The expendables: Is the COO position becoming redundant in India?

The COO position is being reassessed as leadership roles get recalibrated and leaders and boards want to keep their structure flat and nimble to make decisions faster than ever before

When Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) announced last month its chief operating officer (COO) and executive director, N Ganapathy Subramaniam, would retire in May, the information technology giant also said it would not appoint Subramaniam's successor. Instead, it would redistribute his work.

TCS is not the only IT major to have done away with the COO’s position. Truth be told, the company never consistently had one. The only other time it had a COO was when N Chandrasekaran, now the chairman of Tata Sons, was appointed to the post in 2007.

In December 2021, Infosys scrapped the position when its COO,