Report: Companies grow the fastest when revenue leaders partner strategically with CEOs

Job title inflation is on the rise: chief revenue officer, chief digital officer, chief sustainability officer, and on we go. As the years pass, more and more chiefs are joining the ranks of the C-suite, and it might be getting harder to get everyone on the same page. For revenue leaders, executive alignment is an essential concept, but according to a new report from consulting and leadership advisory firm Egon Zehnder, the synergy between rev leaders and CEOs is one you should really pay attention to.

The report finds that companies grow the fastest when revenue leaders and CEOs have a close strategic partnership—creating alignment in the C-suite that facilitates collaboration. One-third of companies surveyed that saw rapid growth had a strong strategic partnership between the CEO and revenue leader role. Conversely, 42% of companies with limited interaction between the executives saw flat or declining outcomes.

These strategic partnerships have led many revenue leaders to have more influence over the overall company mission (and perhaps a more strategic route to the corner office). The report shows 52% of revenue leaders say they have more influence over the C-suite and board, while 65% say they feel more empowered.

It seems some companies already got the memo: The report says growth is on the rise for 72% of organizations. The standout sectors are financial services (53%), consumer (45%), and industrial (46%). Technology and communications businesses are growing fastest (41%), while B2B organizations also reported rapid growth (36%).

Room for improvement: Given the 42% of companies seeing flat or declining outcomes, the report provides suggestions for improving strategic alignment to improve outcomes:

• Appoint a “growth owner” or create a CEO-led growth council
• Institutionalize alignment mechanisms like shared objectives, a unified GTM dashboard, and weekly revenue overviews
• Increase revenue leaders’ bandwidth by pushing operational decisions downward
• Close the analytics gap by embedding AI and data into decision-making
• Measure collaboration like revenue to prevent leaders from feeling siloed
• Prioritize quality over quantity