In 2006, Harvard Business School’s Michael E. Porter and Nitin Nohria launched a study tracking how large companies’ CEOs spent their time, 24/7, for 13 weeks: where they were, with whom, what they did, and what they were focusing on. To date Porter and Nohria have gathered 60,000 hours’ worth of data on 27 executives, interviewing them—and hundreds of other CEOs—about their schedules. This article presents the findings, offering insights not only into best time-management practices but into the CEO’s role itself. CEOs need to learn to simultaneously manage the seemingly contradictory dualities of the job: integrating direct decision making with indirect levers like strategy and culture, balancing internal and external constituencies, proactively pursuing an agenda while reacting to unfolding events, exercising leverage while being mindful of constraints, focusing on the tangible impact of actions while recognizing their symbolic significance, and combining formal power with legitimacy.
What Do CEOs Actually Do?
A look at the data on how CEOs allocated their time among various activities, places, priorities, and constituencies
One CEO’s Approach to Managing His Calendar
In an interview, Tom Gentile, the CEO of the $7 billion aviation supplier Spirit AeroSystems, shares what he learned from tracking his time in Porter and Nohria’s study—and what he’s trying to change as a result.
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