The biggest difference between an operations manager and a general manager has to do with the scope of their responsibilities. An operations director is the second highest member of management and typically oversees several general managers. There is no specific type of operations manager. Rather, each company chooses a COO to meet their specific needs.
The COO is a senior leadership or general management position. Where it is placed in the structure of the organization depends on the size and structure of the organization. In addition, the importance that you want to give to the function determines the hierarchical lines. The CEO; this is the highest position within the company.
The COO is second in the hierarchy and depends on the CEO. Depending on the structure of the company, the CEO could be accountable to the board of directors, investors, or company founders. The general manager of the hierarchy is usually below the vice president of operations. Vice presidents fall short of high-level executives.
Below the vice-presidents are the directors and then the managers. Understanding what makes an operations manager successful is vital, because the effectiveness of operations managers (or the classification of operations executives by whatever name they are called) is fundamental to the luck of many companies and could be so for many more. A COO (or director of operations, who reports to the CEO) is the second highest-ranking person responsible for implementing and overseeing the operations, processes and strategies of the day to day to day to day to fulfill the company's overall mission and vision. The director of operations or the director of operations can help by taking on the operational workload of the position of executive director and allowing her to work strategically.
This is why the position of chief operating officer is almost omnipresent in companies with intensive use of operations, such as the airline and automotive industries, as well as in organizations that operate in hypercompetitive and dynamic markets, such as high-tech companies.
