Some students have passion for Operations, but have apprehensions about their careers in Operations management. Objective of this paper is to guide the students who are in a dilemma to take up operations specialization or not. The present market conditions appear that Finance and Marketing specialization are more lucrative. The reason is, market for operations has not been explored completely and the skillsets being acquired by students are not aligned to the current market need.
Contents in this paper are organized in two parts Opportunities and relevant Skillsets. The target group is, students who want to become Operations Managers and Operations Specialists.
In the recent past Operations Management has become an integral part of each and every organization. Till last decade operations are associated only with manufacturing industry. Thanks to the revolution that had happened in operations, laced with rapid technological developments and innovative business processes.
In spite of plethora of opportunities for post graduates in Operations Management in the present market, still students who chose Operations Management as specialization struggle to get into the right jobs. In particular, those who are graduating from 2 or 3 tier management institutes.
Main reasons are in two dimensions Systemic and Students’ perceptions. Systemic short comings are, limited exposure to the current operating systems being followed by the organizations to the students in the curriculum and lacuna in building the basic minimum skill sets. And, from student’s perspective, poor or no awareness of the opportunities that are available in present market for them, lack of focus on specific career path and mainly attitude of picking up any opportunity that comes inside the campus, not willing to explore the potential in the open market.
Hopefully, the contents below will help Operations specialization students to get into their right career paths and develop the right skillsets.
Important message is, there is ample scope only if you are good!
Unlike Finance, Marketing and HR, Operations students have multiple career options because of the rapid revolution the operations and process management has gone through in the recent past. Present and future is completely driven by technology and process innovations. We may call it Business processes or Operational processes or Service operations. In a way every business is a set of operational processes, whether they are established ones or startups. Banking to Healthcare, or BPO to SW application development, or Travel to Logistics and e-Commerce market places everything is fastened with current technologies and innovative ideas.
The current market requirements are working knowledge of workflows in ERP systems, usage of IT tools like MS project and data analysis techniques and few additional qualifications & certifications. Plus, hands on experience during the internships in their respective areas.
Caution with certificate courses, ensure that it results into some practical experience and solving a live problem, which really adds to your skills. Rather than simply attending few sessions and get a certificate.
A basket of opportunities for operations students are mentioned below in Fig-1.
Let’s see how these opportunities can be organized into some career paths in different sectors (Fig-2), so that the students get a clear idea about where they want land themselves.
Remember, if you learn to organize the data you have solved 50% of the problem. Data analysts are in maximum demand at present, of course more paid also. So, try your luck in analytics pick up the right skills to excel in your careers.
However, further studies and entrepreneurial options are kept out of the present context. The present community of entrepreneurs are savvier in converting the opportunities into business using technology in an innovative way, typically we call them the Startups. To be a successful Startup entrepreneur, one should have the minimum set of business management skills and innovative thinking abilities. Some of the Operations students can definitely venture into startups, if they are strong in innovative abilities.
Students should develop some of the basic minimum managerial skills, plus few generic Operations management skills and finally niche skills based on their career choice. Lets explore what are these skills and how to acquire them.
These skills can be acquired during the regular curriculum without any additional efforts, through the exercises, case Studites, presentations, working in teams and participation in the class.
Major drawback here is, students feel that the activities assigned to them during the curriculum are for the evaluators. They cannot think that the exercises and evaluations are mainly the skill building opportunities in the curriculum.
The day this mindset changes, students become real professionals, Institutes need not worry about campus to corporate abilities.
These are the skills students are expected to gain during the curriculum through internships, mini projects and analyzing the case studies. This is the major differentiator among the pedagogy adopted by the Management institutes.
These skillsets completely depend on the career path chosen by individual students. Don’t be under the impression that these skillsets are not for entry level. Management graduates are expected to have the basic minimum knowledge in these areas. However, these are toned over the period, quicker you get into the groove the faster you become the professionals. So, focus to pick up the skills which suits your goals in life from the begining.
| Project Managers | Production / Purchase / Materials / Vendor Managers | Process Managers | Quality Managers |
| Project Proposal / Contract preparations & negotiations | Working knowledge of manufacturing / product / standards | Creating processes in alignment with strategic objectives | Effective utilisation of data analysis tools |
| Preparation of Business Proposals | Knowledge of workflows in ERP systems | Setting up process measurement systems | Analytical problem - solving techniques |
| Planning & Scheduling skills | Creating and analysing periodic reports | Ability to make processes efficient | Conversant with methodologies like Six sigma |
| Cost & Scope management techniques | Ability to ensure cost & Quality | Conversant with techniques like VSM & BPR (Value Stream mapping & Business process Re-engineering) | Practitioner of Quality tools & Techniques |
| Risk Management abilities | Working knowledge of Inventory management skills | Conversant with process Monitoring & Controlling techniques & tools | Knowledge of Quality Frameworks |
| Task & Team Management abilities | Average Domain Knowledge | ||
| Stakeholder Management abilities | |||
| Good Domain Knowledge | |||
| Good working knowledge of MS Project |
| Project Managers: | Facility / Capacity / Location Managers | Process & Quality Managers: | MIS Managers: |
| Requirements & Scope Management | Ability to create value from Infra | Ability to create Business and Operations process | Knowledge of IT infrastructure |
| Operating & Pricing models & methodologies. (eg. Waterfall, Agile, FP, SLAs) | Knowledgeable in Land of the Law requirements | Knowledge of quality frameworks and models like ITIL, CMMI | Familiarity with db technologies |
| Knowledge of Service Levels | Excellent Networking abilities | Knowledgeable in using the tools & techniques for process improvements | Thorough understanding information identification, capturing, analysing and reporting |
| Customer management | Knowledge in Planning & Forecasting Techniques | Conversant with data analysis techniques | Ability to identify the right tools & techniques for different processes |
| Cost & Scope management | Knowledge of Service Levels | Ability to continuous monitoring and control of processes using quantitative techniques. | High analytical abilities |
| Risk Management | Knowledge of BCP & DRP Protocols (Business continuity & Disaster recovery) | Flair for continuous improvements | Critical thinking, logical reasoning, creating alternate approaches to problems. |
| Task & team Management | Good co-ordinating abilities | ||
| Stakeholder Management | |||
| Good Domain Knowledge | |||
| Good working knowledge of MS Project |
| Operations Analyst: | Business Analyst: | Data Analyst: | OR Analyst: |
| Strong analytical and problem-solving skills | Good working knowledge of Business analytical tools & techniques | High level of mathematical abilities | Ability to make decisions and solving problems using mathematical models |
| Very good knowledge of statistical tools & techniques | Problem solving and critical thinking skills | Conversant with Programming languages, such as SQL, Oracle and Python. | Ability to evaluate the effectiveness of decisions |
| Good knowledge of database technologies | Ability to analyse requirements (for IT Apps) | Ability to analyse, model and interpret data. | Ability to help businesses to operate more efficiently and cost-effectively by adopting appropriate optimisation tools & techniques |
| Ability to create Business process models | Ability to articulate the requirements and create business solutions | Good Problem-solving skills. | Knowledge of advanced computerised models |
| Ability to analyse workflows | Knowledge in Modelling & Simulation techniques | Critical and logical thinking and approach. | |
| Knowledge in regulatory and compliance norms | Conversant with tools eg. Microsoft Access, SQL, Google Analytics | Knowledge of advanced computerised models |
| Supply Chain Managers: | Warehouse Managers: | Logistics & Distribution Managers: | Inventory Control Managers: |
| Understanding of e- business / e- procurement systems. | Knowledge in relevant IT systems & Apps (ERP systems) | Ability to control the material flows using analytical techniques & IT tools. | Working knowledge of inventory management IT systems (e.g. ERP) |
| Knowledge in relevant IT systems & Apps (ERP systems) | Ability to design Warehouse layouts for efficient space utilization | Create and monitor the operating systems to ensure the Service Levels. | Ability to set up Inventory tracking systems, maintaining inventory levels, inventory reports. |
| Mathematical, analytical and statistical capabilities to understand supply and demand issues | Ability to use the technology to meet the fulfilment of service levels. | Ability to right products are delivered to the right location on time and at optimum cost. | Knowledge of forecasting tools & techniques |
| Thorough understanding of economics & Market dynamics | Ability to create effective systems in material handling, warehousing, positioning and retrieving | Ability to oversee warehouse, inventory control, material handling, customer service, transportation and planning of workforce. | Ability to cost the inventory accurately |
| Ability to use data to track orders and shipments, sales trends | Initiate, coordinate and enforce optimal operational policies and procedures | Conversant with advanced inventory management tools & techniques | |
| Clear understanding of manufacturing, transportation and warehousing | Ability to Manage stock control and reconcile with data storage system |
| e-com operations specialists: | Customer service Managers: | e-Com Managers: |
| Ability to ensure that all activities - Sales, Merchandising, Customer Service, Shop Management, Finance, Stock, and Warehouse Fulfilment to maximise sales and profit. | Ability to set-up customer tracking system using CRM tools. | Ability to create and define Business processes, Revenue streams and objectives |
| Ability to co-ordinate channel development strategies, web architecture and infrastructure requirements, and collaboration of information technology, sales, and operations teams. | Understand and comply to the service levels decided by the organisation | Conversant with web analytics |
| Ability to align the resources and infrastructure to ensure the customer satisfaction | Ability to improve the conversion rates and maximise the sales | |
| Conversant with contractual, legal and regulatory requirements. | Ability to develop SEO & SEM strategies | |
| product knowledge and handle customers. | Ability to develop pricing, promotions and advertising strategies | |
| Evaluate website designs |
The opportunities versus the required skill sets are summarized and mapped in the above sections.
If a student start his / her two year MBA / MMS / PGDM journey with focus, gradually and progressively acquire general management skills, generic operations skills and niche skills he / she can definitely get into choice of his / her career.
Students should be able to create and covert the activities and exercises they get during the curriculum towards building the right skills.
In the beginning it is stated that the mismatch of skill sets and the market requirements are due to lacunas in the system and attitude of the students, but if a student has the right attitude and the zeal systemic shortfalls can be easily taken care with the availability of the abundant information and opportunities around us.
Prof. Sekhar
DR V N BRIMS, Thane
Also read : THE PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT OF CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC ON INDIAN STOCK MARKET
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