“Somebody asked me 'what's the job of a CEO', and there's a number of things a CEO does. What you mostly do is articulate the vision, develop the strategy, and you gotta hire people to fit the culture. If you do those three things, you basically have a company. And that company will hopefully be successful, if you have the right vision, the right strategy, and good people.” PeopleIfsDoeJobsCultureThreeNumbersCompanyVisionSuccessfulFitStrategyHopefullyBeing SuccessfulGood PeopleCeoThree Things Author:Brian Chesky
“The question was, in a sense, at Princeton Review, how much value was I adding as a public company CEO. I was adding less than other people might've... I think you want to move on when you've given your best work and then feel that you're not going to add as much value moving forward.” PeopleThinkingWantFeelsMightMovingValuesGivenCompanyAddMoving ForwardReviewsCeoBest WorkPrinceton Author:John Katzman
“Early in my career when we went to golf tournaments and charity dinners I noticed businessmen and executives would give the players their cards. Well, they're giving you their cards for a reason. I said to my wife, 'All the guys get these cards and then when they get to the parking lot they rip them up or throw them away. It's really weird.' My wife .. said maybe you should just sign a picture and mail it to them. You know, 'Great playing golf with you,' or whatever. So, I did and lo and behold some of those guys I sent pictures to way back then are now CEOs at big companies.” KnowsWayGivingShouldWellsSaidReasonBigsGuyCompanyCareersWifePlayerGolfCharityDinnerMy WifeCardsExecutivesMailCeoBusinessmanRipTournamentsParkingPlaying GolfReally WeirdParking LotBig CompaniesGolf Tournaments Author:Tie Domi
“CEOs resign when the internal dynamics of the company and the external dynamics of the company actually come together to say it is appropriate. When the internal dynamics ask you whether you have a replacement. I think the transition from CEOships have also become cartoonish.” ThinkingTogetherAsksCompanyAppropriateInternalsTransitionCeoDynamicsReplacements Author:Ursula Burns
“Maybe it's whiner's fatigue, but I'm getting tired of hearing about how hard it is to start a company and be a CEO. It's not that hard.” HardCompanyTiredHearingCeoFatigueGetting TiredWhiners Author:David Ulevitch
“Last year, the journalist Malcolm Gladwell conducted a survey of chief executive officers of Fortune 500 companies for his book Blink. He discovered that while in the US population 14.5 per cent of all men are 6ft (1.83m) or taller, among CEOs of Fortune 500 companies the proportion is 58 per cent. And while 3.9 per cent of American adults are 6ft 2in or taller, almost a third of the CEOs were that tall.” MenYearsBookLastsCompanyEvolutionAdultsThirdsFortunePopulationChiefsJournalistProportionExecutivesTallOfficersCentsLast YearCeoSurveysBlinkChief Executives Author:Daniel Finkelstein
“I'm more interested in a feminism that ends discrimination for all people. It's not just about a woman becoming the CEO of a company or something. It's connected to racism and classism and gender issues that go beyond the binary.” PeopleEndsCompanyIssuesFeminismBecomingRacismGenderConnectedDiscriminationCeoBinaryClassismGender Issues Author:Kathleen Hanna
“For a hot-shot CEO taking over a troubled company, mass firings are the ultimate quick fix, the accounting equivalent of crack: cheap, easy to score, instantly gratifying, and highly addictive.” EasyBusinessCompanyMassShotsUltimateHotScoreCracksCeoUnemploymentAccountingFiringQuick FixesHot Shots Book:Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption Are Undermining America Source: Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption Are Undermining America
“American business would be run better today if there was more alignment between CEOs' interest and the company. For example, would the financial crisis of 2008 have occurred if the CEO of Lehman and Morgan Stanley and Goldman and Citibank had to take a very small percentage of every mortgage-backed security... or every loan they made?” IfsMadeWould BeRunningTodayInterestCompanySecurityExampleCrisisFinancialCeoLoanPercentagesMortgageAlignmentFinancial CrisisStanleyAmerican BusinessCitibank Author:Aubrey McClendon
“In his first speech as Speaker, Boehner thanked his loved ones - tobacco lobbyists, the oil companies, the CEOs.” FirstsCompanySpeechOilLoved OnesSpeakersCeoTobaccoLobbyistsOil Companies Author:Jay Leno
“I was an executive running a pretty substantial group before becoming CEO, and I had no idea what it was like. When something goes wrong, people say, 'It's all your fault.' Your reaction is, 'It's not my fault.' But what do you mean? I was the founder, I hired everybody in the company, I was managing it.” PeopleMeanIdeasRunningCompanyGroupsBecomingFaultsReactionsNo IdeaExecutivesFoundersCeo Author:Ben Horowitz
“In life, everybody faces choices between doing what's popular, easy, and wrong vs. doing what's lonely, difficult, and right. These decisions intensify when you run a company, because the consequences get magnified 1,000 fold. As in life, the excuses for CEOs making the wrong choice are always plentiful.” RunningFacesChoicesEasyDifficultDecisionCompanyConsequenceLonelyExcuseCeoFoldsWrong ChoicesPlentiful Author:Ben Horowitz
“The real damper on employee engagement is the soggy, cold blanket of centralized authority. In most companies, power cascades downwards from the CEO. Not only are employees disenfranchised from most policy decisions, they lack even the power to rebel against egocentric and tyrannical supervisors.” RealDecisionCompanyPolicyColdAuthorityEmployeeRebelEngagementCeoBlanketEmployee EngagementEgocentricCascadeSupervisorsDisenfranchised Author:Gary Hamel
“We ought to start running the government like a private-sector business. I have that ability as CEO of our companies. I have line item vetoes, and if I didn't, we'd probably be out of business by now.” IfsGovernmentRunningLinesAbilityCompanyOughtCeoItemsPrivate SectorVeto Author:John Raese
“We all love people who give credit to others for their success. Companies would probably do better with CEOs who didn't blow their own horn and ask for ridiculous salaries and new yachts every year.” PeopleGivingYearsAsksCompanyBlowCreditRidiculousCeoSalaryHornsYacht Author:Adora Svitak
“CEOs of top companies could probably use a dose of not-asking-for-raise behavior and less self-entitlement, rather than us trying to change girls in order to fit into the common mold of what we think a CEO looks like.” ThinkingTryingLooksSelfUseOrderGirlCommonCompanyFitBehaviorAskingRaisesCeoMoldEntitlementDoseTrying To Change Author:Adora Svitak
“A congressman actually apologized to BP's CEO for the way the company has been treated. How stupid are you when the CEO of BP is in the room and people think you're the moron?” PeopleThinkingWayHas BeensRoomsCompanyStupidTreatedCeoMoronCongressman Author:Jay Leno
“People often say to me, "How come you don't want to be CEO of a company?" And I tell them, "I don't want to." I know I can do it, but I don't enjoy it. Why does that have to be the definition of success?” PeopleKnowsWantDoeI CanEnjoyCan DoCompanyDefinitionsCeoI Can Do ItDefinition Of Success Author:Charlene Li
“The most important thing you can learn as CEO- one of the hardest things to do is, you have to discipline yourself to see your company... through the eyes of the people that you're working through. Through the eyes of the employees, through the eyes of your partners... through the eyes of the people who you're not talking to and who are not in the room.” PeopleImportantEyeRoomsCompanyTalkingDisciplineManagementImportant ThingsPartnersHardestThings To DoEmployeeCeoHardest ThingNot TalkingThrough The EyesHardest Thing To Do Author:Ben Horowitz
“If there's a big problem and you've got the right people with you, usually the answer emerges and you do what's the obvious thing to do. I don't think of myself as some great manager or great leader. I've been very lucky to be in the positions that I've been in. I meet a lot of people and I've grown a lot of companies, and I meet a lot of CEOs at big enterprises. I'm always so surprised at how much they seem to know. It doesn't always seem to be correlated to how well they actually do.” PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsWellsProblemBigsSeemsAnswersBusinessCompanyLeaderPositionLuckyObviousManagersThings To DoGreat MenEnterpriseCeoGreat LeaderBig ProblemsObvious ThingsGreat Managers Author:Larry Brilliant
“I'm not sure I was a typical head of a company. Most people that run big companies come out of sales and they come out of marketing and they're quite serious and they have MBA's from very good schools and things like that. I'm an accidental CEO, thank the Disney Company.” PeopleBigsRunningSchoolCompanySeriousVery GoodMarketingNot SureTypicalCeoBig CompaniesGood SchoolDisney CompanyMba Author:Michael Eisner
“When I look at founders and CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook and Brian Chesky at Airbnb and Sebastian Thrun at Udacity, these are companies that are creating extraordinary social good and extraordinary economic and educational empowerment, all within with context of a for-profit model.” LooksSocialCompanyEconomicCreatingModelsEmpowermentMarkExtraordinaryProfitEducationalFoundersCeoBrianSocial GoodZuckerbergAirbnb Author:Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen
“Carli Fiorina says companies are consolidating because it's the only way to compete with big, corrupt government. "This is how socialism starts." Is that also why she bought Compaq when she was CEO of Hewlett-Packard?” WayBigsGovernmentCompanySocialismCeoCorrupt Government Author:Kevin Drum
“There are three things you need to do as a CEO-founder. Think strategically, drive design, and drive technology. Some people who are really good at one can build a pretty foundational company. Most people who are very successful are good at two. But Jack is the only person in the Valley I've met who's all three. He's a first-rate strategist, a first-rate designer, and a first-rate technologist.” PeopleThinkingNeedsFirstsPersonsTwoThreeCompanyTechnologySuccessfulDesignMetsRateDesignerValleysFoundersCeoThree ThingsStrategist Author:Keith Rabois
“One of the most important things for any leader is to never let anyone else define who you are. And you define who you are. I never think of myself as being a woman CEO of this company. I think of myself as a steward of a great institution.” ThinkingImportantCompanyLeaderInstitutionsImportant ThingsWho You AreCeoBeing A WomanStewards Author:Ginni Rometty