COO searches are fascinating because the title sounds clear, but the reality rarely is.

Even when the brief looks straightforward on paper, it usually reflects something more nuanced happening in the organisation. It could be stabilising performance, preparing for growth, or sometimes succession planning that hasn’t quite gone to plan.

New Zealand produces plenty of capable supply chain and operations leaders who are technically strong, commercially aware, and highly experienced.

In most processes, the initial longlist looks solid.

But when that list narrows to a true shortlist, a pattern tends to emerge. The candidates who stand out and progress are already thinking well beyond their function.

• They can articulate how they would assess the health of the whole business, not just their own area.
• They talk openly about trade-offs between margin, capability and culture.
• They engage confidently with finance, risk and commercial drivers.
• And critically, they’ve built genuine depth below them and can point to successors they’ve developed.

In New Zealand, where executive teams tend to be lean and leadership depth can be limited, that enterprise perspective becomes even more important. What I’m seeing in stronger shortlists isn’t necessarily the most technically impressive CV. It’s leaders who demonstrate breadth of judgement. People who have already begun operating at the enterprise level before the title changes.

I work with some highly specialised supply chain leaders who are either aiming for a broader Head of Supply Chain mandate or, over time, a COO role. The shift is rarely about technical capability. It is about perspective and direction.

Ask yourself:

• Are you influencing enterprise decisions, or responding to them?
• Are you shaping commercial thinking, or executing within it?
• Are you deliberately building the breadth your next role will require?

For organisations, the same question often sits underneath a COO or broader operational brief: Are we hiring for functional strength, or for enterprise leadership that will support the next phase of the business?

Clarity on that tends to shape the calibre of the shortlist you end up with.

If you’re thinking about your own progression or considering how your operational leadership bench will evolve over the next few years, I am always open to a confidential conversation.

Sometimes stepping back to look at the broader picture is where the real value sits.