Suppose you ask most CEOs to draw an organisation chart for the entity they lead (regardless of the industry).

In that case, they usually populate it with the standard or perhaps traditional C-suite executives such as Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Chief Information Officer (CIO), Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and hopefully a Chief People Officer (CPO) too. There is also often a Chief Operating Officer under various matrix reporting models.

In recent years, we have noticed a final box that has regularly popped up.

Entities use all sorts of weird and wonderful (and often long titles) for this position but I like to call it the Chief Everything Else Officer (CEEO).

This role often takes responsibility for all the functions that don’t necessarily and neatly fit in a traditional C-Suite portfolio.

It may contain a cluster of functions such as growth, innovation, continuous improvement, governance, risk, quality, new business, business development and transformation, stakeholder relationships, strategic partnerships…

The interesting aspect of this phenomenon is that it often covers some of the most important and difficult parts of running the business.

Ironically, the incumbents in some of these diverse positions are often incredibly clever, agile and high-impact executives who love their challenging jobs.

So, consider if your business has one and/or needs one and, if not, who is definitively and ultimately responsible for those functions.

Otherwise, something vital is bound to fall through the cracks, slide down the to-do list, or be classified as “someone else’s problem”.