What does a good CEO do? How can CEOs help their companies succeed in the short and long term?
The CEO role is the ultimate prize at the end of the rainbow for career-driven managers. CEOs are in charge of the bottom-line success of a global conglomerate and all its subsidiary companies.
Find out how to be a good CEO who garners good results for companies.
Conglomerate CEOs Must Balance Short- and Long-Term Results
Good conglomerate CEOs ensure that their organization achieves both short-term and long-term results. To know how to be a good CEO, they must make sure that all company processes are working as optimally as possible. Such oversight requires them to understand in detail how every one of their subsidiary businesses functions and stay constantly aware of any changes. This is especially challenging since many team members tend to hide bad news from the CEO, preventing them from solving the problems that impede short-term results.
(Shortform note: In Principles, Ray Dalio describes how he designed his company to give him and other decision-makers the constant awareness necessary to achieve short-term results. Dalio intentionally established a culture of extreme honesty and transparency: Nearly every meeting is recorded and available for any employee to watch, giving managers at every level all the information they need to make wise decisions. Furthermore, he explicitly tells his employees how much he values honesty and transparency. If an employee lies—for instance, if they hide bad news by implying that their work is going more smoothly than it is in reality—Dalio may reprimand them publicly to dissuade other employees from being similarly dishonest.)
To succeed in the long term, CEOs must envision the ideal position for their organization in the global market and make sure that all of their decisions steer the organization toward that ultimate goal. Such large-scale changes occur at a glacial pace, and CEOs often struggle to work on such long timeframes. However, if they become impatient and pivot away from a long-term strategy before it has time to pay off, they’ll never achieve success on this scale.
(Shortform note: Arguably, the reason that so many CEOs struggle to pursue a long-term vision is because they’ve been rewarded for their impatience for most of their career. In a world where many people default to inaction out of caution or fear, the willingness to act quickly often helps businesspeople seize opportunities before it’s too late. For example, a CEO may have found wild success in their last job as a multi-company manager by rushing to acquire a company in a burgeoning new industry before their competitors could keep up.)
