Are you in the process of starting a business? Does your company need a CEO that has the ability to run a business successfully, raise capital with ease and generate profits? Do you want to learn how to hire a CEO for your startup company? If your answer to the above questions above is yes, then this article is for you.
A company is always in need of a leader. Any leader may not suffice for the type of a company a person is chosen for. Many things have to be taken into consideration while hiring a CEO. Speaking from personal experience, it is not easy to just interview probable candidates for the job, hire help from a recruitment agency, or make use of recruitment agency software and tools and just hire anyone. You need to go through a rigorous process, just to hire the right person. Now before we go into the details of hiring a CEO, let’s first go through the definition of a CEO.
Who’s a CEO?
A CEO, in my own simple definition is a job title assign to someone whose responsibility is to pilot a business. A CEO is someone assigned the responsibility to provide strategic direction and deliver results constantly for a company. So therefore, you can look at a CEO as a marksman or helmsman. Examples of the world’s best CEOs include Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Jack Welch, etc.
A CEO is not a person who has to be hired the conventional way. Market research and recruitment strategies have to be made. Look at the case of Microsoft. Bill Gates did not just resign from the role of CEOship because he was tired. The multi billionaire Gates took advantage of the mindset of the employees he has. His tactics to use his employees to serve both the company and themselves have been extraordinary. His pace of intelligence kept the company alive and kicked competitors out of the top of the software builder list. He brought Steve Ballmer from the roots of his company to become the CEO.
There were no typical interview sessions and no testing. Steve Ballmer joined the company in the 1980’s as the thirtieth employee and the first managerial level employee. Similar is the case with the new CEO of Apple Inc, “Tim Cook” he was not only made CEO just because Steve Jobs died; he has been groomed for the role for years, while Steve Jobs was still at the helm of affairs.
These are just the cases of promoting the employees internal to the organization to higher posts. But when getting hold of a good business man from the market to become a CEO for your company, many tactics have to be used out; of which one recruitment tactic is the money dealing. Capturing a person’s attention through the pay scale is something worthwhile. For example, consider how Steve Jobs lured John Sculley to Apple from Pepsi.
Apart from that, the person to be hired as the CEO is always offered a friendly chat environment on dinners and events, so that he can be examined for the position of the CEO of one company. Obviously the company has to see through its weaknesses and strengths, and then the opportunity is given to the best man alive.
How to match the CEO with the company
A company in need of a leader has to make sure that it knows what the goals and the strategic needs of the business are. The vision of the company has to be aligned with the search criteria. The soul searching should be accompanied by the matching of all the tactical and the executive strategies with the need to identify the best man for the job.
When you have identified a person from the market who has the experience and the skills, always go for the second and the third opinion. Ask around, make notes, find more information, and get your Board of Directors to vote for him. Have many options, and not just only one. Decide and vote on the best person from many people you may have selected. Then when one is selected, go and talk to him. Propel him to join the company and give him/her the reason to join. Not just with financial advantage, tell him what your company is good at, so that he won’t able to say NO.
About the Author: This guest post is written by Muhammad Azam. He is a professional having experience in human resource management, technology and IT industry. He has written several posts on recruitment agency software, HRM, recruitment and selection tips, etc.
