[Slightly silly] Why are the heads of companies always 'Presidents'?

[Mark]

Why are the heads of companies always 'Presidents'?

I have no idea...

As always,
Mark Clover
Gentleman Farmer
Creative Mountain Games

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Hmmm, serious answer to a facetious question time! In most companies the head honcho and general wrangler is called president because they 'preside' over a board of directors in much the same fashion that the President of the United States 'presides' over Congress. In some companies this station is little more than a figurehead while in others he is also the prime mover and shaker and/or a primary stockholder.

Personally I like Code Monkey Publishing's system of primates....

The Auld Grump

 

[arwink]

Re: Re: [Slightly silly] Why are the heads of companies always 'Presidents'?

Gentleman Farmer

For the love of god, someone change his community supporter tag to that title

 

[Ayrk]

I'm sure most companies have a President since that what other companies have always done.

Plus President has an "elected by the people" connotation that other titles don't have.

Interestingly, the "president" of the Thrifty Car Rental has the title "Captain"

 

[davewoodrum]

I always wanted to be "Assignment Slut" as I've been known to work on virtually any book project tossed at me but my publisher didn't go for that

 

[MThibault]

Hmmm, serious answer to a facetious question time! In most companies the head honcho and general wrangler is called president because they 'preside' over a board of directors in much the same fashion that the President of the United States 'presides' over Congress.

Conversely, a Prime Minister is the leader of a parliamentary system. Assuming that she/he is also the head of state (which isn't always the case, the Queen is the head of state in England and Canada) he* is first among equals, in a way. He is not elected or appointed separately from the legislature, he is elected to a seat in exactly the same way as a backbencher is. But he happens to be the leader of the party with control of the legislature, so he sets policy for his party and chairs the Privy Council, and has more influence than a backbencher, but technically has only a little bit more inherent power than any other member of parliament.

A president usually has powers above and beyond (or beside) the legislature or "board" that are inherent in the position of President, not leader of Party X.

So, Prime Minister wouldn't be appropriate for most business governance models. King or monarch, well, those are very specific hereditary and specifically political positions -- the term doesn't apply outside the political arena.

Generally, you name the jobs in your company so that people inside and outside the organization will know who they are dealing with, and who does what. If you call your "president" Archmage and your VPs Acolytes (e.g Acolyte of the Purse for the VP Financial Operations) well, customers, suppliers, colleagues and peers aren't going to know who is really in charge and it will just cause hassles when you are trying to convince a supplier that an Acolyte has the authority to sign binding operational contracts on behalf of the organization.

Cheers

*I use he, because Canada currently has a male PM. We've had a woman lead us, in the past, but I'm being lazy. No offense intended.

 

[Flyspeck23]

My presidential title is all in good humor... no, really... so leave me alone - I ain't got anything else...

Seriously: would "CEO" be any better?
Or: Master, Big Boss, Supreme Chief, Guy in a suit, that lazy kid who just stays away from the real work, ...

 

[Frilf]

At Silverthorne, I call myself the Gnome-in-Chief. Although, after reading some Frank Herbert stuff, I think I'll change it to something less intimidating - like God-Emperor. Hmmm. Has kind of a ring to it...

Other potential (tong in cheek ) titles have been bandied about, though. Such as:

El Capitan
The Prime Mover
He Who Cannot be Fired
The One
Lynchpin
Demi-Lich King
Arch-Tyrant
Primo (or "Don", if you prefer)
Imperious Leader
Supreme Muffinoid

(ok, that last one probably isn't the best)

 

[kingpaul]

I've always liked Chief Cook and Bottle Washer myself

 

[HellHound]

With Ambient Inc. we have a CEO, because that is the title they ask for on the paperwork you file when you do your provincial incorporation in Ontario.

For E.N.Publishing, we have two "owners" and that's it for 'high and mighty' titles. Everyone else has titles based on what they do, such as our RPG developers (uhmm... me and Ryan), our Art Director (Directrix?) (Denise), and "that guy in charge of the magazine" (Russ).