Exercise $1\mathrm{.}2$: Who Can Be CEO?

Objective

The purpose of this exercise is to grasp the concept of human capital and its value to organizations.

Instructions

Human capital is described as the sum of people$$s skills, knowledge, experience, and general attributes. To be the president or chief executive officer $($CEO$)$ of a firm, one must be strong in all of these factors. The top leaders of organizations change over time due to the death or retirement of the CEO, the CEO moving on to a different organization voluntarily, or the board of directors asking the CEO to step down because of poor performance.

When the board of directors at a major corporation has an opening for a CEO and they want to promote someone from within the organization, they examine all the qualifications of various candidates$$the human capital of those vying for the position.

The question for the class to discuss is this: Can anyone be a CEO? Does every single employee in a company have the same skill set, knowledge about the firm and the industry, experience in the field, and other general attributes to step into the role of CEO? Why or why not?

Reflection Questions

If you feel that anyone can be CEO, what do you base this on$?$ And if you feel otherwise$$that only certain individuals can be CEO$$what would prevent others from filling that role? What is it they$$re missing?How do companies identify human capital in their organization? What ways could a board of directors evaluate who is most qualified to be CEO?

What training and development could a company offer to prepare more candidates to be the top manager of an organization? Are all the qualifications a CEO should have able to be learned, or are they innate skills these individuals are born with?

Exercise contributed by Steven Stovall, Southeast Missouri State University.