Operational Scalability: Kum Ming Woo of Vector Laboratories On How To Set Up Systems, Procedures, And People To Prepare A Business To Scale
Over-communicate: Consistent and frequent communication from the business leader helps to keep everyone aligned and moving towards the same goal. To you, it will feel like you’re repeating the same thing infinitely. To each member of the team and the organization, who, on average, may only speak with you once a day or once a week, that repetition will provide clarity and certainty. If you’re lucky, your team will turn you into a meme.
In today’s fast-paced business environment, scalability is not just a buzzword; it’s a necessity. Entrepreneurs often get trapped in the daily grind of running their businesses, neglecting to put in place the systems, procedures, and people needed for sustainable growth. Without this foundation, companies hit bottlenecks, suffer inefficiencies, and face the risk of stalling or failing. This series aims to delve deep into the intricacies of operational scalability. How do you set up a framework that can adapt to growing customer demands? What are the crucial procedures that can streamline business operations? How do you build a team that can take on increasing responsibilities while maintaining a high standard of performance?
In this interview series, we are talking to CEOs, Founders, Operations Managers Consultants, Academics, Tech leaders & HR professionals, who share lessons from their experience about “How To Set Up Systems, Procedures, And People To Prepare A Business To Scale”. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Kum Ming Woo, Vice President of Operations at Vector Labs.
Kum Ming Woo is a highly experienced operations leader in the life sciences industry. With expertise in regulatory compliance, lean manufacturing, and strategic vision, he drives efficiency and quality at Vector Laboratories. Prior to his current role, Kum Ming held key positions at Twist Bioscience, TriLink Technologies, and Illumina. He has a BS in Chemical Engineering from MIT, laying the foundation for his successful career.
Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
I’ve had an unconventional career journey — certainly, I didn’t imagine I would be in this role now when I started over 25 years ago. I graduated from college with an engineering degree, then began my career as a scientist instead, even though most of my classmates were starting off as engineers. I pivoted and decided to take a break to open my own retail store, failed at that, and then returned to work at a rapidly growing medical device startup.
At that point in my life, I’d had several jobs but hadn’t found anything I could call a career. That startup job was the first job that truly challenged me and opened my eyes to what was possible. I later left that role to work at another rapidly growing biotech company that challenged me even more. This role allowed me to take on my first leadership position, partly because nobody else wanted the job, from what several colleagues told me later. I ended up being successful at leading and developing teams and discovered a passion for it.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Early in my career, I supported the installation of new production equipment. It was a novel technology that the company hadn’t implemented before. During the trial run, the machine errored out and needed troubleshooting. This was the biggest machine I’d ever worked with to date, and I wasn’t particularly handy with tools. Nevertheless, I soldiered on trying to get the machine back up. My troubleshooting consisted of trying to decipher the notes I’d taken the day before from the service technician (remember, at that time, there was no YouTube, Google, or FaceTime!). While turning valves, I mixed a few things up, and instead of emptying the machine into a tank, I punctured a seal and drained the machine onto the floor. The product in the machine was a bright purple.
My boss happened to walk in at that time to check how things were going, and he turned the corner to see me stained a shade of bright purple with a purple floor and purple walls. He took a deep breath, turned around, and walked back out. I was utterly convinced he would fire me. Instead, my boss used it as a teachable moment to have me explain my errors in judgment and how he and I could do better next time. He also laughed and said at least I wouldn’t make that same mistake twice. My lesson from that experience was that mistakes happen, and how we deal with them as leaders and people determine our success. Also, don’t wear a light-colored shirt when working with a purple product.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Vector Labs stands out to me in our ability to rally together for a common cause. Early last year, we fell seriously behind in our production and disappointed customers left and right with delayed shipments, out-of-stock notifications, and missing orders.
I sent out a call to action for everyone in the company to support production in any way possible, even if it was taking out the trash or ordering supplies, because that was one less task a production person needed to do and let them focus on making a product.
I was amazed at the response — nearly everybody in the company from every team volunteered their time to contribute. Team members who didn’t typically work together forged new bonds, and many of our office personnel and customer-facing teams got the rare experience of seeing how our products were made firsthand. I was so proud that everybody rallied together to turn a challenging situation around.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
- Connecting the dots: I’ve developed a talent for grasping what a complex process looks like from end to end, discerning how to stack everything else up correctly, and enabling teams to do what they thought was impossible. Many years ago, a critical customer was about to run out of product due to a material shortage from my team. The process usually took four to five weeks to complete, but they would run out in days. I pulled my team together, and after huddling for an hour, we’d diagrammed out a plan to finish the process in five days. We ended up finishing it in four. My team and several teams adjacent to us were amazed and excited at the success.
- Doing a few things well: I’ve found that teams and people function best when the direction is clear and there are no distractions. I’m a big believer in not setting more goals than I can count on one hand. I actively encourage my team members to raise their hands whenever too many competing priorities arise and to ask for clarity on direction when necessary. Sometimes, that means telling me what I asked for has to wait unless we deprioritize other tasks, which starts a great dialog about choices.
- Building up the bench: I’m only here today because I had the good fortune to work for a series of leaders who each took a chance on me. I encourage my team members to take on stretch responsibilities, and I am very open about mentoring and teaching anyone who’s interested in how to take my job eventually.
Leadership often entails making difficult decisions or hard choices between two apparently good paths. Can you share a story with us about a hard decision or choice you had to make as a leader? I’m curious to understand how these challenges have shaped your leadership.
Difficult decisions often arise when selecting candidates for leadership positions. A mix of internal and external candidates frequently apply for a role, sometimes even multiple internal candidates. Even if you have two or more qualified candidates, you can only select one to move forward, which, in the case of internal candidates in particular, means you typically end up with one happy person in the organization and multiple potentially unhappy people.
In one scenario early in my leadership journey, we narrowed down the candidates to two finalists, both internal candidates from within the company. One candidate had a longer resume, more experience within the company, and had done well, but not exceptional, during the interview process. The other candidate was earlier in their career, but impressed multiple interviewers with the depth of their answers and thought process. The interview team was split down the middle between the two candidates.
My leader at the time let me make the ultimate decision, saying that I would have to live with whatever decision I made. I chose the earlier-in-career candidate with less experience on paper. The half of the interview team that preferred the more experienced candidate challenged my thought process, forcing me to think through and rationalize my decision. It was a series of hard conversations with the interview team, as well as with the candidate whom I didn’t select, as I still had to work with that individual on a weekly basis. They were clearly disappointed in the outcome. However, as I reflect on the experience, it ended up being the right move from my leader to give me the freedom to choose and the accountability to own the results of my choice. I surely would not have learned as much if my leader decided for me.
Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion about Operational Scalability. In order to make sure that we are all on the same page, let’s begin with a simple definition. What does Operational Scalability mean to you?
Operational scalability is the ability to continually handle increasing demands while maintaining the same quality of product or experience for the customer.
Which types of business can most benefit from investing in Operational Scalability?
Every business can benefit from investing in operational scalability, whether it’s a rapidly growing startup, a small company just getting off the ground, or a mature business.
Why is it so important for a business to invest time, energy, and resources into Operational Scalability?
With focused and consistent investment in operational scalability, a business can build a positive feedback loop for its customers and employees. The initial successes gained from early investments in operational scalability pay back on themselves, spurring further success that continues to build the positive feedback loop.
In contrast, what happens to a business that does not invest time, energy, and resources into Operational Scalability?
There are only so many hours in the day — without investing in operational scalability, you literally run out of time. Your customers may move on to competitors who can better serve their needs. You and your team may burn out.
Can you please share a story from your experience about how a business grew dramatically when they worked on their Operational Scalability?
I joined a business a while ago that was struggling with the ability to scale. The company had a compelling product with customers lined up, and the volume had just taken off. Every order was immediately spoken for even before it started, and customers were both frustrated and hungry for even more.
The company spent a lot of time, effort, and money on technology without addressing operational scalability and as a result, wasn’t getting the return on investment on all that technology. After I joined and refocused the business’s efforts on operational scalability, the output and revenue of that business unit doubled after nine months after seeing only incremental gains the year before.
Here is the primary question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are the “Five Most Important Things A Business Leader Should Do To Set Up Systems, Procedures, And People To Prepare A Business To Scale”? If you can, please share a story or an example for each.
1. Respect the Past: Preparing a business to scale requires change, and change is hard. Recognize that the status quo exists because it made sense to the person or people who set it up at the time. Respecting the past is critical to gaining buy-in from the people whose help you’ll need to drive change.
2. Challenge the Present: Simplicity is the first step to scalability. When looking at systems and procedures, force yourself to ask, “Do I need to be doing this now? What happens if I stop doing this part?” In my experience, it’s extremely common for complex processes to evolve and run on auto-pilot as additional layers are stacked on top without diving into the original problem.
3. Aim for the Future: Keep everybody focused on what the end looks like. The team should drive the journey to get there. As long as they know what the end looks like and make progress every day, whether they get there a little earlier, a little later, or differently from how you thought it would, it helps them grow and furthers their journey.
4. Embrace Failure: It’s better to fail quickly and spectacularly than to muddle along without a clear result. Failure can drive just as much action and growth as success, as long as the failure is celebrated and the appropriate lessons are learned.
5. Over-communicate: Consistent and frequent communication from the business leader helps to keep everyone aligned and moving towards the same goal. To you, it will feel like you’re repeating the same thing infinitely. To each member of the team and the organization, who, on average, may only speak with you once a day or once a week, that repetition will provide clarity and certainty. If you’re lucky, your team will turn you into a meme.
What are some common misconceptions businesses have about scaling? Can you please explain?
A common misconception is that technology is the automatic and first solution to scaling. Indeed, technology is often a key part of the solution to scale, but good technology doesn’t fix a flawed process. Sometimes, the first step to scale is to ask what you would do without technology. And sometimes, the technology itself is the reason the business struggles to scale.
Another misconception I’ve seen is that scaling must be done simultaneously (often through implementing a major technology package — see above). Placing all bets on one massive leap often distracts the organization from progressing steadily.
How do you keep your team motivated during periods of rapid growth or change?
I’ve found “Thank you” and “What did you learn?” to be incredibly motivating statements for many of my teams during times of change. Ultimately, they’re the ones who are making the change happen, and stopping to celebrate their successes and help them work through the next steps empowers them to be better team members and future leaders.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
You can only control yourself and your actions. Several times in my life, I faced significant personal challenges and blamed or lashed out at other people, the world, and events outside of my control. Every single time, once I realized that the only way to move forward was to take stock of my own situation and work on myself, my perspective would change, and I would find my path forward.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Pay it forward. I suppose that’s technically a movement that already exists in a few different ways, but I find the idea of propagating a small act of kindness and motivation forward has an exponential effect as it ripples outward.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
I am totally transparent about this — I’m probably one of the least active people online I know! However, you can keep up with Vector Laboratories’ work and insights on the company’s blog page and social media:
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
Operational Scalability: Kum Ming Woo of Vector Laboratories On How To Set Up Systems, Procedures… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.