Operations is the engine room that drives your business - who’s doing this in your business?
Strategy, forecasting, finance, systems and processes, suppliers…all crucial to the effectiveness and efficiency impacting your customers, your people, and the competitive advantage of the business. Not to mention a key mechanism for actually getting the data and information used to measure that performance. A highly valuable asset, and a big risk if you get it wrong.
Ops can make a massive difference in a businesses ability to scale and be adaptable. A high performing ops team will positively influence performance productivity and ultimately impact the bottom line all whilst keeping everything running smoothly/as it should.
In growing businesses, typically the owner or founder will handle many of the operational tasks in the early stages. As you scale though it’s important to keep an eye out for signs that it’s time to hire an operations manager, here’s our list:
- Leader’s overwhelmed with operational tasks: Constantly juggling and struggling to keep up and time poor.
- Lack of expertise: A Founder will be expert in many things but it is reality there will be gaps in skills and experience somewhere.
- Inefficiencies and bottlenecks: If the business is experiencing this it can look like long lead times or poor customer service to name only two.
- Growth potential: An operations manager will help scale the business and manage the increased operational complexity that comes with that growth.
- Need for strategic planning: Growing businesses have ambition and this takes time, planning and accountability to become reality.
Hiring an operations manager can be a strategic investment in the long-term success of a business. By bringing on an experienced professional to manage the operational aspects of the business, the Founder and others in the existing team that are often needing to be across operational aspects, can focus on critical areas they specialise in: Customers, Growth, Marketing, and Product Development.
Need to get the engine room of your business humming? The Sprout Recruitment and Employment Brand team know the mindset, skills and competencies required. We can help you find the person that will get your operations team to the level it needs to be to scale your business. Reach out to our Head of Recruitment & Employer Brand, Fleur, to learn more.
