The jump from managing operations to leading transformation isn’t automatic. It requires a completely different mindset. Many COOs spend years perfecting processes and optimizing systems, but real change demands something deeper. Alan Rudolph has spent more than 25 years discovering what that “something more” truly means. His journey has taken him from global giants like Oracle and IBM to early-stage ventures, and most recently into the fast-paced, high-stakes world of PE-backed SaaS as COO at Cendyn and MitraTech.
Building Perspective Across Tech Worlds
Rudolph’s career doesn’t follow the usual playbook. His time at major companies like Oracle and IBM taught him how large organizations truly operate. Then came the early-stage ventures, where resources are limited and every decision has real consequences. The contrast between these two worlds shaped the way he approaches leadership today. The past five years have brought a different kind of challenge. Leading operations at PE-backed companies means working under constant pressure. Growth targets aren’t optional, and margins are analyzed down to the decimal. Yet those years at Cendyn and MitraTech proved something important. It’s possible to meet aggressive goals while building something that lasts.
Lead With Vision, Not Just Execution
Operations people love fixing things. It’s part of the DNA of the role. But Rudolph discovered that optimization has a ceiling. “As COOs, we’re trained to optimize operations and manage complexity. But transformation requires vision,” he explains. “It’s not just about making things better. It’s about imagining what’s possible and aligning the organization toward that future.” Cendyn showed him what that looks like in practice. Global teams spread across marketing, revenue, and e-commerce weren’t naturally pulling in the same direction. Getting everyone aligned took more than sending out strategy decks. People needed to see how their daily work connected to something larger than their individual targets.
Build Systems That Scale People, Not Just Processes
You can document processes all day long. Workflows get optimized, systems improve, and efficiency goes up. But there is a limit to what process improvement can achieve. Rudolph realized that real growth comes from a different source. “Operational excellence is foundational, but transformation comes from scaling people,” he says. That shift changes everything about how leaders spend their time. Hiring stops being about filling positions and starts focusing on finding people who can grow with the business. Leadership development becomes something you actively invest in rather than a topic reserved for all-hands meetings. When the culture centers on accountability, people begin to own outcomes instead of just completing tasks. “One of the most impactful shifts I’ve made is moving from managing outputs to mentoring outcomes. When people own the result, the system evolves.”
Make Data Actionable And Strategic
Every company collects mountains of data. Dashboards multiply, KPIs fill spreadsheets, and yet meaningful change rarely follows. The problem isn’t the data itself. Most organizations simply don’t know how to use it. “We all collect data, but transformational leaders use it to drive strategy,” Rudolph says. MitraTech gave him a chance to prove how powerful that approach can be. His team built service models that linked directly to what customers actually needed. The impact was clear. Revenue grew by 30 percent while margins improved at the same time. “It’s not only about KPIs. It’s about knowing which metrics drive change and helping teams understand how to act on them.”
Never Underestimate The Power Of Culture
Talk to enough business leaders and you’ll hear the same thing: culture matters. Everyone agrees on that. But Rudolph has seen what that really means play out over decades in very different settings. “I’ve seen time and again that the companies that win aren’t just the ones with the best technology; they’re the ones with the strongest culture,” he says. Culture looks different depending on what the business is facing. Turnarounds test it when everything else is breaking down. Mergers expose the cracks that financial models never predict. Scaling from 15 million to 250 million challenges leaders to preserve what makes the company unique while everything else grows and changes. “Maintaining a people-first culture has been key to our success,” Rudolph notes, reflecting on what has remained constant through it all.
The COO title opens doors, but real transformation takes deliberate work. “Being a COO gives you a platform, but becoming a transformational leader takes intention. It’s about vision, systems, strategy, and above all, people,” he explains. “If you focus on those, growth will follow.” Those four pillars come up again and again because they work. Vision gives teams something larger than quarterly targets. Systems that develop people create lasting change instead of temporary fixes. Strategic use of data turns information into action. And culture holds everything together when growth gets messy. After twenty-five years across very different companies, Rudolph knows the difference between what works in practice and what only sounds good in theory.
Follow Alan Rudolph on LinkedIn for deeper insights on operational leadership and transformation.
