In a world where succession planning is increasingly important, it’s good to be the COO — right? The chief operating officer has traditionally been the number two person in the C-suite — the senior executive charged with overseeing all of the company’s business operations. As such, the COO has long been viewed as the heir apparent, the leading insider candidate to succeed the chief executive officer. Yet, according to the senior executive search firm Crist Kolder Associates, the percentage of Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies with a COO has declined steadily from 48 percent in 2000 to 36 percent in 2014.
