Chief operating officer
A chief operating officer or chief operations officer (COO) is a corporate officer responsible for managing the day-to-day activities of the corporation. The COO is one of the highest ranking members of an organization, monitoring the daily operations of the company and reporting to the chief executive officer and/or board of directors. The COO is usually an executive or senior vice president.
The chief operating officer is responsible for operations management (OM). The focus of the COO is on strategic, tactical, and short-term OM, 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. Managers need to understand the real work behind the company's core operations, and the final accountability in this regard rests with the COO, whose primary concern is operations improvement. The duties of the COO may reside in certain organizations with a Vice President of Operations.
Current and aspiring Chief Operating Officers can achieve professional credentialing through the Certified Business Manager (CBM) program established by the Association of Professionals in Business Management.
The COO ideally needs to have domain knowledge of the business as well as understanding of management theories such as TQM, Kaizen, BPR, etc. Knowledge of standards such as ISO 9001, Six Sigma, etc. is also a must for global organizations.
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