From timekeeper to time traveller - the COO’s transformation

Over the past five years, there’s been a seismic shift in the role of the COO.

Traditionally focused on the operationalisation and optimisation of the business, keeping teams aligned, and maximising efficiency with both eyes on the here and now. 

While that’s still present, today’s role also demands the ability to read the future signals, help the CEO steer the business in new directions and drive successful transformations.

Now that’s not an easy ask for you. The impact is being felt.

FTSE 100 COO tenure has fallen dramatically from 4.2 years in 2023 to 2.7 years in the twelve months to Q1 2025, a 36% decline, according to Russell Reynolds Associates. 

By comparison, the typical CEO tenure is 6-8 years, while CFOs stay in the role for 5-7 years. So, the COO role looks to be the most perilous of the C-suite. 

What’s the catalyst behind this? 

The C21st landscape of the COO

The turmoil and chaos - the ever constant pace of change -  in the outside world are feeding directly through to the business and, namely, the COO.

Changing geopolitics, tariffs, conflict, and the increasing occurrence of black swan events are all piling pressure on businesses to be more agile, pivot and initiate and accelerate transformations. And that’s all before attention is turned towards developing AI governance, defining how this tech will enable the business’s strategy and identifying the right programme to upskill the workforce. 

The role of the COO has shifted from captain of the ship to cartographer of new oceans.

New skills for a new era

The pace of change, the lasting impacts of the pandemic and the new dynamics of business mean that even the COO’s ‘core’ responsibilities have become more complex:

Future foresight 

Today’s business is about becoming the company of tomorrow. The COO needs to keep ahead of the signals. They need to understand the direction of travel for the market, its customers and the regulators.

Nimble and transparent supply ecosystem development

Agility is critical to a business’s ability to remain customer-focused and the pace at which it can address the customers’ changing needs. The business can only do this as fast as its slowest supplier. And while, for some, sustainability has been a little less in vogue over the past 12months, visibility across the chain is key to measure full environmental impact. 

AI readiness and adoption

With many CEO’s chomping at the bit to implement AI, the groundwork needs to be done around governance, risk mitigation, data hygiene, workforce upskilling and the exploration of hybrid and augmented workflows. 

Dynamic organisational design

A new, more flexible architecture that determines workforce locations, asset and capabilities ownership (outsourced vs insourced) and real-time data to enable greater flexibility, efficiency and resilience.

As Gregory Gerin from Russell Reynolds Associates states: 

“The COO role is no longer just about operational efficiency; it's about navigating constant transformation. This requires creativity and agility that previous operational leaders have often lacked.

Sustainability, AI, supply chain disruptions, raw material shortages, geopolitical pressures – it becomes so complex that no COO can hope to master it all.”

A more collaborative mindset

So if COOs can’t hope to ‘master it all’. What are their options?

First up, they need to be the conductor of change. Taking others in the c-suite of the journey with them is key. Engagement and support from the CIO, CPO, and CFO will be a minimum to create the step change in business that is often required. To build the right tech architecture to support the vision, to assess and address the capacity and capability shortfalls and to model the commercial scenarios that the transformation will deliver.

Going beyond this, there’s been a rapid increase in businesses appointing Programme and Transformation Directors (and even full-time Chief Transformation Officers) to support the COO in realising these programmes. All boosted by a 2.5x investment increase in transformation over the past two years (Deloitte’s 2025 Chief Transformation Officer study).

And finally, there’s sometimes the benefit of partnering with a ‘business accelerator’ to help shape the business’s future, as they can bring:

• Outside-in thinking, a catalyst ingredient for innovation

• An objective view, helping to accelerate stakeholder alignment

• Shortcuts and transferable learnings, via a track record in transformations  

• A single-minded focus on the future

This is the approach that Anthony Ainsworth, COO at npower Business Solutions, took when working with us to accelerate their pace of change. We initiated the ‘2030 Future of Energy’ vision, strategy and transformation mapping - engaging and involving the leadership team at key stages within the process. This left everyone unencumbered to focus on delivering their 2024-27 strategy whilst driving the future direction of travel.

From COO to CEO

While this shift in role can feel overwhelming, it increasingly builds a more rounded skillset, filling in traditional gaps and paving the way to transition to the CEO role. 

Own your business’s regeneration: Digital, ESG, or resilience efforts that drive a new direction and demonstrate impact and visibility.

Build your transformation team: Include leaders from tech, HR, risk, finance. Sponsor and empower.

Upskill your M&A and investor relations: Get involved in pre-deal diligence, pitch transformation value to investors.

Shape cross-functional metrics: Turn KPIs into leading indicators, embedding transformation into scorecards.

Curate your story: Narrate the transformation journey, internally and externally. Visibility matters.

Summary

The COO’s role is no longer just about incremental growth delivered via fine-tuning the machine. Its focus has shifted, in part, towards driving a more fundamental change. One that will unlock new revenue streams, enhance efficiencies, embrace emerging technologies and secure the business’s future for the next five years. 

In short, the focus is on reimagining operations to accelerate the business.

Take a peek at our experience across multiple sectors: utilities, aviation, automotive, property, finance, and telco, here.