Descriptive Designations

Designations are morphing more rapidly than deep fakes that go viral. At one time, most organisations had decades-old designations which gave one a clear sense of the relative hierarchical position in the organisation. Government continues its vintage

designations – Secretary; Additional/Joint/Deputy/Under Secretary – for mainstream secretariat posts, as also Director-General, Deputy DG, etc. Consultants, Advisors and Senior Advisors are newer positions as are Principal and Chief Advisors.

Taking forward the concept of public-private partnerships, government is moving towards emulating business-like practices. Power point presentations and first-name conversations have become as common in the renovated corporate-style meeting rooms in ministries as they are in company board rooms. However, in keeping with preserving our glorious heritage – with its hierarchical and feudal element – government meeting rooms inevitably have one “throne chair” for whoever rules the roost for that meeting. A few find this not only incongruous, but also hilarious; most, though, treat this as quite normal.

Trying to reflect the approach of ensuring private sector efficiency and speed in governance, some chief ministers quite liked the idea of being referred to as the CEO of the State. Now, the CEO designation has been formalised within government (NITI Aayog, for example, has a CEO) though not – yet – for CMs.

Price inflation may be under control, as the government would have us believe, but in some sectors of business, title inflation is accelerating. Within some organisations, it seems that Vice President may be the title for fresh graduates; in others, everyone you bump into is a Managing Director; delivery boys of yore and cab drivers are now Associates, and shop-counter salespersons will soon be Customer Relations Executives. The singular Chief Operating Officer has now blossomed into multiple CXOs, with the X representing anything from Accounts to Finance, Information, Innovation, Marketing, Sustainability, or any other role/function. One very large organisation has experimented by having two chiefs, designated Co-CEOs!

Now, business is creating more designations, some descriptive, like the self-explanatory Brand Custodian, or (as a friend titles himself) “Ethnographer of Imagination, Catalyst of Co-creation”. Some designations are allegorical: Chief Gardener – one who nurtures and ensures the growth of young recruits, as does a gardener for seedlings. Emerging technologies will need – and doubtless spawn – new designations. In the age of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI), conventional engineers may have little or no role; instead, as this writer has suggested, industry will need Imagineers: those who can conceive and imagine. Also needed will be Prompters, not for behind-the-scene reminders to stage actors, but to write “prompts” for creating content via Gen AI. These would be new designations that will become commonplace.

Gen AI algorithms can suffer from biases of their creators. Organisations will then need Fairness Officers (not to be confused with the politically-unacceptable top-selling cream) to act as watchdogs. Sometimes, Gen AI is known to take off on its own and give wrong, even outlandish, responses (“hallucinations”), requiring a Chief Hallucinations Officer to guard against these aberrations. Also required may be a team to handle dangers, errors, and tracing hallucinations (this could appropriately be abbreviated as “death”), though organisations may hesitate in having a Chief Death Officer!

Chief Happiness Officer is an emerging corporate designation. How nice if, instead of CEO, State CMs – why not the PM, too? – would adopt this as a descriptor of their objective: to create happiness amongst all citizens!