Short answer: a COO (Chief Operating Officer) turns the CEO’s strategy into the way the business runs, week after week. In a mid-market business that usually means owning the operating rhythm, the core processes, the systems and suppliers, and the handoffs between teams, so that growth doesn’t depend on a few people holding it together. The exact job varies more than any other C-suite role, because it’s shaped around what the CEO doesn’t do.
I’ve run global go-to-market operations for a consumer brand selling into more than 70 markets, and I now work as a fractional COO for Australian mid-market companies. Here’s what the job looks like from the inside, and how to write one up if you’re hiring.
What is a COO?
The Australian Bureau of Statistics lists Chief Operating Officer as the alternative title for a corporate general manager, who “plans, organises, directs, controls and reviews the day-to-day operations” of an organisation through its managers (ABS, ANZSCO 111211). That’s accurate, but it doesn’t tell a CEO much.
The more useful finding comes from the research. In their study of COOs for the Harvard Business Review, Nathan Bennett and Stephen Miles concluded that the role varies so much there’s no standard profile of a great COO, and that the trust between the CEO and the COO matters more than anything else (Harvard Business Review, 2006). The job is defined by its CEO. A CEO who loves customers and investors needs a COO who loves process. A CEO who is deep in the product needs a COO who runs everything else.
It’s also a role many businesses don’t have. Over the past decade, only about 35% of Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies have had a COO, and of the COOs who left in the first seven months of 2024, 73% weren’t replaced (Crist|Kolder Associates, 2024). Large companies hire a COO for a reason, such as a growth phase, a turnaround or a CEO successor, and often drop the role once the reason has passed. That’s worth remembering before you create a permanent seat.
What does a COO do in a mid-market business?
In a business of 50 to 500 people, the COO’s job usually comes down to six things.
| What the COO owns | What it means in practice | How you know it’s working |
|---|---|---|
| The operating rhythm | The weekly, monthly and quarterly meetings, priorities and measures the leadership team runs the business by | Decisions get made in the meeting, not in the corridor afterwards |
| Core processes | How work flows from sale to delivery, idea to launch, order to cash | A process works the same way when its owner is on leave |
| Handoffs between teams | The gaps between sales and delivery, product and marketing, head office and the regions, your people and your agencies | Fewer things fall between teams, and nobody has to chase |
| Systems and suppliers | Which platforms the business runs on, which vendors it keeps and how they connect | One version of the truth, and fewer tools doing the same job |
| Big operational programs | The CRM or ERP rollout, the restructure, the new site or market | Programs have a senior owner who can make trade-offs, and stop them if needed |
| The numbers that show it | A small set of operating measures, such as cycle times, on-time delivery and cost to serve | The CEO can see how the business is running without asking |
Notice what’s missing: strategy, investors, the board agenda and the big external relationships. Those belong to the CEO. The COO’s job is to make sure the strategy actually gets delivered.
What does a COO’s week look like?
The work is less glamorous than the title. Most of it is finding where work gets stuck and fixing the system that makes it stick.
When I was Head of Global GTM Operations at a global consumer brand, launching a new product meant coordinating eight internal teams, four regions and fourteen external agencies. The knowledge of how to run a launch lived with the people who had done it before. I mapped the sequence, then turned it into a single automated workflow, so one intake form now triggers 450 tasks and every launch starts the same way. That’s typical COO work: not heroics, but making heroics unnecessary.
The same role covers the harder calls. As business owner of a US$1M+ digital program, I recommended it be stopped and proposed an alternative the business adopted, which avoided more than US$1M in capex and about US$600K a year in operating costs. The story is in the project worth stopping. A COO is often the person best placed to say a program won’t deliver, because they own the operations it was meant to improve.
And it increasingly includes AI. Moving the same brand’s translation and localisation to an AI-first platform across 14 languages saves around US$1M a year. In many businesses the COO is now the natural owner of automation, because they know which processes are worth automating and which should be fixed first.
COO vs CEO: who does what?
| CEO | COO | |
|---|---|---|
| Main question | Where are we going, and why? | How do we get there, and is it working? |
| Answers to | The board, investors and owners | The CEO |
| Time horizon | Years | Weeks and quarters |
| Faces | Outward: customers, investors, partners, the market | Inward: teams, processes, systems, suppliers |
| Owns | Strategy, capital, culture, the top team | Delivery, the operating rhythm, cross-team execution |
| Success looks like | The business is pointed at the right goal | The business reaches it without heroics |
The split is never as clean as the table. In a founder-led business, the CEO often holds on to operations long after it stops being a good use of their time. One of the most common reasons to bring in a COO is to free the CEO from being the bottleneck for every decision of any size.
COO vs operations manager vs general manager
These titles get mixed up, especially in job ads.
| Role | Level | What they do |
|---|---|---|
| Operations manager | Middle management | Runs the day-to-day work inside the processes the business already has |
| General manager | Senior, often of one business unit or site | Runs a whole unit end to end, usually including its profit and loss |
| COO | Executive team, reports to the CEO | Decides how the whole business should run, and redesigns processes, systems and the rhythm across all its units |
If your problem is that the work isn’t getting done, you may need a better operations manager. If your problem is that the way the business runs can’t keep up with its growth, you need COO-level thinking. I’ve written about the seven signs it’s time for a COO.
What should a COO job description include?
Most COO job descriptions online are long lists of duties that could describe any senior role. If you’re writing one, keep it to five parts and make each one specific to your business.
- Why the role exists now. The growth phase, the turnaround, the program or the CEO’s workload that makes it necessary. This is the single most useful line for a candidate.
- What the COO owns, and what the CEO keeps. Name the functions that report to the COO and the decisions they can make without the CEO. Vague authority is the main reason COO hires fail.
- Three to five outcomes for the first year. For example: a weekly operating rhythm the leadership team keeps, launch cycle time cut by a set amount, one platform replacing three.
- The measures. The few numbers you’ll use to judge whether it’s working, agreed before the start date.
- What’s out of scope. If finance, sales or product stay outside the role, say so.
The same structure works for a part-time role. My one-page brief for a fractional executive has a free Word template you can adapt for a COO.
Does your business need a full-time COO?
A full-time COO in Australia earns an average base salary of about A$163,000, with a range of roughly A$101,000 to A$258,000 and bonuses of A$8,000 to A$60,000 on top (Payscale, updated July 2026). Larger companies pay well above that range, and super, payroll tax and leave add to the true cost.
Many mid-market businesses need a COO’s work for six to twelve months, to set up the rhythm, processes and systems, rather than a permanent executive. That’s what a fractional COO is for: the same role, one or two days a week. Australian market rates are typically A$8,000–A$16,000 a month. My fractional COO seats start from A$12,000 + GST a month for about one day a week, and a two-week operations diagnostic from A$15,000 + GST. The full comparison is in what a fractional COO costs in Australia, and you can run your own numbers in the fractional vs full-time cost calculator.
A full-time COO is the better choice when you need someone on the floor every day, such as across several sites or a large frontline team, or when you’re grooming a successor to the CEO. If you need full-time cover for a set period, an interim executive fits better.
The bottom line
A COO turns strategy into the way a business runs. In a mid-market company that means the operating rhythm, the core processes, the systems and the handoffs between teams, shaped around whatever the CEO doesn’t do. Before you hire one, be clear about why the role exists now, what the COO will own and how you’ll know it’s working.
If you’re weighing up whether you need that work full-time or for a few months, read how I work as a fractional COO, or book a 30-minute call and we’ll work out which fits your business.
Common questions
Is the COO second in command?
Usually, yes. The COO normally reports to the CEO and runs the business day to day, so in practice they're the second most senior executive. But the title doesn't guarantee it. In some companies the CFO or a divisional head carries more weight, and what matters is the authority the CEO actually hands over.
What does a COO do in a small or mid-sized business?
In a business of 50 to 500 people, the COO usually owns the operating rhythm, the core processes, the systems and suppliers, and the handoffs between teams. They often lead the biggest operational program as well. The aim is to make the business run without the CEO or a few long-serving people holding it together.
What's the difference between a COO and a CEO?
The CEO decides where the business is going and answers to the board, investors and the market. The COO makes sure the business gets there, by turning strategy into priorities, processes and measures and holding the leadership team to them week after week.
How much does a COO earn in Australia?
Payscale puts the average base salary for a COO in Australia at about A$163,000, with a range of roughly A$101,000 to A$258,000, plus bonuses of A$8,000 to A$60,000. Larger companies pay well above that. A fractional COO typically costs A$8,000 to A$16,000 a month for one to two days a week.
Does every company need a COO?
No. Only about 35% of the largest US companies have one, according to Crist|Kolder Associates. Many mid-market businesses need a COO's work for a period, to set up the rhythm, processes and systems, rather than a permanent full-time COO.
What skills does a COO need?
The ability to see how work really flows across teams, to design simple processes and measures, to make trade-offs between competing priorities, and to hold peers to account without formal authority over all of them. A good COO also knows when to stop a program that isn't working.
