The COO Comeback – and the Role’s New Look

Last September, Microsoft hired its first chief operating officer in eight years. Former SVP and Chief Financial Officer at General Electric, Carolina Dybeck Happe, has officially taken up the mantle. This is Microsoft’s first COO since Kevin Turner left the role – and the company – in 2016.

Amidst similar departures a decade ago, Forbes heralded the decline of the COO… but is the role making a comeback? And what does it look like now?

Not Your Grandma’s COO

Unquestionably, COO appointments are on the rise. Our recent analysis of 570 COO appointments across 425 companies reveals a 671% increase in COO positions between 2006 and 2025, reflecting the role’s growing strategic importance in an era of operational complexity.

But what does this mean for the parameters of the role itself? Though Microsoft has had COOs before, CEO Satya Nadella described the current position as “newly created.” Dybeck Happe has taken responsibility for key business units: the Commerce  Ecosystems organization in Cloud + AI, the Microsoft Digital organization in Experiences + Devices, and the Microsoft Business Operations organization in Finance. Reading between the lines, “operations” now encompasses a lot: spearheading the digital roadmap and threading the needle between operational efficiency and enhanced software and hardware customer experiences.

Just a decade ago, the role’s mandate largely revolved around traditional operational efficiency, but the years between 2017 and 2021 brought crisis management to the forefront of COO priorities. Most recently, the modern COO’s agenda is divided between supply chain resilience and the agentic and AI revolution. Dybeck Happe herself called out the transformative power of AI and the opportunity to bring her “lifelong passion for technology” to the role.

And these responsibility shifts are making their mark on the career path to become a COO. Experience in operations is a must, with the average COO spending almost seven years overseeing product and service supply. Yet a tour of the sales organization – in other words, getting closer to and understanding the customer – also stands out. Exposure to the critical thinking exercises of ROI calculations or cash flow reporting in finance offers a leg-up for would-be operations executives, too. And although fewer COOs spend time in IT, they tend to stick around for a while – almost eight years, on average.

The Homegrown COO

Even where COOs come from has reached a key tipping point: internal promotions now account for the majority of all COO hires, overtaking external recruitment for what feels like the first time in corporate history. Between 2006 and 2010, only 34% of COOs were promoted from within. Between 2021 and 2025, that number has jumped to 54% – evidence of a seismic shift in executive succession strategy.

The simple rationale is that internal promotions are predictable and cost effective. Homegrown leaders arrive with an already-deep understanding of the company’s culture, processes, and strategic nuances, and often come with a cheaper price tag. But in an environment of growing protectionism where countries are increasingly turning inwards, IP and cultural protectionism might also be a driving force for companies.

The COO as Master of Complexity

On the daily, COOs navigate multi-dimensional challenges that span functions, geographies, and stakeholder ecosystems – but there isn’t a simple Coursera class for that skill set. The most successful operations leaders deliberately cultivate this expertise through strategically diverse experiences. But how, and more importantly, where?

The consumer goods and retail, technology, industrial, and financial services industries are clear COO talent factories, with Deutsche Bank and Stadler Rail as long-time feeders. Amazon, Microsoft, Honeywell, and thyssenkrupp are also unsurprising operational powerhouses and consistently build COOs of the future. 

Why are these companies floating to the surface? The environments that most of these companies operate in are dynamic, requiring constant adaptation to market shifts, technological advancements, and evolving customer demands. Leaders in these spaces learn to be highly adaptable and skilled at managing organizational change, which are critical traits for a COO.

DNA of the COO: What Makes a Modern Operations Chief?

So, what does it take to become a COO in today’s environment? We’re seeing a few key patterns:

1. Cross-functional experience: Modern COOs typically rotate through multiple operational functions before ascending to the role, but experience in operations itself is a must.

2. Digital transformation skill: The newest generation of COOs bring stronger technology integration capabilities than their predecessors.

3. Industry expertise matters: While COOs occasionally cross industries, our analysis found that 81 documented COO-to-COO transfers show most executives stay within their sector of expertise.

4. Complexity advantage: Experience in consumer goods and retail, technology, industrial, and financial services industries provides a powerful foundation for COO roles across sectors.

With the role’s growing strategic importance and the clear shift toward internal promotion, the message for ambitious leaders is clear: The path to the COO office increasingly demands anticipating operational challenges. Those who can solve them may find themselves next in line for one of business’s most demanding leadership positions.

And the ultimate reward? As P&G’s recent succession of COO Shailesh Jejurikar demonstrates: a path to CEO.