Feature
Issue No. 17 - June/July 2004
A day in the life of a CEO
by Alan Green
David, the Managing Partner of a business advisory and accounting firm starts his day in a chirpy mood, and greets his team with an energetic "Good morning!"
After completing his morning round of the office, he sits at his desk to start his day. Within five minutes Mary, his Client Manager, says "David, can I meet with you?"
They go into a meeting room and Mary announces, "I’ve been offered a fantastic opportunity to live and work in London. It’s what I’ve always wanted to do. I know I’ve only worked with you for 12 months but opportunities like this are rare and I feel I’ll really regret it later if I don’t go – I hope you understand."
At that point, David’s mind is in an absolute panic, because Mary is one of the best managers he has worked with. She runs her area so efficiently and there are never any problems.
Back at his desk, David starts to reflect on Mary‘s departure. If he was her age, he would probably do the same thing. Just as well, the firm introduced a training and development program for young managers six months ago. In this particular case, Jenny has been trained to take over Mary’s position. Whilst Jenny does not have the experience or expertise of Mary, she has started training and will be able to run the section with some additional support. Given time, Jenny will come up to a Mary’s expertise level.
At 9:30am, David meets with a client. Their company has grown nearly 50 percent each year fo...
