So I have this new position.  You all know that.  What you don’t know is it has grown, as I expected, into something much more higher in management.  This is good; it is what I wanted.

I am a person who has taught herself through technical books, OJT, business books, etc.  I have studied enough to earn almost two degrees, even though I have not finished college.

Here’s my predicament; I am in uncharted territory.  When I am in uncharted territory, I read.  I read voraciously to learn as much as possible.  Problem is, I have very little time to put together my department.  I do not have the luxury this time to go learn as much as I can about putting departments together.  There are so many things to consider, of which I am aware.  I am knowledgeable in the business arena, thanks to my project and executive management experience from the last product I worked with as a BA.

I am a bit nervous about this endeavor.  I am a techie; not a senior manager.  I know what I would do to run a department, but I have no illusions about the fact that I have a lot to learn.  And in a very short period of time.  Usually I get plenty of time, or take the time with little sleep to learn as much as possible.  But I am in firefighting mode, along with infrastructure build-out mode, and am in need of assistance from those of you out there.

The VP of Sales and I are very tight.  We are both on the same page when it comes to strategic goals and the need to control our growth right now by being proactive for the explosion of growth that is imminent in Q1 of next year.  I am very lucky in that my manager, who basically functions as the COO (although I can’t get XX to stop selling and function as a COO, since the strategic goal right now is “to make as much money as possible”), has given me full reign to get my area up to speed, make my own position, and trusts me to build it appropriately.  This is good, but I need immediate help.  This is where you come in.

Here’s what I need:

1. Your experience, knowledge, etc regarding building a new “silo” for a privately-owned company (meaning, we are currently under no constraints for governmental auditing).  This silo is high-level consulting.  Instead of providing people to just get work done, we will be providing solutions and running projects.  I am not going to share any of my current plan with you, because I want your opinions devoid of influence of my current ideas.

2. Help in your experience tying strategic goals (ie grow the revenue generation in my area by 20%, even though I can’t determine what our revenue was in our fiscal 2007 year).  Help on figuring this out.  Note too that I have no real strategic goals outlined by the powers that be.  I have decided to just make my own with respect to revenue generation since I at least know what our overall revenue goals are for 2008.

3. Help in how to handle explosive growth in a very short period of time.  I want to build my infrastructure proactively to handle the growth while fighting the fires that we have now.  Note that I have little idea how explosive it’s going to be; I know the worst case scenario, and can’t plan for that, due to budget constraints (I don’t really have a budget, we are still in infancy, so to speak, and I am pushing hard for total infrastructure changes, (but it’s a major uphill battle that my VP of sales and I are working on frantically).  The good news is that December will be a slow month for me.  My goal is to get it all taken care of during the month of December.   So presume that, at, as of dec 1, I have about 20 calendar days (not business days) to get my poopy together, due to the holidays and the need to go full-blown at the beginning of the first quarter.

I have in mind a true organizational but loose and flat structure for our Ops area.  It’s not defined as such.  But I do know that if my VP of sales and VP of recruiting and I get together and come up with a plan and prove its value to my CEO and manager, it will be a go, because we have a lot of say in how things will be run.

So, if you have any referential suggestions or personal experience to share WRT what works and doesn’t work, it’s greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!