The Best Performing CEOs in the World

After going through the article in Harvard Business Review about The Best Performing CEOs in the World, I began to put together all the factors that these CEOs had in common. They according to me are the reasons that contribute to outstanding CEO performance. An effective CEO can mean much more to a company than just performing his or her duties. Corporations are on the hunt for individuals who can envision goals and direct the company towards those goals.

The first factor that I think is the most essential is to have a sense of vision, about the company as well as the market today and where it will stand tomorrow. It is critical to know what your customers would want in the future even before they know it. A CEO has to know what he expects to have achieved in ten years from now. He has to know what to do, how to do it and when to do it. This involves strategic thinking and lot of planning for the future instead of constantly reacting to current events only. Lets take the example of Steve Jobs who understood the potential of mobile computing which is what lead to him being the top CEO in the world. Analyzing Steve Jobs, I also realized that a CEO should be a true leader of that company. He must be an inspiration, a role model to others and represent everything that is great about the company. “Steve jobs is Apple in a turtleneck and everybody at Apple calls him Steve. He epitomizes everything that Apple aspires to be.” - Debra Wheatman

The next qualities that I think are important are execution and organization. A good CEO must build the best team he possibly can as he definitely cannot do everything on his own. It is critical for him to choose the right vice presidents, who have to find quality managers and so on. A CEO has to realize the importance of teamwork and collaboration. It is this team under his supervision that brings the organization to success. He has to make sure that there is responsibility and execution at all levels. For example, the key to the leadership style of John T. Chambers, the CEO of Cisco Systems, is collaboration and teamwork. He says that he has evolved from a command and control person to a more some one who follows the participative kind of leadership. He also says that he tries to recruit the best people who he thinks can contribute to the development of the organization, those who recognize their failures and are willing to do things differently and those who have good communication skills. Hence there are thousands of employees out there who are qualified for every specific position, but the ability to differentiate the best from the good is an essential quality a CEO must possess.

A few other qualities that a CEO must possess are good risk assessment skills and a decisive nature. A good CEO must be aware of the risks and rewards involved in every problem and must be able to make a go or no-go decision. Good decisions are extremely essential and form the center of executive