The Operational Aspect

One of the aspects of building an organisation, business, process, system or even individual habit is to carefully consider what the operational phase looks like.

What I have come to realize is that the true nature of things is revealed in this generally dull, boring, prolonged operational phase. It’s this long phase during which one finds what the day-to-day looks like. It’s during this phase a new habit is expected to bring about slow positive changes, a process reveals its true benefits, a new system reveals its true cost, a business is supposed to make the most money and an investment is expected to give sustainable returns.

In one of my past startup attempts, I was so hyped up about building something with my friend, immersing myself in solving problems in crossing the 0 to 1 chasm, that I didn’t attempt to visualise what the operational phase of the business will look like. What looked like a tech business at the start, turned out to be a supply chain business in its operational phase. Although, it’s easy to say this with 20/20 hindsight, it was a miss nonetheless and a good aspect to think about for my future endeavours.

Additionally, thinking of the operational phase of things that I intend to run concurrently will hopefully allow me to plan sustainably. Some things have a much heavier start, but some are heavier in the middle. Hopefully, this attempt to think forward will allow me a good chance at preventing the journey ahead from becoming too overwhelming. As I have come to see now, a sustainable long run is much better than an all-demanding short sprint.