Operating committee
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The JC sounds off on Management
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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 it should be steered, by whom — usually by syndicating the task to a range of disinterested subject matter experts— those lucky few who have not been outsourced, robotised or made redundant — behind whom the operating committee will then hover, peering over their shoulders, making suggestions, seeking updates and compiling decks containing dashboard with traffic lights for submission to the steering committee which report on how the job of steering is going. But no-one on an operating committee touches the steering wheel, as such. That is left to the good old subject matter experts. There is a suspicion amongst those in the permafrost that steering wheels are somewhat contagious; vectors of vulnerability. Should the jalopy crash, it will be hard to resist the temptation to blame person at the wheel.
Yet, on the other hand, however grim employment conditions become, management cannot lay everyone off, because someone in the service line has to touch the steering wheel, and it sure as hell won’t be anyone on an opco or a steerco, because that is not in their service catalog.