{"id":1284,"date":"2014-11-12T21:56:21","date_gmt":"2014-11-13T03:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/?p=1284"},"modified":"2023-10-05T11:52:22","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T17:52:22","slug":"the-global-difference-between-a-ceo-president-managing-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/the-global-difference-between-a-ceo-president-managing-director\/","title":{"rendered":"The Global Difference Between a CEO, President, & Managing Director"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have had the opportunity to talk to a number of different organizations and recruiters around the world over the past year.\u00a0 One of the countries I blogged about was Australia in the #globalrecruitment series.\u00a0\u00a0 Mark Smith,<\/a> Director of\u00a0 people2people<\/a> and I have collaborated a number of times and both of us have found our conversations to be extremely helpful in learning about each others country.\u00a0 We have talked about the differences in agency recruiting<\/a> and the differences in recruiting candidates<\/a> in Australia and the USA.\u00a0 We have also talked about the resume format differences and job market differences.\u00a0 One area we also wanted to talk about was the differences in titles for executives.\u00a0 So, I asked Mark the question.\u00a0 What is the difference?<\/p>\n

Mark<\/em>–<\/strong><\/p>\n

You are correct,\u00a0 Will, this series has been an excellent opportunity. Exploring the differences in the U.S. and Australian markets has certainly been a learning experience, none more so than the task I embarked on earlier today. Why are there different titles of C-Suite executives \u00a0in different parts of the world?\u00a0 Let’s explore.<\/p>\n

Before I go any further, I should also define C-Suite.<\/p>\n

Investopedia – \u00a0\u201c<\/i>C<\/i><\/b>–<\/i>Suite<\/i><\/b>\u00a0gets its name because top senior executives’ titles tend to start with the letter\u00a0<\/i>C<\/i><\/b>, for chief, as in chief executive officer, chief operating officer and chief information officer. Also called “<\/i>C<\/i><\/b>-level executives.”<\/i><\/p>\n

Wikipedia \u2013 \u201c<\/i>The highest-level executives in\u00a0<\/i>senior management<\/i><\/a>\u00a0usually have titles beginning with “chief” and are therefore usually called “C-level” or part of the “C-suite”. The traditional three such officers are\u00a0<\/i>chief executive officer<\/i><\/a>\u00a0(CEO),\u00a0<\/i>chief operations officer<\/i><\/a>\u00a0(COO), and\u00a0<\/i>chief financial officer<\/i><\/a>\u00a0(CFO)\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

As someone who has watched a lot of U.S. television and hired several U.S. citizens at people2people, I have never really understood the difference between a CEO and a president. It is true that many titles overlap and are confused with C-Suite. One of these is President. In the U.S., state laws normally require certain positions to be created whenever a company is incorporated. \u00a0These include President and Treasurer. These traditional titles are still very much used today, but in 24 U.S. States, the MBCA or Model Business Corporations Act has superseded the legal requirement and only makes the Board of Directors mandatory. The titles used are at its discretion.<\/p>\n

It many circumstances, the CEO and President exist side by side or together. So an individual could be President and CEO. The CEO is often seen as a more important role. In Australia and the UK, you tend to find that the term President is rarely used. Instead you have a Managing Director, which is also synonymous with the CEO.<\/p>\n

Similarly in Australia, you rarely see the term Vice President (VP) or Executive Vice President (EVP) used. In the U.S., the EVP positions normally report to the CEO or President, and sometimes these people have dual C- Suite titles, as well as EVP or senior Vice President.<\/p>\n

All of this is very confusing, and, in my opinion, a title is a title is a title. As a recruiter, I would always obtain an understanding of reporting lines, rather than rely on a title alone. \u00a0Will, what\u2019s your understanding?<\/p>\n

Will- <\/em>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Agree 100%.\u00a0 This is a very interesting topic and I can see where you would find it confusing Mark. In the U.S., we do use the CEO and President title interchangeably at times.\u00a0 You will often see, as you mentioned, someone referred to as President & CEO within smaller organizations.\u00a0 I think in a quick answer, people call themselves what they want to be called.\u00a0 When you see big titles thrown around like President and Vice President within smaller companies it sometimes simply states who is in charge and who is in second in charge.<\/p>\n

Within a larger organization\u00a0 you will typically have a CEO who is running the organization and you may have multiple Presidents who run different divisions in the organization.\u00a0 Underneath the Presidents, it is typical to have Vice Presidents who run smaller divisions that the President leads.\u00a0 The Vice Presidents are usually\u00a0 in charge of the Directors and report into the President.\u00a0 The Directors typically have managers underneath them. The managers manage the individual contributors.\u00a0 Clear as mud?<\/p>\n

In my humble opinion, America is really hung up on titles.\u00a0 People who aren’t managing anybody are called managers, and Director titles are given to people that don’t deserve them at all.\u00a0 I believe some of this is due to the highly competitive job market. In order to keep good people, companies have to offer career advancement and organizations are to blame for these titles.\u00a0 Titles are a way of showing that individuals have progressed their career.<\/p>\n

This can make recruitment very difficult.\u00a0 It is important to understand the reporting lines, not the titles alone.<\/p>\n

We do not use the title Managing Director ever in the United States.\u00a0 I do, as you mentioned see it used frequently in the UK and other European countries.<\/p>\n

So, I guess we do things backwards here Mark.\u00a0 Thanks again for a good chat.\u00a0 Until next time, Cheers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"markpeople2people\"<\/a> Mark Smith<\/strong> <\/a>is a foundingDirector at people2people<\/strong><\/a>. Commencing his career with Deloitte in the late 1980\u2019s, Mark is a qualified Accountant. In 1994, he decided to make a career switch to the recruitment industry. During his early recruitment career with two listed recruitment entities, Mark recruited and managed teams in both temporary and permanent disciplines, in the Sydney, Brisbane and London markets. In February 2005, Mark established people2people with Manda Milling and Simon Gressier. Mark is a Certified Practising Accountant (CPA), a member of the Recruitment & Consulting Services Association (MRCSA) and a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (MAICD).<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\"willrecruits\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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I have had the opportunity to talk to a number of different organizations and recruiters around the world over the past year.\u00a0 One of the countries I blogged about was Australia in the #globalrecruitment series.\u00a0\u00a0 Mark Smith, Director of\u00a0 people2people and I have collaborated a number of times and both of us have found our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":6932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[428,467,468,429,469],"yoast_head":"\nThe Global Difference Between a CEO, President, & Managing Director - Bulls Eye Recruiting<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/the-global-difference-between-a-ceo-president-managing-director\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Global Difference Between a CEO, President, & Managing Director - 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