The Ideal CEO situation.

**hurds** · 11-16-2012, 01:04 AM

So I as thinking what is the ideal situation to have for your CEOs. We hear a lot of CEOs coming and going. Fired, hired, moving on, replaced, succeeded.

There is likely different phases as well to go through as a company grows. So heres my ideal situation in tech and the position of CEO.

If you want your tech company to be strong now and into the future you want it to built on two things. Business and Innovation. You don't want to sell hype, you don't want to be constantly changing your business model or aim, and you want to be constanly innovating because we all know it tech, if you don't move forward you die. So for the basis of a company I say you want a CEO that is both grounded in business and is also a true innovator (not just a brilliant marketer, because if you don't innovate you got nothing to market). If you have a sound business you'll do things to maximize revenue, integrated approach is preferable since it gives you control, need to be able to take big caculated risks and create long term sustainability. The aim should be to go after stable markets, get into things like services for a steady flow of income, expand in to real grow markets and don't fall prey to the whims of fickle consumers, cater to the low and high end and don't try and trap your customer. On the innovation side you want someone who is a real visionary, sees were the market is going, 5 years ahead is great, but 10 is even better. Obviously its hard to forecast that far ahead, but the CEO should build as strong a base to build on as possible and stay as agile as they can, making tough decisions to make transitions when need be. Obviously all CEOs will have their faults but they have to acknowledge them and make the necessary changes when they arise but not over commit too early or under commit too late. Obviously a time will come when CEOs have to transition. If this foundation the first CEO has made is strong enough I think you'd ideally pass things on to someone in house that knows the business and can take control, takes the company to the next level, really own the company, lets you know its theirs and is able to make it more efficient, cut the unecessary excess that comes with any rapidly growing company and give your company a laser focus. Preferably a 6'7" no-nonsense German is ideal (in case you didn't know where I was going with this).

Anyways, what do people think? Good, bad? Better ideas? What would you do? Read in the paper what the best option is and go with that?

**G-bone** · 11-16-2012, 01:52 AM

I'm down with you. I feel that Thor is the right guy in the right job at the right time. As one RIM exec said, "He has the heart of an engineer and the mind of a German businessman. ". What more could you want?

**Dapper37** · 11-16-2012, 05:01 AM

He's got my backing. I've yet to see a mistake.

**bungaboy** · 11-16-2012, 05:18 AM

Calm, firm and steady. OK with me.

**ichat** · 11-16-2012, 06:43 AM

The perfect CEO is what you described. Thor is a perfect example I think but just on my nagging side I think he couldve improved some release dates a tad bit better. The holiday season is when everyone is bustling to change phones, buy new things and I'm afraid bb will just have a bit of a setback there in terms of sales.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9860 on 7.1.0.714 with Tapatalk and my fingers

**hurds** · 11-16-2012, 11:47 PM

Originally Posted by ichat

The perfect CEO is what you described. Thor is a perfect example I think but just on my nagging side I think he couldve improved some release dates a tad bit better. The holiday season is when everyone is bustling to change phones, buy new things and I'm afraid bb will just have a bit of a setback there in terms of sales.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9860 on 7.1.0.714 with Tapatalk and my fingers

I agree ichat it would have been nice to be included in the holiday sales but this way they have a captive audience. I think in the long run it will be better for RIM as well.

**hurds** · 11-16-2012, 11:47 PM

Originally Posted by G-bone

I'm down with you. I feel that Thor is the right guy in the right job at the right time. As one RIM exec said, "He has the heart of an engineer and the mind of a German businessman. ". What more could you want?

Awesome quote.

**VeGiTo** · 11-17-2012, 01:43 AM

Thorsten Heins is the hero CEO that we were waiting for.

**owadkelly** · 11-17-2012, 09:20 AM

Allow me to talk to you about this on January 30, otherwise I'm losing a lot of thunder.

**sputneek** · 11-17-2012, 09:30 AM

Originally Posted by ichat

The perfect CEO is what you described. Thor is a perfect example I think but just on my nagging side I think he couldve improved some release dates a tad bit better. The holiday season is when everyone is bustling to change phones, buy new things and I'm afraid bb will just have a bit of a setback there in terms of sales.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9860 on 7.1.0.714 with Tapatalk and my fingers

Pretty sure he would if he could

There's gotta be a damned good reason for that. Getting this launch right is absolutely critical, making money is gonna take a while. As stated above "Calm, firm and steady", steady being the operative.

**Roo Zilla** · 11-17-2012, 06:24 PM

The best tech CEO in the world by far is Jeff Bezos. No one has disrupted markets and created new business models more than him. What has he introduced to the world? Everything from online retail, Kindle, online media, EC2+S3. Very soon, Amazon will literally compete with everybody. He's one of the few founders who's managed to succeed by reinventing the company and introducing new products non-stop during his entire tenure. I could put the Google guys up there, but until very recently, neither of them were CEO.