This shift is visible in the technology landscape. PwC's 2025 Digital Trends in Operations Survey found that 57% of operations and supply chain leaders had integrated AI into selected functions or throughout their organisations, while 92% cited at least one reason why technology investments had not fully delivered expected results. Integration complexity and data issues were among the common barriers.
Against this backdrop, the IIM Lucknow Chief Operating and Transformation Officer (COO) Programme reflects the expanding scope of the operations leadership role. Its curriculum brings together operations strategy, operating-model design, AI-enabled operations, value creation, resilience, data and analytics, governance and executive leadership. The emphasis is on connecting operational decisions with enterprise priorities rather than viewing efficiency as an end goal.
From Efficiency to Enterprise Transformation
The traditional efficiency mandate still matters, but the question is changing from How can this process be made faster or cheaper? to What should the operating model look like in the first place?
Automating a process, for example, can affect workforce design, customer experience, data governance, technology investment and accountability. Outsourcing a capability may reduce costs while increasing dependency on external partners. The COO therefore must balance efficiency with agility, resilience and long-term value.
The operating model increasingly becomes the bridge between strategy and execution, translating business priorities into processes, capabilities, technology and ownership.
AI Is an Operating-Model Decision
AI adds another layer to this responsibility. Its value in operations does not come simply from automating repetitive tasks. It can change how decisions are made, how information moves through an organisation and where human intervention remains necessary.
For a COO, the more important questions are often organisational: Which workflows should be automated? Where should AI augment employees? What happens when an AI system encounters an exception? Who owns the outcome?
AI therefore needs to be understood not only as a technology, but as an operating-model and organisational design decision.
Resilience Is Becoming an Operating Capability
Recent disruptions have also changed how organisations think about resilience. Supply chains, service operations and partner ecosystems can no longer be assessed purely on cost and efficiency.
Leaders must consider responsiveness, continuity, scenario planning, inventory, network design and sustainability alongside traditional efficiency measures. Resilience is consequently moving from a contingency exercise to an ongoing operating capability.
For the COO, this means making decisions that preserve the organisation's ability to adapt when market conditions change.
Leadership Beyond the Operations Function
Perhaps the biggest change is that operational transformation cannot be delivered by operations alone.
Technology teams influence architecture and AI adoption. Finance determines investment priorities. HR shapes workforce transition. Commercial teams influence customer requirements. Boards and CEOs expect a coherent view of how these decisions fit together.
This makes stakeholder alignment, executive communication and change leadership central to the modern COO role. Applied learning through cases, simulations, practitioner perspectives and guided projects can help leaders examine these interconnected decisions in realistic contexts.
The IIM Lucknow Chief Operating and Transformation Officer Programme brings these elements together through its focus on AI-enabled operations, transformation strategy, governance, value creation and change leadership.
The COO: An Architect of How the Business Works
The evolution of the COO role is not about moving away from operational excellence. It is about recognising that operational excellence increasingly depends on strategic choices.
The modern COO must ask where the organisation should automate, where it should invest, how it should respond to disruption, which capabilities it needs to build and how technology should change the way work gets done.
As AI, volatility and changing customer expectations continue to reshape business operations, the COO's influence is likely to extend further across strategy, technology, people and value creation.
The operations leader of the next phase will not simply keep the organisation running efficiently. They will help determine how the organisation should work, adapt and create value in the first place.
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