CSO BACK STORY - Weinreb Group

ORGANIZATIONAL Structure:The Nuts And Bolts Of The CSO’S Team“Collaboration is key to integratesustainability into multiple companyfunctions,” she says.For organizational structures like AT&T,the sustainability chief’s role oftenbecomes one of a change managerinstead of a project or product manager.As Winkler put it, the role of a CSO is oneof “a catalyst.” “Your job is to catalyzechange top-down and horizontally ina way that reaches every area of theorganization. It is a significant undertakingand it takes a complex governancestructure to make it all work,” she says.EMC’s structure, while visually morelinear, is no less complex. Take a look:(See Page 30, Chart 2)The complexities of such a structureremain as significant as AT&T’s moreparabolic setup. For a CSO to besuccessful, she needs to be resourceful,collaborative, and most importantly,a critical systems thinker who canobjectively engage every internalstakeholder across functions.Note that both structures emphasize localemployee champions leading to functionalleaders, and a senior leadership teamled by a C-suite executive. Sustainabilitymanagers and executives should usethese structures as guiding points inrevising their organizational structurearound a core component of sustainabilitystrategy.Further, research reveals that while mostCSOs have been at their companies foran average of 16 years and are wellversedin company structure, operationsand strategy, on average, they haveonly been in their current role only since2009.Moreover, 12 of the 25 who respondedto the surveys sit on the senior-mostcorporate decision making bodyresponsible for all strategic decisions,not just sustainability.BudgetInterestingly, however, all the surveyedCSOs reported having their own operatingbudget but not all maintain independentP&Ls.This is something companies -- andsustainability executives -- must modifyfor the role to be truly effective. Acommitment to sustainability involvesgiving CSOs the independence andthe corresponding power to implementtheir ideas with built-in accountabilitystandards. After all, you cannot improvewhat you cannot measure.UPS is in a similar situation.CSO Scott Wicker emphasized thatfor years the budget for his team’sactivities has come from a wholelist of departments, including PR,communications, community relations,and HR. Now, he is in the process ofdetermining what his budget shouldlook like with the leadership team, andhopes to start the next fiscal year with anindependent budget.Wicker’s observation is spot on becausewithout financial independence, thesustainability function will risk beingmarginalized even though it sits in theC-suite.CSO Back Story17 Weinreb Group