As originally asked by Giovanni Lauricella.

Mark S. McNulty
Business executive with expertise in driving growth in earlier-stage medical, technology and service organizations
I appreciate the thoughtful responses to the CEO question. I think Mario’s analysis is very helpful in that it recognizes that different stages in a company’s evolution often will require (or at least emphasize) a different set of skills. At the same time, you need to factor in the unique skills of the management team, so that there is a good balance of skills. No matter what stage, I believe a medical device CEO needs to be an excellent leader, and those are not necessarily determined by a cookie-cutter approach. I’ve seen excellent leaders who are engineers, marketers, sales people, and financial folks. The ability to critically assess, establish strategic objectives and operational plans, hire talented people, motivate/compensation the team to innovate and deliver results, and the ability to gather the support needed from internal/external stakeholders is what makes a great CEO. Talented folks can grow with various stages of the company and I believe the cream of the crop is evident as you witness their performance over time. I feel it’s always more effective to have continuity in the management team, so changing CEOs at different stages creates its own challenges.
I hope this perspective is helpful and look forward to your feedback.

James O’Hara
Owner Barone O’Hara Associates
Marketing

Ajit Phadke
Manager – Business Development at Jayant Agro Organics Ltd.
Any one who understands and can analyze the business model and knows objective ( which keep changing with time ) can become CEO. If the person is a specialist in any field, he/she may have to unlearn that part and then acquire the business analysis skills to become fit to be a CEO

Rob Packard
510(k), CE Marking & Quality System Consultant
I’ve had the pleasure of doing each of those jobs–including CEO. It gives you a little different perspective to have that kind of breadth.

I think the answer is that it doesn’t really matter. As CEO you are a generalist, and depending upon the stage of the company any one of those areas could be more important than the others.

Many managers make the mistake of delegating their weaknesses. I recommend delegating your strengths. This way you can quickly fix any problems that arise in the areas you have delegated. If sales and marketing is important now, and you have a background in engineering, you will want to spend a lot more time communicating with your sales and marketing team and strengthening this weakness until your new product launch is running smoothly.

This philosophy works at the department level too for various tasks.

John LaMascus
Sr Information Technology Specialist – IT R&D – Validation Services at Allergan plc
I agree with Mario and Kimberly. My additional comment will focus on the “toolbox” each CEO brings to the table regardless which stage of the company lifecycle we are talking about. We all have a “mix” of strengths and weakness which bring opportunities and threats (SWOT). Successful management is achieving results through the efforts of others. Irrespective your personal mix, you’ll definitely need to know how to motivate others (or get somebody who does). Or stated another way…, “anybody can do what he likes, that’s the easiest thing in the world, doing only what I like. Now doing the stuff I don’t like…, that’s the real trick, isn’t it?”

Kimberly Hansen
Art Director and Brand Advocate
Eloquently put Mario. I’ll add that any CEO with experience primarily in one arena must recognize his weakness in the other areas and have a strong advisory team so that the critical needs of marketing, R&D and sales each receive the resources and support critical to their success. Downplaying the importance of any of these areas to favor your area of experience will demoralize your team and jeopardize your success.

Mario Martinez
Managing Partner at Tecnix, LLC
We are biased towards CEOs with engineering or sales backgrounds but there are no absolutes.

Our opinion is that the CEO profile change depending on the stage of the company.

Early Stage companies need a CEO that is a risk taker. They have a vision and are driven to create new solutions to problems. Usually they are not the best bosses and can be abrasive. They need to be able to cycle quickly through ideas and implement a vision while others are telling them that it not possible.

When a company reaches $15 to $60 million in sales and exceeds100 employees, the start up CEO usually needs to step aside or be replaced. A “builder and coach” is then required. They usually have excellent people skills but are still focused on problem solving rather than consensus building. They need to create a sustainable culture, formulate a compelling strategy, articulate that strategy and work effectively with their board of directors. They best CEOs we have seen at this stage usually rely on a strong COO for execution. The best teams in our experience are a strong customer and sales focused CEO and a Technical COO focused on execution and keeping the CEO grounded.

At $60-$400 million there is another transition point. The CEO needs to be more externally focused. They transition from problem solvers to consensus builders. The best CEO’s at this level are masters of managing external expectations, managing their boards and leading the investment community. Most of their time is spent on culture and consensus building and putting in place a strong management team of specialists.

After a company develops critical mass the job of the CEO is to safeguard the company assets, set the culture and plan for orderly growth. The best CEOs at this level are exceptional communicators, they build a team that is technically smarter than they are, they listen to their team and arbitrate decisions. CEO’s at this level require multicultural experience and global perspectives.

Jane Kong
Creative content creator and collaborator
Any combined background of Health Informatics/Engineering with Business would make a great candidate.