Typical executive roles & responsibilities
The following are examples of executive and senior management roles that typically exist within information technology-based companies:
Board of Directors
The Board of Directors is a group of individuals who act on behalf of the investors and other financial stakeholders in the venture to provide oversight and direction to the company. The Board’s principal priority is to ensure that financial stakeholders’ interests are upheld and acted upon appropriately by the company under their direction.
Chairman of the Board
The Chairman of the Board is the principal liaison between the company’s Board of Directors and its Chief Executive Officer, and is responsible for the smooth operation of the Board. Note that the Chairman of the Board answers to the Board of Directors, and not the other way around.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is the principle executive ‘point of contact’ for the company and is generally accountable for ensuring that appropriate business strategies are in place and that these are acted upon according to the priorities established by the Board of Directors and in a manner that is consistent with accepted and necessary business practices.
The CEO is generally considered the company’s de facto leader, and is often looked upon to establish and communicate the business’s overall vision and purpose to all interested parties.
Chief Operating Officer (COO)/President
The Chief Operating Officer (COO)/President is responsible for ensuring that:
- the company’s strategies are acted upon successfully
- sufficient human, financial, technological, informational, and material resources are available to carry these out
- the necessary business relationships, organizational structures, and motivational schemes are in place.
Often, the COO or President is also called upon to take a leadership role in implementing corporate strategy, particularly as it relates to motivating the company’s personnel, suppliers, potential and actual customers, and investors.
Chief Financial Officer (CFO)/Vice President of Finance/Director of Finance
The Chief Financial Officer (CFO)/Vice President of Finance/Director of Finance is responsible for ensuring and maintaining the financial health of the company, and is often also charged with responsibility for solidifying and maintaining investor relationships. As often as not, this role will have a ‘dotted line’ relationship to the Board of Directors.
In many cases, the CFO’s role will also encompass responsibilities for corporate administration, legal affairs, and the company’s internal information technology infrastructure.
Chief Technology Officer (CTO)/Vice President of Technology/Director of Technology
The Chief Technology Officer (CTO)/Vice President of Technology/Director of Technology is responsible for ensuring that the company’s technological infrastructure is sound. This may include both the company’s internal operating environment as well as the technological content of its products and often will also include responsibility for the distribution of information-based products.
Chief Information Officer (CIO)
The Chief Information Officer (CIO) is responsible for ensuring the health and availability of the company’s data and information assets from the perspective of its internal business users, and includes the gathering, processing, and dissemination of key market and industry intelligence to those users in support of the company’s strategic and operational needs.
Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)/Vice President of Marketing & Communications/ Director of Marketing
Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)/Vice President of Marketing & Communications/ Director of Marketing is responsible for establishing the company’s brand and presence within the marketplace for its products and/or services, and is often substantially involved in representing the company and its future potential to a variety of industry audiences including potential and existing customers, investors, and others.
Often, this individual plays a key role in establishing the company’s product roadmap, given their intimate knowledge of needs, wants, and trends within the marketplace.
Vice President of Sales/Director of Sales
The Vice President of Sales/Director of Sales is responsible for establishing, exploiting, and maintaining business relations with the company’s customers, and can involve a wide range of responsibilities. This role generally involves accountability for establishing, directing, and managing the company’s sales force, and may even include responsibility for ongoing customer support in some instances.
Vice President of Logistics/Director of Logistics
The Vice President of Logistics/Director of Logistics is responsible for ensuring the company’s products and/or services are distributed effectively and efficiently across all markets and product lines, and often encompasses ongoing customer support. This role can include responsibility for both physical and electronic delivery of products and services, and so depending upon the circumstances can overlap or assume certain aspects of the CTO roles as described above.
Vice President of Human Resources/HR Director
The Vice President of Human Resources/HR Director is responsible for establishing the company’s personnel base (employed and otherwise) and ensuring this base is adequate and appropriate to its strategic and operational needs. This role will often involve such things as career coaching and organizational development, leadership planning and development, and the planning and delivery of training and education.
A final note
It’s worth noting that this is just a starting point, and also that not all of these roles will exist in every company. There will be other roles not listed here which may be necessary depending upon the circumstances (for instance, Director of Quality Assurance, Chief Legal Counsel, Chief Innovation Officer, Chief Medical Officer, Vice President in charge of Labor Relations, etc, etc.)
[Thanks go out to my colleagues in the trenches, Adriana Ieraci and Philp Stern for reviewing and editing the original document upon which this entry is based.]