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C-Suite Job Titles: What Do They Really Mean?

How to make sense of the slew of new C-suite titles.

Written by: Steven McConnell, Community MemberUpdated Oct 21, 2024
Shari Weiss,Senior Editor
Business.com earns commissions from some listed providers. Editorial Guidelines.
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We’re all familiar with executive titles like CEO, chief financial officer (CFO) and chief operating officer (COO). But are you acquainted with your business’s chief experience officer or chief relationship officer? New C-suite titles attempt to describe leadership skills, job roles and position functions more accurately, but the acronyms and their designations can be confusing. We’ll look at traditional and modern C-suite job titles and share their meaning in today’s businesses.

What is the C-suite?

The C-suite (“chief” suite) is a term used to describe an organization’s top senior executives. These high-ranking employees are in charge of big-picture thinking for various departments. For decades, aspiring to the C-suite meant working toward half a dozen jobs; however, over the past several years, new titles have emerged as tech companies — and countless startups — began sprouting up.

Traditional C-suite roles

A company’s number of C-level positions depends on several factors, like its size, industry and mission. At the very least, most companies have about seven primary titles. 

Here’s a breakdown of these traditional C-suite roles.

CEO

The CEO is the highest-ranking C-suite member and acts as the face of the organization. They can have various leadership styles but typically consult other C-suite members before making major business decisions.

TipBottom line
CEOs must have five presentations ready to go at any given moment, including an investor pitch, vision pitch, board update, announcement speech and thought leadership keynote.

CFO

The CFO works closely with the CEO and oversees the organization’s finances and financial accounting. They help the organization weigh the financial benefits and risks of potential opportunities. All members of the finance team and accounting department ultimately report to the CFO.

COO

The COO is typically the second in command (after the CEO) and focuses on business operations and human resources (HR)-related functions. The COO oversees operations relating to recruitment, employee training, payroll, compliance and administration.

Chief marketing officer (CMO)

The CMO serves as the head of the marketing department. They set organizational marketing goals, create marketing plans and oversee marketing operations relating to advertising, branding and public relations.

Chief information officer (CIO)

The CIO leads the organization in information technology (IT). In addition to possessing leadership and business skills, this executive has technical skills, such as coding, programming and project management.

Did You Know?Did you know
There's some overlap between CMO and CIO responsibilities. CIOs evaluate and implement the organization's tech solutions, but CMOs who lead marketing initiatives also have a vested interest.

Chief HR officer (CHRO)

The CHRO is similar to the COO. However, their focus is directly on HR management and culture initiatives instead of overall business operations. Smaller organizations may need only a COO while larger organizations tend to have both.

General counsel (GC)

The GC, also known as a chief counsel or chief legal officer, is a corporate attorney who heads up all the organization’s legal matters, including business lawsuits.

FYIDid you know
Smaller companies may opt to develop a relationship with a business lawyer instead of having a general counsel on staff.

Modern-day C-suite roles

As technology, customer service and sustainability gained vital importance in business, leaders saw a need to create additional C-level positions to manage these functions. Designating someone to one of these C-suite positions shows employees, customers, vendors and investors that the company considers that particular area to be of the utmost importance. 

Here are some of today’s popular modern C-suite roles. 

Chief data officer

The chief data officer is responsible for overseeing data-related business functions, including data management, data quality, data strategy, data analytics and business intelligence. They use the data as an asset to draw valuable business insights.

Chief technology officer (CTO)

A CTO, not to be confused with the CIO, is responsible for managing an organization’s technology solutions. They help solve technology-related problems and implement new tech solutions to help the organization move forward.

Chief product officer (CPO)

The CPO, also known as the head of product or vice president of product, oversees any product-related business activity, including product creation, product labeling, product launches and product quality. They are responsible for ensuring the organization creates a valuable product for consumers and the business.

Chief analytics officer (CAO)

The CAO is similar to the CDO in that they are responsible for collecting and analyzing business data. Although the CDO is primarily responsible for driving value from data and the CAO is responsible for driving insights from data, the two positions are sometimes merged to create the chief data analytics officer.

Chief design officer

Although the chief design officer may share an initialism with the chief data officer, the two serve very different purposes. The chief design officer is responsible for overseeing any innovation or design aspects of an organization’s product or service.

Chief experience officer (CXO)

The CXO, also known as the customer experience officer, focuses on that — a great customer experience. Their responsibility is to ensure that the organization’s consumers have a good experience with the products or services offered.

Did You Know?Did you know
A truly delightful customer experience includes an integrated, omnichannel customer service strategy that handles customers' needs where it's most convenient for them.

Chief sustainability officer (CSO)

The CSO is responsible for overseeing an organization’s environmental programs and sustainable business model. They analyze the business’s current processes and create strategies to improve their sustainability and long-term impact.

Chief relationship officer (CRO)

The CRO is responsible for high-level relationships with strategic partners, sales channel partners and business development organizations. This person ensures the company’s values and vision are expressed properly in these vital relationships and oversees related sales and revenue-producing activities across the company.

Chief happiness officer (CHO)

Businesses that want to improve employee retention are employing CHOs. These executives focus on ensuring that employees are happy and satisfied. [Related article: How Companies Can Change Their Culture to Attract (and Retain) Millennials]

Kraig Kleeman, founder and CEO of CEO Branding Worldwide, explained, “This shows that the company cares about the well-being of its employees. With so much focus today on mental health, work-life balance and employee satisfaction, there is a lot to be said for a member of senior management whose primary responsibility is to ensure employee satisfaction. This communicates to employees and outsiders that the company invests in its people, not just its products.” 

FYIDid you know
In a survey of C-suite executives and business owners from the Business Journals Research Intelligence group, nearly half (47 percent) said their companies needed to expand strategic partnerships to achieve profitable growth.

Why C-suite job titles need to adapt

A rigid corporate infrastructure can stifle a modern, growing company. In contrast, letting C-suite job functions evolve keeps organizations agile and ready to pivot to emerging trends. 

Here are a few reasons why C-suite job titles must adapt.

1. Big-picture thinking is bigger than the CEO.

Big-picture thinking was once limited to the CEO. Today, this is no longer the case. A strong leadership team that understands the fundamentals of business along with niche specialties can work together to lead an organization into the future. 

For example, CFOs are no longer just about number-crunching; they must be true company strategists. CMOs handle more than marketing initiatives. They have input into innovation, product development, sales and marketing across multiple platforms. 

2. The future of corporate structure looks flatter.

In 2015, American entrepreneur Brian Robertson saw a need to eliminate middle management from his Philadelphia-based software startup. It was an idea that spread across Silicon Valley — and the world — to become known as holacracy, a self-management system that distributes power among employees and teams. 

The most famous example of this theory in action is Zappos. Other examples include video game company Valve and book subscription firm Blinkist. Online platform Medium ran with a holacratic system until 2016, when it opted for a structure that included a blend of management systems.  

Whether or not companies embrace holacracy, many are open to hybrid management systems and new trends that won’t work with a rigid corporate structure. 

3. Businesses need thought leaders to direct growth.

According to research from PwC, over 77 percent of CEOs say creative thinking is the most important leadership quality. However, a rigid C-suite doesn’t foster the necessary creativity and innovation a growing company needs. Expanding C-suite job titles and functions helps attract the out-of-the-box thinkers and new perspectives companies need to stay ahead of industry trends and business innovations.  

Creative C-suite titles may attract ambitious free-thinkers eager to enact change and grow their careers. 

4. The customers’ needs are taking center stage.

Newer C-suite titles are tailored to customer needs. For example, CXOs aim to create an ideal customer experience and CPOs focus on product elements that will best appeal to a target audience. Even traditional C-suite titles are keeping customers’ needs top of mind. For example, CMOs create marketing strategies designed to appeal to target audiences. 

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Written by: Steven McConnell, Community Member
I'm a digital marketing wingman to bootstrapped startups; I specialise in helping them grow from $100K to $5m in revenue. Currently, I'm the Marketing Director at Arielle Careers and the business has grown on average 350% every year for the past 4 years.
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