You’ve got to use every arrow in your quiver—and you have to be prepared to do so again and again.”. They haven’t run a whole company before.”. In this article, three authors from Accenture share the results of their research on this emerging organizational role. Conant was confident the new CSO would help do the same for the soup company. As the science of human health and well-being has grown, we've been able to grow along with it. The key factor in all of these questions is alignment with company strategy. Just as important, the CSO must make certain that those decisions aren’t watered down or ignored as they are translated throughout the organization. Special Offer. He or she must be that person who, in the CEO’s stead, can walk into any office and test whether the decisions being made are aligned with the strategy and are creating the desired results. (In 2005, he was named AMD’s chief innovation officer. Artificial Intelligence and Business Strategy, How Leading Companies Are Innovating Remotely, Create Fuller recently announced it was hiring its first-ever CSO specifically “to emphasize and align the key functions of strategy planning, business development, process improvement, and information technology.” And when Marjorie Dorr was named WellPoint’s CSO, the company’s CEO said in a press release that Dorr would be “working with and across all business units to [establish] specific plans, deliverables, and measurable objectives…in order to drive progress and achieve desired results.”, In the long term, the role of top strategy executive can become an effective succession-planning tool. They are seasoned executives with a strong strategy orientation who have usually worn many operations hats before taking on the role. Look for CSO candidates with these characteristics: “What we’ve been doing isn’t in line with the company’s strategy—and we need to fix that.” Someone in your organization has the mandate to walk into any office, speak those words, and spark some sort of transformation. CSOs must therefore resolve the strategy—that is, clarify it for themselves and for every business unit and function, ensuring that all employees understand the details of the strategic plan and how their work connects to corporate goals. In short order, the health care firm began to enter the new markets, and people who had been hesitant to do business with the financially ailing organization gained confidence in it. And they are not specialists who have breathed in only the rarified air of strategy over long careers of thinking rather than doing. Johnson & Johnson is a company of enduring strength. Office of the Chief Risk Officer 505 Broadway Cardinal Hall, 6th Floor Redwood City, CA 94063 United States. Office of the Chief Risk Officer. September 2015 ... establish an information s ecurity risk management strategy, ... the Chief Operations Officer, Chief … Greater complexity on all fronts may explain why, according to one study, top management spends less than three hours a month, on average, discussing strategy issues (including mergers and acquisitions) or making strategic decisions. Further, as Harvard Business School professor Joseph L. Bower has noted in these pages, iron-fisted control of execution often eludes the top team’s grasp, as line executives seek to define strategy on their own terms. That meant the heads of Sales, Marketing, M&A, and Strategy Development would have to report to the CGO. Vice Chancellor & Chief Financial Officer 200 California Hall Berkeley, CA 94720. Innovation; Technology evolution is constantly transforming the way people interact with the world — raising their expectations every day. Based on variation in the roles carried out by the CSOs, we have developed a typology of four CSO archetypes. The C-Level titles are the highest titles in corporations or businesses and are given to people who head divisions and disciplines. Miles Interim Dean, As one of them stated, “It’s very much like what an external consultant would do; the only difference is that we’re internal… How to Make a Chief Strategy Officer Fit into Your Organization By Don Tennant , Posted May 15, 2014 Patrick Stroh explains how the job of the CSO may depend on the needs of the CEO and the product structure of the company. But recent CSO appointments aren’t necessarily just a reaction to today’s complex times. financials, investor relationships, corporate image, devising and impleme… Other CSOs were enactors, far more likely to execute the strategy process by themselves or with their team. First, they must clarify the company’s strategy for themselves and for every business unit and function, ensuring that all employees understand the details of the strategic plan and how their work connects to corporate goals. All rights reserved. To help companies evaluate candidates, we’ve developed a checklist of some of the personal and behavioral traits necessary for the job, listed here in order of relative importance. The CSO has to be, in effect, the guardian of that space one to three years out, when the decisions made (or not made) today will show consequences. Then consider the nature of strategy itself. Schreiber’s experience, while impressive, is not unique. Your CSO will use their expertise and knowledge on your organization to properly adjust your current strategies. The CSO assists and reports to the CEO, and to the CFO in some instances. Some companies look outside for a CSO, as Kimberly-Clark and Campbell’s did, but that’s not the norm. Indeed, many of the CSOs we interviewed said that both candor and tact were critical for doing their jobs well. CSOs don’t just wait for the phone to ring. “The role is so peculiar, if you’re not working every angle, I’m not sure how you get anything done,” explains Stephen Dull, vice president of strategy at VF Corporation. Our survey indicates that this is a common attitude among CSOs: 47% say they use external consultants extensively in their formulation of strategy. It’s true that CSOs can’t effectively resolve a strategy without having had a hand in its creation, but these executives quickly get beyond creation to action. Web Login. The chief strategy executive position, then, is “a huge job” that should be filled only by highly accomplished business veterans. Should we be investing in developing a new product or improving an existing product? When should we move into a new market? Indeed, we found only one who was directly hired from a consultancy. quarterly magazine, free newsletter, entire archive. The demands and intricacies of conducting business in multiple cultures, time zones, and political or regulatory environments are exacting a stiff toll on globe-trotting CEOs. While this list is by no means exhaustive (although it is exhausting), it helps explain why more and more CEOs are seeking help with strategy execution at the highest levels. Most of the top strategy executives we polled said they split their time almost evenly between strategy formulation and execution, yet their statements reveal a tilt toward the latter. But in many companies, no one’s driving execution. The presiding person leading the business and possessing the highest authority in the company is chairman. CEOs are being weighed down by the ever-growing complexity of doing business in a global economy. “I’m not a career strategist,” says Bob Black, Kimberly-Clark’s senior vice president and CSO. An aviation company executive emphasized the point: “We can have the best plan in the world, but if we can’t execute, we won’t be able to pay the bills.” Driving change and enforcing the consistent application of decisions may require taking things as far as Kimberly-Clark’s Black would go: shrinking strategic planning to a small internal team and leveraging the expertise of outside consultants. It is responsible for the operation of the Fire Services Communications Centre, the Fire and Ambulance Services Academy. CEOs are tapping longtime company veterans with the experience and the social and political capital to cross boundaries quickly and effectively, or they’re bringing outsiders and their fresh growth perspectives into the C-suite. Strategy executives are charged with three critical jobs that together form the very definition of strategy execution. Maybe it’s the CEO and the CEO only. And they make sure decisions at all levels align with strategic objectives. We've been privileged to play a role in helping millions of people the world over be well and stay well through more than a century of change. CEOs were always expected to take overall responsibility of corporate strategy, in addition to guiding the organisation’s other vital functions (e.g. When Douglas Conant, the CEO of Campbell Soup, hired CSO M. Carl Johnson in 2001, he cited Johnson’s track record of revitalizing big brands, launching new ones, and improving financial results at Kraft Foods. Our initial observation was that CSOs are, in many ways, as diverse as the titles they hold. (Even CEOs need to sleep.) The focus of the job almost always quickly evolves from creating shared alignment around a vision to riding herd on the ensuing change effort. Chief Executive officer(CEO) 2. So he also considers himself the point person for assessing whether strategic initiatives, at all levels of the organization, are in line with the company’s standards and objectives. A CSO's role is to continuously examine the company as a whole and to have ready answers to critical business questions like: How do customers rate our customer service? The reality is far more urgent, however: One-third of our survey respondents went so far as to describe their companies as “under siege.” Most characterized their industries as highly volatile. But it may be that a different C-level executive bears the burden of strategy execution in your company—a senior leader like AIG’s Brian Schreiber. Some companies, including AIG, Kimberly-Clark, Motorola, and Yahoo!, have discovered a way to fill the execution void: hire a chief strategy officer. Schreiber and other CSOs don’t just wait for the phone to ring, however: They preemptively take the lead on strategic questions that overwhelmed business-unit heads just don’t have time to deal with. It’s hard to see a five-year plan through to completion when your tenure is likely to be less than that, but that’s the situation CEOs find themselves in today. And AMD’s William T. “Billy” Edwards had a rich set of experiences before being named CSO in 2004, including time as CEO of Hesson Labs, line management roles at Motorola, positions with medical equipment start-ups, and nearly a decade with a top strategy consulting firm. He could also ensure that the decision was based on a strong strategic rationale as well as a financial one. Big Bang Disruption: Strategy in the Age of Devastating Innovation. Chief Marketing officer(CMO) 5. (See Bower and Clark G. Gilbert’s “How Managers’ Everyday Decisions Create—or Destroy—Your Company’s Strategy,” February 2007.). For some, that tenure is much longer: In early 2007, Walgreens promoted John Gleeson, a 37-year veteran of the company, to the company’s newly created CSO post. When decisions below the executive suite aren’t being made in accordance with strategy, much of the CSO’s job involves learning why and quickly determining whether to stay the course or change tack. “It’s a huge job,” the CEO told the manager, “but you’ll have more impact doing this than you would leading a division—and you’re the person I’d feel most comfortable with.” His colleague accepted. CSOs handle three critical strategy implementation tasks: One health care company rebounding from bankruptcy in 2005 formulated a strategy focused on growth. One C-suite executive we spoke with was so glad to have a CSO come on board at his firm that he voluntarily gave up his office near the CEO to the strategy chief—but not all executives will be as receptive to the change. That is why more and more companies—including Motorola, Marsh & McLennan, NationsHealth, Universal Pictures, and Yahoo, along with the other organizations we’ve discussed in this article—have found it necessary to hire CSOs. CSOs consider themselves doers first, with the mandate, credentials, and desire to act as well as advise. A strategy that is clear one day can become fuzzy the next as people and competitive environments change. “Someone at the center has to bring focus and discipline to the decision process,” says Kimberly-Clark’s CFO, Mark Buthman, or strategic discussions and initiatives will stall and business opportunities may be lost. As senior vice president of strategic planning during Maurice “Hank” Greenberg’s tenure, Schreiber’s focus was on implementing investment decisions and acquiring companies selected by the management team. An insider to resolve this vision for colleagues recent CSO appointments aren t! 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