How the C-suite got so bloated

As businesses get larger and their responsibilities more complex, the executive suite has doubled in size. How big is too big?

The C-suite was once staffed by a few predictable titles: the chief executive officer at the top, plus a cabinet comprising the chief financial officer, chief operating officer and the general counsel. In recent decades, the chief technology officer has joined the executive team.

Yet the executive suite has gotten much bigger. A corporate masthead may include chiefs of compliance, commerce, artificial intelligence, brand, integrity, innovation, information security, data, privacy, growth, marketing, development, sustainability, wellness and revenue. The chief diversity officer was the fastest-growing C-suite position in 2020 and 2021, according to a 2023 LinkedIn survey.

“There is no question that we’re seeing different C-suite roles come to the fore, and the elevation of roles that were historically minus two from the CEO, which are now direct reports,” says Adam Wood, senior client partner for global financial markets at executive consulting firm Korn Ferry.

The expansion of the executive management team at companies worldwide reflects the growing size and complexity of business, and the greater risk firms are exposed to. Yet more points of view in the C-suite don’t necessarily make for better business.

The first catalyst for C-suite expansion, says Wood, is the digital revolution – a new wave of technology that’s not only changed how businesses operate, but who is operating them. “So much of digital transformation is data, and we’re seeing the chief data officer become absolutely integral to decision-making on strategy, growth, new markets and how they deal with consumers,” says London-based Wood.

For instance, a chief data officer might have reported to the chief technology officer five years ago, but they now sit among the top brass. And as new technology has introduced new questions – such as the responsible use of artificial intelligence – it has also led to specialisation in the executive quarters, says Michael Griffiths, who advises on workforce transformation at consulting firm Deloitte. Some firms now have chief AI officers and chief data officers working alongside their CTOs in the same C-suite.

Evolving technology hasn’t only introduced new procedures and strategies – it’s also enabled firms to get much bigger, drawing in revenue exponentially larger than a few decades ago. “Once upon a time, being a really big company meant you had $100 million in revenue. Now you’re talking hundreds of billions,” says John Bremen of management consulting firm WTW, where he advises executives and corporate boards.

The C-suite has swelled in proportion to business growth, to handle the additional, often niche operations of progressively complex businesses. But another major catalyst for the addition of executives is handling greater corporate risk – both legal and reputational – while organisations grow. 

“Corporations are forced to interact with us in a different way,” says Alison Taylor, clinical associate professor at NYU Stern School of Business. “People are far more willing to speak up, to challenge leadership, to leak damaging internal information into the public domain and, in general, far more willing to try and hold leaders accountable in the public square.”

As a result, some companies have added chief culture officers or chief integrity officers, executives who can fill a public-facing role to manage reputation and protect corporate value. Risk now exists “next door to the CEO”, says Korn Ferry’s Wood. “The chief risk officer, which will oversee all of those risks, will be critical to the business going forward, and in most of those [government] regulated sectors, managing the regulator as well.”

For some new additions, their job is not to answer for their department, like a chief financial officer answers for the business’s profit and loss statement, but instead to influence the decisions and habits of other executives. A 2021 report by the World Economic Forum documents the popularity of the chief integrity officer, whose job is to safeguard against all sorts of malfeasance, from fraud to corruption to ethically-dubious behavior. “Nowadays, meeting minimal legal commitments is far from sufficient for a company that wishes to be trusted and ethical,” the report reads.

Some CEOs are stacking the executive ranks because their own roles have changed. In part, the job is harder now, says Taylor. Chief executives have been highly public figures for decades – but now, every CEO is expected to have an opinion on political, social and environmental matters. “They are in the face of the public and the consumer a lot, and therefore can trip up in those situations,” says New York-based Griffiths. A robust executive management team can be a steely bumper in a collision-packed world. 

Operating a company is also different now, and far more complex. “Today’s businesses are so global and diffuse, and the challenges they face so complex and unpredictable, that no CEO – no matter how personally impressive – should make judgment calls in isolation,” writes Taylor in her book Higher Ground, about doing business in the midst of ever-changing ethical and social challenges. CEOs need to surround themselves with a diverse, specialised group of leaders to supplement their knowledge and help them tackle challenges.

Yet Taylor believes this hypervigilance can go too far. “There is a tendency in corporate life to say that when a new problem comes up, we need a ‘chief something officer’,” she says. The problem is that the appointments of new leaders don’t always come with sincere commitments for change or outlined purposes.

It follows, then, that the purview of some new roles is nebulous, says Griffiths. “Chief ethics officer, chief culture officer, chief agility officer, even chief digital officer, it’s really hard to pin down exactly what they are responsible for. They sit everywhere and nowhere.”

Large executive teams find it harder to take decisions, according to Bremen of WTW. The bigger the team, the less likely they are to be in the same office or build rapport daily, and communication is difficult, he says. As reporting relationships become complex, it can become unclear which executive has final decision-making power.

“When there’s a small group, it’s very clear who owns decisions on what, but as things get larger, there’s overlap,” he says. “There’s overlap between, say, a chief technology officer, a chief risk officer, a chief human resource officer and a chief compliance officer. They may all own pieces of decisions that have to be made together.”

Many C-suites are two-tiered, with a secondary level flush with chiefs who report into other chiefs – for instance, a chief culture officer who reports into the chief human resources office.

Not every new position in the C-suite will be a permanent one. As the needs of the business change and new technologies become commonplace, some positions can be phased out, consultants say. “Do we really need the chief AI officer that’s going to be on our board or C-suite for the next 20 years?” says Griffiths. “Or should we use that as a fractional role that we bring on for a period of time to get us in the right place?”

However, solving for boated C-suites isn’t as simple as cutting down the number of positions, or restoring the structures of decades prior. While Wood believes there is a “critical triangle” of CEO, CFO and either COO or CTO, depending on the firm, the complexity of business persists, and firms remain answerable to new stakeholders on all sides – no matter the size of the C-suite.

“You’ve got a combination of new issues that don’t fit neatly into any existing departments,” says Taylor. “All of our most interesting corporate challenges at the moment cut across departments and cut across traditional functions.”