The CEO decides what problems to solve an in general how to solve them. It&#x27;s like a general on the battlefield - and military history shows how extraordinarily dependent an army is on the decisions of its generals.<p>Consider how Microsoft has rather dramatically changed course with the ascension of Nadella, with an equally dramatic effect on the stock price. This is very clearly a result of the CEO changing direction.<p>Company culture as well flows down from the top, this becomes clear if you&#x27;ve worked for different corporations.<p>If the CEO doesn&#x27;t matter, I wonder who would risk $billions in corporate valuation installing some random guy off the street rather than a carefully selected person.