CEO vs COO: Who Does What in a Company

Running the COO alliance, running the Second Command podcast, I'm often asked, what are the core differences between a CEO and a coo? Well, here's a couple ways to think about it. The CEO is like the gas the COO needs to be the brakes. The CEO is about vision and the COO is about execution. I think it was Thomas Edison that once said that vision without execution is hallucination. And that's why the core relationship of the CEO and COO are so really powerful to have inside that organization. Now, if you're looking to bring on a COO in the company for the first time, before you do that, just ask yourself one question. Do you have an executive assistant? Because if you don't have an executive assistant, you are one. And the first thing you need to do is go out and hire an executive assistant to get all the administrative off your plate, all of the more junior tasks, all of the minimum wage jobs, get all those tasks off your plate first. That usually frees up six months to a year for you to properly think about and look for the exact true second in command to bring into your organization. So the CEO, as the company scales, needs to be in charge of vision, culture, strategy, and often even in terms of kind of the recruiting of the key people to bring into the organization. The CEO needs to figure out how to make all that come true. How do we build that company culture? How do we make the vivid vision come true? How do we bring those key people into the organization that allow align them and actually get them getting the right things done? And then how do we grow the people in the organization? That's why I think of it like a two in a box or a really yin and yang relationship. The CEO and COO are the most powerful roles inside of any company. Now if you're the COO or CEO of your company, take a look at watchcameron.com you'll get some great free resources over there and also check out the next video we've got as well.