Becoming a Chief Operating Officer (COO)

DMatt Alderton, a senior writer, shares his thoughts and expertise on how to become a chief operating officer with the Business Daily.

What is a chief operating officer (COO) is a question that almost each one of us ask in a business from time to time and according to Fahad Shoukat, COO at enterprise software startup Skiplist, it’s not an easy question to address or answer.

He further adds that people don’t quite understand how a chief operating officer fits in and what they do as the role is quite often very misunderstood and undervalued. Only veteran business experts truly understand the importance of a chief operating officer. The article mentions that the COO is second in command and sometimes also called the vice president of operations, they are a senior executive who manages day-to-day operations of an organization, company or a business.

Because “operations” includes almost everything a business does, Shoukat describes the chief operating officer as the “Swiss Army knife” of business. A simpler way to think about the role, however, is this: While a chief executive officer (CEO) generally is a company’s brain, a COO is its ands. The CEO determines the direction of the business and what its long-term goals should be; the COO executes those goals, breaking goals down into everyday tactical decisions and duties.

For Randy Hayashi, COO at credit card processing company Payment Depot, perhaps the best way to define the responsibilities of the COO role is to view them in relation to the CEO. Matt Alderton also mentions that the COOs typically have a combination of solid education and work experience. If individuals want to become a COO, Windler said, they should have a degree in business or a proven track record of successful team building.

In conclusion there are various paths to become COO and some people skyrocket to the COO role because they join a startup or co-found their company whereas others take years to become a COO by slowly climbing the corporate ladder inside one or several large organizations.