COO – the “Secret Weapon,” Part 1
At a speaking opportunity, I asked several senior executives to name the CEOs of Microsoft, Facebook (Meta), Google, and IBM. They all knew the names – Satya Nadella, Mark Zuckerberg, Sunder Pichai, and Arvind Krishna. Next, I asked, “Who are the COOs of the same companies?”
Crickets! No answer.
The CEOs are mostly public-facing and deal with external constituencies and stakeholders. People can name dozens of famous CEOs. But how about COOs? Not so much.
The COO is the “Secret Weapon” of the C-suite, building organizational strength and exemplary employees. The COO leads operations, of course. This operational expertise propels technological growth and employee empowerment. A COO is vital in boosting organizational resilience and value creation, especially when facing market disruptions. Because of these capabilities, the COOs are often leading contenders for the CEO job.
Critical skills COOs need to manage their challenges.
Besides allocating time as a resource, managing people, and dealing with short-term operational issues, some other essential challenges include exploiting the rapid growth of technologies that could change the ground rules of competition. Here are the top five competencies almost always expected in a COO:
Avoiding the proverbial “Marketing Myopia.” Ability to foresee change. Disruption is now the norm, not an exception. It can happen at local, regional, or global levels quickly. Remember traditional advertising agencies with a seat in the boardroom? How about the travel agencies? Advancements in digital communications commoditized both.
As a COO, ask yourself, “Is your company prepared for a disruption, no matter how unlikely it may appear right now?”
Fostering Cross-functional collaboration. Cross-functional engagement is critical, especially between operations (including sales) and marketing. Grasping the customer value proposition is essential, and a close relationship between operations and marketing can deliver a better customer experience.
Often, it is more efficient and effective to have the marketing leader report to the COO.
Engaging effectively with boards. Often, a board meeting is another staff meeting in a closely held privately owned company, just longer than usual. However, since the pandemic, many privately held companies have appreciated the need for outside representation on the board of directors.
A COO must strengthen the operations profile with the board.
Realize operational excellence culturally and technologically. Leading operational excellence in rapidly changing market dynamics is a must. What is excellence?
Define excellence by outcomes, such as meeting or exceeding stakeholder requirements, improving customer service, or executing marketing campaigns to support sales with meaningful results, such as qualified leads and not just clicks.
Cultivate talent creatively. Since the pandemic, COOs have been confronting new sets of talent-related challenges.
They must provide pleasant working conditions and create an appealing corporate culture.
In Part 2, I will address the COO agenda – what should be on it?
I would love to hear about your experiences! Please share your stories at satishmehtausa@gmail.com. Please forward this knowledge letter to those who could benefit from it. They can subscribe to it here or by clicking on the link below.
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