RE: Corporate structure

<Catchin' up on a few of the lists, fer a bit, and saw this interesting
question...>


Adam,

I don't know what the textbook definitions are.  From some reading and in my
experience, You have different "roles played", and it depends a lot on size
of the organization and corporate culture.


In general, large companies are owned by the shareholders of stock in the
company.  The shareholders elect a BOD (Board of Directors) to represent
their interests.  The COB (Chairman) being the lead.  One of the primary
tasks of the Board is to hire people to run the company.  I'm not sure if
Boards generally hire the President/CEO and S/He does the rest of the hiring
or not.

In smaller companies there's no need for a CEO.  In larger companies the CEO
and president may, or may not, be the same person.  If not, the President
would report to the CEO.

My former boss was promoted from President of a $500M subsidiary, to
President of the $2.2B parent org.  About 3 months later, He was promoted to
CEO, so He now reports directly to the Board rather than through an
intermediary...  This was basically a vote-of-confidence by the BOD (which
happens to be 2/3 owned by one person and His family)...  It was indicating
that the BOD liked the changes and intended direction that the President was
putting in place.


Btw, one of the BIGGEST things that Mr. Gerstner was able to do, (because,
at the time, pretty much everybody felt that taking the job of President of
IBM was a career-ending move), was insist on BOTH the jobs of CEO and COB.
(I believe that'd been rarely done if ever at IBM, though it is common in
SME and always the case in Mom-and-Pop corporations.)  And one of the
biggest perks of a COB is having some tremendous influence in the selection
of their successor (of course, ONLY if they were relatively successful as
COB!)...  The successor chosen would carry on the legacy of the former COB,
to an extent, as well as forge their own direction for the corporation.

hth, jt



| -----Original Message-----
| [mailto:midrange-nontech-admin@midrange.com]On Behalf Of
| Adam_Driver@kaz.com.au
| Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2002 7:56 PM

| I was wondering exactly what the role of a company president is
| in relation
| to Chairman and CEO?
|