The First 90 Days as a Chief Strategy Officer
As a new chief strategy officer (CSO), your success will ultimately be defined by how effectively your strategy office drives strategic direction, gains buy-in, and enables business outcomes. Unlike established functions such as finance, operations, marketing, and sales, the strategy office is often a blank canvas. It seems every company has a unique response to the question, “What should a CSO do?” The answer depends on factors like company size, key success factors, industry dynamics, and strategic goals, as well as governance structures, board composition, chief executive officer (CEO) motivations, and investor expectations.
For many CSOs in the Outthinker Network, the challenge looks less like steering an existing ship and more like building (or rebuilding) it from scratch. To help new CSOs avoid common pitfalls and lay the groundwork for a thriving and effective strategy office, our team at Outthinker Networks has conducted numerous interviews, roundtables, and peer-based challenge forums for our members. In this article, we aim to synthesize insights from the experiences of fellow CSOs. Below, you’ll find a guide to critical success factors for the first 90 days in a CSO role.
Understand the “jobs to be done” for the strategy office
Negotiate which roles your strategy office should handle
Build your strategy team
Forge partnerships with key stakeholders
Develop your “truth council”
Determine your strategy calendar and set expectations with the board
Showcase early wins
Continuously evaluate
Understand the “jobs to be done” for the strategy office
“At the end of the day, no matter who you report to, you work for the CEO. This shouldn’t be surprising because they are the actual Chief Strategy Officer. So, as the proxy for the real CSO, you’d better quickly learn how they think about strategy and what they want the strategy function to do.”
– Eric Goldstein, Chief Strategy Officer, TIAA
The main question when designing a strategy office is: What job should the strategy office primarily get done in the organization? Without clear expectations from the board of directors, CEO, and executive team, the CSO might base decisions on personal assumptions rather than actual needs. Every institution will have a different answer, influenced by its size, complexity, business unit competencies, and the importance of scale. CSOs repeatedly emphasize the need to understand, shape, and align the desires of their executive team to determine where their offices can add the greatest value. For some examples of roles and responsibilities of the strategy office, read our guide: 17 Roles of the Chief Strategy Officer.
Questions to consider:
What does the board of directors want you to change?
What are the levers you can use to drive impact?
What are the CEO’s expectations for the strategy office? Will they take a hands-on or hands-off approach?