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Future roles: Are Chief Robotics Officers on the horizon?

It seems, the age of the Chief Robotics Officer is near.
It seems, the age of the Chief Robotics Officer is near.

Organizations across numerous sectors are embracing automation. For those in the industrial realm, this involves the installation of expansive robotics-based production processes. Many businesses in the space have already launched such programs. In fact, analysts now believe a robotics revolution is at hand, according to the International Federation of Robotics. More than 1.4 million new robots are expected to enter factories worldwide within two years, bringing the total number of functioning units to roughly 2.6 million.

Businesses consider the CRO
This technological shift has forced industrial enterprises to carve out robotics management practices that go well beyond the shop floor, leading experts to speculate on the possible creation of executive-level roles dedicated to these duties. It seems that the age of the Chief Robotics Officer is near. In fact, an estimated 10 percent of large organizations will have created these positions by 2020, researchers at Gartner found. The International Data Corporation offers slightly higher projections, pegging the CRO fill rate at 30 percent by 2019. In any case, businesses in the industrial arena are moving in this direction.

“An estimated 10 percent of large organizations will have created CRO positions by 2020.”

Understanding the role
What exactly might these business leaders do? Managing robotic assets and related workflows will be the most prominent duty assigned to CROs, according to Gartner. Of course, this will also involve identifying and overseeing technical specialists and, in operations that involve human-robot collaboration, operators. In addition to dealing with these human capital issues, CROs are expected to take up internal public relations tasks aimed at cultivating support among workers for robotics-based processes.

Industrial firms with growing robotics programs should start preparing for this eventuality. However, it is unlikely that internal human resources teams will have the wherewithal to take up this recruitment challenge single-handedly. In these instances, third-party executive recruitment firms like YES Partners are the best option. Our executive search consultants leverage their industry contacts to find talented professionals who have the executive experience and technical expertise needed to succeed in the role of CRO.

Is your industrial firm ready to bring robotics into the C-suite? Contact YES Partners today.

To see some of the roles we have already successfully placed, click here.

Finding people is easy, but finding the RIGHT people is not. YES Partners helps companies FIND the right people for all company functions, across many industries. 

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