C Suite Titles
The corporate world is dominated mainly by a letter, which is C. Yes, you also might motivate your children to study hard so that they can someday become a C. C here goes for chief, meaning the role of a senior manager or executive in an organization. Top officers of a company generally hold C suite titles.
Defining and Understanding C Suite
Corporate executives hold the highest positions of different sections in a company and are only answerable to other C suite role players, the board of directors, and stakeholders.
Roles and Responsibilities
Employees, who enjoy chief officer titles, remain in charge of daily operations and direct the company’s overall function, including operations of individual departments. As the job is quite stressful, they receive high remunerations.
Large companies mostly employ more than one executive; some even share the same roles. So, bagging one of the C suite jobs may not allow one to be an all-in-all of a corporation. Apart from other top-level or C-level executives, there may be founders and presidents to boss over you.
The Changing Picture
Brightest academics have for decades aspired to enjoy chief positions in a company. But the scenario is changing with the valued prospects of thinking big or beyond the traditional chief officer roles. Tech companies and start-ups have contributed the most to the changing picture, and several new C-titles have emerged.
How to Get a C Tag?
There’s no hard and fast rule. The criteria that matter the most are:-
Technical skills
Communicative skills
Decisive mentality
Experience
Academic qualifications
Traditional C-titles
How many chief officer titles a firm will employ depends on its work pattern, mission, and size, among other factors. Most companies generally have these.
CEO- Chief Executive Officer
CFO- Chief Financial Officer
COO- Chief Operating Officer
CMO- Chief Marketing Officer
CIO- Chief Information Officer
CHRO/ CHRM- Chief Human Resource Officer/Manager
Emerging Roles
Recent years are experiencing dominance of technology, sustainability, and customer service in every sector, leading to the creation of modern C suite titles. Most companies nowadays hire Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and call them paranoid-in-chief. The definitions and concepts of the C roles are rapidly changing.
Some of the new C-titles are:-
CTO- Chief Technical Officer
CIO- Chief Information Officer
CTO- Chief Talent Officer
CDO- Chief Digital Officer
CDO- Chief Data Officer
CDO- Chief Design Officer
CCO- Chief Compliance Officer
CSO- Chief Security Officer
CXO- Chief Experience Officer
CPO- Chief Product Officer
CKO- Chief Knowledge Officer
CSO- Chief Sustainability Officer
CAO- Chief Analytics Officer
CDO- Chief Data
CRO- Chief Officer
CLO- Chief Legal Officer
CMO- Chief Medical Officer
CDO- Chief Diversity Officer
CCO- Chief Culture Officer
CHO- Chief Happiness Officer
CGO- Chief Green Officer
There are More
If you look for C suite role, larger and modern organizations may also hire you as a Chief Freelance Relationship Officer, Chief Customer Officer, Chief Storytelling Officer, Chief Inclusion Officer, Chief Budget Officer, Chief Growth Officer, Chief Behavioral Officer, Chief Automation Officer, or Chief Learning Officer.
Have we Gone Far?
Today’s thinkers suggest that the present business world doesn’t need those rigid titles.
Modern companies like to have a CFO as the leading strategist, CMOs to handle all the marketing and business development innovations and ideas, CIOs to look after the information technology/security parts, and CCOs to deal with the customers. Modern-day firms are prioritizing thought leadership more than titles.
More and more companies are demanding each employee become responsible themselves, instead of depending on C-titles.
Another emerging factor that we must recognize is an influencer. Yes, the time has come that you can boast about your son becoming an influencer instead of one of the chief positions in a company.
Last but not least is customer service or support, which is of utmost priority in a business now.
The Final Words
While most of the traditional C suite titles don’t seem to enjoy active roles in daily operations in the long run, CDOs, CTOs, and CCOs will be most relevant. So, the C roles aren’t the peak of anybody’s career, and there are far more in a company from only those heavy titles.
