Power
You're the chief—the top dog, head honcho, big kahuna, top banana, zesty buffalo-style chicken zinger. From your lofty position at the head of the organizational chart, you have ultimate power over your company. What you say goes; your plan is the game plan. On a scale of one-to-awesome, that's pretty awesome.
Say one day you decide the company should color its chicken pieces for Easter, and everyone thinks that's an awful idea. Guess who wins? Yep, the zesty buffalo-style chicken zinger that you are. Of course, if that idea goes south in a big way and your company goes under as a result, well, that could ruin a sweet gig. It's probably best to heed some of the advice of all those smart people working for you.
CEOs of smaller companies tend to wield the most power, since they're typically the owners. No one can fire them. CEOs of larger, public companies oversee much larger operations and enjoy greater stature, but they ultimately must answer to the board of directors and stockholders. As long as things are going well, everyone's happy. But when stock prices go down, that's when you should start dusting off that résumé.
Another form of power as a top exec is influence. CEOs at major chicken producers are hot commodities to speak at industry events, and they even lobby Congress for favorable legislation.
Let's say you're the head of Chicken Monster, Inc., a fifty-billion-dollar company, and you decide that the use of antibiotics in chickens is a bad thing. You might just have the clout to get others on your bandwagon and stop a decades-long practice, changing the course of chicken history in the process. Just be really sure that antibiotics are a bad thing first, okay?