Looking at the process for Senior Executives to become a CEO.

1. CEOs.Quick,Quick,Slow.
By
Steven Brown
AMR Services.co.nz
18th August 2014

2. CEOs, Quick, Quick, Slow.
From as young as I can remember I wanted to become a
person who was at the top of an organisation. I was on a
“fast track” to becoming a CEO, Owner, or Director..
• New Year’s Eve my father always asked what I was going
to do when I was older?
• What had I done this year to achieve this?
• What I was going to do next year to get that next step
nearer?
My father’s New Year’s Eve talk stood me in good stead as I
have always used this formula to achieve things in life. By
the age of 38 I had become a CEO (Serving for nine years)
and previous to this I had worked in the roles of Director
and Senior Executives.
My father’s formula still works today.

3. Quick, Quick, Slow
• My first Quick would be to get a Business Qualification as quick as
possible rather than just learn Business as I went along.
• Today most C-Level Executives are moving towards Business and
leadership skills.
• Your first degree is now just a starting point.
• A CEO means that you have to have a wealth of knowledge alongside
being able to communicate at all levels, be a people person, a collaborator,
and a thought Leader.
• The Harvard Business Review in 2011 stated, “C-level jobs have shifted
toward business acumen and “softer” leadership skills.”

4. Quick, Quick, Slow
My second Quick would be to get to a Senior Executive position as
soon as possible.
CEOs under thirty;
Sindhuja Rajaraman Seppan
Mark Zuckerberg Facebook
David Karp Tumblr
Jared Hecht GroupMe
CEOs forty and under;
Larry Page Oracle
Marissa Mayer Yahoo
Daniel Schwartz Burger King
Andrew Wilson Electronic Arts
Andrew Mason GroupOn
Jeremy Stoppleman Yelp

5. Quick, Quick, Slow
We have a Business Qualification, we are now in a Senior Executive
position, but let’s Slow down becoming a CEO and take that next step
when you are comfortable to do so.
This is the time to take a breath and make sure that you are ready to
be a CEO? You now need to plan for the future.
If you think that by taking your time you are going to miss out on
increased pay and benefits think again.
As a CEO my C- level people earned more money than I did and rightly
so. This goes for many companies around the world too. More Senior
Executives are earning more than their bosses.

6. Caleb Melby and Laura Marcinek, in the Bloomberg News on April 11,
2014 reported,
“CEOs’ pay increasingly being trumped by other C-level executives.
• Facebook’s Sandberg, 44, received $16.1 million in 2013. Mark
Zuckerberg, $1 salary, received less than $1 million.
• Nolan Archibald, executive chairman of Stanley Black & Decker Inc.
in March 2013, was paid $52.5 million last year, almost five times
more than Chief Executive Officer John Lundgren.
• Bank of America Corp.’s Thomas K. Montag and Occidental
Petroleum Corp.’s Ray Irani also were among 27 executives who
received higher compensation than their CEOs last year.”

7. You have quickly risen up the ranks, you now need to be a CEO
quickly.
Again SLOW down.
Most CEOs tenure on average is six to eight years and this can be
as low as three to five years in downturn economies.
Andrea Redmond and Patricia Crisafulli July 8, 2010 states “The
message to Executives from the first day on the job might be,
“This is temporary; be prepared to leave.”
Yet many executives who find themselves stepping down for any
number of reasons are caught unaware.

8. They go on to highlight CEOs whose leaving was a complete surprise
and had no plan in place to deal with this;
• “Jac” Nasser,CEO of Ford Motor left the Company in October 2001,
two years after he had assumed the position.
• David Neeleman’s departure as CEO of JetBlue Airways Corp. in May
2007, the airline he had founded, came six months after a glowing
assessment of his performance from the board of directors.
Both were so busy with working as a CEO they had forgotten as so
many others do to plan for themselves.
During the last few years in New Zealand I have worked with a few
CEOs who left their roles. All had no idea that their job was coming to
an end and decided to take a well earn rest. This was done as a knee
jerk reaction, as they hadn’t planned to leave their roles. All of them
thought that they could have at least six to twelve months off before
taking on a similar role or do some Consulting work.

9. My advice
• Working with Senior Executives who are working towards
becoming CEOs my advice is;
• Quick to get your Business qualification.
• Quick to get your Senior Executive Role.
• Slow to become a CEO building up a war chest and a plan for
life after being a CEO.
• CEO. Quick, Quick, Slow.