A talk given to students at SE Asia's premier learning institution.

1. Boss,TheTimesThey Are A-
Changin’
So must you
Dr SarmaVANGALA
CEO
Metastrategy Inc

3. Who doesn’t want to be a CEO?
• Median pay $13 Million
• Chances of being fired are less than 10%
• One can get by with dreadful performance

4. Mediocrity rules
Mediocrity Rules

5. Mediocrity rules
Mediocrity Rules

6. Mediocrity rules
Mediocrity Rules

7. The Crummy Part
• Meetings, Meetings and More Meetings
– 70% of the CEO’s working day is in meetings

8. Typical CEO
• 80% internally recruited
• 50% are engineers or have MBAs
• >75% are older, white and male*
*More women are coming in but very slowly

10. CEO’sTool Box 60Years Ago
• CapitalAllocation
• CapitalAllocation
• CapitalAllocation
• CapitalAllocation
i.e., Investment in physical assets

11. CEO’s CurrentToolbox
• Investment in R&D
• Investment in network effects
• Investment in ‘brand’
• Investment in data

12. Go Global
• Clarion call of the latter half of 20th Century
• Economies of AsianTigers, cheap
manufacturing hubs, rising middle-classes
• Asian ‘flu, GulfWar I and GulfWar II

13. CEO’s Driving Passion
“The purpose of business is to create a
customer. Hence, the business enterprise has
two--and only two--basic functions: marketing
and innovation. Marketing and innovation
produce results; all the rest are costs.” Peter Drucker

14. 21st Century CEO’s Winning Attitude
The trick to surviving in the CEO’s role is not to
stare at the balance sheet but to find purpose.
Dr SarmaVangala

17. The Modern CEO’s Passion
• ‘Contribute to an EconomyThat Serves All
Americans’
– Serve employees
– Serve customers
– Serve suppliers
– Serve communities
– Serve shareholders

18. Social Issues Drive Brand
• Project Maven {Alphabet}
• Intrusive, nefarious surveillance using AI tech.
{Palantir}
• Jet-setting rock star {Jeff Immelt of GE}
• Racism {CrossFit}
• 1MDB scandal of Malaysia and Goldman Sachs

19. Qualities to Look for when Hiring
CEO
• Ability at allocation of intangible capital
• Marshal data from across enterprise and
counterparties
• Redistribution of risk as well as rewards
• Clearly understands measurable goals
• Is fully aware of impact of company’s activities on the
environment, i.e., climate change

21. TheTimesThey Are A-Changin’
Don’t stand in the doorway, don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled.
Bob Dylan

24. SARMAVANGALA, PH D
Chief Executive Officer
Metastrategy, Inc.
• SarmaVangala is a corporate consultant
specialising in Strategy, Mergers and
Acquisitions and ITTransformation.
• Sarma is based inToronto, CANADA
• sarma.vangala@metastrategyinc.com

25. Dynamics