Talk about business title inflation. I now see so many “Chiefs” around the corporate space. Southwest Airlines has a Chief Twitter Officer. Coca-Cola and Marriott have Chief Blogging Officers. Kodak has a Chief Listening Officer. When does it end? As with everything else, title inflation just leads to value degradation. In order to have the relevant stakeholder give you the time of day, you need to be appropriately titled or apparently you are a complete waste of their time.
Sometimes putting a chief officer in an area is to merely broadcast to the outside world that you are committed to such space, rather than doing anything fundamentally useful. In larger multinational corporations we always hear of the company’s core values and principles. Easy, we’ll name a chief officer for each of them. Chief Integrity Officer. Chief Teamwork Officer. Chief Speed Officer (no it’s not what you think). Chief Openness Officer. Chief Fun Officer. Chief Equal Opportunities Officer. Chief Creative Officer (Microsoft). You will definitely not go wrong.
What’s popular these days? Facebooking, twittering, blogging, etc. leads to companies creating such chief officer positions like SouthWest, Coca-Cola and Marriott.
Sign me up for Chief Recreation Officer any day. I heard it’s such a tough job that I should remember to ask for more vacation days.
Confessions of a Corporate Shopaholic 
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