Editing Chief operating officer (section)

===COO as successor===
Routinely in large organizations the COO will be the [[heir apparent]] to the CEO.<ref name=Galbraith2009>{{Citation
| title = Where Have All the COOs Gone?
| url = http://www.cristassociates.com/press/Director_101509.pdf
| date = October 15, 2009
| author = Galbraith, Jay R.
| author-link = Jay R. Galbraith
| journal = Directorship
| access-date = 2011-02-08
}}{{dead link|date=August 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>  Individuals may have worked their way (internally) up the company ladder before being named COO, or may have been recruited from an outside company. Either way, the position is used as a training and testing ground for the next CEO.

A 2003 Crist Associates study revealed that only 17% of companies that promote a COO to a CEO replace the COO within the next year.<ref name=Martin2003>{{Citation
| title = Rise of the New Breed: The age of the imperial CEO is waning. In its place, a crop of new CEOs – humble, team building, highly communicative – are rising
| url = http://www.cristassociates.com/press/CEO_riseofnewbreed_0803.pdf
| date = August–September 2003
| author = Martin, Justin
| journal = Chief Executive
| access-date = 2011-02-08
}}{{dead link|date=August 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

An Accenture study found that approximately one in nine COOs moved into the CEO's shoes within a year of their departure and that half of COOs see themselves as the "heir apparent."<ref name=Miles2010>{{Citation
| title = Mastering the move from COO to CEO
| url = http://www.accenture.com/us-en/outlook/Pages/outlook-journal-2010-coo-to-ceo-old.aspx
| date = June 2010
| last1 = Miles
| first1 = Stephen A.
| last2 = Bennett
| first2 = Nathan
| journal = Outlook
| access-date = 2011-02-08
| archive-date = 2011-09-27
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110927161002/http://www.accenture.com/us-en/outlook/Pages/outlook-journal-2010-coo-to-ceo-old.aspx
| url-status = dead
}}</ref> COOs transitioning into the CEO role often face similar challenges including:
* ''Not being automatically granted the luxury of a diagnostic period''. Given that they know the company, COOs turned CEOs are often expected to hit the ground running when in actuality they too need to enter diagnostic mode to fully understand their new role and to see the company from a new perspective.
* ''Finding time to manage a new key stakeholder: The board''. Many COOs turned CEOs are often surprised how time-intensive managing the board of directors can be and must learn to incorporate this important responsibility into an already packed schedule.
* ''Being in the spotlight''. COOs are used to having the luxury of working "behind the scenes." As CEO, many are surprised to find they have become a "public" figure both inside and outside the organization and must learn how to manage this additional obligation.
* ''Recalibrating their image''. Often COOs struggle not with the strategy portion of the job itself, but overcoming the perception of other stakeholders that they are an "execution" executive versus a "strategy" executive.<ref name=Miles2010 /> As a result, nearly 50% of the S&P 500 companies have opted to appoint a [[Chief strategy officer|Chief Strategy Officer (CSO)]] to be a "mini CEO" and as peer to the COO.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Menz|first1=Markus|last2=Scheef|first2=Christine|date=2014|title=Chief strategy officers: Contingency analysis of their presence in top management teams|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/smj.2104|journal=Strategic Management Journal|language=en|volume=35|issue=3|pages=461–471|doi=10.1002/smj.2104|issn=1097-0266|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

According to researchers Miles and Bennett, just knowing these common pitfalls can help a COO "heir" better prepare for the transition, thereby avoiding them in totality or ensuring that at least they do not evolve into full derailers once they are in the CEO seat.<ref name=Miles2010 />