Operations means rather different things to different industries and business models:  

• Having a physical product versus offering a (software as a) service? 
• Requiring and maintaining large-scale technical or laboratory infrastructure?  
• Running your own retail and/or logistics operations? 

These questions significantly impact the role Operations play in your organization. Still, what all companies must do is “to get things done and deliver your value proposition to your customers. And ideally, getting better (learning) at it while doing so.” This is our working definition of Operations and Execution. While startups often rely on their capacity to improvise (an admirable quality!), improvisation alone is not a sustainable way of getting things done.   

Key here is to manage the balance between and the transition from effectively building your business to efficiently running it. Scaling businesses have to have a dual focus, which is sometimes called ‘ambidexterity’, i.e. the ability to use multiple approaches to strategy & business overall, either concurrently or successively. 

Like with scaling overall, the key is to get your priorities right. When scaling, everything may seem equally important and equally urgent. While our Scaling Readiness Run emphasizes that there are multiple dimensions to scaling your organization successfully and sustainably, this does not mean that one cannot set priorities. 

Secondly, it is about not re-inventing the wheel over and over again. Reliable, repeatable routines (often in the form of processes) hold the key to that. But don’t be tempted to overthink and overdesign everything, too much of an inward focus can also be harmful and counterproductive. 

Thirdly, once you are in the position to hire additional resources (and specialized expertise and capabilities), it is important to make the best use of those. Proper onboarding is just one step of making such resources operational as quickly as possible. Furthermore, trusting and delegating end-to-end responsibilities to the team is another essential step. And equipping them with the necessary tools and insights. 

As the Scaling Readiness Run comes to an end, we celebrate the remarkable achievements of our startups. Throughout five focused sprints, participants have gained valuable insights, practical tools, and essential frameworks to help scale their businesses. With expert guidance, hands-on assignments, and a supportive community, they have established a solid foundation for sustainable growth.  

We are excited to showcase these accomplishments at our upcoming demo day and look forward to supporting our founders as they continue their scaling journeys.