Chief Executive Officer — A Definition
What does it mean to be a CEO? The Chief Executive Officer of a company or an organization?
This is not a rhetorical question, as I was asked this very real question the other day by a client who has been asked to step into this role by a company’s board of directors following the death of the firm’s CEO. Not an easy task, mind you.
That said, I’ve given the question some serious thought. Here’s what I’ve come up with.
What it means to be a CEO — by David Politis
By the very words that make up the title — Chief Executive Officer – I believe that a CEO is the ultimate executive officer within an organization and the executive to whom all other executives, officers and employees ultimately report to.
Under the guidance and direction of the board of directors, the CEO is the person who sets the overall goals and objectives for the company, as well as the strategies necessary to accomplish such goals and objectives.
In my opinion, the CEO is the person ultimately responsible for coalescing each of the disparate programs, ideas, campaigns and opportunities within an organization into a cohesive plan of attack, as well as the person responsible for marshaling the personnel and resources necessary to successfully win the company’s battles and wars.
That said, the CEO is typically NOT the person responsible for actually fighting/winning such battles and wars (not that a CEO is incapable of waging war himself/herself). Rather, the best CEOs find the best people possible — generals, captains, lieutenants, sergeants and privates – that can carry the day.Moving away from the metaphorical, the CEO is typically the face of an organization. If necessary, he/she is generally the person who leads the way if/when it comes time to approach outside investors and/or strategic partners.
Typically, the CEO is also the main company executive that interfaces with journalists, and if they exist within a particular industry, the industry analysts too.
The CEO is also the person who provides the dreams/visions for a company and what that company can/should/will accomplish and helps all within an organization to also see its possibilities and helps them to drive forward, ever forward towards such goals.
In this regard, consider Christopher Columbus.
He dreamed of creating a new trade route to the Far East by sailing west, an outlandish idea to most at the time, an idea that was only going to be possible IF the world was round.
Of course, Columbus miscalculated the actual circumference of the globe, and he did not anticipate the Americas being in between Europe and the Far East. Nevertheless, he was successful (eventually) in receiving the support of Queen Isabella, and Columbus gained his three ships, manned with the best possible sailors available for him and stocked with all the supplies necessary for such a voyage, and he put sail for the Far East.
Naturally, he did not run up the sails, cook the food, keep the ships in shape, nor do I suspect he often took the wheel or turned the ship’s rudder. But he did have ultimate control of the Santa Maria and its sister ships, the Nina and the Pinta. He also had learned to navigate by the stars, and as I understand it, it was he who charted their westward course.
In this regard, Columbus was the CEO of the exploration. He set the vision, he assembled the crews and defined the overall tasks, he mapped the course they should take, and he oversaw everything that occurred during the voyage.
Did he micromanage every single, little detail? I don’t know. I hope not.
In fact, after defining the overall goals and objectives for the journey, I hope that Columbus looked to the other distinctive leaders on each of the three ships for their input, counsel and guidance. And if he did so, I hope that he then relied heavily on each of these sub-leaders under his command to actually carry out and direct the various tasks.
But at the end of the day, although he did not find the shorter trade route to the Far East he anticipated, he did in fact have a successful voyage, a voyage that discovered a New World full of possibilities for a grateful Queen and all of Europe.
To me, this is what a CEO is — the person, that executive who says, “We’re going to find a new trade route to the Far East” and then sets about with every bit of his/her power to turn that dream into reality.
That is my definition of a Chief Executive Officer.