Chief strategy officer

A chief strategy officer (CSO), or chief strategist, is an executive responsible for assisting the chief executive officer (CEO) with developing, communicating, executing, and sustaining corporate strategic initiatives. Some companies give the title Chief Business Officer to its senior executives who are holding the top strategy role.

Today, many CEOs have less time to devote to executing strategy, while at the same time uncertain environments increase the need for professional strategy development.[1][2] As a result, Chairmen, Presidents, and CEOs in academic, nonprofit and corporate organizations are appointing CSOs.[3][4] In recent years, the CSO position increased in popularity, which is reflected by the high number of US companies (nearly 50% of S&P 500 firms) who created CSO positions in their top management teams.[5]

The CSO is a consultative role; part leader and part doer, with the responsibility of ensuring that execution of the strategy supports the strategy elements. This unique background takes a multitude of different operating experiences, and must include being both a creative thinker and influential collaborator.[6] CSOs are often executives who have worn many hats at a variety of companies or agencies before taking on the responsibilities and tasks that come with the job title.[7][8]

Typical CSO responsibilities include:[9]

• Communicating and implementing a company's strategy internally and externally so that all employees, partners, suppliers, and contractors understand the company-wide strategic plan and how it carries out the company's overall goals.
• Driving decision-making that creates medium- and long-term improvement.
• Establishing and reviewing key strategic priorities and translating them into a comprehensive strategic plan.
• Monitoring the execution of the strategic plan.
• Facilitating and driving key strategic initiatives through inception phase.
• Ensuring departmental/unit strategic planning projects reflect organizational strategic priorities.
• Partnering with institutional leadership, special committees, and consultants to support execution of key initiatives.
• Developing inclusive planning processes.
• Translating strategies into actionable and quantitative plans.
• Mobilizing and managing teams of individuals charged with executing strategies.
• Acting as a resource across an organization to increase broad cohesion for strategic plans.

In terms of the CSO’s role, which varies significantly from organization to organization and evolves over time, the two basic roles strategy developer and strategy implementer are observable.[10] This dichotomy can be further divided into four CSO archetypes.[11]

• Internal Consultant: focused almost exclusively on strategy formulation.
• Specialist: have specialized skills that are not otherwise present within an organization.
• Coach: work to provide information to strategy creators and facilitate communication between teams, team members and stakeholders.
• Change Agents: facilitate and enable.