My best business decision

Ian Gotts, CEO of business process management specialist Nimbus, reveals how appointing a COO helped him refocus his attention from running the company to driving it forward.

About a year and a half ago, we decided that we needed to split my role as chief executive, appointing a chief operating officer (COO) to focus on running the company day to day.

That has meant that I can be much more externally focused and concentrate on promoting the company and driving it forward. As we have a relatively complicated business, it’s vital that our clients understand what it is we are offering and why it can be beneficial. Raising the profile of the business is one way to do that.

Of course, you could appoint an external PR company to take care of this, but it’s far more effective having the CEO communicate directly than some junior marketing person or PR firm.