Reflecting on the last 12 months of strategy hiring

Following an exceptionally strong economy in 2021 and 2022, organizations continued growing their teams in 2023 by hiring strategy talent who could oversee a diverse range of strategic projects.

In the last year, we saw this talent step into new roles and take the charge in leading initiatives such as:

1. The strategic chief of staff role
2. Transformations and operations
3. AI strategy

In this article, we recap the latest strategy hiring trends by examining these three initiatives and how they impacted both the hiring organizations implementing them and the strategic individuals leading their rollout.

Related: Charles Aris CEO Chad Oakley on 20 years of strategy recruiting

Revamping the chief of staff position

Our team saw an influx of strategy candidates being hired as chiefs of staff this year, pointing to an ongoing revamp of this role.

As both private equity firms and corporations evaluated how to best utilize strategy talent in 2023, more hiring authorities determined that candidates with a consulting background and wealth of strategic industry experience can affect meaningful change in the chief of staff position.

Historically, chiefs of staff have focused on liaising between an organization’s C-suite and the broader team as well as advising on a diverse array of organizational initiatives. Strategic chiefs of staff do all this and more. Depending on an organization’s desired outcome and use of this position, a strategic chief of staff will serve as a true thought partner to the C-suite, advising on corporate strategy and communicating this strategy with the rest of the company.

Related: The strategic chief of staff role, explained

We predict this role will continue to be popular and have a lasting impact on the way organizations position talent who come from a strategic background.

Transformation, integration and operationalization, oh my

While 2023 may not have brought the rocket growth we saw in 2021 and 2022, many organizations saw it as a “slow down to speed up” moment. Organizations hired an influx of operational leaders, from VPTs (vice presidents of transformation) to digital transformation and integration leaders. Following the M&A boom from years prior, organizations also placed a growing emphasis on digital transformations to adapt their businesses to an increasingly virtual world and operationalize new, innovative ideas.

These trends do not show signs of stopping, as transformation continues to be at the forefront of many organizations’ current strategic plans. The only change we expect in 2024 is that we’ll likely see M&A pick back up, which will shift strategy hiring back to focus on inorganic growth versus post-close integration.

Exploring the AI frontier

The rollout of consumer- and business-centric AI and generative text models was another headline from 2023 that affected strategy hiring in several ways. Organizations made strategy hires both to oversee the development of internal AI initiatives and to bring consumer AI services/products to market.

AI-fueled generative text models like ChatGPT arrived in 2023 with the promise of boosting productivity in the workplace, allowing workers to utilize the platform for writing, research and a variety of other office tasks. Organizations were quick to hire talent equipped to identify how these technologies could best serve their organization’s internal teams.

ChatGPT also fueled rapid product competition in the world of AI, from rival consumer programs like Google’s Bard to an endless variety of AI-fueled workplace tools and products that consumer and business services companies began to develop and launch. These developments created a swift rise in hiring to oversee go-to-market strategy and plan for a fast-approaching digital future.

Looking ahead

We believe the market for strategic talent will remain steady in 2024. As M&A and the broader economy pick back up, organizations will likely slide back to a pre-Covid hiring state and continue focusing on the three above trends when adding to their teams.

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