The Vice President of Operations is responsible for managing all operations of a company and its subsidiaries. This is a senior executive position at the highest levels of the company, located immediately below that of the president.
To become Vice President of Operations, an executive must have more than 10 years of experience in a leadership position within a comparable company. In manufacturing-type environments, the Vice President of Operations often holds a bachelor’s degree in a technical or engineering discipline, in addition to having an excellent knowledge of the manufacturing processes used in that industry.
In addition to possessing these technical skills, the Vice President of Operations must be a leader with excellent persuasive skills, knowing how to inspire the executives and teams in place. In this capacity, he has often acquired solid experience in the management of work teams within large projects. This senior executive often has to his credit concrete achievements of continuous improvement and achievement of growth objectives.
Recruscope recruits high-performing vice presidents in several sectors through a direct approach.
Responsibilities of the Vice President of Operations
As an executive, the Vice President of Operations is responsible for delegating responsibilities and implementing control systems that ensure the optimization of operations. These performance indicators allow it to increase productivity and give value to the company and its shareholders.
In collaboration with senior management, the Vice President of Operations helps set overall direction for growth. Thus, he actively participates in the deployment of the strategic plan that will allow the company to face the competition in the long term. It also intervenes to popularize technical projects for the benefit of other decision-makers who do not have technical training. To accomplish these two tasks, the Vice President of Operations must have a good analytical and synthesis mind.
In order to base his decisions on the facts, the Vice President of Operations will often be required to travel to visit the sites of the various subsidiaries on an ongoing basis. This allows him to have a real-time view of all the company’s multi-site operations.
One of the most important responsibilities of the Vice President of Operations is to implement a culture of operational excellence based on continuous improvement. The implementation of such a process will allow it to achieve the highest quality standards in the industry in terms of production and manufacturing. It is through the promotion of this culture of excellence that the company will be able to achieve the business objectives that have been defined by senior management.
Managing the cost of operations is another essential aspect of the work of a VICE PRESIDENT of Operations. This task involves implementing changes, turnaround initiatives, and process reengineering solutions that will reduce costs and ensure optimal operation of the supply and logistics chain.
Finally, the Vice President of Operations must also contribute to business development with customers and implement successful partnerships with suppliers thanks to his strong communication skills. As such, he or she must ensure that he or she maintains good business relationships with key clients and is involved in contract negotiations with partners.
The Current Challenges of a Vice President of Operations
One of the biggest challenges of a VP of Operations today is to ensure the integrity of the global supply chain, which is subject to many disruptions (transportation, materials, raw materials, etc.).
These logistical upheavals are forcing companies to reconfigure operations in the various manufacturing sites to adapt them to this new and demanding business environment, an often complex task. Properly planning for human resource needs has also become a significant challenge in a context of labour shortages.
Both of these factors have a direct impact on the company’s ability to compete. As such, the Vice President of Operations must ensure that the company’s overall production capacity is properly analyzed to properly plan for future financial, material and human resource needs.
The skills of a Vice President of Operations
- Have a global vision of the company and know the different production sites
- Ability to work closely with all operations managers, executives and teams in place
- Establish directions and deploy the strategic plan of operations
- Properly plan and direct manufacturing, supply chain and logistics operations
- Analyze and determine the overall production capacity to properly plan the needs for financial, material and human resources
- Ensure coordination of the entire operational system, including external suppliers
- Maintain good business relationships with key clients and get involved in contract negotiations
We invite you to contact Recruscope for the recruitment of a Vice President of Operations by direct approach or to share your skills for this position.
