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Nowadays, any X we want to hang responsibility of onto a single person (sometimes merely to tick a box and not suffer FOMO or embarrassment of being behind the times, for optics’ sake), becomes a “CXO” role.
- Chief Digital Officer
- Chief Sustainability Officer
- Chief Agile Officer
- Chief AI Officer
Etc. etc.
Now, for most of those values of X, there is probably some value that could be captured, and at the very least some benefits that deserve investigation, even if simply to avoid FOMO.
However, in practice and in the end, each of those roles always supposedly “leads X transformation, builds $CAPABILITYBUZZWORD (i.e., X), and creates value”, and other many big promises that are far removed from reality on the ground, and mostly consumed as jargon by the ivory tower and its consultants / courtesans.
Is it really realistic to talk about a “transformation”, when multiple such roles each pursue their own type of “X transformation”? How many transformations can an organization endure… at the same time, or every so many months, whichever way the winds of hype happen to blow that year or that decade?
When will the “transformation” buzzword die out? Some think it’s still cool and impressive, but it’s increasingly overplayed “corporate cringe” fodder.
This is nothing more than the rise of the “Chief X Officer”, a fad about which I have written extensively .
And it is truly, deeply Deft .
For a heavy-weight source on this trend, refer to IMD publishing the article “How to find a CSO with the range of skills your company needs” .
