Bob Frisch

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 <h4 class="ideainbrief-title">Idea in Brief</h4>
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 The executive committee is often officially responsible for making a company’s big decisions while another, unofficial group, led by the CEO, seems to hold the real decision-making power. Although that informal “kitchen cabinet” lacks a proper name, everyone knows who’s in it.
 This disconnect can cause senior executives to:
 Learn about important decisions after the fact;
 Assume they have the power to protect their departments when they really don’t; and
 Endure a system in which the way decisions are actually made goes unacknowledged.
 The ultimate decision maker is, of course, the CEO, who should consult both groups deliberatively. The key is to give the executive committee specific advisory and coordinating responsibilities while building a small, effective, and still-nameless kitchen cabinet that is free of the tyranny of the org chart.
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</article-ideainbrief>Tom, the chief marketing officer of a company I’ll call LawnCare, is sitting in the biweekly executive committee meeting, and he’s becoming increasingly uncomfortable. The business development group is presenting the case for acquiring a competitor whose grass trimmers and lawn mowers are sold through big-box retailers. The acquisition, the team explains, would complement LawnCare’s high-end offerings, which are sold exclusively through a network of 600 distributors.

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Reprint: R1112G 
In many companies, the top management team is officially responsible for helping the CEO make a company&#8217;s big decisions. But another, unofficial group usually does that job de facto. That&#8217;s the way it should be, argues Frisch, of the Strategic Offsites Group, provided that the CEO is deliberate in devising the role of this informal and unnamed &#8220;kitchen cabinet.&#8221; 
Problems can nevertheless arise when senior executives learn about important decisions after the fact, mistakenly assume that they have real power to protect their departments, and find themselves in a system where the way decisions are actually made goes unacknowledged. 
The key, according to Frisch, is to make better use of senior executives&#8217; time and talents by giving them specific responsibilities that complement&#8212;but do not overlap&#8212;the advisory duties of the kitchen cabinet. A CEO who explicitly acknowledges the role of her cabinet and strikes the right balance between it and her official advisory group of executives can get the best from both.

Who Really Makes the Big Decisions in Your Company?

Reprint: R1112G In many companies, the top management team is officially responsible for helping the CEO make a company’s big decisions. But another, unofficial group usually does that job de facto. That’s the way it should be, argues Frisch, of the Strategic Offsites Group, provided that the CEO is deliberate in devising the role of this informal and unnamed “kitchen cabinet.” Problems can nevertheless arise when senior executives learn about important decisions after the fact, mistakenly assume that they have real power to protect their departments, and find themselves in a system where the way decisions are actually made goes unacknowledged. The key, according to Frisch, is to make better use of senior executives’ time and talents by giving them specific responsibilities that complement—but do not overlap—the advisory duties of the kitchen cabinet. A CEO who explicitly acknowledges the role of her cabinet and strikes the right balance between it and her official advisory group of executives can get the best from both.

Who Really Makes the Big Decisions in Your Company?

Summary.

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