The role Strategy and Operations plays in building successful companies is more important than ever before. As companies continue emphasizing the importance of building a world-class team to serve as a competitive advantage, we are seeing a rise not only in new roles, but entirely new teams within Strategy and Operations departments.
In particular, the wild success of the Chief of Staff role for many companies brings forth the question, ‘How do we amplify the impact of this position across more areas of the business?’
As a former Chief of Staff, Jordan Gift had the opportunity to bring this question to life at BeyondTrust, stepping into the position of Director of Strategic Initiatives to help lay the foundation for the company's Transformation Office.
On this episode of Aspiring Ops, Jordan shares her journey into the Chief of Staff role at BeyondTrust, and how it led to her role as Director of Strategic Initiatives in the Transformation Office. She also highlights the impact the Transformation Office has within the business, and how the team has helped unlock the company’s strategy and drive alignment.
Whether you are stepping into a Chief of Staff role for the first time, or you’re a seasoned Strategy and Operations leader evaluating the impact of creating a Transformation Office, Jordan’s insights provide direction along every step of the Strategy and Operations journey.
For many companies, the concept of a Transformation Office might be fairly new, and somewhat ambiguous as to what it entails. However, one thing that is becoming more apparent is the need for companies to optimize both their strategy and the delivery of the strategy itself.
At BeyondTrust, the Transformation Office plays a critical role in bridging the gap between vision and execution, working alongside the executive team to help bring this to life during the Strategic Planning process.
Jordan shares that for her and BeyondTrust, it’s been important to set a structure for how the Transformation Office operates throughout the business. Julie Jones, VP of Strategic Initiatives at BeyondTrust, has shaped what this structure looks like for their team, and breaks down the key roles of the Transformation Office into four phases:
This structure not only lends itself to how the Transformation Office plays a critical role in Strategic Planning, but how the BeyondTrust team communicates the ‘why’ behind the plan to team members. Further, it enables the Transformation Office to partner alongside key stakeholders to help develop initiatives at the onset, rather than waiting until they are trying to be executed upon and playing catch up.
As Jordan points out, “When we started the Transformation Office, we were really heavy in the fourth bucket around Execution. Now, we’ve started to move the needle on being on the leading edge of initiatives. People come to us now when they’re thinking about a project, objective, or initiative, instead of in the execution phase, which can be a little more tedious and have more tactical issues if the leader hasn’t had support along the way.”
With the continued investment into new teams like a Transformation Office or Catalyst Team, companies need to understand how these teams can unlock growth within the company and partner alongside team members in a meaningful way. For Jordan, Julie, and the BeyondTrust team, it’s clear that a culture of operational excellence is something that will continue fueling growth in 2022 and beyond.
Interested in learning more about BeyondTrust? Check out their site here.
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