What does a Chief Growth Officer do?
What is Business Development?
Wonder why you're losing customers?
It could be your C-suite.
The C-suite of tomorrow may only have three officers...CEO, CFO, and CGO.
Titles like COO or CMO are disappearing or losing their access to the CEO.
Some C-suite titles are now reporting directly to the CGO.
Where did the CGO title come from and where is it going?
The rise of the CGO title follows the meteoric rise of the BD profession:
1923: First Business Developer was hired
1997: First Chief Growth Officer was hired
2011: Aaron Ross first popularized the BDR role
2020: LinkedIn reports CGO is 2nd fastest growing title
2022: LinkedIn reports BDR is 6th fastest growing job
2024: LinkedIn reports CGO is fastest growing title
TODAY...We finally have a proven career path, from entry level BDR to CGO!
The CGO title arose out of necessity...
Industrial Age C-suite failed to account for the customer.
Look at the typical C-suite and ask yourself, "who fights for the customer?"
CEO?...no, they fight for the shareholders
CFO?...no, they fight for return on capital
Industrialist icon, Henry Ford, famously said, “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.”
Industialists could afford that mentality. If a customer was upset, who could they tell? Their close family or neighbor?...and that's as far as it could go.
The Information Age ushered in an era of hyper customer enablement.
Today, an influencer could globally devastate a brand with one post.
In the 2000's, CEO's finally woke up to this new world.
A 2014 KPMG study stated, "72% (of CEOs) say that the focus on growth is more important for their corporations' well-being than a focus on operational efficiencies."
Corporations scrambled to create Customer Experience Officers and Chief Customer Officers.
Unfortunately, CXO and CCO had all the responsibility and very little authority to integrate GTM and delivery teams.
The mission of the CGO is to fight for the customer.
...and the CGO is authorized to grow the corporation by integrating across the entire Business Development Value Chain.
The BD-BOK states, "the mission of the CGO is to allocate corporate resources to maximize customer perceptions of quality and the corporation's value."
Here is how the new C-Suites may work:
CGO drives Long-Term value with Effective allocation of resources.
CFO drives Short-Term value with Efficient allocation of resources.
CEO deconflicts between the growth mindset CGO and the scarcity mindset CFO.
Read comments section for my evidence.
Tony Gray, BDP
P.S. learn more in the “Business Development Body of Knowledge (BD-BOK).” Get your copy of the BD-BOK on Amazon today!
Boost your BD career with the Business Development Professional (BDP) certification from the Global Business Development Association (GBDA).
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