Board oversight and the executive evolution

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The Governance Lens series offers boards timely overviews and practical recommendations on issues shaping the current business landscape.

One of the board’s many responsibilities is overseeing the CEO. To do that effectively, it can be helpful to understand and monitor C-suite dynamics. Keeping a pulse on the company’s C-suite roles, however, can be an increasingly complex affair.

Deloitte’s analysis of more than 46,000 C-suite job postings by Fortune 500 companies shows that from 2018 to 2023, top leadership teams expanded by an average of 23%, from 6.7 titles to 8.2. With more executives on the leadership team bringing a new mix of skills to the C-suite, the board’s focus on role clarity and decision-making structures grows. Greater headcount and evolving mandates can lead to overlapping responsibilities and other inefficiencies, while gaps in accountability may expose the organization to risks.

A decentralized executive structure with more leaders executing on expanding mandates could signal a need for more coordination from the CEO. Managing the growth agenda and harnessing resources to capitalize on market and customer trends could become more complex. Even managing regulation and compliance may be more complicated with shifting leadership roles as the regulatory environment evolves.

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