The Work of Business Operations vs Business Management - When to Add Headcount or Hire a Consultant

Listen to the Article on SoundCloud 🔗 (5 min)

I’ve been thinking about the way we run our businesses and teams, specifically when it comes to the programs and projects that make up our daily work. Is there different types of work? Who should be responsible for this work? And ultimately, should we be hiring employees or consultants?

   Much of our business is steady and perpetual; like sales, human resources, or customer support. These are our RTB (run the business), or Business Operations teams that are required to create, manage, and deliver our product or service to our customers and to execute our new customer intake processes. Where the rubber meets the road.

---

We’re very familiar with how to accomplish this type of work…maybe too familiar… ⚠️

---

   However, we must do more than just run our businesses in perpetuity (programs), each day like the one before. We must work ON our businesses (projects), for many reasons. We work to adapt to changing economic environments, address evolving customer needs, improving our deliverable, eliminating errors, increasing our output in preparation or response to customer growth, and so on.

   Let’s call this type of work Business Management, since it is the action of managing our business’ existence and ensuring its future operations and survival.

   Now that we have identified the 2️⃣ types of work within our businesses: RTB/Business Operations & Business Management, we can address their needs, rhythms, and value with more intentionality.

   The RTB/Operations part of the business is the side we’re most familiar with and the side from where we get most of our operational perspective of how work is done. But I’m not sure this is the best thing for all of our business’ needs.

   The RTB/Business Operations side (I clearly haven’t committed to a nomenclature) is perpetually required, is typically in a very stable state with steady growth, and in rare cases, significant downsizing (been there, not fun). On the flip side, is the Business Management needs of a business. These work efforts do not have a consistent rhythm, should almost always be temporary, have a defined completion requirement, and are usually prioritized with the most urgent getting immediate focus due to its impact on the RTB/ Business Operations side of the business.

---

❓So, why do we address, resource, and commit to the variable and temporary work of Business Management the same way we do the perpetual, RTB/Business Operations work? ❓

---

   I think it’s mostly because “it’s just how we’ve always done things…” which is the scariest and most dangerous business management approach there is. We don’t need any more of the “good ol boys clubs.” I’m sure we can agree on that. And the much less scary version is that it has worked relatively well for a long time…right?

   Ok. We’ve got two types of work with differing needs and rhythms. One type we’ve definitely nailed down. So, what about the other?

---

Now we finally get to what I’ve been thinking about! (Yes, I know that took a long time to get to, but the last part will be much quicker and to the point. Promise. 😉)

---

   Instead of working ON our businesses the same way we work IN our businesses, I think we need to intentionally address the ever-changing and temporary needs of the Business Management work projects. We need to stop giving temporary projects, permanent resources. We need to prioritize the solution delivery timeline in order to deliver solutions ASAP. We need to have the right level of expertise and experience to ensure success. And we need to be able to move on to the next need upon completion without leaving a trail of left over resources behind.

---

WE NEED to leverage agencies, consultants, vendors, and contract employees to a far greater degree for Business Management work.

---

   Bam!

   That’s it. That’s my thought. 🧠

   I think we should evaluate, challenge the norms, and very intentionally put each of our organizations and teams into one of the RTB/ Business Operations or Business Management types of work and then commit resources to them appropriately.

I made a simple side-by-side graphic below ⬇️ highlighting a few key benefits of leveraging temporary resources for temporary needs.

   I’ll end my thoughts here since I’m confident I’ve introduced the idea well enough for you to get my drift as well as ponder and come up with your own thoughts as well, which I’d love to hear! 👂🏼

*For more on this, I know Microsoft and Boeing are just two of many who have been working on this idea for quite a while. Search “Microsoft vendor employees” online and see what they’ve learned and are still doing to get the most benefit.

It’s a very interesting idea that I believe is worth seriously exploring…and likely contains more benefits than we realize… (but that’s another article for another time) 🤔

Israel Donaldson

{n}courage

(n)courage delivers Business Process Consulting so you can "Achieve Operational Excellence." (click the link to learn more)