When is an interim COO the wrong answer?

When the cause of the drift is unknown, an Assessment should find it first. When the change crosses functions with no single owner, the CTrO seat fits. When the gap is the numbers, the CFO seat holds financial steering; when it is first about people, the CHRO seat leads the change.

What does the COO hand over at the end?

The hand-over happens inside the operating cadence itself: the permanent COO chairs the forums alongside the interim, then alone, while each flow owner keeps reporting the same numbers. The interim leaves once a full cycle of decisions has run without them and the supplier escalations go to the new owner.

Does the COO seat cover health and social care?

Yes. The seat covers transition operations in health and social care: home care services, care facilities and the management mandates that hold them through a change. It follows the same steps there, and its operating model is built around the care teams and the people they serve.

How does the COO find where execution drifts from the plan?

By following the work rather than the reports. The interim walks each main flow with the people who run it, from request to delivery, and notes where work waits, loops or is redone. The drift usually sits between two teams or with a supplier, where nobody owns the handover.

Interim & Fractional COO

Interim and fractional COO in short

An interim or fractional COO holds how the company runs: the operating model, the cadence of decisions, the allocation of people and budget, supplier execution and the operating numbers. The interim restores the link between the plan and daily execution, then hands a working operating system to a permanent COO.

Make the plan and the way the company runs agree again.

The strategy is set, yet execution drifts from it and nobody can say where the gap opens. An interim COO takes charge of how the company runs while the permanent leader is found or the next stage is prepared.

The role holds the operating model, the cadence of decisions, the allocation of people and budget, and the execution of suppliers. It turns the operating numbers into a reading leadership can act on, including transition operations in health and social care.

When to bring in an interim COO

Execution no longer follows the plan, every team reports progress, and nobody can say where the gap between the two opens.
The operations leader has left, and the decisions on allocation, suppliers and service levels are waiting for an owner.
The company is taking a growth step (a new site, service or market), and the way it runs was built for a smaller organisation.
An integration brings two ways of running the same work, two supplier bases and two sets of operating numbers that do not reconcile.
A health or social care organisation needs its operations held through a transition: a facility taken over, a service extended or a management mandate.

When it is the wrong answer

Nobody yet knows why execution drifts: the plan, the organisation, the suppliers or the systems. Begin with an Assessment to locate the cause before anyone takes the seat.
The change crosses several functions and none of them owns it, operations included. The CTrO seat carries a transformation of that kind.
The gap is the numbers rather than the operations: a forecast and a reporting leadership cannot rely on. The CFO seat holds financial steering.
The change is first about people: a restructuring, a redeployment or an HR set-up the organisation has outgrown. The CHRO seat leads it.

What the COO holds

The operating model: who does what, which teams own which flows, and where a decision is taken rather than escalated.
The operating cadence: the forums that steer the work, what each one decides, and the numbers it reads before deciding.
Allocation: where people and budget go when two priorities claim the same resources.
Supplier execution: service levels, escalation paths and the call on whether a failing supplier is fixed or replaced.
The operating numbers brought to leadership, defined once, so the same figure means the same thing in every room.

The first 90 days

Days 1 to 30

Confirm what was agreed before the seat was taken: the operating decisions it holds, the indicators that will show success, the executive it reports to and the terms of the handover.
Walk the main flows end to end with the people who run them, and note where work waits, loops or is done twice.

Days 31 to 60

Set the operating cadence: which forum decides what, with which numbers, and who attends.
Settle the open allocation conflicts and review the suppliers whose service levels are not met.

Days 61 to 90

Run the cadence with the managers who will keep it, and correct the forums that do not decide.
Hand each flow to a named owner with the indicators that show whether it holds.

What you keep

An operating model on one page, with the owner of each flow named.
A decision cadence whose forums each have a purpose, a set of numbers and an owner.
Allocation rules leadership applies when priorities compete for the same people.
Supplier service levels with escalation paths that work without the interim.
A set of operating numbers defined once and read the same way across the company.

We leave when the function can run without us: an identified permanent owner, a roadmap they hold, and a team that no longer routes through the interim.

Full seat or fractional, how a mandate runs and how it is billed: see Interim Management.

Experience behind the seat

Experience of the operators who carry this seat.

Operations management of home care services in health and social care, including the preparation of a merger.
Transition management assignments in health and social care facilities.
Direction of a specialised care facility in health and social care.
Customer operations leadership at a software publisher, as a member of the executive committee, covering projects, quality and support.
Transition IT leadership for a retail network: IT governance, strategic suppliers and the industrialisation of new openings.

Discuss operations leadership

Questions

What does an interim COO do?: An interim COO takes charge of how the company runs while the seat has no permanent owner: the operating model, the decision cadence, allocation, supplier execution and the operating numbers. The interim decides inside the client's reporting line, closes the gap between plan and execution, and leaves routines the managers already run.
When is an interim COO the wrong answer?: When the cause of the drift is unknown, an Assessment should find it first. When the change crosses functions with no single owner, the CTrO seat fits. When the gap is the numbers, the CFO seat holds financial steering; when it is first about people, the CHRO seat leads the change.
What does the COO hand over at the end?: The hand-over happens inside the operating cadence itself: the permanent COO chairs the forums alongside the interim, then alone, while each flow owner keeps reporting the same numbers. The interim leaves once a full cycle of decisions has run without them and the supplier escalations go to the new owner.
Does the COO seat cover health and social care?: Yes. The seat covers transition operations in health and social care: home care services, care facilities and the management mandates that hold them through a change. It follows the same steps there, and its operating model is built around the care teams and the people they serve.
How does the COO find where execution drifts from the plan?: By following the work rather than the reports. The interim walks each main flow with the people who run it, from request to delivery, and notes where work waits, loops or is redone. The drift usually sits between two teams or with a supplier, where nobody owns the handover.

Interim and fractional COO.