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.
Another clear example of this took place in October 2025. Microsoft promoted Judson Althoff from chief commercial officer, a role he had held when building Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions into one of the company’s top growth engines, to CEO of its entire commercial business, placing sales, marketing, and commercial operations under one leader with a mandate to accelerate enterprise AI adoption.
HSBC made a similar move in 2024, combining its Commercial Banking and Global Banking & Markets units into a single Corporate & Institutional Banking division under CEO Georges Elhedery, bringing client coverage and capital allocation under a single executive.
The same logic has extended into growth and transformation roles over the past few years. Scholastic appointed Jeffrey Mathews as chief growth officer and executive vice president in September 2024, giving him responsibility for the company’s growth agenda across multiple functions.
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 demonstrate excellence in a specific function are more likely to be 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.
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Leadership lesson
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