An Unexpected Challenge For Executive Recruiters Is Slowly Emerging

According to Korn Ferry, the C-suite is not immune from the restructuring drive taking place across the nation. Companies are streamlining executive roles by merging, collapsing and consolidating positions. Evan Berta, an associate at Hunt Scanlon Ventures, examines the shrinking C-suite – and what’s really behind the growing change.

Korn Ferry has released some potentially concerning data for search firms focused on C-suite recruiting. According to a recent study the firm conducted, it turns out the C-suite isn’t immune to the culling that’s occurring elsewhere in the executive and management ranks – as well as across the Federal bureaucracy under Donald Trump.

Companies are reducing C-suite roles by collapsing and combining positions. Some tech companies, according to the global talent organizational consulting firm, have merged the CFO and COO roles, for instance, while others have folded CCO duties into those of the CMO – a role that has added responsibilities for sales, customer experience, and more – or have rebranded them under titles like CRO or CXO.

Dan Petrossi, a senior client partner in the technology practice at Korn Ferry, said a need for speed may be playing a role here: Combining roles can enable firms to respond faster to changes involving markets and competitors. It also reduces the number of direct reports to the CEO, and makes possible the developing and readying of successors. “The more consolidated top leadership is, the faster you can move,” he noted.

Clustering Roles

According to Korn Ferry, the role-merging has happened so far only on a small – but noticeable – scale. The percentage of Fortune 500 companies with a global chief marketing officer or equivalent fell by 8% in 2024, according to a recent analysis. The number of enterprise-level supply-chain leaders fell 7%, and the number of Fortune 500 firms with dedicated chief communications officers by 6%.

“The more consolidated top leadership is, the faster you can move.”

These roles have been taken over by other C-suite executives or lower-level managers, said Korn Ferry. Most of the decline has been through natural attrition, rather than layoffs. When a given C-suite executive resigns or retires, their responsibilities are divided up.

Lucy Bosworth, a senior client partner and global account lead at Korn Ferry, said “clustering” C-suite roles helps top leaders in two ways: It delegates more day-to-day decisions to fewer people, and it allows CEOs to focus on big picture challenges – such as how to adopt AI, transform corporate cultures, or create organic-growth strategies in a world in which such growth is often hard to come by.

Breaking Down Silos

“It shrinks the span of control to a smaller, tighter group,” said Bosworth. She added that flattening the C-suite breaks down silos, which in turn helps leaders more quickly figure out which business levers to pull.

Developing C-suite leaders with cross-functional experience also helps organizations build a pipeline of ready successors, noted Korn Ferry, an issue that has come up more and more often as CEO turnover (often abrupt, and often driven by activist investors) reaches record levels.

“Flattening the C-suite breaks down silos, which in turn helps leaders more quickly figure out which business levers to pull.”

That’s one reason to fold the COO’s duties into the CFO’s, said Matt Bohn, a senior client partner in the technology practice at Korn Ferry. Rather than replacing a departed COO, giving their functions to a CFO adds another dimension of skills to a role that has become much more strategic.

“It makes the transition to CEO easier,” he noted. To be sure, more CFOs were named CEOs than any other C-suite position last year, and experts note that CFOs often get the appointment in crisis situations, when an interim leader is needed.

Experts caution that consolidation in the C-suite runs the same risks it does at lower levels in the organization. The executive who’s taking on the additional responsibilities might not perform well in their new role. Burnout is a risk when an executive shoulders more work, just as it is for a middle manager being asked to oversee multiple departments.

Executives at the upper levels may be used to massive amounts of responsibility, but even they have limits. “It’s not easy to find leaders who can take on the scope of responsibility,” said Mr. Petrossi.