The C-Suite Shuffle
Firms are remaking the leadership and executive ranks.
July 31, 2025
First, there was a meeting with the CFO to discuss investing in a new digital application to streamline workflows. Next was a debriefing with engineers to iron out some bugs with an AI chatbot, followed by a progress update for the CEO on the construction of a new data center. But it wasn’t the chief technology officer leading all of this, or even the chief digital officer. Instead, odd as it might seem, it was the CHRO.
As firms seek to speed up decision-making and adjust to the impact of AI, they are taking a hard look at the org chart—including the C-suite. Firms are remaking the leadership and executive ranks by combining and eliminating positions, merging departments, and increasing the number of direct reports that senior managers and C-suite executives are responsible for. David Fields, a veteran real-estate industry executive who serves as an advisor and board director to property-development groups, says the “C-suite shuffle” is a function of the accelerating pace of change in business. “Firms are asking what the organization should look like in five or 10 years,” he says, “And how can they rethink the C-suite and other aspects of the org chart to achieve broader thinking and capabilities.”
Among the changes firms are making is collapsing two roles—like CFO and COO, or CMO and CCO—into one. Some firms have gone a step further and merged departments, such as human resources and technology, then put the new function under the leadership of one executive. Still others have eliminated layers of middle and senior management and reassigned direct reports. Dan Petrossi, a senior client partner in the Global Technology practice at Korn Ferry, says such moves enable firms to respond more quickly to changes involving markets and competitors. “The more consolidated top leadership is, the faster you can move,” says Petrossi.
The changes are starting to show up in the data, with CMO roles declining 8 percent last year and chief-communications-officer-roles down 6 percent over the same time frame. To be sure, the change does pose one challenge: finding leaders with the right skills and management acumen for two different roles. But Lucy Bosworth, a senior client partner and global account lead at Korn Ferry, says flattening the C-suite helps in two ways: It delegates more day-to-day decisions to fewer people, and it allows CEOs to focus on big-picture challenges—including how to adopt AI, transform corporate cultures, or create organic growth strategies. “It shrinks the span of control to a smaller, tighter group,” says Bosworth.
Photo credits: Kilito Chan/Getty Images
