Meet Agla Fridjonsdottir!

Agla has run complex ops for top brands like Bouqs, Tradesy, and Vestiare Collective. Today she’s available to consult on ops projects big and small. We asked her a few questions to get to know her better.

What's something you're Top 10% at as an operator?

I think my biggest talent is making things better and less expensive.

So much of the time, "efficiency" is code for just "compromising on quality", but it doesn't have to be this way. If you're careful about removing waste without touching the things that are working, you can end up with systems that are much stronger and work much better.

My secret sauce is fully engaging the people on the floor (or any stakeholders of the process in question), and I guarantee that your team will be happier and more motivated when I’m done! After working with the cabin crew at Icelandair to reduce the weight of the airplanes (something they were terrified about to start with!), 94% of them said they were happier at work and asked for more projects like this.

The other thing I've become good at is building resilient and effective teams. I've led my teams through some turbulent times — including a global acquisition, where we merged with ops teams from multiple countries. I always look at these challenges as an opportunity to make the team stronger and communicate better. As they say: never waste a good crisis!

What are a few of the projects you've led that you're most proud of?

A big one was reducing processing times within Tradesy's distribution center by 80%. The company operated an online marketplace for luxury goods, so we ran a huge reverse logistics operation. Our margin was tied directly to how much time we spend handling each item.

When I joined, it took the team 5 days to process a returned item. By engaging the operators on the floor and throwing out conventional warehousing methods, we rebuilt the warehouse from scratch and were able to get processing times down to <1 day.

As part of our mission of sustainability, we also created a new, fully-sustainable packaging concept while reducing unit cost, shipping cost and shipping times.

What kinds of consulting engagements are you open to?

I can help with anything related to the warehousing and distribution side of operations.

My recent focus has been on how to create and maintain an effective work culture — strong team structures, clear growth paths, pay structures, etc. I'd love to help any company that's just starting out with this stuff and wants to save themselves a lot of trouble.

I’m happy to work with you part-time or full-time, on a one-off or recurring basis.

How can people get in touch?

You can reach me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aglafridjons/

Or via email: aglafridjons at gmail dot com