Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
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What does the term CEO mean?
A
CEO is an acronym for Chief Executive Officer, which refers to the individual who handles executive management functions.
Differences between a CEO and a Managing Director in Switzerland
In Swiss companies nowadays, the English term "CEO" is frequently found in position titles, either due to international relations with the company or because it has become common to refer to positions in English.
In contrast to the use of the term in Anglo-Saxon countries, there are legal differences between a CEO and a managing director:
- For managing directors of a Swiss company, "CEO" is only an additional designation - but in legal terms (with regard to commercial and corporate law), the term has no relevance.
- Accordingly, the title CEO in Swiss companies should be understood as a functional description rather than a title.
- Unlike Swiss companies with multiple managing directors, which also means multiple CEOs, in Anglo-Saxon companies there is only one CEO - the person in charge of the organization.
Based on how the term CEO is used around the world, we can observe that it is interpreted differently according to a country's culture.
CEO's Responsibilities
A CEO is the highest-ranking executive in Anglo-Saxon companies. In this regard, the CEO has the following responsibilities:
- Main responsibility for all business decisions
- Representative of the company
- Providing a link between the company's most important bodies
- Overseeing the various functions of the company
What exactly a CEO does in the company, however, depends strongly on the corporate structure as well as the size of the company. In a very large company, the CEO is mainly responsible for the strategic direction of the company, while in smaller companies the CEO usually takes on more hands-on tasks.
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