This July, the World Economic Forum published a timely and important article arguing for a new C-suite role: the Chief Geopolitical Officer (CGO).
This July, the World Economic Forum published a timely and important article arguing for a new C-suite role: the Chief Geopolitical Officer (CGO). We recommend reading it. The piece expertly captures the urgency of the current moment, where a fragmenting global order is forcing businesses to confront risks that were once considered peripheral.
The article's core argument is powerful: just as the rise of environmental and cyber risks led to the creation of the Chief Sustainability Officer and Chief Information Security Officer, the era of geopolitical turbulence now necessitates a dedicated leader at the executive table. The CGO’s role, as the WEF frames it, is to integrate sophisticated geopolitical intelligence directly into core business decision-making, moving beyond traditional government affairs or siloed risk management.
We agree. This elevation of geopolitical expertise is a critical and necessary step. As our COO noted this week, we see this trend in our own conversations with globally operating companies every day. Organizations are actively seeking to build and strengthen these capabilities.
However, we also believe that the appointment of a CGO, while important, does not solve the entire problem. (WEF article doesn't claim it does.) The most fundamental challenge inside a global enterprise is not just a lack of leadership on the issue, but a systemic breakdown in how geopolitical intelligence flows, is translated, and is acted upon across the entire organization.
The deepest-rooted issue is the silo. A CGO can have the most brilliant analysis in the world, but if the procurement team, the supply chain planners, and the finance department are all working from different maps of reality, the enterprise will still make fragmented and reactive decisions. An operational risk identified by the CGO's team can fail to translate into a financial provision or a shift in supply chain strategy if the connective tissue isn't there. This is where the conversation must expand. The true solution isn't just about hiring a new leader; it's about empowering the whole organization, and that leader with a new operating model for geopolitical intelligence.
The ultimate role of a Chief Geopolitical Officer should not be to act as the sole source of geopolitical truth, but to be the champion and architect of an enterprise-wide workflow for geopolitics. Their primary task is to break down the silos and foster a shared context, creating an environment where the on-the-ground insights from a logistics manager can seamlessly inform the risk models used by the finance team. The CGO can be the conductor, but they need an orchestra that can play from the same sheet of music. The Chief Geopolitical Officer is a vital part of the answer, but the journey from insight to impact involves the entire organization.