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Comment by rantanplan | Hacker News Reader

We're just used to CEOs having only a decorative role, who can be replaced in an instant. So much so that when we see a CEO actually working/engaging with the actual product/service, they seem like a peculiar and rare specimen.

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I would not characterize many CEOs as being "a decorative role, who can be replaced in an instant". Leading may not be hands-on engineering and design (at least, you hope!), but it's certainly FAR from decorative.

I would characterize most CEOs I've met(and not only) as decorative. And that's why they do get replaced in an instant.

Part of the problem is that a CEO plays a very different role in a three person company, a 300 person company, a 3000 person company, and a 30k person company. I have a very difficult time imagining swapping out the CEO of an early round startup without having a major existential crisis.

To that I agree. I wasn't talking so much about startups. Admittedly a CEO(quite often a founder) there plays a much more instrumental role.

There have been others. Ed Land, of Polaroid, had a private lab next to his office as CEO. But they're rare.

No... sorry but it sounds like you have no idea what a CEO's actual role is.

CEO - Chief EXECUTION officer. Isn't building and designing the "big piece" of execution. If he's involved in the actual execution then that means is a company laser focused on "executing" its vision.

I just wish more middle management at my company knew how the product worked.

It's 'executive' not 'execution'

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