What are typical responsibilities of a Chief Operating Officer?

Our suspicion is that they would be if there were less variability and confusion surrounding the role. As we continue to demystify the role of the COO, more companies will benefit from more-effective leadership. This Chief Operating Officer or COO job description template is optimized for posting on online job boards or careers pages and easy to customize for your company. A COO is second in command to the CEO, who is the top executive at a company. While the CEO is responsible for an organization’s long-term success, the COO is usually responsible for the day-to-day operations. Executors oversee and execute the strategic and organizational goals designed by senior management.

Other halves are COOs brought in to complement a CEO’s skill set, experience and style. A general manager is a person in charge of a department within a company. Entrepreneurs create new businesses, taking on all the risks and rewards of the company. Topfer joined Dell in 1994 and previously worked at Motorola, heading its land mobile products division. The company, of course, turned around, becoming the powerhouse that it is today. In 1999, Lane received a salary of $1 million and a $2.25 million bonus.

Institutions where COO can Work

The Economic Research Firm predicts a 16% increase in salary for the COO role, forecasting that professionals in this executive position will earn an average of $340,372 by 2025. Their work often involves a high degree of stress because they bear the responsibility of making the business successful. There were roughly 292,500 chief executives working in the U.S. chief operating officer definition in 2020. There isn’t one agreed-upon list of what the job entails, and the role may also have different titles depending on the organization. Perhaps that’s why COO is the only C-suite title to which there is no magazine devoted. It’s a trivial observation but perhaps a telling one; the common set of issues and interests that would imply simply does not exist.

Chief Operating Officer means the Chief Operating Officer of the Company or any other person designated as such from time to time. Chief Operating Officer means the occupant of that position at the Department or designated by the Department, responsible for management and oversight of the Department’s railroad operations. A Chief Operating Officer must have a broad knowledge of and wide experience in business management. Believing in the company’s strategy and not letting their egos cloud their judgment and attitudes are also important. As your business grows, you’ll need to expand your executive board and have ready access to more business documents to accommodate that growth. That’s why we offer a Business Documents Templates Library for your business needs.

What Is A Chief Operating Officer?

At Microsoft, for example, rumors of the COO job’s death turned out to have been exaggerated. Although it sat idle for several years after Rick Belluzzo’s departure, it was revived when Kevin Turner was hired. Certainly, being identified as a likely heir does not represent anything approaching a guarantee. On the one hand, an otherwise valuable senior executive may leave if the top job ultimately goes to someone else—or isn’t offered soon enough. On the other hand, the COO’s performance can indicate that the heir title was inappropriately or prematurely bestowed.

A chief operating officer is an executive member of a firm that is tasked with managing the day-to-day operations and administrative functions of the firm. Research in Motion’s corporate structure had more than one COO, including Jim Rowan as chief operating officer for global operations, and Thorsten Heins as COO of products and sales. The COO reports to the CEO, but everyone else – mid-level managers like sales managers, marketing managers, and product managers, as well as other C-level executives like the CFO and the CTO – report to the COO. A COO, or chief operating officer, is typically the second-highest-ranking executive in a company. These different types of COO roles also help us to understand how the responsibilities of this professional can change from business to business, depending on the operational and functional needs of the organization. In addition to the educational and experience requirements, organizations look for COO candidates who also have soft skills such as leadership, decision-making, and communication.

COO (Chief Operating Officer) – definition and example

While Fuld was considered the “face” of Lehman brothers, Gregory was in charge of day-to-day operations and he influenced culture to drive the bottom line. Gregory was demoted on June 12, 2008, and replaced as president and COO by Bart McDade, who had been serving as head of Equities, and McDade would see Lehman through bankruptcy. This is an important role in any organization; however, it is found more in a large organization. The role complements the Chief Executive Officer in navigating the Organization toward the vision and strategy determined by the CEO and board of directors.

While the mandate is not as broad as the general execution of strategy, the magnitude of the challenge demands that the change-agent COO have a degree of unquestioned authority similar to that of an executor COO. Larry Ellison hired Lane from consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton and tasked him with turning around the deeply troubled sales and marketing organizations. His efforts ultimately contributed to a 10-fold increase in sales, from $1 billion to more than $10 billion, and a threefold increase in net profits. Similarly, AirTran CEO Joe Leonard recruited COO Robert Fornaro to lead a dramatic turnaround. The company, in Leonard’s words, was “running on fumes” and needed dramatic efforts to stave off bankruptcy.