Sep 8, 2026 · 1 hr 15 min · 12 segments
What makes a great CEO - and does the answer change depending on the stage of the business?In this episode of The Good Ideas Club, Dan Wood and Alex Bezuidenhout explore the evolving nature of…
Cristina MunteanGuestDan WoodHost
Alex BezuidenhoutHost
And it depends who is asking that question, right? Because if it is the company owners and the shareholders, a great CEO is the CEO who always delivers and exceeds expectations and results.
If you're looking at the question from the eyes of the employees, you will have a CEO who is building culture, who is caring, compassionate, who is treating people with decency and respect, and who is able to communicate with empathy.
If you're looking from the lenses of external stakeholders, you will have A good CEO who is a visionary, who is inspiring the market, who is crafting the market, who is essentially creates more impact and influence than only within the company.
So I guess the good answer will be defined by the lenses through which we ask the question.
And have you come across a CEO or is it possible to be good at all three kind of faces of it?
Dan, I think you nailed it because that's exactly the greatest challenge that CEOs are facing these days.
So if we think before the financial crisis of 2007, 2012, depending on the geography, the expectations from CEOs were fewer.
We talk a lot, or at least it was talked about shareholder expectations that was the primary expectations for CEOs to deliver.
And that's, you know, that kind of pressure led to the financial crisis, because when only the net profit is your intention, then of course you will sometimes make not the best decisions.
After the financial crisis, we have the idea of the complex stakeholder management emerging.
And stakeholder management means that you as a CEO start to operate a bit like a spider, right? With your eyes on all the stakeholders who you and your work and your company is impacting and influencing.
And that's when it got really hard for CEOs because some stakeholders expect results and money and profit.
Some stakeholders expect humanity and storytelling and empathy and compassion.
And right now, as a CEO, you almost operate like a radio that needs to fine tune on the frequency of whom they are serving and with whom they are communicating, circumstance by circumstance.
So what I'm kind of gauging from that, Christina, correct me if I'm wrong, is that it's almost an impossible square to circle.
And that you might, in a sense, need to be very relational on a thread basis.
So for example, you've got your ESG board that you have to then be interpersonal and understand and engage with them and explain why you do what you do.
And it depends who is asking that question, right? Because if it is the company owners and the shareholders, a great CEO is the CEO who always delivers and exceeds expectations and results.
If you're looking at the question from the eyes of the employees, you will have a CEO who is building culture, who is caring, compassionate, who is treating people with decency and respect, and who is able to communicate with empathy.
If you're looking from the lenses of external stakeholders, you will have A good CEO who is a visionary, who is inspiring the market, who is crafting the market, who is essentially creates more impact and influence than only within the company.
So I guess the good answer will be defined by the lenses through which we ask the question.
And have you come across a CEO or is it possible to be good at all three kind of faces of it?
Dan, I think you nailed it because that's exactly the greatest challenge that CEOs are facing these days.
So if we think before the financial crisis of 2007, 2012, depending on the geography, the expectations from CEOs were fewer.
We talk a lot, or at least it was talked about shareholder expectations that was the primary expectations for CEOs to deliver.
And that's, you know, that kind of pressure led to the financial crisis, because when only the net profit is your intention, then of course you will sometimes make not the best decisions.
After the financial crisis, we have the idea of the complex stakeholder management emerging.
And stakeholder management means that you as a CEO start to operate a bit like a spider, right? With your eyes on all the stakeholders who you and your work and your company is impacting and influencing.
And that's when it got really hard for CEOs because some stakeholders expect results and money and profit.
Some stakeholders expect humanity and storytelling and empathy and compassion.
And right now, as a CEO, you almost operate like a radio that needs to fine tune on the frequency of whom they are serving and with whom they are communicating, circumstance by circumstance.
So what I'm kind of gauging from that, Christina, correct me if I'm wrong, is that it's almost an impossible square to circle.
And that you might, in a sense, need to be very relational on a thread basis.
So for example, you've got your ESG board that you have to then be interpersonal and understand and engage with them and explain why you do what you do.
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