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Who is the most important person in your company?
Just thinking about this question can be a useful exercise
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The obvious answer is almost certainly correct: The CEO does matter more than anyone else.
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The Economist
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Questions are usually more interesting than answers. If you had to identify the most important person in your organisation, there is an obvious answer, a trite-and-untrue answer and a wrong-but-useful answer.
The obvious answer is “the chief executive”. No cheese is bigger, no dog is more top. The most important decisions about the long-term direction of a company lie with the CEO; the hardest calls land on their desk; and the biggest pay cheques head their way. A board of directors might control their fate, but no one wields more power. That is especially true of a start-up: Up to a certain point in its history, founders are the company.
