Though there are Presidents and Vice Presidents in most democratic countries that are political offices held for the governance of a country, we are concerned with the titles of President and Vice President in the corporate world where these are titles held by officers in the management. Not many people are aware of the differences in the roles and responsibilities of Presidents and Vice Presidents that will be discussed in this article.
Time shave changed and so have organizational structures with specialization being the buzzword. Thus, we have CEO, COO, and of course the Presidents and the Vice Presidents. Who is more important in an organization, a CEO or a President and whose opinions matter more for the shareholders, President’s or the Vice President’s. All this is clear once a person understands the functions and responsibilities of President and Vice President.
Vice President is a title that is used commonly in large organizations. There may be many vice Presidents in a company with each Vice President specialize in a certain department implying a VP having specific set of skills. So we have VP finance, and we also have VP personnel. But irrespective of the number of vice presidents, there is a single person with the title of President. He is the most influential person in the organization and is equivalent to Chief Executive Officer or Managing Director.
In a company where there are many VP’s, there is a convention to rank them according to their seniority. Thus, we have the Senior Executive VP who is the senior most VP, and he is the person next in command to the President. Thereafter, we have Executive VP, Senior VP and then just VP’s of various departments. All VP’s are under the control of the President, but in the absence of the President, it is the Senior Executive VP who performs the functions of the President. However, in the case of a successor being searched for the President, it is the board of directors that decide and not necessarily the senior most VP who becomes the President.
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What is the difference between President and Vice President? • President and Vice President are titles of key officers in an organization with President being the most powerful officer. He is considered to be equivalent to the CEO or the Managing Director of a company. • There may be just one vice president in a small company but in the majority of instances, there are many VP’s in a large organization, each having a specific set of skills reflected by their title. Thuis we have VP (finance), VP (personnel), and so on. • Vice Presidents are under the control of the President.
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