Executive Management

Executive management consists of the personnel at the top of the organizational chart. Currently the term C-suite is used to refer to these corporate leaders.

These executives are charged with conceptualizing and operationalizing their organizations. They set the mission and craft the vision of the organization, create and implement the budget, lead strategic planning, and foster the organization's reputation and internal culture. They select operating standards, design and defend brand equity, foster the culture of the organization, and set the tone for the quality of relationships that are developed and maintained with the organization's stakeholders, including investors, markets, publics, and targeted audiences. Although they realize they must adapt their organization to the environment in which they operate, they often work to bend society to the satisfaction of the organization's need for resources.

The executive management team is divided by function. Function heads take their titles from the unique activities, functions, structures, and disciplines for which they are responsible. The person at the pinnacle of the organizational chart is the chief executive officer (CEO). In most organizations, whether business or nonprofit, this person reports to a board of directors. The typical executive arrangement empowers the board to hire, fire, and reward a CEO. The board helps set the direction—mission and vision—of the business, as well as advises its strategic planning. Nonprofits often have a similar arrangement; for instance, the CEO of a university is the president (or chancellor), who reports to a board of trustees. Many foundations and charitable nonprofit organizations have a similar structural arrangement, with a board serving in a planning oversight capacity.

Beneath the CEO is a layer of executives, each one of which is responsible for her or his set of functions. The chief financial officer (CFO) or treasurer is accountable for the financial health of the business as well as its compliance with Securities and Exchange Commission regulations, in the case of a publicly traded company. The chief operating officer (COO) is responsible for the operations intended to make the organization successful because they generate revenue. Rare is the organization that does not have some variation of CEO, CFO, or COO—by whatever title. The CEO might also be president or the COO might be president, especially if the CEO is chairman of the board.

Various organizations, depending on their nature and position in any economy, will have additional function heads at the C level, or the persons at this level might hold the title of executive vice president, vice president, or manager. The specific titles are sensitive to the culture of the organization and the industry or nonprofit sector where it operates. Persons at this level might be in charge of marketing, public relations or public affairs (or corporate communication), technology, domestic activities, global activities, manufacturing, and other areas. In the nonprofit world, a typical title at this level would be the chief development officer, who is in charge of raising money.

The executive management team creates and manages the organization using a set of strategies framed in terms of management by objectives. In the broadest terms, it selects a set of desirable outcomes and formulates a budget to support the strategies needed to achieve these outcomes. Formulation of the budget is the means by which the organization applies revenue to achieve its mission and vision.

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