(with Yvonne Ogwulu, Chief Operating Officer, Bundo)
What is your role and how does it relate to operations?
I currently work as a Chief Operating Officer at Bundo, an early stage pre-seed E-commerce company simplifying retail for everyday people who buy and sell.
Being a COO, my responsibilities are quite diverse and operations-heavy. I’m constantly making sure every aspect of the company is running smoothly — from the people to the product to the business side and the customers.
How did you get into operations? Did you always want to become an operator?
I started my career in Product design in 2020 before transitioning to Startup Operations in 2023. However, I always knew somewhere at the back of my mind I was eventually going to end up on the business and management side of Tech, but it just happened to have come sooner than I expected.
The transition was quite easy because I combine the skills of a generalist — creative, technical, problem-solver, etc. and that combination is what has helped me so far.
It happened after being approached by a founder/entrepreneur to help set up and develop a business idea he had in mind. The generalist in me saw it as a challenge and jumped on it and it is one of the bravest and most challenging thing I’ve done so far in my career and I’m here for all the lessons and experiences.
What would you say is the hardest part of being an operator, and how have you dealt with it?
I think so far, the hardest part for me has been managing people. People can be really tough to deal with, on all levels.
There’s that intersection between stakeholder and employee management that can be a rollercoaster sometimes and as an operator, you’re literally in the middle of that intersection and what that can mean is that you have to often put yourself behind, lead and be the bigger person without receiving any accolades of course. Lol.
It’s something I’m learning to become better at and new scenarios will always teach a new lesson that will ultimately make you grow and become a better leader.
What are two things you do as an operator that make your work easier?
Firstly, I’d say planning.
Planning makes my work easier and it’s something I’ve always practiced as a person even before functioning in this role. I often say that:
Planning buys you more time and as an operator, you need that extra time.
Secondly, effective communication and delegation.
There’s often that temptation to want to do everything ourselves as operators, especially as most operators fall into the generalist category. But delegation will force you to communicate and in return, you are buying yourself extra time to focus on more important and complex tasks.
If you could give a piece of advice to every operator out there, what would it be?
I’d say,
Have a solid system for work and an even more solid system for yourself, and make sure the two are independent of each other.
When it’s time to work, the system(s) you have created will help you and make your work easier but it might not eliminate the stress or tension. But that’s where the system you have created for yourself then comes in.
As an operator, it might be easy to forget yourself and carry all that work and tension into your personal life. It sometimes feels like there are endless tabs open in your mind. But the system you have designed around your life needs to be first of all respected by you before everything other thing follows.
The truth is, to show up as your best self and succeed at your work as an operator, you need to be healthy.
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