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OPINION
The modern COO
For any COO to be successful in the AEC industry today, they must embrace the soft side of leadership, focusing on the people and culture as much as the numbers.
I n January of this year, I took on the role of chief operating officer at SCS Engineers; I am the first COO in the company’s history. I’ve been in the environmental services industry since 1990 and have worked for both large national/international firms and small firms, and I started and ran a successful consulting business before selling it to SCS in 2012. At least one of the two national companies I worked with prior to SCS employed a COO, but I moved on from there more than 20 years ago, so I’ll admit my experience with a COO is somewhat dated.
Eduardo Smith, P.E.
Perhaps it’s just me, but I developed this picture in my mind of a COO as someone who just focused on financial performance – who drove the numbers, who managed using a command and control style, who was the bad cop to the CEO’s good cop persona. The COO is the hammer that needs to get unleashed every once in a while to get things back on track, right? Well perhaps it’s because I’m a bit longer in the tooth as they say, or because I now find myself in the role, that my perspective on the COO in our industry has changed significantly. As I’ve held several roles in my career (from project team leader, founder of a company, and senior vice president of a national
firm), I’ve realized that driving numbers is not a great way to run and sustain a healthy business. Financial success is an outcome, a lagging indicator, of getting the leading indicators right – think employee engagement, resource sharing across functions, client satisfaction, and company culture to name a few. And that’s where a COO can really help a business. Sure, there may be times when a quick turnaround of the company or a branch is necessary and the COO may be the right person for that job, but for the most part, the COO can play an instrumental role in making the aspirations of the company a reality.
See EDUARDO SMITH, page 4
THE ZWEIG LETTER FEBRUARY 19, 2024, ISSUE 1525
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