Sure, but only a certain percentage. Usually 5% to 15%. These are the ones willing to work hard, develop themselves, learn more rapidly and develop EQ and people skills. Google The Peter Principle to understand better.

Management is an art, not a skill. An art requires vast experience, and literally rewires your brain neuroplasticity over the years. See Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink. You cannot learn it in school. Only practice it for many years to hone your talents there.

The fact is, most people are lazy and do not want to continue to develop, think for themselves and excel. Only that do should be allowed in management. This is called “Self-Actualized”.

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Bob Norton is a long-time Serial Entrepreneur and CEO with four exits that returned over $1 billion to investors. He has trained, coached and advised over 1,000 CEOs since 2002. And is Founder of The CEO Boot Camp™ and Entrepreneurship...

Easy. COOs deal with short-term management and daily, weekly and monthly issues. This is the “Care and feeding” of employees to coordinate resources and track results. CEOs work more on the long-term from 1 to 5 years out. CEOs also spend their time, maybe as much as 50%, on proper staffing at the management level, coaching this team up and developing these managers to grow professionally to take on more responsibility with that growth. Often the CEO will spend 50% of their time divided between: Strategy development, customer contact (direct input), and optimizing processes for marketing, sales and finance. In smaller companies where there is no full-time CFO 50% of a CEO’s can go to fundraising at times too. So, you can see how many situations can require more people power.

Typically, a CEO and COO are not both needed until a company exceeds 50 employees, but there are many factors. Some Founder/Owners also lack the management skills, patience or detail...

This is kind of a silly question, as these jobs are so very different. But it is something many do not understand well and so needs a good answer too.  This answer is mainly in the context of technology companies. As a CTO in a service company where technology is not the product is a different animal. 

A CTO understands technology deeply and broadly.  And also, business considerations like development and operations costs, risk and development life cycles of products.  They guide an organization in the use of newer technology, across the organization and all its IT, software, hardware and products.  They would be responsible to see the organization is keeping up with and/or passing competitors to use technology strategically for competitive advantage, cost savings, speed or other advantage in their industry.

In a tech startup, the CTO is often a cofounder. They need to have a deep understanding of technology AND broad understanding of business and even...

This is sort of like asking, “How do I create a masterpiece of art?”. The answer is so complex it involves years, maybe decades for most, of experience in strategy, product development, intellectual property, operational excellence and more.

Creating Sustainable Competitive Advantage, which is the only thing that drives higher exit values, is art. And involves many disciplines. I created a web page titled The Entrepreneur's Journey which lays out the 25+ skills, and arts really, that are required to build a valuable company that can grow rapidly and provide a strong exit for investors here: The Entrepreneur's Journey

If you ask this question, you are far from ready and need to dedicate years more to study and learning. I suggest you check out The CEO & Entrepreneur Boot Camp here: Home Page, begin reading a few books a month and plan to develop strategies and management skills first.

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Bob Norton...

Because being a CEO of a startup is the most complex job there is today. People greatly underestimate what it takes to be successful. It takes at least 10 and more likely`5+ years' experience to accumulate the experience needed for a high chance of success.

Here is a list of the skills we teach at The CEO & Entrepreneur Boot Camp:

1. Recruiting

2. Management

3. Marketing & Branding

4. Product Development & Innovation

5. Operations, customer services

6. Finance

7. Sales

8. Raising capital

9. Leadership

10. Competitive Intelligence

11. Market Research

12. Vision

13. Competitive Strategy

14. Organizational Development (OD)

15. Industry/domain expertise

	Learn more about our Growth and Scaling (GSP) Certification program for Managers
	For a free video consultation call on what your company and team need to scale better

Now the CEO does not need to be expert in these, but that expertise is needed on a team and they need to understand how to manage...

Very rare and almost impossible except in the startup days. Owners need to master other skills like this list to scale a company. Sometimes they help build the first product but usually people with far more talent come in and improve it greatly, as they have 15, 20 or more years experience.

Because being a CEO of a startup is the most complex job there is today. People greatly underestimate what it takes to be successful. It takes at least 10 and more likely`5+ years' experience to accumulate the experience needed for a high chance of success.

Here is a list of the skills we teach at The CEO & Entrepreneur Boot Camp:

1. Recruiting
2. Management
3. Marketing & Branding
4. Product Development & Innovation
5. Operations, customer services
6. Finance
   
   
7. Sales
8. Raising capital
9. Leadership
10. Competitive Intelligence
11. Market Research
12. Vision
13. Competitive Strategy
14. Organizational Development (OD)
15. Industry/domain expertise 

To learn more, click here

Now the CEO does not need to be an expert in all...

The most important traits of quality leaders are integrity, good management and people skills, the ability to see the future (need or market) and communicate that vision to their team and others. Obviously, some domain/industry expertise in the areas you are executing.  Some may call this “Selling the vision” and that can be to employees, investors, vendors or anyone.  A leader aligns all parties needed to proceed forward, including all stakeholders. 

I define leadership as when you do not have to look back because you know people are following you because they want to and believe in accomplishing the mission. Not because they have to, or because of a corporate hierarchy.  Shackelton's Adventures is a great story on leadership, I recommend everyone read or view the documentary.  He saved all those lives on a disastrous voyage through strong leadership. 

Leadership is very different from management. Managers coerce people with...

I wrote a free eBook answering this exact question in 2020: The Top Reasons Start Up Fail and How to Avoid Them. You can get that here. 

Starting a new company is a big risk that requires many skills.  Being a Founder of a startup is likely one of the most complex jobs there is today. People greatly underestimate what it takes to be successful.  It takes at least 10 and more likely 15+ years to accumulate the experience needed for a high chance of success.

Here is a list of the skills we teach at The CEO & Entrepreneur Boot Camp:

1. Recruiting - Easy to do, hard to do well as quality of the team will be the #1 reason for success or failure. How do you know the right people? 

2. Management - An art that only comes from experience.  This will set the tone of your culture and its productivity and sustainability. 

3. Marketing & Branding - Another art few understand well. Get professionals involved early, as brand and...

I created a short video series answering this exact question that you can view for free here called The Entrepreneur’s Journey.  An MVP's goals list should provide all the data to answer that question (example below for AirBnB).  Your first job is creating that list. Long before you start building a product. 

The purpose of an MVP is to get real-world customer feedback.  However, you will need to run the financials to balance what the budget can be to build it.  And to market test it too. Technical founders often greatly underestimate the cost and time needed for marketing.  It can even be more than the product build. 

Your MVP goal is simple: Prove the customer will buy and like the product at a particular price point. 
And that you can acquire those customers cost effectively given the margins. 

The next version could be a big step, or even many incremental releases depending on the feedback, technology and financial...

Absolutely not. The President is a legally defined position with all kinds of legal rights and responsibilities. Every other officer serves “her pleasure” maybe with some contract for termination rights.

Many President rights and responsibilities can vary by state and/or the company’s charter, but always way above any other Officer. It is where the “buck stops”. Anyone who is a Vice President or Officer can sign a legal contract or document for a company, binding the company legally. And should have mostly discretion in their area of the business, but that has limits, and a President can always override any decision of any other executive. Officer or not. That’s about it.

A CEO should, but does not always, have a vast array of skills beyond any VP or CTO. Most staff members member's knowledge is very focused on one area. That means they are unqualified to make decisions in most other areas. Just give some input. The CEO is more of a generalist and...