My First 100 Days as COO

100 days ago, I made a huge change and stepped into the role of COO at ANS. It’s been an exciting, jam-packed 100 days so I sat down with one of my colleagues to catch up on how I've been getting on.

So, Chris, how have you been finding your new role as COO?

Fantastic! It has been my biggest learning curve so far with more than a few challenges along the way, but I have enjoyed every minute. My previous roles meant that I was in a really fortunate position and I already had a good knowledge of other operational departments and their intricacies. Once I started to find out more, I was blown away at just how much every one of our employees does to make ANS so successful.

It’s been none stop since pretty much day one. Especially for our Legal and Business Assurance functions. Along with the new generation of cloud services ANS offers, comes new ways of procurement and of course a lot of T&C’s. It’s been really interesting helping our customers Legal and Procurement functions with what, for many, is the first time they encountered cloud services on a significant level. We have also had 4 major audits for the re-certifications of our critical ISO accreditations, a key partner certification audit and just the small matter of GDPR going live – All were very successful I’m happy to say but what a welcome to the role it has been!

 Wow, you’ve been busy! But what made you want to take on the role of COO?

It has been one of my life goals. Basically, I’m an Ops guy, I love working with people, I love working with customers and I love delivering quality. With this role comes a huge scope of tasks right across the business. It’s my mission to work with our teams to deliver quality to our customers with excellent customer service.

 What have you brought to the role so far?

In a word I’d say awareness. We have a fantastic culture at ANS and a true “team” approach, but I would hope I’ve been able to help the Ops teams show even more of the value they deliver each and every day to our customers both internal and external.

With such a wide range of tasks, how do find time to unwind and de-stress?

Well, I wish it was going to the gym but let’s be honest… it’s cooking! I love getting Alexa to play some random music whilst I cook something, normally Italian. There’s definitely no T&C’s involved there! It’s the perfect way for me to switch off for a while and do my own thing.

What do you hope to achieve within your role in the future?

Well, let’s face it, we don’t make “things”, we are a services business, our product is our people and that all important IP in their heads. We have some of the best people I have ever seen… anywhere. So my job is basically three fold:

•  Keep challenging our award-winning service to continuously improve. If we do that, we will continue to disrupt in the industry and keep pushing the boundaries of what the new norm is in terms of service
•  Keep our employees happy. Not exactly earth-shattering I know, but If they are happy, they continue to deliver an amazing service and if they do that.. our customers are happy. Its that’s simple.
• Show the industry what it means to be a member of the ANS team. I want the wider industry to understand what we are about at ANS. I want to make our culture really visible to our customers, both current and prospective. Like our customers, we have really high standards. We are always looking for new and exciting talent to join our team but in a competitive market it can be hard work. I want people to look in from the outside and think, “Wow, get me in there…now!” In the future I want us to be so in-demand that people are waiting outside our doors asking for a job.

We have a deep-rooted ethos in our business which I think keeps us well positioned to stay on top in an industry that’s only going to get even more competitive and I can’t wait!

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