Here A Chief, There A Chief

Entrepreneur, Nov, 2000 by Mark Henricks

Chief status isn't likely to be extended to every employee, even in such a chief-friendly organization as Let's Talk Business Network. Suggestions for titles such as "chief reception officer" or "chief filing officer" get a discouraging reaction from Kesslin. "I don't know if I would do that," he says. "That starts to stretch it a little bit."

Sometimes it's the employees who scotch plans to elevate themselves to chiefdom. Kesslin recently hired a marketer who had a background as a corporate executive and entrepreneur. "We asked her if she wanted to be called 'chief marketing officer,'" Kesslin says. "She said, 'No, I think people will know what "vice president of marketing" is.'" That's okay with Kesslin. "People have to feel comfortable in their titles," he says. "The title is more about the person and not about the company."

In the mid-1990s, officials at the Pentagon were proposing to increase the number of Marine Corps generals by 18 percent at the same time the Department of Defense was proposing to reduce the total number of people in the service by 25 percent. This practice of having more officers and fewer soldiers was dubbed "topsizing" and was criticized in much the same way that hierarchical command-and-control organizational structures have come under fire in the business world. However, few see substantial risks in adding to the number of chiefs in your company.

"I don't see any downside from creating a role for someone whom they feel proud of," says Kesslin. Herman, too, says that adding chiefs is a solution to problems, not a source of them. "We're trying to flatten organizations and get people working together," he says. "We're emphasizing cooperation rather than hierarchy." According to Herman, cooperation is easier when everyone is a chief.

Of course, unlike executive pay scales, which seemingly have no upper limit these days, there is a finite number of elevated titles to hand out in any organization. "The question is, where can they go from here?" asks Challenger. "After chief where do you go? Majesty?" The answer is, predictably, why not? And in addition to chairmen, evangelists and gurus, jobs with "king" in the title have been reported.

Meanwhile, at Let's Talk Business. Network, the cadre of chiefs, already numbering four out of the seven employees, is expected to increase shortly as Kesslin's vice president of marketing acquiesces to his request that she join the other executives. "I think she's coming around," Kesslin says. "Next time she prints up business cards, she'll be 'Chief Marketing Officer.'"

Mark Henricks is an Austin, Texas, writer who specializes in business topics and has written for Entrepreneur for 10 years.