Fractional COO or an operations director?
The short answer: a fractional COO brings the judgement for part of a week; an operations director brings something different that is often confused with it. Here is what each one actually owns, what they cost on the same basis, and when to pick the other one.
What an operations director actually is
The British title for the person who runs operations day to day: delivery, service, supply chain, facilities, and the systems and people behind them. Usually a permanent employee, often promoted from inside, and in a smaller company frequently the same seat a COO would hold under a less grand name. In the US the equivalent title is director of operations.
What each one owns
| A fractional COO | An operations director |
|---|---|
| The operating model: how the company should run, designed from the outside in | Daily delivery: the work shipping, the service standard holding, the site running |
| The founder's calendar: taking the decisions that should not need them | The operations team, managed in person, every day |
| Organisational structure and the hiring plan as the team grows | Supplier, logistics and facilities relationships |
| The uncomfortable accountability conversations, held two days a week | Executing the operating model somebody has designed, and improving it in place |
What neither of them does
Neither owns the commercial number. An operations director who is also expected to find the revenue, or a COO judged on sales, is carrying a sales director's job with the wrong title on it.
How each one fails
The fractional COO: Being asked to run operations day to day. Two days a week cannot manage a warehouse, a delivery team or a service desk; the fractional COO designs the system and holds the people who run it, and if nobody runs it the design does not matter.
An operations director: Being promoted into a seat that needs an operating model built, not maintained. A strong operations director keeps a system running; asking them to design the company's next shape, with no senior operator to learn it from, is how good people get set up to fail.
What they cost, on the same basis
A fractional COO charges £700 to £1,300 a day, and most engagements run one to three days a week. A full-time salary, typically below a COO's, plus employer National Insurance, pension and a recruitment fee in year one. The monthly and annual arithmetic for the fractional side, against a full-time equivalent, is on the cost page for this seat.
Pick an operations director when
- The problem is daily delivery, service quality or a physical operation that needs managing in person
- There is already a clear operating model and what it needs is a full-time owner
- The team is large enough to need a present manager every day, not a two-day design and review cadence
We would rather say that plainly than win an engagement that was the wrong shape. Nobody pays us to list on the bench, so there is nothing in it for us either way.
When you want both
The most common shape past about fifty people: a full-time operations director runs the day, and a fractional COO designs the operating rhythm, coaches the director into the bigger seat and steps back when they have grown into it. The fractional engagement should end with the director becoming the COO.
Common questions
Is a fractional COO cheaper than an operations director?
On a like-for-like basis it usually is, because you buy the days you need rather than all of them. A fractional COO runs £700 to £1,300 a day, most often one to three days a week. A full-time salary, typically below a COO's, plus employer National Insurance, pension and a recruitment fee in year one. But cheaper is the wrong question if the work genuinely needs the other one.
When should I pick an operations director instead?
The problem is daily delivery, service quality or a physical operation that needs managing in person There is already a clear operating model and what it needs is a full-time owner The team is large enough to need a present manager every day, not a two-day design and review cadence
Can I have both?
The most common shape past about fifty people: a full-time operations director runs the day, and a fractional COO designs the operating rhythm, coaches the director into the bigger seat and steps back when they have grown into it. The fractional engagement should end with the director becoming the COO.
What is the difference between a director of operations and an operations manager?
Scope and authority. An operations manager runs a team or a site inside a system someone else designed. A director of operations, or operations director in British titles, owns the whole operation across teams and sites, sets the targets the managers work to, and sits on the leadership team. A COO sits above both and owns how the company runs, not only how the operation runs.
Is an operations director the same as a COO?
In a company under about fifty people, often yes in practice: one person holds the operation and the operating model. Past that size they separate. The operations director runs delivery day to day, and the COO designs the structure, the rhythm and the accountability around it, which is the part a fractional COO can hold two days a week.