If am appointed as a CEO to a new organization, what is my flexibility in hiring new top level executives or replacing existing executives / replace existing execs to better manage the company? How would you go about achieving this?

What is the typical scenario between CEO and CFO, CRO, CIO, CTO, marketing director etc. There is the board of directors and let’s say I got the buy off from the board, and let us say some top level excs are pals with the board members, but they are not worth their dough / talent. How would you go about achiveing this?

Raman V

Intrapreneur, Entrepreneur [Open Networker, all invites welcome – rvaidy5@gmail.com] 2700 + connections

It depends on the organizational culture, the amount of autonomy the board gives you and the strategy that you’re expected to execute on.

I would recommend the following
-Document and confirm your role with the board
-Confirm the organization’s strategy with the board
-Meet with your existing executive team and confirm their roles, how they support with the organizational strategy and key performance indicators and goals for the next quarter
-Identify gaps that need to be filled (this will let you hire in new talent with minimal pushback)
-Set up a peer review process.

At the end of the quarter *objectively* evaluate your team. Get feedback on each team member’s performance from peers. If there are obvious missed goals or universal negative feedback from their peers, you’re more likely to get board support for changing the lineup. If you can definitively show that someone isn’t good for the business, the board will probably welcome you being the bad guy. (“Sorry, John Doe. I fought for you, but this new jerk of a CEO has the final say”)

If you swoop in and start firing people on day one, you’re likely to lose valuable skills, alienate your team and generally disrupt the business. I’ve been convinced that some individuals are a complete waste of oxygen. However, rather than firing them, I’ve shuffled the deck a little bit and found them to be top performers that were just in the wrong role. Had I gone with my gut and just fired them, I would have lost valuable resources and had to start from scratch with an unknown from the street. Remember that they must have had some skills to get where they are. Sometimes, just talking to the non-performer about your concerns will help you to re-position them to make more of a contribution