The New Strategic Leaders: Chief Strategy Officer

In 2003, when IBM was looking at the BRIC countries (the combination of Brazil, Russia, India, and China) as a critical component of its global shift from a products-driven to services-driven strategy, it sent Inder Thukral, the director of strategy for emerging business opportunities at its headquarters, to set up a strategy team- a first for the company. The objective was to ensure that we not only put plans in place but also execute those plans, and bridge the gap between the global and country level strategies.

People like Thukral are front runners for an emerging corporate role generally called the chief strategy officer (CSO), and run what is known as the Office of Strategic Management (OSM), a central apex body that assimilates, integrates and aligns the strategic objective of the company across its businesses, locations and employees.

For sometime now, CSOs have been the flavour of the season for many companies. As companies are growing fast and going global, the need for a common language, culture and direction are more pronounced than ever before, and the OSM fulfils this need. More significantly strategy heads are becoming catalysts in the transformation of these companies into globally competitive giants.

Now it is more of the strategic questions that are being asked like change of environment, change of industry, and how the company is responding to these changes. While there is a well defined and robust process of global strategy formulation at each business unit there is also a strong need for consistency across the group. The role spans three dimensions – analytical, creative and organizational/political. The last aspect, which involves interfacing with most functional areas from HR to marketing to finance and sales, is most challenging and demanding. To this aspect strategy chiefs don the mantle of change agents and play a big role in the transformation of companies.

Taking the strategy forward calls for execution skills and the ability to manage relationships with various business units and line functions. For successful strategic leaders, strategy and execution are two sides of the same coins as the distinction is artificial.

With dramatic changes taking place, CSOs have to be constantly evaluating the environment beyond the usual metrics of business and looking out for the bigger, global shifts that can impact their company’s success in the future. Now strategy is always evolving and dynamic. It is not about plans. It is about scenarios.