The EA overview is already incredibly helpful Jelle! Appreciate you sharing that. It would be awesome if somebody was working on creating something like this but for the ‘world portfolio’. A ton of work of course, and there is probably a lot of estimating and guessing involved. Though, it would be incredibly valuable in evaluating neglectedness of problem areas, and how we might be heading in the wrong or right direction over time. For now though, this is already very useful.
Edit: spelling mistakes
This was incredibly helpful. I have been struggling with this ambiguity of ‘operations management’ in EA as I am in the midst of my career planning process. Specifically, what I have been wrestling with is that (1) I am incredibly excited about meta-thinking of processes, streamlining, and functioning as a multiplier of high-impact output, and think such a role might be a great personal fit for me, but (2) I have a strong , innate aversion to ‘operations’ work as described in Operations is really demanding (especially due to its overwhelming nature).
This way that ‘operations management’ is used in EA, where it seems to mix both types of work into one with the majority of responsibilities being the ‘assistant’-like work, has actually led me to begrudgingly write off operations management as a career path for now. It does seem that, what I have seen in other comments as well, that most EA organizations might be of smaller size and hence there is no full-time position for the ‘operations manager’ as you describe it. That seems plausible.
I will be mulling over this some more as I am not entirely sure whether the types of operations manager positions you describe—those that excite me—are actually readily available in EA at this moment. If they would be, I’d be strongly considering them as my next move. Thank you for this helpful post!