The CEO is the American term for the managing director or executive board member of a company or organisation. As a rule, the CEO is the highest decision-making authority at the top management level - the so-called "C-suite".
They are responsible for all entrepreneurial goals, position the company in the market, maximise profits and make all important decisions in this regard. And to ensure this, they also bear the main responsibility for all internal processes.
Environmental influences and the rapidly increasing speed of development in the 21st century continue to set the bar for this profession. Successful CEOs are connected and integrated rather than isolated. They focus on people instead of methods or processes. And they lead in a purpose-driven and sustainable way.
CareerTeam provides support for companies in top executive search and staffing vacancies in this area. By continuously improving our algorithmic multichannel search, we are able to fill vacancies rapidly, achieve a high level of cultural fit and also identify the "hidden candidates".
Especially for top management, it is of particular importance to find and identify the right person for the right position. At CareerTeam, we also pay particular attention to sustainable personnel management. Thanks to an extensive, active network of over 600,000 specialists and executives, our recruiters find suitable candidates for the CEO position in the shortest possible time.
A CEO develops the strategic directions in the course of managing a company. This includes the planning of promising investments and the personnel organisation. The aim is to ensure the essential key indicators - i.e. profitable growth, turnover, profit and loss. He:she ensures that orders are secured and also takes over the legal representation of the company. This means that all legal and statutory requirements must be met by the company.
Furthermore, a CEO represents the company on the market. Jeff Bezos represents Amazon, Tim Cook stands for Apple. CEOs act as brand ambassadors and as drivers and initiators.
Depending on the size of the company, the responsibilities of the CEO may vary. At smaller companies, there is more operational activity, which is taken away from a CEO in larger companies by the COO (Chief Operating Officer). A COO ensures that operational processes are best designed and takes care of the day-to-day business. This is about quality and competitiveness of products as well as services. The COO ensures that processes run smoothly and reports to the CEO, while strategic decisions are the CEO's responsibility.
The modern CEO has recognised the benefits of digital transformation and is using it skilfully to make work flexible, acquire new talent and explore digital innovations. For them, remote work means expanding the pool of talent globally. Digitalisation is becoming the centre of value creation.
But alongside all the opportunities, new risks are also emerging. Digitalisation is moving at a speed that can pose a threat to existing business models. Established business models often cannot keep up with this pace and prove to be outdated and irrelevant due to a lack of innovative capacity.
Leading CEOs question the status quo and take the necessary measures to remain successful in the medium and long term. This includes identifying disruptive areas and investing in innovation and its processes.
Furthermore, the (physical) boundaries of a company also shift in the course of transformation, and they become part of a larger digital ecosystem. Partnerships create resilience here, and CEOs know all too well about the fragility of the supply chain as the number of suppliers increases. Not to mention the environmental influences of the 21st century.
Great CEOs plan strategic alliances with partners and suppliers to create a win-win-win situation: for the customer, for the partners and for the company. This will improve operational performance, create new digital products and services, increase the space and participants for innovation and has the potential to improve the customer experience as well.
However, an increased digital connectivity also means a larger attack surface at the same time. Cybersecurity is also a topic that is at the top of the agenda of modern CEOs. Attacking the digital infrastructure threatens the growth and profitability of a company. And they limit the scope for development, innovation and integration.
Resilient CEOs build a foundation of sustainable IT security practices in their digital ecosystem and select trustworthy partners. Security feeds into all aspects of a CEO's decision-making. In this way, they protect infrastructure and data - especially customer data.
CareerTeam delivers executive search for the digital economy as part of Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO). Software-based interview and selection processes help us as a recruitment consultancy in the entire hiring process, which also covers the complete Candidate Journey Management. Furthermore, we ensure cultural fit, a particularly critical feature in the field of executive search. Employer branding, active sourcing and direct search are also included in our range of services. Please feel free to contact us to find out about the full range of our services.