More roles, more responsibilities: Navigating the new frontiers of the modern C-suite

What’s driving the C-suite expansion?

Our analysis found two overarching trends unfolding in the executive suite (figure 1). First, within Fortune 500 companies, top leadership teams grew 23% on average (from 6.7 executives to 8.2) from 2018 to 2023. In tandem, our job posting analysis shows the number of skills executives are asked to bring to the table for more established positions (chief financial officer, chief human resources officer, and chief operating officer, for example) increased more than 20% over the same five-year period—oftentimes in areas outside of the position’s historical mandate.

In addition to our quantitative analysis, we interviewed seven business leaders who have entered new executive roles at their organization (for example, an organization’s first chief sustainability officer), executives whose titles changed to acknowledge an increase in cross-functional responsibility (for example, a chief strategy officer who recently became the chief strategy and impact officer for their organization), and executive recruiters who are helping organizations fill these roles on the open market. From our conversations, we see a C-suite that feels constant pressure to redesign their executive teams to better respond to a dynamically changing environment—both at the operational and strategic levels.

There’s a consensus among the leaders we interviewed that today’s C-suite has no choice but to evolve and expand to effectively address their current business environments. Although the motivations behind the expanded C-suite are somewhat specific to the needs of the organization—ranging from new operational considerations to more strategic aspirations—three underlying drivers appear to be catalyzing the current C-suite expansion.

Driver 1: Keeping pace with the growth agenda

As organizations look to grow their business, new complexities can emerge in managing that growth. Organizations are infusing new, more specialized leadership to prevent these complexities from slowing their momentum. Consider CBRE, a global commercial real estate company. As CBRE grew over the last decade through various acquisitions, the business expanded in both size and scope. CBRE seeks to optimize its function across different businesses and geographies—and that started with investing in more focused leadership. In response, CBRE promoted Maria Minetti as its chief operating officer for their global finance department, in addition to the role of chief tax officer that she’s held since 2022. As Minetti explains, “Just like we as humans are constantly evolving and transforming, your organizations and your strategy need to evolve to meet commercial needs.”

It’s also about preparing the organization to deal with growing complexities and to better harness its resources to capitalize on emerging market and customer trends. Kristin Deutmeyer, global head of the marketing, sales, and strategy officers practice for leadership advisory firm Heidrick & Struggles, suggests many of the firm’s clients are establishing new roles, like chief commercial, customer, and growth officers, to more clearly define customer focus and gain strategic advantage. Further, Deutmeyer explains these new roles can act as a signal to both internal and external stakeholders of where the organization is headed and what it is prioritizing for future growth opportunities. However, she says new roles shouldn’t just be about titles but should be tied to strategy and focused outcomes.

Driver 2: Managing regulation and compliance

As the regulatory environment continues to shift on a global scale, organizations keenly understand the need to ensure they are at minimum compliant, and at best, positioned to flourish in these new regulatory environments.¹ Organizations expect their current C-suite to be well-versed in the regulatory implications of their initiatives while also investing in dedicated leadership roles that have the subject matter expertise to ensure enterprise-wide compliance.

Dan Goldenberg, Deloitte’s chief sustainability officer-in-residence and former head of sustainability and corporate social responsibility at the gaming company, Activision Blizzard, suggests that, for many companies, the complexities around sustainability compliance require a dedicated leadership function. Take, for example, the European Union’s corporate sustainability reporting directives that require organizations to report the impact of their environmental and societal activities. As Goldenberg explains, these wide-ranging reporting needs require “engagement from your entire C-level and board of directors on setting and publicly stating your sustainability priorities.”

We are already seeing this change impact a wide range of executive roles. In our job postings analysis, nearly every role analyzed demonstrated greater demand for regulation and legal compliance backgrounds—and significantly more so than just five years ago (figure 2).²

Driver 3: Harnessing the power of digital solutions

By now we are collectively aware of the all-encompassing nature of digital solutions built on emerging technologies, growing data volume, and generative AI. As a natural offshoot, the C-suite is transforming in step. Jeff Constable, managing partner for executive recruiting firm Korn Ferry’s New York office, notes, “Data and technology are no longer just support functions. They are now at the core of business strategy. Tomorrow’s leaders need to be proficient in harnessing data, leading digital transformations, and understanding how these elements shape competitive advantage.”

Further, as businesses provide more digital services to their end users, there’s an elevated need to connect multiple executive roles. As such, many of our interviewees discussed the need to collaborate with their cyber and information technology leaders to ensure their end products are not exposing the customer to cyber breaches. These can vary from digital commercial products to new health care capabilities that need to balance patient care with secure data.

Pinpointing the challenges of an expanded C-suite

While new executive roles are usually born from operational or strategic needs, they represent an entirely new frontier of leadership dynamics for an organization’s C-suite. And even with the best plans and intentions, our interviewees routinely affirmed two broad sets of challenges to new role integration.

A lack of role clarity challenges collaboration

Behind the motivations for redesigning the C-suite are myriad challenges that can hinder organizational communication and collaboration. These challenges can manifest in at least two key ways.

• Silos hindering cross-functional collaboration: Every leader interviewed emphasized the challenge of breaking down organizational silos. Vishal Kalia, chief strategy and impact officer for global pharmaceutical company Indivior, suggests these silos are born not from leaders trying to protect functional responsibilities, but rather from a lack of role clarity that can emerge when new roles are infused into the organization. For this reason, Kalia suggests it can be helpful to define who (and which functions) owns each dimension of the enterprise strategy.
• An unintended overlap of responsibilities: Counter to silos are the unintended confusions created by seemingly overlapping titles (for example, does a newly created chief data officer role own the enterprise data strategy or does it still sit within the chief information officer’s function?). “Without clearly defined roles, there is a risk for misaligned expectations and unforeseen inefficiencies overlapping with existing roles that create friction,” says Deutmeyer.

This may be especially true for Fortune 500 organizations, where our analysis shows certain functions are experiencing an explosion of new C-suite titles within the top leadership team. Consider the following: From 2018 to 2023, C-suite roles within the environmental, social, and governance function increased 230%; communications and public relations roles increased 133%; legal roles increased 127%; and strategy roles increased 94% (figure 3). Organizations will likely need to think deeply about how these roles will be differentiated and collaborate with their more established functional counterparts. Whereas previously, many of these functions reported up to the C-suite (for example, a vice president of communications reported to the chief marketing officer), these specialists are now “chief” level roles in their own right.

Whether it’s an issue with silos or role overlap, all the leaders interviewed stressed the importance of setting clear goals, mission, and communication.

The talent shortage of unprecedented roles

Even if an organization designs the optimal role, it still needs to find the right person to fill the position. But it’s not always clear who should fill a role as many of these new positions are born out of an emerging need. The leaders we interviewed identified two areas that can lead to a gap between organizational aspiration and the talent to drive those aspirations forward.

• Succession can be a multiyear development process. For many organizations, the ideal way to fill a new leadership position is through a natural successor. But finding a successor for even an established role can be a challenge.³ That challenge can be magnified when the definitions of the role are actively transforming. Take the chief financial officer as an example. Korn Ferry’s Jeff Constable explains that many CEOs he speaks with are looking for finance to deploy more predictive analytics and scenario planning to better inform their financial planning function. These are often new, forward-looking skills for an established role, where Constable says, “It’s not necessarily that the sub-functions of finance have changed. There’s accounting and treasury and tax and investor relations.” These established career paths make finding—and developing—the “modern” CFO a long-term investment.
• A mismatch may exist between new leadership skills and legacy teams. Even when the organization finds the right executive to lead their function into the future, it doesn’t mean the legacy teams are equipped with the same skill sets or change mindset to carry out that vision. Several of the leaders interviewed reflected on the amount of energy required to communicate the vision and how, psychologically, it’s important to demonstrate the opportunities these new initiatives would create for the team in order to combat the human inclination to resist change. That is, if people are used to—and comfortable with—how their role was historically defined, it can be difficult to sell them on the need to change the scope and responsibilities of the evolving function. For instance, in the finance function, workers may be asked to shift their work from personally analyzing data to develop balance sheets and cash flow statements to learning how to properly prompt generative AI tools to analyze data sets to create those same reports—something that will require new skills and a shift in how work is accomplished.⁴

Paving the path for the modern C-suite

Between the drivers of C-suite growth and expansion and the corresponding challenges, the leaders we interviewed collectively called out a variety of areas where organizations can focus their efforts to help ensure the successful integration of emerging skills and roles. Broadly, these recommendations fall into three different strategic areas.

Strategy 1: Preparing the existing C-suite for change

Almost every executive will likely feel the impact of an evolving C-suite. Beyond those whose roles will directly change, others in more static positions will likely need to begin collaborating with new members of the C-suite to push forward joint initiatives. To prepare the existing C-suite for change, consider the following steps.

• Zoom out to zoom in. Strategic planning might not feel like a developmental process on the surface, but it can signal where the organization is heading, what skills will be needed to deliver on that plan, and importantly, which functions need to be most closely aligned to turn that plan into reality. This process of zooming out first, then adjusting throughout a shorter time horizon affords the organization sufficient time to gather enterprise-wide insights and determine the proper collaboration points and offers a longer buffer into the necessary lead times to invest in the right skills that can turn plans into action.

The pharmaceutical industry may offer an example of this kind of strategic planning in action. As Vishal Kalia of Indivior explains, “In pharmaceuticals, the lead times [to develop new treatments] are so long that you have to look 10 years out, rather than at shorter periods [like quarterly or annual T plans].” For this reason, Indivior builds out a 10-year plan, but refreshes that plan annually. It provides a “clear process of insight gathering, but more importantly, it creates the backbone of the company’s operating structure,” Kalia adds.

• Invest in peer buy-in. Similarly, CBRE’s Maria Minetti emphasizes the considerable amount of legwork required to gain peer buy-in when launching a new team or department. When Minetti developed her strategy to build cross-function consensus, she “shared it [the plan] when it was in its infancy with my peers … I brought them along in building the mission and the vision.” Minetti acknowledges that challenges still arise, but investing in the relationships clears the way for open communication and a deeper understanding of what the team is trying to collectively achieve.

Strategy 2: Identifying—and fostering—key collaboration points

Despite the overarching nature of these new leadership initiatives, some functions routinely come to the forefront of activating cross-enterprise initiatives. As such, the leaders interviewed discussed identifying those most relevant to their success and how they are redesigning their teams to integrate these groups.

• Pinpoint the “super” collaborators. When we asked leaders which functions are most relevant to the success of these new roles, a few stood out: finance, legal, human resources, and technology and data teams. Take technology as an example: Kalia says he believes the intersection of technology and market strategy will drive the next phase of leadership. “Leaders must not only understand digital transformation but also know how to integrate it into the broader business model,” he says.

Further, we see in our Fortune 500 analysis that these functional areas are also experiencing the greatest clustering of dual-titled executives, perhaps a signal their remit is cutting across multiple functions within the organization (figure 4). In the legal function, 67% of the executives on the top leadership team have a dual title (for example, chief legal officer and corporate secretary); 48% of ESG executives (chief human resource and diversity officer, for example); and 27% of the technology executives (chief information and technology officer).

• Prepare for a potential C-suite consolidation to streamline strategy and maximize CEO impact. While the business landscape is generally going through a period of C-suite expansion, the pendulum may inevitably swing toward a consolidation phase. As the C-suite expands, so does the number of executives reporting directly to the CEO. However, as new dimensions begin to cut across various teams, CEOs may look to establish one overarching role that directs these more nuanced executive roles. Constable says that some of the best CEOs find a way to focus their teams and maximize their ability to direct the future of the organization. Constable points to the technology function as an example of a potential area for consolidation on the top executive team where numerous roles outside of the CIO emerged (for example, chief technology officer, chief digital officer, and chief cyber officer, to name a few). But as data continues to become a key technology and strategy enabler, some organizations may seek to establish a single role, like a chief data officer, as the new overarching leader of the enterprises’ technology function.

Outside of technology, organizations may want to assess whether any of these new roles can better act as the overarching orchestrator of key strategic initiatives that impact multiple facets of the organization.

Strategy 3: Identifying and developing future executives

Finally, many organizations are already taking steps to bolster their ability to identify and develop successors to the C-suite. These include moving away from traditional career pathing and prioritizing the development of a more enduring set of skills that can be applicable to any era of change.

• Foster a more diverse skill set with rotational programs. The linear functional path to the C-suite may not be as clear as it was in the past. Between the pressure to come to the position with a more diverse skill set and the elevated importance of cross-functional collaboration, more organizations are implementing senior leadership rotational programs.

Sara Panarese, an executive recruiter for financial officers at Korn Ferry, sees more companies rotating executives across various positions as a form of “role swapping.” These rotations offer executives a broader enterprise perspective that can be essential for cultivating more versatile leadership—and potentially even pave a pathway to becoming a future CEO.

• Cultivate enduring human capabilities. In Deloitte’s 2024 Human Capital Trends report, the authors note the need for organizations to emphasize the development of “enduring human capabilities” to fully unlock transformational technologies, like generative AI.⁵ While technical skills like data analysis or programming will continue to evolve, the need for uniquely human capabilities like curiosity, agility, emotional intelligence, and resilience will likely always be necessary for high-impact leadership.

Similarly, when we asked leaders what skills will be most important for future leaders to possess, the consensus across each conversation mirrored many of those enduring human capabilities. They include:

o   Collaborative problem-solving: The issues executives need to address today often span beyond a single team or function. These will often require “the ability to collaborate in a productive way, being able to be accountable for something … Really be a problem-solver alongside your peers,” says Maria Minetti, chief tax and operating officer at CBRE.

o   Critical thinking and communication: As much as gaining access to new technological capabilities, leaders will also have to think critically about where they can best be deployed across the organization. “Leadership, communication, critical thinking, those skills are going to win the day,” says Kristin Deutmeyer, global head of the marketing, sales, and strategy officers practice at Heidrick & Struggles.

o   Influence: More than methodologies and tactics, “success boils down to being able to map out your stakeholders, engage and influence them to partner,” says Dan Goldenberg, chief sustainability officer-in-residence at Deloitte.

o   Growth mindset: Leaders will need to continually evolve their skill sets to maximize their functional impact. “The successful people coming on have a growth mindset … celebrating learnings while not celebrating failures, but celebrating the learning of being more human,” says Vishal Kalia, chief strategy and impact officer at Indivior.

While we’ve seen C-suite leadership teams grow in size in recent years, along with an increase in the number of skills expected of leaders in those roles, it will take an enterprise-wide effort to ensure these roles seamlessly integrate into the organization and, at its pinnacle, lead to new avenues of growth—regardless of the uncertainties ahead.