I would say they are the absolute minority and they had unique skills to understand the limitations/punishment of their move and find a way out of it. Luis went in thinking that if his title was chief strategy officer that it was reasonable to assume his priorities would mirror that of the company. It is extremely naïve to think that just because someone is credible, they will be listened to. Luis reasoned that if his team built an effective screening process for M&A they could prove their worth and be given access to broader leadership discussions. However, strategic planning is only half of the job; executing that strategy is vital, which means they need to have functional capabilities and the leadership capacity to work and communicate effectively with people across the entire organization. There’s a reason the CEO and leadership team of a company are typically the ones to create corporate strategy. In this case, that would be the CEO. Chief Strategy Officers (CSOs) face a number of challenges distinct from those faced by other members of the C-Suite—in particular, the breadth and ambiguity of the CSO’s role. Let’s look at an example of a colleague who joined a large industrial conglomerate. In many other cases, CSO’s are experienced executives who have worn multiple hats and have built their experience across a breadth of functions, whether it be in marketing, finance, acquisitions, technology, communications, or elsewhere. Beyond the title, you need to consider many items when making this decision. There are some unique exceptions to this. We assume our understanding of a role is the same as that of the hiring party. will have to enter corporate through some form of role in the internal strategy department. CSOs of this type focused almost exclusively on strategy formulation by themselves or with their strategy team. The work was complex since different divisions had very different integration considerations. The core responsibilities of the Chief Strategy Officer are as unique as the company they serve. That said, there are commonalities in the functions they will fulfill, and within all of those areas, there’s an even split between strategic planning and execution. iOS + Android Apps, Apple TV, ROKU, iTunes, Google Podcasts, Amazon Kindle, +6,200 strategy episodes all by ex-McKinsey, BCG et al partners. The chief operating officer (COO) is the second-highest C-suite executive rank after the CEO. Luis was encouraged to help build a screening process to assess future acquisitions. “] It’s a flippin’ joke. Beyond experience, Chief Strategy Officers must be pragmatic, analytical and tactically persuasive. Earlier in my career, when I was a consultant, the newly appointed CEO of a power producer asked the firm to second a consultant to serve as his chief of staff for about 6 months. Do you think that 4 months later he asks for time to present his final thoughts to the CEO? Being able to determine the viability of acquiring a paint company and extracting value from the asset is not even close to understanding how to reorganize a bloated conglomerate. When I was an associate I once worked on the reorganization of a massive oil company. Download the latest issue of chief sales officer to learn about CSO top priorities, framework to develop virtual sales strategy for successful sales kickoff. That is pretty tough to do because the operating units do not report to the chief strategy officer and, therefore, would likely ignore him or her. You may not have picked this up, but Luis was being forced to report to the CFO and Luis did not have a seat on the board. The chief operating officer (COO) is a senior executive tasked with overseeing the day-to-day administrative and operational functions of a business. Within sectors, different countries had different legislation. The operating division presidents were powerful, controlled the assets and had the support of their employees. That is the starting point but the ability to communicate is far more important. Second, unless you can personally see some unique way to leverage a strategy role into a better operating role, never ever give up an operating role if you intend to stay in corporate for a long time. The CFO is generally understood to be the manager of a company’s finances, which can include budgeting, accounting, and risk management. Take a look at the predictions for what the future of work will look like in 2021. This role was perfect for two reasons. It’s a position that has become far more prevalent in the C-suite within the last decade – often under the guise of a head of strategic planning – but is seeing increasing activity as the economy continues to strengthen. Image from Trey Ratcliff under cc, cropped. While the CCO is responsible for the commercial development and strategy of a company, the COO or Commercial Operating Officer oversees all manner of business operations, such as manufacturing operations, when applicable, operations research and operations management. Many companies use the titles as bait to lure in talented consultants and even their own employees. This shows a common misunderstanding about strategy on the part of the CEO. The best a chief strategy officer can do is to serve as a sounding board for the strategy discussions taking place, facilitate the discussions or analyze discrete areas for the CEO or board. Business development can be highly numbers oriented with M&A target screening or very operational around securing sites and integrating assets. Equally important, however, is a focus on guiding long term (5-10+ years) strategy for a viable future, as well as sustaining the current core business in the short term (1-3 years). You will receive additional complimentary videos/updates by email. Apply to Operations Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Strategy Officer and more! This is an overview of one such study. Thus, these companies are using the strategy function as a funnel for future leadership within the business. Anyone losing power is going to fight the changes. Though the CFO listened carefully, nothing really happened. It is the role of the CEO and board to set strategy. It is a critical competitive advantage that most firms/professionals/consultants try to develop yet eventually quit. First, given the reporting line to the CFO, it was fairly clear Luis would be doing a lot of business development work. When Snap appointed a chief strategy officer (CSO) in 2014, the move was widely noticed — and not just because the owner of the Snapchat messaging app had picked a banker who made his name advising on the massive initial public offering of Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce group. We teach from first-principles only. The chief operating officer role described in this sample job description has overall strategic and operational responsibility for all programs. Note that when I say chief strategy officer, I am referring to the senior most level where you are working with the CEO and his executive committee. This is what is required to build intellectual property. Sadly, this requires a lot of work: typically not what chief strategy officers had in mind when they accepted the position. In most companies, the CSO works closely with the CEO, the Senior Leadership Team and, often times, the Board of Directors to develop the corporate strategy and guide the business through the strategic planning process. That explains why he was being asked to report into the CFO. The chief strategy officer may be able to see an additional insight, but that is not going to change the executive’s mind because the resistance to change is not driven by the validity of the answer. They assume that there is some brilliant piece of analyses that can convince the executive vice president. After his travels, he returned, fairly excited at that, and wrote up his views on the problems/opportunities the company was facing. Luis believed the company was investing in too many initiatives, none they could fully see through to completing, and many were low margin endeavors. The operating units also do not report to the CFO and usually do not pay that much attention to him or her either. The bigger problem of the Chief Strategy Officer. As Chief Strategy Officer Charlie will be responsible for corporate development, financial product development and business development in addition to continuing to lead the Markets Team. The co-authors of Second in Command: The Misunderstood Role of the Chief Operating Officer liken the COO role to that of a U.S. vice presidential candidate: The best person for the job is highly dependent on his running mate. Business development is interesting but it is not strategy. When the complex strategy decisions where being discussed, he had no way of influencing the decision. At a certain point partners no longer want to advise, but want to control the situation. Happy Holidays from all of us here at Slayton Search Partners! There are surely people who have made the move work. Most chief strategy officers fall into the painful trap of trying to be too logical. When using material from this website, including but not limited to tools, frameworks, concepts and methodologies, please provide the proper citations and attributions. Luis had spent time in his first 2 to 3 weeks touring the divisions to understand the major issues facing the company. process please click the link in the email we will send you. In many ways, this was a failing on Luis’s part. This question is hovering in the professional ecosystem because there is frequently confusion regarding the expertise that the various skills of Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Brand Officer bring to the table. “Is the Pepe from Jimmy John’s OK, sir?” [Tweet “Your CSO is your Chief Sandwich Orderer. 4,654 Chief Strategy Operations Officer jobs available on Indeed.com. In a previous piece and podcast I discussed why internal strategists are not given as much respect as those working on the operating side of the business. Strategic Consulting Knowledge Management. Finding them is not the hard part; engaging and recruiting them most certainly is. Sign up to receive exclusive preview episodes from powerful training programs with ex-McKinsey, MCG et al., partners. We'll email you when new articles are published on this topic. Second, it allowed him to learn about an operating company before taking on an operating role. These opportunities may include: targeted mergers, acquisitions, brand or product-line enhancements, capital expansions, restructuring, strategic alliances and partnerships, joint ventures, operational investments, and possible portfolio divestitures. Chief Strategy Officer. To some extent, the Chief Revenue Officer’s role is quite a bit similar to the Chief Financial Officer’s job. Luis worked with his team to build a new M&A process. To understand what happened and what chief strategy officers do, we will unpack this with a set of questions. Furthermore, with the overwhelming pace of change of business today– and the extent to which these changes impact different functions within the organization – the realization is that strategic planning and implementation is a full-time job, requiring more discipline, structure, and rigor behind the function. This is your time. This raises two very important considerations when taking chief strategy officer roles. 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