Concept
A chief strategy officer (CSO) is an executive that usually reports to the CEO and has primary responsibility for strategy formulation and management, including developing the corporate vision and strategy, overseeing strategic planning, and leading strategic initiatives, including M&A, transformation, partnerships, and cost reduction. Some companies give the title of Chief Strategist or Chief Business Officer to its senior executives who are holding the top strategy role. The need for a CSO position may be a result of CEOs having less time to devote to strategy and/or to CEOs with less experience with developing strategy (e.g., many start up CEOs) along with uncertain and increasingly complex global environments. All of these factors increase the need for professional strategy development. As a result, the position can be seen in fast moving tech companies, as well in academic, and nonprofit organizations. In recent years, the CSO position increased in popularity in highly professional companies with significant growth and scalability ambitions, which is reflected by the high number of US tech companies (nearly 50% of S&P 500 firms) who created CSO positions in their top management teams. According to a 2013 IBM survey, 67% of CEOs named the CSO as a crucial role–second only to the CFO, and more recent examples and studies by major recruiting firms have shown that CSOs had the highest growth in C-Suite positions being directly elevated to the CEO position. The CSO is an advisory and a deal making role; both a leader and doer, with the responsibility for understanding and formulating corporate strategy from an operational point of view, as well as ensuring that strategic initiatives and the corporate portfolio of businesses are optimized to support the strategy. The CSO must see the issues confronting the company from as broad a perspective as the chief executive does, and the CSO is often heavily involved in operational day-to-day projects working close together with key staff on business critical initiatives in order to utilise proven leadership capabilities and support less senior team members with coaching and deliver based on the CSO's high capacity project management and execution engine.