In a huge company, a chief operating officer oversees all operations daily and reports directly to the chief executive officer. As a chief operating officer, the candidate sees to it that the business operations are smooth and efficient daily. The chief operations officer establishes harmonious relations with the chief executive officer most importantly to ensure that the business is able to create profit. Normally, the chief operations officer is trained to succeed the chief executive officer. The chief operations officer has the capacity to issue commands to lower level workers in the absence of the chief executive officer. It is a privilege to be a chief operating officer since the candidate communicates directly with the corporate management and attends board meetings.
Supervision
The chief operating officer has the corporate division heads under the candidate’s supervision. The division heads inform the chief operations officer of the regular progress in each department. The chief operations officer serves as a link between the division heads and the management. Strategic planning for the business profit is a key task of the chief operations officer. Activities that can boost business growth and protocols that can improve the efficiency of the business are designed and implemented. Every day is a challenge for a chief operations officer in a huge corporation. There is endless paperwork to finish and plenty of work issues may need to be addressed.
Internal Operations
As a chief operating officer, the candidate focuses on internal operations of the company. The candidate becomes knowledgeable of all the activities inside the company. There are plenty of departments to oversee and people to handle. The candidate may have gone up the corporate ranks to be a chief operations officer. On the other hand, the chief operations officer may also be assigned to transfer to a particular company and turn it into a profitable one. It is a challenge for the chief operations officer of how to manage time attending to so many internal matters.
Similar Titles
A chief operations officer’s duties can be distributed among a director of operations, vice president of operations, operations director, and executive director. There are companies that do not have a chief operations officer. Instead, the chief executive officer does the overall supervision of the company. Plenty of Fortune 500 companies have chief executive officers rather than chief operating officers. In these cases, the chief executive officers perform the duties of the chief operations officers. As among the highest corporate positions, the chief operating officer must want to be chief executive officer of the company in the future.
On The Decline
The position of being chief operations officer has been declining in Fortune 500 companies for the past decade. In this manner, the chief executive officer is tasked to run the company efficiently. For huge companies that continue to accept a chief operations officer, it is mandatory for the candidate to be able to cultivate a strong relationship with the chief executive officer. This outstanding partnership can make the company highly profitable. Good communication lines also foster a favorable working atmosphere between the chief operations officer, management, and the workers.*
*According to the BLS, http://www.bls.gov/oco/