Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) Defined

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Framework Primer
Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) Defined
Presentation created by
4.3 4.7 4.0 4.4 3.7 4.0
Ensure corporate
strategy execution
Provide strategic
direction
Manage the business
portfolio
3.4 3.8 3.3 3.4 3.1 3.6
Strengthen
innovation
Enable global
collaboration
Provide
talent

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Contents
Overview
Strategy
CSO Overview and Profile
CSO Performance Measurement
Templates
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Roles of a Chief Strategy Officer has shifted towards being Strategy Hub
Manager—this deck discusses the evolving role and direction of CSOs
Presentation Overview
CSOs’ core task is to orchestrate contributions to strategy—this requires review of current
skills, activities, understanding of their own mission.
Business volatility and uncertainty has challenged the work of our company’s strategy
departments and our Chief Strategy Officers (CSO). A wide gap has opened up between the
value Chief Strategy Officer contributes and what is expected of them.
The future demands that our company’s strategic process should add considerable value. The
new business model requires that our Chief Strategy Officer to orchestrate contributions to
strategy as core task. Strategy work has stopped being the monopoly of the central strategy
office. The work now gets done all over the company.
The future sees the Chief Strategy Officers evolving into Strategy Hub Managers. CSO skill sets
will shift away from pure subject area expertise as communication and social skills acquire
greater significance.
In addition to discussing the evolving role of the CSO, this presentation also discusses the
CSO’s core functional skills, key strategic activities, self-perception of how they add value to the
organization, and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). We also introduce the concept of the CSO
Value Cockpit.
This deck also includes slide templates for you to use your own business presentations.
Source: Revealing the Chief Strategist's Hidden Value, Roland Berger, 2016

Contents
Overview
Strategy
Templates

Business volatility and uncertainty has challenged the value that Chief
Strategy Officer adds to our company
Strategy – Chief Strategy Officer (CSO)
The role of the CSO has evolved, as strategy work has ceased to be a monopoly of the
central strategy office.
Business volatility and uncertainty has challenged the work of our company’s strategy departments and
our Chief Strategy Officers (CSOs).
It should be continually developed, refined, and
responsive to trends and specific corporate context—
even in non-core areas such as “strengthening
innovation.
Strategy work has extended beyond the walls of the
corporate strategy office.
The new business model requires our CSO to
orchestrate contributions to strategy as core task.
The future demands that our company’s strategic process
should add considerable value:
Professional strategists have been
instrumental in elevating the
strategic process to a certain level
of maturity. This is good, but today,
a well-managed strategy process
has done little to keep our company
ahead of the pack.
A wide gap has opened up
between the value CSOs contribute
and what is expected of them.

Strategy work has stopped being the monopoly of the central
strategy office
Strategy – Organizational Breakdown
44% of companies have distributed resources at their disposal for strategy work.
Strategy work has stopped being owned solely by the central strategy office. Instead, the strategy work
now gets done all over the company.
Chief Strategy Officers are central, active nodes positioned between all other strategy workers. They serve as "catalysts," bringing individual contributions
together to form a coherent whole that is worth more than the sum of its parts. The statistics below were synthesized from the 2016 Chief Strategy Officer
Survey of 109 CSOs conducted by Roland Berger and the Institute of Management at the University of St. Gallen.
Source: Revealing the Chief Strategist’s Hidden Value, Roland Berger, 2016
When all operating units contribute to our
strategy, our company gains a greater
advantage.
A global footprint is maintained.
Quick response with suitable strategic
answers to local requirements is
possible.
Our company gets to stay closer to
our customers and markets.
Integration is promoted thus nurturing
stronger motivation among product
business units and regions compared
to if strategy is simply dictated from
the top down.
1
2
3
4
Internal support
No. of employees (median)
Mergers and acquisitions
Alliances and strategic
partnerships
In-house consultancy
Other strategy-related
functions (e.g., innovation)
4.0
3.5
8.0
6.0
Staffing levels at central
strategy offices
No. of employees (median)
Large companies
Medium-sized companies
Small companies
11
5
5
External support
e.g. from consultancies
… is used by more
than half of small
firms and
of large
companies.
79%
Breakdown of strategists across the organization

Contents
Overview
Strategy
Templates

The Chief Strategy Officer’s core task is to orchestrate contributions
to strategy
CSO – Overview
To facilitate change, new methods, new ways of working, and communication paths
must be developed.
A CSO plays a vital role in orchestrating contributions to strategy. Positioned as a corporate
department, their strategic role in plan formulation and implementation has gained greater weight.
CSOs are highly qualified and have spent
most of their career tackling strategic issues.
However, the future sees the Chief Strategy
Officers evolving into Strategy Hub Managers.
CSO skill sets will shift away from pure
subject area expertise as communication and
social skills acquire greater significance.
Our Chief Strategy Officer will be a
“conductor”—leading a “collaborative
orchestra" of strategic work to make sure
that each part gets involved right on cue.

Having a corporate strategy office set up as corporate department
contributes to our company’s success
CSO – Profile
Positioned as a corporate department, strategic planning and the formulation of strategies
and responsibility for strategic initiatives becomes a priority of CSOs.
Most organizations have the corporate strategy office set up as a corporate department.
Based on the 2016 Chief Strategy Officer Survey of 109
CSOs conducted by Roland Berger and the University of
St. Gallen, we’ve found the following takeaways:
72% of CSOs report directly to the CEO.
Only a handful report to other board members such
as the CFO, or to the board of directors as a whole.
Just 1 in 5 CSOs at least has a seat on the
executive board.
Not a single CSO holds an executive board position
in financial services, retail, and consumer goods
companies.
In manufacturing, the number of CSOs in top
management positions is below average.
Having the CSO in top management
contributes to a company's
success.72% of CSOs report directly to
the CEO.
Top performing companies have
one in four CSOs that are
members of the management
board.
One in three companies has a
strategy committee as a
separate unit within its board of
directors.
1
2

CSOs are highly qualified and have spent most of their career tackling
strategic issues
CSO – Skills
One planning cycle extends only over about five years—the maximum staying time
of a CSO in our company.
CSOs are highly qualified and have spent most of their career tackling strategic issues.
35% of our respondents said their
predecessor had been promoted to
top management level.
13% have become either CEO or
joined the executive board.
Only 10% in the strategy depart-
ments stay for more than five years.
As far as functional experience goes,
Finance and Marketing are better
represented than Operations and Research
& Development.
The position of CSO is seen as a stepping
stone to higher things.
Previous experience in specialist departments
% of 2014 2015
44.4
39.2
15.9
19.7
13.5
13.4
10.0
11.9
4.2
4.9
3.9
3.0
8.1
7.9
Strategy
General
manage-
ment Finance
Market-
ing/sales
Opera-
tions R&D Other
Functional Skill Breakdown of CSOs

CSOs do more for our company’s success in the areas of implementation
and performance measurement
CSO – Activities
As strategy hub manager, CSOs communication and social skills becomes
significantly essential.
Decentralized strategists play very little part in core activities. Our Chief Strategy Officers do more for
our company's success in the areas of implementation and performance measurement.
Chief Strategy Officers have no interaction with divisional strategy departments during the
strategy process. Coordination and communication are less important for CSOs.
Yet, more than 50% of CSO’s
time is primarily focused in
coordinating and tracking the
strategy process.
Given the changing strategist
landscape, it is clear that the
function of CSOs is currently in
a transitional phase.
The future Chief Strategy
Officers will be Strategy Hub
Managers.
CSO skill sets will shift away
from pure subject area
expertise as communication
and social skills acquire greater
significance.
Initiatives that CSOs rate as important or very important
Strategy
formulation/
planning
Strategic initiatives
and programs
Sounding board for
CEO/board of
directors
>75%
Competitive
analysis/market
research
New business
model development
Mergers &
acquisitions
Strategy implement-
ation (including
monitoring)
>60-75%
Coordination across
businesses
Strategy communi-
cation to internal
and external
stakeholders
Performance
evaluation of
strategic projects
Strategic alliances
>50-60%
Divestments
CEO/executive
management
assistance for non-
strategy topics
Investor relations
Functional
strategies
≤50

Chief strategists are upbeat on contributing to value added activities
at Corporate Headquarters
CSO – Self-perception
The more widely our company’s strategy capabilities are spread, the more coordination and
collaborative skills are required of CSOs to achieve quality, consistency, and transparency.
Our Chief Strategy Officers perceive themselves taking an upper hand in strategic interventions.
CSOs believe that a
certain authority is
necessary to keep the
strategy process moving,
enable it to assimilate
fresh stimulus and then
quickly disseminate the
outcomes through the
organization. It is the
CSO’s responsibility
to build pressure to
generate action.
Where CSOs see themselves contributing value at corporate HQ
Average on a 1-5 scale (Mean values; 1 = to no extent, 5 = to a very great extent)
4.3 4.7 4.0 4.4 3.7 4.0
Ensure corporate
strategy execution
Provide strategic
direction
Manage the
business portfolio
3.4 3.8 3.3 3.4 3.1 3.6
Strengthen
innovation
Enable global
collaboration
Provide
talent
Current contribution Optimal contribution

Contents
Overview
Strategy
Templates

Capturing value added activities of Chief Strategy Officers are now
fundamentally important in CSO Performance Measurement
CSO Performance Measurement – Overview
The more concrete the expectations, the easier it is to piece together an evaluation system
that creates transparency.
Capturing value-added activities of Chief Strategy Officers are now fundamentally important in CSO
Performance Measurement.
A “CSO Value Cockpit” is required where
strategic performance, CSO performance,
and financial performance are captured.
A CSO Value Cockpit is a multidimensional
approach that best works in a decentralized
structure of strategy work.
The approach utilizes a process checklist
tool that allows our company to go through
a systematic assessment of CSO functions
and identification of indicators.
The newly formulated indicators captures
new tenets in a Chief Strategy Officer
work--efforts to motivate stakeholders to
participate in:
Strategy development
Value-added activities
Coordination and collaboration work
Innovation activities

The evolving Chief Strategist landscape requires measurement of Chief
Strategy Officer’s value added activities
CSO Performance Measurement – Metrics
Firms with effective strategy work invest on rigorous measurement approaches for CSOs
to systematically add value.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and alternative formats are the metrics used for Chief Strategy
Officers’ appraisals. These indicators lay the foundation on which to design management incentives.
CSO Value Cockpit essentially capture critical points of reference for around 3 core areas
of performance measurement:
Traditional KPIs for
CSOs do not focus
on actual value-
added activities.
Instead, a more
strategic approach
is to utilize the Chief
Strategy Officer
“Value Cockpit”
concept.
The Chief Strategy
Officer or CSO
Value Cockpit is an
exhaustive approach
to assessment.
1 2 3
EBIT
Working capital
Turnover
Equity value
EBITDA
Risk adjustment
Return on capital
Growth rates
Operating profit
Product readiness
Product readiness
Market shares
M&A funnel metrics
Third-party recognition of strategy
No. of programs executed
Stakeholder and customer
satisfaction
No. of targets acquired
No. of innovations
Relationship with business
divisions
Successful positioning
Specific strategy developed and
implemented
MBO targets/process
Qualitative evaluations
180/360° feedback
Performance dialog
Continuous feedback
Feedback meetings
Board/chairman/CEO feedback
No. of presentations to the board
No. of (successful) projects
delivered

A decentralized structure of strategy work requires multidimensional
approach of assessing CSO work
CSO Performance Measurement – Checklist
Effectively capturing CSO’s value leads to successful attainments of our company’s
strategic goals and objectives.
A decentralized structure of strategy work requires multidimensional approach of assessing CSO work
through the CSO Value Cockpit.
A process checklist facilitates efficient application of this approach
in the system.
Determine which of the many possible tasks the CSOs should
concentrate on including managing the collaboration hub.
Break down activities into measurable packages translated into
suitable KPIs.
Identify indicators that capture the change in the Chief Strategist’s
landscape.
Efforts to motivate stakeholders to participate in developing
a strategy.
Annual reviews performed in coordination with the heads of
business units.
Extent of outcomes channeled back into the strategy.
Innovative activities to beat the drum for strategy – activities that
get our people to buy into our company’s strategy as their own.
Identify if there are other objectives worth considering. i.e. Should
CSOs concern themselves with promoting innovations?
1
CEO checklist for measuring the CSO’s value
Has the CEO defined clear, unambiguous tasks and goals
for the CSO?
Does performance measurement include financial
indicators?
Does performance measurement go beyond financial
indicators?
Does the catalog of requirements make due provision for
the CSO’s collaboration and coordination activities?
Do valid KPIs exist to measure whether these goals are
achieved?
Does the method used include KPIs that measure both
short-term and long-term effects?
Is a sensible mix of qualitative and quantitative criteria
measured?
2
3
4

Contents
Overview
Strategy
Templates

Insert headline
Strategy Organizational Breakdown – TEMPLATE
Insert bumper.
INTERNAL SUPPORT
NO. OF EMPLOYEES (MEDIAN)
Mergers and acquisitions
Alliances and strategic
partnerships
In-house consultancy
Other strategy-related functions
(e.g., innovation)
4.0
3.5
8.0
6.0
STAFFING LEVELS AT CENTRAL
STRATEGY OFFICES
NO. OF EMPLOYEES (MEDIAN)
Large companies
Medium-sized companies
Small companies
11
5
5
EXTERNAL SUPPORT
E.G. FROM CONSULTANCIES
… is used by more than
half of small firms and
of large companies.
79%
BREAKDOWN OF STRATEGISTS ACROSS THE ORGANIZATION

Insert headline
CSO Functional Skill Breakdown – TEMPLATE
Insert bumper.
Previous experience in specialist departments
% of 2014 2015
44.4
39.2
15.9
19.7
13.5
13.4
10.0
11.9
4.2
4.9
3.9
3.0
8.1
7.9
Strategy
General
Management
Finance Marketing &
Sales
Operations R&D Other
FUNCTIONAL SKILL BREAKDOWN OF CSOSThe content on this page has been partially hidden.

Insert headline
CSO Activities & Initiatives Breakdown – TEMPLATE
Insert bumper.
INITIATIVES THAT CSOS RATE AS IMPORTANT OR VERY IMPORTANT
Strategy formulation/
planning
Strategic initiatives and
programs
Sounding board for
CEO/board of directors
>75%
Competitive analysis/market
research
New business model
development
Mergers & acquisitions
Strategy implementation
(including monitoring)
>60-75%
Coordination across
businesses
Strategy communication to
internal and external
stakeholders
Performance evaluation of
strategic projects
Strategic alliances
>50-60%
Divestments
CEO/executive management
assistance for non-strategy
topics
Investor relations
Functional strategies
≤50

Insert headline
CSO Self-perception – TEMPLATE
Insert bumper.
WHERE CSOS SEE THEMSELVES CONTRIBUTING VALUE AT CORPORATE HQ Average on a 1-5 scale
(Mean values; 1 = to no
extent, 5 = to a very
great extent)
Current
contribution
Optimal
contribution4.3 4.7 4.0 4.4 3.7 4.0
Ensure corporate
strategy execution
Provide strategic
direction
Manage the business
portfolio
3.4 3.8 3.3 3.4 3.1 3.6
Strengthen innovation Enable global
collaboration
Provide
talent

This presentation was created by LearnPPT. We are a team of
management consultants trained by top tier global consulting firms
with a collective experience of several decades. Our documents
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Flevy (www.flevy.com) is the marketplace
for premium documents. These
documents can range from Business
Frameworks to Financial Models to
PowerPoint Templates.
Flevy was founded under the principle that
companies waste a lot of time and money
recreating the same foundational business
documents. Our vision is for Flevy to
become a comprehensive knowledge base
of business documents. All organizations,
from startups to large enterprises, can use
Flevy— whether it's to jumpstart projects, to
find reference or comparison materials, or
just to learn.
Contact Us
Please contact us with any questions you may have
about our company.
• General Inquiries
support@flevy.com
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press@flevy.com
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