It is smarter to watch trends than profits

To many people, it is one of the coolest things to have a business card marked CEO just above the name of a company. Being the chief executive officer often implies having that six figure salary (and I am not talking about Zimbabwe dollars and a cool leather seat that swings around as you make life-changing decisions for your employees and so many other privileges.In this era of capitalism, many aspire to become CEOs of companies that are smaller than their nuclear families. However, it is not easy to become a CEO as it either means you invest a lot of money and time in starting up a company or having a lot of experience and an impressive CV to get the job in a company that is not yours.Away from the perks that come with the job, one is often expected to help the company grow and make profit. Doing any of the two is a good thing, but being able to do both of them at the same time is what people expect from a CEO.Growing the company is one of the hard things to do as it often involves spending more of the company’s resources and, yet the profit margin may not be increasing at the same rate. All the same, CEOs worldwide are known to point to the increased revenue or growth of the company when talking about their successes.However, there is something more important that people forget when talking about the responsibilities of a CEO. Yes, a CEO must devise ways of making a company profitable and, where possible, he or she should see that the company grows into something bigger and stronger than it was before.To achieve this, therefore, a CEO has got to watch and study trends. These trends could be market trends, consumer trends, technological or even human resource. Knowing these trends helps a CEO to best adopt or respond to them.One may focus on profits, then a new trend will emerge that will render the business unprofitable. And very basic level, if you are in the business of fetching water and, thus, a CEO in your own right, you need to watch out for the EWSA guys digging the ground to lay water pipes.In Rwanda and African in general, the mobile phone revolution has changed so many things and many businesses, are feeling the impact. The mobile money platform on mobile telephony is the clearest example of how something new can have so much impact.Many people, who had no bank accounts, now see little need for going through the bureaucracy of getting one when they can use their phones to move money easily, cheaply and fast. Chief executives of banks, therefore, have had to think of ways to survive the mobile money wave.A few years back, owners of Internet cafes were envied, but with the Internet becoming more personalised, thanks to cheap modems and mobile Internet on many phones, those in the Internet cafe business were left with ‘hot afternoons’, thinking of what to do next? Very soon, newspapers could only be good for the museums as news is now being consumed in a different way. All this and more shows you that a CEO must do more than swing in the chair. He/she must peep into the future and adjust fast.