Becoming an effective and enduring CEO is all about ensuring the right match between CEO skills, abilities, experience and latent talents, and a myriad of organisational details.
The following questions will help applicants for CEO roles make a balanced decision about whether they will be a good fit for a particular role and, if so, increase their chances for success at the top.
Where does the organisation sit in its business life cycle?
Develop a clear understanding of whether you are joining an organisation that is in its initial high-growth phase; reaching maturity; declining; or kicking into its second growth cycle. Most importantly, determine whether there is widespread recognition and acceptance by individual board members of the business’ life-cycle stage.
Is the company’s strategy built on a long-term sustainable competitive advantage? How do you know?
Do not rely solely on information provided by the organisation. Complete your own SWOT analysis. Talk with competitors and current and former customers. Search the internet. Analyse industry trends. Look at benchmarked data for both domestic and international markets. Form your own opinion.
Has the business model passed its use-by date?
Aggregators, e-commerce, new competitors or technology may have had a major negative impact on the business. It is important that you know if the board truly recognises this or is still in denial. Ask whether the board has considered a Greenfields approach to the development of its business plan. If not, the board should have directed the development of a business plan recognising: industry trends, new technology, competitors, factors impacting on the business model, geographic factors related to sales and support; and traditional and non-traditional competitors.
Has the board emerged from a cost-cutting phase or is it locked into ongoing cuts?
No one ever downsized to greatness. During the process of downsizing trust and morale are often destroyed. Unless the board is focused on re-growth strategies and not further cost cutting, your tenure as CEO may be short-lived as you will not be demonstrating additional profit from new customer acquisition and revenue growth.
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