Operational Scalability: Mark Schwartz of ControlUp On How To Set Up Systems, Procedures, And People To Prepare A Business To Scale
Deeply Understand the Business: Leaders must get into the details without micromanaging. Understanding the daily challenges faced by teams builds empathy and equips leaders to make well-informed decisions. Leaders can’t rely solely on reports — they need a direct grasp of the impact of their teams’ operations to truly lead effectively.
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 Mark Schwartz, Chief Operating Officer at ControlUp.
Schwartz brings decades of experience to the ControlUp leadership team, having served in corporate attorney, entrepreneur, general counsel, chief financial officer, chief strategy officer, board member, and investor roles. He co-founded Fabrinet (NYSE: FN), a fiber optic and photonics technology company, taking it public and leading its growth to over $1 billion in revenue. More recently, he was CFO of the 3D printing hardware and software company Markforged (NYSE: MKFG), leading it to its public offering in 2021. He has also held executive positions at companies including Trax, and Workhuman, specializing in scaling operations, managing global teams, and guiding strategic acquisitions. Schwartz’s expertise spans finance, legal, IT, HR, and corporate governance, with extensive experience in cross-border transactions and public offerings. He holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of San Diego School of Law.
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 grew up in New York and then ventured to Florida to attend the University of Miami on an academic scholarship, where I studied finance, accounting and philosophy. Following a two-year stint working as a financial analyst and playing rugby, I attended law school and practiced corporate law in California for about six years. I worked on a number of M&A, technology licensing and corporate roll-up transactions. However, I came to realize that I wanted to continue on the journey to execute strategy with my clients, after the transactions closed. Working on deals where I would invest months, only to transition out once the paperwork was signed, left me feeling disconnected from the long-term impact. I felt a drive to immerse myself in projects where I could be part of an organization’s growth and evolution, not just a temporary counsel.
I left the practice of law in early 2000, to partner with a client to start Fabrinet, a fiber optics communications manufacturing company, initially acting as the GC, CFO and chief strategy officer. We built Fabrinet from a small team to an international organization, from start-up to $1 billion in annual revenue, with customers and employees around the world. As we grew, I offloaded components of my role and eventually led the company, as the CFO and CSO, through a public offering on the NYSE, a transformative experience. After Fabrinet, I moved into venture capital for an enterprise SaaS firm for about three years but found it brought me back to the advisory-type environment I did not enjoy in practice of law. So, I transitioned back into operating roles, focused principally in SaaS and AI businesses. Each step along my path has been a valuable learning experience, ultimately leading me to ControlUp, where I’m now focusing on change management and operational scalability, to establish controls in our business that will accelerate our innovation and continue to delight our customers.
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?
One of the mistakes I made early on when we started Fabrinet was failing to empower my team members, failing to delegate because I wanted to be deep into the details. My partner, the CEO of Fabrinet, was known for his intense attention to detail and demanding nature. My personality is to really dig into the details, so I tried to match his intensity, including by focusing on every detail, no matter how large or small. However, I soon realized that I was micromanaging my teams and missing the bigger picture. I was not creating an environment for my teams to thrive or grow in their careers, and I realized that my partner in the business, our CEO, balanced his intensity with humility, and the ability to step back and see the broader impact of his work.
From this experience, I learned an invaluable lesson about leadership: it’s not only OK but essential to balance rigor with humility, to show my teams I care about their aspirations and career path, and to show them that I do not have all the answers and that I rely on them for their domain expertise. Humility keeps you grounded. In leading teams, I focus on my teammates — how can I help them succeed, how can I create an environment that encourages reflection, and questions, and encourages continuous improvement. Ultimately, it’s about hiring great people, trusting their expertise, and creating an environment for people to have confidence to raise questions or objections or new ideas without backlash.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
ControlUp stands out because of its unique combination of a strong, purpose-driven culture and exceptional leadership. My initial connection with ControlUp wasn’t through a typical hiring process. A mutual contact recommended I meet Jed Ayres, the CEO, who came highly regarded not only as a strategic leader but as someone genuinely committed to building something meaningful. This initial connection wasn’t about a specific role but rather about exploring if we shared a vision, which we discovered we did. It felt organic. Following that meeting I met with one of the larger investors in ControlUp and walked away from that meeting with a genuine desire to join this humble team and their journey.
In addition, ControlUp is at the forefront of Digital Employee Experience (DEX) technology, empowering IT teams with tools to drive proactive, efficient operations. By providing true real-time visibility and AI-driven insights, ControlUp’s DEX platform allows organizations to proactively resolve issues, monitor infrastructure and endpoint health, and automate fixes — enabling a seamless and secure work environment for employees. This proactive approach minimizes disruptions, enhances productivity, and reduces IT costs, all of which are crucial in today’s dynamic digital landscape. Nearly 2,000 organizations, including over a third of the Fortune 100, rely on ControlUp to elevate their IT functions and foster a more productive, resilient workplace. This blend of culture and cutting-edge technology truly sets ControlUp apart.
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?
- Humility: For me, humility is central to effective leadership. Each day, I ask myself, ‘What do I believe to be true that I am dead wrong about?’ It’s a grounding question I read from a business book years ago, that keeps me open to new perspectives and reminds me of my own limitations. This mindset has enabled me to stay receptive to feedback and continuously improve my decision-making. I’ve found that approaching leadership with humility builds trust and keeps the focus on problem-solving and growth rather than finger-pointing.
- Empathy: When I transitioned from law to running finance and operations, I made it a priority to understand my team’s individual goals and aspirations. I believe that when employees feel understood and supported, they’re more engaged and loyal. Many of the people I’ve worked with over the years have followed me across multiple companies, because they knew I genuinely care about their development, and will put them in positions to make a positive impact and ultimately contribute to the broader success of the organization.
- Accountability: Finally, accountability has been vital. I focus on a process-driven approach of continuous improvement. We are generally dealing with imperfect information. My team knows that if circumstances change, or new information becomes available, we may have an opportunity to change course based on this new information. I won’t hold anyone accountable for what we couldn’t foresee. So we learn, consider whether there was an opportunity for us to have learned this new information sooner, and consider how to change our processes to broaden our ability to uncover information more quickly. This approach creates an environment where people are empowered to make decisions without the fear of backlash.
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.
One of the hardest decisions I’ve faced in my career is handling restructurings and layoffs. When hiring, we approach each decision with a long-term perspective. When we hire a new employee, we understand that family members and other individuals may be relying on that employee. And we want that employee to speak fondly of ControlUp at home and in their social circles. As a CFO, I’ve managed various departments and have been through a number of boom and bust cycles. The responsibility of restructuring team members out of an organization never gets any easier.
My experience has taught me the importance of process-driven, thoughtful hiring. Every hire is a commitment, and we obsess about the timing, and the character, of the people we bring on board for their potential long-term contributions. This approach not only breeds loyalty but also helps build a more stable and resilient organization over time.
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?
To me, Operational Scalability is positioning your organization so that it maintains quality service and customer satisfaction as it grows. Whether a company has three employees or three hundred, the goal is to ensure that customers continue to be delighted, experiencing the same level of dedication and responsiveness, regardless of how large the company becomes. Scalability isn’t just about adding resources; it’s about creating processes, systems, and cultural practices that enable the company to continue to delight its customers, while expanding your capacity.
Operational Scalability involves developing processes that keep customer satisfaction front and center. This can mean standardizing practices, implementing tools, and architecting teams in a way that enables each part of the organization to function cohesively. In the end, scalability is about sustainable growth that doesn’t compromise the quality or values of the business and keeps the customer first.
Which types of business can most benefit from investing in Operational Scalability?
High-growth businesses, particularly startups and companies experiencing rapid expansion, stand to benefit the most from Operational Scalability. These businesses often face unique challenges in maintaining service quality while scaling quickly. Without thoughtful, scalable systems, high-growth companies risk falling into a reactive mode, where they’re constantly trying to patch up issues instead of addressing them proactively. In these cases, investing in scalability can make the difference between sustaining growth or facing burnout and customer churn.
That said, any business can benefit from scalability, regardless of growth rate. Even stable companies can enhance efficiency by investing in scalable processes. For businesses with slower growth, a more gradual approach to scalability allows them to incrementally build out their infrastructure in a way that adapts to future demands. Regardless of size or growth rate, scalability ensures that a business is prepared to meet customer needs effectively, even as market conditions evolve.
Why is it so important for a business to invest time, energy, and resources into Operational Scalability?
Investing in scalability is crucial because it ensures that a company can meet demand and maintain quality as it grows. Without scalability, businesses often struggle with inefficiencies, such as miscommunication between departments, redundant processes, or inconsistent customer experiences. These inefficiencies are costly and can erode customer trust over time. Operational Scalability lays the groundwork for sustainable, consistent service, enabling a company to expand its reach without sacrificing quality.
Moreover, scalability is a proactive investment in a business’s resilience. As companies grow, their needs evolve, and scalability prepares them for those changes. The resources spent on scalability upfront are far less than what it would cost to repair a fragmented, overwhelmed organization down the road. Scalability isn’t just a growth strategy — it’s a way to future-proof a company against the challenges that come with expansion.
In contrast, what happens to a business that does not invest time, energy, and resources into Operational Scalability?
Businesses that ignore scalability often fall into what I call ‘brute force operations.’ They attempt to compensate for inadequate infrastructure by overloading their teams, which leads to burnout and mistakes. Contracts slip through the cracks, customer relationships deteriorate, and growth stalls because the systems can’t support the increased load. The damage to customer relationships alone can be devastating, as regaining lost trust is far more difficult and expensive than maintaining it from the start.
Additionally, failing to invest in scalability makes a business vulnerable to missed opportunities. When you’re constantly firefighting, it’s difficult to innovate or seize new market prospects. Growth becomes more challenging, and the business may reach a point where scaling up feels impossible. Investing early in scalable systems allows a business to stay agile and competitive, ready to take advantage of new opportunities when they arise.
Can you please share a story from your experience about how a business grew dramatically when they worked on their Operational Scalability?
At Fabrinet, we reached a stage where our growth began to plateau, despite our rapid early success. As we crossed roughly $300 million in annual revenue, we realized that different departments were operating as if they were independent companies. Two of our senior leaders were building capabilities within their organizations that the other already possessed. We were effectively splitting into several ‘mini-companies’ within the organization, even incentivizing and promoting team members differently. We had unknowingly created a source of tension and mistrust within the company, and it had started to impact our growth. We retained a consultant who — after interviewing over 120 team members from across the company — identified that while we had hired well, with a strong talent pool, our lack of a unified mission, vision, and operating system, had contributed to fragmentation and slowed our growth.
We took this advice to heart, redefining our mission and vision and values, and creating the “Fabrinet Way” that was then cascaded down through every level of the organization. We aligned everyone on the same goals, over-communicated our messages, and reinforced them with company-wide meetings. Within a few quarters, the positive impact was evident, and our growth accelerated once again. This experience taught me that scalability isn’t just about infrastructure; it’s also about (over) communicating a shared vision and building cohesiveness within the organization. This work is never done.
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.
- Deeply Understand the Business: Leaders must get into the details without micromanaging. Understanding the daily challenges faced by teams builds empathy and equips leaders to make well-informed decisions. Leaders can’t rely solely on reports — they need a direct grasp of the impact of their teams’ operations to truly lead effectively.
- Hire the Right People: A business is only as strong as its people. Hiring domain experts and empowering them to act is essential. These are the individuals who will support and sustain the company as it grows, and the right people bring depth and resilience to the organization.
- Build Consensus at the Top: Creating a unified leadership team ensures that everyone is working towards the same goals. This requires transparency and listening to different perspectives. When leaders believe in the mission, they communicate it consistently, which fosters alignment across departments.
- Set Up Scalable Technology: Investing in adaptable technology minimizes disruptions later. A sophisticated CRM system may be costly upfront but may offer stability and integration to support growth. Choosing adaptable technology lays the foundation for future scaling.
- Maintain Consistency in Processes: It’s crucial to resist the temptation to let departments ‘do their own thing’ as you grow. Consistent processes across the company prevent confusion and ensure everyone operates from the same playbook. This discipline keeps the organization cohesive and efficient.
What are some common misconceptions businesses have about scaling? Can you please explain?
A common misconception is that scaling simply means getting bigger — adding more resources or personnel. True scalability is about optimizing processes and infrastructure in a way that supports growth sustainably and continues to delight the customer. Scaling isn’t a one-time fix; it’s a continual adjustment that focuses on maintaining quality and efficiency as you expand.
Another misconception is that businesses should only scale once growth has become challenging. Waiting until you’re struggling to meet demand or satisfy customers can lead to rushed, reactive measures that may not serve the company well long-term. Scalability is best when it’s proactive, planned, and aligned with the company’s long-term vision.
How do you keep your team motivated during periods of rapid growth or change?
I keep my team motivated by fostering a clear, stable framework in which they can operate. During times of change, uncertainty can lead to confusion, so I prioritize open communication and consistency. For instance, I set clear guidelines and timelines around the use of our tools, so if or when we make a change, it is easier to manage. This transparency and expectation-setting provides a sense of direction, even when the company is growing rapidly.
Motivation also comes from empowering the team to contribute their expertise. I often ask, ‘What do you recommend?’ — I believe in my team members, trust their judgment and value their insights. By giving people the freedom to make decisions within a structured framework, we maintain morale and focus as we adapt to new challenges.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My favorite quote is, ‘Every day, I wake up and wonder what I’m dead wrong about.’ This philosophy keeps me humble and open-minded, reminding me that there’s always more to learn. It encourages me to approach situations with a willingness to reassess my assumptions and adjust as needed. Leadership, to me, is not about having all the answers but about being willing to seek better answers continuously.
This mindset has been particularly relevant in complex situations where a rigid approach could have led to mistakes. By constantly questioning what I think I know, I stay adaptable, which has helped me navigate challenging decisions and inspire the same mindset in my teams.
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. 🙂
I would advocate for a ‘positive intent’ mindset across organizations. Often in roles like finance, legal, and IT, it’s easy to view the actions of team members in other departments with skepticism, especially when budgets or priorities appear to clash. However, I believe that assuming positive intent — that everyone is trying to do the best for the company — creates a foundation of trust and understanding.
Assuming positive intent allows teams to approach conflicts more constructively, encouraging collaboration, and a focus on shared goals, instead of blame. When people believe that others are acting with good intentions, it transforms the culture into one that’s collaborative and resilient.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Readers can stay updated on my work by following me on LinkedIn. The ControlUp website is also a great resource for company news, thought leadership, and innovations in digital employee experience. Staying connected on these platforms offers a window into our ongoing journey and the steps we’re taking to shape the future of enterprise technology.
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
Operational Scalability: Mark Schwartz of ControlUp On How To Set Up Systems, Procedures, And… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.