Roles

The job of a CEO is described in three things: The first is creating strategy for the business, division for the business, and to communicate it. The second is to build a team and to ensure that the organization has the talent that it needs to succeed. And the third is to make sure there's enough cash in the bank and to make sure the company executes on its plan including being properly financed.

All three of those roles or all three of those functions are critical right, you can't have a successful business without a good strategy, a good team and good execution, and enough cash in the bank.

Defining

In the early days of business there very few people that are going to be capable of generating the vision for the business, and setting the strategy for the business, other than you may be a close partner as a co-founder. So, setting that vision is important, but even more important than that is being able to articulate the vision and communicate the vision. It's going to make sense to all the different constituencies or stakeholders.

And around your company and that tends to be sort of three broad buckets, your team, your customers,  and potential investors or shareholders. So, CEOs vision is as much about the communication of the vision and the strategy as It is setting it in the first place because that's really how you're going to be able to rally people to your cause.

Team

The CEOs manage talent around human capital, there are two different things: one is around selection and the other is around motivation. There are lots of different pieces of each of those things but figuring out who to bring onboard your organization is absolutely critical. Because especially in the early days those first employees are the ones, that are really going to make or break the business. They're the ones that end up doing of the work, and they're the ones that have an awful lot of power in shaping the culture and practices, and behaviors of the organization beyond selection motivation become incredibly important.

Leaders and managers are making sure that your workforce is motivated to jump out of bed in the morning, and give their absolute best for eight working hours is very important. That's what drives the business forward. That's what writes the code or greets the customers whatever area of of the industry of your business.

Execution

Directly to the motivation of people in the organization and it's directly linked to the strategy, you set as well and making sure that goals are clear that everyone is pointed and rowing in the same direction.  Making sure that deadlines are respected and that people are held accountable for results, there very few people who can do that as effectively as.

The CEO making sure there's enough cash in the bank and having the company properly financed, one of those things that's sort of the lifeblood of the organization or the the gas and the tank, it all comes back to being able to sell the vision so selling the story to investors and potential investors is one of the most important things you can do. Because without the cash in the bank, it's very hard to run the business.

Operations

There's such a thing as an average day for a CEO, there's certainly averages over time and always try to spend as much time in the market with customers, with partners, with prospects. Understanding what their needs are and how my company is either meeting those needs or could be meeting those needs and building those important relationships.

And the rest is going to be odds and ends, it's going to be time with board and investors, it's going to be time thinking and reading and learning and working on projects. And then a certain amount of time that's going to industry events obviously that blurs with being in market on any given day. You're going to do some of those things occasionally, you'll do all of them so no day is typical but over time that's how it balances out.

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