How Much Does a CEO Make? (Plus Requirements and Tips)

Updated 26 January 2023

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A CEO is the highest executive and leader within a company, and they provide direction and strategy for business decisions. Though CEOs all perform different tasks depending on the company they work for, the basic function of the CEO is to promote growth and success within an organisation through planning. If you are interested in becoming a CEO, learning more about how much they can earn may be beneficial. In this article, we explain how much a CEO can make, detail what they are, list their responsibilities, describe their requirements and provide tips for finding success as a chief executive.

How Much Does A CEO Make?

How much a CEO can earn depends on many factors, including the company they work for, how much experience they have and the industry they are in. The average national salary for a CEO is ₹47,322 per month, or ₹6,68,375 per year. A CEO's earnings can also depend on where they live and work as well. For example, the highest paying city for CEOs is Gurgaon, Haryana, where CEOs can earn an average of ₹12,27,464 per year.

What Is A CEO?

A CEO, or Chief Executive Officer, is an executive professional within a company or business. They hold the highest-ranking title within the organisation's hierarchy. The CEO of the company serves as the organisation's leader, providing direction and guidance to others, like the president, directors, managers and coordinators.

Each CEO may have a different role within their company, depending on the industry and the size of the organisation. For example, CEOs within smaller companies may engage in daily operational tasks and provide management to teams and departments. CEOs within more expansive companies may not engage as much with individual tasks, instead of using most of their time to focus on overall productivity, improvement, revenue and performance.

What Does A CEO Do?

The CEO is typically the title at the top of the company hierarchy, but the role can vary depending on the specific industry and company the CEO works for. These are some common duties CEOs may perform while working:

Make corporate-level decisions: By using data, gathering evidence, requesting counsel and using business instinct, CEOs make decisions to improve a company's success and increase revenue. This can include decisions related to mergers, acquisitions, systems, investments and direction.
Design business operations: CEOs decide how each department and team within a company can function to provide the most value to the organisation. This may include designing management systems, implementing new systems and creating innovative ways to increase performance.
Represent the company: A CEO represents the business they work for, and those who work for larger companies may conduct interviews and engage with marketing for the organisation. CEOs who use executive branding can increase awareness and positive opinions for the organisation they work with.
Facilitate communication: The CEO communicate with the board of directors, investors in the company and leaders from other companies to arrange business deals and conduct business. Excellent communication skills can allow CEOs to perform well and develop expansive professional networks.
Monitor progress and success: By using monthly and quarterly metrics, the CEO can monitor company performance on a large scale, predict success and offer solutions for improvement.
Evaluate senior staff members: Because the CEO acts as a team leader for the organisation, they may need to conduct performance reviews for senior staff members beneath them in the business hierarchy. This allows them to monitor senior staff member's performance and ensure each position within the company contributes value.
Study market trends and behaviour: The CEO monitors markets and investments closely to determine their success compared to other companies and predict how the economy and market may shift according to major events. By using these trends and data, the CEO can make educated decisions about how best to lead the company.
Determine company policy: CEOs refine the core motivation and statement of purpose for the company, and they can use these to determine which company policies support the organisation's focus.
Minimise financial and legal risk: By assessing market information, analysing company data, consulting with experts and using their own business knowledge, CEOs can minimise financial and legal risk for the company. This may include making decisions that align with industry regulations and making sound financial decisions.
Travel internationally for meetings: A CEO may travel within the country or internationally to meet with other business leaders or attend important meetings and conferences. They can also travel to meet with clients and conduct interviews.

Requirements For Becoming A CEO

These are some requirements for becoming a CEO:

Education

To become a CEO, you likely need an advanced degree in a related field. Many CEOs choose to obtain degrees in business, as it allows them to apply their skills to many relevant fields. If you are interested in specialising in a specific field, consider obtaining multiple degrees. For example, you may consider degrees in business and engineering to find employment as a CEO in engineering-related fields.

Experience

Experience is an important component for becoming a CEO. Many CEOs have ample business experience before they pursue their positions, and this experience allows them to develop the skills and expertise necessary to competently perform executive duties. To become a CEO, you may need at least five years of experience, but in many situations, the company or organisation may prefer candidates with more.

Abilities

CEOs are highly skilled individuals who make important decisions and impact the success of their companies. These are some important skills and abilities you may need as a CEO:

Critical thinking: Critical thinking is the ability to assess a problem, determine potential causes and propose potential solutions. Critical thinking is important for CEOs because it allows them to quickly make important decisions and predict the outcome.
Communication: Communication is the ability to efficiently and effectively exchange information with another person or several people. CEOs need strong communication abilities because their roles involve many other people and large amounts of information.
Technical proficiency: Technology and computers allow CEOs to be more productive and efficient. Understanding how to use a wide variety of business technologies improve a CEOs performance.
Leadership skills: As the leader of a company, leadership skills are very important. Leadership skills include articulation, patience and empathy, which allow CEOs to understand their employees and facilitate healthy workplace atmospheres.
Persistence: The ability to face failure and develop resilience is important for CEOs, as it can take many applications and attempts before finding the right company. Persistence allows CEOs to continue striving for improvement and advancement.

Qualities

Qualities are natural characteristics and instincts that you can use to describe a person. These are some words you may use to describe a successful CEO:

Intelligent: CEOs are intelligent because they can learn new concepts quickly. They use their intelligence to quickly solve problems and develop strategic solutions for their business.
Adaptable: An adaptable CEO is one that can quickly shift their mindset to one that functions best in new situations. For example, if a CEO discovers a merger may not happen as they expect, they can adapt and find other solutions.
Decisive: CEOs make many decisions that affect their companies, and being decisive can make them more efficient and dependable during that process.
Optimistic: Optimism is the belief that situations usually produce positive results, and CEOs who are optimists may provide more motivation and encouragement to their staff members than those who are not.
Reliable: To be reliable means consistently producing results, attending events and submitting work on time. Reliable CEOs create trustworthy company reputations by representing their organisations.

Tips For Being Successful As A CEO

Improving your performance as a CEO is one way to potentially increase your earnings. These are some helpful tips that may help you find success as a CEO:

Consider your stakeholders. Stakeholders are the people who invest in a company with money, time or energy. Considering stakeholders when making business decisions can improve a CEO's performance.
Refine your company vision. Your vision for the company is the ideal organisation and performance for that business. Refining this vision is important because it allows you to use the vision to guide important decisions.
Focus on engagement. Employee engagement is a term that refers to how invested employees are in the success of the organisation they work for. When employees are engaged, they are more likely to take independent action that positively affects company success.
Commit to constant learning. Consistently developing as a CEO allows you to build your confidence, refine your skills and advance your career. You can commit to constant learning by reading business literature, attending events and communicating with experts in the field.
Develop charisma and confidence. As the CEO, you likely communicate with many individuals each day. Charisma and confidence can allow you to articulate well and instil certainty in the person you are speaking with, potentially allowing you to improve your professional network and close on business deals.

Salary figures reflect data listed on Indeed Salaries at time of writing. Salaries may vary depending on the hiring organisation and a candidate's experience, academic background and location.