The CEO’s Checklist for Operations
“Operations” covers a lot of territory in a company. If you currently have, or are considering hiring, a Chief Operations Officer, or COO, you need to decide how broad you define his or her duties.
A few of the interim COOs at Cerius helped us identify critical questions about operations that serve as a checklist for CEOs. This checklist will help you do three critical things: First, get you thinking about any potential weaknesses that could signal an imminent rupture in your company’s operations backbone; second, determine if it’s time for at least an interim COO to get structure and processes in place; and finally, if you currently have a head of operations, do you need to make a change – either in the job duties, or the person?
As your company’s CEO, for operations do you …
- … know how your company’s revenue and growth compare with your peer group, including ratio of revenue per employee;
- … do a monthly profitability run to see if material variances are cutting into your profit by not adjusting prices accordingly;
- … calculate overhead by factoring each manufacturing process separately and by knowing labor and materials costs for each product;
- … ensure every step, process, product, or feature is something that your customers need, and eliminate those they don’t – even if you’ve been doing it for years;
- … understand your supply chain, from your inventory turn rate, to your delivery times, and the technology that drives it;
- … know how well your company leverages technology to maximize performance in each department;
- … make sure each employee understands the link between their performance initiatives and how they affect the company directly – and that employees are held accountable for those initiatives (part of the strategic planning process);
- … have confidence that your revenue-generation mechanism is devoting adequate resources to prospecting versus account management;
- … know your RFQ (request for quotation) “hit” ratio – and what that ratio means;
- … spend your time equally on internal and external duties.
If you answered “no” or unsure of any aspect of the questions on this list, take a look at what several interim COOs from Cerius have to say, “Putting Muscle Into Operations”.
To learn about how Cerius Interim Management can help you, please visit our home page by clicking here.