So I work for a large bank in the United States. Me and my coworkers always joke that whenever something bad or inconvenient happens it’s the CEOs fault. Though it’s just a running joke it got me thinking, on a day to day basis what does a CEO actually do? I get the “Chief Executive Officer” nomenclature means they more than likely make executive decisions but what does that look like? Are they at their desk signing papers all day? Death by meeting?
Edit: Holy crap thanks for all the answers I feel like this sub always pulls through when I have a weird question. Thanks guys!
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1. They communicate the ongoings
Of the company to the board, which represents all shareholders
2. They set strategic vision for the company on what things are important / not
3. They act as the public face of the company for PR purposes
I’ve worked with some very high level execs at major banks. Most of their days are filled with getting status updates in steering committee meetings or being presented a suite of business options and picking one
They get paid a lot of money to cut costs and perform stock buybacks e.g. artificially increasing the stock price…CEOs are hired by the board of directors a.k.a. the company’s largest shareholders, so the CEO’s only incentive is to increase share price as much as possible. CEOs are paid exorbitant amounts so that they can make these questionable decisions (layoffs, hiring freezes, cost cutting, reinvesting income poorly, etc.) and after a few years escape with their golden parachute and live happily ever after, with zero fucks given about who they fucked over while doing their big man important office job.
CEOs at places I worked at: Comes in. Fires 25,000 people. Saves the company money. Collects $42,000,000 and leaves for the next company.
Next CEO: buys his friend’s company, fires 15,000 people. Collects $30,000,000 and moves to the next company.
CEOs are one of the most important positions on a bank for themselves.
You see, sometimes they need money that month, so they go say something cool, the stock prices go up and they sell their stock.
Other times, they need money for later, so they say something uncool, the stock price goes down, and then they can buy stocks from the investors to later say something cool and sell them to new investors.
Rich law abiding people, one day the government will make armed robbery legal and we will be able to be rich law abiding people too.
I am a CEO.
My day to day consists of executing the plan that I put in front of our board and that we agreed on; and then triaging the following in order to hit that plan:
1. Ensuring we have the resources to hit plan. If we need cash, I am in fundraising mode. This includes selling the company’s stock or taking on debt. If the company runs out of money, nothing else matters.
2. Hiring. Ensuring we have the team members in place that are more skilled than me in their respective roles to execute the plan with the resources we have; and ensuring those team members have everything they need to hit their goals that roll up to the main plan.
3. Driving partnerships. This creates leverage for the entire company to execute the plan our board and I agreed on. I am only one person, closing deals one at a time doesn’t cut it for my role. CEOs need to drive partnerships that give more opportunities to sales and marketing people.
4. Fire fighting. There are always issues and those issues need to be resolved in a way that team leaders’ pride isn’t hurt and they don’t pass that hurt down to their teams. Once toxic work culture takes hold, it’s a cancer that takes a lot of time and energy to remove. And zero people want to work in a toxic environment.
5. Sales. If everything else is running smoothly my job is to be a sales person. Selling customers, selling the internal product team to ship faster, selling my board to increase budget, selling investors that we may need in the future. If you want to get the CEO’s attention, talk to them about how you can help them drive sales.
Ultimately, if something goes wrong it is 100% my fault. If a company has a bad culture, poorly compensates people, or has high turnover, it is absolutely the fault of a bad CEO.
The CEO keeps bad executives in place that hire toxic managers that create awful departments. I have never seen a bad CEO run a good company. This is why CEOs turn over so often. It’s a hard job where a lot can go wrong and the bad ones, fortunately, burn out.
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