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Chief operating officer

 

 
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Chief operating officer
 
 
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A chief operating officer or chief operations officer (COO) is a corporate officer responsible for managing the day-to-day activities of the corporation
Corporation

A corporation is a legal entity separate from the persons that form it. It is a legal entity owned by individual stockholders. In British tradition it is the term designating a body corporate, where it can be either a corporation sole or a corporation aggregate ....
 and for operations management
Operations management

Operations management is an area of business that is concerned with the production of good quality goods and services, and involves the responsibility of ensuring that business operations are efficient and effective....
 (OM). The COO is one of the highest-ranking members of an organization's senior management
Senior management

Senior management is generally a team of individuals at the highest level of organizational management who have the day-to-day responsibilities of managing a corporation....
, monitoring the daily operations of the company and reporting to the board of directors
Board of directors

A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed persons who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. The body sometimes has a different name, such as board of trustees, board of governors, board of managers, or executive board....
 and the top executive officer, usually the chief executive officer
Chief executive officer

A chief executive officer or chief executive is typically the highest-ranking Corporate title or Administration in charge of total management of a corporation, company, non-profit organization, or government agency, reporting to the board of directors....
 (CEO). The COO is usually an executive or senior officer.

The focus of the COO is on operations management, which means he or she is responsible for the development, design, operation, and improvement of the systems that create and deliver the firm's products/services.






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A chief operating officer or chief operations officer (COO) is a corporate officer responsible for managing the day-to-day activities of the corporation
Corporation

A corporation is a legal entity separate from the persons that form it. It is a legal entity owned by individual stockholders. In British tradition it is the term designating a body corporate, where it can be either a corporation sole or a corporation aggregate ....
 and for operations management
Operations management

Operations management is an area of business that is concerned with the production of good quality goods and services, and involves the responsibility of ensuring that business operations are efficient and effective....
 (OM). The COO is one of the highest-ranking members of an organization's senior management
Senior management

Senior management is generally a team of individuals at the highest level of organizational management who have the day-to-day responsibilities of managing a corporation....
, monitoring the daily operations of the company and reporting to the board of directors
Board of directors

A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed persons who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. The body sometimes has a different name, such as board of trustees, board of governors, board of managers, or executive board....
 and the top executive officer, usually the chief executive officer
Chief executive officer

A chief executive officer or chief executive is typically the highest-ranking Corporate title or Administration in charge of total management of a corporation, company, non-profit organization, or government agency, reporting to the board of directors....
 (CEO). The COO is usually an executive or senior officer.

The focus of the COO is on operations management, which means he or she is responsible for the development, design, operation, and improvement of the systems that create and deliver the firm's products/services. The duties of the COO may reside in certain organizations with a vice president of operations. The COO is responsible for ensuring that business operations are efficient and effective and that proper management of resources, distribution of goods and services to customers, and analysis of queue systems is done.

COOs ideally needs to have domain knowledge of the business & industry, understand modern management theories (Total Quality Management
Total Quality Management

Total Quality Management is a business management strategy aimed at embedding awareness of Quality in all organizational processes. TQM has been widely used in manufacturing, education, call centers, government, and service industry, as well as NASA space and science programs....
, Kaizen
Kaizen

Kaizen is a Japanese philosophy that focuses on continuous improvement throughout all aspects of life. When applied to the workplace, Kaizen activities continually improve all functions of a business, from manufacturing to management and from the CEO to the assembly line workers....
), employ process/quality improvement techniques (business process reengineering
Business process reengineering

Business process reengineering is, in computer science and management, an approach aiming at improvements by means of elevating Business efficiency and effectiveness of the business process that exist within and across organizations....
, Six Sigma
Six Sigma

Six Sigma is a Strategic management, originally developed by Motorola, that today enjoys widespread application in many sectors of industry.Six Sigma seeks to identify and remove the causes of defects and errors in manufacturing and business processes....
) and sometimes quality process standards if required by customers or desired by the company (ISO 9001).

Functions of a COO:
  1. Marshal limited resources as set out by the chief executive officer
    Chief executive officer

    A chief executive officer or chief executive is typically the highest-ranking Corporate title or Administration in charge of total management of a corporation, company, non-profit organization, or government agency, reporting to the board of directors....
     and the board of directors
    Board of directors

    A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed persons who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. The body sometimes has a different name, such as board of trustees, board of governors, board of managers, or executive board....
     to the most productive uses with the aim of creating maximum value for the company's stakeholders.
  2. Lead by developing and cascading the organizations strategy/mission statement to the lower ranking staff, and implementing appropriate rewards/recognition and coaching/corrective practices to align personnel with company goals.
  3. Plan by prioritizing customer, employee and organizational requirements
  4. Maintaining and monitoring staffing, levels, Knowledge-Skill-Attitude (KSA), expectations and motivation to fulfill organizational requirements
  5. Drive performance measures for the measurement of an operation's performance and consideration of efficiency versus effectiveness, often in the form of dashboards convenient for review of high level key indicators.