Understanding the C-suite

New chiefs on the block

CFO, CSO, COO, CPO, CMO, CTO and CRO – just a small sample of 21st century executive evolutionary pathways. Commonalities may seem far-fetched at first. Yet change is a constant in the C-suite – that much is obvious to all. Some roles have been 'around the block' longer than others, having become more distinct, accepted and established by demonstrating value and leadership in their own right. While markets are increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA), it is indispensable to understand how top level roles are evolving – and where there is room for improvement.

Almost a classic: Orchestrating the core strategy process

A decade ago, Harvard Business Review featured an investigation into the then somewhat fuzzy role of the Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) – finding that, "…it’s easy to misjudge the role of the chief strategy officer – so often the title is misleading...". With the number of CSOs on the rise ever since, today the question is no longer why CEOs and their executive committees opt to create such an ambiguous role. They ask instead: where's the value in that?

Our latest Roland Berger CSO study – in cooperation with the University of St Gallen's HSG Institute of Management – zooms in on this core question. And it is not the first of its kind. The general idea is well understood: CSOs add value by building world-class strategy development and execution capabilities across the company.

Nowadays, it is performance measurement aspects that constitute the fuzzy part, with 70 percent of respondents admitting that CSO-specific criteria used to measure value added are applied either irregularly or not at all. Turning your strategy department into a “value cockpit” will come down to setting concrete expectations, creating a sense of communal ownership, and implementing a transparent evaluation system. With an outside-in view, we describe in detail the skill sets, experience, characteristics and self-perceptions today's CSOs typically bring to the C-team.

Successful with a multi-faceted repertoire

If we had to put our money on which of the C-suite roles has undergone the widest transformation over the years, our bet would be on the Chief Restructuring Officer. Villain and savior, coach or commander, change agent and interim CEO – the CRO's repertoire appears baffling. The range of areas in which a CRO is now being deployed has grown, too. For a start it's more international, and it's about more than short-term improvements. Longer term change management, often spanning cultural divides, is now an increasingly significant element in restructuring projects. A shift in attitudes as well as skill sets can be observed. CROs need to align with clients while balancing trust, authority and consensus as part of a strategic perception management approach.

Making the numbers talk

Blame it on the financial crisis, blame it on a more challenging and inter-connected regulatory environment extending to a wider base of stakeholders, or simply blame it on the fact that time is money in the digital realm. Financial executives have found their roles evolve from operative to strategic with communication holding the key to success.

Of insights and intersections

The COO may seem elusive at times, however, his or her position could hardly be more crucial. Based on extensive talks with management and associations, we know that companies are feverishly working on the integration of their business processes. Industry 4.0, the comprehensive interconnection of processes in production, logistics and services, is a huge issue for practically every large manufacturer in Europe. We are dealing with a powerful innovation driver. Management‘s creativity and its ability to think and act in an interconnected way is what matters now. The COO thus has the chance to assume a decisive leadership role. We have been right at the intersection of this role and its responsibilities for years now, as it covers a wide and often highly topical and international terrain, from latest developments in human-machine interactions and connectedness, digital production and Industrie 4.0 , to the need for understanding smart services and how data can help to achieve service excellence . One of the issues of our magazine "COO Insights" – about timely developments and business opportunities in Industrie 4.0 – underpins how well we understand the ever changing day-to-day of COOs.

A whole new agenda

If you were to google the increasing number of C-suite acronyms and map them along a time line according to their first inception, the accolade of the 'newest kid on the block' must surely go to the Chief Procurement Officer (CPO). But with novelty comes fuzziness and, often, a whole new agenda.

At present, key issues and challenges for CPOs across all industries lie in leveraging digitized operations while generating and measuring savings. Ensuring delivery capabilities, safeguarding quality, and contributing to innovation management by proactively involving suppliers are already important areas of responsibility for CPOs and will only increase in relevance over the next three to five years.

How these trends pan out on an industry-by-industry basis, as analyzed in depth in our latest CPO study, makes for a highly differentiated and challenging procurement agenda. It will come as only a small consolation that procurement executives share a growing number of issues they all have to face.