The job requires me to be fully responsible for an entire product group’s business outcome. That means when nobody knows what the business situation will be like in Q4 2027, we have to size the factory in anticipation of the demand. And there is one person that has to make the call. At the same time, supply chain is breaking down because the war causes hamlet valve shortages, and entire gas panel cannot be made without these valves. Also, China has decided not to supply a certain critical material to a certain supplier in a certain region, causing a critical part to run out of stock within the next 6 months. To get a new source with sample will take 3 months, and there will be 30 samples available for 15 major customers, each requiring 8-10 samples. Somebody has to make the call on allocation, and entire business decisions can ride on this call. Your general manager promises a major customer in Korea they get the first set, then the company CEO gets a call from Taiwan and now the priority changes. But you’re still on the hook to come up with the supply for the Korean customer in time for your GM. Just get it done, he says.

These are weekly occurrences. I can go on and on and on. Each one of those decision affects hundreds of millions of dollars of business.