The increasing importance of business transformation is leading to the creation of a new C-level title – the Chief Process Officer (CPO).

One company leading the charge is McAfee, which has created the new role for Bill Curtis. He was previously CPO at Borland. His primary responsibility is to create a corporate project management office inside McAfee, develop corporate business processes and implement internal processes backing up corporate security offerings.

Gartner Asia Pacific vice president John Roberts claims the role of a CPO is to drive internal business process improvement previously undertaken by chief information officers (CIOs). The creation of the new role is indicative of the increasing importance of transforming a business. “The CPO is rising out of a new interest in business process management as a discipline and in some organizations it came out of using Six Sigma; it is all about appointing someone to drive internal process improvements,” Roberts says.

“Savvy CIOs need to take this on board” warns Brinley Platts, chair of IT executive career specialists, CIODEVELOPMENT.COM. “If CIOs are to retain a central role in the transformation of organisations up to 2010 and beyond they need responsibility for process rationalisation and re-design; the CPO needs to report to the CIO.

Contact Brinley Platts on 07973 745 640 at CIODEVELOPMENT.COM to find out how you can engage your colleagues and team on the issues raised by this article.