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Sometimes called a Chief Strategist, the Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) is responsible for creating and executing corporate strategic initiatives. Their job is complementary to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
People like Steve Jobs may have incorporated aspects of both into their portfolio, but the speed of business, the speed of innovation is so great, and the scope is so large, that it is generally beyond one person in any sizable organization.
Acting as a consultant to the CEO, the CSO is an experienced executive with a history of visionary ideas and successful implementation. This person is a highly creative individual and a collaborator that can motivate; someone who can present an idea and bring everyone on board.
Why Doesn’t the COO Act in This Role?
William W. Wommack made the point in his book The Board’s Most Important Function that “a fundamental conflict between what is easy to execute and what is right to execute often leads the Chief Operating Officer away from the tougher decision.”
There is a specific need for someone who can analyze a company in a way that can lead to increased globalization, or significant innovation, in order to stay competitive. This can be very risky, and is certainly not a COO’s strong suit; his job is to minimize risks and to sustain the company. The CSO’s function is almost diametrically opposed; they locate safe risks for the company to take.
What Does a CSO Do?
The CSO is a communicator with the ability to lay out a strategy that is understood by all. The buy-in can’t be isolated; it has to be wholehearted for the entire organization.
For example: How useful would it be for a company like JiT (Just in Time delivery service) to completely sell the notion of just-in-time delivery only to the executives? Maximizing throughput for companies and minimizing warehousing so that cash flow is at its peak and infrastructure investment is at its minimum won’t work if you don’t sell the shippers and truck drivers and all the associated loaders on the idea, too.
But it doesn’t stop there. You need all the logistics people, the schedulers, the purchasers, and every person in the delivery chain, including your suppliers, to support it. Any weakness in that chain can bring the whole process tumbling down.
CSOs Implement the Plan
Once the plan is created it must be monitored and maintained, from inception to full implementation. It’s not set in stone, and the CSO has to be both flexible and responsive; she must quickly locate bottlenecks and impediments so that they can be dealt with in a timely fashion. She has to determine that strategic units and individual departments are meeting expectations; that their actions are reflecting the key strategic policies of the organization.
The CSO Role as a Coach
CSOs are not necessarily strategists; they are seasoned professionals with a history of strategic thinking and successfully implementing big projects. In many ways they’re mentors helping their executives to think in new ways, to dust out their figurative mental attics and get a new perspective. In many respects they’re coaches teaching people how to think.
Conclusion
CSOs don’t squirrel themselves away from society in some hidden garret of the top of the castle, thinking great hypothetical thoughts and planning years into the future. They are people of action; someone who gets things done.
When recognized and hired, they have the ambition and desire, combined with the mandate and the credentials, to steer a company into profitable new paths. It’s a mistake to think of them as just another executive—they can define a company’s ultimate future!