New kids on the block: The C-Suite is transforming

While I talk about Digital Transformation alot, it looks like the C-suite will go through its own transformation in the coming years. Naturally, the C-suite changes with the organisations direction, strategy and current landscape.

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Additionally, those that leadership rely on will change based on the organisations priorities and stage in a market (entry, growth, harvest, divest etc). I’m happy to see that HRBPs are now closely listened to in certain organisations as talent drives innovation and ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’ as Peter Drucker told us.

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As we have seen over the past century, generations clash and merge like new meeting the in-laws. Millennials have moved out of their parents basement and into management/leadership positions. Older Gen Zs are now entering the workforce, some with advanced digital & data skills are attracting respectable salaries and looking for both purpose and payment is different measures. Baby boomers are now hitting retirement too, while some are sticking around in consulting or non exec board roles, others are sipping vino by the beach (what a life).

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One uniform belief I see with clients and conference attendees is that everyone is agreed on the importance of having the right digital and data skills amongst the workforce. Organisations are developing a baseline digital knowledge and skillset among all staff and then segmenting off based on roles and seniority. Smart organisations are developing adaptive learning pathways that are aligned with employees role, the individuals professional development plan and own strengths/interests. The widespread adoption of GenAI and easy to use interface of ChatGPT has accelerated this. One colleague of mine is a self processed ‘technophobe’ yet lights up when discussing how much time she is saving from using ChatGPT, (it’s great to see).

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But, back to the evolving C-Suite. According to WestMonroe (2024), the Chief Transformation Officer and Chief Diversity Officer roles will be phased out over the next 5 years. Its not to say that transformation or diversity are less important, we have seen titles and reporting structures change as accountability spreads throughout the organisation. Who’s coming up the door? Make way for the Chief AI Officer and Chief Data Officer roles as these will increase in importance in the coming years (WestMonroe 2024).

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At this time, it’s important to take some perspective, AI is in peak hype on Gartner’s hype cycle, VC’s are a lot more critical on placing their AI investments, organisations are still waiting for implementation and scale payoffs, the Mag 7 (Apple, Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta Platforms and Tesla) dominate S&P gains and global spend on digital transformation is expected to exceed $3T next year (2025). Despite recent slowdowns and redundancies, tech is still hot and promising a lot.

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Its possible that in time, these new AI & data roles will expand into something akin to the CIO or CTO roles of old. Digital roles also tend to be heavily influenced by the organisations level of digital maturity which varies based on the organisations stage (growth vs maturity) and across sectors. The impact of these digital roles also depends on the organisations mindset and culture, the ones that tend to win recognise technology as something that enables strategy, it doesn’t drive it. Also, winners appreciate the need for a holistic perspective that sees digital transformation as encompassing people, process, data and technology.

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Rob Farrell

PS: No AI was harmed in the production of this rant.