C-Suite Roles

​Russell Reynolds Associates’ Inside the Mind of...series addresses the leadership and behavioral attributes of various groups of executives.

Today’s HR team is responsible for tackling challenges as complicated and intermittent as CEO succession planning and process implementation, as strategic as executive compensation and talent acquisition, and as mundane and predictable as payroll, benefits administration and scheduling the company holiday party. Whether through its own lack of business knowledge and strategic initiative, or too broad a scope of accountabilities that often fail to distinguish the strategic from the tactical, today’s Human Resources function continues to get a bad rap.

The Russell Reynolds Associates database allows us to make statistically driven observations about the characteristics possessed by leaders in a particular field. Russell Reynolds compared 36 CMOs from companies totaling more than $1.5 trillion in market capitalization with our broader database of executives (as well as with chief executive officers (CEO) and other C-suite figures) on 60 psychometric scales from well-validated leadership assessments to understand on which scales the CMOs showed statistical differences from the other populations.

Spencer Stuart has spent the last five years analyzing the backgrounds and demographics of CFOs in FTSE 350 companies. Through their detailed knowledge of CFO career paths they offer a unique insight into CFO hiring trends.

Boyden Global Executive Search has released their quarterly Executive Monitor report focused on the rise of Chief Digital Officers. The report finds that organizations are hiring and elevating CDOs to forge new initiatives and digital strategies, build market share, and challenge the status quo.

Korn Ferry surveyed senior communication executives at U.S. companies in the Fortune 500. As the CCO role in the United States continues to expand beyond traditional communication responsibilities, greater demands are placed on executives in these positions to provide leadership; to contribute expertise and leverage relationships to help the C-suite in problem-solving; and to design and implement multichannel communication plans that support their organizations’ transformation and growth strategies.

Russell Reynolds Associates’ research finds characteristics possessed by leaders in various industries. This edition of the report uncovers the leadership and behavioral attributes of the CFO. The findings were found through comparisons of CEOs and CFOs.

Spencer Stuart finds that establishing a new CXO role represents just one approach to achieving these goals; many CEOs prefer to place responsibility for key functions and high-profile initiatives with every member of the senior management team.

To better understand the role of chief information officer (CIO), Russell Reynolds Associates examined data of the 100 largest European companies by revenue.