The Suite Life (2018)
A Comprehensive Report on Executive Roles for Use in Developing Future Application and Resource.
By Steven Brown,
Steven Brown Executive Solutions
Should you require the full report please email me at s.brown@executivesolutions.co.nz
Foreword
Given the huge amount of support which helped me take my initial idea to this final polished state, it feels only fitting that I thank everyone involved in the process before I go any further. To start with, I would like to say a general thank you to everyone: from those I contacted whilst conducting my research to those who even just spared me a kind word of encouragement towards cracking on with my writing. This report would not exist without your help so thank you, one and all, for your time, passion and generosity. I hope I have done all of your contributions justice.
Next, I have three very special people to thank for their Herculean contributions:
RC is one of the most humble and giving business leaders I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. His business success also speaks volumes which makes it understandable that he has been invited to sit as Chair on some of the largest companies in New Zealand. Despite all of his many commitments, he has always made time for me and for this, I am extremely touched: I am certainly more grateful than I could express simply in words.
JB is another very humble character and the most driven Executive Technologist you could meet. I have seen whole flocks of people leave better paid and better titled jobs just for the opportunity to work with J which pays great testament to his ‘servant leader’ outlook. J, himself, is blessed with an infectious hard working attitude and he always manages to inspire this quality in those he works with. All in all, he is a wonderful human and I am privileged to know him.
My son, Lewis, is a unique character, currently undertaking a Masters in Literature in the UK. His own personal writings were of focal inspiration for my original business articles and, through his ceaseless efforts for proof reading, structure planning and ideas contributions, he has tremendously helped me with making sure that all of my musings make sense and are accessible to a wider audience. One day (hopefully soon), I’m sure that he will achieve his dream of publishing his poetry, novels and future literary projects. In the meantime, he’s certainly one to look out for if you’re wondering about the future of marketing as his keen eye for detail and working ethic, combined, will drive him to success.
Introduction
Late 2017, I produced numerous articles which provided an outline and analysis of various C-Suite roles, both emerging and traditional, which attempted to explain the dynamics of the modern executive board. This initial idea came from dealings in my day to day work whereby one CEO was in demand of a CDO, not knowing whether he meant a Chief Data Officer or Chief Digital Officer, on the basis that a rival company had recently appointed a new individual to that role. This made me wonder whether or not there were more out that trying their utmost to gain an edge in their industry, but not being able to navigate the minutia of modern C-Suite in an informed manner. As such, I wanted to provide a comprehensive report to explain all of this whilst adding my projections as to the status of these roles in the future in order that any CEO, new or old, could pick up a copy of this and enlighten themselves on how best to utilise these individuals in order to maximise their business’s value.
Carrying on from my various articles, I aim to compare modern C-Suite theory with application in the real world; how close is the theoretic to the status quo? My own qualitative research provided some interesting insight into understanding these phenomena and this report should hopefully serve as a one-stop shop for C-Suite thinking for 2018.
The beautiful thing that comes with producing a paper like this is that I can speak at greater length where applicable to explain my ideas and I can also include those all-important diagrams: wonderful for people like me who need visuals to help ascertain and remember reels of numbers!
To set the tone for this paper for those that may have not previously been invested in my articles, I shall be looking at the following C-Suite roles so as to provide an insight into where the C-Suite may fit into 2018:
Chief Digital Officer (CDO)
Chief Data Officer (CDO)
Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
Chief Information Officer (CIO)
Chief Operating Officer (COO)
Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Human Resources Director
Sales Director
If you have any queries regarding my research methods, conclusions or any other issue for that matter, please feel feel to contact me on the following e-mail and I will do my utmost to address your ideas or concerns: steven@amrservices.co.nz
Chief Digital Officer
Overview
The lead purpose of the Chief Digital Officer is to remap businesses, old and new, from more traditional (analogue standpoints) to incorporate new (digital) aspects in order to drive business value. The CDO’s job is essentially to “Rethink products and processes for the digital age” so as to turn “Digital cacophony into…symphony”[1].
Analysis
CDOs are employed in order to discover ways in which a company can transform itself and to select the most appropriate methods of metamorphosis by which to proceed. Given that digitizing a company can give a business a big edge over its traditionally orientated counterparts, it is no wonder that a lot of executive boards now utilise the CDO. To add a global context, those companies with a CDO or equivalent role are represented below as a percentage of the total number of companies within their respective region (figures taken from a PwC survey[2]):
Fig. 1
One can see that the EMEA and North America are most dominant in the number of Chief Digital Officers engaged in developing smart digital concepts, but it is also interesting to see that South America and Asia-Pacific are still not entirely in the dark when it comes to CDOs. Considering that PwC have also registered that 60% of all CDOs that have been signed up have occurred since 20152, one could argue that there will be a continued increase in CDO numbers across the globe over the next couple of years which will give the latter two regions time to start bridging the gap, but I would argue that we will see a different trend. Although there will be a closing of the divide, I feel this will be down to Chief Digital Officer numbers finding a plateau by around 2020 as big corporates will have squeezed the value out of their CDOs and will no longer need their services. This may seem an unfair statement to make given the high value of the CDO in the current market, but I believe this role will be absorbed into the remits of the Chief Technology Officer and Chief Information Officer; CDOs will subsequently glide over.
What makes a Chief Digital Officer successful though? From what I have observed over my Executive Solutions career, the best CDOs are those that are allowed to focus on their specific function in the machine, viz. looking outwards for new digital improvements that can create value where change is needed most rather than focusing internally on managing current IT systems and creating value from within. Chief Digital Officers not only need to be able to source external change, but also need to be “Fully empowered…in the name of the CEO”[3] as an “Orchestrator”3 in rolling out said change.
Chief Data Officer
Overview
Whilst “Liaising with the COO, CIO and Executive Management team”[4], the Chief Data Officer serves, as the name suggests, as a manager of “Data-related functions”[5] such as “Data analytics and business intelligence”5. In a nut shell: if it comes down to data that will driver a company’s strategy and future projections, the CDO will be the primary source of that business value.
Analysis
Traditional businesses would focus on capturing data, analogue or digital, from all possible sources in order to create a back catalogue for later review. Where the CDO redefines this menial data collecting is by streamlining this process in order to focus on the data that really matters: data that, when used to influence company reactions to the current market as well as long term strategizing, can be the difference between fifteen minutes of fame and becoming a lifetime global giant.
When one can understand the importance of this C-Suite role then, one can understand why companies would scramble to utilise this key weapon in the arsenal and thus one can empathise with Gartner’s prediction that 2017’s end would see approximately “50% of all companies in regulated industries”[6] as having a CDO with this rising to “90 per cent of large companies…by the end of 2019”[7].
Fig. 2
What does this mean for big business then? Hopefully (for those for which it may be applicable), there will be a lot of CDOs champing at the bit to “Create value for customers and [their] business”[8] in the coming years. I also predict that those that are left wanting will soon start considering how quickly they would like to integrate the Chief Digital Officer into their institution so as to stay afloat of their competition who are implementing similar manoeuvres.
Chief Technology Officer
Overview
The Chief Technology Officer serves as the technology architect of a company whose role is to navigate the “Elusive nexus of ‘technology’ and ‘leadership’”[9]. The CTO’s role includes aligning new technology to their organisation in order to create savings and ensure projects in the remit of technological resource management are delivered to schedule and budget.
Analysis
Chief Technology Officers originally rose with the introduction of big IT firms in the 20th century, but many other sectors have now taken up someone with this mantel to accommodate their business at the turn of the century and onwards in relation to the ever-increasing world of modern technology: especially in response to concepts such as the ‘cloud’. Though there is not much literature in relation to this executive, one may make comparison with the sectors of companies that Russell Reynolds Associates highlights as having “Qualified Technical Executives”[10]:
Fig. 3
My prediction is that, though the Chief Technology Officer is not a shiny new idea compared to the Chief Digital Officer and Chief Data Officer, there will still be a great emergence of new CTOs by the end of the decade with a surge in numbers for the Health Care, Financial Services, Consumer Services and Industrial sectors.
Chief Information Officer
Overview
The Chief Information Officer is similar in some aspects to the Chief Technology Officer which is why there is often confusion when it comes to differentiation between the two: so much so that “The differences between CIO and CTO are everything and nothing”[11]. As was the case with the CTO though, the Chief Information Officer’s place in a company is to “Create business value through technology”[12] whether this is through improving operational efficiency through use of technology or adapting their company to emerging market forces.
Analysis
Where a Chief Information Officer may be argued to be dissimilar to a Chief Technology Officer however, is in their status within big corporates: “57% of CIOs now sit on executive boards or senior leadership committees”[13] with 67% of CIOs believing that their “Strategic influence”13 will continue to become more prominent in the future.
Fig. 4
CIOs are also more likely to be utilised as “Developers [of] strategies to increase the company's bottom line (profitability)”[14] rather than focusing on “Strategies to increase the company's top line (revenue)”14 if there is also a CTO present in the company. Where this is not the case as it sometimes is for smaller businesses, ‘Chief Information Officer’ and ‘Chief Technology Officer’ are often interchangeable terms – especially where I operate in New Zealand where big growth requires individuals in this role to play a superhuman part in coordinating technological alignment with their business.
Chief Operating Officer
Overview
The Chief Operating Officer, at the heart of their job, is “Tasked with the day-to-day administration and operation of the business”[15] and often acts as the second in command to the Chief Executive Officer. Some may consider that whilst the CEO is concerned with big picture ideas which relate to future business goals, it is the COO’s job who is concerned with helming a ship to execute a business’s strategy.
Analysis
There is no one size fits all model for the Chief Operating Officer, but there is a lot more theory attached to this position than some of the previous ones due, in part, to there being more time for analysis given this is a more traditional C-Suite inclusion. One theory is that the COO role operates in seven different incarnations as according to Nathan Bennett and Stephen Miles: “The Executor, Change Agent, Mentor, Other Half, Partner, Heir Apparent and MVP”[16]. These different versions are explained below:
The Executor helps the CEO and the leadership team with delivering on company strategy.
The Change Agent is utilised to bring about a major change whether it be a restructuring of the business itself or a shift in strategy.
The Mentor is used to help train a less experienced CEO.
The Other Half is used to provide a complimentary set of skills and experiences to the CEO in order to provide skills coverage for all scenarios.
The Partner acts as an extra pair of hands for the CEO and helps to co-lead a company.
The Heir Apparent is where a CEO may train the COO so that they are ready to take over as CEO should the current CEO be removed for whatever reason from the position.
The MVP occurs when an individual is promoted to COO to avoid the company losing someone whom is a great credit to the organisation.
Having reached out to 498 COOs in my network, I posed them the question of which function they felt that they best served. From all of the responses that I received, I found that the two categories that together held a majority were The Other Half and The Executor which shows that unlike some of the other more traditional C-Suite roles, the Chief Operating Officer has not strayed too far away from its original standpoint.
What is interesting to note however, is that the Chief Operating Officer is in decline amongst big corporations: a Crist Kolder report from 2016 stated that “The number of companies with a COO has decreased by 15% in the last ten years”[17] (see graph below for trend).
Fig. 5
What’s interesting to see from this pattern is that the figures from 2000-2007 are relatively similar with only a small decline of 3.7%. When compared to the 2016 figure, one might postulate that, with the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, when COOs have left their respective company (given that COOs have the highest turnover rate compared to CFOs and CEOs at a “Historical average [1995-2016] of 21.1%”17), big businesses may have prioritised other new C-Suite roles rather than simply replacing the COO. From this trend, I predict that the responsibilities of the COO will eventually be assimilated into the job descriptions of the CDO (Data), CTO and CIO in order that their specialisation in a specific area may better create business value.
Chief Financial Officer
Overview
The Chief Financial Officer was traditionally a simple accounting job where the individual was relied upon to keep the books. The modern CFO is drastically different however, with CFOs being expected to provide financial analysis and strategy contributions.
Analysis
In the Deloitte article The Four Faces of the CFO, it is suggested that the CFO can be split into the four categories of “Responder, Challenger, Architect and Transformer”[18], but through my own research of collating opinions on these concepts from globally leading CFOs (449 were contacted), I noticed that four categories could be condensed into two: what I called the Arbiter of Change and Devil’s Advocate categories. I quote my previous article to explain these ideas[19]:
Arbiter of Change
Acting as a partner to the CEO, this CFO is close to Deloitte’s ‘Transformer’ category. Once the C-Suite have set a direction for big change, the CFO will utilise his financial skill set and resources to make this big change a reality.
Whilst this may seem almost a carbon copy of Deloitte’s idea, I feel that there is subtle enough difference for this Arbiter of Change category to exist as a concept. The Deloitte author seemed to imply that the CFO simply acts as the King’s Hand with little emphasis on their input in the creation of a roadmap. My experience grants me that CEOs are usually clever enough people to take input from the rest of the board, including our modern CFO, in informing whichever overhaul the business needs rather than simply playing the Great Dictator. This might seem like splitting hairs on my part, but I believe in minding the details.
Devil’s Advocate
Unlike the original Deloitte article, I don’t feel that there should be a distinction between the ‘Challenger’ and ‘Architect’ category. Trying to find an optimal strategy is all part of being a successful business leader so playing “Dr No” or “Finding a path to yes” is all one and the same; hence I feel that the Devil’s Advocate suits this category best. Inevitably, a great CFO will find a way to execute to the best of their ability a business’s roadmap so this category essentially encapsulates a confident modern CFO who is willing to advocate and challenge opinion in order to best serve the greater good.
Human Resources Director
Overview
Human Resources Directors are not traditionally part of the C-Suite, but the modern push for greater employee welfare as well as customer satisfaction has led to the rise in the number of Human Resources Directors liaising with the C-Suite. The Human Resources Director’s job is primarily heading up the works of the Human Resources or other applicable department in supporting the managers beneath them and their work focuses on the human side of operation.
Analysis
A Harvard Business Review article posited that the following 10 categories helped to highlight what makes a good HR Manager[20]:
The ability to develop and coach of others.
The ability to build and maintain positive relationships.
Problem solving and issue analyses skills.
Being a role model.
Having functional knowledge and expertise.
The ability to develop strategic perspective.
A connection and focus to the outside world as well as being able to look internally.
Having a clear strategy and focus.
Anticipation of problems with quick responses.
The ability to establish stretch goals that speed up the HR process.
Of these 10 categories, the article suggested that the most important four categories were:
Problem solving and issue analyses skills.
The ability to develop strategic perspective.
A connection and focus to the outside world as well as being able to look internally.
The ability to establish stretch goals that speed up the HR process.
Having asked 386 Human Resources Directors and Managers for their comment on this idea, I found that a total of 79% agreed with the authors, with 50% of all respondents finding “The ability to develop strategic perspective” as the most important category of the 10.
Fig. 6
Another big focus of Human Resources Directors is helping to create and enable a positive business culture which profits the company whilst benefitting the customer as much as possible. The quotation that I come back to in my responses is that of “Looking after the people”[21] will mean that “The business looks after itself”21 which certainly goes far in affirming the former.
Sales Director
Overview
Though another role which is not traditionally associated with the C-Suite, the Sales Director is still considered a high ranking executive who is tasked with “Crafting national or international sales plans”[22] for board approval and “Managing a group of Sales Managers to be as effective as possible”22.
Analysis
The Forbes article What You Can Learn From The Top Sales Leaders suggested that the following six categories were essential in separating those at the top from those stagnating[23]:
Being helpful: The best sales leaders are never that pushy because they would much rather spend the time selling to people they can help.
Acting like a consultant: The best salespeople make an effort to understand their prospect’s business and industry before making any suggestions. It’s all about relating and building trust.
Understanding your impact: Good sales people don’t just understand their industry and its context, they ask great follow up questions to close any gaps in information.
Being deliberate with your time: The average salesperson only spends two hours per day on revenue-generating activities while the highest performing sales people spend six hours per day on these tasks. Sales leaders are deliberate with their time.
Sales leaders aren’t going to waste time on a prospect who doesn’t seem like a good fit. Salespeople who are a little more pessimistic tend to question the credibility of buyers which means they’re a lot less likely to waste time on unqualified leads.
The best sales people know when it’s time to let things rest.44% of sales professionals give up after one follow-up even though most sales require multiple.
When I ran these ideas past my connections (331 Sales Directors were contacted for comment), there was an overwhelming response of agreeance that these categories were indeed imperative for the role of Sales Director with a massive majority 61% feeling that “Acting like a consultant” was the most valuable requisite. The majority for this was so great in fact that the closest contender raked in only 17% of the vote (“Being helpful”).
Fig. 7
Another interesting argument that came from a large proportion of respondents to my survey was the idea of adding “Knowing the game”[24] to the list of categories, whereby it is best for one to check themselves in order to save them wasting time. This seems appropriate considering that a lot of modern organisations are obsessing with improving time efficiency.
The overarching theme that came from my responses was that the best Sales Directors are those that push for the best not only for themselves, but also for their customers.
Bibliography
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Bennett, Nathan and Miles, Stephen Miles, “Second in Command: The Misunderstood Role of the Chief Operating Officer”, Harvard Business Review, May 2006, https://hbr.org/2006/05/second-in-command-the-misunderstood-role-of-the-chief-operating-officer.
Berray, Tom, “The Role of the CTO: Four Models for Success”, Cabot Consultants Inc., April 2002, http://www.brixtonspa.com/Career/The_Role_of_the_CTO_4Models.pdf.
Brown, Steven, “2018 Sales Looking Grim! So What Makes a Great Sales Director that can Turn Things Around?”, Steven Brown, December 2017, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/2018-sales-looking-grim-so-what-makes-great-director-can-steven-brown/.
Brown, Steven, “Deloitte’s "Four Faces" of a CFO Morphs into Two”, Steven Brown, November 2017, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/deloittes-four-faces-cfo-morphs-two-steven-brown/.
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Qualtrough, Edward, “Chief Data Officer salary and job description - What's the role and reporting line of the CDO, and how much does a Chief Data Officer get paid?”, CIO UK, June 2017, https://www.cio.co.uk/cio-career/chief-data-officer-salary-job-description-cdo-role-3596334/.
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[1] George Westerman, “Should Your CIO Be Chief Digital Officer?”, Harvard Business Review, August 2013, https://hbr.org/2013/08/should-your-cio-be-chief-digit.
[2] Mathias Herzog et al., "Company Demographics", Strategy&, Accessed December 28 2017, https://www.strategyand.pwc.com/company-demographics.
[3] Laurent-Pierre Baculard, “To Lead a Digital Transformation, CEOs Must Prioritize?”, Harvard Business Review, January 2017, https://hbr.org/2017/01/to-lead-a-digital-transformation-ceos-must-prioritize.
[4] Edward Qualtrough, “Chief Data Officer salary and job description - What's the role and reporting line of the CDO, and how much does a Chief Data Officer get paid?”, CIO UK, June 2017, https://www.cio.co.uk/cio-career/chief-data-officer-salary-job-description-cdo-role-3596334/.
[5] Minda Zetlin, “What is a chief data officer? A leader who creates value from all things data”, CIO.com, October 2017, https://www.cio.com/article/3234884/leadership-management/chief-data-officer.html.
[6] Tom McCall, “Understanding the Chief Data Officer Role”, Gartner, February 2015, https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/understanding-the-chief-data-officer-role/.
[7] Rob van der Meulen, “Gartner Estimates That 90 Percent of Large Organizations Will Have a Chief Data Officer by 2019”, Gartner, January 2016, https://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3190117.
[8] Hajra Rahim, “What does it take to be a chief data officer?”, The Telegraph, May 2017, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connect/better-business/what-it-takes-to-be-a-chief-data-officer/.
[9] Tom Berray, “The Role of the CTO: Four Models for Success”, Cabot Consultants Inc., April 2002, http://www.brixtonspa.com/Career/The_Role_of_the_CTO_4Models.pdf.
[10] David Finke et al., “The Rise of the Qualified Technical Executive in the Boardroom”, Russell Reynolds Associates, May 2016, http://www.russellreynolds.com/en/Insights/thought-leadership/Documents/The%20Rise%20of%20the%20Qualified%20Technology%20Executive%20in%20the%20Boardroom_FINAL%20letter.pdf.
[11] Chloe Dobinson, “Why a CIO's salary might be higher that a CTO's”, CIO UK, July 2017, https://www.cio.co.uk/cio-career/cio-vs-cto-3643772/.
[12] Laura Schneider, “Learn the Role of a Chief Information Officer (CIO)”, The Balance, November 2017, https://www.thebalance.com/business-or-it-what-s-the-main-job-of-a-cio-2071252.
[13] Albert Ellis and Lisa Heneghan, “The Creative CIO”, Harvey Nash and KPMG, May 2016, http://www.harveynash.com/group/mediacentre/HarveyNashKPMG_CIOSurvey2016.pdf.
[14] Jason Hiner, “Sanity check: What's the difference between CIO and CTO?”, TechRepublic, June 2008, https://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-sanity-check/sanity-check-whats-the-difference-between-cio-and-cto/.
[15] “Chief Operating Officer – COO”, Investopedia, https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/coo.asp.
[16] Nathan Bennett and Stephen Miles, “Second in Command: The Misunderstood Role of the Chief Operating Officer”, Harvard Business Review, May 2006, https://hbr.org/2006/05/second-in-command-the-misunderstood-role-of-the-chief-operating-officer.
[17] “Crist|Kolder Volatility Report”, Crist|Kolder, 2016, http://www.cristkolder.com/media/1618/volatility-report-2016-americas-leading-companies.pdf.
[18] Steven Ehrenhalt et al., “The Strategist CFO”, Deloitte, https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/finance/articles/cfo-insights-strategist-four-orientations-ceo-boards-expectations.html.
[19] Steven Brown, “Deloitte’s "Four Faces" of a CFO Morphs into Two”, Steven Brown, November 2017, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/deloittes-four-faces-cfo-morphs-two-steven-brown/.
[20] Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman, “What Separates Great HR Leaders from the Rest”, Harvard Business Review, August 2015, https://hbr.org/2015/08/what-separates-great-hr-leaders-from-the-rest.
[21] Steven Brown, “Human Resources Is A Joke?”, Steven Brown, November 2017, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/human-resources-joke-steven-brown/.
[22] “Sales Director Job Description”, The Telegraph, April 2015, https://jobs.telegraph.co.uk/article/sales-director-job-description/.
[23] Modicum, “What You Can Learn From The Top Sales Leader”, Forbes, July 2017, https://www.forbes.com/sites/propointgraphics/2017/07/12/what-you-can-learn-from-the-top-sales-leaders/#74dd2bd95faf.
[24] Steven Brown, “2018 Sales Looking Grim! So What Makes a Great Sales Director that can Turn Things Around?”, Steven Brown, December 2017, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/2018-sales-looking-grim-so-what-makes-great-director-can-steven-brown/.