Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-p2v8j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-08T11:26:10.154Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

17 - From CXO to CEO – The weight of accountability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 August 2009

By
Jean-Louis Barsoux  and
Preston Bottger
Edited by
Preston Bottger
Preston Bottger
Affiliation:
IMD International, Lausanne
Get access

Summary

Becoming the CEO is a big change. It's less glamorous than it looked from below and it's a lot more pressure. There's more work and more responsibility. As a CXO, I knew all that, but I never realized how many expectations there were from directors, shareholders and customers – not to mention the responsibility I feel for our 16,000 employees.

(CEO, insurance company)

In this third and final section of the book, we shift attention from the individual business functions to the task of ensuring that they work together in productive ways. We examine this challenge in two stages: first, by exploring the job of the CEO; then by setting out the tasks that must be handled by all CXOs to ensure productive teamwork at the top.

To describe the work of the CEO, we begin in this present chapter by examining the background to the greater responsibilities faced by CEOs compared to other CXOs. Then in the following chapter, we set out the key details of the CEO's job.

The CEO: many people to influence, and it's lonely work

A typical CEO wears many hats on any given day. Typical daily agenda items include: attending board meetings, CXO team meetings, one-to-one discussions with CXOs and other subordinates, giving and receiving updates on company activities and results, meeting with key customers and suppliers, and generally guiding the firm forward.

The CEO's time is generally the bottleneck resource in the company.

Type
Chapter
Information
Leading in the Top Team
The CXO Challenge
 , pp. 331 - 347
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barr, S., ‘The view from there’, CFO Magazine, 17 (11), 1 September (2001), p. 92.Google Scholar
Kennett, M., ‘View from the top’, Management Today, June (2005), pp. 38–47.Google Scholar
Bottger, P., ‘Leading on the run: How to do it right’, IMD Perspectives for Managers, September (2003), pp. 1–4.Google Scholar
Lashinsky, A., ‘Now for the hard part’, Fortune, 18 November (2002), pp. 56–65.Google Scholar
Garten, J. E., The Mind of the CEO (New York: Basic Books, 2001), p. 183.Google Scholar
Burrows, P., ‘The seed of Apple's innovation’, BusinessWeek Online, 12 October (2004).Google Scholar
Carr, N. G., ‘On the edge: An interview with Akamai's George Conrades’, Harvard Business Review, May–June (2000), pp. 119–25.Google Scholar
Hemp, P., ‘A time for growth’, Harvard Business Review, July/August (2004), pp. 66–64.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×