Russell McGuire

Integrated Operations describes leveraging technology to connect the right people through the right processes to make smarter decisions that impact a business’ core operations. Integrated operations has had a particularly significant impact on industries and companies with complex distributed assets and operations.

In the article linked below, I provide two case studies from the telecommunications industry, from two different stages in the life of WilTel.

In the first case, the TNSS system collected alerts and alarms from across the network and presented them in an integrated fashion to technicians in WilTel’s Network Control Center (NCC). This systematic integration was a dramatic improvement over the “swivel chair integration” in place at other carriers at the time, but required close coordination between network operations, engineering, IT operations, and the TNSS software development team. The end result was fewer outages and quicker responses, along with increased customer confidence in WilTel’s network.

In the second case, WilTel Communications Systems implemented a “Smart Hands” program, leveraging highly capable voice technicians at customer sites, supported by a centralized team of data networking gurus, to rapidly expand from being a dominant voice systems provider to being a full-line voice, data, and Internet solutions provider. 

Read the full article here.

Many founders are visionaries by nature. Their company was started because they envisioned a future that didn’t yet exist and pulled together a team to make it a reality. As the company scales, it becomes critical that the founder/CEO also recognize that they are ultimately responsible for the integration of every aspect of the business. For visionary founders, this is not obvious, natural, or easy.

Someone needs to make sure that all parts of the business are working in concert to ensure that customers are being served, revenue is being collected, expenses are being managed, and the business is growing in a healthy manner. Everyone — investors, customers, and employees — will look to the CEO when those things don’t happen, so ultimately the CEO is the chief integrator. If that’s not his strength, then he needs to make sure someone else is playing that role on his behalf. 

In the article linked below, I lay out fourteen specific tasks that a founder/CEO can tackle to drive effective integration across the growing business.

Read the full article here.

Throughout my career, I’ve had the opportunity to participate in regular operations review meetings (a.k.a. OpsReviews) for different organizations. Typically, I’ve been the strategy guy providing guidance to keep operations on strategy. From my vantage point, I have been blessed with the opportunity to see what works and what doesn’t, and to provide feedback to the leader to make their meetings even better.

In the article linked below, I identify six key factors that seem to strongly correlate with OpsReview meetings that are powerhouses of teamwork, contributing significantly to the team’s performance throughout the week.

Those six factors are:
1. A Winning Team
2. A Focus on Performance
3. Ownership and Accountability
4. A Commitment to Improve
5. Other Meetings
6. A Consistent Agenda

Read the full article here. 

The word “operations” shows up in many business conversations and it’s one of those words that seems to mean something different to each person.

In the article linked below, I look at different dictionary definitions for the term, as well as different models for tangibly understanding what the discipline really is all about: mathematics, organizational structures, the business model canvas, etc. Based on all that, I suggest that we define business operations in this way: Business operations is the collection of activities and resources required for a business to deliver its value proposition to its customers.

In the article linked below, I go on to discuss how operating models and operating systems support “operations” and I consider why business operations even matters.

Since most small to mid-sized businesses haven’t taken the time to do so, carefully considering what goes into their operations and how they could operate better could deliver significant benefits: Customers could be happier. Growth could be faster. Profits could be larger. Employees could be less frustrated. Do you need help getting started?

Read the full article here.

As a consultant, my job is to help my clients figure out how their businesses could operate better. In my discussions with clients, my questions typically seek to uncover the business’ “operating system” — the business practices that define how the company does its work day after day. 

In the best cases, these practices are consistent and well understood across the organization. They’ve been developed thoughtfully given who the company is and what they are working to accomplish. They are coordinated across departments and naturally everyone in the business is pulling together in the same direction. In these cases, my job is relatively easy. The conversation with leaders is a straightforward analysis of how to tweak the operating system or add some new capabilities to adjust to the changing situation or address the current issue.

But most cases aren’t “best cases.” For most companies, how they operate has developed organically over years as different people have come and gone. The business has grown and been pretty successful without having to really think about how the different business practices work together. But then, something changes, or needs to change, and leaders struggle with how to make that change without breaking the entire system. In these cases, my job can be pretty fun and productive. As I help leaders begin to think about their “operating system”, together we can identify ways they can dramatically improve how the business moves towards its goals in a coordinated fashion.

In the free 30 minute tutorial linked below I dig into this concept of a business operating system. What is it, how can you figure out what yours is, and how can you make it even better?

Watch or read the full tutorial here.

The Ideal Team Player by Patrick Lencioni introduces an incredibly valuable model that will help leaders build better teams and help individuals become better teammates. 

In short, the author has identified three “virtues” that every team player has. The first virtue is that a team player is humble — meaning that he treats everyone with the same high level of respect. The second is that he is hungry — meaning that he is passionate about the success of the organization and willing to put in the effort to help achieve that success. The third is that he is smart — not referencing “book smarts” but rather people smarts — meaning he is sensitive to the impact his words, attitudes, and actions have on others. 

I strongly recommend this book. However, if you aren’t a fan of leadership fables, you might think about skipping straight to page 162.

Read the full review here.

The needs of your employees change as your company matures. Members of the team that join when you’re in true startup mode know they are taking a risk. The company may not survive, but they are excited about being part of the journey. Everyone at a startup wears many hats. Being great at something is nice, but being really good at a lot of things is even better. These friends probably aren’t looking at your startup as a career, but rather as an adventure that will stretch them in exciting ways.

When you grow beyond the startup phase, all of that changes. People expect that the company will survive and that they will continue to get a paycheck. Their ability to pay the rent and feed their families may be dependent on your leadership. Increasingly, they aren’t joining your company to be part of a general team, but rather to do a specific job, and they expect to grow in that job as they build a career, with your company being at least the next step on that career path.

In a recent article on leadership and human resources, I outlined three key dimensions of leadership: how you lead, what people need from your leadership, and why leadership matters. In the article linked below, I share how those factors change as your company matures from pure startup to a scaling enterprise. I also look at Southwind, a growing home services company as an example.

Read the full story here.

Having lots of top priorities is like not having any top priorities at all, but sometimes prioritization is hard. I’ve developed a simple web-based tool I call the “prioritization eye test” based on the “priority scale” featured in Myron Rush’s classic book Management: A Biblical Approach.

You can read my article about the tool here,

Or try it out here.