How much should the CEO know?

Uncle Bala always talks about the key takeaways from the previous class and he always asks for learnings from the CEO’s perspective. I remember an interesting story in this context. It goes something like this – ‘A large acid tank in a chemical factory explodes and 10 workers are seriously injured’. Now this is how this information gets transferred to the top.

Line supervisor to Manufacturing Head: Sir, an acid tank has exploded. We have a few serious injuries.

Man.Head to Div.head: We had an incident in the operations area. There were no casualities.

Div.Head to Country head: We are having some problems down here. But I have allotted a special team to solve them. I am sure the quarterly targets will be met.

Country head to CFO (Head office, USA): We are having some operational issues over here. This quarter’s revenue guidance might have to be revised.

(The CEO and CFO are in Hawaii formulating the ‘Global Strategic Vision’ for the year. They are currently playing golf.)

CEO to CFO: So Jack how is our India operations getting along?

The CFO takes out a placard that reads :(