Strategic advice | August 2024 5 positions to consider adding to your executive team

In today’s fast-paced business environment, the mantra “adapt or die” has never been more relevant—which is why more and more businesses are adding a CIO to their executive team. Not to be confused with a chief information officer, this type of CIO not only leads corporate innovation strategies but also manages innovation ecosystems, advises on new market opportunities, and ensures your company is prepared to handle shifting market conditions and the ever-changing technological landscape.

A good CIO should have the unique ability to blend creativity with logical and achievable strategies. They can look at a situation and see the long-term impact and the specific steps needed to get there. That allows businesses to stay proactive, prepare for market or technology changes, and develop unique and innovative solutions to meet customer needs and stay ahead of the competition.

In the past, the CXO role focused almost entirely on customer service operations, but over the last decade, the role has expanded and evolved significantly. While CXOs are still responsible for understanding and relaying customer feedback to the wider organization, their role extends far beyond that.

Today’s CXO is the voice of the customer for an organization. They understand the customer’s wants, needs, and preferences, and they use that knowledge to influence every step of the customer journey. Whether it’s guiding the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX), helping to build the go-to-market plan, or developing the post-purchase engagement strategy, CXOs work across the entire organization to drive long-term corporate growth—and their efforts are paying off.

According to Forbes, “Not only can customer-centric companies grow their revenues 4% to 8% faster than their market competitors, but they can also reap higher profits compared to their product-centric counterparts.” Why is that so critical? The acquisition of new customers can cost up to five times more than retaining existing ones. A 2% improvement in customer retention is about the same as the profit generated by cutting costs by 10%.^{Disclosure 1}

With an increase in both the sophistication and frequency of fraud and cybersecurity threats, adding a CISO to your C-suite emphasizes the strategic importance of cybersecurity, enhances your organization’s ability to respond to threats, and ensures that security is a foundational component of business operations.

From 2022 to 2023, the incidence of data breaches increased by 20%, and in 2024, each breach cost the company an average of $4.88 million.^{Disclosure 2, Disclosure 3} While a CISO’s role may previously have focused solely on the security of digital and physical information, that’s no longer the case. With the rise of remote work, the expansion of business ecosystems, and the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), the role has become more complex. CISOs can no longer rely solely on their technical skills. They must also have the nontechnical skills to advocate for security protocols across the organization, be well-versed in high-stakes crisis management, and be able to handle a high level of ambiguity.

A CISO can be your first line of defense against increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks—which, if successful, can lead to substantial financial losses and irreparable damage to your reputation.

Data has the unique ability to be both a company’s greatest—and most underused—asset. While the average company has access to data from over 400 different sources, such as transactions, customer interactions, social media, IoT devices, supply chain operations, and more, 90% of them say they struggle to present the data in a usable way.^{Disclosure 4}

By finding ways to make data more widely accessible across an organization, CDOs can become an integral part of how a business can drive innovation, maintain their competitive advantage, design customer touch points, and update internal processes. However, according to Gartner Research, while 90% of large businesses have added a CDO to their C-suite, only 50% consider the role to be a success.^{Disclosure 5}

That confidence level may be misleading, however. While there is a correlation between hiring a CDO and a company’s financial performance, it can be challenging to prove causation. Data provides the foundation that businesses use to be more agile, informed, and innovative, but the outcomes of a data-backed strategy can often be attributed to other business units, such as marketing.

Corporate sustainability is often misconstrued as merely an environmental initiative. In reality, a CSO’s responsibilities go far beyond making sure the company is “going green.” In some cases, CSOs may also oversee the implementation of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, monitor customer satisfaction levels, and ensure employees are being fairly compensated. They’re also often responsible for maintaining health and safety standards, upholding data protection and privacy policies, and ensuring that all customers and suppliers are being treated fairly.

Between environmental concerns, investor interest, and higher consumer and employee expectations, CSOs are no longer just a nicety. Depending on your industry, they may be a necessity. This high-profile role is tasked with finding the balance between innovation, risk management, ethical operations, and business strategy, all while building the internal and external network necessary to drive long-term change for an organization.

While many senior leaders admit to not fully understanding all the intricacies of corporate sustainability, they do understand the overarching importance to the business—which is why the number of CSOs has increased dramatically. In fact, nearly as many CSOs were hired in 2020 and 2021 as were hired in the previous eight years combined.^{Disclosure 6}

Finding a leader dedicated to initiatives like innovation, customer experience, cybersecurity, data, or sustainability signals to your employees and your industry that your company is prepared to be a leader in these areas. It can also free you up to focus on other parts of the business where you may have a stronger skill set. Your Truist relationship manager can provide insights to help you hone your strategy—including whether any of these positions are a fit for your business.ficer (CISO)