distinguishing job descriptions for ceo and coo positions

fish

we recently promoted an in-house person to the newly created coo position. Since this is the first coo ever appointed, I would really appreciate any resources you might know of, to get the position well grounded and clearly disguished from the ceo functions. (our ceo was previously handling the coo duties and it has been difficult to properly separate the positions.)Thanks!

Pork

Fish, I would start with interviewing the CEO, who could quickly tell you the frame work of the COO position in which he is planning on taking control of "what" and being accountable for "what"! Chief Operating Officer and the Chief Executive Officer are normally joined and accept specific areas of interest in which they will concentrate their efforts. The CEO will ultimately be accountable for everything, but he/she will normally allow the COO to have free operating reins over operational aspects of the business. The CEO deals with the subjective and phschology of the organization, the human resources issues. The COO is more in tune with the fixed and operational aspects, the producing elements, the machines, and the systems that make the machines work. Hope this helps, Pork