Introducing #AspiringOps by Elate
Building a Community of Aspiring Strategy & Operations Leaders
As a Strategy and Operations Leader, I’m guessing that at one point or another in your career you’ve stopped and asked yourself, ‘How the heck did I get here?’ I know I have.
Even if you didn’t map it out step-by-step, somehow you had a feeling this is where you would end up, because you’ve always thrived in the environments that most people avoid.
Time and time again, you’ve recognized opportunities before others. You have a desire to understand every aspect of your business to identify and solve for weaknesses. Most importantly, you intuitively begin building strategies to execute on a vision for a company the moment it’s spoken into existence.
While CEOs and founders might bring a business to life, as a Strategy and Operations Leader, you are responsible for teaching it how to walk, talk, and live. You are the problem solver that helps navigate through the ambiguity and treacherous pitfalls that so many companies fall victim to on their journey to success.
My guess is that if you’re still reading, this was written for you.
Over the past few months I’ve met with hundreds of Strategy and Operations Leaders, learning from the best in the business. Leaders who have helped build some of the fastest growing unicorns, as well as those that have bootstrapped businesses all the way through IPO. What I’ve learned is at the heart of each of these high-performing companies is a Strategy and Operations Leader driving execution towards a bigger vision.
But what I’ve also realized is that the pace of growth at these companies can test even the most seasoned Strategy and Operations Leaders. And this shouldn’t be surprising. Most high-growth SaaS companies are aiming to double or even triple every year.
For many Strategy and Operations Leaders, they are often faced with a difficult question. If the company is growing at 300% YoY, how do you scale yourself in a way to match the growth of the company?
#AspiringOps is a series meant to unite us around a common purpose, to amplify the voices of world-class Strategy & Operations Leaders as they share their personal stories and provide practical steps we can all take to help scale our companies and ourselves as leaders.
For COOs, Chief of Staffs and early Ops managers, we dive into the best practices to build a well oiled machine so you can build your dream company faster. My hope is that this series serves as a guide for all those aspiring leaders looking to navigate their careers, and learn from those who have sat in your seat. I also believe that even for the most seasoned leaders this series will serve as a good reminder of the challenges and opportunities facing each of us, and how we can view strategy and operations as the lifeblood of a growing company.
Stay tuned for our first episode with Calendly's CFO, Russell Lester.
