The chief operating officer is making a comeback. 9 COOs share how they’re approaching the job

Good morning.

The COO is the shapeshifter of the C-Suite: the doer, advisor, strategist, operator, heir apparent, guardian of the coin, keeper of the hearth, No. 2, and person charged with getting the day-to-day stuff done. In fast-changing times, that may be why the COO role is making a comeback, often combined with other C-suite titles.

We recently brought together COOs to discuss their priorities in advance of our inaugural Fortune COO Summit this October in Middleburg, Va. Here’s a sample of what some had to say:

To revolve around hundreds of product and customer teams that are largely independent, entrepreneurial units, we're reducing hierarchical levels. In the U.S., for example, we reduced the number of managers in our pharmaceuticals business by some 40%. - Sebastian Guth, COO, Bayer Pharmaceuticals & president, Bayer U.S.

We’re turning the operation side into a competitive advantage versus a behind-the-scenes role. We’ve centralized our operations under one umbrella, allowing us to better serve our clients, partners and employees. - Souheil Badran, SEVP & COO, US Bank

I find a lot of intersections between operations and people. Yesterday you were doing claims, adjusting. Today, you're a prompt engineer. The operations agenda helps achieve overall business goals. - Adina Eckstein, COO/chief people officer, Lemonade

We're extending supply lines because of diversification but also because of geopolitical and environmental issues. We’ve got to be efficient at managing the risk of supply without incurring the risk of cost. - Paul Connolly, president, global operations, Smith & Nephew

As we think about the potential size and scale of these innovations, it’s clear that a lot of strategic and capital-allocation decisions reside with the COO and with the CFO. - Adrian Mitchell, COO/CFO, Macy’s Inc.

My role is about breaking down silos: connecting the dots and removing barriers for teams. - Raina Moskowitz, chief operating and marketing officer, Etsy

Operations plays the front runner to drive culture. How do we purposefully keep our culture intact while we're automating so many of these connections with our customers? It's forcing us to quickly adapt new tools that weren't originally the ones given to us. - Sebastian Burzacchi, COO/MSO, Alignment Healthcare

My focus probably is more on the tech side right now. We're spending a lot of time trying to innovate as fast as possible. We’ve done lots of great pilots around generative AI … but you have to balance the cost equation. - Kirsty Roth, chief operations & technology officer, Thomson Reuters

As one customer told Ganesh Ayyar, EVP and president of intuitive operations and automation and industry solutions at Cognizant: “AI is going to be an equalizer. Human intelligence is going to be the differentiator.”

Cognizant, by the way, is our founding partner for the COO Summit. If you’d like to join this gathering of top operational leaders, email coosummit@fortune.com for more information. More news below.

More news below.

Diane Brady
diane.brady@fortune.com
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This story was originally featured on Fortune.com