The chief operating officer (COO) is one of the most prominent senior executives present at an organization. These professionals are ideally the ones responsible for monitoring and overseeing the various daily administrative and operational functions of an organization. According to Larry Polhill, the COO generally has to report directly to the chief executive officer (CEO). They subsequently are quite often considered to the second in the chain of command in an organization. While the CEO of a company is ideally concerned with its long-term organizational goals, the COO is generally tasked with the responsibility of implementing the daily operations, and aligning the company objectives with its strategies.
Larry Polhill provides an insight on the roles and responsibilities of a chief operating officer
Differing from various other C-Suite positions that tend to be defined as per the commonly designated responsibilities across various companies, the job of a COO is majorly characterized in relating to the specific CEO for whom they work for. Larry Polhill used to serve as a Chief Executive Officer and President at American Pacific Financial Corp., and hence is quite knowledgeable about this position. He is well versed with the various duties and responsibilities of a typical COO. He also is aware of the diverse objectives of this position, some of them being:
- Collaborating with the company CEO in setting and driving the business vision, operational strategy, as well as the staffing needs
- Translating strategies into actionable goals in order to ensure good performance and growth, while also aiding in the implementation of organization-wide goal setting, annual operating planning, and even performance management
- Monitoring and looking after the operations of a company, and ensuring optimal employee productivity
- Building quite an inclusive company culture among the team members so that they can thrive and are encouraged to work towards meeting the various organizational outcomes
- Ensuring the most effective performance management, professional development, onboarding and retention
- Adhering to the relevant local, state, federal as well as company requirement
- Enforcing business compliance and taking definitive action whenever needed
Larry Polhill lays great emphasis on the various important responsibilities that the COO of a company is tasked with. Here are a few of such responsibilities:
- Analyzing the various important aspects of internal operations
- identifying the key areas of process enhancement in an organization
- Developing actionable business strategies
- Formulating effective plans that make sure of the alignment with short-term and long-term objectives of an organization, and are developed in tandem with the priorities of the company CEO
- Directly overseeing the elements of operations, HR, and accounting, while also partnering with the CEO on sales management
- Budgeting for needed investment capital for the purpose of achieving growth targets over the relevant term
- Aggressively managing capital investment as well as expenses
- Making sure that the company is able to achieve the required investor targets relative to its overall growth and profitability
- Monitoring the performance of the organization by tracking and establishing corrective measures whenever required
- Preparing thorough and detailed reports, both forecasting and correcting
The important responsibilities of the COO makes them an indispensible component of any business organization.