Revealing the chief strategist's hidden value : How CEOs can measure their CSOs' performance - Chief Strategy Officer Survey 2016

The work of strategy departments and all who are responsible for the strategy planning process has not got any easier in recent years. The context in which strategic plans must be formulated has grown less stable. Volatility and uncertainty make business decisions more difficult. Given this situation, it is not a bad idea
to critically review what have traditionally been the key pillars of strategy work. Many years' experience with research and project work in relation to strategy in general
and chief strategy officers (CSOs) in particular help us identify and visualize gaps between ideal and reality. At a time when belts are being tightened all around, we see companies thinking twice about highly qualified and expensive corporate functions. And strategy departments are no exception. Challenged to make their work more transparent, CSOs are themselves being forced to look closely at how they see their role and how they approach their assignments. Nor can business managers and CEOs simply pass the buck: They too are responsible for ensuring that the resources set aside for strategy work are deployed in a way that genuinely adds value.

This year's analysis of our CSO study focuses on precisely this topic: the value added by CSOs and strategy departments. How does valuable strategy work get done? And where in the company does that happen? What part do CSOs play - and what part should they play? How do companies measure the performance of their chief strategists? This year's theme dovetails seamlessly with those of previous years, in which we examined the requirements placed on CSOs in a volatile environment (2013) and the role of CSOs in transformation processes (2014).