Corporate Executive Structure

PMs are not often in the position to structure a company’s executive roles, but understanding “who does what” and “why we separate roles to insure success” is key to our jobs.  Brad Feld, the intrepid nerd-cum-VC marathoning blogger, has a very good piece on the trend towards separating the CEO and Chairman roles.  Given recent history, I’m in favor of this approach.  Shareholders need an advocate separate from management (who often have their interests at heart).  Brad points out that this “best practice” extends to start-ups, too. He has a nice list of duties in his article that will help you understand what this looks like.