When owners tell me they need “someone to handle operations,” they usually mean one of three different seats: an operations manager, an integrator or a COO. Hire the wrong one and you’ll be disappointed by a perfectly good person.
This page is about the operations manager — the seat that owns delivery.
The core responsibilities
In most small and mid-sized businesses, the operations manager seat owns five things:
- Scheduling and capacity. Who’s working on what, when. Making sure the work sold can actually be delivered on time, and flagging when it can’t.
- The delivery team. Leading the people who do the work — crews, technicians, coordinators, specialists. Hiring input, training, daily direction, performance.
- Quality. Standards for what “done right” means, checks that it happened, and fixes when it didn’t.
- Process. Keeping the delivery processes documented, followed and improving. See standard operating procedures.
- Vendors and materials. Purchasing, suppliers, inventory and equipment, where the business has them.
Write those five on the Ownership Chart under the operations seat. If you can’t list them clearly, the person in the seat can’t own them clearly.
The operations manager’s scoreboard
Every seat should own numbers. For an operations manager, choose from:
| Measure | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| On-time delivery | Are we keeping our promises? |
| Rework or callbacks | Are we doing it right the first time? |
| Cycle time | How long does the work take, start to finish? |
| Backlog | How much sold work is waiting? |
| Capacity used | Are we overloaded or underused? |
| Customer complaints | How does delivery feel from the outside? |
| Team retention | Are we keeping good people? |
Pick three to five. Review them weekly. See KPIs by department.
What the seat is not
- Not the owner’s assistant. If the operations manager spends their day on the owner’s errands, nobody is managing operations.
- Not the whole leadership team. They own delivery, not sales or marketing. Coordinating all departments is the integrator seat.
- Not a dumping ground. Billing, HR, IT and facilities often land on the operations manager by default. Decide on purpose which belong in the seat and which belong elsewhere.
Operations manager vs integrator vs COO
| Seat | Scope | Typical company stage |
|---|---|---|
| Operations manager | Delivery and the delivery team | Once the owner can’t supervise the work daily |
| Integrator | The whole leadership team and the operating rhythm | Once departments need coordinating and the owner is the bottleneck |
| COO | Company-level operations, often executive | Larger, more complex operations |
Read integrator vs COO for more.
Signs you need an operations manager
- You’re scheduling the work yourself.
- Quality depends on whether you checked it.
- Your delivery team waits on you for direction.
- Customers call you directly because nobody else knows the status.
- You’re too busy supervising to sell or plan.
Hiring an operations manager
Look for someone who loves order, has led a team through busy seasons, and can hold people to a standard without drama. Ask about a time they improved a process, a time a team member wasn’t meeting standards, and how they handle a promise sales made that delivery can’t keep. Give a trial task: build next week’s schedule from your real backlog, or walk your core process and list what they’d fix.
Then onboard them properly: the documented process, the scoreboard, a weekly one-on-one and clear decision rights.
Growing the seat over time
A strong operations manager often becomes your integrator. Watch for someone who starts fixing problems between departments, not just inside their own, and who the rest of the team naturally goes to. Give them the weekly meeting to run and see how they handle it.
The first 90 days in the seat
Even an experienced operations manager needs a runway. In the first month, have them learn the process by doing it and listening to the team. In the second, have them own the schedule and the operations numbers, with you available but not hovering. By the third, they should be running the operations part of the weekly meeting and bringing their own improvement ideas. If you’re still approving every scheduling decision by month three, the problem is probably your grip, not their ability.
Related reading
See business operations for the big picture, operations plan for how to set the seat’s priorities, and how to hire the right people for the hiring process. If you want help defining the seat for your business, request a strategy call.
Promoting from within works well when the person already has the team’s respect.
Questions people ask
What does an operations manager do in a small business?
An operations manager owns delivery: scheduling, the team that does the work, quality, capacity, vendors and the operational numbers. They keep the process running day to day and improve it over time.
What is the difference between an operations manager and a COO?
An operations manager runs delivery within one department or function. A COO or integrator works at the company level, coordinating all departments and the leadership team. Many integrators grow out of the operations manager seat.