this video was sponsored by HubSpot a good CEO can build an average company into a billion dollar
success and a bad CEO can destroy even a strong company in less than a year with so much on the
line shareholders happily pay these privileged men and women millions of dollars a year for
their services but they are still just employees they come to work every day and go home like
everyone else so what the [ __ ] do these people actually do all day musk has officially Rebrand
the company as X he wants the app to be Central to Everyday Life with a hand in everything from
Communications to finance to game and ultimately absolutely like I look I should have been on top
of this and I feel really really bad and regretful that I wasn't so today I'm excited to announce an
entirely new AR platform with a revolutionary new product the real answer to what a CEO actually
does is whatever they want within the company they are only answerable to the board of directors and
the only Power that board of directors has over them is to decide their compensation
package or to fire them the board of directors themselves are representatives of the company's
shareholders and in a lot of small companies the biggest shareholders in the chairman of the board
is also the CEO so the board can't do anything apart from give advice and hope the CEO listens
to it that's only for small companies though it is incredibly rare for the CEOs of public
companies to have this much power in fact there is only one company in the S P 500 where the
CEO cannot be voted out by the board and that's meta's Mark Zuckerberg since he owns a majority
of a special type of share in the company for every other CEO their only real job is to not
get fired by the board the best way to do that is to keep the board that represents the shareholders
Happy by delivering strong business performance make green line go up is a simple objective but
it still doesn't answer what they actually do all day since that goal can be achieved in so
many ways but I have to make this video before good work makes a funnier better version of it
again so let's imagine that you wake up one day in the body of a random Fortune 500 CEO
and you need to make it through the day without being found out here are the things that only a
CEO can do from the moment that you walk into the office until the moment you leave probably
quite late at night the first task that only a CEO is allowed to perform in a large company
is to choose the direction the company will take as CEO only you can decide if your company will
acquire another company introduce a new product line focus on growth or cutting costs open in a
new country or just keep things running exactly as they are a good CEO should talk with the board
their employees and occasionally outside Consultants before making these decisions
as CEO talking to these parties can alert you to risks that have been overlooked or better
opportunities to be pursued instead as CEO there are different ways to get this feedback some try
to be as Hands-On as possible they will talk directly to customers do their own sales calls
and work weekends at stores other CEOs decide what to do based on financial statements and
the advice of senior managers that pass feedback up the corporate hierarchy the first type of CEO
normally gets more praise from being a Hands-On manager that really knows their business but
both Styles have pros and cons CEOs that spend too much time performing low-level business operations
can get too concerned with details a Hands-On CEO can only manage a company so large before
their style of management becomes incompatible with getting the information they need to make
good decisions no matter what approach you choose to take as CEO you are still the only person that
can decide the direction of the company are you going to Rebrand to x.com are you going to remove
a headphone jack from your Flagship product are you going to Pivot from selling books to selling
everything the average CEO does not make that many big decisions in a day they often don't make that
many big decisions in their entire career but they do spend a lot of their time every day talking to
people whose opinions they value so when they do need to make decisions they can make the best one
possible but making decisions that could change the course of an entire company's future is just
the first thing that a CEO needs to do when they get to work and the other three tasks don't get
any easier so it's time to learn how money Works to find out what good CEOs actually do all day
this week's lesson was sponsored by HubSpot as CEOs it's imperative to stay ahead of the
curve and be informed about the latest trends and changes in the industry it's not about following
every buzzword or trend on social media instead it's about diving deep into comprehensive reports
from trusted sources like the AI trends for marketers from HubSpot this report is a gold
line of information delving into the intricacies of AI in marketing it covers topics ranging from
Predictive Analytics which can forecast customer behaviors and optimize campaign strategies to
the rising importance of chatbots in enhancing customer service and engagement furthermore it
emphasizes the role of AI and personalization ensuring that marketing messages resonate more
deeply with individual consumers but it's not just about understanding these Trends the report also
offers actionable strategies on how to leverage them for instance it provides case studies on
businesses that have successfully integrated AI driven chat Bots tips on how to utilize Predictive
Analytics for targeted marketing campaigns and best practices for creating personalized content
that truly engages the audience these insights are more than just interesting reads they're practical
tools and strategies that CEOs and marketers can Implement to stay ahead in the ever-evolving
world of marketing there's a wealth of knowledge packed into this report making it an essential
read for CEOs and marketers who are serious about leveraging the power in their strategies use my
link in the description and start exploring the AI transfer marketers report today the second thing
that only a CEO can do is decide how the company's money is spent a good CEO should take advice from
their Chief Financial Officer and other staff before making decisions like taking out a loan
issuing a dividend or making a purchase But ultimately only the CEO possesses the authority
to spend the company's money at their discretion since you have woken up to find yourself as the
CEO of a very large company it would be impossible for you to make every single transaction yourself
the largest transaction made by a company was 202 billion dollars which was paid by the British
telecommunications company Vodafone to acquire Management in the year 2000. that is a lot of
money if you were the CEO of these companies this deal would need your approval but small
transactions happen thousands of times in a day in companies because staff and suppliers need
to be paid and basic expenses need to be covered a good CEO will set up a framework for spending
that lends their authority to use company money to staff in positions like payroll or to normal staff
members through corporate cards to cover travel or general expenses this framework should have levels
of spending that need to be approved by different levels of management if a junior analyst needs to
book flights to attend a conference they should be able to put that on a corporate card and get
the expense approved by their manager if the manager wants to reward that analyst with a 25
000 bonus then they should require approval from their manager and possibly an independent payroll
manager progressively bigger spends should need approval from progressively higher levels of
management uh probably the most significant announcement of the day is that we're excited
to announce that we're going to be building a gigafactory in Mexico a good trick to cut down on
expenses that you can use as a CEO is to rewrite the expenses framework to make it harder to get
approvals for spending if it's too difficult to spend money staff won't do it unless it's really
necessary saving money is good but if your company misses out on opportunities because of it it can
reduce the returns you provide to shareholders it's the shareholders who decide if you keep
your job so getting spending Frameworks right is important you want your staff to have everything
they need to do their jobs but not too much that they waste money on unnecessary [ __ ] as a CEO
you can delete making this expense framework to your CFO but you still want to sit down with them
on a regular basis to make sure that people at every level of the company aren't spending too
much but also aren't being stifled by Financial bureaucracy the next thing that only a CEO can
do is act as the public face of a company as the CEO of a large company you need to accept
that you are responsible for selling the company in its operations to the public because they are
your customers and investors get out there on the factory floor get out there on the stores
talk to customers think about what what would you love to have top CEOs spent a lot of their time
talking to the Press about how their company is going to deliver strong returns to shareholders
CEOs of big companies have communications teams that schedule interviews and prepare talking
points whether they are delivering good news or downplaying bad news a CEO's job is to convince
anybody watching that their stock is undervalued and that the products their company offers are
better than the competition making lots of media appearances is a great career move for a CEO for
two reasons the first reason is that it does influence markets according to research from
Oxford University's Syed business school if a new CEO presents their strategy within their first 100
days it has an overall positive impact on stock price if the CEO keeps their investors happy they
keep their job the second reason that new CEOs for large companies are often hired is because they
are well known by the investing public because they have appeared in media before high-level
Executives often hire their own personal public relations team to get them in articles and on
news segments that talk about the work they are doing because they know it's the best way to land
a c-suite job at a Fortune 500 company if you are already a CEO of a large company you get the same
Advantage as an incumbent president just by doing your job you are getting attention if a new board
of directors at another company already knows of you in your track record they will be more likely
to draw up a competitive offer if you ever want to switch firms the fourth thing that only a CEO can
do is a less formal responsibility but also their most important responsibility they dictate how
the business operates every day that might sound the same as choosing a direction for the company
a but its focus internally on staff and systems it's not like you know of course the CEO has to
live the culture has to you know be able to make sure the leadership team lives those values but if
you can switch on every person every employees every team members own mindset to say well I'm
not just working here Microsoft's working for me then you've achieve some CEOs like to encourage a
relaxed atmosphere where people get good results because they feel comfortable and love coming to
work other CEOs push professionalism at all costs and demand that their staff hold themselves to
the highest standards no matter what they do or they will be let go as a CEO you will need
to decide what kind of business environment you want to create but before you choose you need
to know that certain approaches work better in some businesses than others I used to work
in Investment Banking and the essential was that you would show up on time in a suit every day and
you would work late nights and weekends until your work was done anything less than that and you were
going to get the tap on the shoulder the CEOs of hospitals expect the same level of professionalism
out of their staff because people's lives are literally on the line This approach wouldn't
work as well in normal companies though because people in these professions only put up with these
extreme expectations because they are compensated extremely well unless you want to pay all of your
staff like investment bankers or doctors a more relaxed corporate environment is a better play or
you will have high staff turnover big tech companies have done the opposite they have
relaxed dress codes and they have built offices with free cafeterias and luxury amenities to get
their staff to want to work extra hours instead of demanding it depending on what company you
wake up as the CEO of you will need to think very carefully about what environment will get the most
out of your people but once you know this how do CEOs actually change corporate culture they do it
by Leading by example if you want your company to be filled with staff that show up on time do their
work and go home you need to do the same and make sure your leadership team does the same and make
sure that they are demanding the same from their teams if you want to create a culture of geniuses
fixing the world's problems with technology you should sit in the middle of the office at
a desk visible by everyone working on coding your flip-flops if you are going to demand 80 hours a
week out of your Junior analyst you should be in the office 90 hours a week some CEOs try to order
their staff into a certain style but staff can see hypocrisy and if there is hypocrisy at the very
top every single manager in the company is going to have to deal with questions like why do we need
to work late when the CEO leaves at five every day why do we need to wear a suit and tie when
the CEO shows up in a t-shirt as a CEO you will learn that it's easy to think you can do whatever
you want and nobody will say anything about it because they won't the CEO of a company does
not directly report to anybody in the company the only people that can fire you or take disciplinary
action is the board of directors and they do not watch what the CEO does all day but your staff
does and it's your staff that make the company work well enough to secure you another year of a
multi-million dollar bonus a report by the Harvard Business Review tracked 27 CEOs that ran companies
with an average revenue of 13.1 billion dollars it followed them over 60 000 hours of Total work and
it revealed that on average they were working 62.5 hours per week the study also found that
25 percent of their work is spent on people in relationships 25 on functional and business unit
reviews 16 on organizations and culture and 21 on strategy 72 percent of their time was spent
in meetings and most of their Communications 61 were handled in person as a CEO you are going to
spend a lot of your time talking to your people so setting the tone of the business may sound
like wishy-washy HR [ __ ] but it's probably the most important thing that you will do as a CEO
one of the largest private companies in the world today has been known to influence politics
and hide their Assets in offshore accounts in a way that pretty much gives the middle finger to
America but that's just the tip of the iceberg with the Koch brothers go and watch our video
over on how history Works to learn more about the Koch family business if you want to watch
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