Operating committee

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An operating committee, so sayeth the website Chron.com, does not oversee day-to-day operations, but rather “deals with operational functions from a strategic level”.

As we know, a steering committee decides where to steer the car. The operating committee decides how to steer it. But neither of them actually steers it. That is left to the good old subject matter experts — those lucky few who have not been outsourced, robotised or made redundant — to actually turn the wheel.

One bulwark the benighted SME can rely on is that, however grim employment conditions become, middle management cannot lay everyone off, because someone in the service line has to touch the steering wheel, and it sure as well won’t be anyone on an opco or a steerco. Because that is not in their service catalog.

And besides, “touching the steering wheel” — manual labour for our neurotic times — gives you redundancy risk.

And you don’t go there, girlfriend.

See also

• Outsourcing
• Service level agreement
• Management consultant
• Subject matter expert
• Metrics
• ClauseHub: theory
• Steering committee
• Subject matter expert
• Service catalog