, but you wrote, "I am best suited to it". Could you tell us a bit more why, given you have no experience of the role or knowledge of what it entails. Perhaps you and your co-directors identified some specific skills and other experience, which might also be a good starting point for you to understand where to apply them.

 

[DazRave]

Curious about this statement.

Could you provide an example of a service's core offering and 1-2 features that need to be eliminated, in order for said service to scale?

I probably should have led by saying I've mostly (15 years) been in tech. However the same can apply (and does) with other services and features.

I've found a few in the kitchen industry that I've now entered. Such as the design service we offered, we simply offered too much flexibility burning too much time. The overall product was the kitchen, but a feature of the service we offered was the design consultation. Striping it down a bit didn't really effect our customers (most didn't even notice) but it made a massive impact on freed up time to deal with tricky installations.

Basically you want to try and identify experience rot. Rather than try and explain it myself check out Jared Spool at 12:50

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music that you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.

m.youtube.com

 

[HFE Signs]

Sounds like an exciting challenge, study every process within the company, look at all costs and expenses, look at all overheads, look at waste and make as much as you can more efficient without compromising the product.

 

[fisicx]

@Rupert Pupkin - the operations director can be what ever you want it to be. I do contract work for a company where the operations director manages everything on the production side from goods in to goods out. In another company the ops director just looks after the field engineers (the production manager runs the shop floor).

You define your own role. But as others have said, everything begins at the bottom. Working with staff to understand the operational processes. This becomes the basis for everything. My QA instructor has a very simple rule: write down what you do then do what you have written down.

 

[Lisa Thomas]

Formally at Companies House. Why?

You are now legally a formal officer of the company and therefore have various responsibilities for it under the Companies Act (and the Insolvency Act if things go wrong) which can have serious implications if things go wrong in a worst case scenario.

Running a limited company: your responsibilities

Running a limited company - including directors' responsibilities, company annual returns, reporting company changes and how to take money out of a limited company.

www.gov.uk

 

[Rupert Pupkin]

Hi Rupert,
As others have said, it's a big question. I have had several Ops Directors report to me as a Chief Operating Officer, but it depends on the business.
I hope you don't think this a rude question, but you wrote, "I am best suited to it". Could you tell us a bit more why, given you have no experience of the role or knowledge of what it entails. Perhaps you and your co-directors identified some specific skills and other experience, which might also be a good starting point for you to understand where to apply them.

Yes sure, I work within the business so I'm on the office floor at all times. I am process driven, I am part of senior management and have one department I take care of directly. I have also built a start-up and taken it to market so understand the logistics of operating a business day-to-day.

None of us has ever taken over an existing business though and there lies the problem and reasoning behind my question.

 

[ethical PR]

Yes sure, I work within the business so I'm on the office floor at all times. I am process driven, I am part of senior management and have one department I take care of directly. I have also built a start-up and taken it to market so understand the logistics of operating a business day-to-day.

None of us has ever taken over an existing business though and there lies the problem and reasoning behind my question.

So why have you been appointed in a role you don't have experience for? In your situation I would bring in a consultant with relevant experience who can teach you the ropes.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Rupert is where he is, so, first, well done on the MBO.

As mentioned, for you to streamline things, you need to know what is done. Are there guides, manuals, instructions etc? If yes, read and understand them. Then spend time with people in all areas of the business and compare what they do with the manuals.

If there aren't documents, you create them after spending time with staff.

Make sure you ask staff about what they do, what they think of the processes and, importantly, what they think would make it better.

 

[Mark T Jones]

I would add here 'fly on the wall' time.

Time spent quietly, discreetly watching & listening in all areas.

More tricky when you're a director, but still valuable.

 

[macScot]

Hi Guys,

I'm new here and looking for some advice.

I've just completed an MBO with colleagues and we have taken on new roles. Mine is Operations Director.

I have no experience in this position although I was snr manager of a department within the business.

I have been tasked with improving processes, our end product and quality.

Does anyone have any advice on where to start here? Is there a template/strategy to follow in the business world that I can adapt?

How do I understand where we are underperforming? What to focus on? What success looks like?

Would love to speak to anyone who's had to go into a business as Ops Director before and what their steps are.

Some of it is a bit of common sense (I hope), however, these are things to look at regarding product improvement:
Customer feedback on existing products
Compare your products with competitor products
Compare customer feedback on competitor products
Carry out surveys to get public/potential customer opinion

You basically need to research your own products and your competitors in order to see where you can improve.

Depending on what kind of product you are dealing with, you may be able to speak to professional designers or manufacturers to see if the design or production process can be improved, or switch raw materials that make up the existing product, etc.

You will need to discuss with the board how to move forward once you have an idea of what improvements need to be made and researched the costs required to implement.

Question - if the improvement does not result in sales or profits then is it really worth it? This would be debatable and will depend on the product, price point, margins, and target market.

Regarding process improvement you have to get hands-on and spend a day or two working in every aspect from ordering, receiving, stocking, manufacturing, packaging & storage, transporting, etc. to see the current operations and also get feedback from employees on what improvements they recommend and how to keep staff morale up, etc. Kind of like 'Undercover Boss' but not necessarily going undercover. You could also hire a management trainee/apprentice to go through all the departments in a systematic way and write up a report for each department and process.

 

[IanSuth]

Just a warning

Make sure you take the staff with you

I was somewhere where a new MD designate was brought in to take over from one retiring - it was obvious from day 1 she intended to try and replicate the systems where she had been before (a large national company working a single industry via a small number of big preferred supplier agreements) and impose them on us (a single branch with a defined geographical area suppling a large number of smaller customers across industries on a contingency basis )

Within weeks people were looking for new jobs (my first appraisal with her when we had just hit record sales figures started with "you think you are doing well, let me tell you, where i was those figures wouldn't even keep you your job")

She left again within a few months when it was obvious it was not going to work but by then the damage was done and the company never recovered.

If the company is currently successful and it is due to the actions of the majority of the staff ensure you let them know that you are trying to grow it with them and you want their input into how to do that successfully. Make sure you explain if you are recording things it is to understand what works, not to try and replace them or impose random changes

 

[The Byre]

None of us has ever taken over an existing business though and there lies the problem and reasoning behind my question.

I cannot tell you what to do first or if there is a magic checklist you need to go through - but I can give you three books that will help you achieve what you need to achieve -

1. The One Minute Manager (by Blanchard & Johnson) How to manage people without taking up all of their time and yours. A quick and easy read, but very educational and very enjoyable.

2. The One Minute Manager Meets The Monkey (by Blanchard, Oncken & Burrows) People love to give you their monkey, don't let them! They have to deal with their own monkeys, i.e. problems and tasks. A very important lesson for us all!

3. The Checklist Manifesto (by Atul Gawande) The art and science of creating checklists and designing systems so that you make fewer mistakes but can deal with ever-more complex systems and workflows. Lots of interesting examples of how we solve complex problems within those complex systems.