Apr 28, 20236 min read

Driving Business Growth: The Crucial Questions Every CEO Should Be Asking Their COO

In today's highly competitive business environment, executive coaches play a critical role in helping their clients optimize their operations and achieve long-term success. As such, it is essential for executive coaches to guide their clients in asking the right questions to their COO to identify potential inefficiencies and bottlenecks in their operations. This article explores the most important questions that executive coaches can encourage their clients to ask their COO to maximize operational efficiency and achieve their business objectives. By asking these questions, executive coaches can help their clients make data-driven decisions, identify potential issues or roadblocks, and take corrective actions as needed, ultimately leading to long-term success and sustainable growth.

What is the current state of the company's operations and how do they align with our overall business strategy?

Asking a COO about the current state of a company's operations and their alignment with the overall business strategy can provide valuable insights into an organization. The COO oversees day-to-day operations and can share KPIs such as revenue, profit margins, employee productivity, and customer satisfaction. They can also provide insights on challenges and opportunities in the market or industry. This information can help executives make more informed decisions, identify areas for improvement, and ensure that the company's operations are aligned with its strategic goals.

What are the main challenges and opportunities facing the company's operations, and how are we addressing them?

Asking a COO about the current state of a company's operations and any challenges or opportunities they face is important to understand the overall health of an organization, identify areas for improvement, and stay ahead of competition. Challenges and opportunities could include market competition, changes in consumer behavior, operational inefficiencies, and supply chain disruptions. Addressing these challenges can involve strategies such as investing in new technology, optimizing processes, expanding into new markets, implementing cost-cutting measures, or increasing collaboration. By gaining insights into a company's operations and taking proactive steps to address challenges and capitalize on opportunities, business leaders can drive growth, improve efficiency, and ensure the long-term success of their organizations.

What are the key performance indicators we should be tracking to measure the success of our operations, and how are we doing against those metrics?

Asking a COO about key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of operations is important to track progress towards strategic objectives, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions to improve operational efficiency, profitability, and customer satisfaction. Examples of KPIs could include revenue growth, profit margins, employee productivity, quality control metrics, inventory turnover, and production cycle times. Regular reporting and data analysis by the COO can help identify trends and patterns, and take corrective actions as needed to ensure long-term success and sustainable growth.

Are our operational processes and systems efficient and effective, and if not, what steps are we taking to improve them?

Asking a COO whether operational processes and systems are efficient and effective, and what steps are being taken to improve them is important to identify bottlenecks or inefficiencies, improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, increase profitability, stay competitive, and drive innovation. Inefficient processes or systems can lead to decreased quality or delivery delays, negatively impacting customer satisfaction. COO insights can include implementing new technology, optimizing processes, or increasing collaboration between departments to streamline communication and decision-making. Overall, this information is crucial for identifying areas for improvement, staying competitive, and achieving long-term success and sustainable growth.

How are we managing our inventory and supply chain to ensure we can meet customer demand while minimizing costs?

How are we leveraging technology and innovation to drive operational excellence and gain a competitive advantage?

Asking a COO how a company is leveraging technology and innovation to drive operational excellence and gain a competitive advantage is important to ensure that an organization is keeping up with technological advancements, identifying areas for innovation and growth, and staying ahead of the competition. Insights from a COO can include investments in automation, artificial intelligence, data analytics, and other innovative technologies. This information can help you overcome any barriers to adopting new technology and ensure that your organization is taking full advantage of technological advancements to drive efficiency, quality, and profitability, ultimately leading to long-term success and sustainable growth.

How are we managing and developing our talent to ensure we have the right people in the right roles to support our operations?

Asking a COO how a company is managing and developing talent is important for identifying skills gaps, fostering a culture of learning and development, attracting and retaining top talent, and achieving long-term success and sustainable growth. Insights from a COO can include strategies for assessing skills and competencies, providing training and development opportunities, and attracting and retaining top talent. This information can help overcome any barriers to managing and developing talent, such as resource availability or competition for skilled workers, ensuring that the right people are in the right roles to support operations and achieve strategic objectives.

Are we effectively managing our risks and complying with all relevant regulations and standards?

Asking a COO about whether a company is effectively managing risks and complying with all relevant regulations and standards is important for identifying potential risks, ensuring ethical and responsible operations, staying ahead of the competition, and achieving long-term success and sustainable growth. COO insights can include strategies for identifying and mitigating potential risks, implementing appropriate internal controls and processes, and ensuring compliance with relevant regulations and standards. By understanding potential challenges or barriers, strategies can be developed to overcome them and ensure that an organization is operating ethically and responsibly while managing risks effectively, ultimately leading to improved reputation, reduced financial losses, and better stakeholder engagement.

How are we collaborating and coordinating with other departments and teams to support the smooth and efficient running of our operations?

Asking a COO how a company is collaborating and coordinating with other departments and teams is important to identify communication or coordination issues, build a culture of teamwork and collaboration, stay ahead of the competition, and achieve long-term success and sustainable growth. COO insights can include strategies for improving communication and decision-making, identifying areas for collaboration, and addressing any cultural or organizational barriers. Understanding potential challenges or barriers can help develop strategies to overcome them and ensure that an organization is operating in a collaborative and efficient manner, ultimately leading to improved productivity, customer service, and decision-making.

What initiatives and projects are we currently working on to improve and grow our operations, and how are we tracking against our goals for these efforts?

Asking a COO about the initiatives and projects a company is working on to improve and grow operations is important to understand the strategic direction of your organization, track progress towards objectives, and make data-driven decisions to achieve long-term success and sustainable growth. Insights from your COO can include updates on specific KPIs, milestones achieved, and any challenges or issues encountered. By gaining a clear understanding of the priorities for improving operational efficiency and achieving growth, making necessary adjustments to stay on track, identifying potential issues or roadblocks, and taking corrective actions as needed. Ultimately, this information is crucial for staying competitive, ensuring long-term success, and achieving sustainable growth.

The main takeaway

Asking the right questions to a COO is an essential step towards ensuring that a company's operations are optimized for success. From identifying potential risks and compliance issues to fostering cross-functional collaboration, there are several important areas that business leaders should be discussing with their COO to maximize operational efficiency and achieve long-term growth.

By gaining a deep understanding of a company's strategic direction, tracking progress towards goals, and taking necessary corrective actions, leaders can stay competitive in your industry, build a high-performing team, and achieve sustainable growth. Remember, the success of a business is directly linked to the quality of operations, and asking the right questions is key to unlocking the secrets to successful operations.

In this article, we delve into the “10 Questions CEOs can ask their Chief Operating Officer to ensure the company is well managed” chapter found in Next 10: Coach Wisdom for Entrepreneurs, Business Owners, and CEOs Wondering What Moves to Make Next, a book written by the Host and Curator of Arete Coach Podcast, Severin Sorensen, with contributions from Amelia Chatterley.