In our daily lives, we seldom come across terms like CEO and Owner in the context of jobs and employment. These two terms are used interchangeably but they imply different meanings altogether.
Key Takeaways
- A CEO (Chief Executive Officer) is the highest-ranking executive in a company, responsible for making decisions, setting strategy, and managing the organization’s overall operations.
- An owner is an individual or entity that holds legal ownership and equity in a business, which may or may not involve active involvement in the company’s management.
- The distinction between a CEO and an owner lies in their roles and responsibilities within a business. CEOs focus on management and operations, and owners hold a financial stake in the company.
CEO vs Owner
The difference between CEO and Owner is that CEO is the highest job title or rank in a company that is attained by a capable person whereas the owner is the person who hires or appoints people at higher levels of hierarchy. The owner usually possesses all the necessary rights over the company and the employees.
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CEO is the job title or the highest rank in a company that stands for Chief Executive Officer. The task of a CEO is to control the management and administration of the company by being the boss himself.
CEO directs and defines the objectives of the company.
The owner is the person who has complete ownership of the company and has all the rights over that particular company. These rights also include property rights, monetary rights, etc.
The owner of the company is the least accountable or answerable to anyone in that company.
Comparison Table
| Parameters of comparison | CEO | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | CEO stands for the chief executive officer that is the highest job title or rank of the person in any company. | The owner is the individual who owns all the rights of the company and controls the employees. |
| Responsibility | CEO is responsible for fundraising, recruiting, and managing the company for better competition. | The owner is the person who hires people at the highest positions in a company. They have complete ownership of it. |
| Rights | CEO is the person at the highest position and can direct a group of people at the lower levels. He/she is not answerable to anyone except the board of directors. | The owner is the person who has all the rights reserved for him/her. They are not answerable to anyone in a company because they have the proprietorship of it. |
| Permanency | CEO is the person who changes over some time and can also be fired under certain circumstances. | The owner of the company can’t be fired because of his power and control. He/she himself has complete control of situations. |
| Objectives | CEO works by entailing a vision in mind. This vision might or might not be far-sighted. | The owner usually directs the employees to work for the goals and objectives that are farsighted and can help the company in the long run. |
Who is CEO?
CEO stands for chief executive officer who is the person with the highest job title or rank in the hierarchical order of a company. The CEO is not answerable to anyone in accompany except the board of directors.
He/she is capable of taking decisions unilaterally without any advice or suggestions.
CEOs are usually replaced after a certain period in time and can also be fired by the board of directors. They work with a vision to enhance the functioning of the company in the long run.
They control the administration and the recruiting processes in a company.
Some of the famous CEOs that we know of are- Sundar Pichai for Google, Jeff Bezos for Amazon, Mark Zuckerberg for Facebook, etc.
Who is Owner?
The owner is the person who owns and has complete control over the resources of a particular company.
The owner is never accountable to anyone in the company for what he says or does. They are the people with complete power and control over the administration and management of the company.
The owner is the one who makes all the investments and controls the monetary affairs wherever needed.
They are the permanent members of the board of directors who have the power to fire people even at the highest positions. Usually, owners are the founders of the company and are served with the utmost respect and subservience.
Some of the famous owners that we know of are- Anil Dhirubhai Ambani for the Reliance group, Tata Sons for the Tata Group, Kumar Mangalam Birla for the Birla Group, etc.
Main Differences Between CEO and Owner
- CEO refers to the chief executive officer which is the highest rank or the job title in any organization whereas the owner is the individual who has complete control of the resources and the employees of the organization.
- CEO is the person who can be fired or scrutinized by the Board of the directors whereas the Owner is the individual who owns the means of the organization and can never be put to question by anyone.
- Owner is also the founder of the company most of the times but this is not the case with the CEO
- CEO works with a vision that targets to fulfill objectives for a short period whereas the owner is responsible to develop objectives for the long run.
- The owner of any organization stays the same most of the time whereas the CEO can be changed several times.
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Chara Yadav holds MBA in Finance. Her goal is to simplify finance-related topics. She has worked in finance for about 25 years. She has held multiple finance and banking classes for business schools and communities. Read more at her bio page.
