What Leaving Google Taught Me about Operations

I have gone through the process of leaving all google applications and services in my personal digital life. This required me to regularly build new systems for things such as google docs, google photos, google drive, etc. It wasn’t until recently that I learned about the operations role that “de-googling” and operations are similar in a lot of ways.

Every business is built on different organizational and software systems to help it accomplish its goal of selling and running properly. Without these systems, then the whole company would eventually collapse. Operations is the role that ensures that a company doesn’t collapse because they lack organization or systems.

What is an Operations Role?

Operations roles are behind the scenes, they work in the shadows, yet are extremely vital to the survival of a company. Operations makes everything happen within a company to keep it running and gaining pulling in money. Operations encompass a ton of different aspects of a business from finance, accounting, and HR to IT and system administration.

Necessary skills for an Operations Role

Someone in an operations role needs to be well organized and have attention to detail. When building systems for a company and running these systems, no stone can be left unturned. Leaving something unaccounted for could be catastrophic for a business.

It is important to have a basic understanding of financing and accounting. It is a necessity to know how much things cost, how much profit is being made, or how big of a loss there is. Knowing this will help you keep a business running so it doesn’t go bankrupt.

You also have to understand your business's product, industry, and departments. If you are building systems for a business, then you have to know how these systems will relate to the product. How will this system be perceived by the different departments of the company and how will it affect the product?

Skills From “De-googling” that Cross Over to Operations

The biggest thing about building new systems is being open-minded and curious. When I was leaving Google, the easiest solution would be to use Dropbox or Microsoft Office. But I learned about systems that suited me better and helped me learn more such as NextCloud.

In Operations, you cannot just stick with a particular system because that is how it’s always been done, you have to choose a system that suits you or your companies needs. Google might be the perfect tool for you or your company, and that is great. But you will never know if there is a better system if you don’t try new things.

Operations is a necessity in every business today. Being good in Operations requires an open-mind, basic skills and understanding of every part of a business, and organizational skills. How will you make your life or business run smoother with the skills learned from an operations role?