Christel Maucet is a scale-up expert with a proven track record in transitioning organisations and teams to their next level of growth. She has been leading operations and growing teams for international firms over Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America for the last 8 years, after pivoting from a finance career of 7 years.
Her most recent role was as a Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Be Mobile, a neobank built for the African market, where she helmed exciting initiatives such as rolling-out their operations across South Africa, Benin and Togo; and building up a remote team from scratch. She also serves as a member of the Board of Good in Mauritius, a citizen-led, non-profit initiative focused on empowering Mauritian women leaders and improving their access to board and leadership roles.
Edited excerpts from an exclusive interview with the dynamic C-suite professional who holds woman empowerment close to her heart:
First up, do tell our readers what the role of a startup COO encompasses?
The COO role is the least defined and most ambiguous role of the C-suite, as it may greatly vary depending on the size of the organisation, its business, and the CEO’s skills set. Generally, the COO supervises the company’s operations and handles the day-to-day running of the organisation.
The COO has a pivotal role in building the structure (governance, teams, processes) that will allow a startup to perform and scale.
How does their role align with that of the CEO?
The COO role is complementary to the CEO’s: while the CEO most often has a public-facing role, the COO will concentrate on internal matters.
CEOs will decide on the direction the company should take and carry the vision, while COOs focus on making it happen.
Given that running a startup itself is an endeavour fraught with ambiguity, while a COO’s role within has also been similarly described by you as the ‘least defined and most ambiguous role of the C-suite’, how can a COO ensure that he or she is setting themselves up for a successful tenure?
It is essential to clearly set the goals and the split of work between the COO and the CEO.
There are many areas where both the CEO and the CEO could be responsible: the first key to success is to have well defined expectations.
Based on your own experience of working from Mauritius for an Africa-centric FinTech startup, can you give examples of how a startup COO may be expected to hit the ground running?
There are two equally important missions for a COO during the first days of their tenure: understanding the business and the organisation, and building relationships within and outside the company.
The onboarding phase in a fully remote set-up is more challenging than the traditional office-based onboarding. You do need to be people-oriented to be able to build real connections while communicating through screens.
The COO would also be expected to quickly grasp the business and its challenges. When working in a startup, you are required to quickly be autonomous and deliver, so you should rapidly begin to work on projects while you are onboarding. A few examples of early projects I have been working on are the recruitment of new team members, the selection of strategic partners for the business or the selection of new work tools.
What are the qualities that help to take a startup COO from good to great?
First, the COO must possess excellent people skills: outstanding communication and listening skills, empathy, team spirit, leadership.
Second, I believe the best COOs are generalists and possess experience in several fields. They can learn fast and supervise experts, without being one themselves.
They also need to see the big picture while working on the details of the execution, and be proactive problem solvers.
This broad skill set will enable them to become catalysts in the organisation, able to create momentum and get things off the ground.
You thought-provokingly mentioned that an ideal COO has the ability to focus on the big picture while working on the details of the execution. Can you flesh that out with an example from your own work experience?
Working in a startup, you wear all the hats.
I can, during the same day, discuss strategic orientations like improvements in the product, or partners for our worldwide KYC process, and also be in the details by reviewing a client contract, filling in administrative documents for new country openings or setting up an account with a new partner.
The responsibilities can be as diverse as defining what the new governance of the startup would look like, setting up company-wide OKRs, working with teams across the board to determine a budget, or research investors and work on the pitch to raise funding.
The diversity is what makes the job so interesting.
Finally, as a woman in the C-suite and a member of the Board of Good in Mauritius that seeks to empower women to take on more roles at board levels, what would be your advice to other aspiring women leaders?
Don’t be the one holding yourself back.
Impostor syndrome is real, but if you are not sure that you can do something, you ought to try. You might succeed, and even have fun along the way!
