Amid the continued pressure on logistics organisations to fill their middle-management and procurement jobs, it has been suggested that many of them could soon move to bolster their core leadership teams.
Such a trend has been attributed to a desire on the part of such firms to preserve foundational business knowledge near the top of the company, while delegating a modern organisation’s ever-more complicated functions to in-house, executive-level experts.
It is thought that such changes could result in the creation of many new C-suite positions, adding to such longstanding roles at this level as chief executive officer (CEO), chief operating officer (COO) and chief information officer (CIO).
What is driving companies to expand their management teams?
In a corporate landscape in which many organisations both within and outside the logistics and supply chain sector have been experimenting with holacracy and flattened management structures, there is an emerging anti-middle-management approach.
As Thomas Frey of the futurist think tank DaVinci Institute has commented:
“You can’t be competitive if somebody else has just eliminated this whole layer of management, and suddenly their overhead costs shrink by 10%. As we get rid of middle management, and we’re hiring a lot of freelancers at the bottom, then you have a relatively small organisation, and the people at the top are the harbingers of the high institutional knowledge.”
Frey has suggested that many businesses will struggle to maintain their history, direction and methodology in future without expanding their management team.
However, this is not the only potential driver of a growing C-suite, with another being the current intense competition for top industry talent. Some observers have suggested that organisations will be able to retain key staff more easily by adding new roles to their highest level of management.
Many new C-level titles could be on the way
As firms both within and outside the supply chain industry seek to lure the best candidates with prestigious-sounding job titles, so it seems that we could see a slew of new C-level titles in the years to come.
Whether your own logistics organisation is looking to take on a chief automation officer, chief data officer or chief administrative officer, among the many new titles that have been suggested, it’s clear that the C-suite could be set for considerable change from its traditional structure.
The way businesses interact with their customers has certainly undergone dramatic change over the last 15 years or so, and it seems that some firms have realised the need for a new, broader customer context C-suite as they look towards the future.
