Why every executive suddenly has a bigger job
When Target named Michael Fiddelke CEO in February 2026, the leadership changes he announced went beyond a standard promotion. Target eliminated its chief commercial officer role and consolidated merchandising authority into a single position, naming Cara Sylvester, previously chief guest experience officer, as the sole chief merchandising officer overseeing product development, assortment design, and partner collaborations.
Lisa Roath, formerly chief merchandising officer for food, essentials, and beauty, moved up to chief operating officer, taking end-to-end control of supply chain, stores, and merchandising execution. That reshuffle captures a pattern now playing out across corporate America: Companies are consolidating sales, marketing, growth, and operations under fewer executives with sweeping mandates organized around business outcomes.
In October 2025, Microsoft promoted Judson Althoff from chief commercial officer, where he helped build Microsoft’s customer and partner solutions into one of the company’s primary growth engines, to CEO of its commercial business. The move placed sales, marketing, and commercial operations under one leader with a mandate to accelerate enterprise AI adoption.
Consumer companies are making similar moves. Kimberly-Clark expanded its chief growth officer role to oversee marketing, innovation, and revenue growth management, giving a single executive responsibility for a broader swath of the company’s commercial strategy.
The real story, of course, isn’t just about organizational charts. Rather, companies are redefining executives’ value around their ability to connect functions that were historically managed separately. That shift is changing how leadership potential is assessed, how succession plans are built, and which assignments become career accelerators.
Still, the tilt toward broader executive roles doesn’t mean companies have stopped valuing functional expertise. In fact, Spencer Stuart’s December 2025 research found that S&P 500 companies continue to fill most of these leadership positions through internal promotions, underscoring the importance boards place on deep domain knowledge. Increasingly, however, that expertise serves as a foundation rather than a destination.
Executives who excel in a specific function are increasingly entrusted with broader operating mandates spanning commercial, technology, operations, finance, or customer strategy. Those assignments then give boards a clearer view of how leaders make enterprise-wide decisions and become important stepping stones for executives with CEO ambitions.
Ruth Umoh
ruth.umoh@fortune.com
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