Interim Chief Supply Chain and Operations Officer — Value Delivery

Three trade-offs, one front line

In a technology and digital platforms business, supply chain and operations means more than physical goods. It spans the vendors, infrastructure capacity, contracted services and delivery teams that together decide whether a customer commitment can be met. Quality, capacity and cost are usually managed by different people with different dashboards, and each view makes sense on its own. Difficulty arrives at the front line, where one decision about a vendor or a capacity reservation touches all three at once. This interim appointment, reporting to the Regional President, puts one supply chain and operations chief in charge of making those trade-offs together, where the work happens.

Authority to decide, not merely coordinate

The seat holds executive authority. You set which supply chain and operations decisions remain with local leaders and which come to you, and you decide what proof a vendor contract, a capacity purchase or a change to operating controls must carry before it is approved in any of the six countries. Inherited commitments stand or fall on your ruling. A plan that quietly hands a supplier risk or a cost overrun to another team can be blocked, and a value case that is vague about who will use the capacity, which suppliers it hinges on or how it fails can be sent back. The leadership structure is yours to approve, together with the way issues travel upward, and you settle conflicts with operating leaders ahead of any commitment of money or people.

Decision rights first, then a shared rhythm

The first ninety days are about decision rights: agreeing with the Regional President who at the front line decides on quality, capacity and cost, the thresholds at which those decisions rise, and who answers for each exception. By month nine the three trade-offs should be made together as a matter of course, with escalations confined to the agreed thresholds rather than every hard call. By month 12 an integrated supply chain and operations cadence should be embedded, value should be evidenced, and local leaders should own their trade-offs without needing you to arbitrate.

Expansion, integration and the evidence to stop

You have led a geographic expansion whose effects were felt as much in the boardroom as among the teams serving customers. The businesses concerned earned no less than $545 million, employed 900 people or more and operated in six countries or more. Integration and professionalisation complete the experience the board weighs. Before letting any exception run on, you have established who actually pays for it. Operating cadence at level 4 is essential, with operating model, network footprint, and quality and safety each at level 3. You accept that your first visible success may be a commitment you stopped, and you can defend it with evidence.

Two meetings with the Regional President, then two more

Your first exchange with the Regional President is a private video call in week one; the second, in week three, is built around a live trade-off between quality, capacity and cost. Week five holds an in-person conversation with executives, each responsible for a different function, and week seven is a discussion with the directors as a board. Each stage is answered in writing within 5 working days.