The Day-to-Day Activities of a CEO

At any company the CEO is the most important employee. They are largely responsible for running the company. Oddly most people really have no idea what the CEO does. They usually have a general idea but they really don't know what his day to day activities are. It often comes as a surprise to learn just what the CEO does.

The job of the CEO at any company is to make sure that the strategy that has been set out by the owners or the board of directors is actually followed. As a practical matter that means that they spend most of their days in meetings. They meet with everybody from executives of other companies, to investors, to employees and even with the media. A big part of the job is promoting the company so that it appears in the best possible light. Therefore a big part of the job of a CEO is public relations.

A good example of the day to day work of a CEO is Steve Heyer; in his job as CEO he spends most of his time in meetings with the other executives at the company. It is the CEO's job to make sure that the strategy of the board is carried out, the president and the other executives are the ones responsible for actually implementing. In order to make sure that the strategy is actually being carried out properly regular meetings with the people responsible for carrying it out are necessary. In most cases they will meet every day.

The other big part of the job is dealing with the executives of the other companies. In some cases this is done as part of a negotiation for a future business deal, the CEO will always be heavily involved in these negotiations. In many cases however it is simply a networking activity. The CEO's of companies usually try to build up a fairly extensive network so that they are prepared for anything that comes up. This usually involves holding a lot more meetings for the CEO.

There are other aspects to the job a CEO besides going to meetings, he does have to spend a considerable amount of time assessing the company's performance and looking for areas where it can be improved. Technically it is the board of directors that sets the strategy that the company will follow, in practice they almost always rely on the CEO to come up with the strategy. Most board members do not have the time to invest in actually devising strategy so they largely limit themselves to approving what the CEO recommends. This of course requires that the CEO spend a big part of their day devising a strategy. In order to do that they have to have all of the necessary information which they spend a great deal of time analyzing.