This comes up frequently in averagejoel's topics where he and the other socialists/communists discuss CEOs like caracateurs who "work 4 hours a day," "push papers," "play golf," and "aren't needed."
So here's a primer on what what they actually do, courtesy of Freaknomics. This is a great podcast, but the written transcript is also available.
BLOOM: Im Nicholas Bloom. Im a professor of economics at Stanford University.
DUBNER: We are doing a multi-part series on C.E.O.s So let me ask you an incredibly rudimentary question. What does a C.E.O. actually do? Because, everybody knows what a C.E.O. is, but I would argue that most of us really have almost no idea what a C.E.O. actually does, both on a day-to-day and on a year-to-year basis.
BLOOM: Their mandate is theyre part-public figure. If anything goes wrong or right with the company, theyre the man or woman standing up in the press taking the flak or the praise. spend about a day a week talking to Wall Street and other big investors. They also spend a huge amount of time on personnel management, human resources. Generally theyll have 5 to 10 direct reports, people theyll see once a week that work the chief of finance, the chief of H.R., the chief of information Its much more the coach if you think of a football team, its very much like that with C.E.O.s. In some ways, theyre the masterminds behind the scene. But they dont actually throw the ball or actually have their hands directly involved in the business.
DUBNER: Most people, when they hear the term C.E.O., probably think of big firms such as PepsiCo and Microsoft and Facebook, and so on, but just to be clear the median C.E.O. in America, at least, has probably what, four or five employees?
BLOOM: Its an amazing fact when people mention C.E.O. they think of an older white man in charge of a company of 10,000 people. In fact there are 6 million companies in America. The median company, so the 50th percentile, has three employees and the most common company size has one. Actually, almost every C.E.O. out there that youre going to meet is going to be in charge of 5 or 10 people.
Whats the first thing that comes to mind when I say C.E.O.? For many people, the image is a caricature: either supervillain or superhero. At the very least, you probably envision a luxe life with 100 rounds of golf a year.
SONNENFELD: C.E.O.s work harder today than ever before.
Thats Jeff Sonnenfeld from the Yale School of Management. Hes spent more than 30 years scrutinizing C.E.O.s.
SONNENFELD: These arent people that are hanging out and golfing and running around country clubs and sipping on their sherries at late afternoon. These are people that are working nonstop, 40-hour days, eight days a week.
That is Raffaella Sadun. Shes an economist who teaches at Harvard Business School.
SADUN: Im very interested in understanding how management and managers affect firm performance.
So how much time does a C.E.O. spend on their own, thinking blue-sky thoughts?
SADUN: There is very little time that goes into thinking alone or being in their solitary office and looking outside the window. We tend to think about the C.E.O. sitting in an ivory tower, deciding what the organization will do,, and then, boom! They make a decision and the decision just happens, and everybodys happy. But there is so much variation in how well firms adopt even the very basics of management that you cant ignore it. Thats not below the pay grade of the C.E.O. Its very important that the C.E.O. keeps in mind both the strategic and the operational aspects of their jobs.
Please tag the usual socialists who never seem to understand. Also, averagejoel has me on ignore, so please definitely tag him also. ---