On the Nature of CEO Time Allocation in an SME
Danny Qiao, Brent Beshore, A. J. Wasserstein. (2021)
Yale Case, no number printed, March 30, 2021
Sample. "We are grateful to 301 CEOs who kindly participated in our survey" (p4), distributed through the Young Presidents Organization, the Entrepreneurs' Organization and "multiple search fund investors with SME businesses in their portfolios" (p2); SME defined as under $50 million revenue. A second survey of "118 Yale School of Management MBA candidates" used the same questionnaire (p22). Response rates and dates not stated; share of search fund CEOs not quantified. Headline numbers. "The CEOs surveyed indicated that people issues, strategy, operational issues, and sales are the largest functional categories of CEO time allocation" (p5); counts (figure, p6): people issues 165, operational issues 150, strategy 145, sales 123. "Our CEOs scored the fun of being a CEO as an eight on a scale of one to ten." (p14) and difficulty "a seven out of ten" (p15); students guessed harder (9) and less fun (7). Limits. Authors: "Our sample is heavily skewed toward service businesses. This likely reflects our survey distribution channels which over-solicited search fund CEOs". Reader's notes: recalled self-report, not a time diary; sitting CEOs only; no tests. Not ETA-specific.