Great CEO = Great President?

Carly Fiorina, a McCain spokesperson came under fire last week for her assertion that none of the candidates for president or vice president would make a good CEO. (She also called the Tina Fey as Palin SNL skit sexist, so she’s an idiot).



Much of the response to her comments that I’ve read point to her failed experience as a CEO herself but I have a different question to pose: Do we want a president with all the qualities that make a great CEO?


My first impulse was hell, no! CEOs work in a capitalist system with profit being the only measurment of success. Or current president is too soft on business and what would work for a CEO (no or severely limited regulation) certainly doesn’t work for the country (ex. our current state of affairs).

Then I really started to digest the question… As I tried to define what makes a great CEO, I came across this blog post, incidentally called “What Make a Great CEO.”

It outlines 7 attributes including Vision, Passion, Long Term thinking and Ethics. It became clear to me that the same things that make a leader great whether it be in business, academia, or politics.

Using the attributes proposed by the above article, it becomes even more clear who to choose on November 4.