What is the Difference Between a Chief Operating Officer and a President?

In an organization or company where a CEO is already in charge, the president is second in command. The chief operating officer (COO), who is responsible for day-to-day operations, has vice presidents for different parts of the company who report to them. One difference between the president of a company and its COO is the management structure. In most organizations, the CEO holds the highest position.

However, the president and CEO can sometimes be the same person. In other cases, companies don't use the title of CEO and have only one president. Depending on the structure of the organization, the president is the sole leader of the company or is part of a co-leader relationship with the CEO. The CEO is the highest-ranking executive and decision maker in a company.

The president is a high-level executive who is usually second in command, below the CEO. The salary of an executive vice president is higher than that of a COO because he has more job possibilities than an operations manager. Typically, an executive director (CEO) is the highest-ranking official in a company, while the president is second in command. However, this is not always the case.

In small businesses, the CEO and president are usually one and the same. The CEO title wasn't minted until the 70s and wasn't commonly used until the late 80s. Before that, President was used to refer to the highest executive of an organization. Both chief operating officers and presidents are responsible for keeping a company moving forward by being innovative in their business strategies. The first focuses more on a company's operations, including designing new marketing techniques.

However, the latter has the task of consolidating the culture and values of the company in general. Both professionals work primarily in an office, together with other executives and board members. Working in industries focused on production and sales, such as automotive and computers, operations managers often lead development, production, marketing, and sales departments. A COO who reports to the CEO is second person first and is in charge of implementing and overseeing day-to-day operations, processes and strategies to achieve the company's overall mission and vision. In general, the CEO is considered to be at the top of a company's hierarchy while the president is second in command; however, depending on corporate governance and structure, various permutations can take shape so that functions of CEO and president may differ depending on the company. In fact, new CEOs can benefit from the holistic vision that COs bring to the company. A CEO (or CEO) is responsible for overall health and management of a company.

In some cases, instead of referring to a second-highest executive as President, they are referred to as Chief Operating Officer (COO). If you're interested in a career as an operations manager, perhaps a job as a human resources manager could be for you as both are concerned with finding quality employees. Sometimes, it's possible for a founder of a company to hold both titles of President and CEO.