MOST people are used to organisational change in the workplace. It can be evolutionary or perhaps more in the realm of revolutionary but the premise is that the status quo should always be challenged.

The phrase "if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it" simply no longer applies. The pace of progress, the fear of being overtaken by competitors and the pressure of being usurped by younger gung-ho executives steeped in the new transactional knowledge of trade sees to that.

Yet there are those who now believe that the digitally-connected, multi-faceted corporate is now reaching a point where too many people populate the so called C-suite, the office residence of those with a title beginning with "chief".

In an era where enterprise management education is so advanced, whether for career business leaders or those entering the top floor from the core professional disciplines or their employers’ sector, the argument has some foundation.

Big, fast-moving employers today tend to have senior talent with the names of major business schools appearing in their CVs alongside post graduate qualifications gained at some point in the promotional journey. Arguably their remit oversight can safely be expanded as a consequence

In most sectors, once was the time when there were just three major executive salary earners. The CEO, working largely on business strategy, growth and pathways to sustainable profit, a CFO running the financial elements and a chief operating officer who managed day to day functional outputs, all with their teams. Together it was up to them to lead.

Then information technology, robotised manufacturing methods and the six sigma theory for eliminating defects in both process and physical product came along.

Keeping track of all the chiefs you might come across in a C-suite isn’t easy. The question is: can this drive for micro-managed efficiency itself be made more efficienct with fewer managers? The answer might make the original generation of dynamic
executives shake in the leather-contoured seats of their top-end BMW or Jaguar.

Ranging from CIO, CTO (that’s the tech representative), CMO (marketing) and CDO (digital enterprise activities), to chief data, chief strategy, chief communications, chief quality and even CSO (sustainability officer, if you’re wondering), the requirement for private parking spaces is becoming burdensome.

"Competitive advantage", like a lot of nineties terms now sounding rather bland against the backdrop of more complex and greatly more challenging business, is at the root.

With a focus on digital business solutions, many of these new titles are to be expected. These are important jobs that include the power of ongoing data, the tool of any successful employer.

But the congestion at the leadership level is surely no longer a necessity. The ability to manage at high level is the key. There can still be executives bringing discipline-specific know how. I’d see them reporting in to a more compact top team, similar in size to that of old but ultimately more knowledgeable and better able to interpret data from the still highly prized layer of professionals below.

Thus making extinct some of the current talent is not the issue. Instead, merging responsibilities into a sharper and probably more nimble leadership team should be the goal.

The latest generation of up and coming would-be senior leaders will oversee the technical solutions of trading and communicating using mobile, cloud, data and social platforms. Expert technical ability is not the prerequisite. The capacities of each technical/digital role have impact in a cross-departmental way. That’s the nature of the modern enterprise. Those I’ve spoken to with more recent post graduate business school exposure agree that combining leadership roles is entirely possible.

There is no longer a "dark art" to driving forward the digital business solutions of tomorrow; executive business education at the best providers contains all the elements of insight needed to make decisions on deployment. Functionality remains the job of the technical guru.

That broad appreciation of all business components – processes and challenges across several functions, from Information and Research, Design & Development to market access and sales – is already with us and growing as new talent succeeds former leadership role models.

Aggressive newer businesses, especially medium-sized types, see themselves as disruptors in their sectors. They employ talent to get them to a stage or two in their growth plan. Then that talent may move on elsewhere, themselves driven by a need to progress.

No big deal. I was reading a piece the other day on a (digital) business news forum suggesting it may be a good thing to have higher turnover at the top. If the experience is a good one for employer and employee, boosting prospects for both, the ambassadorial role played by the leaver enhances company reputation, attracting fresh talent. Sustainable grist to the mill, continually refreshing that enabling knowledge pool.

Respected business schools, of which we have several in Scotland and many more across the UK offering world-class education, are being sought out by younger, fast track-able talent likely to reach the more compact future C-suite I’m referring to.

They will get there through the inter-disciplinary appreciation they are being exposed to during studies and the networking that is embraced.

For the recipients of this educational advantage, it will bring lucrative new meaning to that other popular modern labour market term: in-demand job.