It’s one thing to come into a business with a grand plan. It’s another to raise a ton of money and dance the night away with investors. But every company will, at some point, have to turn those plans and that money into reality. That’s where operations comes in, and businesses live or die based on the power of their operations elements to get things done.

To shed some light on the world of operations, Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), cohost of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, joined Jennifer Tejada, former president and CEO of Keynote by Dynatrace, LLC and board member of Puppet Labs, Inc.

Building toward execution

Tejada opened the conversion by mentioning that no one really talks about where the rubber meets the road, which is operations. She said that operations is the bridge between strategy and an execution that produces great results.

If a company wants to be successful, she said, they have to set goals and nail the delivery. Shareholders, employees and customers all expect the company to deliver. To make this happen, a business needs to understand its drivers and orient its culture around the best possible means of successfully reaching their goals.

Automation and leadership

Machine learning and AI are progressing rapidly, moving to the automation of getting the answer, Tejada said. However, analytics without action leaves you empty-handed, she pointed out. Don’t just point to the fire, help put the fire out, she said. This lead her to the subject of leadership.

Tejada said she didn’t see many companies investing in leadership training. What does that mean for the future? Also, good leadership is necessary to create a company culture. She expressed that culture is important to the success of a business. For employees, she said, culture is everything. It’s important to create a culture of innovation, collaboration and fun.

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference.

Photo by SiliconANGLE