Chief Operating Officer (COO) Programme | INSEAD Executive Education (2024)

Customised design for your success

The Chief Operating Officer Programme has been expertly designed with the needs of busy senior executives in mind. It offers the flexibility to customise your learning for maximum impact, with a convenient combination of online and live virtual sessions.

Adaptable

Learn online at your own pace in accordance with your work schedule. Deepen your knowledge in select areas of interest relevant to your organisation or career with a choice of topical elective modules.

Reflective

Benefit from a highly interactive learning experience that emphasises a practical application of concepts. Engage in focused business simulations to expand on any knowledge gaps.

Connected

Join a leading international business school and educator of C-suite executives with one of the largest alumni bases of COOs. Become part of an extensive global network of operations professionals.

What you will learn in this programme

The Chief Operating Officer Programme will enable you to:

• Develop your operational thinking into strategic thinking, and articulate new strategic initiatives
• Evaluate how a shift from an operational to a strategic mindset can transform your organisation, both inside and outside
• Tackle large-scale problems by leveraging your operational excellence, working beyond your boundaries and acting as a strategic leader
• Articulate the concepts of value creation and value capture by adopting a customer-centric perspective
• Discuss how analytics, organisational agility, ecosystems’ capabilities and sustainability may enable your organisation to create more value
• Evaluate your leadership capacities, including how to make decisions and navigate cognitive biases
• Understand how to leverage your team, and use negotiations to create value
• Define how strong leadership ability can influence teams and drive change at an organisational level.

Key programme features

Experiential sessions

Test your understanding of key concepts through business simulations and live sessions.

Action learning project (ALP)

Apply your learnings to create an action plan for executing a high-impact business strategy.

Acclaimed case studies

Explore award-winning case studies with a focus on contemporary issues for COOs.

Peer interaction

Experience a high level of engagement with accomplished global peers, and exchange diverse perspectives.

Alumni benefits

Gain INSEAD alumni status upon completion of the programme, and receive select alumni benefits.

Programme facilitator

Craft your learning journey in line with your career goals with a programme facilitator assigned to your cohort.

Curriculum

The comprehensive curriculum has been developed by renowned thought leaders in business management. It includes a core component and a choice of three electives so that you can tailor your learning journey. The core modules span three areas crucial for every COO position today: strategy, business acumen and executive leadership.

• Core modules (online and live virtual | 19 weeks)

  The COO as a Strategic Partner

  • Aligning operations with strategy
  • Achieving operational excellence
  • Driving growth and executing growth strategies
  • Becoming a strategic leader
  • Leading digital strategy and transformation
  • Creative thinking for business

  Developing Business Acumen

  • Customer centricity in a digital age: understanding and creating customer value
  • Strategic drivers of financial performance
  • Value-based financial decision-making
  • Operations analytics
  • Agile organisations
  • Alliances and ecosystems
  • The business case for sustainability

  The COO as a Leader

  • Towards better decisions
  • Driving effective negotiations
  • The future of leadership - and work
  • Managing global teams
  • Leading successful change

  *Session topics are subject to change.

• Electives (online | five weeks each and 1 week orientation | choose any three)
  Rethinking Global Strategy – Online: Learn to analyse forces of globalisation and identify winning strategies to lead a global business and build a competitive advantage through international expansion and by applying proven open innovation and knowledge-sharing methods.

  See Also

  Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) Programme | INSEAD Executive Education

  Supply Chain Strategies for Business – Online: Gain the strategic capabilities required to navigate the complexities of today's supply chain landscape and deliver transformative change within your organisation.

  M&A Success Strategies – Online: This elective equips with the essential tools and frameworks necessary to make better M&A decisions from start to finish.

  Agile Strategy Execution: This elective provides the insights and tools to bridge the gap between the rational development of strategy and real-life execution. It helps identify hidden traps, balance the rational with the emotional and build the internal capability to continue successful strategy implementation.

• Immersion and networking (on campus)

  Meet your cohort peers and faculty in person at the INSEAD campus immersion and networking event. This event provides a valuable opportunity to form a lifelong global business community.

Note: Participants may take anywhere from eight to ten months to complete the programme depending on individual schedule and programme selections.

Meet the faculty

The global team of cross-disciplinary INSEAD faculty includes experts in technology and operations management, strategy, accounting, economics and organisational behaviour.

Guillaume Roels

Programme Director for the Chief Operating Officer (COO) Programme,Professor of Technology and Operations Management,The Timken Chaired Professor of Global Technology and Innovation,Research Director of the INSEAD-Wharton Alliance

Noah Askin

Visiting Professor of Organisational Behaviour

Atalay Atasu

Professor of Technology and Operations Management,The Bianca and James Pitt Chair in Environmental Sustainability

Daniel A. Bens

Professor of Accounting and Control

Maria Guadalupe

Professor of Economics,The Goltz Fellowship in Business and Society INSEAD

Li Huang

Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour

Chengyi Lin

Affiliate Professor of Strategy

Ville Satopää

Assistant Professor of Technology and Operations Management

Andrew Shipilov

Professor of StrategyThe John H. Loudon Chaired Professor of International Management Chair, Strategy Area

Manuel Sosa

Professor of Technology and Operations ManagementChair, Technology and Operations Management ,Director of the Heinrich and Esther Baumann – Steiner Fund for Creativity and Business

Wolfgang Ulaga

Professor of Management PracticeCo-Director of INSEAD Marketing and Sales Excellence Initiative (MSEI)

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Programme facilitator

Project work

The ALP is a crucial practical aspect of the programme. You will apply programme insights to prepare an action plan that identifies and solves real-world operational issues in your company or industry based on the four pillars of operational leadership. Regular check-in sessions and feedback from your programme facilitator and peers will assist you in refining your road map.

Who is it for?

The Chief Operating Officer Programme is ideal for:

• New and emerging COOs looking to gain strategic insights to drive operational excellence in their organisations
• Heads of operations and operations leaders looking to advance into C-level positions and gain executive leadership skills to enhance their existing skill set.

Participants should have:

• A minimum of 10 years of work experience
• Fluency in written and spoken English
• International exposure (preferred)

Alumni benefits

Join INSEAD’s powerful global network of more than 66,000 alumni in over 180 countries, and receive select benefits, including:

• Access to more than 1,000 events and programmes annually organised by INSEAD and the INSEAD Alumni Association
• Access to the INSEAD Alumni Lifelong Learning programme
• Career development for alumni, including career coaching, peer-to-peer advising and mentoring programmes
• Benefit from preferential rates on in-person INSEAD Open Enrolment Programmes and Open Online Programmes
• Networking tools and a lifelong INSEAD email.

*Upon completion of the programme, graduates of the Chief Operating Officer Programme will gain complimentary alumni status for a period of three years. A minimal annual membership fee will be required to maintain the status thereafter.

Application details

FAQs

• What are the requirements to successfully complete the programme?

  The INSEAD Chief Operating Officer (COO) Programme follows an immersive learning process. Participants are expected to fulfil a certain minimum criteria to earn the Certificate of Completion. This includes successful completion of core and elective activities and an action learning project.

  As participants progress through each core module and elective, reviewing the weekly content, they earn points for each activity. Participants need to have earned a certain minimum number of points at the end of each core module and elective. In addition, participants are also required to submit a core action learning project at the end of the core phase.

  To complete the programme and earn the certificate, participants are required to:

  • Complete a minimum of 80 percent of all in-platform learning activities
  • Submit at least three weekly action learning project assignments per core module and elective
  • Submit a timely ALP.
• Do I need to come to the INSEAD campus during the programme?

  On-campus attendance is optional for this programme. You will have the opportunity to participate in an on-campus immersion, networking event at the end of the programme. However, the curriculum is fully online and consists of a mix of recorded video and live virtual sessions with fellow participants, learning coach and faculty.

• Will I be able to interact with other participants?

  Yes, of course! The learning experience is especially designed to encourage interaction and simulate as close an experience to face-to-face interaction as possible. Participants can interact with each other through discussion forums, live forums, webinars and virtual networking interspersed throughout the learning journey.

  In addition, the programme concludes with an optional in-person immersion, networking event.

• Will I have an opportunity to interact with INSEAD faculty?

  Yes, we purposefully manage class sizes to ensure ample faculty-to-participant time. INSEAD faculty will also regularly read and respond to your comments in the discussion forums. The faculty is assisted in these interactions by the learning coach, acting as a bridge between the participants and the faculty.

• I have a full-time job. What is the time commitment expected from me?

  The Chief Operating Officer (COO) Programme has been designed with your busy schedule in mind. You will be required to commit not more than three to five hours per week, enabling you to benefit from this impactful programme while balancing your work responsibilities. The programme offers a blend of self-paced modules and live interaction.

• How do the live sessions work?

  The learning journey includes live and asynchronous online sessions with renowned faculty, industry experts and global peers. You can take advantage of live sessions and the Slack channel to ask questions and discuss ideas with your programme facilitator and cohort participants. Real-world examples and a debrief of the programme learnings are delivered through a combination of recorded video and live online lectures.

• Can I take more than the specified electives?

  Unfortunately, it is not possible to take any more electives than the specified number. The electives are designed to help you gain specialised skills in areas that are aligned with your career so that you can dedicate focused time for learning and honing those skills.

• Does the programme offer closed-captioning for videos included in the curriculum?

  Yes, we provide closed-captioning and transcripts for all pre-recorded videos as well as closed-captioning for recordings of live sessions.

• Who will be collecting the payment for the programme?

  Eruditus collects all programme payments, provides learner enrolment and programme support, and manages learning platform services. INSEAD is collaborating with Emeritus (part of the Eruditus Group) to offer a portfolio of high-impact programs.

• What is the programme refund and deferral policy?

  For the programme refund and deferral policy, please click the link here.

• Are there any restrictions on the types of funding that can be used to pay for the programme?

  Programme fees for Emeritus programmes with INSEAD may not be paid for with (a) funds from the GI Bill, the Post-9/11 Educational Assistance Act of 2008 or similar types of military education funding benefits or (b) Title IV financial aid funds.