An invisible facilitator improving decisions: the Chief of Staff gains ground in Europe

In top European organizations, we are seeing the rise of a position that is, by definition, invisible: the Chief of Staff (CoS). As the CEO’s right hand, this is the person who can filter information, orchestrate decision-making processes, and free up as much as 40% of executive’s time.

According to research conducted by SDA Bocconi I.C.E. Innovation and Corporate Entrepreneurship in collaboration with Deloitte, this role is proliferating at speed, and changing how decisions are made at the top. With a CoS by their side, the CEO can focus on high-impact choices, improving both the quality and timeliness of decisions. In a context marked by growing organizational complexity, competitive pressure, and technological transformation, the CoS becomes a multiplier of managerial effectiveness.

Still a fluid role

Despite the fact that a growing number of large international organizations have Chiefs of Staff, academic and managerial literature on the subject is surprisingly limited, especially in the European and Italian context. The role is, by nature, a fluid one that is often not formalized, making it difficult to classify within the framework of traditional organizational structures.

This leads to the questions guiding the study:

• How widespread is the position of Chief of Staff in Europe?
• What are the characteristics of a CoS in terms of profile, skills, and career paths?
• In which sectors is the CoS most relevant?
• What impact does the CoS have on decision-making processes and organizational effectiveness?

An additional level of analysis concerns the future of the position: How is it evolving under the influence of technology, particularly artificial intelligence? Which skills will future Chiefs of Staff need to become increasingly relevant?

A career accelerator

The researchers adopted a mixed approach, combining quantitative and qualitative analysis. On the quantitative side, they built an original database comprising 563 listed companies in 19 European countries, for a total of 753 Chiefs of Staff. The sample represents the main European economies and over 80% of the region’s market capitalization.

The results verify that the phenomenon is already widespread:

• About 30% of the companies in the analysis have at least one Chief of Staff.
• In the main European countries, the adoption rate is higher, reaching 78% in France.
• In some organizations, multiple CoS roles exist simultaneously.

The sector distribution shows that over 50% of these positions are concentrated in financial services, even though they account for 30% of companies. The Industrials sector follows far behind, representing 12% of CoS roles and 17% of the sample.

The profile of these professionals is also fairly well-defined: more than 50% have an economics or finance background; about 28% come from consulting; average seniority is high (over 15 years of career), but the time they spend in a given position is short (around 2–3 years). This confirms that CoS is often a transitional role, in other words, a career accelerator for executive positions. Not surprisingly, it is often described as training ground for top management.

A profession seeking codification

Alongside quantitative data, the research includes a qualitative survey of European Chiefs of Staff, offering insight into their day-to-day work. Results reveals a role that is progressively less focused on operational coordination and more oriented toward supporting decision-making, managing complexity, and ensuring organizational alignment.

The most relevant findings show that Chief of Staffs:

• act as cross-functional facilitators, coordinating functions and people.
• serve as advisors to the CEO, with privileged access to strategic information.
• help reduce decision-making time and friction, improving execution.

The CoS is uniquely positioned to bolster leadership effectiveness. In complex, internationalized companies, this role serves as the ops center for managing priorities, information flows, and decision-making processes.

A second theme that emerges is the professionalization of the position. Today, the Chief of Staff is often not highly formalized (and in many cases not even included in organizational charts), and clearly defined career paths are lacking. However, as we have seen, the role is gaining ground, which means organizations need to more clearly define skills, responsibilities, and professional trajectories.

Finally, technology (and artificial intelligence in particular) opens new perspectives. Chiefs of Staff themselves see AI as a key factor in boosting their effectiveness, automating operational activities and reinforcing the part they play as “orchestrators” of organizational complexity.

If today the Chief of Staff is still an invisible figure, the data indicate that this professional is set to become a stable presence in the most advanced organizations. For this reason, SDA Bocconi School of Management and the Chief of Staff Association (CSA) have announced the launch of a new executive education program: the first in the world specifically designed to prepare Chiefs of Staff for the geopolitical dimensions of their position. The initiative, available exclusively through SDA Bocconi and the CSA, represents the third pillar of the Association’s international training portfolio, which already includes programs at the University of Oxford and Harvard Business School. Click here to learn more.