Main Responsibilities Of A Co-Founder And CEO At Ascender Systems
As CEO, Jorge's main responsibilities revolve around managing time, cost, and scope across all aspects of Ascender Systems, emphasizing that "on time delivery is not a nice to have" from the customer's perspective, while scope management involves ensuring sufficient profit and corporate viability by carefully considering what is "out of scope" to avoid giving away labor.
Project Management, Leadership, Cost Management, Time Management, Scope Management
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
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Traits
Jorge Muniz
Co-Founder & CEO
Ascender Systems
United States Naval Academy United States Naval Academy
University of San Diego - Knauss School of Business University of San Diego - Knauss School of Business Master of Business Administration - MBAMaster of Business Administration - MBA
Engineering, IT, Math & Data
Technology
Strategic Management and Executive
Veteran
Video Highlights
1. Time management is critical because customers expect on-time delivery, as other assets depend on it for mission accomplishment.
2. Managing scope involves ensuring the company remains profitable and viable, avoiding giving away labor for free by doing out-of-scope work.
3. The main responsibilities revolve around managing time, cost, and scope across the entire operation, from engineering to the global supply chain and profit margins.
Transcript
What are your main responsibilities within your role?
It's always going to be the most critical three, and it doesn't really matter if you are a large-scale program manager or if you're running a very tight project. It's going to be time, cost, scope.
Those three are going to be what I manage. I manage them across the entire spectrum, from my engineers to my global supply chain, all the way to how I deal with profit, fee, and margin within the company.
Time is absolutely critical from the customer standpoint. When they give you a period of performance, they have a full expectation that you're going to deliver on time. That on-time delivery isn't a nice-to-have.
Your asset is not the center of the universe, and there are other assets that need to be at that point, at that time, to accomplish a certain mission. So, beyond everything else, you must be on time with your delivery.
Regarding scope, whenever we say scope and make a blanket statement like "the scope of work," I have to switch my customer hat. I have to put on my Northrop Grumman hat and say, "Hold on. Are we making sufficient profit? Are we going to be a viable corporation? How are we going to report this in our quarterlies and in our annual reviews?"
If I'm doing things that are out of scope, out of the responsibility of what I'm supposed to do, now I'm giving away labor for free, and that clearly isn't going to fly. So, it's really those three: it's time, cost, and scope.