Business Reality
Anyone can deliver once. Operations is delivering the four hundredth time.
Strategy is taught. Execution is where most businesses actually fail, and it is barely covered. An operations manager describes what it takes to deliver the same thing consistently — and what happens when growth outruns the process.
Growth breaks businesses that cannot deliver consistently.
A management student can design a plan. Operations is the function that discovers whether it survives contact with vendors, inventory, staff turnover, a quality problem and a volume spike in the same month.
It is also where most of the entry-level management jobs are, and where a graduate learns fastest how a company really runs.
What operations actually does
22 topics across 4 areas. Five parts of the job.
Processes That RepeatWhy businesses write things down.5
- Why businesses need processes
- How SOPs work in practice
- Documenting a business process
- Building repeatable operations
- Reducing dependency on individuals
Vendors and SupplyThe part outside your control.6
- How supply chains work
- How vendors are managed
- Selecting vendors
- Negotiating terms
- Supplier dependency
- What happens when a vendor fails
Inventory and QualityWhat gets held, and what gets checked.5
- How inventory is managed
- Quality control
- Handling customer complaints
- Complaint management
- Where cost hides in operations
Running It at ScaleWhen volume rises faster than the process.6
- Business reporting
- Operational dashboards
- Productivity improvement
- Automation opportunities
- Scaling operations without chaos
- Business continuity basics
Questions students get to ask
- What breaks first when volume doubles?
- How do you decide what to write down?
- What does a bad day look like?
- How do you handle a vendor who has let you down?
- What do management graduates underestimate?
- How much of the job is firefighting?
- What would you fix first in most businesses?
How the session runs
An operations manager traces one order from the moment it is accepted to the moment it is delivered and paid for, naming every point where it could have gone wrong. Students then work a scenario where growth has outrun the process, and put questions to the practitioner.
What your students leave with
- What an operations manager is actually responsible for
- Why processes and SOPs exist, and when they are written
- How vendors, inventory and quality are managed
- What breaks when a business grows faster than its operations
- Whether this is a career worth preparing for
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Strategy is a document. Operations is whether it happens.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.