Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Plumley
To Sammy's point that "CEO's are just salesmen"; well, not in the pejorative sense, but you are right. The real difficulty is translating the goals and vision into operational plans and then insuring that they are done. Read up on Larry Bossidy to see what kind of mind-numbing detail a "real CEO" has to be on top of to get the job done. It looks very glamorous from far away, but up close, it's very hard work.
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I've known a few CEOs and this is basically a reader's digest version of how they worked (doesn't always work this way):
A CEO comes up with a general business stategy and marketing plan and "sells" it to the board of directors, and they give him the green light to proceed.
He then "sells" it to the big investors, and also "sells" it to the market analysts.
Then he tells his subbordinates to make it happen and follows through to make sure he delivers on his promises to all those people so the stock doesn't tank.
He makes all kinds of appearances, selling himself and his company.
A good CEO is bigger than life.
I also disagee with a previous post by others that corporations are heartless immoral monsters. I've found the opposite to be true of most. There are some that are out of control but most try to be moral and ethical and contribute to the well-being of society, with varying degrees of success.