The chief operating officer position is increasingly being deleted in American companies. Twitter recently divided the duties of its COO among all managers. McDonald’s Corp., Tiffany & Company, and Yahoo recently deleted their COO position. In fact, the percentage of large American companies with COOs has declined almost every year for a decade, to about 35 percent today. Health-care and industrial companies are least likely to have a COO today. The primary reason many companies are phasing out the COO position is to flatten their structure, eliminating a layer of management, and reducing costs. Although historically a stepping-stone position to the CEO position, many companies now delegate the traditional duties of a COO to the CEO or to other positions, such as the CFO or to the Chief Brand Officer. Deleting the COO position does, however, increase span of control for other top executives, which is not a good idea for many companies.

Source: Based on Rachel Feintzeig, “COOs Join Endangered Species List,” Wall Street Journal, June 13, 2014, B1.