C-Suite Roles Gaining Importance In 2018

The C-Suite has swollen in recent years. Those who get to put the word 'Boss' on their card may be happy with this, but rarely do much more than burden the leadership board of an organization with unqualified people in useless positions, making the decision-making process cumbersome and sacrificing agility at great cost to the company.

The causes of this swelling are complex and it is often difficult to say how necessary the roles are. One of the main factors is the stagnation of salaries, which have led some companies to use elevation in the C-suite as a way to retain staff instead of increasing their salary. Millennials, in particular, see it as a carrot. In Kantar's report, 'Redefining the C-Suite: Business the Millennial Way', which surveyed more than 2,300 Millennium leaders and managers, seven out of ten American Millennials (70% versus 63% of American Xenians), defined as those born between 1980 and 1996, he said that a C-Suite role is attractive to them. This, however, has led to the introduction of some work titles that sound particularly frivolous, many of which have little real influence. And instead of giving people more job security, these fluffy titles actually make them more expendable. As The Economist said: "Companies may hesitate before firing an IT advisor, but what about a Chief Scrum Master? The essence of inflation, after all, is that it devalues ​​everything it touches."

While this may be true, however, a number of new C-Suite positions are becoming integral. New technologies, such as AI, are having such a big impact that it makes sense to introduce the representation of the executive level into the implementation itself, while certain business areas have been neglected and should be exploited properly. We have delineated five titles of this type to grow in importance during the next year.

HR director

The well-being of employees is moving more and more to the top of the corporate agenda. Millennials now represent a third of the workforce and are looking for more than just paying their employer. They want flexible hours and support outside of work, they want a professional progression and that their employer does good in society. Keeping staff happy now is much more complicated than simply throwing some money at them, and, unfortunately, it is also much more important. Unemployment levels are only 4.1% and human resources leaders experience the most significant lack of skills since 2001. The problem is particularly pronounced in the technology sector, with research from the non-profit Computational Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) that surveyed 600 companies and executive technology in the US UU from a wide range of industries that find that "at least eight out of 10 American companies are negatively affected by the lack of technological talent."

Human Resources needs a seat at the executive table, and it is getting there. KPMG's analysis of CHRO's role in the FTSE 100 companies from September 2011 to September 2016 found that the proportion of CHROs that are part of the executive committees increased from 68% in 2011 to 70% in 2016. Meanwhile, a The Korn Ferry Institute study found that investing in aligning HR practices with business objectives such as CHRO resulted in a 7.5% decrease in employee turnover and, per employee, $ 27,044 more in sales, $ 18,641 more in value of market and $ 3,814 more in profits.

Director of information security

The role of CISO was invented by Citibank in 1995, but it is only really appreciated. Last year there were several major attacks, with organizations from Equifax to Uber infiltrated by bad actors and as a result they suffered enormous financial and reputational damage. Organizations are still struggling to cope with the ever-evolving threat. Too often they are not implementing an effective strategy until after the damage has already occurred and, with the influx of often insecure connected devices that will be installed in companies over the next year, the problem will only get worse.

As a result, the CISO is growing in importance. Top management knows that information security is a risk problem and needs a tutor with in-depth knowledge of how the threat of hackers is mutating, how they behave and the solutions available. In 2017, we saw that people like Lyft, Staples and Delta added a CISO to their ranks for the first time, but each of them only did so after having suffered a data breach. Companies of all sizes must preempt the game, even smaller companies that may think they have more basic requirements for operational security and that could be an unnecessary cost. A hacking could happen to anyone, and with a study conducted by the Ponemon Institute in 2016, upon discovering that the appointment of a CISO reduced the cost of an infringement by $ 7 (£ 6) per record, it is foolish to become vulnerable .

Director of Sustainability

By 2020, Millennials will represent almost 50% of the workforce and represent 30% of total retail sales. In Gen-Yers surveys conducted by Deloitte, 87% said they consider that "the success of a company should be measured in terms of something more than its financial performance", while they were also the most willing to pay more for products and services seen as sustainable or from socially and environmentally responsible companies.

Companies have had someone who oversees sustainability efforts for many years, and the position has been growing in importance as it has entered the public consciousness. However, the role only reached the C-suite in 2004, when Linda Fisher was named 'Chief Sustainability Officer' at DuPont. Since then, leading brands such as Kering, Mars and Unilever have introduced paper.

The Financial Times defines 'business sustainability' as 'a process by which companies manage their financial, social and environmental risks, obligations and opportunities', often referred to as 'profits, people and planet'. The Director of Sustainability oversees all of these. They deal with environmental issues such as the use of water and energy, as well as improving working conditions in their own organization and throughout the supply chain, creating better safety procedures and ensuring responsible sourcing. They are in the C-suite to promote an understanding of how medium and long-term trends, risks and opportunities will have an impact on business strategy and can ensure that they are included in the decision-making processes.

Tim Koller, a leader in corporate finance practice at McKinsey & Co., points out that. "If the forces in the world that relate to sustainability are going to be material for a company, it is management's job to have a broader vision and find out what to do with them, because eventually, these things will affect cash flows." The best companies in sustainability have it ingrained through their business, they put it at the heart of every decision. The Director of Sustainability must make the company look like it is doing something, but it must also make sure it really is, and to do so, it must be taken seriously.

Growth Director

The CGO is now a position in such prominent organizations as Coca Cola, Mondolez and Colgate-Palmolive. Coca-Cola has even replaced its role as Director of Marketing (CMO) with a CGO, in a move that suggests that it is not just a buzzword, and CMOs may be looking at the barrel of extinction for years to come.

The responsibilities of a Chief Growth Officer (CGO) are varied, covering four key areas of business activity: marketing, sales, products and finance. These areas must work together effectively if an organization is going to generate profits, and with each department that is expected to contribute strategically to the company's growth, they often end up working cross-purposes or working on similar initiatives from slightly different angles without knowing another department is working on that. The CGO has a unique view of each department, which allows them to align conflicting agendas and collaborate better. For example, the first thing that Mark Clouse did when he became CGO in Mondelēz was to make an inventory of company-wide initiatives and eliminate repetitive or conflicting ones, which were approximately 20% of the total number. This is not a unique problem, it is one experienced in organizations of all sizes. CGOs are growth-focused brand creators, trusted CEO advisors, and internal connectors that align conflicting agendas.

Richard Stein, CGO of financial recruitment specialist Options Group, explains that "the role of CGO is growing and growing in popularity, especially among professional services firms that understand the needs of clients and want to be at the front and center to achieve long-term revenue growth and remain competitive, CGO is free to challenge the status quo to discover new avenues of growth, but the position holder also brings their organizations to a greater sense of responsibility and purpose. "

Official Head of IA

The importance that AI will have in the coming years is not in question. It will cause upheavals in almost all the levels of the society, from the world of the work until how we travel. According to a global survey of 260 large organizations conducted by market research firm Vanson Bourne on behalf of Teradata, a data and analytics company, 80% of companies invest in IA and one in three believe that their company will need to invest more in the next 36 months to keep up with the competition. "

The argument that there should be an expert at the C-Suite level to help companies fully exploit AI is persuasive. Many companies were trapped by the emergence of the internet, assuming it was a fad or that their limited knowledge would suffice. Soon they went bankrupt as a result. The first adopters of AI, as did the first adopters of the Internet, have a tremendous competitive advantage. Those who go further and adopt an "AI first" approach, putting technology at the center of their strategy to move forward, will probably have even greater success.

The chief scientist of Baidu Research and the AI ​​guru Andrew Ng, meanwhile, argues that a Senior IA Officer (CAIO) can perform a number of important functions necessary to ensure that an organization is well positioned for adoption. They can have a vision of the whole company to better understand their potential application in each department and the magnitude of the implementation challenge, designating the experience and AI technology of a centralized team according to the needs. A good CAIO will establish a roadmap on how to integrate AI with the overall strategy of the company and will strive to ensure that resources are available where necessary, developing more knowledge about how AI works, which should help to select the right technology and not let yourself be cajoled by the many sellers try to convince you that you have a need that you do not really need and that your product will solve it, which often will not happen.

The lack of AI talent means that finding a CAIO will not be easy, and most companies are not yet needed. But in organizations mature enough in their data efforts, it should be vital.