Essential Tools for CEOs
What tools and services can CEOs lean on to help them grow their businesses and reach their most ambitious goals – an overview of the CEO tool landscape
The CEO is generally the person held responsible for a company's wins and losses, successes and failures. There is no shortage of attempts to put a number on the actual impact a CEO has on a company’s performance but McKinsey & Co., one of the leading management consulting firms globally, puts the number at 45%, stating that “as much as 45 percent of a company’s performance can be attributed to the CEO’s influence.”
“As much as 45 percent of a company’s performance can be attributed to the CEO’s influence." - McKinsey & Co.
This influence can be defined by a CEO’s strategic vision, their decision-making skills , their ability to navigate crises, and more. CEOs are often the face of the company, representing it to investors, customers, and the public, when relevant. Additionally, CEOs play a crucial role in navigating challenges, adapting to market changes, and ensuring the company's long-term sustainability. Ultimately, a CEO’s leadership and guidance can be the make or break for a company's growth and overall success.
With all this pressure, doesn’t it make sense that CEOs should tap into every tool available to them? To stay competitive and drive top performance today, CEOs – just like all other leaders and departments in their company – need access to the right tools and services to support transforming a strategic vision into actionable outcomes.
The CEO Solutions Landscape
At Journey, we went ahead and mapped out the different types of tools and services that are available to CEOs to help them achieve high-level goals and drive their companies forward.
Download the detailed map here
When mapped out, the trend that emerges shows CEOs generally have two clusters of tools and services they can tap into.
1) CEO-Centric Tools: Highly focused on the CEO but with low impact
One set of tools and services that can be clustered together are those that have been specifically built for and are offered directly to CEOs. Examples of these tools include CEO Coaching, Peer Groups, and CEO-specific conferences.
On the upside, these resources are CEO-centric. They tackle CEO-specific challenges and seek to address the challenges and needs unique to C-suite leaders. On the downside, many of these resources focus on the individual’s growth as a professional rather than business growth, offering insights and support through avenues like mentorship, networking, and leadership development. While valuable, these tools tend to fall short of providing actionable, company-focused strategies. They are generally not designed with the broader objective of achieving endgame goals such as increasing business profitability, facilitating a capital raise, or M&A readiness.
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2) High Impact Tools: High impact, broad-business solutions that often come with a hefty price tag
The second cluster of tools and services comprises broader solutions that are not built for CEOs per se, but that CEOs can absolutely leverage for growth goals. For CEOs seeking more comprehensive resources, high-impact solutions such as traditional consulting, data dashboards, and specialized knowledge bases provide a deeper level of expertise. However, these options can be resource-intensive, making it essential for CEOs to weigh the potential value against the significant costs and time commitments. They often deliver in-depth insights but frequently come with extremely high costs and limited flexibility, leaving gaps in execution and long-term support. Additionally, these solutions are all broad business solutions that a CEO can leverage, but they were not specifically crafted for CEOs and with the CEO customer in mind. These solutions are often generic, created for companies of a certain profile rather than CEO-led initiatives.
The Bottom Line
In today’s competitive and dynamic business world, CEOs navigating the challenges of growing their companies must tap into decision-making support and strategic resources. However, each available tool and resource must be approached with its own set of strengths and limitations. At the end of the day, mapping the CEO tools landscape shows us that despite the CEO’s pivotal role and the plethora of tools available to help cross-company teams succeed, there is a notable gap in the marketplace for solutions that directly address the CEO’s need to drive company growth.
“There is a notable gap in the marketplace for solutions that directly address the CEO’s need to drive company growth."
Journey was founded to solve that gap, offering a model that balances both affordability and impact. By providing CEOs with ongoing access to strategic insights, direct partnership, and actionable execution support, Journey fills the gap left by traditional solutions. Unlike standard consulting engagements that focus on one-time projects, Journey’s approach is continuous, ensuring that CEOs have the support they need at every stage of their company’s growth journey. With Journey, CEOs aren’t simply given advice—they’re empowered to make informed, impactful decisions that drive their companies forward.
Learn more about how Journey can help you grow your business
