Navigating the future: COO/CSCO succession planning in a dynamic world

An exploration of the importance for boards to plan for future C-suite changes.

In brief

• COOs and CSCOs have evolved into enterprise transformation leaders, shaping strategy, resilience and long‑term value creation.
• Short COO and CSCO tenures make unplanned transitions a material business risk during periods of disruption and volatility.
• Structured, board‑aligned succession planning strengthens leadership continuity, readiness and organizational resilience.

In today’s era of relentless disruption and opportunity, the chief operating officer (COO) and chief supply chain officer (CSCO) are not just the stewards of efficiency — they are the architects of resilience, innovation and growth. The Supply Chain and Operations functions now sit at the center of enterprise strategy. Too often, companies treat COO/CSCO development as an afterthought and pay a price: COOs and CSCOs have the shortest tenure compared with CEOs and CFOs (3.1 years on average compared to 5.1 for CFOs and 6.9 for CEOs), and nearly half of new COOs/CSCOs struggle within 14–18 months.¹

This report aims to answer three key questions: What critical responsibilities define the modern COO/CSCO? How do you prepare the next generation with the skills they need? And finally, what roles must boards, CEOs and current COOs/CSCOs play to build a culture of effective succession planning?

Executive summary

Operational complexity and disruption are at historic highs. In this environment, the COO and CSCO are no longer back-office operators — they are strategic architects of resilience and growth. Supply Chain and Operations now sit at the center of enterprise strategy. Yet most organizations still treat COO/CSCO succession as an afterthought, creating a dangerous blind spot.

The demands on COOs/CSCOs have never been greater. They are expected to deliver not just efficiency, but also innovation, digital transformation, talent development and cross-functional leadership — often with less time and less clarity than other C-suite roles. As organizations increasingly appoint COOs/CSCOs from outside traditional operational backgrounds, the need for structured, forward-looking succession planning becomes urgent. Companies that fail to invest in developing a new generation of COOs/CSCOs risk losing continuity, institutional knowledge and the ability to respond to rapid change. Indeed, COOs/CSCOs have a lot to drive today, but nearly half of new COOs/CSCOs struggle within 14–18 months — often due to misaligned expectations and inadequate preparation.

Building a strong pipeline of future COOs/CSCOs starts with clarity about the operational leadership the business truly needs. Organizations that rigorously assess both internal and external talent and invest in targeted capability building, combining technical expertise, leadership acumen and transformation skills, are best positioned to thrive. In fact, COOs/CSCOs with a well-structured succession path are effectively becoming transformation leaders, as evidenced by external trends such as some companies elevating supply chain leaders to C-suite status or giving COOs/CSCOs dual mandates. When boards, CEOs and HR leaders work together to nurture and prepare the next generation of COOs/CSCOs, companies gain the agility and depth needed to deliver results from day one and sustain long-term success in a rapidly changing world.

1. Why you need to invest in developing your COOs/CSCOs

As Supply Chain and Operations move to the forefront of enterprise strategy, organizations face rising risks from unprepared leadership transitions, short tenures and misaligned appointments. With COOs and CSCOs increasingly drawn from outside traditional operational domains and tasked with leading transformation, capital allocation and sector-specific innovation, the need to proactively develop and succession-plan for this critical role has never been more urgent.

A. Supply chain and operations drive strategy

Global disruptions like COVID-19 have accelerated the shift from back-office to boardroom. COOs/CSCOs now lead transformation, redesign operating models and influence capital allocation — often doubling as strategy or transformation officers. Technologies like AI, control towers and digital twins are central to their toolkit. Yet with this expanded mandate comes risk: Many COOs/CSCOs face high churn within the first 18 months, often due to misaligned expectations or lack of readiness for strategic leadership. The modern COO/CSCO must blend operational excellence with enterprise foresight to thrive.

Despite financial uncertainty during COVID-19, 64% of executives reported that supply chain digital transformation accelerated, while an additional 26% held on to their supply chain investments.¹

B. COOs/CSCOs have the shortest tenure compared with CEO and CFO roles

Developing COOs/CSCOs can also be a way to lengthen short tenures. Better-prepared COOs/CSCOs are likely to have more staying power than typical since they will be less likely to experience misalignment with the CEO or be perceived as tactical rather than strategic.

A recent EY study covering the timeline from 2001 to April 2025 highlights that COOs/CSCOs have the shortest average tenure at just 3.1 years, compared with 5.1 years for CFOs and 6.9 years for CEOs.²

The average tenure of a COO/CSCO is roughly 62% that of a CFO, and about 45% that of a CEO.²

C. Supply chain faced with “structural and disruptive volatility”

In today’s volatile environment, delayed or unplanned transitions carry outsized risks, making proactive, scenario-based succession planning a business imperative, not a luxury. The stakes are high. Volatility is endemic — driven by geopolitical shifts, supply disruptions and rapid tech adoption. Any ad hoc approach leaves companies exposed when leadership gaps stall transformations, disrupt operations, and unsettle investors and talent, eroding resilience and competitive advantage.

Supply chain disruptions are no longer rare; four out of five companies experienced at least one disruption in the past year.³

Supply chain disruptions typically drive 3%–5% higher operating costs and around 7% average revenue loss. Companies cannot afford a leadership void when disruptions strike.⁴

D. Rising need for cross-functional leadership drives external COO/CSCO appointments

An increasing number of COOs/CSCOs are appointed from finance, strategy or administrative roles rather than Supply Chain and Operations (SC&O). While this brings fresh perspectives, it also raises the stakes for internal capability building. Without a strong pipeline of operational leaders, organizations risk losing institutional knowledge and continuity.

More than half (55%) of current COO/CSCOs were hired from roles outside SC&O, according to an EY COO/CSCO analysis based on Fortune 250 companies (as per 2025 rankings), excluding financial services companies, between 2001 and 2025.

E. Sector-specific skills are essential for effective leadership

COO/CSCO roles vary widely by industry. Industrials and automotive focus on capital-intensive operations and complex supply chains. Consumer products and retail prioritize agility, SKU proliferation and last-mile logistics. Healthcare demands regulatory precision, while tech and telecom require rapid innovation and ecosystem orchestration. A generic COO/CSCO model misses these nuances. Digital maturity and AI adoption also differ. Retail leads in AI-driven demand planning; industrials use IoT and digital twins; healthcare has adopted AI cautiously. Succession planning must align with each sector’s digital trajectory.

Leadership development is increasingly being shaped by sector-specific demands, with organizations aligning training to address digital disruption, AI adoption and evolving workforce needs. A 2025 Harvard Business Impact study highlights this shift, noting the growing importance of industry-relevant capabilities in preparing leaders for modern challenges.⁵

2. The COO/CSCO role in a volatile and uncertain world

In today’s volatile business environment, leadership is undergoing a profound transformation. COOs/CSCOs stand at the center of this shift, navigating supply chain disruptions, operational complexity and strategic imperatives. Historically focused on day-to-day execution, COOs/CSCOs now carry a broader mandate: strategic growth, innovation and customer experience enhancement.

Where are the SC&O functions headed?

Supply chains are evolving from cost-optimized, manual and siloed systems to agile, cloud-enabled and networked ecosystems that foster collaboration and responsiveness. The next frontier: adaptive, AI-driven, autonomous networks capable of real-time self-optimization for resilience and efficiency. This transformation demands COOs/CSCOs who can lead both operational excellence and enterprise foresight.

In this context, COOs/CSCOs are having to work concurrently toward six equally challenging and (at times) conflicting outcomes:

1. Agility and flexibility: Embed agility through lean methodologies, cross-functional teams and a culture that learns from failure to continuously improve.
2. Digital transformation: Drive efficiency with IoT, AI and automation; empower teams with analytics and insight-driven decision-making.
3. Risk management and resilience: Build resilient supply chains via dynamic continuity plans, diversified sourcing and robust cybersecurity.
4. Talent and workforce development: Redesign recruitment and training for inclusivity and future-readiness; strengthen financial literacy and strategic thinking.
5. Sustainability and social responsibility: Integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) activities into operations; partner on corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives; and maintain transparency through measurable progress.
6. Front-end focus: Enhance customer-facing collaboration to deliver seamless experiences and strengthen stakeholder relationships.

Lessons from other C-suite role transformations

Between the dot-com boom and the post-financial crisis of 2010, the role of CIOs underwent a significant transformation, evolving through a series of pivotal events that reshaped the technological landscape. During this ~15-year span, the rise of the internet boom, the urgency of the Y2K crisis and the emergence of large tech firms collectively thrust technology into the mainstream of business strategy, redefining the CIO’s influence and responsibilities.

Over the past decade, the roles of other senior executives have similarly undergone significant transformation. The CFO has evolved from controller to enterprise performance architect, driven by shareholder activism, real-time analytics and the growing demand for predictive insight. The CMO has similarly shifted from brand steward to customer insight and growth engine, fueled by the rise of digital marketing, e-commerce and real-time customer data. Similarly, the CHRO has transitioned from “personnel manager” to “culture builder” and “talent strategist,” responding to talent wars, hybrid work models, diversity and inclusion imperatives, and AI-driven skills gaps.

For COOs/CSCOs, these leadership transitions offer valuable lessons. As COOs/CSCOs today navigate their own set of transformative challenges, they can draw parallels from the CIO’s evolution, recognizing the need to adapt and lead in an ever-changing environment. Like CFOs, COOs/CSCOs must take ownership of value realization and master KPIs that extend beyond efficiency to include growth, resilience and ESG outcomes. From the CMO, they can learn to evolve from execution-focused operators to customer-impact-driven strategists who use analytics, scenario planning and commercial acumen to guide decisions. And as CHROs have done, COOs/CSCOs must lead the future-of-work agenda — designing adaptive organizations, cultivating next-generation talent and establishing robust succession pipelines.

3. How can you plan for future COO/CSCO leadership?

Preparing future COOs/CSCOs requires a deliberate, forward-looking approach. As the role evolves into a strategic leadership position, organizations must proactively identify, assess and develop next-generation operational leaders. This preparation is anchored in three essential steps.

1. Clarify the COO’s/CSCO’s future role: Define the operational mandate for the next 3+ years — will the COO/CSCO be an efficiency champion or a strategic differentiator?
2. Assess internal talent: Identify whether the right COO/CSCO candidate exists internally (and evaluate their gaps) or whether an external hire is needed.
3. Develop a capability program: Implement a targeted development plan (rotations, mentoring, training) to prepare the internal candidate for the COO/CSCO leap.

Step 1: Clarify what kind of COO/CSCO the business needs

Before identifying or grooming COO/CSCO candidates, the organization must first align on the role the Operations function will play in driving the business forward. Is the focus on operational excellence — achieving reliability, cost control and service levels — or is Operations expected to be a source of competitive advantage, innovation and transformation? This clarity is essential, because the COO/CSCO mandate can range from being a performance optimizer to a strategic orchestrator (refer to Exhibit 1 for an overview of distinct skill sets aligned with organizational priorities).

For instance, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many retailers found that operations became the linchpin of customer experience (e.g., rapidly implementing buy-online-pickup-in-store fulfillment); those organizations realized their next COO/CSCO had to be tech-savvy and innovation-oriented, with foundational knowledge of AI, automation and digital tools, as well as deep operational expertise and business process engineering capabilities.

Boards and CEOs must ask: Are we looking for someone to stabilize and scale, or someone to reimagine and differentiate? Without this shared understanding, succession planning risks becoming a talent placement exercise rather than a strategic leadership decision. Increasingly, the role also demands full stakeholder management, strong relationships with board members and exposure to external touchpoints such as investors.

Exhibit 1: There are six potential organizational needs with distinct COO/CSCO skills sets required for success

Step 2: Assessing potential candidates’ fit

Once the desired COO/CSCO profile is clear, candidates should be assessed based on the following five key questions:

1. How has the candidate successfully managed supply chain disruptions in the past, and what strategies did they employ to minimize impact?
2. How has the candidate demonstrated the ability to lead through complex and rapidly changing business landscapes?
3. How has the candidate balanced cost, efficiency and risk in their supply chain decision-making processes?
4. In what ways has the candidate shown the ability to collaborate across departments to create a unified response to supply chain threats?
5. What is the candidate's track record in integrating new technologies to improve supply chain operations?

The next step is to assess your talent pool against that profile and decide whether any internal candidate fits the bill (refer to Exhibit 2: EY “Success by Design” approach to succession planning diagnostics):

• Evaluate internal pipeline: Identify leaders — such as BU heads or senior ops executives — who could step into the COO/CSCO role. Use a structured capability framework to assess strategic acumen, execution strength, cross-functional leadership, digital fluency and global orientation. Profile candidates against 10–15 core competencies to gauge fit.
• Identify gaps — “ready now” vs. “ready later”: Many internal candidates won’t be perfect fits or, in certain scenarios, “ready now” successors might not always be available. It’s therefore important to identify longer-term successors who need development. Determine who is ready now and who could be ready with targeted development. If no internal candidate aligns with the future COO/CSCO profile, consider external options.
• Balance internal and external options: Internal successors offer continuity and cultural fit, but external hires may bring fresh capabilities. Benchmark internal talent against market standards to best understand whether your “perfect fit” internal candidate is really the best fit for the business requirement. The CEO and board should make the final call, with CHRO-led assessments guiding the decision.

Exhibit 2: EY Framework – “Success by Design”

“Success by Design” is an approach to succession planning diagnostics aimed at helping organizations prepare for effective leadership transitions. Its overarching themes include:

Step 3: Build a thorough leadership transition program

A successful COO/CSCO transition is not just about developing skills, but about enabling a seamless handover of responsibilities, relationships and organizational knowledge. The leadership transition program should be designed to actively guide candidates, whether internal or external, through the critical phases of stepping into the COO/CSCO role. This involves:

• Leadership integration for the organization: Facilitate a structured onboarding and immersion process that helps the candidate understand the organization’s culture, strategic priorities and key stakeholders. This includes shadowing the outgoing COO/CSCO, participating in executive meetings, and engaging with cross-functional teams to build credibility and trust. The focus is on setting up the new COO/CSCO to lead confidently from day one, regardless of whether they are an internal or external hire.
• Building cross-functional operational capabilities: Expose the candidate to the full spectrum of operational responsibilities through hands-on transition assignments. This may involve gradually transferring ownership of major projects, leading critical business reviews and managing live operational challenges under the guidance of the current COO/CSCO or a transition sponsor.
  
  The goal is to provide real-time experience in decision-making, crisis management and enterprise-wide leadership before the official handover (refer to Exhibit 3: EY toolkits and skill enhancement programs). These experiences should also include developing stakeholder management skills, gaining external exposure through investor interactions, and applying AI and automation knowledge to optimize processes. Building this breadth enables future leaders to combine strategic thinking with operational depth and digital fluency.
• Broadening organizational perspective during transition: Encourage the candidate to engage in enterprise-wide initiatives and cross-functional projects that extend beyond their previous scope. Assignments in different business units, international markets or strategic transformation programs help the incoming COO/CSCO gain a holistic view of the organization. This broad exposure is essential for aligning operational decisions with the company’s long-term vision and for building relationships across the leadership team.

Key elements of an effective transition program include:

• A clear transition timeline with defined milestones and checkpoints
• Regular feedback and coaching from the departing COO/CSCO, CEO and other senior leaders
• Opportunities for the candidate to demonstrate readiness by leading key initiatives and presenting to the board
• Mechanisms to capture and transfer institutional knowledge, maintaining continuity and minimizing disruption

By focusing on these transition elements, organizations can establish that the new COO/CSCO is not only prepared for the technical and strategic demands of the role, but also fully integrated, empowered and ready to lead the organization forward from day one (refer to Exhibit 4 & 5).

Leadership accountability in succession planning

Effective succession planning requires active engagement from the CEO, COO/CSCO, and CHRO at every stage. Each plays a distinct yet interconnected role — aligning strategic priorities, assessing capabilities and driving development — to establish a robust leadership pipeline and seamless continuity. CEOs, COOs/CSCOs and CHROs have an active role to play in this process in each of these stages:

• CEO’s role: Align with the board on the future role of Operations and COO/CSCO expectations; lead talent reviews to decide internal vs. external options; and sponsor development through visibility, stretch roles and feedback.
• COO/CSCO’s role: Assess current vs. future capabilities and articulate the Operations function’s value vision, identify and mentor successors through stretch roles, delegate responsibilities, and maintain continuity.
• CHRO’s role: Define success traits and build assessment tools; run unbiased evaluations and advise on gaps or external search; then drive development plans, boost successor visibility and track progress.

Conclusion

In a world where operational agility and resilience are essential for survival, organizations that invest in purposeful COO/CSCO succession planning set themselves apart. The implication for succession planning: when selecting and preparing COOs/CSCOs, companies should use the same approach that worked for other C-roles — broaden the criteria for success, integrate the role with other strategic functions and measure outcomes that tie to enterprise value, not just operational efficiency. The next generation of COOs/CSCOs will be called upon to lead not just with operational expertise, but with vision, adaptability and the courage to drive transformation across the enterprise. By taking a proactive, structured approach to identifying and developing these leaders, companies can maintain continuity, unlock new sources of value, and build the operational muscle needed to thrive — no matter what the future holds.