A brief overview of what operations is all about.

When I tell people what I do–as in work in operations–they often have an idea of what this could maybe mean, but don’t really know what it is. Fair enough! It’s vague sounding and a pretty broad term.

Operations is the utilisation of tools, workflows, and frameworks to support the back-of-house running of a business, studio practice, or product/service-based endeavor. Tools are systems (tech or manual) that manage workload, information, progress, and processes. Workflows are processes that deliver pieces of work from idea to completion. Frameworks are planning guides that map out methods and actions to achieve objectives or model outcomes to help with decision-making. 

Day to day, operations management is mainly about connecting information, finding solutions, and clearing roadblocks so that processes that support concept-to-market run smoothly. Bigger picture, it's working within context and future to balance resources, capacity, cost and revenue.

In terms of back-of-house running, it includes:
–Identifying ways to continually improve and scale processes
–Ensuring information is clear and accessible
–Budget and expense tracking to reduce waste and build on promising opportunities
–Overseeing supplier relations and logistics to maintain a consistent flow of communications and goods
–Applying measures to set quality benchmarks and ensure alignment across products and services

At SHOW BUSINESS, our operations capability covers development, production, and market activity. We manage these areas, or provide specialist support for brand retail, wholesale, sales, logistics, projects, budgeting, and forecasting. Whether the project is small or large, complex or straightforward, short-term, or long-term, we approach each task with 50–50 creative and analytical insight and curiosity to get the details right.

That is pretty much what operations is: getting the details right so things can run well.

–Cath