Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Editor's Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction – Leading within and across the functions
- Section I The Business Imperatives
- Section II The CXOs: Within the Functions
- 5 The Chief Marketing Officer – Creating, delivering and communicating value to customers
- 6 The Chief Sales Officer – Sell, sell, sell!
- 7 The Chief Supply Chain Officer – Designing and managing lean and agile supply chains
- 8 The Chief Manufacturing Officer – Process execution, improvement and design
- 9 The Chief Financial Officer – A capital position
- 10 The Chief Technology Officer – Corporate navigator, agent of change and entrepreneur
- 11 The Chief Information Officer – Achieving credibility, relevance and business impact
- 12 The Chief Human Resources Officer – Delivering people who can deliver
- 13 The Corporate Governance Officer – From company secretary to manager of governance processes
- 14 The Chief Communications Officer – Leading strategic communications
- 15 The SBU President – Perhaps the best job for the CEO-in-training
- 16 CXOs and the Line – Serving the internal customer
- Section III The CEO and the Leadership Team – Pulling it all together
- Conclusion
- Index
- References
15 - The SBU President – Perhaps the best job for the CEO-in-training
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Editor's Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction – Leading within and across the functions
- Section I The Business Imperatives
- Section II The CXOs: Within the Functions
- 5 The Chief Marketing Officer – Creating, delivering and communicating value to customers
- 6 The Chief Sales Officer – Sell, sell, sell!
- 7 The Chief Supply Chain Officer – Designing and managing lean and agile supply chains
- 8 The Chief Manufacturing Officer – Process execution, improvement and design
- 9 The Chief Financial Officer – A capital position
- 10 The Chief Technology Officer – Corporate navigator, agent of change and entrepreneur
- 11 The Chief Information Officer – Achieving credibility, relevance and business impact
- 12 The Chief Human Resources Officer – Delivering people who can deliver
- 13 The Corporate Governance Officer – From company secretary to manager of governance processes
- 14 The Chief Communications Officer – Leading strategic communications
- 15 The SBU President – Perhaps the best job for the CEO-in-training
- 16 CXOs and the Line – Serving the internal customer
- Section III The CEO and the Leadership Team – Pulling it all together
- Conclusion
- Index
- References
Summary
No discussion of the top leadership team of a global company would be complete without a mention of the role of the strategic business unit (SBU) president. Much like the State of California in the United States has the world's tenth largest economy, when compared to country economies, many global companies have business units whose turnover would put them well into Fortune's Global 500 largest companies
In this chapter, the authors explain how the SBU president's role works within a global organization's top leadership team. They explore the role of the SBU president, as distinct from other CXOs, and how this position has unique leadership challenges that differ from company to company.
The role of the strategic business unit president
Working for three years as the head of our company's largest business unit was the best training I could imagine for the challenges I faced when I became the company's CEO. As the SBU President I was responsible to my boss [the CEO] for the P&L of the business unit, but each month I would receive this huge allocation from ‘corporate’ for all of the central ‘services’. That was one of the first things I changed upon becoming CEO, I took responsibility for corporate overhead into the CEO's office and made sure the SBU Presidents focused only on their business units and what they could directly control. It saved a lot of time and discussion. I of course delegated much of the corporate overhead responsibility to the other CXOs, they could no longer just allocate their costs around the businesses, but rather they had to answer to me and our CFO.
(CEO and former SBU president of a large global manufacturing company)- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Leading in the Top TeamThe CXO Challenge, pp. 308 - 319Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008