Who is in today's C-suite?

- According to The Business Dictionary, the C-suite is a term used to describe corporate officers and directors. The name is derived from the use of the letter C in the most high-level positions, such as chief executive officer, CEO, chief financial officer, CFO, chief operating officer, chief human resources officer, chief marketing officer, chief sales officer, you get the picture. According to Investopedia, the C-suite is deemed the most important and influential group of individuals within a company. Now, in order to reach these positions, leadership skills such as establishing direction, driving vision, aligning people, and motivating teams is necessary to achieve performance standards that are acceptable to shareholders and stakeholders. These C-suite players are decision-makers that are uniquely positioned based on their experience, change initiatives, ability to deal with daily pressures, and the use and influence of power to drive their company's performance. These decision-makers are often thinking about four critical Ps in their business, people, productivity, performance, and profitability. In order to make their organizations operate, they commonly deal with dynamic markets, complexity, revolutionary change, and 360-degree pressure. To better understand the importance and the differences and the uniqueness of the various C-suite roles, let's look at both the complex and then a more simplified business example. I'll lead with this complex example, a company that we all know well, Disney. If I asked you to discuss the C-suite, or high-level decision-makers in a company like Disney, where would you start? In March 2019, Disney announced the acquisition of 21st Century Fox for $71.3 billion. Now, in the 2000s, CEO Bob Iger began to diversify the company by completing large acquisitions. Since 1993, Disney has completed 23 acquisitions, including giants like ABC, ESPN, Pixar, Marvel, Hulu, and even Lucasfilm. Can you imagine going into the new Disney without understanding who's actually in the C-suite? The Disney of 2019 looks very different than the Disney of 1923 when they started out as a small animation studio. I started with a complex example to set the stage that we must first understand and do our research before we enter into any conversations with senior leadership. But this course isn't just about complex, multi-billion-dollar corporations. It's also about the smaller companies as well. You know, I was recently in a conversation with the CEO of a mid-market, privately-held technology company that's built and launched an app for the healthcare industry. I jumped on a call with this C-suite leader on a Saturday morning because that was the only time he had available. I quickly realized that this CEO wore the hat of many other traditional functions of the C-suite in his organization. Those roles included chief sales officer, chief human resources officer, chief client relations officer. He also carried other non-C-suite roles, such as product development, product management, and even his own administrative assistant. That Saturday morning, he was discussing his small company that faced many of the same challenges that the CEO of Disney would face. Now, there were certainly differences in the size and scope this company compared to Disney, but ironically, his problems still revolved around the four Ps, people, productivity, performance, and profitability. Now, as we dive deeper into this course, keep in mind, the definition of who is in the C-suite depends on the company, so you have to do your research. Next, don't assume that every C-suite looks the same. Even the same titles can have very different meaning from one company to the next. Finally, recognize that four Ps, people, productivity, performance, and profitability, are the goals of every C-suite position either directly or indirectly. The more you keep these key points in mind, the more impact you'll ultimately have in front of this all-important audience.