How Must A CEO Think?

Here’s a hint: it’s all within the ‘mindset of achievement'

- Clifford Alvares

IF A CEO’S ROLE WERE THAT SIMPLE, ANYONE WITH a net connection and a computer could have become a Jeff Bezos. This is, of course, not one of the best opening sentences ever written, but you got to give it to Bezos for being one of the most striking and charismatic CEOs ever seen.

“The truth is that I’ve watched Amazon from the start and I think what Jeff Bezos has done is something close to a miracle, and the problem is if I think something is going to be a miracle I tend not to bet on it,” Warren Buffett said of Jeff Bezos at the recent Berkshire Hathaway annual meet in Omaha.

But is it really a miracle? While Amazon’s amazing growth may seem like a miracle, Bezos has worked relentlessly to pull through what appears like surreal growth. Amazon was founded in 1994 and its market value is now $766 billion, making Bezos the first billionaire passing the $100-billion club. But Amazon went through its toughest phase in the early 2000s as the company almost went bankrupt. Bezos took a series of tough decisions, laid off 14 percent of Amazon staff, and rebounded to $400 million in profitability in 2003. Since then, there has been no looking back as Amazon added more and more segments, Kindle, and cloud-computing services.

Truth is, most CEOs are faced with such decisions. Many witness at least one major blowup that ends a career or proves extremely costly for the business. The job of a CEO is not easy. You might have done great in the interview with the board, but that might not prove useful in the long run. A CEO may show high performance through the interview, but that won’t help him/her in surviving the role.

So what are the key traits that sets great CEOs apart?