Why Growth Breaks at the Handoffs

Growth does not usually break because people stop working hard. It breaks in the handoffs—between departments, systems and decisions—where ownership gets blurry and information gets lost.

This deck is based on my article about why those gaps form and what good operators can do about them.

Original article: https://timfruge.substack.com/p/growth-usually-breaks-at-the-handoffs

More about me: https://timfruge.com

Transcript

1. WHY GROWTH BREAKS AT THE HANDOFFS Where work gets lost between departments and what good operations can do about it Tim Fruge Operations Executive Austin, Texas timfruge.com
2. 02 The handoff problem Growth can make every department busier without making the business work better. 01 Marketing launches a promotion. 02 Purchasing works from an older forecast. 03 The warehouse finds out when orders arrive. 04 Customer service learns about the change from customers. Nobody has to be bad at their job for the operation to break. The failure happens between the teams. Tim Fruge timfruge.com 02
3. 03 The departments may not be the problem Departments can be working hard and still create avoidable problems when ownership, information, and decisions do not move cleanly between them. Each team sees one piece of the same event. By the time the full picture appears, the business is already reacting. The handoff determines whether the next team has the information, timing, ownership, and authority to respond. Tim Fruge timfruge.com 03
4. 04 One promotion, five different realities Consider a product promotion that performs better than expected. MARKETING sees strong sales PURCHASING learns after inventory is already tight WAREHOUSE receives more orders than it expected CUSTOMER SERVICE hears from customers about delays ACCOUNTING later sees refunds and chargebacks Each department experiences a different part of one event. The breakdown occurs in the handoff between them. Tim Fruge timfruge.com 04
5. 05 Growth exposes informal processes Early on, people can solve problems by talking across the room. Growth adds more people more products more systems more locations more decisions Information becomes slower. Assumptions diverge. Small gaps become expensive. Tim Fruge timfruge.com 05
6. 06 What a good handoff requires 01 A clear owner Someone owns the work after it changes hands. Everyone knows who makes the next decision. 02 A clear definition of complete The sending team and receiving team agree on what finished actually means. Tim Fruge timfruge.com 06
7. 07 What a good handoff requires 03 The same numbers Teams work from shared forecasts, dates, inventory counts, and priorities. 04 A known escalation point People know when the normal process no longer fits and who can make the call. Tim Fruge timfruge.com 07
8. 08 Start with recurring friction 01 Where are customers repeatedly being told different things? 02 Where does work sit while someone waits for an answer? 03 Where do managers regularly say they were not informed? 04 Where does the company rely on one person to explain what happened? 05 Where are mistakes discovered only after they have become expensive? Tim Fruge timfruge.com 08
9. 09 The goal is not more process Process should make the work clearer, not give people more steps to follow. When growth starts creating unnecessary confusion, the answer may not be another person, platform, or meeting. The first question should be simpler: Where is the handoff failing? Tim Fruge timfruge.com 09
10. HANDOFF WHERE IS THE HANDOFF FAILING? Good operations make ownership visible, keep information moving, and give people a clear way to respond when plans change. Tim Fruge Operations executive in Austin, Texas. I write about leadership, operational growth, and solving the constraints that limit busine sses. timfruge.com Original article: Growth Usually Breaks at the Handoffs