Cutters vs Producers

It seems to me that there are two types of people in any operations-related role of a business: Cutters and Producers.

Cutters are the people who are keen at identifying bottlenecks and making processes more efficient. Their primary value offering is saving the company money. Often, cutters are people with a side interest in computer programming, and they use their bootstrapped skills to write quick 'n dirty scripts that automate away data entry processes. These people think in terms of systems and causal relationships.

Producers are those who ideate new product or new revenue streams. They are focused on business development, rather than business refinement. These people often land in product management or sales roles. They think in terms of value and opportunity.

Organizations need both to thrive. But, on an individual basis, I think it's more valuable to be a Producer. The reason is simple:

There is a ceiling to how much Cutters can streamline processes without negative effects cascading into other parts of the business. Many critical tasks are also low-value in that they don't offer any value themselves, but must be done in order for the product to function. An example taken from my job: publishing articles. The time and money spent on the actions of logging into the CMS, posting the text, filling out the metadata, etc. sees no ROI (rather, it's the creative act of writing the content that sees the ROI). But it has to be done. There is no "doing away" with the process, and it will always require some level of human involvement, even if it can be "fully" automated.

But this isn't the case with Producers. There is no real upper limit to the revenue that an attractive new product can bring in. The value potential of a new product being launched is infinitely higher than the value potential of ironing out a bottleneck.

This is not to minimize the accomplishments of those systems-oriented people (of which I am one). A clever automation or process revamp can save companies thousands—and in rare cases, millions—of dollars. Some of the largest raises I have ever received were negotiated based on the my own accomplishments in Cutting costs via automations and revamps. But, though I saved a lot of money, there was still a ceiling to how much I could have saved—and that ceiling was quite low compared to the theoretical ceiling of launching a new product.

In short: for the individual contributor, generating money is better than saving money.