A leadership transformation is underway at the highest levels, swapping precise, silo-based roles for hybrid constructions. The goal: A C-Suite of collaborative, customer-obsessed leaders.
This represents a shift from recent thinking, in which leaders rose through the ranks in sharply defined functional roles. Function created deep expertise, to be sure, but at Egon Zehnder we began to notice a limitation at the top. When evaluating candidates for CEO positions, we had to wonder: Is this candidate truly an enterprise leader, or are they just a world-class CMO? Can a CFO think like a growth strategist? Will a top sales leader consider the balance sheet?
Function talent, so valued in many levels of the enterprise, had become a limiting factor for the most important leadership roles. The job titles emphasized focus over cooperation, and they injected a question mark into CEO succession plans.
In response, forward-looking firms are reimaging key positions – roles that don’t live inside an org box, but instead, exist as a Venn diagram, overlapping and acting as a nexus for relevant themes of the business strategy.
At first, these were ad hoc hybrids, arranged to solve a near-term challenge. As globalization took root and digital transformation accelerated, the lines between functions began to blur. Questions emerged: Who owns the customer — the local team or the global one? The in-store team or the digital interface? New roles sprang up to address the gray space — Chief Digital Officer, Chief Customer Officer, Chief Growth Officer, and more. These were often experiments in real-time.
Now we see function-blending in the C-suite emerging as an intentional strategy. We note new titles that reflect this shift — not just in name, but in purpose and capability:
- Chief Product and Technology Officer – Merging innovation and execution
- Chief Growth Officer – Uniting sales, marketing, and product toward a unified growth agenda
- Chief Experience Officer – Owning the end-to-end customer journey
- Chief Impact Officer – Bringing together sustainability, ESG, and purpose
- Chief AI or Data Officer – Embedding intelligence and automation across the business
As modern leadership challenges grow more complex, the remixing of the C-suite isn’t just inevitable — it’s essential. We must look beyond legacy titles and focus instead on the capabilities, mindsets, and collaboration required to lead today’s organizations. That means nurturing enterprise thinkers, designing integrative roles, and embracing agility as a core leadership muscle.
Hybrid roles at the top provide greater flexibility and fluidity to address complex global challenges. They encourage “customer obsession” throughout the spectrum of company leadership. Most importantly, they drive the enterprise toward collaboration, where the phrase “it’s not my department” is permanently replaced by “we solve it together.”
