CEO Fire Chat
Tuesday 6 October — Art of Intelligence · CEOs — a fireside chat, not a case
The table
The conversation
Two chief executives, one hour, no slides. One runs a telecom that touches most households in the country; the other runs the regional business of a global industrial group. Both got the seat, kept it, and are still learning it. The room is mostly MBA participants — people who want that seat, or want to work for the person who has it.
The format is simple: twelve prepared questions, put to both, and then the room. The moderator keeps the answers short and concrete; the guests are asked for what happened, not what should happen. What the table says is written up the same evening and enters the book under their names.
Discussion Questions
- The road to the seat. What actually got you the CEO job — and what did you believe would get it, that turned out not to matter?
- The first year. What surprised you most about the job once you had it, and what did you have to unlearn from the job before?
- The decisions only you can make. What are the hardest calls in your week, and how do you know when a decision is yours alone and cannot be delegated?
- The people you need. Who do you need around you — and how do you recognise them in an interview? Which kind of person do you no longer hire?
- AI in the company. What has it already changed in how your company runs, and what do you expect it to change in the next three years — in the business, and in your own job?
- What you must still know. What do you no longer need to know yourself, and what must you know better than anyone in the building?
- The traits that matter. Name three characteristics that made the difference in your career — and one that everyone talks about and is overrated.
- To the MBA in the room. If they want your seat in ten years, what should they do on Monday morning?
- Speed. What was the fastest decision you ever made as CEO, and the slowest — and which one turned out better?
- AI and your own time. What do you personally use AI for today — and what have you tried and stopped?
- Trust from a distance. How do you know what is really happening in the company when everyone briefs you the way they think you want to hear it?
- What the MBA does not teach. Which skill did you have to learn on the job that no programme could have given you — and which one did the programme give you that you still use every week?
Moderator Note
Put each question to both guests, the second one reacting to the first; alternate who goes first. Ask for one story per question, not a doctrine. Hold the eighth question (Monday morning) for the end, then open the room: the live form on this page collects questions during the hour — read the best ones aloud, with the author's name.
CDayZ output: the twelve answers and the room's questions, written up the same evening as What the table said, approved by the two guests.
Your comment on this chapter
A question for the table, a disagreement, what you would have done. The case lead reads every comment; the ones the table takes up enter the chapter as questions from the room, with your name.